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Jeffrey Epstein helped the billionaire father of a fugitive killer get legal advice from Tony Blair's former Director of Public Prosecutions, the Daily Mail can reveal today.
The paedophile financier said he spoke to Lord Ken Macdonald who charged Shaher Abdulhak more than £20,000 to meet in Paris after his son Farouk fled the UK having allegedly raped and murdered Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen.
The barrister, a co-founder of Cherie Blair's Matrix chambers, was DPP and head of the Crown Prosecution Service when Martine was found strangled in a London apartment in March 2008.
Four years later, after he left the role and was succeeded by Keir Starmer, he was advising Shaher Abdulhak, a billionaire known as the 'King of Sugar' in Yemen, about his son's case, the Epstein Files show.
'He held the position of head of prosecutions, the exact same position that he would be dealing with', Epstein told Shaher in an email released by the US Department of Justice.
Lord Macdonald is a serving member of the House of Lords and a Deputy High Court Judge. He says there was nothing improper about his involvement in the case.
He did not deny speaking to Epstein but told the Mail he has 'no recollection' of the call in 2012 and would have been 'completely unaware of his reputation'.
23-year-old Martine Vik Magnussen was raped, strangled and dumped under rubble in the basement of a Great Portland Street flat after a night out in Mayfair to celebrate coming top of her class in her exams.
Her suspected killer Farouk Abdulhak fled the UK on a flight to Cairo and then jumped on his father's private yet to Yemen, which has no extradition treaty with the UK.
He has ignored years of campaigning from Martine's bereft family for him to return to Britain to face trial. The murder suspect insists her death was a 'sex accident' and taunted Martine's family recently by saying he won't return to Britain because he 'doesn't like the weather'.
Farouk Abdulhak with Martine Vik Magnussen on the night she died in 2008 as she celebrated her exam results. She was found raped and strangled and he fled the UK for Yemen
Abdulhak is the son of one of Yemen's wealthiest men, Shaher Adbulhak, pictured, known as the 'King of Sugar'. Emails released by the DoJ this week appear to show he was in contact with Jeffrey Epstein about his son's case
![Epstein wrote: 'He [Lord Macdonald, pictured] held the position of head of prosecutions, the exact same position that he would be dealing with'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2026/02/06/16/106170747-15535379-image-m-17_1770395820502.jpg)
Jeffrey Epstein said in a 2012 email that he had spoken to Lord Ken Macdonald, who served as Director of Public Prosecution between 2003 and 2008. Epstein wrote: 'He [Lord Macdonald] held the position of head of prosecutions, the exact same position that he would be dealing with'
Today the Daily Mail reveals how four years after Martine's murder, when Lord Macdonald had left the CPS, Jeffrey Epstein emailed Shaher Abdulhak to recommend him.
The sex offender claimed he had spoken to Lord Macdonald about Farouk's case, emails in the so-called Epstein Files show, and Epstein indicated he had a chance of avoiding prison.
Describing his purported conversation with the leading barrister to Shaher, Epstein wrote: 'I talked to him. He said rough sex cases, not unusual, autopsy would be a factor but not a big one. Drugs are not a defence, he thought he would get bail... reduced charge'.
He went on to suggest that Lord Macdonald's job in the Blair government as DPP from 2003 in 2008 could help.
He added: 'Norway has been putting pressure on the govt. I think you should focus on what punishment would be acceptable. Time spent? Maybe a form of house arrest? Work, charity. The high profile nature is the problem. The press will highlight any issues'.
Shaher responded that Macdonald's CV 'seems well positioned' to help his family with a 'tangled web of issues'.
He added: 'I think you're right, something like house arrest, plus charity work, due to his age. The cause maybe was rough sex, too much alcohol and maybe drugs'.
Epstein's email to Yemen billionaire Shaher Abdulhak, whose son Farouk fled the UK accused of killing Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen
Lord Macdonald, director of public prosecutions from 2003 to 2008 under Tony Blair, confirmed he spoke to Epstein in this email but today claimed he had no memory of it and did not know about Epstein's criminal past
Further documents show how the barrister charged £20,000 plus VAT and expenses to meet the billionaire in Paris in 2012, four years after he left the CPS
Further emails released by the US Justice Department reveal that Lord Macdonald went to meet Shaher Abdulhak in Paris.
The barrister, described as a lawyer who 'has seen and done it all and is held in the highest esteem', charged Abdulhak £20,000 plus VAT, plus first class travel and a hotel for the night in the French capital.
Macdonald wrote: 'Jeffery [sic] and I have spoken, and now I've spoken to the other party. We hope to meet in Paris later this month'.
The barrister later agreed to travel to Yemen - but emails do not reveal how much he charged the Abdulhak family.
Lord Macdonald today claimed he had 'no recollection' of a phone call with Epstein, despite his own email saying they spoke.
He also denied Epstein's claims that he advised that Farouk Abdulhak could get bail should he return to the UK.
In a lengthy statement he said: 'I am afraid I have no recollection of the single telephone call I seem to have received from Jeffrey Epstein, and I had no dealings with him prior to it and none afterwards. He was never my client, and I have never met him'.
He said that in 2012 he was was a barrister in private practice and 'taking a call of this sort would have been an entirely normal part of my professional practice.
'Since I have no recollection of the call, I can only assume I made no connection between him and any publicity at that time. However, as a criminal barrister, it is true to say that I regularly spoke with people who had criminal records and it was perfectly normal and ethical for me to do so. It was a regular and conventional part of my professional life', he said.
He went on: 'Following my call with Epstein, and at Mr Abdulhak's request, I travelled to Paris to see Mr Abdulhak. As I have said, Epstein was not present, then or at any time thereafter, and he had no continuing involvement in the case.
'For the avoidance of doubt, all my fees were paid by Mr Abdulhak and I neither expected, nor received, anything from Epstein'.
Lord Macdonald claims he then travelled to Yemen to persuade Farouk Abdulhak to the UK to 'face justice for his rape and murder of Martine Vik Magnussen'.
But he failed, he said.
Abdulhak fled the UK for Egypt and then on his father's private jet to Yemen within hours of Ms Vik Magnussen's murder. He remains there and is wanted by police
CCTV footage issued by the Met Police shows Ms Vik Magnussen leaving the Maddox nightclub with Abdulhak hours before she was killed
Martine's body was found buried under rubble the morning after partying with Abdulhak, who had already left the UK
'During the course of our meeting in Paris, Mr Abdulhak was clear that his son had committed these crimes and told me he very much wanted him to return from Yemen. It was also clear to me that his son was guilty of the offences and that it would be in the interests of justice for him to return to London to face trial as soon as possible', he said.
'We have no extradition treaty with Yemen, and the local authorities were obviously not cooperating. In addition, Ms Vik Magnussen's family very much wanted him to return to London to face trial for his rape and murder of their daughter, and they had been campaigning for this for many years. It was for these reasons that I agreed to travel to Yemen, despite the obvious risks that such a journey entailed at a time of very elevated extremism and instability in that country'.
He added that he had discussed his visit to Yemen with Met police officers investigating Martine's murder.
'Unfortunately, I failed to persuade him and so my visit to Yemen was unsuccessful', Lord Macdonald said.
He added: 'There was nothing improper in any way in my involvement in this case, whose sole purpose was to try to secure the return of a dangerous fugitive from Yemen to London. Epstein had no involvement at all beyond the single phone call I have described'.
He said he did not remember dealing with Martine Vik Magnussen's case in 2008, which happened around five months before he left the role of Director of Public Prosecutions.
'I’m afraid I cannot recall. It certainly became notorious, obviously. And there was a long term desire in the part of authorities to get him back', he told the Mail.
'I consider it vanishingly unlikely that a case in this category would have come across my desk. That would have been very unusual indeed.'