Prince Andrew may have contacted Jeffrey Epstein AFTER he 'cut ties'

Prince Andrew may have contacted Jeffrey Epstein AFTER the Duke said he had cut ties with convicted paedophile

• Documents suggest the Duke of York may have kept contact with Jeffrey Epstein
• The pair were infamously pictured in New York’s Central Park in December 2010 

Prince Andrew was facing fresh questions over his close friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein tonight, after documents suggested the two men may have had contact after the royal said he had cut ties.

The Duke of York was infamously pictured walking in Central Park in New York with Epstein in December 2010 – not long after the disgraced financier had been released from an 18-month jail sentence for child prostitution offences.

Andrew – who was criticised for staying with Epstein in his £60 million Manhattan house during the trip – insisted that it was the last time he had contact with him.

He told Emily Maitlis in his Newsnight interview that he never saw or spoke to him again. But emails unearthed by JP Morgan in a probe into its former executive Jes Staley and his relationship with Epstein appear to suggest otherwise.

Prince Andrew leaves sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s home as they go for a stroll together through New York’s Central Park in December 2010

Jeffrey Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York on August 10, 2019

Prince Andrew (left), Ghislaine Maxwell (centre) and Jeffrey Epstein (right) at Ladies Day of Royal Ascot, Berkshire, in June 2000

Epstein was a client of the bank for years. Following his arrest in 2019, JP Morgan produced a 22-page report detailing his close personal relationship with Mr Staley, who was head of the bank’s private banking arm. 

READ MORE: ‘QUEEN REALISED DUKE OF YORK’S NEWSNIGHT INTERVIEW WAS A CAR CRASH BEFORE HE DID’ 

The report, seen by the Daily Mail, also sheds light on his relationship with Prince Andrew. It states that in February 2011 – two months after the Central Park meeting – ‘Epstein writes to Staley “Andrew asked for your London schedule”.’ The entry suggests Andrew may have had contact with Epstein to enquire about meeting with Mr Staley.

In November 2019, Andrew gave an interview to BBC’s Newsnight about his friendship with Epstein. He was asked by Ms Maitlis: ‘Was that visit, December of 2010 the only time you saw him after he was convicted?’ to which he replied: ‘Yes, yeah.’ 

She asked him: ‘Did you see him or speak to him again?’ To which he replied: ‘No.’

Andrew claimed the visit to see Epstein was to tell him they could no longer be friends. He told Maitlis by ‘mutual agreement during that walk in the park we decided that we would part company and I left, I think it was the next day and to this day I never had any contact with him from that day forward’.

The emails are part of the lawsuit filed by the US Virgin Islands against JPMorgan, accusing the bank of knowingly benefiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking.

Last year, the duke paid a reported £12million settlement to Virginia Roberts, 39, over her claims that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, which he has always denied.

Epstein died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019.

JPMorgan earlier this month settled a lawsuit for allegedly facilitating Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring for a reported £231million. The US bank will pay the sum to more than 100 victims of the late paedophile.

The bank is still engaged in a legal battle with Mr Staley, who has also been accused of sexually abusing a young woman at Epstein’s Virgin Islands retreat, which he denies.

Prince Andrew did not respond to a request for comment.

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