Prince faces new questions over US paedophile
PRINCE Andrew is facing renewed questions about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after it emerged that the convicted paedophile landed his private jet at an RAF fighter base during a visit to Sandringham.
Epstein's Gulfstream flew in to RAF Marham, with him and the duke's friend Ghislaine Maxwell on board, before they enjoyed the duke's hospitality at the queen's Norfolk estate, 20 miles away.
The arrangement was described as "unusual" by civil aviation sources, as Marham is the RAF's biggest front-line base.
Flight logs for his Gulfstream show that the 12-seater executive jet flew from Teterboro airport outside New York to Le Bourget in Paris on December 5, 2000, with Epstein, Miss Maxwell, a woman called Kelly Spamm and "ET" on board. "ET" is thought to refer to Miss Maxwell's British assistant.
Party
The party flew on to Luton the next day and on December 7 landed at RAF Marham. Epstein and Miss Maxwell stayed at Sandringham as guests of the duke, before leaving the country on December 9 on the same aircraft from Norwich International Airport.
The flight logs also show that in May 2000 the duke flew with Epstein in his Gulfstream as a guest. Epstein has been accused of abusing several young girls. The duke is known to have stayed at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach. There is no suggestion that the duke had sexual contact with any of the girls.
In April 1998, an entry in the flight log shows that Epstein flew to Nassau in the Bahamas where he met the Duchess of York and her daughters, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were then aged nine and eight.
The log states: "Met Princess Sarah Ferguson and kids on the ground." The duchess's name also crops up in notepads seized from Epstein's house.
Epstein, who was jailed for 18 months in 2008 after admitting soliciting an under-age girl for prostitution, is alleged to have used his fleet of private aircraft to traffic under-age girls around the world for illegal sex.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment yesterday. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Jon Swaine in Palm Beach, Florida and Gordon Rayner
Irish Independent
