Mandelson suggested holiday home for 'privacy' of Epstein 'guests'

Lord Mandelson appears to have recommended a holiday home to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein with "privacy" to host his "guests", documents released by the US Department of Justice suggest.

In an email to Epstein in 2010, he says he "found you a great place to stay on the Amalfi coast" offering "privacy with accompanying rooms for your 'guests'", according to documents in which Lord Mandelson's email address is redacted.

Quote marks are used around the word "guests".

A spokesperson for Lord Mandelson said he "did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019" and his lawyers said he had "no recollection of this email, which was sent over 15 years ago".

BBC News and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism have identified Lord Mandelson as the sender of the email in part because his email address is partially visible despite the redaction.

It is unclear which "guests" are being referred to and we have not determined if Epstein went on to stay in the accommodation.

The email chain in the US government release is from 12 August 2010, the month after Epstein completed his 2008 sentence for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl in Florida.

According to the document, Lord Mandelson tells Epstein he is due to arrive back in London from "Myk", later in August.

"Found you a great place to stay on the Amalfi coast near to Positano. Zeferelli [sic] home converted into beautiful suites and privacy with accompanying rooms for your 'guests'," he writes in a message sent from his Blackberry, the document suggests.

While the sender of the email is redacted in the published file, the black redaction box does not completely cover his email address in one reference on the chain.

Other emails from the same period suggest Lord Mandelson travelled to Mykonos, which he also referred to as "Myk" in a separate email.

The correspondence is just one exchange between Lord Mandelson and Epstein revealed in the US Department of Justice releases that sheds new light on the friendship between the men.

In other published emails from 2009, Lord Mandelson asks how they should celebrate Epstein's release from prison, to which the disgraced financier responds: "With grace and modesty (those are the names of two strippers)".

A spokesperson for the peer said: "Lord Mandelson regrets, and will regret until to his dying day, that he believed Epstein's lies about his criminality.

"Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019.

"He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved."

Epstein died in a New York prison cell in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.