U.K. Police Contacting Security Officers Who Once Protected Former Prince Andrew

The authorities also searched a mansion used by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was arrested in connection with an investigation into suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The British police on Friday said they were contacting royal protection officers who might have information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, a day after his stunning arrest amid scrutiny over his links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The announcement from the Metropolitan Police in London added that the authorities were aware of suggestions that the city’s airports “may have been used to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation.” A private jet used by Mr. Epstein was nicknamed the “Lolita express” and was said to have brought women into the country

The investigation into Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor continued on a separate track on Friday, as officers from the Thames Valley Police searched a mansion that had been occupied until recently by the former prince in connection with allegations that he may have shared confidential government information.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was questioned until late Thursday at a police station in Norfolk, England, over accusations of misconduct in public office. This takes place when someone performing a job on behalf of the British public “willfully neglects to perform their duty” or “willfully misconducts themselves” in abusing the public trust. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment upon conviction.

A photograph of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor leaving the police building, looking apparently shellshocked in the back of a vehicle, dominated the front pages of British newspapers.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 on Thursday, is a younger brother of King Charles III. His arrest plunged the British monarchy into one of its biggest crises in decades.

It came after the United States Department of Justice released millions of documents last month in connection with Mr. Epstein. Reports suggest that Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor may have shared confidential government information with Mr. Epstein while serving as a British trade envoy, a position he held from 2001 to 2011.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has not so far been charged. On Thursday, the Thames Valley Police did not mention the accusations of sexual abuse made against the former prince by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, or the trafficking allegations that Mr. Epstein was facing when he died in a Manhattan jail in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

In their statement on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said they were “identifying and contacting former and serving officers who may have worked closely, in a protection capacity, with Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor.”

The officers were being asked “whether anything they saw or heard during that period of service may be relevant to our ongoing reviews,” the statement added.

Close protection officers provide security for senior members of the royal family, giving them detailed knowledge of their meetings and travel schedules.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, who has not spoken publicly or responded to requests for comment in recent months, has always denied any wrongdoing.

The Thames Valley Police search underway on Friday was carried out at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion on the estate surrounding Windsor Castle that the former prince occupied until earlier this year, when he moved to a smaller property on the royal estate in Sandringham, Norfolk.

While other members of the royal family have continued their normal round of engagements, the allegations swirling around Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor have created an extraordinary moment of jeopardy for the monarchy, which has been shaken by several crises over the past century.

Until Thursday, no senior royal family member had been arrested in connection with a serious crime since the 17th century.

Charles issued a public statement after the arrest promising full cooperation with the investigation and stating that “the law must take its course.”

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal title and honors last year after earlier revelations from the Epstein files. But he remains eighth in line to the throne, and while it seems unlikely that Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor would ever become king, some politicians are pressing for his position to be revoked formally.

On Friday, a British official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter said that the government would consider legislation to remove Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession once the police investigation had concluded.

Earlier, Andrew Bowie, a senior member of the main opposition Conservative Party, said that, “it would be the decent thing” for Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor to remove himself from the line of succession.

Speaking to GB News, he acknowledged that Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor had not been charged but that, “if he was found guilty of this, Parliament would be well within its rights to act to remove him from the line of succession.”

In a statement, Ed Davey, leader of the centrist opposition Liberal Democrat Party, called for the investigation to proceed unimpeded, adding that the line of succession was “an issue that Parliament is going to have to consider when the time is right.” He added that “the monarchy will want to make sure he can never become king.”

On Thursday, Sky Roberts, Ms. Giuffre’s brother, praised the British authorities, contrasting what had taken place in Britain with what he described as inaction in the United States.

“I will continue to commend the king for the actions he has taken; we have yet to see that from our own government here,” he said in a BBC interview.

In 2022, Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor paid Ms. Giuffre an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit in a New York court, after she accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. He did not admit any wrongdoing in the case.

It remains unclear how that settlement was financed, potentially raising questions about which other royals knew details of the case.

Some American politicians are urging the king to encourage Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor to testify before a U.S. congressional committee over his relationship with Mr. Epstein.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has said that he first met Mr. Epstein in 1999 through Ghislaine Maxwell, a well-connected Briton who was then the financier’s girlfriend and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States after her conviction in a sex-trafficking conspiracy and on other counts.

In 2008, Mr. Epstein was jailed after pleading guilty in Florida to a charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution. Two years later, Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor and Mr. Epstein were photographed walking in Central Park in New York City. The former prince later claimed that the meeting had been to end the friendship and that he wanted do so in person.

Documents from the Epstein files have caused wider ructions in Britain after they revealed the depth of ties between Mr. Epstein and Peter Mandelson, a former British ambassador to the United States. On Friday, Global Counsel, an advisory firm co-founded by Mr. Mandelson in 2010, entered an insolvency procedure after losing key clients.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

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