NORMAN BAKER: Will the Met give Andrew a free ride (again) or will they do their job and investigate?
King Charles is right to cast his brother Andrew into outer darkness, but unlike a politician, he cannot be fired from his constitutional role as royal prince and remain eighth in line to the throne.
The oath taken by MPs at the time of election is addressed ‘to the King, his heirs and successors’; This includes Andrew, the poisonous barnacle on the ship of state.
No doubt the beleaguered prince, in his arrogant and arrogant sense of entitlement, cheerfully assumed that his scandalous secrets would never be revealed.
But now that they are, the public has a right to know whether such a senior royal has committed any unlawful acts.
His condition is potentially very serious. The revelation that Andrew allegedly tried to save his own life by slandering Virginia Giuffre, whom he knew as a person traumatized by Jeffrey Epstein’s exploitation of her as a sex slave, is despicable and sickening.
Trying to persuade the Met Police protection officer to do spade work for him amounted to pressuring the officer to act corruptly, and Andrew may well have committed an offense under data protection legislation by passing on Giuffre’s social security number.
What will the Met do with these revelations? A spokesman said: ‘We are aware of media reports and are actively investigating the allegations made.’
But given their track record, I’m not holding my breath that there will be anything close to a comprehensive review.
For the police, this has long been the only rule for the royal family and everyone else.
Norman Baker writes that the beleaguered prince, with his arrogant and smug sense of entitlement, cheerfully assumed that his scandalous secrets would never be revealed.
The Mail on Sunday revealed Andrew asked the taxpayer-funded police protection officer to investigate teenage sex offender Virginia Giuffre. Pictured: Ms. Giuffre, 2011
Ms Giuffre claimed to police in 2015 that she had been trafficked for sex with Andrew when she was just 17 years old. Following the #MeToo campaign, the Met Police’s policy at the time was that ‘victims should be believed’. But they failed to take meaningful action to test the claim and closed the case in November 2016.
Three years later, after Epstein’s death in prison, they were asked to investigate again and once again ignored the whole thing.
They argued that authorities in other jurisdictions should take the matter forward, despite the alleged sex trafficking of minors on British soil, as most of the alleged crimes occurred outside Britain.
In 2021 and 2024, the Met re-examined the case following the publication of relevant documents in the US. However, no action was taken again.
The truth is that the police are known to take a very light approach when it comes to royals.
Just ask Charles’ former right-hand man Michael Fawcett. No charges were laid after a wealthy Saudi national offered to help the then-Prince of Wales gain citizenship and honors in exchange for donations to charity.
From the late Prince Philip being caught not wearing his seatbelt after causing a road accident to Andrew giving the wrong address at Companies House, our globally respected police force has given the royal family a free ride.
What a contrast to other European countries where monarchies are not considered above the law. In Norway, the son of the country’s Crown Princess was charged with 32 crimes, including rape, in August.
This ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ attitude of the Met needs to end. First, they need to take the statement of the police officer Andrew asked to frame Ms. Giuffre.
They must then reopen the investigation into her allegations, including a formal interview with the prince. In the process, they may unravel the mystery of his alibi: whether he was really at the Pizza Express in Woking on that fateful night in 2001.
The person who knew this was, of course, the security guard at that time. But if Andrew’s police bodyguard complied with Ms Giuffre’s disgraceful request to reveal his past – and it must be stressed that there is no evidence he did so – how could any of the prince’s Met-provided officers be believed?
Norman Baker’s new book about the Windsor family’s finances, Royal Mint National Debt, will be published next month.
