LONDON, April 2 (Bernama-PA Media\/dpa) — Prosecutors are \u201cproviding early investigative advice\u201d to the police as they carry out their inquiries into Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s links to Jeffrey Epstein, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said, reported PA Media\/dpa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former duke of York and Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the US, were arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections with the paedophile financier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have since been released under investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can confirm that we are now providing early investigative advice to the Metropolitan Police Service regarding the force\u2019s investigation into a 72-year-old man and will continue to liaise as requested,\u201d a CPS spokesperson said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can now also confirm that we are providing early investigative advice to Thames Valley Police in relation to a 66-year-old man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe remain ready to support any investigation if needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comes after it was confirmed that King Charles III\u2019s state visit to the US to see Donald Trump is to go ahead next month as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles and Queen Camilla\u2019s long-expected historic trip will take place in late April despite calls for it to be postponed or even cancelled because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is understood that Charles and Camilla will not be able to meet with victims while there are ongoing UK police investigations into matters related to Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US Congressman Ro Khanna wrote to the king on Monday to call for him to meet survivors privately during the state visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement to BBC “Newsnight” on Tuesday evening, the family of Virginia Giuffre also \u201cstrongly\u201d urged the king to meet them, as well as survivors of the paedophile financier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at a press conference on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to say whether there was a \u201cmoral case\u201d for the king to meet the victims when asked by reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prime minister instead insisted the \u201cfocus of the visit\u201d will be on the 250th anniversary of US independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council (NPCC) also announced on Tuesday that the police response to the release of the so-called Epstein files by the US Department of Justice is to be \u201cstepped up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dedicated group will look at the \u201cscale, scope and nature of any potential UK-based VAWG [violence against women and girls] offending within the files,\u201d the NPCC added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has also invited alleged victims of Epstein who have spoken to UK media to talk to investigators about potential crimes that may have taken place on British soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–NNN-BERNAMA-PA MEDIA\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, April 2 (Bernama-PA Media\/dpa) — Prosecutors are \u201cproviding early investigative advice\u201d to the police as they carry out their inquiries into Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s links to Jeffrey Epstein, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said, reported PA Media\/dpa. The former duke of York and Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":37029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325066"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325067,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325066\/revisions\/325067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}