Is Prince Andrew the reason the Met won’t investigate Epstein’s UK victims?

Just as the Met appeared to initially exhibit an astonishing lack of curiosity over the No 10 parties, they seem unwilling or unable to establish what Epstein and his friends did in this country

Victims are urging Prince Andrew to talk to the FBI, more than two years after he promised to cooperate (Getty)

Prince Andrew no doubt hopes his legal settlement with Virginia Giuffre is the end of a horror story that has tarnished the reputation of the royal family. For the victims of the duke’s erstwhile friend, paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the final chapter has yet to be written.

Some of the women at the heart of this story claim they were targeted, groomed, trafficked or sexually abused by Epstein in Britain. As part of his settlement with Giuffre, Prince Andrew vowed to support “the fight against the evils of sex trafficking”. He should look no further than allegations of wrongdoing on British soil.

Last year, after poring over thousands of publicly available court documents, videos, books and other sources, the Channel 4 News investigations team collected half a dozen allegations that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell had abused young women in the UK.

Since then, Maxwell has been found guilty of sex trafficking in a US trial. But the Metropolitan Police has continued to refuse to open a formal criminal investigation. They’ve always insisted this has nothing to do with the couple’s connections to British royalty. Victims’ campaigners are less sure.

After this week’s out-of-court settlement, Scotland Yard repeated its insistence that there was no need for a police probe here. Not so much “case closed” as “case never properly opened at all”.

Giuffre has done an incredible service for victims, forcing the world to hear what powerful people like Epstein and Maxwell are capable of. Now, our public bodies and institutions need to pick up where she left off, and ask difficult questions of themselves and others so rich men can no longer buy the services and silence of vulnerable, exploited girls and young women.

A court case would have got answers on what really occurred. The risk is that the settlement shrouds it all in secrecy. Prince Andrew has always denied Giuffre’s claims he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17, and his statement this week made no admission of liability.

But as journalist Emily Maitlis commented afterwards: “Why is a prince who told me he had ‘no recollection of ever meeting this lady’ now paying her what we understand to be upwards of £10m?”

Even the amount – and especially the source – of the payout has not been publicly confirmed. The story doesn’t need to end here. Victims are urging Prince Andrew to talk to the FBI, more than two years after he promised in his BBC Newsnight interview to cooperate with American investigators. But law enforcement closer to home should start taking more of an interest too.

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Just as the Met appeared to initially exhibit an astonishing lack of curiosity over the No 10 parties, they seem unwilling or unable to establish what Epstein and his friends did in this country, repeating the line crafted by the outgoing commissioner that “the locus and focus of any investigation into Jeffrey Epstein is in America”.

The exhaustive analysis of flight records disclosed in court cases in the US by Channel 4 News established that, on the contrary, the UK provided “the locus and focus” of a great deal of Epstein’s goings on. His plane – dubbed the “Lolita Express” by the press – flew in and out of UK airports at least 51 times between 1997 and 2012.

Some of this murky tale might have unravelled in a US court. But the settlement – while undoubtedly a coup for Giuffre and her victims’ rights charity, which will receive a substantial donation – leaves many questions outstanding.

After the MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein verdict, we thought a new era had begun. An era in which powerful men were made to account for their actions.

In the case of alleged wrongdoing by Prince Charles’s charity, the Met have proved willing to investigate. As the Met seeks to restore women’s faith in the criminal justice system, the new commissioner could start by making inquiries.

Cathy Newman presents Channel 4 News, weekdays, at 7pm