Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the previous prince who was stripped of his royal titles due to his hyperlinks to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, was launched from police custody on Thursday.
Andrew was arrested earlier Thursday, his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace over allegations he despatched confidential authorities paperwork to Epstein.
He left Aylsham Police Station after roughly 11 hours in custody, the place he had been questioned all day by detectives from Thames Valley Police.
Thames Valley Police stated a person in his 60s from Norfolk in jap England was arrested on Thursday. The pressure, which covers areas west of London, together with Mountbatten-Windsor’s former residence, didn’t determine the suspect — in step with commonplace procedures in Britain — however pointed to the assertion when requested to substantiate if the previous prince was arrested.
In a followup assertion, Thames Valley Police stated the “arrested man has now been launched below investigation.”
Police stated they’d completed looking out Mountbatten-Windsor’s residence, however officers have been nonetheless looking out his former residence close to Windsor Fort.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and world wide, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
A Reuters {photograph}, taken after Mountbatten-Windsor’s launch, exhibits him sitting low inside a automotive leaving the station close to his residence on the royal Sandringham Property.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, youthful brother of Britain’s King Charles, previously generally known as Prince Andrew, leaves Aylsham Police Station in a automobile on the day he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace.
REUTERS/Phil Noble
Police beforehand stated they have been “assessing” studies that Mountbatten-Windsor despatched commerce info to Epstein, a rich investor and convicted intercourse offender, in 2010, when the previous prince was Britain’s particular envoy for worldwide commerce. Correspondence between the 2 males was launched by the U.S. Justice Division late final month, together with hundreds of thousands of pages of paperwork from the American investigation into Epstein.
Whereas Mountbatten-Windsor has constantly denied any wrongdoing in connection together with his friendship with Epstein, considerations about his hyperlinks to the late financier have dogged the Royal Household for greater than a decade.
On the time of Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, Assistant Chief Const. Oliver Wright stated: “Following an intensive evaluation, we now have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public workplace.
“It will be important that we defend the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our companions to analyze this alleged offence,” he added.
“We perceive the numerous public curiosity on this case, and we’ll present updates on the acceptable time.”
Hours after Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, his brother King Charles III launched an announcement, saying, “I’ve discovered with the deepest concern the information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public workplace.”
“What now follows is the complete, honest and correct course of by which this difficulty is investigated within the acceptable method and by the suitable authorities,” Charles stated in an announcement on Thursday.
“On this, as I’ve stated earlier than, they’ve our full and wholehearted help and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the legislation should take its course,” he continued. “As this course of continues, it will not be proper for me to remark additional on this matter.”
“In the meantime, my household and I’ll proceed in our obligation and repair to you all.”
Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest was the primary time in almost 4 centuries {that a} senior British royal was positioned below arrest, and it underscored how deference to the monarchy has eroded lately.
The allegations being investigated Thursday are separate from these made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked to Britain to have intercourse with the prince in 2001, when she was simply 17. Giuffre died by suicide final yr.
Nonetheless, Giuffre’s household praised the arrest, saying that their “damaged hearts have been lifted on the information that nobody is above the legislation, not even royalty.”
The household added: “He was by no means a prince. For survivors all over the place, Virginia did this for you.”
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
© 2026 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
