Search Warrants Used To Seize Property From Ex-Prince Andrew Had been Illegal, Choose Finds
LONDON (AP) — Police who searched the properties of the previous Prince Andrew and seized his property within the investigation into his hyperlinks to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein have agreed the search warrants have been illegal, a London decide mentioned Thursday.
Justice Nicholas Hilliard mentioned that the Thames Valley Police had made a major error in making use of for the warrants after they searched the properties of the previous prince now generally known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on Feb. 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace and police searched two of his houses. His attorneys requested the High Court decide to invalidate the warrants beneath which these searches have been performed.
Hilliard mentioned the events had agreed to invalidate the warrants earlier than the listening to Thursday.
Thames Valley Police mentioned it had accepted the truth that the warrants should be quashed as a result of the preliminary courtroom’s resolution to challenge them was incorrect.
“Legal proceedings are at present ongoing to determine how materials seized in the course of the searches shall be managed and whether or not we are able to lawfully retain it in help of our ongoing investigation,” the division mentioned in a press release.
Mountbatten-Windsor was not in courtroom for the listening to.
Mark Stephens, of the Howard Kennedy legislation agency in London, described the listening to as a preliminary skirmish within the broader authorized battle.
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“It’s step one of Prince Andrew and his attorneys saying, ‘Actually, that is tainted proof. It was obtained inappropriately,’’’ Stephens mentioned. “Therefore it must be excluded from any legal trial.”
King Charles III stripped Mountbatten-Windsor of his princely title final 12 months as he sought to protect the remainder of the royal household from the persevering with fallout from his youthful brother’s hyperlinks to Epstein.
While Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, continues to obtain a stipend from the king’s non-public funds, Buckingham Palace has made it clear that these funds will not be used to fund his effort to problem the search warrants.
The police investigation initially targeted on allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor shared delicate data with Epstein when the previous prince was a U.Okay. commerce envoy, however police later mentioned they might additionally contemplate different issues.
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Police questioned Mountbatten-Windsor for 11 hours earlier than releasing him beneath investigation, that means he was neither charged nor exonerated.
It was the primary time in almost 4 centuries {that a} senior British royal was positioned beneath arrest.
The allegations towards Mountbatten-Windsor got here to gentle when the U.S. Justice Department launched thousands and thousands of pages of paperwork from its investigation into intercourse trafficking by Epstein and his connections to a community of rich, highly effective males across the globe.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s ties to Epstein have been a supply of embarrassment to the royal household for greater than a decade.
Lawmakers questioned the connection way back to 2011, when the then-prince was compelled to surrender his globetrotting position because the U.Okay.’s particular commerce envoy. Eight years later, he failed to elucidate his persevering with ties to Epstein in a disastrous interview with the BBC, ending his profession as a working member of the royal household.
