AP
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London police are investigating whether Prince Andrew asked a police officer appointed as his bodyguard to dig up dirt on sexual assault accuser Virginia Giuffre.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was “actively investigating” media reports that Andrew had asked a police officer about his criminal record in 2011 when he asked for disparaging information about Giuffre.
The Mail on Sunday’s report follows Buckingham Palace’s announcement on Friday that Mr Andrew has agreed to give up his title as Duke of York and the use of his other remaining royal titles, following leaks of emails showing he had been in contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for longer than he previously admitted.
Giuffre’s family welcomed the news that the duke had relinquished his title, but King Charles III went further and said Prince Andrew should be stripped of his princely title. Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41.
After years of sordid headlines about Andrew’s dodgy friends and questionable business dealings, this email was the final straw for the Windsors.
The move to distance the monarchy from the Andrew scandal has been ongoing since November 2019, when Andrew renounced all public duties and charity work following a damning interview in which he attempted to counter media reports about his friendship with Epstein and deny allegations that he had a sexual relationship with 17-year-old Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein in 2001.
Mr Andrew was widely criticized for failing to show empathy for Mr Epstein’s victims and for giving unbelievable accounts of his friendship with the disgraced financier.
Mr Andrew, whose BBC interview in which he said he had lost contact with Mr Epstein in 2010, came back to haunt him last week and sowed the seeds of his demotion from the Dukedom last week when emails were revealed showing he had sent an email to Mr Epstein on February 28, 2011. In the memo, Mr. Andrew told Mr. Epstein that the two of them were “in this together” and “must get through it.”
The Mail reported that in 2011, just as the paper was about to publish the now-infamous photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre’s partially naked midriff, Andrew provided his bodyguard with Giuffre’s date of birth and confidential social security number to find out if she had a past.
It is unclear whether the officer complied with the request. Giuffre’s family said she had no criminal history.
With the report and Giuffre’s posthumous memoir published on Tuesday, this scandal won’t be going away anytime soon.
British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who was representing the government on a Sunday morning news program, said police officers should not take part in a smear campaign.
“These allegations are deeply worrying,” Mr Miliband told the BBC. “I think people want to know these allegations and the substance behind them. But even if they are true, that is absolutely not how high protection officers should be used.”
Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil suit against him in New York. Andrew denied wrongdoing, but acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Andrew said in a statement Friday that he continues to “categorically deny” the accusations.
