London Police Are Starting to Suspect That Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein Might Have Broken Some Laws

Years after Virginia Roberts Giuffre first accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of raping her as a minor, the U.K.’s Channel 4 News has unearthed “more than half a dozen” complaints to British authorities concerning English socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, her partner Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations of sex trafficking, all of which law enforcement declined to investigate.

According to HuffPost, the London Metropolitan Police are now conducting a “review” of those allegations, yet still maintain that at the time the alleged crimes were reported, authorities believed that since so much of the trafficking purportedly occurred elsewhere, it was really none of their business, which is great news for traffickers in the U.K. but sounds to my untrained ear like a very shitty reason to avoid doing police work:

“The Metropolitan Police Service confirmed in 2019 that it received allegations against Epstein and Maxwell involving trafficking in London in 2001, and for alleged sex trafficking outside the U.K. in 2015. But the MPS said it decided it “was not the appropriate authority” to conduct a full investigation that “‘would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the U.K.’”

However, after Channel 4 suggested that the real reason the MPS failed to investigate the allegations is that Prince Andrew’s name popped up in them, not to mention the worldwide attention that the abuse allegations have drawn, authorities now say they’re a little more open to doing their jobs:

“The MPS is clear that it will investigate allegations where there is sufficient evidence of an offence having taken place, where it is the appropriate authority to do so and where those against whom the allegation are made are alive,” the MPS said in a statement to HuffPost Wednesday. “We will always consider any new information and will review the information sent to us from Channel 4.”

Epstein, a U.S. millionaire, was awaiting trial on dozens of counts of sex trafficking and sexual abuse, with many of his accusers reporting being underage at the time of the abuse. He died by suicide in 2019. His partner, Ghislaine Maxwell has been indicted for sex trafficking girls alongside Epstein, including one victim who was just 14 years old. She is currently in jail and awaiting trial in New York.