Met Police Drops Investigation Into Prince Andrew Sex Abuse Claims
Published
The Metropolitan Police has dropped the probe into sexual abuse claims against Prince Andrew.
Earlier in August, the Duke of York was the subject of a lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was 17 years old. Giuffre also says she was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted paedophile and financier, and was allegedly trafficked by Ghislaine Maxwell on three occasions.
Shortly after, Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick announced the Met would be reviewing the allegations, albeit without a formal investigation. ‘No one is above the law,’ she earlier said.
Scotland Yard will not investigate the allegations after the Met completed its review and decided not to take the claims further. However, the police said they will ‘continue to liaise’ with other law enforcement agencies in their investigations into Epstein, The Mirror reports.
‘As a matter of procedure MPS officers reviewed a document released in August 2021 as part of a US civil action. This review has concluded and we are taking no further action. We also reviewed information passed to us by a media organisation in June 2021. This review is complete and no further action will be taken,’ a statement read.
Prince Andrew’s legal team must file responses to Giuffre’s lawsuit by October 29, after back-and-forth in the courts over whether legal papers were properly delivered.
The Duke of York’s lawyers were recently given permission to receive and review a copy of an earlier 2009 settlement between the defendant and Epstein, which they believe will bring Giuffre’s case to a close.
Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies earlier said, ‘Although we believe that the release is irrelevant to the case against Prince Andrew, now that service has been accepted and the case is proceeding to a determination on the merits, we believe that counsel for Prince Andrew have a right to review the release and to make whatever arguments they believe appropriate based on it.’
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Topics: News, Met Police, Prince Andrew, UK
