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The former Prince Andrew at Sandringham lying across the laps of five elegantly dressed women as Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a> looks on; Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein on a shoot near Balmoral; the three of them peering down from the royal box at Ascot.<\/p>\n The images are just some of the \u201cEpstein files\u201d<\/a> released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.<\/p>\n The snapshots taken at the most exclusive VIP locations provide further proof, if it were needed, that King Charles had little choice but to strip his controversial sibling of his titles and honours.<\/p>\n For they appear to show the platinum access pass to the highest echelons of British society that the then Duke of York provided for this toxic couple. Each time such images surface is a reminder to the public, and, surely, a source of great discomfort to the royal family.<\/p>\n They suggest the late convicted sex offender Epstein and his then girlfriend, Maxwell \u2013 now serving 20 years in a US prison for sex trafficking offences<\/a> \u2013 paid numerous visits to the UK to see their once-royal friend.<\/p>\n Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now styled, is pictured in bow tie and dinner jacket lying across the laps of five women, their faces redacted, in the saloon room of the royal residence in Sandringham, reportedly to mark Maxwell\u2019s 39th birthday in December 2000.<\/p>\n In another photo, Epstein and Maxwell peer out of the royal box at Ascot with Mountbatten-Windsor, who invited them as personal guests on Ladies\u2019 Day in June 2000 \u2013 an event attended by both the queen and the queen mother. The former prince reportedly invited the couple to stay at the Balmoral estate in 1999, and they are pictured on the moorland, dressed for the part.<\/p>\n