Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘little black book’ contained the names of 301 of Britain’s richest and most powerful people including Sir Mick Jagger, Tony Blair, Sir Richard Branson, Prince Andrew and his former wife Sarah Ferguson, it was claimed today.
The American paedophile cultivated an extraordinary cache of more than 1,000 phone numbers and email addresses for hundreds of famous names across the Atlantic.
Epstein is said to have written down 16 phone numbers for his friend Prince Andrew including a mobile number and landlines for Sandringham and Balmoral, where the prince once invited him for a visit.
Prince Andrew with his arm around ‘Epstein girl’ Virginia Roberts at an party in London in 2001, alongside alleged ‘pimp’ Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew’s name was in Epstein’s black book with 16 numbers
There are also 18 numbers for Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who once had a £15,000 dept paid off by Epstein, according to the Mirror.
Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair is recorded once, while his former cabinet minister Lord Peter Mandelson has ten numbers recorded, including one marked ‘direct line’ one marked ‘home’ and one marked ‘country home’.
Other names and numbers in his book are also said to include Sir Mick Jagger, Sir David Frost, Richard Branson, Naomi Campbell, and a number of members of the House of Lords.
The raid comes days after the 66-year-old was found dead by suicide in his New York jail cell early on Saturday morning
Other royal connections in the list include ‘Charles Althorp’, meaning Charles, Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, and Rosa Monckton, the late princess’s best friend.
The ‘book’ is also said to contain contacts of Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of Robert Maxwell, including her extended family, friends and brief acquaintances.
The book is now in the hands of the FBI – but there is no suggestion that the people named were involved with Epstein’s crimes and many will never have met him.
A spokesman for Richard Branson said previously: ‘Jeffrey Epstein has the island next door to Necker but Richard has literally only met him once for about five minutes. That’s the extent of it.’
Epstein also kept another diary with the names of over 100 ‘recruits’ from areas where he had residences, including New York and Palm Beach, Florida, as well as Paris.
Prosecutors believe he orchestrated a network of students who were lined up by other young women and then forced to satisfy the hedge fund billionaire’s wishes.
Epstein’s private island was raided by the FBI last night.
More than a dozen agents arrived on speedboats at the luxury Caribbean property – dubbed ‘Paedophile Island’.
It came only hours after high-flying friends of the disgraced late financier were warned that they ‘should not rest easy’.
US Attorney General William Barr vowed the probe would continue despite Epstein’s suicide at the weekend.
A tourist filmed law enforcement officers wearing the yellow ‘FBI’ logo on their backs arriving at Little St James, the 72-acre US Virgin Island retreat Epstein bought 20 years ago.
The onlooker, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘We were enjoying lunch when we saw over a dozen people getting off their speedboats and landing on the island.
‘When we looked harder, we could see the FBI logo on the backs of their shirts.
‘It didn’t take long for us to realise they must be conducting a raid on Epstein’s house.’
Royal connection: Epstein kept the details of Sarah Ferguson (left) and Princess Diana’s brother,Earl Spencer
FBI agents were seen raiding Jeffrey Epstein’s US Virgin Island Little St James on Monday morning and afternoon, exclusive DailyMailTV footage shows
Allegations have been made that underage girls were used as sex slaves and repeatedly abused inside a temple on the island
Claims have been made that underage girls were used as sex slaves and repeatedly abused inside a temple on the island.
Jeffrey Epstein was ‘found hanging in his jail cell using a bed sheet tied to the top bunk bed’
The cell Epstein would have been held in have ‘paper level sheets’, a steel frame bed you cannot move, no light fixtures and no bars
Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in his jail cell using a prison bed sheet that he wrapped around his neck and secured to a top bunk bed, it has been reported.
The 6ft tall convicted pedophile kneeled toward the floor after positioning his head inside the bed sheet’s loop early on Saturday morning, the New York Post reported.
Epstein was found ‘unresponsive’ at around 6.30am in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Staffers were unable to revive him. He was then rushed to the infirmary inside the jail.
From there, he was placed in an ambulance and taken to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Since Epstein’s suicide, there has been widespread speculation as to how he managed to kill himself after an earlier failed attempt to take his own life last month.
Prison procedure dictates that an inmate goes through a screening process to determine if they are at risk of harming or killing themselves.
Meanwhile, Mr Barr vowed to continue probing the alleged sex trafficking of underage girls, despite the tycoon killing himself in jail. His comments will heap further pressure on Epstein’s close associates, including Prince Andrew, who has been accused of having sex with one of the ‘sex slaves’.
Mr Barr’s intervention comes as Ghislaine Maxwell, a former friend of Andrew’s and Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, hinted that she planned to ‘totally disappear’.
Some reports suggested the socialite daughter of the disgraced late tycoon Robert Maxwell had started to co-operate with the FBI and provide details of her alleged recruitment of girls for Epstein. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
‘She said that she planned to totally disappear and not say anything,’ a source close to Miss Maxwell said. Miss Maxwell has never been charged and has vehemently denied the allegations. Prince Andrew also denies the claims against him.
Mr Barr’s broadside came at a police event in New Orleans. He said: ‘Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein. Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. The victims deserve justice.’ Mr Barr said there would also be a full investigation into the catalogue of failures which allowed Epstein to hang himself on Saturday at the high-security prison where he was being held.
He said he was ‘appalled and angry’ at the failure to check on the 66-year-old every 30 minutes at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. Epstein was found at 6.30am by a guard at the prison, where a series of errors allowed him to become the first suicide there in 21 years.
The day before, New York’s federal court had released 2,000 pages of damning documents. Officials said Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he tried to kill himself on July 23. But on July 29 he was taken off suicide watch and returned to the 9 South special housing unit, which has less stringent security. Last night it emerged that Epstein was not checked on for ‘several hours’ and one of his guards was not even a trained prison officer. Serene Gregg, of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the prison is operating with inadequate staffing. She said: ‘It was only a matter of time for it to happen. It was inevitable, because of the conditions at that institution.’
Virginia Roberts in front of Naomi Campbell and Flavio Briatore at an Epstein party
Friendship: Epstein is pictured with his associate and one-time girlfriend and alleged fixer Ghislaine Maxwell in 2005
Although officials believe Epstein killed himself, the results of his post-mortem examination have been delayed – a move bound to fuel conspiracy theories that his associates may be implicated in his death.
If Epstein’s death is ruled a suicide after an autopsy, his family could pursue a claim for wrongful death because he was in the custody of the state. Victims of the financier’s alleged sex trafficking ring are also planning to sue his estate.
Former employees of Epstein closed ranks yesterday. One told the Mail that he ‘saw nothing that was of concern’ while working as an interior designer for him. Another hung up. A separate document released by the US courts last week suggested Princes William and Harry may have met Epstein when they were children.
Epstein’s former maintenance man at his Palm Beach mansion, Juan Alessi, said he had met ‘Princess Diana’s secretary with her children’. But Diana’s ex-secretary Patrick Jephson told the Sun: ‘I can’t think of any occasion when Mr Epstein would have any claim to say he had given hospitality to the Princess of Wales.’