Detectives quiz elite former royal protection officer who Andrew asked to dig up dirt on Virginia Giuffre

A retired royal protection officer at the center of the Prince Andrew libel scandal has been interviewed by the Metropolitan Police, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Two detectives visited the former Met guard at his home in the South East of England on Tuesday morning.

It comes two days after this newspaper exclusively revealed how Andrew had implicated the Met and one of Queen Elizabeth’s most senior aides in a smear campaign against the teenager accusing him of sexting.

An explosive email released by the MoS last weekend revealed Andrew asked the taxpayer-funded personal protection officer to investigate Virginia Giuffre and gave him her date of birth and secret US social security number.

In an extraordinary message to Queen Elizabeth’s deputy press secretary, Ed Perkins, on 26 February 2011, Andrew wrote: ‘Apparently he has a criminal record in America too. I gave him DoB [date of birth] Social security number and social security number for review with on-duty police officer XXX [personal protection officer].’

Last weekend, after the MoS issued its statements, the Met Police said it was ‘actively’ investigating the matter, raising the possibility that Andrew could be the first royal caught up in a criminal investigation in more than 20 years.

This newspaper has confirmed the identity of the retired security officer who received Prince Andrew’s email but is not naming him to ensure his safety. The father-of-one is a military officer with an exemplary record who was honored by Queen Elizabeth ‘for services to the protection of royal rights’.

The information, which emerged last week, is being investigated by officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command.

This newspaper has confirmed the identity of the retired security guard who received the email from Andrew (pictured) but is not naming him to ensure his safety.

The Met Police said it was ‘actively’ investigating the matter after the Mail on Sunday newspaper published his statements, raising the possibility that Andrew could be the first royal caught up in a criminal investigation in more than 20 years (Stock Image)

At around 11am on Tuesday, two detectives, a man and a woman, visited the retired conservation officer at his £1 million three-bedroom home in a suburban town in the Home Counties. They interrogated the man, who is married and in his mid-60s, for about 45 minutes before getting into separate cars.

The MoS understands the officer is one of the Met’s most experienced bodyguards and has devoted much of his career to royal affairs. He was part of the Met’s elite SO14 Royal Protection Group; At the time, there were thought to be around 400 officers guarding around 20 members of the Royal Family and their homes.

He was one of Prince Charles’ bodyguards in the months after his divorce from Princess Diana in 1996, later working for Prince Andrew.

Paul Page, who worked as a protection police officer for the Royal Family from 1998 to 2004, said he believed the officer would inform his superiors of Andrew’s request.

‘This officer would 100 percent guide him up the chain. This would be through his line managers. I think he would take this to a chief who supervises the department officers.’

The MoS last week tracked down a former chief of the royal protection unit but he only said: ‘I am subject to any confidentiality agreements and it is not in my nature to speak to the media about my policing work.’

But the MoS found that the officer who received Andrew’s email was part of a team that protected the prince during a night out with Epstein’s personal banker Jes Staley at Harry’s Bar, a private members’ club in Mayfair, in June 2010.

Details of that night emerged in court documents this year as part of a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority against Mr Staley, the former Barclays Bank boss who is now barred from senior financial jobs in the UK over his links to Epstein.

Emails show that Epstein, who had recently been released from a US prison, emailed Andrew on June 15, 2010, asking: ‘It would be fun if you could find time to show Jes around.’

The prince said he had seen Mr Staley in Harry’s Bar and was ‘going to have dinner with Jes tomorrow night’.

The police officer also accompanied Andrew to Buckingham Palace for a family Christmas dinner.

The Met said this evening that it would not be making ‘any ongoing comment’ about its investigations, repeating a statement it made last week and saying it was ‘actively looking into the allegations made’.