Emails say Prince Andrew met paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while the financier was still under house arrest… contradicting what royal told Newsnight

Prince Andrew is facing fresh questions over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after emails emerged saying he met the paedophile under house arrest despite his promises on BBC Newsnight.

Court documents have allegedly revealed that the Duke met the late billionaire paedophile while he was under house arrest for a sex offence at his Florida home.

Speaking to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in 2019, Andrew, 63, said he cut contact with Epstein after visiting him only once after his jail release in New York in December 2010. 

Asked: ‘Did you see him or speak to him again?’ The Duke said: ‘No.’

But in an email sent on June 14 that year, Epstein told the then JP Morgan CEO Jes Staley that he had lunch with the royal and they had kept in touch, adding: ‘Andrew just sat next to me at dinner.’

Andrew said he cut contact with Jeffrey Epstein after visiting him in New York in December 2010. But an email suggests they met in the June that year

Speaking to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in 2019, Andrew, 63, said he cut contact with Epstein after visiting him in 2010

The court papers state: ‘On April 15, 2010, Epstein wrote to Prince Andrew the Duke of York [redacted word] “jes staley will be in London on Thurs the 22. I think you should meet if you are in town”.

‘Prince Andrew replies that he is unavailable but will look to visit New York in the near future,’ according to The Mirror.

It comes as last month a message written by the billionaire paedophile and released as part of a court case in the US showed he was presenting Andrew as a potential investor in 2011, despite the royal claiming to have ended all contact in 2010. 

Epstein’s victims then called on the prince to speak to the FBI, which he has so far refused to do. It is not known if Andrew knew Epstein had mentioned him in the email exchange. 

The victims’ representative, US attorney Spencer Kuvin, told the Mirror: ‘It appears that either Epstein was highly overselling his relationship with Prince Andrew or that the duke may not have been entirely truthful about when his friendship ended.’

One victim, who was awarded compensation under the Epstein victims’ compensation program, said: ‘The emails raise serious questions. Why would Jeffrey be lauding him as an investor if he was no longer in contact?’

An email written by Epstein to JP Morgan on August 31, 2011, suggested Andrew as a possible investment partner because ‘he is now allowed to make money’. 

It was revealed as part of a lawsuit against the bank by the US Virgin Islands which claims it was ‘complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein’.

In a counterclaim, JP Morgan accuses the territory’s officials of taking money and favours from Epstein in return for turning a blind eye as he abused women on the island. 

Andrew pictured waving goodbye to a friend at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home in 2010

Epstein served almost 13 months in jail in 2008 after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl

Epstein served almost 13 months in jail in 2008 after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

But Prince Andrew continued his friendship with the offender after he was released.

In 2019 he told the BBC that his relationship with Epstein and the opportunities he had been given were ‘very useful’ and said he didn’t recall the photo where he is seen with his arm around Virginia Roberts – now known as Virginia Giuffre – ‘ever having been taken’.

Jeffrey Epstein took his own life while in jail in 2019.

Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – who was also a friend of Andrew’s and appears in the background of the photo of him and Ms Giuffre – is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.

Prince Andrew has been approached for comment by MailOnline.