Prince Andrew's friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been widely criticised

The former cop who MI6 fears has leaked damning secrets about Prince Andrew's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein to the Russians has broken his silence to say he has hours of footage taken from the billionaire paedophile's Florida mansion.

John Mark Dougan, a former US deputy police chief, had access to the investigation into the billionaire paedophile before he fled the FBI and is now living in Moscow.

And asked by MailOnline about what information he has, Dougan said: 'Do I have dirt on Prince Andrew? I have lots of things.

'But I'm not a Kremlin agent and I did not share any materials with the Russian Government. I don't intend to blackmail anyone with my information. It's against my principles.'

In a statement, Dougan said the Epstein files are encrypted. The codes to open them are held by friends all over the world 'as an insurance policy'.

A system has been put in place to open the files only if he dies or goes missing for a significant period.

'The Epstein files will stay secure and unreadable to everyone, he said. 'I do not have a physical copy in my immediate possession, because of security reasons.

The Duke of York was pictured with Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2001 at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of helping Epstein to procure underage girls for sex. Guiffre claims she had sex with Prince Andrew in the bathroom when she was 17, a claim he denies

Prince Andrew was pictured inside Epstein's £63m mansion in New York on December 6 2010 after the shamed financier was released from prison for trafficking young girls for sex

Details of the friendship between Epstein (right) and Andrew (left) are reportedly held in secret files by John Mark Dougan, a former US deputy police chief, who had access to the probe

'This is to make sure my family and friends remain safe. I have made arrangements that it can only be decrypted in the event of my arrest, if I go missing for an extended time, or in case of my unusual or untimely demise.

'I have a system in place to connect people with the encrypted containers to those who have the decryption keys.

'I have made elaborate security precautions because of ongoing legal issues, threats, and harassment.'

Ex-Florida cop Dougan has been in Moscow since 2016 when he sought asylum to avoid arrest in the US for alleged computer hacking

Dougan, who said he has received death threats since fleeing the US, added that he had no intention of ever revealing the contents stored on encrypted drives.

'I am not going to reveal them and I am not going to blackmail anyone. If I give them up then I lose all my leverage and I do not want that to happen.

'The files are safe and the people who hold them have no idea what is on them.'

The former Florida cop has been in Moscow since 2016 when he sought asylum to avoid arrest in the US for alleged computer hacking.

Dougan maintains he acted as a whistleblower to expose corruption and racism in the Florida police force.

Although he did not work on the original Epstein investigation, he says copies of all the original files were secretly given to him by former Palm Beach County detective Joe Recarey who led the inquiry.

He said: 'I was acting as Joe Recarey's computer 'safety deposit box.' It also means that the FBI has the same exact data that I possess and are in a position to know everyone who is implicated in the videos, recordings, and documents.

'The FBI has seen everything and has more knowledge of the contents than I do because it was not my business to look deep into the files.'

A security source said last week there were concerns at MI6 about how much Dougan knows of the original police investigation into the multimillionaire paedophile's activities and what Dougan may have passed on to Russian authorities.

Dougan is known to have had contact with Pavel Borodin, a senior Russian government official sometimes referred to as a mentor to President Vladimir Putin.

Dougan was working in Palm Beach in 2005 when a woman walked into a local police station and claimed that Epstein had paid her 14-year-old stepdaughter $300 to strip to her underwear and perform an 'erotic massage'.

Dougan had access to the investigation into the billionaire paedophile before he fled the FBI and is now living in Moscow. British intelligence chiefs are concerned that he has leaked secrets about the duke to the Kremlin, a claim Dougan denied today to MailOnline

After the Epstein case was reopened in July this year, Dougan claimed on Facebook that he had spoken extensively about it to the investigating officers and still possessed confidential documents that no one else had seen.

Dougan, a former US marine, later fell out with his bosses, resigned in 2009 and ended up in Moscow. He made his Facebook posts from Russia.

His intervention alarmed intelligence officials, who appear to have been tracking his activities since he was photographed with Borodin in 2013.

A western intelligence source said Dougan exhibited a number of 'classic traits' that made him suitable for recruitment by a 'hostile intelligence service'. The source added: 'His knowledge of the Epstein case would have been of great interest to Russian intelligence.'

Epstein, 66, killed himself in prison on August 10 as he faced more child sex charges

Prince Andrew has long been criticised for his friendship with Epstein, a convicted paedophile who was jailed for soliciting underage prostitutes in 2008.

Epstein, 66, killed himself last month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges of underage girls.

After his death, the shamed financier's victims told how they were groomed for sex by him and were abused by him while in their teens.

One of the girls trafficked by Epstein was Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed she was flown to London and had sex with Andrew when she was 17.

In a TV interview broadast in the US last week Giuffre, now 35 and a mother-of-three, said she was given vodka before having sex with the duke in a bathroom where he 'licked' her toes and feet.

Andrew has repeatedly denied having sex with Giuffre.

Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on the latest claims having earlier issued denials about Andrew's involvement with Giuffre.