Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been pictured leaving a police station following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
The former British prince, who became the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested, is accused of sharing sensitive information with Epstein while serving as the UK\u2019s trade envoy.<\/p>\n
Mountbatten-Windsor was pictured slouched in the back of a vehicle on Thursday evening as he left Aylsham police station in Norfolk.<\/p>\n
His brother, British king Charles III, said earlier that \u201cthe law must take its course\u201d after expressing his \u201cdeepest concern\u201d over the arrest, which came after millions of files were released by the US Department of Justice in relation to the Epstein scandal.<\/p>\n
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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been released under investigation following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
The former British prince, who became the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested, is accused of sharing sensitive information with Epstein while serving as the UK\u2019s trade envoy.<\/p>\n
Andrew was pictured slouched in the back of a vehicle on Thursday evening as he left Aylsham police station in Norfolk.<\/p>\n
His brother, British king Charles III, said earlier that \u201cthe law must take its course\u201d after expressing his \u201cdeepest concern\u201d over the arrest, which came after millions of files were released by the US Department of Justice in relation to the Epstein scandal.<\/p>\n
Thames Valley Police said he was released under investigation and searches at a property in Norfolk, Mountbatten-Windsor’s home on the Sandringham Estate, had concluded.<\/p>\n
Searches at his former address, the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, are ongoing.<\/p>\n
Mountbatten-Windsor, who is eighth in line to the throne, was detained on his 66th birthday following allegations that he shared reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore with disgraced financier Epstein.<\/p>\n
One email from the files, dated November 2010, appeared to be forwarded by Mountbatten-Windsor five minutes after being sent by his then-special adviser Amir Patel.<\/p>\n
Another, on Christmas Eve 2010, appeared to show Mountbatten-Windsor send Epstein a confidential brief on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand province, Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
He has denied any wrongdoing over his Epstein links, but has not directly responded to the latest allegations.<\/p>\n
After serving for 22 years in the Royal Navy, he became the UK\u2019s special representative for international trade and investment in 2001.<\/p>\n
He stepped down in 2011 amid the furore over his friendship with paedophile Epstein.<\/p>\n
The British Home Secretary was alerted to the arrest shortly before Andrew was taken into custody, it is understood.<\/p>\n
It is also understood neither the British King nor Buckingham Palace was informed before the arrest.<\/p>\n
The Prince and Princess of Wales are understood to support the British King\u2019s statement, which read: \u201cAs I have said before, they (the police) have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me state clearly: the law must take its course.\u201d<\/p>\n
British king Charles III\u00a0carried on with his duties as monarch after Andrew\u2019s arrest with planned ambassadorial in-person audiences in the Throne Room at St James\u2019s Palace.<\/p>\n
He was later met with questions about his brother while arriving at an engagement in The Strand, central London, hours after issuing his statement.<\/p>\n
Charles did not respond to questions.<\/p>\n
The British queen also did not respond after being asked \u201care you concerned about Andrew\u2019s arrest, your majesty?\u201d during an engagement in Westminster.<\/p>\n
According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
A number of police forces across the UK are assessing information released as part of the Epstein files document dump.<\/p>\n
Officers from Surrey, Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, the West Midlands, Wiltshire and Scotland have all said they are reviewing information.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Met said it was also looking at allegations Mountbatten-Windsor’s protection officers turned a \u201cblind eye\u201d to his visits to Epstein\u2019s island, Little St James.<\/p>\n
The National Crime Agency said it was supporting UK forces in their Epstein files probes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been pictured leaving a police station following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-307627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}