There was no place Queen Elizabeth looked happier than in, on, near, or downwind of a horse. Put her in decent proximity of four legs and a curry comb and Her late Majesty looked jollier than when the Republican league all got food poisoning from some bung sausage rolls. And Royal Ascot? It was her Christmas, Easter and Eurovision into one.
Now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has gone and fouled it all up.
Photos from the 2002 event show the late Queen looking cheerier than when she took Fergie’s back and Andrew showing off his heavy-on-chompers grin. On the second of the carnival, there he was with daughter Princess Beatrice, then aged 13 years old. More toothy chortling, more of Her late Majesty beaming.
Only now news has broken that Thames Valley police are examining an allegation whether, during 2002’s Royal Ascot, Andrew behaved inappropriately towards a woman.
Once you know that, it’s impossible to look at the photos of the late Queen and Beatrice having a jolly day out, trackside, in the same way.
This alleged Ascot incident comes as detectives have widened their criminal investigation into the former Duke of York to include potential alleged sexual misconduct offences (Andrew has previously denied all wrongdoing).
We are now getting more details about what the plod have been up to since deciding to wish Andrew a happy birthday in February by arresting him before he had even had a chance to blow out the candles on his cake.
In recent days, it has emerged that the police team looking into the late Queen’s favourite child includes specialist sexual offence investigators, the Times has reported, and has similar resources to a homicide inquiry.
Since Andrew’s arrest, they have been busy indeed and key witnesses on detectives’ interview list include former cabinet ministers, royal officials and senior civil servants.
Likewise his former official protection officers, who travelled with him when he stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s homes in New York and Palm Beach and on his island in the Caribbean.
Then there is the evidence that police uncovered during the week-long search they conducted at Andrew’s former longtime home Royal Lodge and the short search of Sandringham’s Wood Farm, where he was staying in February.
Next we have printouts. So far US authorities have refused to hand over the original documents in the Epstein files, and British police” only have printouts from the US DoJ website’, the Guardian has reported. That’s got to be one very tired Ink Jet.
Other documents police are wading through: Scotland Yard’s files concerning Virginia Giuffre, who alleged Andrew sexually assaulted her on three occasions in the year prior to the alleged Ascot incident. (Andrew has strenuously denied the claims.)
This joins the fact that, since February, police have been assessing claims that a second woman was trafficked to the UK by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Andrew.
More? Of course there is more.
Newly released documents relating to Andrew’s appointment as an international trade ambassador in 200 show that he preferred to visit “sophisticated countries” and wanted access to “youth” events and the “ballet”.
(Previously historian and York biographer Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled, had made more than 100 Freedom of Information requests for documents concerning Andrew’s stint repping British exports and had been rebuffed every time.)
However, the question is, where might this all lead?
Last week Thames Valley Police made a public appeal, asking people to come forward if they had information concerning alleged sexual misconduct, corruption, fraud or the sharing of confidential information.
The fact they did so, the Telegraph has reported, shows that “detectives are struggling” to build a case and one former senior officer told the paper this appeal “could be a last roll of the dice.”
Andrew Lownie, writing in the Times, expressed a different concern about the future of the case: “I fear the royal family will never allow him to be charged and questioned in court. He knows too many secrets”.
Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with Australia’s leading media titles.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news.com.au ’
