The UK’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will not be taking any further action over allegations made against disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein due to “the absence of any further information.”
MPS said in a statement that it had been contacted in March 2021 with a fresh allegation of indecent assault against Epstein, but that the complainant did not wish to make a statement or for officers to pursue the claim.
The police had also been contacted in 2019 with another allegation of sexual assault by Epstein but that individual also did not wish to make a formal complaint or want officers to pursue the allegations, police said.
The force said that any further investigations into human trafficking by the convicted sex offender would focus on his activities and relationships outside of the United Kingdom.
“The Metropolitan Police Service has been liaising with other law enforcement agencies who led the investigation into matters related to Jeffrey Epstein,” officials said in a statement. “Detectives have thoroughly reviewed information provided to it and in the public domain. In the absence of any further information we will be taking no further action.”
“As with any other matter, should new and relevant information be brought to our attention we will assess it,” the statement added.
MPS had already dropped investigations into allegations of sex trafficking from 2001 made in 2015 against Epstein because it primarily involved figures outside of the UK, police said.
‘Not the Appropriate Authority’
In a statement at the time, 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.”
“Following the legal advice, it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the UK. We, therefore, concluded that the MPS was not the appropriate authority to conduct inquiries in these circumstances and, in November 2016, a decision was made that this matter would not proceed to a full criminal investigation.”
Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and was sentenced to house arrest in Florida. He was arrested again in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019. Officials said he committed suicide while awaiting trial for the charges.
In June of this year, Epstein associate and former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking young women to be used for Epstein’s sexual exploits between 1994 and 2004. She is set to be released from prison in 2037.
In February, Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was closely connected to Epstein, settled a lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein had arranged for the prince to sexually abuse her when she was 17.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, had categorically denied Giuffre’s claims in her lawsuit, telling the BBC in 2019 that he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Giuffre, despite photographic evidence of the two together.
The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
From The Epoch Times