LONDON — A former royal protection officer says the Metropolitan Police warned him to stop speaking publicly about Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor bringing unidentified women into Buckingham Palace, even as the force now canvasses current and former bodyguards for anything “they saw or heard” that could assist inquiries linked to the Jeffrey Epstein files. (yahoo.com)
“It’s trying to say, in the nicest possible terms, ‘can you shut up?’,” Page said.
Paul Page, who served on the royal protection team from 1998 to 2004, told GlobalHeadlinez he received a formal letter in December reminding him of his obligations of “confidentiality and respect for the privacy of those who are protected.” The letter, signed by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell, arrived on stationery headed with the Counter Terrorism Policing logo; Savell oversees the Met’s Royalty and Specialist Protection unit within Specialist Operations. (thetimes.com)
A warning letter and a renewed trawl for witnesses
Savell’s letter, Page said, argued that breaching confidentiality “undermines officers who serve to protect members of the royal family and casts unnecessary doubt over their trustworthiness and integrity.” It also stated the duty of silence does not extend to criminality and “in such cases we urge for you to report directly to police in order that an investigation may take place.” Page says he has contacted Thames Valley Police. (thetimes.com)
The Met confirmed on Friday that it is “identifying and contacting” former and serving protection officers who worked closely with Andrew, urging them to consider carefully whether anything they witnessed is relevant to ongoing reviews prompted by newly public Epstein‑related material. The force said that, to date, no new sexual‑offence allegations have been recorded within its jurisdiction, and it has “not identified any wrongdoing by any protection officers.” (yahoo.com)
Senior policing figures privately acknowledge that the exercise is not only about establishing whether crimes were committed, but about demonstrating that officers assigned to the royal household are subject to the same investigative standards as any other public servants whose work is funded by the taxpayer.
Allegations about unvetted palace visitors
Page maintains that during his service, officers were instructed not to log the identities of certain women escorted to Andrew’s private apartments at Buckingham Palace. “We were told to call footmen and then either the female would walk through unescorted or the footman would come down to collect her and walk her to Andrew. We weren’t allowed to know the names.” He added of the protection detail: “They’re not his friend and he’s not their friend, that’s the first thing. He was rude, called us ‘f***ing imbeciles’. So officers see a couple of women at a party, they’re not going to go, ‘oh, they’re trafficked women’. How would they know, realistically? These were good officers with exemplary records.” (thetimes.com)
The Met’s outreach to protection officers follows claims that some may have turned a “blind eye” on trips to Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James. Separately, UK media have reported that two Met protection officers stayed for more than a week at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse during Andrew’s 2010 New York visit—two years after Epstein’s sex‑offence conviction—though the Met says it has not identified misconduct by protection officers at this stage. (yahoo.com)
For Westminster and Whitehall, the unresolved question is whether any informal arrangements around guests, travel or record‑keeping created systemic blind spots inside the palace security regime that would be unacceptable in any other arm of government.
What protection officers can say — and what they cannot
Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) sits within Counter Terrorism Policing London’s command structure, which helps explain why Savell’s letter bore the counter‑terrorism brand. Officers are bound by internal confidentiality rules and, where applicable, by statute, including the Official Secrets Act 1989; Met guidance emphasizes that such duties can persist after an officer leaves the service. Those obligations do not prevent disclosures of suspected criminality to the police. (counterterrorism.police.uk)
Constitutionally, RaSP’s work exists at the intersection of public safety and the monarchy’s public role: officers are expected to protect individuals who hold no executive office while still operating under national counter‑terrorism and professional‑standards frameworks designed for accountable public institutions.
A contested messenger and a widening frame
Page’s credibility has long been disputed by the Met after his conviction for a £3 million fraud; he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in July 2009 following a Southwark Crown Court trial that also aired allegations—some admitted, others denied—of indiscipline within the then‑Royalty Protection Command. Page has nevertheless repeated his account for nearly two decades, and in December 2008 The Times won the right in the Court of Appeal to report elements of his defence statement about alleged palace security breaches between 1997 and 2003. (theguardian.com)
Andrew’s circle in the late 1990s and early 2000s included Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite now serving a 20‑year US federal sentence for trafficking girls for Epstein. Maxwell’s conviction and sentence in 2021–2022 accelerated transatlantic scrutiny of Epstein’s network and those who associated with him. (npr.org)
Together, those strands have pushed questions about royal protection beyond personal scandal and into a broader examination of how institutions respond when reputational risk collides with safeguarding duties.
The Epstein fallout reaches UK policing
The Met’s new outreach comes amid a broader UK law‑enforcement review of material associated with Epstein. On Thursday, Thames Valley Police arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office and released him under investigation; the Met’s protection‑officer inquiries are separate from that probe. Police searches have continued at properties linked to Andrew. He has consistently denied wrongdoing. (theguardian.com)
The force says it is also assessing allegations that London‑area airfields were misused to facilitate trafficking by Epstein associates, and has indicated it is coordinating with a national policing group and liaising with US counterparts as necessary. (yahoo.com)
Any eventual charging decisions will rest with prosecutors, but the policing reviews are already testing how far forces are willing to revisit historic judgments about high‑profile figures and to disclose, in public, the limits of what was known at the time.
International implications and legal backstory
Andrew has said he does not recall meeting Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17; he paid a civil settlement in 2022 without admitting liability. Giuffre died by suicide in Western Australia in April 2025, and her posthumous memoir was published later that year. The continuing release of Epstein‑related documents in the US has intensified political and public pressure in the UK to examine whether taxpayer‑funded protection arrangements, record‑keeping and institutional oversight were adequate. (cnbc.com)
More broadly, MPs and campaigners are watching to see whether any findings around royal protection feed into future guidance on vetting standards, documentation and ministerial scrutiny for publicly funded security details assigned to senior public figures.
Key dates
- 1997–2003: Period in which Page alleges multiple Buckingham Palace security breaches linked to Andrew’s private guests. (thetimes.com)
- December 2008: Court of Appeal permits reporting of Page’s defence statement allegations. (thetimes.com)
- July 2009: Page sentenced to six years for fraud; Met cites his conviction to question his reliability. (theguardian.com)
- December 2010: Andrew photographed with Epstein in New York; media later report Met officers lodged at Epstein’s home during that trip. (news.sky.com)
- June 2022: Maxwell sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. (cnbc.com)
- February 15, 2022: Andrew settles Giuffre’s US civil lawsuit without admission of liability. (en.wikipedia.org)
- December 2025: Savell’s letter warns Page about confidentiality obligations. (thetimes.com)
- February 20, 2026: Met says it is contacting Andrew’s former and serving protection officers; no new sexual‑offence allegations recorded within its jurisdiction. (yahoo.com)
Page, who argues “I’ve been saying the same thing publicly for years,” insists his aim is not to impugn former colleagues but to describe how decisions above their pay grade shaped what they saw and did. “They’re not his friend and he’s not their friend,” he said. “These were good officers with exemplary records.” (thetimes.com)
As of February 21, 2026, Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor denies all wrongdoing and remains released under investigation; the Metropolitan Police says it is still identifying and contacting protection officers and has not, at this time, identified wrongdoing by any protection officers. (yahoo.com)
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