<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s former prince Andrew was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct during his time as a trade envoy, as UK police investigations into allegations emerging from the Jeffrey Epstein files gathered pace. The arrest of a royal family member is unprecedented in Britain\u2019s modern era, and within hours King Charles III issued a rare personally signed statement insisting \u201cthe law must take its course\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was a humiliating new blow for the ousted prince, who was last year stripped of his titles, and was marking his 66th birthday Thursday in custody. \u201cI\u2019m pleased \u2026 he deserves that,\u201d lawyer Emma Carter, 55, told AFP in London. \u201cHe\u2019s been hiding behind his privileges\u2026 for too many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said they were also searching two properties, with the BBC reporting one was Andrew\u2019s former home, Royal Lodge, on the monarchy\u2019s Windsor estate west of London. The other was his residence since the start of this month on the king\u2019s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England, where his arrest occurred, according to British media.<\/p>\n
Widely-published images showed a fleet of unmarked cars, believed to be police vehicles, arriving there early Thursday. \u201cWe have today (19\/2) arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office,\u201d Thames Valley police said, without naming the suspect, as is common practice in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man remains in police custody at this time,\u201d the force added.\u00a0Andrew\u2019s ties to convicted US sex offender Epstein have caused a spectacular years-long fall from grace. His arrest follows new revelations last week that the ex-prince appeared to have sent potentially confidential documents during his time as a UK trade envoy.<\/p>\n
In a November 2010 email, Andrew appeared to share with Epstein reports on several Asian countries following an official visit to the region. The ex-royal, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also allegedly sent the American financier details of the trip \u2014 on which he was accompanied by Epstein\u2019s business associates \u2014 along with investment opportunities months later.<\/p>\n
Charles last year stripped his brother of his titles and ordered he leave his Windsor mansion \u2014 though he does remain eighth in the line of succession to the British throne. In his statement, the king reiterated he had learned of the latest claims \u201cwith the deepest concern\u201d and that a \u201cfull, fair and proper process\u201d investigated \u201cin the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities\u201d would follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation,\u201d he added. \u201cLet me state clearly: the law must take its course.\u201d Charles last year ousted Andrew after one of Epstein\u2019s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, claimed in shocking detail in her posthumous memoirs that she had been trafficked to have sex with Andrew when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n
The Giuffre family welcomed Andrew\u2019s arrest Thursday, saying \u201cour broken hearts have been lifted at the news\u201d, adding \u201che was \u201cnever a prince\u201d. He has previously denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Epstein. Andrew settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.<\/p>\n
He served as a British trade envoy for a decade from 2001. Official guidance stipulates trade envoys have a duty of confidentiality over sensitive, commercial or political information related to their official visits, the BBC has said.<\/p>\n
Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Before news of Andrew\u2019s arrest broke, Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said \u201cnobody is above the law\u201d. The ex-prince is deeply unpopular with the British public, and many welcomed his arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear where Andrew had been taken to. Under UK law he can be held for 24 hours without charge, after which the police must apply to the courts for a custody extension. At least nine UK police forces have confirmed they are assessing claims stemming from the Epstein files, many related to Andrew.<\/p>\n
It follows the US justice department\u2019s latest release of millions of files from its investigation into the US financier, who was awaiting trial for sex trafficking when he died in prison in 2019. That has prompted high-profile figures, including former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, to urge police to probe dozens of flights dating back decades arriving at UK airports tied to Epstein, dubbed by media the \u201cLolita Express\u201d.<\/p>\n
London\u2019s Metropolitan police has also launched an investigation into the relationship between the UK\u2019s former ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, and the disgraced financier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ticotimes.net \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Britain\u2019s former prince Andrew was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct during his time as a trade envoy, as UK police investigations into allegations emerging from the Jeffrey Epstein files gathered pace. The arrest of a royal family member is unprecedented in Britain\u2019s modern era, and within hours King Charles III issued a rare personally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2292076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":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-2292075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/UK-police-arrest-ex-prince-Andrew-in-historic-blow-to-royal.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292075","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=2292075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2292077,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292075\/revisions\/2292077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2292075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2292075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2292075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}