The King is braced for Palace staff and former aides to be questioned amid reports that the police might widen their investigation into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to include potential corruption offences. Charles III has pledged full cooperation, amid expectations that aides, protection officers and long-standing advisers could be asked to account for what they knew.
Scotland Yard has already urged royal protection officers and former bodyguards to come forward with details of what they witnessed while on duty, in relation to both the sex trafficking and misconduct allegations. Senior figures close to Andrew, including former private secretary Amanda Thirsk, are also expected to face scrutiny.
Inside the Palace there is growing recognition that the inquiry could extend beyond Andrew’s immediate circle, raising the prospect of wider questioning of royal advisers and a deeper examination of institutional knowledge. The possible expansion of the case into corruption, alongside existing lines of inquiry, presents a mounting legal, constitutional and reputational challenge for the monarchy.
Critics of the royals have demanded to know what the King, his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, and others knew about Andrew’s business links to the late convicted paedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein and others.
But the palace intends to say no more publicly at this stage, according to insiders, beyond its statement last month expressing the monarch’s profound concern and the promise: “While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.”
Charles ‘walking a tightrope’
Insiders point out that Charles, who long wanted tougher action taken against his brother, is walking a constitutional tightrope, as prosecutions are in his name. As the ultimate source of judicial authority, he cannot be seen to be prejudicing any case.
Royal sources, reflecting on the collapse of the 2002 theft case against the palace butler Paul Burrell when Queen Elizabeth revealed he had told her he was holding Princess Diana’s possessions for safekeeping, have stressed that he and the palace cannot say more publicly while legal proceedings are active.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February (Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters)But at the same time, the King and his advisors have to do what they can to prevent the drip-drip of revelations causing lasting reputational damage to the monarchy.
Charles and his heir Prince William are said to be in “lockstep” over their response to the crisis despite sources regularly pointing out that William has previously called for tougher action against his uncle.
The strategy is essentially to try to keep calm and carry on with official engagements. But nobody is pretending it will be easy.
“This is just going to go and on,” the royal commentator Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said. “It will drag the King along with him. How much did he know and what could he have done about it? I think there will be details we’ll never know.”
The late Queen’s reign ‘tarnished’
Andrew Lownie, the author whose book on Mountbatten-Windsor and his branch of the family ignited much controversy, has argued that Charles must have been consulted widely about the former Duke of York’s activities, not least because he claimed the late Queen was not up to dealing with the problem in the last stages of her reign.
Critics of the royals have demanded to know what the King, his late mother, and others knew about Andrew’s business links to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty)However, Palace aides insisted throughout the last years of her reign that Queen Elizabeth II continued to make the big decisions.
Little fears the fallout from Andrew and the Epstein scandal risks damaging the late Queen’s legacy. “It is already slightly tarnished by it,” he said.
Lownie believes the claims over the last years of Elizabeth’s reign leave questions for the King.
“He would have been consulted,” he said.
“Even in the last year of her life, there were plenty of occasions when they could have been far more ruthless with Andrew.”
Lownie, however, welcomed the suggestion in a report by The Times that Thames Valley Police officers were likely to widen the investigation to look at corruption offences. “It suggests they are at least taking it seriously,” he said.
Thames Valley Police said it is aware of “ongoing speculation” about potential further offences following the arrest of a man in his sixties from Norfolk on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
The force added it is keeping an open mind, but the investigation remains focused on the misconduct in public office allegation.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment citing the need to refrain from prejudicing an ongoing investigation.Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor denies all wrongdoing.
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