What’s the government going to do about the demand from the US to quiz Prince Andrew?
Will Patel say yes or no?
Anybody who has watched the latest Netflix series on Jeffrey Epstein will be struck how often Prince Andrew features with the US paedophile who committed suicide whilst in prison and, inevitably the police inquiry was going to focus at some stage on the British royal.
The Sun reports:
Andrew, 60, has so far refused to be quizzed by New York prosecutors investigating Epstein’s evil historic sex trafficking network but strongly denies any wrongdoing. Until now it was thought he was only likely to be the target of action by Epstein’s victims in the US civil courts. One – Virginia Roberts Giuffre, now 36 – alleges she had sex with Andrew on three occasions between 2001 and 2002, twice while underage. However Andrew denies this.
According to the Sun the move means that, Andrew, who “categorically denies” any wrongdoing, could be forced to appear in a UK court as a witness. This might happen within months.
The move also piles pressure on the Duke to give evidence – and on the UK Government to assist.
The question for the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, is whether she seeks to shield a senior member of the Royal Family or agree to the US requests. Taking the former course could have all sorts of other ramifications to UK-US relations.