UK anti-monarchy group makes new report to police about Prince Andrew
A UK anti-monarchy group on Thursday said it had made a complaint to police in London about Prince Andrew, after the release of US court documents detailing people linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
“We’ve just reported Andrew to the police,” Republic, which wants an elected British head of state, said in a statement.
A New York judge on Wednesday began to unseal the identities of those linked in the documents to the disgraced US financier Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while waiting trial for sex crimes.
In them, Andrew, who is formally known as the Duke of York, is accused of groping a woman, which he denies.
Andrew withdrew from frontline royal duties in late 2019 after public outrage at a BBC television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.
The former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, 63, in February 2022 settled a US civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Andrew’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of his honorary military titles and patronages soon afterwards, effectively shutting him out of royal life.
He has consistently denied sexual assault and even meeting Giuffre.
The Metropolitan Police announced in October 2021 that it had closed its review into Giuffre’s claims in the US civil action, stating that it would take “no further action”.
The London force said it had also looked into a report by Channel 4 News that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked, groomed and abused women and girls in the UK.
Giuffre alleged that Andrew abused her at the London home of Maxwell, Epstein’s former mistress who was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison.
Republic chief executive Graham Smith said he wants the case reopened, MPs to debate the matter in parliament, and Andrew’s elder brother King Charles III to respond publicly to the claims.
AFP contacted the Met but there was no immediate response.
Despite his low profile, Andrew was seen in public on Christmas Day attending a church service with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, and members of the royal family in Sandringham, eastern England.
