Ha ha. It’s always Prince Philip!
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It’s v. strange to me that all these under age complainants were allowed to fly internationally without presumably their parents consent, something which is fairly standard. Also their parents didn’t wonder what their teenagers were doing travelling with an older man. Call me old fashioned but my father would read the riot act if I was a minute late getting home from a party right up until I left home at 18 !
I think unfortunately chaotic home lives often leave teens vulnerable to advances from sex predators.
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I suspect the parents , if they did question it at all ,received a nice little bung
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Yes, as with Michael Jackson.
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Today, in a commercial jet, you would be 100% correct - it’s getting very difficult to fly with kids if you do not share their surname (unless obviously a school group for instance).
15 years ago in a private jet…?
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I have a friend who’s husband has travelled by private jet for at least 15 years, customs always come out to the plane so technically they should be checking just as they would on a commercial flight.
Perhaps money and a blind eye were involved, something to investigate.
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In my experience, customs rarely respond to internal domestic flights (such as it would be inter-state for example) unless there is intelligence based information to the contrary but for international fights there are requirements to notify customs authorities in advance of the flight giving a significant amount of detail.
Apparently she flew to Paris and London and Epstein also had his own little island, not sure what rules apply on your own island.
Norman a quick question. Do you sit and think of things to post deliberately to wind people up?
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Norman, I’m intrigued as to why you think it’s necessary to continually post inflammatory remarks.
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To be fair Tim we are giving him what he wants by reacting, but sometimes you can’t help yourself
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So how far back do we have to go for you to think a child is innocent? Epstein was apparently grooming 14 year olds. Is that young enough for you?
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It’s not just the age but the fact that it was exploitative. While I think it too young there are places in the world where the age of consent is 14 or less (including, effectively, France until recently).
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It’s not so much the question, Norman, more the nudge-nudge wink-wink tone and provocative way it was framed, and particularly directed as a challenge to Mandy:
“I’m intrigued by the idea of innocent 16-year olds. Even in my yoof they weren’t exactly thick on the ground. Vulnerable or amenable?” (@Norman_Clark)
Many girls are sexually active at 16 and earlier. Some may feel inhibited by imposed norms, other overcome the reluctance that has been engineered by others, no doubt for reasons that they will justify to themselves.
My brother’s 15 year old sweetheart conceived a child by him when he was 17. There was family uproar fomented by our mother, who disapproved and reported him to the local police for having carnal knowledge of a minor. He was sympathetically cautioned by an officer.
My mother lived to regret her intemperance, if not to express remorse, and she was never forgiven. My sister in law always called her Mrs Goble with cold contempt thereafter.
The couple married soon after and the child born to them is now a father and grandfather in his own right! My brother, now a widower, is 78.
Social conventions change with changing times and, increasingly, global trends to ethnic and cultural miscegenation. But such questions are worth asking a d views shared. It’a all a matter of tone, and as I’ve learned from others on SF, a bit of reflective introspection… 
Edit. Sorry @Pat1, my reply was meant for Norman, not for you. My mistake 
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I think when using the word grooming exploitative is probably a given, but yes I know what you mean as in some U.S. states 13 year olds are legally married.
That is a nice story, Peter, but the age of consent in the UK has been sixteen for more than century. Why did your brother have to be cautioned by the police?
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Thanks for the correction @Tom.
I think I got her age wrong then: she must have been 15, because she was ‘under age’
And the cautioning did happen, it scandalised everyone who learned of it.
My brother left home immediately afterwards and was take in by his sweetheart’s mother. They lived round the corner from us. He never returned home to stay. His visits to our mother were few and brief, and he seldom sat down in her presence during her lifetime.
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It’s pretty simple - if she was 15 and had intercourse with a 17 year old then it was statutory rape.
These day I don’t think that the police or CPS exercise any discretion - the lad would find himself in court on a rape charge, and would be extraordinarily lucky not to get a custodial sentence, he’d also be placed on the sex offenders register.
I presume that your brother is a similar age to you, Peter so this took place in the 1940’s?
I think attitudes were different back then, but not the law.
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So every 16 year-old is a potential prostitute? It just depends on ‘a little cash’? that is a truly dismal and reductive vision of the world.
Grotesquely inappropriate, Norman, I am appalled.
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