The convicted paedophile reminisced about 'the good old days' in 2010 email to Ferguson unearthed in Epstein files
A photo that appears to showSarah Fergusonmodelling as a young woman was framed and displayed in convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein‘s “playboy ranch” in the US,The i Papercan reveal.
The dramatic black and white portrait was found among emails in theEpstein Files, along with new confirmation of how far back the paedophile’s friendship with the former Duchess of York went.
Analysis of the photograph – sent by Epstein to Ferguson alongside the message “the good old days” – was placed inside a library at Epstein’s secluded mansion on his “Zorro” ranch estate in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The site is now at centre of a new investigation into sexual abuse and trafficking, with multiple survivors coming forward with allegations that they were recruited and abused by Epstein at the ranch, which they said was integral to his sex-trafficking operation.
It comes a day after Ferguson’s charity,Sarah’s Trust, was formally shut down and removed from the UK’s public register of charities. She launched the venture in 2020 to “address the humanitarian and environmental crisis”. It shuttered “for the foreseeable future” in February following revelations about her relationship with Epstein.
Epstein sent an email sharing the picture with Ferguson in September 2010, two years after his conviction for child sex offences, alongside the message: “The good old days”.
The date the photo was taken is not known, but it was likely captured before 2001, as her dress features an illustration of the New York skyline, including the Twin Towers, which collapsed during the 9/11 terror attack in September that year.
The discovery is significant, according to royal historian Andrew Lownie, whose book,Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of Yorkcharts the lives of Ferguson andAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as well as their relationship with Epstein.
“There has hitherto not been a link between Sarah Ferguson and the Zorro ranch,” he toldThe i Paper. “She visited his other properties multiple times.”
He added: “It looks like the photo was taken before Ferguson is supposed to have met Epstein in the 1990s so the mystery remains was it gifted? What could ‘the good old days’ refer to?”
A separate email from Epstein unearthed from the files released by the US Department of Justice appears to confirm that Ferguson’s friendship with the sex offender began around 1995. In the 2011 email, Epstein remarks that they have been friends for “16 years”.
Lownie believes the photo suggests that Fergie and Epstein’s relationship began before the 1990s. Ferguson has never commented on when they met.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that we only have the tip of the iceberg in terms of this story which is why it is so important both Yorks speak to law enforcement and the lawyers of the victims.”
The i Paper’s analysis using open-source evidence shows the picture had been placed on a table inside a library at Epstein’s “Zorro” ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The room’s distinctive shelving and panelling visible behind the frame can be seen in photos published by the US government of the inside of his remote 21,000sq ft Spanish-style mansion situated in the depths of 7,500-acres of desert.
