Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is facing a fresh police investigation into allegations that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women to Balmoral.
Police Scotland has confirmed that officers are making enquiries into visits to the King’s Scottish Highlands estate by Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a prison sentence.
The investigation follows claims that women were trafficked to the private Balmoral estate.
Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell are reported to have travelled to Balmoral on Epstein’s private jet in 2006.
US prosecutors previously released a photograph showing Epstein and Maxwell at a Balmoral log cabin during a 1999 visit to Royal Deeside.
Images later published by the US Department of Justice also appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein taking part in a shooting trip at the estate.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: ‘We have received information and active enquiries are ongoing, but these are at a very early stage.
‘All enquiries are evidence led, with the needs of victim survivors at the heart of those enquiries.
‘We would never confirm details of ongoing enquiries, and it would be inappropriate to comment further.’
Buckingham Palace announced last year that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor would no longer be known as a prince and would leave Royal Lodge, moving instead to a residence on the family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured in a Balmoral log cabin in this photograph released in 2021 by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York
The Duke of York, left, was photographed with sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre, centre, and Epstein’s longtime confidante and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, right
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured in the countryside near Balmoral
King Charles stripped his brother of his titles after weeks of pressure to act over Andrew’s association with Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
The move followed the former prince’s announcement that he would no longer use the title Duke of York, amid fresh revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations made by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre in her posthumously published memoir.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April last year, alleged that Andrew forced her to have sex with him on three occasions. She said one incident took place when she was 17 and another occurred during an orgy, after Epstein had trafficked her. Andrew has vehemently denied the allegations.
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Andrew paid millions of dollars to settle a civil sexual assault case brought by Giuffre in 2022, while maintaining that he had never met her.
Giuffre previously alleged that Epstein and Maxwell kept her as a sex slave, flying her around the world and presenting her to powerful associates ‘like a platter of fruit’.
She said they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17 and that he sexually assaulted her three times, allegations Prince Andrew has denied.
A photograph of the pair at a London townhouse, with Andrew’s arm around Giuffre’s bare midriff, has been widely circulated and was included in her lawsuit against him.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some of them as young as 14.
In legal filings, Giuffre said she was working as a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s club in Palm Beach, when Maxwell approached her in 2000.
Giuffre said Maxwell hired her to work as a masseuse for Epstein, but that the pair effectively turned her into a sexual servant and pressured her to gratify Epstein as well as his friends and associates.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement last October that the King’s actions against Andrew were ‘deemed necessary notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him’.
The statement said: ‘His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew.
‘Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence.
‘Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease, and he will move to alternative private accommodation.
‘These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.
‘Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.’
Police have also been investigating Andrew over alleged misconduct in public office after claims that emails he sent to Epstein, while serving as the UK’s trade envoy, contained sensitive information.
Earlier this year, plain-clothes officers searched his property. Andrew was arrested and held for almost 12 hours at Aylsham police station in Norfolk while he was questioned.
He was released under investigation and strongly denies any wrongdoing. It was the first time a member of the royal family had been detained by police in more than 350 years.
