I never saw young women on Epstein visits, Mandelson tells BBCWatch: Lord Mandelson tells the BBC he was "not knowledgeable" of what Epstein was doingLord Mandelson has said he never saw girls at Jeffrey Epstein's properties, and declined to apologise to the late paedophile's victims for maintaining his friendship with the American because he was not "knowledgeable of what he was doing". In his first interview since being sacked as the UK's ambassador to the US over his links to Epstein, he told the BBC he thought he had been "kept separate" from the sexual side of the late financier's life because he was gay. He was fired after emails emerged showing supportive messages he had sent to Epstein after the American was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The former ambassador said the only people he had seen at Epstein's properties were "middle-aged housekeepers". He said he would have apologised were he "in any way complicit or culpable" but stressed that was never the case. Epstein, a well-connected financier, died in a New York prison cell in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had previously been convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender. Asked on BBC's One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg whether he would like to apologise to Epstein's victims for continuing the friendship after that first conviction, he said: "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"."That system gave him protection and not them."If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise for it. But I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing."He continued: "I regret and will regret to my dying day the fact that powerless women, women who were denied a voice, were not given the protection they were entitled to expect."Lord Mandelson, whose tenure as ambassador lasted just a few months, was also asked in the interview about his views on US President Donald Trump's ongoing comments about his country needing to "own" Greenland. While saying that he admired Trump's "directness" in his political dealings, he said he did not believe the US president would "land on Greenland and take it by force". He added: "He's not going to do that.
