Lord Peter Mandelson has issued an "unequivocal" apology to Jeffrey Epstein's victims for continuing his friendship with the convicted paedophile financier. The statement, released Monday evening to BBC's Newsnight, marks a significant shift from his position just one day earlier.
In a Sunday interview with BBC's "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg", Mandelson had declined to apologize for his personal association with Epstein. Instead, he apologized for systemic failures, telling the programme: «I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect.»
Email revelations
The apology came after emails revealed the extent of Mandelson's friendship with Epstein following the financier's 2008 conviction. Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor, receiving an 18-month prison sentence.
In the emails, Mandelson told Epstein to «fight for early release» and stated «I think the world of you» before Epstein's jail sentence. These revelations contradicted Mandelson's Sunday interview claim that «I was at the edge of this man's life».
Monday's statement
In his Monday evening statement to BBC's Newsnight, Mandelson offered a more direct apology: «Yesterday, I did not want to be held responsible for his (Epstein's) crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others. I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.»
On Sunday, the former UK ambassador to the US had described his continued association with Epstein as «misplaced loyalty» and «a most terrible mistake on my part». He suggested Epstein excluded him from the "sexual side" of his life because he was gay.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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