Andrew arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office as King says 'law must take its course' - live updates
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It comes after Thames Valley Police said they were assessing a complaint over the alleged sharing of confidential material by the former prince with Jeffrey Epstein.

Summary
Police say King Charles’s brother is in custody and officers are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk - read the police statement in full

  • fiat_lux@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    22·
    17 hours ago

    I’m not British but I’m also very surprised. I can’t help but wonder if they would have dared had he still had his title?

    on his birthday too.

    The cops took the phrase “the icing on the cake” literally, and I think it was an excellent choice.

    • gnutrino@programming.devEnglish
      19·
      16 hours ago

      I can’t help but wonder if they would have dared had he still had his title?

      I would assume that the king and other interested parties will have known this was coming for a while and that is why he lost his title.

      • fiat_lux@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        5·
        16 hours ago

        Maybe, I’m not so sure. I had thought they knew it was very likely the accusations were true, but they spent a lot of time sidestepping action. If public criticism hadn’t been so relentless, they might have been content to sweep it under the rug, as is tradition.

        But I have never kept close track of the royal family, largely because I always assumed they were untouchable.

        • gnutrino@programming.devEnglish
          7·
          15 hours ago

          they spent a lot of time sidestepping action

          That’s sort of my point though, they spent years protecting him and then suddenly a few months ago something made them turn on a dime and strip him of his titles very rapidly. I suspect that “something” was being told the police had enough evidence to arrest him.

          • fiat_lux@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            1·
            5 hours ago

            That’s fair. At the time I thought it might be because they were struggling to deal with both the Andrew situation and the Harry drama simultaneously, while Charles was generally more unpopular than his mother, and likely ill.

            But if they privately found out something that made the Andrew situation untenable, it makes sense that they would try to distance that ASAP. I wonder whether it’s something that has been released already or is even worse.

            Charles’ statement today on “we support the police”, plus letting them search The Lodge, definitely feels like they’re leaving him to rot. At least maybe a little.