Pressure piles on Andrew as fourth police force probes Epstein claims: Essex officers examine whether paedophile financier trafficked women on private jet into Stansted

Pressure increased on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Tuesday night when another police investigation was launched into allegations linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in the UK.

Essex Police has become the fourth force in recent days to confirm it is looking into the allegations raised in the release of the Epstein files.

Detectives are ‘assessing information’ emerging from a trove of bombshells that suggest a pedophile financier smuggled sex victims into the UK on private flights via Stansted airport.

The latest investigation will put further pressure on the former Duke of York, who features heavily in the documents.

An Essex Police spokesman said: ‘We are assessing information that has emerged regarding private flights to and from Stansted airport following the release of the US Department of Justice Epstein files.’

Flight records show the plane, dubbed the convicted pedophile’s Lolita Express, made up to 90 take-offs or landings at UK airports between the 1990s and 2018.

Calls are growing for a criminal investigation into the former prince after a series of embarrassing revelations emerged in the files.

Chiefs at Thames Valley Police are investigating allegations that Epstein sent a young woman to England to have sex with Andrew at his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor in 2010.

Ghislaine Maxwell (left) and Jeffrey Epstein (right) on a private jet. Up to 90 flights flying in and out of UK airports with suspected sex trafficking victims

Jeffrey Epstein’s plane, dubbed the Lolita Express, flew in and out of the UK and was used by the pedophile financier to traffic women and girls around the world.

Detectives at Thames Valley Police are also said to be investigating whether Andrew should be investigated for misconduct in public office over allegations he passed secret reports while he was a UK trade ambassador.

Andrew, who was stripped of his remaining royal titles last year over his links to Epstein, served as Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment from 2001 to 2011.

This role allowed him to travel the world at taxpayers’ expense and gain privileged access to senior political and business figures.

But the emails show that he — like Peter Mandelson — used that position to pass official documents, including sensitive information, to Epstein.

The disgraced financier committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.

Surrey Police are also understood to be seeking unredacted files relating to a separate allegation of historical misconduct in the files against Andrew.

A bombshell email from Ghislaine Maxwell confirms that the infamous 2001 photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around chief accuser Virginia Giuffre is real

Another room inside Epstein’s private jet. Boeing plane was used primarily to fly teenage victims between Epstein’s lavish homes

Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey Epstein are seen at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club in 2000.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has already launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Mandelson leaked confidential information to Epstein in 2009 while he was serving as business secretary.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said last week police should ‘urgently’ examine whether victims were trafficked on Epstein’s flights to the UK.

He said Andrew should be interviewed as part of the investigation, adding that Stansted was an airport where ‘women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another’.

Previous reports claimed that three British women, alleged trafficking victims, appeared on Epstein’s flight logs into and out of the UK.

Mr Brown said the extent of the smuggling would ‘become apparent’ if an investigation into the flights was carried out.

Police chiefs have joined forces to form a ‘national co-ordination’ group to deal with a range of allegations emerging in the dossiers, including the investigations into Mandelson and Andrew.

The unit, set up by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), will be given access to unredacted Epstein files, allowing detectives to work with experts in the areas assessed.

It is understood the meeting will be chaired by Louisa Rolfe, who is the Met Police deputy commissioner.

On Tuesday, Labor chairman of the cross-party business and trade committee, Liam Byrne, said it was possible MPs could investigate Andrew during his time as trade envoy.

Andrew attended Easter mass at St George’s Chapel on April 20 last year

Pictured: Rear interior of the Epstein Boeing 727-100, complete with double bed, recliner and red velvet sofas

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I guarantee you MPs are not in the market to let anything slip through the cracks.’

And on Tuesday night, a US lawyer representing Virginia Giuffre called for Andrew to be given ‘safe passage’ to testify about Jeffrey Epstein.

David Boies said on Piers Morgan Uncensored: ‘He has an obligation to say what he knows.

‘If he is afraid of being arrested in the US, we should give him safe passage to testify because we don’t want there to be any excuse for him not to come.

‘We know you know a lot… and you have an obligation to share it.’

The former duke has always denied any wrongdoing.