Police urge witnesses come forward in Prince Andrew investigation

LONDON — British police urged witnesses to come forward Friday as they continued to investigate potential offenses by former Prince Andrew related to Jeffrey Epstein.

They said they were hoping to speak directly to a woman as part of detectives’ “assessment of reports that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes.”

Thames Valley Police said they had engaged with the woman’s legal representative to confirm that “should she wish to report this to police, it will be taken seriously and handled with care” and respect her right to anonymity.

In line with British policing convention, the statement did not directly name the former prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles III’s younger brother, in their statement. But he was identifiable through the provision of details of his arrest in February.

Florida attorney Brad Edwards had told the BBC in January that he represented a woman who alleged to have had a sexual encounter with the then-prince at his home in Windsor after she was trafficked by Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor has previously strongly denied any wrongdoing but has expressed regret over his yearslong friendship with Epstein, which continued after the wealthy financier’s conviction in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, had allegedpthat she was forced to have sex with the then-prince several times, beginning when she was 17 years old. He denied those allegations. He eventually settled the case for an undisclosed sum and acknowledged Giuffre as a victim of sex trafficking.

Police said the latest development was part of an investigation examining a number of “aspects of alleged misconduct” following the release of files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the United States in January.

In February, British police said they were investigating allegations that as the British trade envoy, the then-prince had shared confidential documents with Epstein.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on multiple sex trafficking charges from alleged incidents spanning from 2002 to 2005 related to the sexual abuse of girls as young as 14. In August 2019, he was found dead by suicide in his jail cell, with federal investigators concluding in 2023 that his death was the result of sweeping misconduct, negligence and errors by staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Mountbatten-Windsor was interviewed on suspicion of misconduct in public office following the release in the U.S. of FBI’s Epstein files.

As part of that investigation, police said they had searched two addresses in Berkshire, about 50 miles west of London, and in Norfolk, just more than 100 miles northeast of Britain’s capital. Mountbatten-Windsor has had residences in both locations.

Police added they were speaking with a number of witnesses, but could not confirm or deny their identities, and urged anyone else with information to come forward.

They added that after Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest in February, they had been working with the U.S. Justice Department to get further information related to the investigation.

“Our team of very experienced detectives are working meticulously through a significant amount of information that has come in from the public and other sources,” Thames Valley Police Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said in a statement Friday.

“We are committed to conducting a thorough investigation into all reasonable lines of enquiry, wherever they may lead,” he said.

The police statement came a day after the British government released documents saying there was no evidence the then-prince had been vetted before being appointed as the British trade envoy in 2001.

The scandal of his ties to Epstein had brought disgrace upon the royal family, with Charles stripping his brother of his royal titles last year as he faced pressure to act. The former prince was also ordered to leave his residence, the Royal Lodge, part of the Crown Estate.

Buckingham Palace said at the time that the “censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”