It is difficult to stop and hide, no matter how much it is stripped of its titles——or condemned to social ostracism. The Metropolitan Police of London announced this Sunday in a statement that it has opened an investigation into the latest information from the former Duke of York.
The prince, according to the newspaper Mail on Sundaygave one of his escorts private information about Virginia Giuffre, the American billionaire, Jeffrey Epstein. The king’s brother provided the agent, paid by the public treasury for his personal protection, with Giuffre’s date of birth and Social Security number, with the purpose of him acting as a private investigator and digging up any dirt that could be used against the woman.
At that time, there were just a few hours left until the infamous photo came to light in which the prince is seen grabbing the waist of a young Giuffre, who is wearing a top and has her waist exposed. Behind them, smiling, appears the socialite British Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who recruited minors for Epstein’s sexual adventures, and who is today in prison. The person in charge of taking the photo was the billionaire himself. The place, Maxwell’s apartment in London. The date, March 10, 2001.
The prince would later try to deny the authenticity of the photo, but emails published this weekend show his attempts to stop it from coming to light. Andrés, according to what the aforementioned newspaper has published, wrote in 2011 to the then press secretary of his mother Elizabeth II, Ed Perkins, and explained in an indiscreet way the order he had given to the bodyguard.
“We are aware of the media reports and are actively investigating these allegations,” the police said in their statement.
The British Minister of Energy, Ed Miliband, who this Sunday carried out the task of public appearances carried out daily by members of the Government on a rotating basis, has defended the police investigation, “because that is not at all the use that should be given to the officers assigned to personal protection.”
and for the heir, William of England, Andrew announced his renunciation of all his titles, starting with the most important, the dukedom of York. His wife, Sarah Ferguson, is also no longer a duchess. Only their daughters, Beatriz and Eugenia, retain their title as princesses.
The news has had a great impact, inside and outside the United Kingdom, but as the hours go by, it becomes clear that the intended firewall around Andrés, to prevent further deterioration of the image of the Crown, does not have the desired effectiveness. The diary Daily Mail has revealed messages between the prince and his friend Espstein in which he insists on introducing him to another of the girls who were victims of his sexual abuse network. And the information that Andrés allegedly tried to use a public agent to dig into Giuffre’s life has caused deep rejection in British society.
It does not appear, however, that the officer followed the prince’s instructions. The photo with Giuffre appeared, and Andrés simply stated that he did not know the woman nor did he remember having been the protagonist of that photo.
Giuffre committed suicide last April. Her posthumous memoirs, now published, describe her several sexual encounters with Andrés when she was a minor. The publication has been the straw that has broken the camel’s back of Carlos III’s patience. The public defenestration of his brother took place on Friday, after a conversation between the two, and they wanted to give it a sense of urgency and determination that caught most of the British media by surprise.
Andrés retains his title of prince, which he acquired at birth as the son of Elizabeth II. However, Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, asked the king on the BBC to go further and strip him of that last honor as well.
