New pic shows moment Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson met for first time

This photograph is said to capture the moment Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson met for first time — just weeks before they were seen in bathrobes beside paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew and Peter were snapped at an National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) lunch where the panel discussed endeing child abuse in 1999. The meeting was reportedly held in a room at Buckingham Palace for the NSPCC’s Full Stop Campaign — aimed at changing public attitudes to child cruelty — where they ate "plaice in a nice cream sauce". But just weeks later, the pair were photographed in bathrobes with Epstein, who would later be convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and of sex trafficking. Peter, though, was vice-chair of the Full Stop campaign for the NSPCC while Andrew, whose daughters; Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were young children at the time, was chair. Since those roles, both have been linked to Epstein and subsequently arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office by police. Both deny any wrongdoing and remain under investigation. Speaking in an interview with Hello! Magazine at the time, Andrew said: "As a father of two young children, I simply could not sit back and do nothing … hopefully, in 20 years’ time, everyone will be able to pat themselves on the back." But the former director of fundraising at the NSPCC has said this week he "regrets" having brought the two men together for the project. Giles Pegram, responsible for the Full Stop campaign, told The Sun on Sunday : "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done it. If there was a scandal that was related to children, we wouldn’t have come within a mile of it... It’s horrible. Can anyone blame me for having brought Andrew and Mandelson together given the circumstances at the time?" Looking back, Mr Pegram added: "If I’d known what I know now, he would never have been appointed chair. And there’d never [have] been a meeting with Mandelson... This is the benefit of hindsight. There’s nothing that I could have known at the time that would have caused me not to have him as chair and not to have Mandelson as a vice-chair." Mr Pegram, director of the NSPCC for 30 years, called the appointments "absolutely unforgivable". MPs last week voted down the Tory motion to refer Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee for a probe into whether he misled MPs over the Mandelson appointment. The NSPCC said: "The appalling revelations, that have continued to come to light through the publication of the Epstein files, have exposed a world of power, privilege, and wealth where vulnerable women and girls were ruthlessly targeted, exploited, trafficked and sexually abused. "Jeffrey Epstein was at the centre of this criminal web, but it remains essential that anyone else involved in the abuse of women and girls is also held to account and faces justice. “Our thoughts are with all the victims in this terrible case, many of whom have been speaking out for years and are only now being fully heard. "They deserve justice and support as they have been ignored and dismissed for far too long. Their voices must be at the centre of what happens next.”