The monarch has said he is concerned by new revelations of ex-Prince Andrew’s ties with the convicted sex offender
The UK’s King Charles has said he will back a police probe into his brother, the former Prince Andrew, over claims that he provided confidential government information to the late convicted sex offender Jeffry Epstein.
Thames Valley Police confirmed on Monday that it was assessing whether to launch a formal investigation into reports that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his titles after previous revelations of his links with Epstein, had also been leaking official British trade documents to the disgraced financier.
Emails from the latest batch of the Epstein files, released by the US Justice Department last month, suggested that the King’s brother shared data with Epstein in 2010 after the financier had been found guilty of child sex crimes.
King Charles broke his silence on the issue on Monday, with Buckingham Palace saying in a statement that the monarch “has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations” against the former prince.
“While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police, we stand ready to support them as you would expect,” the palace said.
The King’s “thoughts and sympathies have been, and remain with, the victims of any and all forms of abuse,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, US Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, a member of a committee investigating the Epstein scandal, told Sky News that “this is the most vulnerable the British monarchy has ever been. They ought to ask the King and Queen questions and maybe this will be the end of the monarchy.”
Khanna insisted that King Charges “has to answer… what he knew about Andrew, and just stripping Andrew of a title is not enough,” and that Mountbatten-Windsor should himself appear before the US congressional committee.
British journalist Martin Jay told RT that “a lot of damage has been done” to the British monarchy by the former Prince Andrew, but noted that expecting King Charles to abdicate his throne would be “stretching it a bit.”
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The British monarch will now “be thinking about how to pull off another miracle PR exercise and try and re-brand the royal family very quickly,” Jay suggested.
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