Did Andrew’s team know of Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex offenses? Former staffer speaks out

A senior protection officer that served Andrew Mountbatten Windsor for years has finally come forward with the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and whether he’d known about the royal’s connection to him during his employ.

The conversation as a whole happened during the officer’s chat on The Crime Agents podcast.

There, Scott Hamer, the former protection officer in question admitted, “I suspect that for most of his protection team at the time, Jeffrey Epstein would have just been one of the people that he was connected with. They probably wouldn't have even known who he was at that time.”

Especially since the conviction at the time was local, and therefore, would not have been something they were aware of in 2010. For those unversed with his actual conviction though, the financier was jailed back in 2008 for having solicited sex from girls as young as 14.

In regards to the conviction he said, “my understanding is that conviction was in a court in Florida. This is not taking anything away from it, but, you know, that was localised, it wouldn't have been a national issue, I think, so the officers might not have been aware of that [given] it's a local court decision.”

Moreover, “if the principal was conducting their business,” he said. “The protection officer’s business is to wrap security around that,” after all “Is it against the law to meet a convicted paedophile? No, it's not. Is it immoral? Yes,” he quipped. But before anything else made sure to note. “So as long as the officers are working within the law. But again, at that time, I don't think that they would have known who Jeffrey Epstein was.”

He kept going back on his thoughts, reiterating the potential innocence of those officers working around him and around Epstein because in his eyes, “I don’t think for one minute that any protection officer saw anything that was illegal - that would have been flagged up.”

But before concluding he did not shy away from mentioning the small few who got “too close” to their principals, protection team members who were not part of the Met and said, “there were people on both sides of the protection, on the ministerial, the Special Branch and Royalty unit, who I would say probably were over-familiar or had been around a long, long time and maybe thought that, you know, they were part of the furniture and they were part of the principal's team rather than the Met.”

As for what the Met has said regarding this LBC quotes them as saying, “The Met is identifying and contacting former and serving officers who may have worked closely, in a protection capacity, with Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor.”

“They have been asked to consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard during that period of service may be relevant to our ongoing reviews and to share any information that could assist us. While we are aware of the extensive media reporting and commentary about this matter, as of today, no new criminal allegations have been made to the Met regarding sexual offences said to have occurred within our jurisdiction.”

“We continue to urge anyone with new or relevant information to come forward. All allegations will be taken seriously and, as with any matter, any information received will be assessed and investigated where appropriate.”

“The action outlined above is independent of investigations or assessment work being carried out by other forces. We are working with the national coordination group which has been set up to bring together affected forces to ensure consistency of approach, including access to appropriate expertise and guidance.”