Epstein survivors' calls for royal meet harder to ignore as US visit approaches

Epstein survivors' calls for royal meet harder to ignore as US visit approaches58 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSean CoughlanRoyal correspondentPA MediaThe US trip will be a return visit after the Trumps were hosted at Windsor last yearThere are increasingly loud calls for King Charles and Queen Camilla to meet survivors of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during their state visit to the US later this month.Lisa Phillips, a US survivor of Epstein, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've already sent letters to him [the King] and we're already been requesting meetings with him“.She added her voice to US Congressman Ro Khanna and the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, calling for the royal visitors to engage with Epstein's victims, who have questions about the involvement of the King's brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.Mountbatten-Windsor, who has faced his own calls to testify for a congressional inquiry, has denied any wrongdoing from his links to Epstein.Thierry HumeauLisa Phillips suggests that Queen Camilla might meet Epstein survivorsThe four-day trip to meet President Trump, from 27 to 30 April, was already likely to be controversial.It is against the backdrop of the Iran war, with no certainty about where the ceasefire might stand during the state visit.It might be difficult to be chinking glasses in the White House if bombs are still falling. Not to mention the awkwardness if there are more volleys of disparaging comments from Trump about the UK's prime minister, armed forces or Nato allies.The King, facing one of the biggest speeches of his reign when he addresses Congress, will be expected to help restore the rather frayed friendship between the US and UK.But it increasingly seems that the King and Queen, in the wake of the Mountbatten-Windsor scandal, will be the focus of some difficult questions themselves, with calls for some kind of public response to Epstein's victims during their trip...