By REBECCA CAMBER, CRIME AND SECURITY EDITOR and JON BRADY, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Published: 05:03 EST, 24 February 2026 | Updated: 05:15 EST, 24 February 2026

Державний аграрний реєстр офіційно перейшов у повну державну власність. 20 лютого відбулася технічна передача системи Міністерству економіки, довкілля та сільського господарства. Відтепер держава володіє ДАР разом з усіма майновими правами інтелектуальної власності та забезпечує його подальший розвиток, інтеграцію до національних систем управління і повне адміністрування.

Міністр економіки, довкілля та сільського господарства Олексій Соболев наголосив, що передача ДАР у державну власність — не просто завершення чергового технічного етапу, а свідчення інституційної зрілості України та готовності не лише залучати міжнародну підтримку, а й професійно управляти сучасними цифровими інструментами розвитку.

Платформу було розроблено за підтримки ЄС, Світового банку та ФАО і впроваджено на національному рівні в серпні 2022 року. В умовах повномасштабної війни ДАР забезпечив швидку реєстрацію заявників, автоматизовану перевірку відповідності критеріям програм, централізовану комунікацію між державою, міжнародними партнерами та виробниками. Платформа стала єдиною цифровою точкою доступу аграріїв до державних і міжнародних програм підтримки, повідомляє Мінекономіки.

Peter Mandelson has been released on bail after being quizzed late into the night over allegations he leaked sensitive information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein during his time as business secretary.

The disgraced former minister was led away by detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Special Investigations Team – the unit dubbed the Yard’s ‘Celeb Squad’ – on suspicion of misconduct in public office yesterday afternoon. 

Nine hours later at around 1.15am the 72-year-old architect of New Labour was pictured as he was driven out of Wandsworth Police Station. 

He left the station in a black car accompanied by three other people but shortly after arrived home in a London black cab. He remained silent and downcast as he walked into his house. 

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in the early hours of Tuesday: ‘A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office has been released on bail pending further investigation.

‘He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and was taken to a London police station for interview.

‘This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.

‘We are not able to provide further information at this stage to prevent prejudicing the integrity of the investigation.’

He had been picked up at around 4.30pm yesterday at his £7.6million Regent’s Park home, 17 days after officers searched his properties in London and Wiltshire. 

Last night there were questions over why police waited more than a fortnight after those raids to make the arrest.

An ashen-faced Mandelson was seen walking behind Met Detective Inspector Barry Williams yesterday afternoon, who had a body-worn camera clipped to his jacket lapel. 

He and the peer climbed into the rear of an unmarked Ford Focus while a female officer took the front seat. 

Upon arrival, he would have been processed in custody – with a DNA saliva swab, fingerprints and a custody photograph taken – before being placed in a holding room pending the arrival of his solicitor.

His arrest comes days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was held on suspicion of the same offence. 

When Mountbatten-Windsor was questioned by Thames Valley Police, he was interviewed for 11 hours. 

Lord Mandelson was expected to have received a similar treatment, including being allowed regular breaks and the right to offer a ‘no comment interview’. 

Detectives are expected to have questioned him about emails published in the latest tranche of Epstein files, as well as documents seized during searches of his two homes earlier this month.

The Special Investigations Team, part of Scotland Yard’s central specialist crime division, handles highly sensitive inquiries involving high-profile figures and politically exposed persons. 

Its remit includes allegations of offences committed by those in public office, matters connected to the Parliamentary Estate, as well as electoral fraud and malpractice.

To make an arrest, officers must have reasonable grounds to suspect an offence has been committed and satisfy the so-called ‘necessity test’, demonstrating that detention is essential for specific investigative reasons. 

Police have not commented on the precise trigger for yesterday’s move and there is no suggestion it relates to any wrongdoing during the investigation itself.

The dramatic development will heap pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, who approved Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States in December 2024 despite longstanding controversy over his relationship with Epstein.

The Government had yesterday pledged to release documents relating to the controversial appointment. MPs were told that the first bundle would be published ‘very shortly in early March’. But Mandelson’s arrest at 4.15pm has now cast doubt over that timeline.

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said officials were trawling through a vast quantity of material but intended to release the first tranche imminently. 

He admitted it was ‘clearly a process that will take some time’ given the scale of the request and said documents were being reviewed to ensure publication would not damage ‘national security or international relations’.

He added that Scotland Yard had advised against releasing some exchanges between Downing Street and the New Labour grandee for fear of prejudicing any potential prosecution.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Mandelson’s arrest is the defining moment of Keir Starmer’s premiership.

‘It wasn’t long ago the PM looked me in the eye at PMQs and said he had ‘full confidence’ in Mandelson.

‘Time to release the Mandelson files in full. We must know who knew what and when. No more delays.’

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood claimed that ‘the Government’s progress moves with the urgency of a tired sloth on a Bank Holiday Monday’.

He added: ‘It is time the Government stopped treating Parliament like an inconvenient interruption to their schedule, stopped giving every impression that they have priorities working out whose back to cover, and started providing some actual answers so that we can start to get to the bottom of this murky matter.’

Labour backbencher Andy McDonald referred to the peer as ‘the lord of the files’, saying: ‘There are many people in this place and across the country who would not have touched Peter Mandelson with a bargepole and they’re trying to get their head round why on earth this Government wasn’t of the same view.’

Downing Street yesterday denied reports that corners were cut in Mandelson’s security vetting ahead of his Washington posting. 

Although his clearance to access top-secret documents was reportedly fast-tracked within weeks rather than months, No 10 insisted full checks were completed.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘No part of the vetting process was skipped or removed. It is normal procedure for vetting sponsors to prioritise cases based on deployment deadlines.’

Police raids on Mandelson’s homes followed the release of three million pages of documents by the US Department of Justice relating to Epstein. 

Emails contained within the files are said to suggest that Mandelson, while business secretary and de-facto deputy prime minister to Gordon Brown, and Mountbatten-Windsor, as UK trade envoy, passed potentially sensitive information from official briefings to Epstein.

Documents released in the US indicate Mandelson may have disclosed details of potential policy measures – including an asset sales plan, a tax on bankers’ bonuses and a bailout package for the euro – the day before public announcement in 2010. Gordon Brown has accused him of ‘betrayal’.

Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing. Following revelations in the Epstein emails, the former minister without portfolio said he had ‘no recollection’ of receiving payments totalling $75,000 from Epstein between 2003 and 2004. 

Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila Da Silva, in 2009. 

The peer has insisted he broke no laws and did not act for personal gain, though he has repeatedly expressed regret over his friendship with Epstein, which continued after the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.

• Chris Baghsarian’s body has been found near a golf course in Sydney’s north
• Police made the grim discovery on Tuesday morning
• The 85-year-old had no links to criminal activity

By MAISY RAE and ASHLEY NICKEL, NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA and CHARLOTTE KARP, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Published: 18:29 EST, 23 February 2026 | Updated: 19:52 EST, 23 February 2026

Labour is vowing to strip funding from independent special schools today amid fears of a new ‘class war’ in education.

Ministers have unveiled a major overhaul of support for SEND and disadvantaged pupils with panic mounting over spiralling costs.

A £4billion package over three years will aim to bolster provision in mainstream schools and colleges, with a bank of specialist teachers and therapists in every area.

But in the face of pressure from Labour MPs and unions, the Government has conceded that SEND spending will not ease for at least five years, and potentially not until after 2035.  

Education minister Georgia Gould also made clear in a round of broadcast interviews this morning that money will be diverted from independent special schools – which many parents are currently able to choose. She accused them of ‘making profit over vulnerable children’.

Labour MPs are nervous about changes to EHCPs – which entitle children to the highest levels of support. 

From 2029, the plans are set to be reassessed once children reach the end of primary school. The Government admitted that means the proportion of children with EHCPs will drop from 5.8 per cent currently to around 4.7 per cent by 2034-35.

But there will be a legally-enforceable lower tier of SEND support, individual support plans (ISPs). A diagnosis will not be needed to access them. 

Under the proposals, pupils with less complex and serious needs, such as autism and ADHD, will reportedly no longer be deemed eligible for EHCPs after the number of children with them soared from 240,000 to 639,000 in a decade.

The number of EHCPs is predicted to keep rising until 2029-30 but then fall as they are restricted to only the highest needs. By 2035 around 270,000 fewer children will have the plans. 

ISPs will have multiple tiers of support – targeted and targeted plus. 

Assessments for the new system, which will be consulted on for 12 weeks, will start in September 2029 with no changes to current support before ‘at least September 2030’.

Keir Starmer held a breakfast meeting with school leaders and charities in Downing Street this morning.

Ahead of the draft proposals being officially published, he said: ‘For so many children, they are held back by a system that doesn’t work for them.’

The PM referred to his own brother Nick, who died on Boxing Day 2024, who had struggled with learning difficulties and was ‘put to one side’, adding that ‘his life was very different from mine’ because the system did not work for him.

‘I’m not saying for a moment there haven’t been huge improvements since then, but that same sense is still there of children who cannot find the opportunities and chances they need to go as far as their talents and their ability will take them,’ Sir Keir said.

The measures will go out for consultation for a year. 

Ms Gould told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ‘too much’ money is ‘going into the wrong places’ with ‘private equity backed special schools making profit over vulnerable children’.

She said: ‘I think what we’ve seen has been a massive increase in spending, kind of 86 per cent over the last five years, but too much of that money is going into the wrong places. 

‘You know, private equity backed special schools making profit over vulnerable children.

‘We want that money to be going into our classrooms, to the kind of things that I talked about, because, you know, too many children are being failed.’

Ms Gould went on: ‘We are changing the way we spend money. We’re moving money away from the kind of private equity-backed independent special schools, introducing a new price cap to ensure that the savings from that is invested back into our education, into mainstream schools.’ 

The White Paper said: ‘We will also change the law on independent special schools to ensure that children get suitable high-quality placements and that local authorities pay a reasonable price for them.’ 

The Government claims that independent special schools charge an average of £63,000 per child per year, compared to £26,000 for a state special school. 

Around a third of independent special schools are backed by private equity firms, according to the Department for Education.

The Government says it will introduce ‘clear national price bands’ for how much can be charged.

A central part of the proposals would see reforms to how £8billion in funding is targeted, with household income rather than whether a child receives free school meals used to allocate it.

Labour’s new disadvantage funding formula would also consider where a child lives, as well as how low parental income is and how long this has been the case.

The Conservatives have criticised the proposals as being part of Labour’s class warfare, after VAT was added to private school fees. 

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the Government was ‘fiercely ambitious for children and young people with SEND’, who deserve a system that ‘lifts them up, and that puts no limit on what they can go on to achieve’.

She said: ‘These reforms are a watershed moment for a generation of young people and generations to come, and a major milestone in this Government’s mission to make sure opportunity is for each and every child.’

But NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack said the idea that SEND provision could be adequately overhauled with ‘this low level of funding’ was ‘ridiculous’.

‘While increased early support for SEND is welcome, years of underfunding and diminished external services mean that this new funding is barely a drop in the bucket of the investment necessary to drive real improvement in schools,’ he said.

Tory shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: ‘Every child deserves to receive the support they need. But it is wrong to narrow the disadvantage gap by dragging everyone down.’

Yesterday Ms Phillipson was forced to deny she was a ‘class warrior’ as she vowed to ‘come down hard on those who are profiting from the system’.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: ‘We’ve seen a big expansion, for example, in private equity, in specialist schools, where the quality is often very, very variable, where the costs are high.’

Asked if she sees herself as ‘class warrior’, she responded: ‘No, I don’t. I’m really ambitious for every child in our country, regardless of background.’

Ms Phillipson has claimed the new funding formula is a ‘golden opportunity’ to cut the link between background and success. 

A sex abuse survivor has lost all access to safeguarding in her home – despite her dangerous former partner’s impending release from prison. 

Gemma Willis, 41, was subjected to terrifying and degrading assaults from her partner between 2014 and 2017.

Richard Ridley sliced her neck with a garden trowel, beat her until she became unconscious and smothered her entire body and hair in salad cream during drug-crazed attacks.

Once, convinced that she was hiding her ‘lover’ in their mattress, he stabbed it with crossbow bolts before ripping it apart and hurling it out of the window, forcing Gemma to sleep on the floor.

The jealous thug would also put her through perverse examinations to check she hadn’t been with another man and threatened to kill her and her family if she left him.

Eventually, terrified Gemma reported him to police. He appeared before Teesside Crown Court where he admitted to two sexual assaults, two common assaults, two counts of criminal damage and one of affray.

Last year, he was released, but within days Gemma received unsolicited social media contact from his associates and he was recalled to jail for breaking the terms of his licence.

He is due to be freed again in October but Gemma has been told if she moved from her house, which she shares with her 15-year-old son, she would receive no safeguarding help.

The safeguarding budget she initially received paid for a fireproof letterbox, security locks, heavy-duty doors, 6ft fencing and spotlights but one person cannot access the funding twice.

So if she wanted to move it would have to be to an ‘open house’.  

She said: ‘Me and my son feel trapped in our home, I daren’t even walk to the shops because when I do I suffer abuse from Richard Ridley’s friends.

‘He and his associates know where I live and I just wanted to leave and move somewhere else, even out of the area completely.

‘But there was a safeguarding meeting at my home last year when he was about to be released from prison and I was told if I moved again I would not have safeguarding measures installed.

‘When I asked why, they said that I had already used my allocated share of the safeguarding budget and would only be able to get what they called an open house.

‘I now feel I have no option but for me and my son to stay where we are, but we’ll be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives because the intimidation has never stopped despite Richard Ridley being in jail.’

In 2018 Ridley’s then-girlfriend Toni Walker was convicted of identifying Gemma in a Facebook post, protesting Ridley’s innocence – even though he admitted the ordeal he subjected Gemma to.

Walker was fined £120, and ordered to pay £85 costs and £30 charges.

Then Ridley began posting social media messages from prison, bragging about the easy life he was having in HMP Holme House, Stockton-on-Tees.

In one of the messages he posted: ‘They can lock the locks but they can’t stop the clocks,’ a phrase that holds a particular terror for Gemma.

She said: ‘What he meant by that is that although he’s under lock and key, time is running down and he will be getting out.

‘I feel that message was targeted at me, because it’s exactly what he used to say to stop me reporting his abuse.

‘If I threatened to go to the police about his violence towards me he would always say that he might get jail time, but one day he would get out and he’d come for me.

‘To emphasise that, he’d say: “They can lock the locks but they can’t stop the clocks.”

‘That exact phrase was called to me last year by one of his friends when I was out at the shops and it terrified me. I feel in direct danger of being harmed – or worse.’

Ridley was released in February last year and within a fortnight Gemma started seeing concerning activity on social media.

She said: ‘Almost as soon as he was out of prison he began adding my friends, which was worrying to see but there was nothing I could do about that because it was not directed at me.

‘I was already very anxious because a friend had overheard a pub conversation among his friends about his imminent release and my friend came to warn me I should watch my back.

‘Then I noticed that a man had liked my Facebook dating profile. But when I looked at the picture I realised it was one of Richard’s closest friends.

‘The picture showed him erecting a middle finger and I knew it was intended to intimidate me so I went to the police.’

She was later told by her liaison officer that Ridley had been recalled to prison for ‘failing to comply with a condition on his licence’. She felt relieved, but it was short-lived.

Gemma said: ‘I have been informed that he’ll be trying for release again this October and would be appearing before a hearing.

‘I sent in a statement to be read out at the hearing but I was told it was too long and detailed and was asked to edit it down. I couldn’t believe it, I wanted the parole board to have every single detail in front of them.

‘It feels as though the victim is always the last person to be heard, if they are heard at all and more needs to be done to protect us.

‘I feel as though I am the one serving the prison sentence while he can brag on social media about how easy his life is in jail, the roles have been reversed and I’m still the one suffering and in fear.’

After being contacted about Gemma’s plight, housing group Thirteen pledged to ‘look again’ at her case.

Kay Glew, housing and communities director at Thirteen, said: ‘Keeping our customers safe is always our priority at Thirteen. We’re committed to supporting survivors of domestic abuse, and we take any concerns about safety in the home extremely seriously.

‘To support Ms Willis, we put a range of additional security measures in place in her home, reflecting her preference to remain in the property.

‘We’re here to help our customers with their housing options and applications to move home, and we’re in touch with Ms Willis to make sure she has our support if she decides that moving is the best choice for her.

‘If Ms Willis decides to move, we would look again at what safety measures are needed, so we can put the right support in place for her at her new address. This can be reviewed at any point, whether she remains in her current home or moves elsewhere, so that she always has the protection she needs.

‘For any urgent concerns about immediate safety, we would always advise contacting the police straight away.’

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said: ‘Gemma’s story is absolutely heartbreaking – we’re determined to help victims of domestic abuse like her.

‘We’re providing £30 million extra this year including support to help victims remain in their homes safely. We have also appointed Richard Wright KC to lead the Stalking Legislation Review to make sure the law on stalking is fit for purpose.

‘Local authorities are responsible for decisions on support measures, but we want councils to do everything they can to ensure victims get the strongest possible protection in their own homes.’

Ronnie O’Sullivan will be competing in the 2026 Seniors Snooker Championship and the World Snooker Championship within just weeks of each other; the 50-year-old won his first world title 25 years ago and looks to add another accolade to his name

After a record-equalling seven world titles, Ronnie O’Sullivan will be making his debut on the senior world stage in May at the 2026 World Seniors Snooker Championship.

However, the 50-year-old is still expected to play in the main World Championship, which finishes just two days before the seniors starts, with both events taking place at the Crucible.

He joins an impressive seniors line-up that includes 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham, 12-time women’s world champion Reanne Evans and former Masters and UK champion Matthew Stevens.

Chairman Jason Francis branded O’Sullivan the “most commercially valuable player the sport has ever seen” and that he expects The Rocket’s participation to drive ticket sales even higher.

The seniors tournament will take place May 6-10, being prefaced by World Championship from April 18-May 4.

O’Sullivan relocated to Dubai last year but will spend April and May in Sheffield as he also attempts to win an eighth world title when he appears in his 34th consecutive World Snooker Championship.

Changes to the seniors tournaments rules have meant players ranked in the world top 64 are eligible to take part with several having taken the opportunity.

With four title wins, the most successful player in the seniors is Jimmy White, with the 10-time ranking event winner also slated to take part.

This comes 25 years after O’Sullivan won his first World Snooker Championship which he won in his 10th year of being a professional at the age of 25, as he seeks to add yet another record to his CV.

Scientists are considering a rather novel way to get a better look at 3I/ATLAS – a solar slingshot.

In the months since the interstellar trespasser was spotted, scientists clashed over whether it was a giant snowball (a comet) or… a UFO.

One reason for this was that even at its closest to Earth in December, 3I/ATLAS was still 167 million miles away, making observations tricky.

So, why not just send a spacecraft over there? This is what scientists are thinking could be possible by doing a rather risky rocker manoeuvre.

In a new paper, a team from the non-profit Initiative for Interstellar Studies said this would be achievable by exploiting the ‘Oberth effect’.

‘As a spacecraft is falling into the gravitational potential well, it fires its rockets, coming out of it with a greater kinetic energy,’ Dr Alfredo Carpineti, an astrophysicist who was not involved in the paper, told Metro.

The sun’s gravity, in other words, would give the 500kg probe a speed boost – a change in velocity of at least 5.1 miles per second.

If successful, this would make the 3I/ATLAS interceptor the fastest spacecraft in human history.

Our interstellar visitor will do a pit-stop at Jupiter in about 20 days, marking the halfway point of its time in our cosmic neighbourhood.

The plan would also be to fly out the interstellar interceptor to the gas giant first to use its gravity to slow it down. (If it beelined to the sun, it would travel so fast that it would end up being burned out.)

Experts propose launching the probe in 2035, as it could reach 3I/ATLAS by 2085, when it would be 68 million miles away.

As elaborate as this sounds, Dr Carpineti says this is ‘the most efficient time to burn fuel’.

To achieve this, though, would involve flying just 140,000 miles from the sun’s centre, meaning the craft would need to endure searing heat.

The researchers suggest the craft could be clad in a carbon-composite and aerogel, one of the lightest materials in the world.

One thing holding the mission back is that even with the Oberth effect, the craft still wouldn’t be fast enough to get close to entering 3I/ATLAS’ orbit.

3I/ATLAS, formerly known as A11pI3Z, is only the third interstellar visitor to be discovered passing through our neck of the cosmic woods.

The first was Oumuamua, which travelled past us in 2017. In 2019, Borisov, a comet of interstellar origin, passed by.

Like Borisov, scientists believe 3I/ATLAS likely formed as a comet around another star before being flung out into the cosmos.

Dr Carpineti adds: ‘The work doesn’t look at the feasibility of the mission but just the manoeuvre.

‘Indeed, it’s possible to use this approach to catch up with the rocket.

‘But since the interstellar object is so much faster than the previous two, it would take decades.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling Zorro Ranch has long been reported to have served as one of his private playgrounds for sexual abuse and trafficking.

From looking to carry out human experiments, create a super-race breeding facility using his DNA, and even allegedly burying the bodies of girls who had been strangled to death during ‘rough, fetish sex’, victims have long said the property in New Mexico has been overlooked by authorities.

The 7,500-acre estate, also referred to as the Playboy Ranch, has come under intense recent scrutiny after it made thousands of appearances in the disturbing Epstein files, released by the US Department of Justice on January 30.

Investigators previously searched Epstein’s New York and Palm Beach homes, his island, and even his Paris apartment. But no formal raid is believed to have ever taken place at Zorro Ranch.

This is despite allegations that the paedophile had planned to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at the ranch and had three computer rooms the ‘size of houses’ where he would spy on his famous guests. 

On multiple occasions beginning in the early 2000s, Epstein allegedly told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use the enormous property as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and give birth to his babies.

It was also alleged that Epstein’s disturbing goal was to have 20 women at a time impregnated at Zorro Ranch. 

He is said to have based his idea on accounts of the Repository for Germinal Choice, which was to be stocked with the sperm of Nobel laureates who wanted to strengthen the human gene pool.

In November last year, witnesses claimed the disgraced financier had used the secluded compound to then physically conduct nonconsensual medical procedures to advance his alleged interest in selective breeding.

‘We have people coming forward saying they were drugged, had sex organs and sperm harvested from their bodies, and woke up around medical equipment not knowing where they were or what happened to them,’ New Mexico state Representative Andrea Romero told the Daily Mail.

Romero is now one of several lawmakers calling for a state ‘truth commission’ to investigate potential sexual and medical abuses on the isolated ranch.

As far-fetched as they may sound, the chilling accounts echo long-circulating claims about Epstein’s obsession with eugenics and his desire to engineer genetically ‘superior’ children.  

Epstein used Zorro Ranch as an isolated getaway and playground for VIP guests who were able to come and go more discreetly than they could even to Little St James, his private Caribbean island off St Thomas.

Civil filings claim that the compound hosted the former Prince Andrew, who was accused by Virginia Giuffre, who produced photographs and written statements showing she visited the compound during the time she was trafficked as a teenager between 2000 and 2002.

‘My job was to entertain him endlessly, whether that meant having to bestow him my body during an erotic massage or simply take him horseback riding,’ Giuffre wrote in an unpublished manuscript called The Billionaire’s Playboy Club, which was contained in unsealed court documents in 2019.

Mountbatten-Windsor has not publicly acknowledged visiting Zorro and has consistently denied Giuffre’s abuse allegations. 

There have been unverified claims by contractors and journalists that Bill Clinton and other prominent figures, including Woody Allen and Noam Chomsky, also spent time on the property.

There is no suggestion that they were aware of the alleged wrongdoing by Epstein 

Maria Farmer, a former employee of Epstein, said she and her younger sister Annie visited Zorro Ranch in 1996 under the guise of an art commission. 

Farmer alleged she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was found guilty of child sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison. 

Annie said she was 15 when flown to the property and directed by Epstein and Maxwell to take off all her clothes and get on a massage table.’

Farmer also claimed that the ranch housed three huge computer rooms, which were ‘bigger than houses’ to spy on Epstein’s elite roster of guests.

‘All of Epstein’s residences had these mechanical rooms and tunnel systems. I know this because Epstein told me,’ Farmer told The Sun in 2021.

‘These rooms were enormous – bigger than houses. I have no idea why anyone needs so many computers in one room.

All of Epstein’s estates had ‘pinhole cameras’ used to record everything, that were invisible to the naked eye unless you were looking right at them, Farmer said. 

In 2021, an Albuquerque radio station host revealed that an architect and former IT contractor who worked on Epstein’s internet communications and security from 1999 to 2007 had called in to tell all on the mysterious property.

The architect had even provided inside photographs of the ranch and revealed other unusual features of Epstein’s estate. 

One such feature, which the architect told the host, Aragon, was something he would never forget – a six-foot naked portrait of Ghislaine Maxwell holding a gold dagger that had been hung in the basement elevator hallway.

The portrait of Maxwell – with her legs reportedly spread – was the first thing that any guests or victims would see on their way down to the basement and pool areas.

This, the radio host said, was designed to intimidate the victims being brought to the ranch for Epstein.

Aragon also said that the plans reveal the ranch had an unusual number of bedrooms – just four – which, for a house over 33,000sq ft in size, seems like a small amount.

‘These plans give us a firmer idea of what was going on at the ranch,’ Aragon said. 

‘All of that in the basement feels more like a dungeon with the nebulous mechanical rooms,’ he added.

The plans showed that Epstein’s master bedroom takes up most of the space on the first floor, while on the same level, there were two relatively tiny en-suite bedrooms and a fourth ‘staff bedroom’ on the first floor.

Every room – from the closets to the bathrooms – appeared to have a ‘vestibule’, which Aragon suggested were holding area for the women before they visited Epstein.

‘The maze of rooms, doors, vestibules, waiting areas, and doors, there’s no doubt were used to maximum effect to trap and contain the victims until they were needed for Epstein’s rituals,’ Aragon said.

‘There appears to be no escape. Can you imagine how that would feel for young teenage girls? They must have felt so hopeless and vulnerable.’

More recently, it has been alleged that Epstein had ordered two ‘foreign girls’ who had been strangled to death during ‘rough, fetish sex’ to be buried near the ranch, according to an email released in the latest Epstein files.

The email, sent by a person claiming to have worked for Epstein, also includes links purporting to show the late paedophile engaging in sex with underage girls.

The correspondence, first sent to a man named Eddy Aragon on November 21, 2019, before being forwarded to the FBI, was released as part of three million documents from the Epstein files.

In the email, titled ‘Confidential: Jeffrey Epstein’, the person, whose name has been redacted, claimed to have ‘been there and seen it all, as a former staff at the Zorro.’

They alleged the girls were buried on the orders of Epstein and ‘Madam G’, believed to be Ghislaine Maxwell, at Zorro Ranch.

In the email, they wrote: ‘Edward. This is sensitive, so it will be the first and last email depending on your discretion.

‘You can choose to take it or trash it, but this comes from a person that has been there and seen it all, as a former staff at the Zorro.

‘The material below was taken from Jeffrey Epstein home as my insurance in case of future litigation against Epstein. SORRY NO QUESTIONS.

They added: ‘What is damning about Jeffrey Epstein is yet to be written. Did you know somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G? Both died by strangulation during rough, fetish sex.’

The sender also included links to videos that claimed to show Epstein having sex with minors, threesomes, and sex with underage girls.

The email was forwarded to the FBI just three months after Epstein died while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. 

A former police officer who patrolled the area around the ranch for 15 years also told the FBI he was worried that evidence was being destroyed on the estate, as seen in a document.

The document, dated July 19, 2019, just days after Epstein’s arrest, was an FBI report log that included details of a call taken from a retired New Mexico State police officer, whose name has been redacted.

The former cop said he noticed the barn had a chimney and a ‘sally port’ – a secure entryway with multiple doors, set up so only one could be opened at a time.

A report of the call reads: ‘The property which is on Zorro Ranch Road, Stanley, NM, his recently had a large barn constructed.

‘The barn is suspicious as there is a garage door that appears to be a sally port, and there is a chimney.

‘[Redacted name] is concerned the property could potentially have an incinerator concealed within the barn.

‘An old 1970s mobile home was recently put right behind the barn, which believes does not follow Santa Fe County regulations.

‘[Redacted name] explained that there is a lot of security for the properties including cameras, sally ports, and other security measures.

‘[Redacted name] explained that the barn that was constructed doesn’t look like a barn you would use for ranching.

‘[Redacted name] wanted to report the information to the FBI because he is concerned evidence could be destroyed here.’

The ex-officer also told the FBI there had been ‘a lot of high-profile people seen frequently’ at the ranch.

According to the report, the retired policeman said he had heard ‘rumours’ about Epstein using the property for ‘recruiting girls to visit’.

The ex-cop’s call to the FBI came just days after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, and weeks before his death on August 10.

New Mexico’s attorney general has now reopened the investigation into Epstein´s former Zorro Ranch.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office said last week that the decision was made after reviewing information recently released by the US Justice Department. 

Although New Mexico´s initial case was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, state prosecutors say now that ‘revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.’

The New Mexico Department of Justice said special agents and prosecutors at the agency will be seeking immediate access to the complete, unredacted federal case file and intend to work with other law enforcement partners, as well as a new truth commission established by state lawmakers to look into activities at the ranch.

‘As with any potential criminal matter, we will follow the facts wherever they lead, carefully evaluate jurisdictional considerations, and take appropriate investigative action, including the collection and preservation of any relevant evidence that remains available,’ the New Mexico Department of Justice said in a statement.   

Documents released as part of the Epstein files also show the paedophile financier intended to leave his Zorro estate to his Belarusian girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak.

Epstein bought Zorro Ranch in 1993 from Bruce King, a former three-time New Mexico governor.

The 13 square miles of high desert include a 26,700-square-foot luxury hacienda, guest lodges and staff dwellings, several outbuildings, a firehouse, horse stables, a seven-bay heated garage, a greenhouse to grow fresh produce, a cattle grazing operation, and a private airstrip, hangar, and helipad.

Epstein owned the property until he died in a New York federal prison. His estate listed it in 2021 for $27.5million. 

That price was later dropped to $18 million, and the ranch was sold for an undisclosed price in 2023 to a limited liability corporation that renamed the property the San Rafael Ranch, but whose owner is shrouded in secrecy.

Two millionaire couples living in an exclusive London suburb are locked in a £260,000 battle over a three-foot bulge in a basement wall.

Safina Haleema and Anthony O’Connor are suing award-winning mental health consultant Amy McKeown and her husband Matthew Dalton over the wonky wall in their £1.5million Primrose Hill home.

The complainants say that the concrete bulge encroaches by 90cm into their property and are asking for some £100,000 in compensation from their baffled neighbours. 

But Ms McKeown and Mr Dalton aren’t budging. They claim that the ‘absurd’ six-year battle has left them unable to sell up – and that their neighbours’ claim is ‘riddled with inconsistencies’. 

The couple’s barrister, Hugh Rowan, argues that an agreement signed in 2016 allowed for a wall in their basement extension which ‘straddled the boundary line’ – but Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema later changed their minds. 

The spat, set against the backdrop of the celebrity-studded north London neighbourhood, has now reached Mayor’s and City County Court having already racked up legal costs totalling £160,000. 

Outlining his clients’ position, Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema’s barrister, Phillip Jones, said: ‘At its heart and despite the complexity which (Mr Dalton and Ms McKeown) have sought to introduce, this is a relatively straightforward case. 

‘Did Mr Dalton and Ms McKeown – through their contractors, in the course of constructing the basement, cause or permit concrete to be poured so as to protrude up to 900mm onto the claimants’ land and into what is now the claimants’ basement?’

He added that the conflict stemmed from basement works carried out a decade ago, which resulted in what was described as ‘overspill’. 

But Mr Dalton and Ms McKeown deny that their wall ‘trespasses’ over the boundary line into their neighbours’ basement and are disputing their bid for a court ruling on the precise location of the boundary line, as well as their claim for £100,000 in compensation. 

‘My clients have been stuck in limbo for the past six years,’ said Ms McKeown and Mr Dalton’s barrister, Hugh Rowan. ‘They can’t sell their house or move away because to do so would reveal the existence of this dispute.’ 

He argued that any compensation award would be unfair ‘double recovery’ for Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema, since they previously received an insurance payout for the concrete overspill in 2023. 

‘Mr Dalton and Ms McKeown have repeatedly pointed out the absurdity of this position; not only did the 2016 award expressly allow for a wall that straddled the boundary line, but the claimants’ own expert accepted that the 2016 award allowed a ‘retaining wall astride the party wall boundary”,’ he continued. 

Barrister Rohan added that Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema are yet to clarify exactly where the ‘overspill’ from the basement wall begins. 

He told Judge Nicholas Parfitt: ‘Over the last half a decade, my clients have repeatedly and exhaustively sought to understand the claimants’ case, however what is now finally clear is that the claimants do not know what their own case is.

‘Their pleadings are riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions, and speculations. Even after five years, Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema have still not advanced a clear case as to either how much overspill is alleged or what the cost of remedy would be.’

Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema say they discovered the subterranean concrete overspill after commissioning their own basement dig in 2020, although they later ditched the project.

Their barrister, Mr Jones, disputed any lack of clarity in his clients’ case and argued that – ‘whatever the extent of the permitted works, the defendants hugely exceeded it and encroached significantly onto the claimants’ land causing damage to the claimants’.

The case reached court for a pre-trial clash between the neighbours as Ms McKeown and Mr Dalton urged Judge Parfitt to ‘strike out’ the allegedly ‘hopeless’ claim on the basis of lack of clarity and inconsistency.

However, after several hours of dense argument, the judge declined to dismiss the case, ruling that he would allow Mr O’Connor and Ms Haleema a final chance to prepare definitive ‘particulars of claim’ mapping out the detail of their legal claim.

The case is set to return to court at a later date.