Met officer who guarded Prince Andrew during a stay at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion says he’ll only speak to US Congress about what he knows

A royal protection officer who guarded Prince Andrew during an infamous stay at paedophile Jeffrey Epstein‘s New York mansion says he is only prepared to speak to US Congress about what he knows.

The retired officer said Andrew’s Metropolitan Police bodyguards had not been ‘privy’ to conversations between Epstein and the royal.

The ex-officer, who The Mail on Sunday is not naming, said: ‘We had a role to do. Our role was to protect the principal. That was our job. End of story. So we were not privy to any sort of private conversations.’

The name of the former officer, who is in his mid-60s, appears in a cache of emails currently with the US Congress that have been obtained exclusively by this newspaper.

Writing to Epstein’s office on November 26, 2010, Amanda Thirsk, Andrew’s deputy private secretary at the time, asked for the ‘address of the house that the Duke of York will be staying in next week’ and enquired ‘whether there is room for both his protection officers.’ She said that one of the bodyguards – who she named –’will arrive in the US on Sunday’.

One of Epstein’s assistants said she didn’t think there would be room for Andrew and two protection officers, adding: ‘We have … Andrew and one of his security on the fourth floor.’

It later emerged that Andrew spent at least five days at Epstein’s 21,000 sq ft Manhattan mansion in December 2010. The visit came 17 months after Epstein’s release from jail for child sex offences. On December 5, 2010, Andrew and Epstein were famously photographed strolling together in Central Park.

Speaking at his £750,000 home in South East England on Thursday, the former protection officer insisted that he did not stay overnight at Epstein’s £60 million mansion during Andrew’s visit. ‘I did not stay in the house, that’s all I’m saying.’

The email is part of the Epstein Files that are being reviewed by the US Congress and are set to be released once they have been redacted to protect the identity of hundreds of young girls Epstein raped and abused.

The ex-policeman, who served in the Met for more than 30 years, suggested he was prepared to speak to US lawmakers – which could deepen the crisis engulfing Andrew. ‘If Congress wants to speak to me then Congress can speak to me but I’m not speaking to the press,’ he said.

In one of the most jaw-dropping messages revealed by the MoS last week, Epstein claimed that Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s ex-wife, was ‘the first to celebrate’ his release from jail ‘with her two daughters in tow’.

Princess Beatrice would have been 20 at the time and Eugenie 19, the same age as many of his victims.

But speaking last Thursday, the former protection officer accused the media of a ‘witch hunt’ against Andrew’s family and stressed that the princesses were not in contact with Epstein.

‘I spent a long time with his daughters after this and there has never been any contact with Epstein at all,’ he said.

He added: ‘You’re looking at it from a specific point of view. If you really think that the police officers who protected him at the time were privy to anything that went on in conversations and follow up emails… you are on completely the wrong [path].’

Andrew claimed to BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had travelled to New York to end his friendship with the sex offender – but a bombshell email revealed exclusively by the MoS earlier this month showed he lied as the pair had remained in contact. 

An investigation by this newspaper in 2020 revealed how Andrew treated Epstein’s house like it was his own and stayed in an opulent bedroom that was dubbed Room Britannica.

During his December 2010 visit, Andrew was guest of honour at a dinner party at Epstein’s mansion. The guest list included film director Woody Allen, broadcaster Katie Couric and Bill Clinton’s former spin doctor George Stephanopoulos.

The emails obtained by the MoS reveal Epstein’s anger when details of the dinner appeared in the press. In a message to party planner Peggy Siegal on December 6 2010, Epstein wrote: ‘Not good for Andrew, not good for me – not good for you.’