Peter Moore: The dangerous charm of a fraudster

Some years ago I was on call for the police when I received a call from the custody sergeant at Torquay police station. 

“Please could you see a man the CID have arrested. He is accused of fraud, but I don’t think he should be here. He is terminally ill and under the care of Rowcroft Hospice.”

When I arrived, I recognised him. I was his GP. I knew quite a bit about him, including the fact that as far as I knew, he was remarkably well. 

“I didn’t know you were terminally ill,” I said.

“I never said that. The sergeant must have misunderstood.”

He had managed to con an experienced custody sergeant. It was his bad luck that I was on duty. He might have been able to con another doctor. 

The next time I heard about him was after I had retired. I was talking to my successor in the practice who said: “I’ve just registered a patient who is a mate of yours. He told me he has been away for a few years but had now come back to the Bay”.

I had to point out that the only part which was true was that he had been away for a few years, in prison. No, he was not a mate of mine. 

He was a typical fraudster, utterly charming and charismatic. At one time my brother was a detective inspector in the Metropolitan Police fraud squad. He told me that whenever he managed to catch a fraudster the victim’s usual response was “no, you’ve got that wrong. He’s a lovely guy, a close mate of mine”. Fraudsters have to come over as delightful to carry out their crimes. They often carried on being charming to the police officers, sorry that they had made such a mistake. They also had a large network of “friends” who would support them in a crisis. 

It was the only time in his work as a police officer that the victims did not always want to see a conviction. If someone is the finance director of a small company it would not look good on their CV if they had overseen the company losing thousands in a con, even if they were not a part of the con. 

The more I hear about the convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein the more he fits this pattern. He was clearly highly manipulative with a large collection of influential “friends”. Using his charm to carry out child sexual abuse and rape takes the evil to another level. 

In my work both as a GP and working with the police, I saw the devastating effect of sexual abuse on the victims. Physical wounds heal but emotional wounds last a lifetime. Tragically some victims take their own life, as happened to Virgina Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims.

Was Andrew Mountbatten Windsor won over by this conman’s charm? Andrew’s biography by Andrew Lowie is called “Entitled” for a reason. Epstein may have lured him into his circle by appearing to treat him with the respect he believed he deserved.  

It appears that the tentacles from Epstein’s evil empire extended widely. Although the American Department of Justice has released over three million documents it is believed that they still have another three million. As well as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson, both of whom deny any wrongdoing, there was Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian Prime Minister, charged with aggravated corruption, and Jean-Luc Brunel, a France modelling agent, who committed suicide in a French jail after being charged. 

The waves from Epstein’s evil empire will spread further and continue for several years. An effective conman can manipulate influential people but, however charismatic and charming he was, everyone must take responsibility for their own behaviour. At the heart of his appalling crimes were young girls who suffered at the hands of these men. These girls will suffer emotionally all their lives. Some, like Viginia Giuffre, will take their own lives.

Not everyone in the Epstein files is guilty of any offence but we owe it to the victims to ensure that any man who was involved in this hideous abuse, however powerful, must be brought to justice.