UK police reviewing private flight data linked to Jeffrey Epstein

Police in Essex, a UK county northeast of London, say they are assessing new information regarding private flights at Stansted Airport following the high-profile release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

However, officials have cautioned that the move is not yet a formal investigation.

The development follows mounting pressure from high-profile figures, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for UK authorities to scrutinise the convicted sex offender's movements within British borders.

READ MORE: Hillary Clinton accuses Trump administration of 'cover-up' over Epstein documents

An Essex Police spokesperson told the BBC they are looking specifically at information that has emerged since the publication of the US Department of Justice Epstein files.

The national broadcaster reports that while Essex Police are currently reviewing data tied to the airport, it is understood "assessment" should not be interpreted as a criminal probe.

The scrutiny comes after a BBC investigation last year identified 87 flights linked to Epstein that arrived at or departed from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018.

Further findings in December revealed that three British women, who were allegedly victims of trafficking, appear in Epstein's flight records.

Writing in the New Statesman last week, Gordon Brown urged police to "urgently" re-examine whether victims were trafficked through the UK.

Brown argued that Stansted was a key site where women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another, suggesting the true scale of the trafficking operation would only become clear through a dedicated inquiry.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein's victims described the lack of a full-scale UK investigation to the BBC as "shocking," given the documented frequency of his travel to the region.

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