Andrew, Britain’s Least Loved Royal, Faces Police Probe Over Epstein Jaunt to Queen Elizabeth’s Favorite Castle

The announcement by Scottish police of an investigation into a visit to the royal Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands undertaken by the prodigal prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, underscores the unabating scandal trailing King Charles III’s younger brother.Police Scotland declared in a statement that law enforcement had “received information and active inquiries are ongoing, but these are at a very early stage.” The police added that “the needs of victim survivors” were “at the heart of those enquiries.” They insisted that “we would never confirm details of ongoing inquiries and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”Balmoral dates to the reign of the 14th-century Scottish king Robert II, who had a hunting lodge in the area.In February, Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested — and his residences were searched — on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Those allegations stemmed from the royal’s decade as the United Kingdom’s special representative for international trade and investment. Police are investigating whether he shared state secrets with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations of sex trafficking.Maxwell was convicted and sentenced in 2022 to 20 years behind bars. During her trial, photographs were entered into evidence showing Maxwell and Epstein lounging on the front porch of a log cabin. The BBC determined that the photographs were taken at Balmoral. The estate, which stretches across some 50,000 acres in the Scottish Highlands, was a favorite summer redoubt of Queen Elizabeth II. So beloved was it by the longest-reigning monarch in British history that she died there in 2022.Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied criminal wrongdoing and has not been charged. He scored a victory when he challenged the legal basis for his arrest, after being taken into custody on his 66th birthday and questioned for 12 hours. Earlier this month, Judge Nicholas Hilliard ruled that a “significant error was made in the application for and the granting of the search warrants.” Judge Hilliard acknowledged, though, that the “fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end.”Thames Valley Police insists that its investigation continues. After Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, his brother declared in a statement: “I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair, and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”Last year, King Charles — using a formal document called Letters Patent — stripped his brother of his princely title and his ability to use the “HRH” honorific. The king also withdrew Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor’s title as the Duke of York and his membership in the Order of the Garter. Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was evicted from the Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he had lived for more than 20 years. The Crown relocated him to a more remote residence at Sandringham.Three years earlier, Elizabeth had taken away her younger son’s honorary military titles and royal patronages. Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, though, remains in the royal line of succession — he is eighth in line to the throne. Removing him from that position is beyond the power of even the king; it would have to be effectuated by an act of Parliament.The British public appears to have delivered its own verdict on Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, who once was feted as a royal heartthrob and a hero of the Falklands War. A YouGov poll of the royals found that the one-time spare to the throne is viewed positively by only 4 percent of Britons, the lowest mark of any member of the House of Windsor. Eighty-nine percent of respondents view him negatively.The most popular royal is Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor’s nephew, William, Prince of Wales. Seventy-four percent of his future subjects view him positively.

Andrew, Britain’s Least Loved Royal, Faces Police Probe Over Epstein Jaunt to Queen Elizabeth’s Favorite Castle

Andrew, Britain’s Least Loved Royal, Faces Police Probe Over Epstein Jaunt to Queen Elizabeth’s Favorite Castle

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