British police on Thursday 12 August vowed to re-examine the charges against Prince Andrew after a woman filed a complaint in the United States who accuses him of sexual abuse when in the grip of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Read also: Buckingham fears a questioning of Prince Andrew
Virginia Giuffre claims that Queen Elizabeth II's second son is "
one of the powerful men
" to whom she was "
handed over for sexual purposes
" when she was the victim between 2000 and 2002, from the age of 16-year-old from the vast sex trafficking for which financier Jeffrey Epstein was charged and incarcerated, before killing himself in a Manhattan prison in the summer of 2019. She filed a complaint Monday in Manhattan federal court.
"
I asked my team to look at the documents again
," London Police Chief Cressida Dick told LBC radio, adding that the charges had already been investigated twice, in cooperation with the prosecution. .
"
We are of course ready to work with the foreign authorities, we will provide them with all the assistance requested within the framework of the law
", she added.
“
No one is above the law,
” she said.
Withdrawn from public life
Prince Andrew, who had already rejected these allegations, is accused in the complaint of having "
sexually assaulted
" Virginia Giuffre, then underage, on three occasions: in London at a very close to Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and in the properties of businessman in New York and the Virgin Islands.
Contacted by AFP, neither the services of Prince Andrew nor the royal family wished to comment.
Read also: Epstein case: Prince Andrew's accuser filed a complaint in New York
The 61-year-old Duke of York had already "
categorically
" denied such accusations in an interview deemed calamitous to the BBC in November 2019, where he did not express a single regret for his friendship with Epstein or the slightest empathy for its victims. Despite his denials, his association with the American businessman had plunged him into turmoil and forced him to retire from public life. He continues to appear in public alongside the Royal Family, however, and was seen this week arriving at the Scottish residence of Balmoral, where the Queen is located.
According to a source close to Prince Charles quoted Thursday in The Times, the complaint "
will probably strengthen the opinion (of the heir to the throne) that a return of the duke is impossible
". In June 2020, Manhattan federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, then in charge of the investigation, accused Prince Andrew of pretending to cooperate. The Duke of York's lawyers had assured them that their client had offered to testify three times.