THE disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly breached security rules to secretly take young women into Buckingham Palace, a former royal protection officer has told the FBI.
Paul Page has claimed that security rules were relaxed to allow Andrew to bring women into the palace without their names being recorded in log books by police between 1997 and 2004.
The revelation comes after Page contacted the US authorities investigating Andrew’s links with the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein after he claimed police in the UK ignored his plea to provide information on the matter.
It is alleged that among those who were allowed to enter the palace secretly was British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence for sex trafficking victims for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
“I am offering myself as a potential witness and source of information and am willing to be interviewed so that my account can be tested against documents, other witnesses and existing investigative material,” Page told the FBI in a dossier delivered to the US embassy in London earlier this month, according to The Times.
“I observed circumstances concerning female visitors to Prince Andrew and the way protection personnel were required to deal with those visitors.
“I have publicly described circumstances in which I believed ordinary Palace visitor-security procedures were not applied in the same way to certain visitors associated with Prince Andrew.
“I have described the presence and access of Ghislaine Maxwell at Buckingham Palace and my observations concerning her association with Prince Andrew.”
He added: “My recollection is that her presence and access were sufficiently unusual to become a matter of interest to protection personnel.”
Page continued: “I have concerns, based on my experience at the time, about whether the treatment of certain visitors and information concerning Prince Andrew was subject to an appropriate level of scrutiny.”
Andrew was reported to the police following allegations that he was involved in trafficking a woman to the UK for sex in February.
It is alleged that Andrew was involved in bringing the woman to the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation in 2010.
The woman, then aged in her 20s, claims the alleged encounter took place at Royal Lodge before she was given a tour of Buckingham Palace and tea.
Andrew has consistently denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Police are also investigating allegations that Andrew behaved inappropriately towards a woman while attending a racing festival alongside his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.
The disgraced former prince allegedly behaved inappropriately while at the Royal Ascot event in Berkshire in 2002.
The former prince was stripped of his titles last year.
In 2009, Page was convicted of fraud after running a betting syndicate and £3 million property investment fraud that involved more than 100 other officers during his time working at the palace.
Page has also told the FBI of his “concerns about alleged Masonic influence with the royal protection team”. In December last year, Scotland Yard said that officers would be required to declare membership of the Freemasons.
A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “Our team is working through a significant amount of information. We are following all lines of inquiry.”
Epstein, a millionaire financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges.
Ordered detained until trial, he was found dead in his cell at a New York federal jail in August 2019, and the death was ruled a suicide.
