Andrew under investigation: what’s next for the former prince? – The Latest

0:00This is the Guardian.

0:12This is an extremely unique set of circumstances. Prosecutions are brought in England and Wales in the name of the king, you know, in the name of his brother. The latest on the arrest of former Prince Andrew. He was released after he was questioned several hours after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey F.C. Far from a done deal that this will lead to a charge, but it's far from clear that it won't. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is released from police custody under investigation. So what next for the former prince? From the Guardians today in Focus, this is the latest with me, Lucy Hoth.

0:51Joining me is Vikram Dodd, Guardian Police and Crime Correspondent. So Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was released from custody after 11 hours at Aylsham Police Station in Norfolk, released under investigation. This extraordinary wild photo taken by Phil Noble for Reuters of him in the back of a car that is on the front page of nearly every single newspaper here today. Vic, what do we know about what happened yesterday? I mean, it's remarkable that Andrew is being treated as any other citizen would be who is taken under arrest. He had a rather unpleasant birthday surprise at about 8 a.m. when a load of police officers turned up and asked him to come with them, either voluntarily or there would be other options considered.

1:41So he was taken away to a police station. Usual police procedure is on arrival. They check your identity, that they've got the right person. Fingerprint, DNA swab, custody photo. Right. So you mean a mugshot that likely exists somewhere of Andrew? Indeed, which they won't release. It's usual, to be fair, that they won't release it unless somebody is convicted. But he's been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This relates to his role as a trade envoy, not his role as a royal. and that he passed sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein and Thames Valley Police, other force investigating.

2:22They had told us a few days ago that they were considering whether to investigate and the way they announced to the world that they actually had gone to a full, moved to a full criminal investigation as when we saw those images of cops going into the Sandrum estate and which led to that incredibly iconic photo of Andrew in the backseat of the car driving away. Obviously he decided to lie down flat to try and avoid the photographers but couldn't escape the long lens of Mr Noble. So, I mean, it is the statement that was released yesterday morning that a man in his 60s had been taken into custody in Norfolk.

3:02That man, of course, it didn't take long to realise, was Andrew Matbatten-Windsor. the police searches are still continuing at Royal Lodge today the very large 30 room house that he lived in for more than 20 years in Windsor but police have wrapped up their searches on the house where he's currently living wood farm on the king's private Sandringham estate what exactly are they looking for Vikram in those searches? These days the usual thing you want is every electronic device you can get your hands on. So that's your mobiles, laptops, desktops if you use those, USB sticks. But I also imagine there may be a fair amount of paperwork they're interested in and that might explain why the Windsor search is taking longer.

3:52That's where he lived for for so many decades. He's obviously only relatively recently moved to the place where he's picked up yesterday in Norfolk. So, you know, you've got to think that they might be looking for any information about his financial situation. So, for instance, if it were the case, and it's a big if, that they can link passing of information and some sort of remuneration, then they may well be thinking, uh-huh, there really is something to pursue here. I think very much this investigation is at a pretty early stage. It is still the case, we're speaking on Friday afternoon, that police have not formally sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorises charges in England and Wales.

4:37They've had informal discussions so far. It's a moderately complicated piece of legislation. For a start, is it clear-cut that being a trade envoy is a public office in which you can misconduct yourself? People, experts seem to say that is not. That's never been tested before. so I'd say that it is far from a done deal that this will lead to a charge but it's far from clear that it won't. And it is interesting that Thames Valley Police decided to arrest Andrew Mountbatten of Windsor rather than inviting him in for questioning. Why is that? I mean presumably that was because they wanted an element of surprise in order to carry out the fullest possible searches on those two properties.

5:24I mean, this has got to be speculation, but I imagine they thought there is a possibility that if we go and surprise them, we might find something that helps us with our investigation. Now, the official stance on any investigation is to prove or disprove the allegations. But let's talk away from this case. Generally, you want to avoid anything that might give your suspect or your target investigation a chance to move stuff out of the way where you won't find it. So that was part of the reason why they've decided to arrest at this stage. This is an extremely unique set of circumstances, going after somebody who is the brother of the king.

6:04I mean, prosecutions are brought in England and Wales in the name of the king, the name of his brother. It is unprecedented, as you say, in modern times. But we are talking about the specific arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office. There are a lot of people who are raising the question that allegations have been made against Andrew, the former Prince Andrew, for many years about his relationship, his alleged relationship with Epstein and possible allegations of sexual misconduct, possible sex trafficking, his involvement with Virginia Dufresne as per her account. that to be clear is not what this arrest this investigation is about but are there investigations happening in relation to those allegations of sexual misconduct well i'd say there's three sets of allegations which have come the way of uk police as as it stands and it may expand so the first is the flights uh linked to epstein going into uk airports and there's about five forces who are looking at those.

7:11Further allegation is that women who were being trafficked were on those airplanes. The second is the misconduct in public office, which is being looked at against former Prince Andrew and against Peter Mandelson. And then I suppose there's anything else that might pop up. But I think what you've got is, I think, you know, one issue might be, well, misconduct in public office is all very fine, but what about, if you're looking at this from a human point of view, the obvious thing was the women who were so seriously harmed by what Epstein did and what Epstein's friends did. What's happening to that?

7:54Well, Thames Valley is still assessing whether an allegation against the former Prince Andrew merits a full police investigation. As of Friday afternoon, they're still to have made contact or got an account from the alleged victim there. So that's at the very, very early stage of assessment because they would need that. And I think part of this has also been to do with jurisdictional issues. You know, where did these offences take place? who's making the allegations i mean time not time will tell but people have different opinions about whether the met who first looked at this got it right when they decided it wasn't for them part of their thinking was this was an issue for the authorities in the united states it's very telling that you have quite a lot of activity in the uk over this by the criminal justice system you've got a bit going on in france in the states it seems very much that there's little to no law enforcement interest.

8:58So you mentioned, Vikram, that there are five forces across the country that are looking into the issue of flight logs and whether there was misuse of flights into airports across the UK. But there are a total of eight police forces, is that right, who are looking into allegations or beginning investigations? That sounds like a huge operation. I think it's also worth saying that the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written a five-page document that has been submitted to five police forces to help them both on the misconduct in public office allegations, but also allegations of sexual misconduct and possible sex trafficking.

9:40Yeah, my understanding is Gordon Brown's written to forces saying you need to look at these flights and what happened and how come they were allowed in. So you've got about five forces there. You've got two forces looking at sexual misconduct or sexual assault allegations, both against Andrew. One is Surrey, one is Thames Valley Police. I think the assumption is the Surrey one will probably not go anywhere. We'll see about Thames Valley Police. And then you've got the Met looking at Peter Mandelson. But the flights, I mean, the allegation, I suppose, is what happened to the women if these flights did come in.

10:12At this stage, it's worth pointing out that on the flights, we're relying on the documents published by the Department of Justice in the United States from the Epstein files, which are redacted. British police are very much trying to get hold of original copies of those documents, which are unredacted. And don't forget, you've got two million more to come. So this is all early stage. There's a lot of activity. Whether it will go anywhere, we'll see. Yeah. What a time. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thank you very much. that's it for today my huge thanks again to Vikram Dodd Guardian Police and Crime Correspondent you can keep up with his reporting over at theguardian.com where you can also find live updates on this story thanks for listening to this episode of the latest the new evening edition of Today in Focus Today in Focus will be back with you on Monday morning and the latest will be back on Monday night have a lovely weekend this episode was presented by me Lucy Hough the producer was Bryony Moore.

11:14The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin. The lead producer was Zoe Hitch.

11:22This is The Guardian.