{"id":777594,"date":"2026-09-21T07:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777594\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T07:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:38:23","slug":"george-mitchell-portrait-will-not-be-removed-from-hillsborough-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777594\/","title":{"rendered":"George Mitchell: Portrait will not be removed from Hillsborough Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to a question from BBC News NI about whether there has been any consideration of the portrait’s place, a Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said the running of the castle is not their responsibility.<\/p>\n

“In March 2017, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) granted Historic Royal Palaces a 25-year lease to manage Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. NIO Ministers have use of the castle, but responsibility for its day-to-day running, including the collections and art on display, rests with Historic Royal Palaces.”<\/p>\n

In 2019, a court document contained claims that Virginia Giuffre had been directed to have sex with a number of high-profile people, including former US Senator George Mitchell.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mitchell has previously said the allegation contained in the released documents is false. “I have never met, spoken with or had any contact with Ms. Giuffre.”<\/p>\n

The latest release of documents indicated a continued relationship between Mitchell and Epstein, following Epstein’s first conviction.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Mitchell’s spokesperson said “he never met, spoken to or had any contact with Giuffre or any underage women”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said Mitchell “profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women”.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that he did not observe, suspect or have any knowledge of Epstein engaging in “illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage women”.<\/p>\n

Epstein, a well-connected financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead by suicide in 2019 while awaiting a trial on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

Trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre took her own life at the age of 41.<\/a><\/p>\n

Being named or pictured in the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing. Many of those identified in other releases have denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In response to a question from BBC News NI about whether there has been any consideration of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}