Police Scotland investigates Epstein's 1999 stay at Balmoral

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Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at a log cabin on the Balmoral estate (US District Court for the Southern District of New York) independent.co.uk

Balmoral is a royal residence in the Scottish Highlands and is where the late Queen Elizabeth II spent her final days (Alamy/PA) Alamy/PA

Epstein and Maxwell pictured on a shooting trip in Balmoral (Department of Justice) Department of Justice

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Police Scotland has confirmed it has received information and that "active inquiries are ongoing" into the time Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor spent at Balmoral, the King's private estate in the Scottish Highlands. A spokesperson said the inquiries were at "a very early stage" and "evidence-led," with the needs of victim survivors at their heart. Epstein visited Balmoral in 1999, reportedly at the invitation of the then Prince Andrew.

The royal household has applied such remedies as it controls. King Charles stripped his brother of the prince title and the dukedom last year as further details of the friendship emerged, and the former duke now appears in official references under the family surname, Mountbatten-Windsor. The Scottish inquiries concern a question that titles do not answer: the Daily Express reports they relate to claims that women were trafficked to the Balmoral estate, and the National Police Chiefs' Council says Thames Valley Police, the Metropolitan Police and Surrey Police all have live investigations linked to the release of the Epstein files.

On 19 February — his 66th birthday — Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, over allegations that he shared sensitive information with Epstein while serving as Britain's special representative for international trade and investment. He was interviewed under caution and released under investigation. He denies wrongdoing.

The visits themselves are on the court record. An undated photograph credited to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York appears to show Epstein and Maxwell at the Glen Beg log cabin on the estate, and pictures released by the US Department of Justice appear to show Andrew and Epstein on a shooting trip at Balmoral. In a tranche of the Epstein files released last year, a sender styling himself "The Invisible Man" wrote to Maxwell in August 2001 from the "Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family," asking: "Have you found me some inappropriate friends?" Andrew had left the Royal Navy the month before. In March 2002, Maxwell wrote to the same sender: "I just gave Andrew your telephone no." Andrew, she added, would be "very happy" if he did some "two-legged sightseeing."

Andrew moved out of the Royal Lodge at Windsor earlier this year, after the Justice Department released its files, taking a property at Marsh Farm on the King's Sandringham estate amid public outcry over the rent he had paid on his long-standing home. He held the trade envoy post from 2001 until 2011. It paid no salary.