UK police to investigate Prince Andrew’s allegations

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Published on: 08/12/2021 – 11:52 Modified: 08/12/2021 – 11:50

London (AFP)

Britain’s top police officer said on Thursday that detectives would re-examine the allegations against Prince Andrew over the US civil lawsuit against him for alleged sexual abuse.

Cressida Dick, chief of the London Metropolitan Police, said the force would investigate the allegations, having previously chosen not to open an investigation.

Virginia Giuffre filed a complaint in New York on Monday, alleging that the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein regularly mistreated her and loaned her to “powerful men” for sex.

She alleged that the Duke of York sexually assaulted her at the London home of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell’s partner when she was under 18 more than 20 years ago.

Dick told LBC Radio: “Because of what is going on, I have asked my team to review the material. No one is above the law.

“We will of course reconsider our position.”

Andrew – Queen Elizabeth II’s second son – has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit, but has already firmly denied ever having sex with Giuffre or even meeting her.

Dick explained that the police decided not to open an investigation into the allegations involving Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019.

“We have had more than one allegation related to Mr. Epstein and we have reviewed, assessed them and we have not opened an investigation.

“I have no doubts that this was – and it has been reviewed twice – the right decision,” she added.

The British police were “of course open to working with the overseas authorities, we will give them all our help if they ask us for anything,” she added.

Long-standing allegations threaten to harm Britain’s Royal Family, the country’s most famous institution headed by the Queen, who is now 95 years old.

On Thursday, The Times quoted an anonymous source close to Andrew’s brother, Prince Charles, as saying the heir to the throne considered it impossible for Andrew to return to public life because the accusation “looks up. with hideous regularity ”.

Andrew, 61, a divorced father of two and a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot who fought in the Falklands War in 1982, was forced to step down from his frontline royal duties in late 2019 after defending his friendship with Epstein on television.

The prince visited the Queen’s residence in Balmoral, north-east Scotland, this week shortly after the US application was filed, accompanied by his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

AFP 2021

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