{"id":2124612,"date":"2025-10-30T11:57:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2124612"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:57:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:57:49","slug":"campaign-group-republic-considering-private-prosecution-against-prince-andrew-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/campaign-group-republic-considering-private-prosecution-against-prince-andrew-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign group Republic considering private prosecution against Prince Andrew | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-testid=\"article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>A campaign group says it has instructed lawyers to consider a private prosecution against Prince Andrew over allegations of sexual assault, corruption and misconduct in public office.<\/p>\n<p>Republic, a pressure group which aims to see the monarchy abolished, said it had taken the &#8220;unprecedented step&#8221; of instructing a law firm to investigate the allegations and commence a private prosecution if appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>It comes amid increased pressure on the royals following renewed controversy over <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/prince-andrew-8242\/1\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Andrew<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s links to the late paedophile financier <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/jeffrey-epstein-8219\/1\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Jeffrey Epstein<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prince Andrew, who has denied all allegations against him, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/victory-for-virginia-says-family-of-prince-andrews-accuser-as-royal-gives-up-all-his-titles-13451850\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>gave up his titles<\/strong><\/a> earlier this month ahead of the publication of the posthumous memoirs of Virginia Giuffre.<\/p>\n<p>She sued Andrew in a US court in August 2021, accusing him of sexually assaulting her on three occasions after she was introduced to him by Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>In a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew said he had no knowledge of ever meeting late Ms Giuffre, claiming a well-known image of them together had been doctored.<\/p>\n<p>The case was settled outside court for a sum believed to have been around \u00a312m. Andrew continues to deny the allegations. Ms Giuffre <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/virginia-giuffre-who-accused-prince-andrew-of-sexual-assault-has-died-her-family-says-13355731\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>took her own life in April<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Reports also emerged claiming Andrew asked a royal close protection officer to &#8220;dig up dirt&#8221; on Ms Giuffre. The Metropolitan Police said <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/prince-william-plans-ruthless-approach-towards-prince-andrew-as-lawyer-for-jeffrey-epsteins-victims-predicts-further-leaks-13453017\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>it is &#8220;actively looking into the claims&#8221;<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><br \/><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/how-prince-andrew-allegations-unfolded-and-his-titles-were-lost-13452305\" target=\"_blank\">How Prince Andrew allegations unfolded<\/a><\/strong><br \/><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/where-could-prince-andrew-move-to-if-he-leaves-royal-lodge-13459182\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Where could Prince Andrew move to if he leaves Royal Lodge?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video callfn\" data-account-id=\"6058004172001\" data-amp-iframe-embed=\"\" data-asset-id=\"c9d281a0-e04e-4b49-a180-f43f251c0c8d\" data-asset-path=\"\" data-asset-version=\"\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-auth-config=\"\" data-caption=\"Prince Andrew leaving Royal Lodge: Is it that simple?\" data-clip-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-video\" data-component-name-alias=\"ui-sitewide-video\" data-competition=\"\" data-copy-url-text=\"URL copied to clipboard\" data-fn=\"sdc-site-video\" data-id=\"id_c9d281a0-e04e-4b49-a180-f43f251c0c8d\" data-is-live-stream=\"false\" data-lite=\"true\" data-options=\"\" data-originator-id=\"-1\" data-originator-handle=\"brightcove-news-gb\" data-package-name=\"\" data-provider=\"brightcove\" data-player-id=\"yjBoKQ5XA\" data-playsinline=\"\" data-sensitive=\"\" data-sdc-id=\"7065020\" data-sdc-video-id=\"c9d281a0-e04e-4b49-a180-f43f251c0c8d\" data-sport-category=\"\" data-state=\"loading\" data-token-state=\"none\" data-video-ad-unit=\"\" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=\"\" data-video-id=\"ref:c9d281a0-e04e-4b49-a180-f43f251c0c8d\" data-video-type=\"\" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-closed-captions-position=\"middle-third\" data-show-closed-captions=\"true\" data-show-pip=\"true\" data-show-live-stream-scrubber=\"true\" data-autoload=\"false\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__inner\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__content\" data-role=\"bridge-controller\" style=\"padding-bottom: calc(100% \/ ());\">\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>              <span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-role=\"poster\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster\"><br \/>\n                <br \/>\n              <span class=\"sdc-site-video__loader\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-loader\"\/><br \/>\n                <span class=\"sdc-site-video__time\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-time\">2:01<\/span><br \/>\n              <\/span><\/p>\n<p>              <video id=\"id_c9d281a0-e04e-4b49-a180-f43f251c0c8d\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-video\"\/>\n            <\/div><figcaption class=\"sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption\">\n<p>              <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\" data-role=\"caption-text\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-caption\">Prince Andrew leaving Royal Lodge: Is it that simple?<\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>MPs demand explanation for why Andrew paid &#8216;peppercorn&#8217; rent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Parliament&#8217;s spending watchdog asked the Crown Estate to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/mps-demand-crown-estate-explains-why-prince-andrew-paid-peppercorn-rent-at-royal-lodge-13460047\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>explain the rationale behind the prince&#8217;s &#8220;peppercorn&#8221; rent<\/strong><\/a> at Royal Lodge.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wrote to the Treasury and the Crown Estate after raising concerns over the value for money of the prince&#8217;s living arrangements.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/the-king-10355\/1\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The King<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s team is said to be in talks with his brother about leaving the property voluntarily.<\/p>\n<p>     <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/prince-andrew-8242\/1\" target=\"_blank\">Andrew<\/a><\/strong> signed a 75-year lease in 2003 after paying an initial down payment of \u00a31m and spent \u00a37.5m on renovations as part of the agreement. He lives there with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Peppercorn rent&#8221; is a legal term used in leases to show that rent technically exists, so the lease is valid, but it&#8217;s nominal, often literally \u00a31 a year or just a symbolic amount. In practice, it means the tenant pays no rent.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video callfn\" data-account-id=\"6058004172001\" data-amp-iframe-embed=\"\" data-asset-id=\"50010ba1-a5a5-4780-a845-2d2e004cc7a0\" data-asset-path=\"\" data-asset-version=\"\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-auth-config=\"\" data-caption=\"The King heckled over Andrew&#10;\" data-clip-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-video\" data-component-name-alias=\"ui-sitewide-video\" data-competition=\"\" data-copy-url-text=\"URL copied to clipboard\" data-fn=\"sdc-site-video\" data-id=\"id_50010ba1-a5a5-4780-a845-2d2e004cc7a0\" data-is-live-stream=\"false\" data-lite=\"true\" data-options=\"\" data-originator-id=\"-1\" data-originator-handle=\"brightcove-news-gb\" data-package-name=\"\" data-provider=\"brightcove\" data-player-id=\"yjBoKQ5XA\" data-playsinline=\"\" data-sensitive=\"true\" data-sdc-id=\"7064269\" data-sdc-video-id=\"50010ba1-a5a5-4780-a845-2d2e004cc7a0\" data-sport-category=\"\" data-state=\"loading\" data-token-state=\"none\" data-video-ad-unit=\"\" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=\"\" data-video-id=\"ref:50010ba1-a5a5-4780-a845-2d2e004cc7a0\" data-video-type=\"\" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-closed-captions-position=\"middle-third\" data-show-closed-captions=\"true\" data-show-pip=\"true\" data-show-live-stream-scrubber=\"true\" data-autoload=\"false\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__inner\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__content\" data-role=\"bridge-controller\" style=\"padding-bottom: calc(100% \/ ());\">\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>              <span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-role=\"poster\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster\"><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/10\/768x432\/skynews-king-charles-heckle_7064196.jpg?20251027195814\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img excluded-image\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-poster\"\/><br \/>\n              <span class=\"sdc-site-video__loader\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-loader\"\/><br \/>\n                <span class=\"sdc-site-video__time\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-time\">0:39<\/span><br \/>\n              <\/span><\/p>\n<p>              <video id=\"id_50010ba1-a5a5-4780-a845-2d2e004cc7a0\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-video\"\/>\n            <\/div><figcaption class=\"sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption\">\n<p>              <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\" data-role=\"caption-text\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-caption\">The King heckled over Andrew<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/div><\/div>\n<p>On Monday, the King was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/king-heckled-over-prince-andrew-and-jeffrey-epstein-during-visit-13458984\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>heckled over his brother&#8217;s relationship with Epstein<\/strong><\/a> during a visit to Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Republic says response has not been &#8216;appropriate&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Republic has repeatedly called for the police to investigate and prosecute Andrew. It has also criticised the political response to the scandal surrounding the royal this week as &#8220;weak, deferential and inadequate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, told Sky News: &#8220;We just don&#8217;t believe that the response so far has been appropriate, either from the police or the politicians.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the frustrations is that the whole debate around this has been about the fact that Andrew was friends with a convicted criminal, when there are clearly questions to be answered as to whether he is actually guilty of offences himself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sky News has approached representatives for Prince Andrew in relation to Republic&#8217;s announcement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/mailto:jo@samaritans.org\">jo@samaritans.org<\/a> in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source news.sky.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A campaign group says it has instructed lawyers to consider a private prosecution against Prince Andrew over allegations of sexual assault, corruption and misconduct in public office. Republic, a pressure group which aims to see the monarchy abolished, said it had taken the &#8220;unprecedented step&#8221; of instructing a law firm to investigate the allegations and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2124613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Campaign-group-Republic-considering-private-prosecution-against-Prince-Andrew.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124614,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124612\/revisions\/2124614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2124613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}