Ex cop in fear for his life over home tapes of Andy paedo pal He suspects ‘dark forces’ are at play
AN ex-cop who claims to have secret film shot inside the home of Prince Andrew’s paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein says he fears for his life.
John Mark Dougan believes he could be targeted by “dark and powerful forces” who want the sex abuse scandal surrounding the dead billionaire to go away.
The former Florida sheriff – granted asylum in Russia in 2016 after reporting police corruption – told the Sunday Mirror: “I’m genuinely worried my life could be in danger.
“The people who don’t want this information out there are really powerful and it wouldn’t be too hard for them to find me in Russia and whack me.”
Mr Dougan, 42, is reportedly being monitored by both MI6 and the FBI after it emerged he was handed 200 hours of footage.
He says he was given the film by detective Joe Recarey in late 2009 or 2010. The Palm Beach County cop in charge of Epstein’s first sex case in 2008 died last year.
Mr Dougan said: “I’m worried foul play may have been involved because the timing was just when the Epstein stuff started kicking back up again.
“If he had been called in as a witness he would have had a lot of stuff to say.”
Mr Dougan, now an IT consultant in Moscow, said the film has been encrypted and can only be decrypted “in the event of my arrest, if I go missing... or in case of my unusual or untimely demise”.
He said this week he had only seen snatches of the film but told the Times: “I’m certain the FBI is involved in some kind of cover-up over Epstein... that could absolutely include Andrew’s role, or it could be that senior FBI people visited the house and don’t want to reveal that.”
It is also reported that MI6 fear he may have passed compromising information about the Queen’s second oldest son to Russian authorities. Mr Dougan dismissed that claim as “ridiculous”. Prince Andrew vehemently denies taking part in, witnessing or even suspecting any untoward behaviour by Epstein.
The financier died in a New York jail last month while awaiting trial for charges including the sex traff icking of underage girls.
Virginia Giuffre, 35, has claimed she was a teenage sex slave for Epstein and was forced to have sex with Andrew – which the royal also vehemently denies.
In 2008 Epstein served just 13 months for solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution.