Buoyed by his recent victory over Thames Valley Police, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had been hoping that the humiliation and heartache of the past 12 months were over. He was sure that the current police investigations against him would be kicked into the long grass, especially after the search warrants used to search his homes at the time of his arrest in February were unlawful.
But now Police Scotland has confirmed to the Express there are ‘ongoing active inquiries’ into the time his friends Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell spent at Balmoral hosted by Andrew. They are understood to be looking at claims women were ‘trafficked’ to Balmoral Castle by Epstein.
Andrew vehemently denies any wrongdoing against all of the allegations against him and after spending months in exile on the Sandringham Estate he had finally started to think there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Instead of shutting himself away in his far more modest abode, with only his video games and TV for company, he started socialising again; joining friends on shooting weekends and dinner parties.
Allies, who have long decried the brutal way Andrew has been treated despite not being found guilty of any crime, were optimistic that they were starting to get the “old Andy back”.
One said: “What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
The arrest on his 66th birthday was viewed as a calculated plot to impose maximum humiliation.
Now the fresh blow that police are looking into what happened at Balmoral when he hosted his friends there. In the court of public opinion, the King’s brother is already guilty. He is guilty of misjudgement, a misguided choice in friendships and being arrogant enough to think he was untouchable.