A BBC investigation has revealed that nearly 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein both arrived at and departed from UK airports. Some of these flights carried British women who allege they were abused by the late financier.
The investigation identified three British women, who were allegedly victims of trafficking, listed in Epstein’s flight records and other documents related to the convicted sex offender.
US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein’s victims have expressed “shock” to the BBC that a “full-scale UK investigation” into his activities on British soil has never been conducted.
According to one lawyer, the UK was a “centerpiece” of Epstein’s operations.
The testimony of one British victim contributed to the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice, for child sex trafficking in the US in 2021. However, the victim’s lawyer, Brad Edwards, based in Florida, told the BBC that UK police have never contacted her.
This woman, referred to as “Kate” during the trial, was reportedly listed on more than 10 flights paid for by Epstein, traveling to and from the UK between 1999 and 2006.
The BBC has chosen not to release further details about the women in these documents to protect their identities.
US lawyer Sigrid McCawley stated that British authorities have “not taken a closer look at those flights, at where he was at, who he was seeing at those moments, and who was with him on those planes, and conducted a full investigation.”
Under the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act, the deadline for the release of all US government files related to the sex offender is Friday.
However, flight logs are among thousands of documents from court cases and Epstein’s estate that have been made public over the past year, shedding more light on his activities in the UK, including visits to royal residences.
The BBC examined these documents as part of an investigation aiming to reconstruct Epstein’s activities within the UK.
Key findings of the investigation include:
Despite Epstein’s death in jail in 2019, before his trial on charges of trafficking minors for sex, legal experts have told the BBC that a UK investigation could determine whether individuals based in Britain facilitated his crimes.
Two months prior, the BBC provided the Metropolitan Police, which had previously examined allegations regarding Epstein’s activities in Britain, with publicly available information about UK flights carrying suspected trafficking victims.
Subsequently, the BBC sent the Met a detailed list of questions inquiring whether it would investigate potential evidence of British victims of Epstein who were trafficked in and out of the UK.
The Met did not directly respond to the questions, but released a general statement on Saturday stating that it has “not received any additional evidence that would support reopening the investigation” into Epstein and Maxwell’s trafficking activities in the UK.
The Met added that “should new and relevant information be brought to our attention,” including any material resulting from the release of information in the US, “we will assess it.”
US lawyer Brad Edwards, representing Epstein victims since 2008, told the BBC that “three or four” of his clients are British women “who were abused on British soil both by Jeffrey Epstein and others.”
He added that other victims were recruited in the UK, trafficked to the United States, and abused there.
Mr. Edwards also represents women of other nationalities who allege they were trafficked to the UK for abuse by Epstein and others.
The BBC’s analysis indicates that Epstein utilized commercial and chartered flights, along with his private planes, to travel to the UK and to arrange transport for others, including alleged trafficking victims.
Over 50 of the flights involved his private jets, primarily flying to and from Luton Airport, with several flights at Birmingham International Airport, and one arrival and departure each at RAF Marham in west Norfolk and at Edinburgh Airport.
Limited records of commercial and chartered flights taken or paid for by Epstein reveal dozens more journeys, mainly through London Heathrow, as well as Stansted and Gatwick.
In several logs of Epstein’s private planes, including some detailing trips to the UK, women on the flight are identified only as unnamed “females.”
Ms. McCawley argues that Epstein was “absolutely choosing airports where he feels it will be easier for him to get in and out with victims that he’s trafficking.”
Private aircraft were not required to provide passenger details to UK authorities before departure in the same manner as commercial aircraft during the period covered by the documents examined. The Home Office stated that they were “not subject to the same centralised record-keeping.”
This loophole was closed in April of last year.
Kate, the British woman who testified against Maxwell, was on some of the commercial flights in the records examined. She testified in court that she was 17 when Maxwell befriended her and introduced her to Epstein, who subsequently sexually abused her at Maxwell’s central London home.
During the 2021 trial, she recounted how Maxwell provided her with a schoolgirl outfit to wear and instructed her to find other girls for Epstein. In addition to the flights to and from the UK, Kate told the court that she was flown to Epstein’s island in the US Virgin Islands, New York, and Palm Beach in Florida, where she alleges the abuse continued into her 30s.
Mr. Edwards, her lawyer, told BBC News that even after her testimony, Kate has “never been asked” by any UK authorities about her experience – “not even a phone call.”
He stated that if British police were to initiate an investigation into Epstein’s activities and his enablers, Kate would be willing to assist.
Prof. Bridgette Carr, a human trafficking expert at the University of Michigan Law School, stated that trafficking cases typically require multiple individuals working in concert.
“It’s never just one bad person,” she said. “You don’t think about the accountant and the lawyer and the banker – or all the bankers – and all these people that had to implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, be OK with what was happening for it to continue.”
Questions also remain regarding how Epstein was able to travel freely to the UK after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for sex, which required him to register as a sex offender in Florida, New York, and the US Virgin Islands.
Epstein was released from prison in 2009 after serving 13 months. Documents suggest he took a Virgin Atlantic flight from the US to London Heathrow in September 2010, just two months after completing his probation on house arrest.
Home Office rules at the time stipulated that foreign nationals who received a prison sentence of 12 months or more should typically be refused entry.
However, immigration lawyer Miglena Ilieva, managing partner at ILEX Law Group, explained that US citizens did not usually require a UK visa for short stays, meaning there was no application process where they would be asked about criminal convictions.
“It was very much at the discretion of the individual immigration officer who would receive this person at the border,” she said.
The Home Office stated that it does not retain immigration and visa records beyond 10 years and added that “it is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases.”
During the 1980s, Epstein also used a foreign passport – issued in Austria with his picture and a false name – to enter the UK, as well as France, Spain, and Saudi Arabia, according to US authorities.
Epstein also listed London as his place of residence in 1985 when applying for a replacement passport, ABC News previously reported.
In its statement on Saturday, the Met said it had contacted “several other potential victims” when examining 2015 allegations by Virginia Giuffre that she had been trafficked for sexual exploitation by Epstein and Maxwell.
Ms. Giuffre also alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on three occasions, including when she was 17 at Maxwell’s home in London in 2001. The former prince has consistently denied these allegations.
The Met stated that its examination of Ms. Giuffre’s claims “did not result in any allegation of criminal conduct against any UK-based nationals” and concluded that “other international authorities were best placed to progress these allegations.”
This decision was reviewed in August 2019 and again in 2021 and 2022, with the same outcome, it said.
However, for lawyer Sigrid McCawley, the Met’s message to victims is “that if you come to law enforcement and this is a powerful person you’re reporting on… it will not get investigated.”
The photos, which do not imply wrongdoing, are part of a trove of images the House Oversight Committee received from Epstein’s estate.
US President Donald Trump signed a bill into law last month that set a 19 December deadline, but questions remain.
A federal judge says materials from the investigation can be unsealed because of a new law passed by Congress last month.
In his ruling, Judge Paul Engelmayer cited a new law passed last month requiring the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein.
A similar request was rejected earlier this year, but a law passed by Congress last month overrides it.