Prince Andrew

They may well do that annie - police from here went over to interview the American woman. I think that would be a perfectly acceptable solution in the circumstances

Why don’t the US police come here to interview him ?

I imagine him going round one of his many residences whingeing, sulking, kicking the cat, shouting at the staff and saying ‘It’s not fair Mummy’

Beggars belief that he had planned to jaunt off to Bahrain this weekend for business pretty much as usual until it got pulled by the Firm.

This stupid, vain man has no self awareness does he?

No wonder he’s unpopular!

No matter what PA has or hasn't done - surely he still needs to be interviewed by the US police if only as a witness to what he saw while staying with Epstein.

I believe he knows more than he has stated in that interview. If, as he says, he only visited Epstein to tell him face to face he would no longer be his friend, why did it entail his staying with him for 4 days - could that not be done in a short half hour visit? He must have seen very young girls visiting the house, they were not being smuggled in during the dead of night, did that not raise any suspicions?

oldgimmer1 What do you mean, "he deserves due process"? My understanding is, due process can't occur if he hasn't made himself available to be interviewed by the investigating authorities in the US. As he regularly saw Epstein and stayed in his residences, and he has been named by one of the women, the authorities obviously need to question him and they can't proceed unless he goes to the US. Why has he been so reluctant to do that if he has a clear conscience and surely, as a member of the royal family, his whereabouts are monitored and recorded for security purposes? Emily Maitlis was, I think, a good interviewer but agreeing to an interview in this country by a TV presenter and at a place of his choosing is not quite the same as submitting oneself to police questioning in another country. The reputational damage has been enormous but if he refused to be questioned by the proper authorities presumably that would be the end of the matter so far as he was concerned.

Nobody has stopped him from going to the US to assist with inquiries. He was reported to have told friends, when this all blew up again, how upset he was because he feared he would never again be able to enter the country. So it seems at that point he was willing to completely forego visiting the US - apparently one of his favourite places - so as to avoid being interviewed.

Apparently he is now saying he will assist with the investigation. Does that mean he will go to the US and, if so, was some private agreement made to reassure him that, if he co-operates, he will be left alone? That's a very common scenario over there but hopefully the case has drawn too much international attention for that to happen. Very high profile people such as Trump and Clinton are also reported to have had close ties with Epstein and to have availed themselves of his private jet on numerous occasions. No doubt great efforts will be made by some very powerful people to shut the whole thing down.

Equally, I think girls and boys are now worse regarding celebrity and it’s get rich quick culture.

That is the fault of the society that socialised girls to be silly in that particular way. The more an adult has power of any sort including celebrity the more they ought to bear responsibility.

Sorry that was to old

Cool he did not in any meaningful sense serve his time for his previous crime. Haven’t you read that firstly it was plea bargained away with the crimes disgracefully downgraded.? We can be certain that that happened because of his powerful friends and because of who he would otherwise have named. Secondly have you not read how her ‘served his sentence’? Went out to the office everyday, slept in his own bed in the local police station at night - probably had his own chef in to to cook his meals and then no doubt G.M sent over one of the girls for dessert( the last two points may not but may as well be).

It is quite something to see people here still defending PA....

He is a really toxic man.

I can only conclude that these are people who cannot see that the way he looks, his body language and his facial expressions tell of who he is and it isn't pleasant.

He had a chance to put his side to people on the BBC and what he achieved was to convince people that he had been lying his head off.
He is dammed by his own self.

Anyway the sooner we get shot of him the better and then the cull can keep going. Though not because others are as bad but just time for cutbacks to the RF.

Some of us have been living with cutbacks for a while and no it's not nice.
But it needs to happen
anyone who votes Tory loves cutbacks.......Austerity and the loss of Libraries., Social Care etc

Tear down the establishment and take care of the planet instead.

I imagine this is the ideal opportunity for Charles to get his streamlined monarchy of the future up and running. Although he would not want all the current carnage, it means Andrew and family are effectively out of the picture for good.
Andrew turning 60 next year, early retirement, sorted.

The girl in question was 17.

We have no idea-yet- of what may or may not have gone on vis-a-vis Andrew and "trafficked" girls.

Epstein died before he could be tried.

He'd served his punishment for his previous crime.

I don't think Charles has been keen for Andrew to be involved in very much for years. They're not close.

Edward knows he will become Duke of Edinburgh when Philip dies so he and Sophie have a role of their own carved out. I think/hope they will be a success. Have we ever had a Duchess of Edinburgh other than the Queen?

William and Kate will be fine. Harry on the other hand?

The issue of PA and his behaviour has nothing to do with being a Royalist or not.
Your contributions to this thread confirm a total lack of understanding of grooming or sexual exploitation Cool.

@coolio yours is the voice of reason.

Whatever Andrew may or may not have done, he deserves due process.

So in a proper court, with a judge and jury.

At the moment, there's no case to answer.

Being stupid, arrogant, entitled and lacking in awareness is not a crime.

There will be a lot of pressure on William and Kate unless Harry and Megan get their act together .

Hopefully Charles will have a fairly long reign and Ann, Edward and Sophie will be supportive as they are now , Charles will need them.

Maw B
I agree, that side of the royal family is an absolute bloody disaster. I do wonder what will happen to them once the Queen has passed.

floradora9
The princess is having a quiet wedding as I already explained in a previous posting.

I think it is simplistic to say Well they could have left couldn’t they ?
Let’s not go down that road, you hear the same in cases of domestic abuse and coercive control. Easy to say, much, much harder to do.

Pink quartz
It’s quite evident that you and I will never agree, so we will have to agree to disagree. I am a royalist and you are not. I do not standup for PA as he is guilty of nothing other than stupidity at the moment. Trial by press is not my sort of thing it stinks. The queen has a private income including from the tax payer but also from her own wealth, if she gives it to her son that is up to her.

I am entitled to my opinion.

I have not worked with young people who have been trafficked. I do however remember being a teenager and I do remember young girls going to the back doors to see their fave stars as being starstruck. Equally, I think girls and boys are now worse regarding celebrity and it’s get rich quick culture. As far as I understand, PA is about his stupidity with remaining friends with Epstein which I think for a bloke of his age should have realised. As for young women over the age of consent, they could have left, couldn’t they?

There are plenty of sleazy dirty old men in this world. When I was younger, dirty old buggers used to hang around nightclubs surely, women of a certain age remember this? It was up to you to tell them to bigger off or not your choice? I personally had a short, sharp shock at a young age which made me very wary of even lads of my age group. Even so, going back to the back doors of concerts, what did the young girls go behind for?

I apologise for getting the age of consent in NY City wrong Coolio but had indeed not checked and it is 17.
That said, if VR was not (even if only just) a minor there must still be something “shady”
How long had she been with Epstein? How old was she when procured etc ?
I can well imagine PA not wanting to admit to having sex with a girl just 5 years older than his daughter, but surely a competent adviser could have come up with a rebuttal of the girl’s minority to deflect attention from the sex bit?
So not illegal, as such,because of her age but mega sleazy and when you add in “sex worker” or trafficked, the water gets very muddy indeed. .
There are those oldish pics of PA surrounded by topless beauties on a yacht or beach somewhere , again much younger than him. Fergie’s topless pics with her “financial adviser”having her ties sucked (eurgh!) were cringeworthy, but hardly worse.
What an absolute shower!

CoolioC

And the Queen gets money from the taxpayer as well as being v rich.

So what is the £249,000 then? Is that his share?
They get a lot of money and PA is the worst example of a man with nothing on his mind except his own pleasure.

He is not a man I could have any sympathy for.

and of course that would be perfectly normal?

CoolioC, have you any experience of working with girls or boys who have been sexually exploited or trafficked? The comments you make about PA suggest your sympathy lies with him, rather than the children involved.

I had to smile at one royal correspondent who explained that A would no longer get money from the Privy purse but would be allowed in the balcony at Buck house on state occasions . I just wonder what form the daughter's wedding will take now . There will be an outcry if the public are paying for any of it .