Police are assessing information about private flights to and from Stansted Airport after files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were published.
It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown claimed documents showed in “graphic detail” how Epstein was able to use the Essex-based hub to “fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia”.
In an article for the New Statesman, Brown wrote that the Epstein files showed the financier’s jet making 90 flights to or from UK airports, including 15 after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from children.
Epstein “brags” about how cheap airport charges are at Stansted compared to Paris.
Brown said Stansted Airport was “where women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another”, adding that “women coming into Britain on private planes do not need British visas”.
Officials will “never know what’s going on”, he said, referring to evidence uncovered by the BBC which showed “incomplete flight logs, nameless passengers labeled only as ‘females'”.
On Tuesday, an Essex Police spokesman said: “We are assessing the information that has come to light following the publication of the Epstein files by the US DoJ (Department of Justice) regarding private flights in and out of Stansted Airport.”
A spokesperson for Stansted Airport said: “All private aircraft at London Stansted are operated by independent fixed base operators who manage all aspects of private and corporate aviation in accordance with regulatory requirements.
“All immigration and customs checks for passengers arriving by private aircraft are handled directly by the Border Force.
“They use completely independent terminals not operated by London Stansted and none of the private jet passengers enter the main airport terminal.
“The airport does not operate or have passenger arrangements on board privately operated aircraft.”
In December, a BBC investigation found that 87 flights linked to Epstein had arrived or departed from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018.
The statement from Essex Police comes after the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said it had set up a national group to support UK police forces “assessing allegations” following the publication of the Epstein files, which can be accessed via whenyouareready.co.uk.
A spokesman for the NPCC said: “A national coordination group has been set up to support a small number of forces assessing the allegations following the publication of the Epstein files by the US DoJ.
“We continue to work collaboratively to assess the details made public to enable us to understand any potential impact arising from the millions of documents that have been published.
“We will continue to support our partners and collaborate in any way we can to help bring justice to victims and survivors and urge those who need help to visit whenyouareready.co.uk.”
