Met Police to look into claims Prince Andrew sought information on accuser

The Metropolitan Police said it was “actively” looking into media reports that Prince Andrew had tried to obtain personal information about his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, through his police protection.

“We are aware of the media reports and are actively looking into the allegations made,” the force said on Sunday.

Ms Giuffre, who took her own life earlier this year, said she was among the girls and young women who were sexually exploited by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy circle.

Prince Andrew has not commented on the reports, but he consistently denies all accusations against him. Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

Ms Giuffre also claimed she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions, including when she was 17 at the London home of his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2001.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges related to Epstein, her former boyfriend.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Prince Andrew asked his police protection officer to investigate her before the newspaper published a photo of Ms Giuffre’s first meeting with the prince in February 2011.

The newspaper claimed that he gave the officer her date of birth and secret Social Security number.

The Sunday Telegraph also claimed Prince Andrew “sought to dig up dirt” on Ms Giuffre.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, speaking on BBC One’s Sunday program with Laura Kuenssberg, described the matter as “deeply worrying”, adding that if true, “it is not the way close protection officers should be used at all”.

Prince Andrew announced on Friday that he has voluntarily decided not to use his titles and to renounce his membership of the Order of the Garter, Britain’s oldest and most prestigious knightly order.

He will no longer use the title Duke of York, which he received from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The Prince has effectively ceased to be a ‘working royal’, has lost the use of the title HRH and no longer appears at official royal events. His role will now be further diminished.

Emily Maitlis, who conducted an infamous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 with the prince, said the move had been “a long time coming”, adding: “Six years was a very long time to wait for this.”

In the interview, the prince claimed that he severed all ties with Epstein in 2010 during a visit to his home in New York.

Talk on Sunday with Laura Maitlis, of Queensberg, said she felt “really sick” when the February 2011 emails from the prince to Epstein emerged, suggesting their friendship had not ended.

She questioned Prince Andrew about his decision to “spend four days – four nights – in the home of a convicted pedophile” to end their friendship, and he replied that he tended to be “very honourable”.

Emails from February 2011 include a message from the prince saying: “Stay in close touch and we’ll be playing more soon!”, suggesting he kept in touch with him.

“The gist of it, not just the idea that he was saying we’re in this together, but signing the ‘let’s play some more soon’ doesn’t suggest that he ended that friendship at all, or that he broke off the relationship with Epstein at all,” Maitlis said.

“It really left you wondering why he said that, whether the conversation even existed at all, and how much stuff we now have to go back and ask about in that interview,” the journalist added.

Prince Andrew has faced a series of scandals in recent years, including his own scandal Settlement out of court With Ms Giuffre in 2022, after she filed a civil suit against him.

Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which will be released next week, is likely to shed more attention on the prince’s involvement with her and Epstein.

On Friday evening, Skye Roberts, Ms Giuffre’s brother, told BBC Newsnight that his sister was “very proud” of the latest developments regarding Prince Andrew’s titles, but that he would like the monarch to go a step further and remove the prince’s title.

“I think anyone involved…should bear some kind of responsibility and accountability towards these survivors,” he said.