UK's royal protection officers urged to speak up in Epstein probe
The disgraced royal's ties to Epstein face unprecedented scrutiny after his stunning arrest last week over misconduct accusations during his tenure as a trade envoy in the 2000s.
Amid intensifying calls for a broader investigation into the years-long friendship, Dai Davies, former head of the Met's royal protection unit from 1994 to 1998, told Times Radio recently the force should formally interview ex-officers.
"If you think they know crucial evidence, then I would've knocked at their door at an appropriate time," he said.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known after being stripped of his titles last year, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The Met revealed last week it was "contacting former and serving officers" in its royal protection unit who may have worked closely with him.
It was asking them "to consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard" may be relevant to "ongoing reviews", the force said.
But the move has prompted scepticism about the likely response from some ex-officers, who once served in the specialist unit which has about 900 officers today.
"They're fearful of (the) repercussions of coming forward," Paul Page, a protection officer from 1998 to 2004, told AFP.
"Everyone's paranoid now, because you've got people loyal to the royal family, and you've got people... that want to get to the truth." Page said it was difficult to know who was on "which team".
'Obnoxious bully'
About nine UK police forces are "assessing" the latest Epstein releases amid longstanding allegations the late American financier trafficked women to Britain for sex.
Ex-UK prime minister Gordon Brown has urged police to probe dozens of flights dating back decades arriving at UK airports and tied to Epstein.
The protection officers are "police officers and they would be aware, surely, of what on earth was going on. They've been very quiet," Davies said.
Page, a contentious figure due to a 2009 criminal conviction and six-year jail sentence over an investment scam, has long claimed that "rude, obnoxious, self-entitled bully" Andrew coerced the unit to breach security rules.
He alleges women in their 20s were let into Buckingham Palace two to three evenings a week without any vetting, with officers even asked to later drive them home.
Page, who was stationed at the gates of Buckingham Palace, said complaints about the security breaches filed by officers "went up the chain and nothing happened".
"The word on the street from management was 'who wants to go to the queen (Elizabeth II)... and say 'you really need to reel your son in?'"
He added officers had no idea if the female palace visitors were trafficking victims because their names were never recorded.
'Shut up'
Page said he received a letter in December from a Met deputy commissioner "effectively telling me to shut up", citing confidentiality rules.
The force declined to comment.
A newly-disclosed 2010 email received by Epstein -- and released in the latest documents -- suggested two of Andrew's officers acted as doormen when the American hosted a dinner for him and others at one of his US homes.
The email from a redacted sender -- first reported by the Sunday Times and seen by AFP -- had the subject line "security for party".
Claims also emerged last year that Andrew asked his protection officers to carry out checks in 2011 on Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.
The Met has said different checks since 2016 had not "revealed any additional evidence of criminal acts or misconduct".
Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, said that she was trafficked three times to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor, starting in 2001 and twice when she was 17.
Andrew settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre. While not admitting liability, he reportedly agreed to pay 12 million pounds ($16 million).