Revealed: It was the NSPCC that first introduced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to Peter Mandelson – as charity’s fundraising director admits he regrets it now

A former NSPCC director says he spent ‘sleepless nights’ talking about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson, who worked together on one of the charity’s biggest ever child abuse campaigns, between visits to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking for the first time, Giles Pegram, the former director of fundraising at the children’s charity responsible for the ground-breaking Full Stop campaign, said he was “absolutely appalled” when he thought of his relationship with the convicted sex offender when Andrew chaired the campaign and Mandelson was vice-chairman.

The decade-long campaign against child cruelty and abuse was launched in 1999, with high-profile support and celebrity endorsements, and has raised over £250 million.

Andrew even fronted a special issue of Hello magazine alongside actress Nicole Kidman to promote the campaign, and remained at the helm of the campaign until 2004, three years after he was alleged to have had sex with Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.

“Personally, as director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for 30 years, I am absolutely appalled,” Mr. Pegram said of Andrew’s relationship with Epstein. [that] ‘one moment he might be helping the NSPCC, the next he might be off with Jeffrey Epstein’.

‘I mean, it kind of horrifies me personally,’ he said.

Mr Pegram, now 76, revealed the first known meeting between the pair was when he brought them together for lunch at Andrew’s Buckingham Palace apartment in 1999, possibly as part of the campaign.

The previous Christmas, Mandelson was forced to resign as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry after being embroiled in a financial scandal.

It is believed to be the same year that Andrew and Mandelson were photographed in bathrobes around a table with Epstein on Martha’s Vineyard, in a photo recently revealed in the Epstein files.

The photograph was previously thought to document one of the first meetings between the pair, but Mr Pegram believes the NSPCC lunch predates this because the pair did not appear to know each other when they met for lunch.

Recalling that they had eaten halibut with cream sauce, Mr. Pegram said he “obviously regretted” bringing the two together and that in hindsight he would not have done so.

In an interview with The Sunday Times he added: ‘It’s terrible. Could anyone blame me for bringing Andrew and Mandelson together, given the circumstances at the time? If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done this.

‘If there was a scandal involving children we wouldn’t come within a mile of it.’

The Full Stop campaign aimed to change public attitudes towards child abuse, relying on a very effective TV campaign and, most importantly, support from the rich, famous and powerful.

Its launch on 22 March 1999 was hosted by Cilla Black at the Theater Royal in London and attended by Andrew and Mandelson, Tony Blair, Conservative leader William Hague, then leader of the Conservative Party, Boyzone and Spice Girl Emma Bunton.

The late Princess Margaret, who was already friends with Mandelson, was president of the NSPCC when it was founded the previous year.

Andrew (left), Jeffrey Epstein (center) and Mandelson (right) pictured on Martha’s Vineyard

At the reception hosted by the princess, the late Queen’s sister, a steering committee was formed, chaired by Conservative colleague George Magan.

Mr. Pegram recalled that Mandelson seemed like a natural choice when it came to searching for a seat and a vice president.

He suggested that he would “meet or have dinner with at least one of them” since he was suggested as a possible vice president or offered his services because “he likes to handle big business and Full Stop is a big thing.”

Mandelson was finally appointed deputy leader in early 1999, although he resigned from the Cabinet after it was revealed that he had borrowed £373,000 from fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson, who was also forced to resign.

Meanwhile, Andrew was appointed president of Full Stop in October 1998.

Mr Pegram said Andrew and Mandelson did not appear to know each other and did not greet each other like old friends when they met after waiting with Mandelson in the front room before being summoned.

Now, ‘after dedicating 30 years of my career to preventing cruelty to children,’ he said, ‘my concerns are with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims; This is absolutely unforgivable and nothing in the past can fix it.’

The NSPCC said subsequent revelations following the publication of the Epstein files revealed ‘a world of power, privilege and wealth in which vulnerable women and girls were ruthlessly targeted, exploited, trafficked and sexually abused’.

He said his thoughts were with the victims who had been ‘ignored and rejected for too long’.