LONDON: British police confirmed Thursday they “assessed” allegations of sex trafficking made against Jeffrey Epstein and a British woman, but decided not to launch a criminal probe on legal advice.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said it received an allegation in 2015 of “non-recent trafficking for sexual exploitation” against the disgraced US financier over incidents in London in March 2001 and abroad.
American Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, has alleged Epstein — who was found dead in a US prison in August — trafficked her to Britain then to have sex with Prince Andrew.
Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, has repeatedly denied the accusation. Roberts was aged 17 at the time.
The prince gave a television interview earlier this month which was widely condemned for lacking empathy for Epstein’s victims, and he has since stepped down indefinitely from royal duties.
In its statement, the MPS said it always takes any allegations concerning sexual exploitation seriously.
“Officers assessed the available evidence, interviewed the complainant and obtained early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service,” it said.
“Following the legal advice, it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the UK,” it added.
“We therefore concluded that the MPS was not the appropriate authority to conduct enquiries in these circumstances and, in November 2016, a decision was made that this matter would not proceed to a full criminal investigation.”
The force said it reviewed the decision again in August this year after US authorities say Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial on federal charges that he had he trafficked girls as young as 14 for sex.
“Our position remains unchanged,” the MPS added.
Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with the Andrew on three occasions — in London in 2001 when she was 17, in New York and on Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
Andrew, 59, who is eighth in line to the throne, repeatedly denied the allegation during his recent unprecedented interview with the BBC in which he answered questions about it for the first time.
He has been dogged for years by criticism over his links to Epstein.
The prince even stayed with the financier at his New York home after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a girl under the age of 18 for prostitution and served 13 months in prison.
UK police defend decision not launch Epstein probe
UK police defend decision not launch Epstein probe
- Prince Andrew gave a television interview which was widely condemned for lacking empathy for Epstein’s victims
- London’s MPS said it always takes any allegations concerning sexual exploitation seriously
NATO wants ‘automated’ defenses along borders with Russia: German general
- That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone,” said Lowin
- The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said
FRANKFURT: NATO is moving to boost its defenses along European borders with Russia by creating an AI-assisted “automated zone” not reliant on human ground forces, a German general said in comments published Saturday.
That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone” where traditional combat could happen, said General Thomas Lowin, NATO’s deputy chief of staff for operations.
He was speaking to the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The automated area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, land-based robots, as well as automatic air defenses and anti-missile systems, Lowin said.
He added, however, that any decision to use lethal weapons would “always be under human responsibility.”
The sensors — located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” — would cover an area of several thousand kilometers (miles) and detect enemy movements or deployment of weapons, and inform “all NATO countries in real time,” he said.
The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said.
The German newspaper reported that there were test programs in Poland and Romania trying out the proposed capabilities, and all of NATO should be working to make the system operational by the end of 2027.
NATO’s European members are stepping up preparedness out of concern that Russia — whose economy is on a war footing because of its conflict in Ukraine — could seek to further expand, into EU territory.
Poland is about to sign a contract for “the biggest anti-drone system in Europe,” its defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Kosiniak-Kamysz did not say how much the deal, involving “different types of weaponry,” would cost, nor which consortium would ink the contract at the end of January.
He said it was being made to respond to “an urgent operational demand.”
