by Emily Nelson
Due to the recent arrest of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew is probably sweating buckets. Well... maybe not sweating, but he is certainly facing increased pressure and media attention.
To recap, Prince Andrew was involved with Jeffrey Epstein, the prolific sex trafficker, for a number of years and has been accused of rape by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. There is photographic evidence of Roberts having met Prince Andrew, although the only evidence of the rape taking place is Robert’s own account. The prince denied all allegations in his public relations nightmare of an interview with the BBC in Autumn 2019, in which he claimed to have been at Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter as opposed to Epstein’s townhouse with Roberts.
Now that the exploits of Epstein and his high-profile cronies have recently been made public knowledge with the Netflix documentary Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, this scandal has returned to the forefront of public concern. This is coupled with Anonymous’ revelation of ‘The Little Black Book of Jeffrey Epstein’ at the beginning of June this year. The subsequent arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell after months of evading capture is the latest piece of the puzzle to fall loose in the past few months. Could Prince Andrew be next? Also, why has a full investigation not already been launched into Prince Andrew with the serious rape allegations against him and his close association with Epstein?
Firstly, the Met Police decided not to launch a full investigation into Andrew in November 2019 because they felt that sex trafficking was an international issue and the London police was not best placed to carry the investigation out. However, New York prosecutors attempted to question Prince Andrew in January 2020, but he has not cooperated. This came after the Prince made the public statement that he would aid investigators with the case. Therefore, the Prince will not voluntarily engage with the foreign (American) investigation - despite reassuring people he would do this in a public statement - and the domestic police refuse to treat this as a national issue. So how will Prince Andrew be held accountable?
The Prince is not protected by diplomatic or sovereign immunity. The latter only applies to the Queen as the Head of State; however, members of the royal family cannot be arrested within the vicinity of Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace (and other royal residences) or in the presence of the Queen. Therefore, Prince Andrew could theoretically be extradited by the USA or detained by UK authorities if he was not at one of these royal locations or in the Queen’s company. His defence would be that he is an heir to the British throne, however this would be a weak argument as Andrew was not a member of the Queen’s immediate household when his alleged crimes were committed.
Currently, the only member of the Royal Family with a criminal record is Princess Anne, as her dog bit two children in Windsor Great Park, which violated the dangerous dogs act in 2002. This was the first time that a member of the Royal Family had been charged with a criminal offence since Charles I was charged with treason and beheaded in 1649. This is proof that a Royal can be charged with a crime; however, Princess Anne merely received a £500 fine and a warning about her dog rather than facing any serious sex trafficking allegations, such as those on the cards for Prince Andrew. Therefore, there is no reason why Prince Andrew should not be arrested in conjunction with his status as a member of the Royal Family. Nevertheless, this is an unprecedented situation as no Royal has faced a conviction this serious in the past 400 years.
Furthermore, especially in this time when the Black Lives Matter movement has gained significant momentum, a privileged white man should be held as equally accountable to the law as any other citizen. In the 21st century, it is not acceptable for a person to be above the law due to their ancestry, race, gender, sexuality or any other factor. It is worth thinking about what would have happened to Prince Andrew had he been a working-class black man. He certainly would not be receiving the same level of protection or free will in choosing not to cooperate with the authorities.
In conclusion, the main reason why Prince Andrew has not yet been arrested is due to a critical lack of evidence as well as his ability to control the narrative as a member of the Royal Family. However, now that Ghislaine Maxwell has been taken into custody and presumably court proceedings will begin shortly, new information and evidence may come out of the woodwork. This could lead to the arrest of Prince Andrew; as previously discussed, with the necessary amount of evidence, the Prince has no immunity against authorities from either the UK or the USA.
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