00:00So first off then, that news that's been coming in to us a short while ago,
00:03that the former Prince Andrew, now of course Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,
00:06has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
00:10Just a few details emerging at this stage from the police,
00:14but Philip Tell is with me here on set.
00:16Philip, just tell us first of all what we know about the latest situation.
00:19Well, the police have been saying they've arrested a man in his 60s
00:24from a home in Norfolk.
00:26That man is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
00:28The former Prince Andrew, who has been arrested and brought in for questioning by police.
00:35This is something that many have been calling for in the United Kingdom,
00:39particularly the press over the last few weeks.
00:41But it is a really significant development in the Epstein inquiry
00:48and also a huge significant development for the British royal family.
00:52This is the first time that I can remember that a member of the royal family
00:56has been brought in for questioning under arrest by local police.
01:01I think that what we're seeing here is a rapidly developing situation where
01:08until the most recent Epstein documents were released,
01:12these three million documents just a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago,
01:19there was an inquiry into what Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had been up to with Jeffrey Epstein.
01:26This was led by Scotland Yard, but Scotland Yard decided there wasn't enough evidence
01:29to bring him in for questioning.
01:31Since the release of the latest Epstein files,
01:34there's been a new inquiry by Thames Valley Police in the UK,
01:37and they are the ones who have brought him in for questioning right now.
01:41And this could last for 96 hours.
01:43Now, he is accused of abuse during public office,
01:49which is a very grave crime in the United Kingdom.
01:52It could lead to him being sentenced to a very long term in jail if he's found guilty.
01:58So as things stand at the moment, he's going to be questioned.
02:02There will also be, and I think there is a,
02:05they are searching two premises that belong to him for evidence.
02:09And I think probably what we're seeing here is this decision to go in and arrest Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
02:15is a way of surprising him so that he's brought in for questioning
02:19without being able to prepare himself beforehand,
02:22knowing that he's been called in for questioning,
02:23but maybe in a few days' time.
02:25The fact that he's actually got police going round that take him in immediately without,
02:29by surprise, means that that will give them more leeway to try to find
02:33or uncover evidence that they need to press charges against him.
02:37It's obviously a terrible look, isn't it, for the British royal family?
02:41It is terrible news for the British royal family.
02:43I think they've been really split between themselves over what to do.
02:49And we've seen in recent times that King Charles himself has made as much effort as he can
02:55to try to show that the royal family is in charge.
02:58Even the Queen, Elizabeth II, the late Queen, stripped Andrew of many of his titles back in 2019
03:06after that disastrous interview about Geoffrey Epstein that Andrew gave to the BBC and Emily Maitlis.
03:11He was no longer allowed to call himself his royal highness.
03:15Then, with the latest revelations, King Charles stripped Andrew of his title of prince.
03:24Prince, he's now just Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
03:26He has been forced to move out of his house, Royal Lodge, which was situated in Windsor Great Park.
03:34He's now living in a much smaller house in the park at Sandringham in Norfolk.
03:38And the royal family have made it pretty clear that in a more recent statement,
03:43they would help any inquiry by police necessary into the activities of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
03:50So, this is really a way of cutting him loose from the royal family in a bid to try to
03:56calm the situation down.
03:57But I don't think anybody in the royal family actually thought it would come to this,
04:01where he was now under arrest and facing questioning and possibly charges,
04:06and if he's found guilty, a possible prison sentence.
04:09This is really uncharted territory for the British royal family right now.
04:13Of course, Philip, this is a story that we've been talking about an awful lot over the last year or
04:18so,
04:18but accusations against the former Prince Andrew have been whirling, if that's the right word, for many years, really.
04:25Well, there are two different sorts of allegations here, Stuart.
04:28The first one is the allegations of sexual misconduct, which Andrew has always denied,
04:34and there is no evidence, even though we've seen the photo just behind you of him over this girl lying
04:41on the floor,
04:42obviously taken at a party held by Jeffrey Epstein, and Andrew looking at the camera,
04:46so obviously in the knowledge that he was being photographed, we don't know who the girl is on the floor,
04:51we don't know what the circumstances are,
04:52but many are saying that Andrew was part of the close-knit friendship group of Jeffrey Epstein,
05:03and many questions being asked about his relationship with Virginia Dufresne,
05:07a girl who was photographed with Andrew back in 2010, and he said that he didn't know her.
05:17Then there was a huge payoff, which is believed to have come from Queen Elizabeth,
05:24from other members of the royal family, including the then Prince of Wales, who's now King Charles,
05:28who paid money out so that Andrew could pay off Virginia Dufresne, even though he said he hadn't done anything
05:34wrong,
05:34but it was a bid to shut her up.
05:37Well, why was that necessary if he had never done anything wrong?
05:40And these latest charges, which are in another completely different situation for him,
05:47concern his time as trade envoy for the United Kingdom, where he was travelling around the world to boost British
05:53businesses,
05:54and he's suspected of handing over information to Jeffrey Epstein after being in contact with officials in Hong Kong,
06:03in China and in Vietnam, which is something that he was not legally allowed to do.
06:09So, in other words, Andrew was seeing trade officials on those journeys to try to boost British business investment in
06:19those countries,
06:20but handing over information to the financier, Jeffrey Epstein, who would obviously use that to his own advantage
06:27to make money on the back of what Andrew was doing.
06:30And that is where the police believe they have enough evidence now to bring Andrew in for questioning and to
06:36arrest him.
06:36Just one final question, Philip.
06:38I mean, there's been an awful lot of talk recently, hasn't there, about the ramifications of the Jeffrey Epstein affair
06:43and the differences between the way that, at the moment anyway, is happening in the US and the way it's
06:48happening in Europe.
06:48Here in Europe, we've had difficulties in Norway.
06:51We've had a former minister here in France who's lost his job as the head of the Arab Institute.
06:56In the UK, Keir Starmer has been in difficulty as well, along with Peter Mandelson, obviously,
07:02and now this involving a member of the royal family.
07:05I mean, there are stark differences, aren't there, to how this whole scandal and affair has affected European nations
07:11compared to how it's affected people in the US so far, anyway.
07:14That's certainly true.
07:15And I think a lot of criticism in the US and of the US in the way that this is
07:19being handled,
07:20there were calls for Andrew to go and testify in the United States.
07:23But there's no way of obliging him to go there to this committee, the House of Representatives,
07:29which really doesn't have any power.
07:30It can subpoena people to come and talk.
07:33But that's as far as it can go.
07:34It can't press charges.
07:35And Donald Trump has tried very hard to dismiss any accusations of his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein,
07:43saying that the files have been released, there is no evidence that he did anything wrong,
07:49and that everyone should just move on from the Epstein files and concentrate on the cost of living in the
07:55United States
07:55and other major issues that Donald Trump is trying to solve.
07:58I don't think anybody is really buying that.
08:00But I think we're going to see a change at the end of February when Bill and Hillary Clinton are
08:07going to testify.
08:07This is also not particularly good news for Donald Trump because they say,
08:11well, we've got nothing to hide.
08:12We're going to say exactly what we want to say.
08:15And this is going to be done in public.
08:18Many around Donald Trump have tried to stop this from being a public testimony
08:22because they fear that Bill and Hillary Clinton may try to drag President Trump into this.
08:29But it will be interesting to see how this works out.
08:32This testimony is going to take place on the 28th of February.
08:35But I think the more that this goes on and the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,
08:40the more pressure there's going to be building on Donald Trump and on the United States,
08:44and particularly on Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the U.S.,
08:51to come out and release more documents and to maybe even release documents that are unredacted
08:58so that more evidence can be found and people can see exactly what happened
09:02and who was involved in the Epstein files.
09:04It's just the tip of the iceberg.
09:07These are ramifications that we've seen getting bigger and bigger and bigger over the past few months
09:11as more information comes out about these three million documents that have been released,
09:15which we don't even know everything about yet.
09:17But remember, there are still another three million documents or so which haven't been released.
09:21And that's something I think there will be growing pressure
09:23for more of those documents to be free so that we can see what's in them.
09:27Philip, thanks.
Comments