British Police Weigh Evidence On Epstein-Linked Airport Flights In Trafficking Inquiry

Washington : British police are reviewing whether convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used private flights through several UK airports to traffic women, following the release of millions of internal U.S. government documents tied to his operations.

Officers from Essex, Bedfordshire and West Midlands police forces said on Wednesday they are assessing information related to private flights associated with Epstein at London’s Stansted, Luton and Birmingham airports. These preliminary reviews are part of a broader, nationally coordinated effort to examine possible connections between Epstein and the UK.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council established a national coordination group to support local forces as they sort through the newly public material. The council said its role is to collaborate and understand any potential impact from the millions of documents that have become available.

Last year the BBC reported that incomplete flight logs indicated at least 87 flights linked to Epstein touched down at or departed from British airports between the early 1990s and 2018, with unidentified “females” listed among passengers. Reuters did not independently verify that report.

In addition to the airport scrutiny, the fallout from the released files has reverberated through British public life. Investigations are also underway into former British ambassador Peter Mandelson over claims he passed government information to Epstein, and into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, younger brother of King Charles, amid allegations of misconduct surfaced in the aftermath of the disclosures. Both men have denied any wrongdoing and have expressed regret over their past associations with Epstein.

Airport authorities in Stansted, Luton and Birmingham clarified that private flights are operated independently of their terminals, with immigration and customs checks handled by Britain’s Border Force, which did not comment on the matter.

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