An American lawyer representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein said women with information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are refusing to speak to British police because they do not trust how they will be treated. Brad Edwards said he has multiple clients who could talk about the former prince, but they will not cooperate in the UK.
The comments land as police in Britain continue to face questions over whether they can draw out new witnesses in a case that has followed Mountbatten-Windsor for years. He has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but the search for cooperation is now as important as the allegations themselves.
Edwards told the that his clients fear both official indifference and public exposure. “Our multiple clients, plural, with information about [Mountbatten-Windsor] will not speak with authorities in the UK for two reasons,” he said. “First, the authorities did not care to do anything when Epstein was alive, so their confidence is low. Second, and most important, the harassment by the British press has dissuaded them from ever cooperating with UK authorities or speaking with the British press.”
That caution matters because it cuts across the message British policing is trying to send. The National Police Chiefs' Council said people who come forward will be treated with care, compassion and respect, but Edwards said his clients have not been persuaded. He said the fear is not abstract: British journalists investigating one woman and her family, he said, made other victims notice that speaking out could threaten privacy.
Edwards represents a woman who alleges she was sent to the UK for a sexual encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor. She has said the encounter happened at Royal Lodge in 2010, before he invited her to Buckingham Palace for tea. Thames Valley Police confirmed in February that it would assess that claim, and Edwards said more than one client had initially been willing to cooperate with British police over the allegation before pulling back.
The episode shows the problem facing investigators: the facts already in the public domain have not produced trust. Last week, Thames Valley Police said it could investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Mountbatten-Windsor as part of its ongoing inquiry into alleged misconduct in public office, which began after documents released in the US suggested he had passed sensitive information to Epstein while working as a trade envoy for the British government.
Edwards said his clients were also put off by what they saw as a failure to act when Epstein was alive. Separately, another US lawyer representing Epstein survivors, Sigrid McCawley, said she did not believe she had received any communication from the Metropolitan Police since the US Department of Justice released the Epstein files in January. That silence, whether by design or delay, leaves British investigators with a narrower path to testimony than they would want.
For now, the central question is not whether police have opened the door, but whether anyone on the other side still feels safe enough to walk through it.
