Andrew takes legal action over search warrants before his arrest
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is taking legal action against Thames Valley Police over search warrants issued before his arrest in February.
The former Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, in the wake of information that emerged from the Epstein files in the United States. Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing linked to his association with Epstein.
His lawyers are understood to be challenging the lawfulness of search warrants used for Sandringham and at Royal Lodge in Windsor relating to his arrest, as first reported by the Telegraph.
A royal source has made clear that while the King provides a private allowance for Mountbatten-Windsor, this money is not to be used to fund such a judicial review.
Thames Valley Police confirmed it faced a legal challenge over the search warrants: "We are engaged in legal proceedings in relation to warrants previously obtained from the Central Criminal Court."
It added: "As these legal proceedings are currently ongoing, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."
Mountbatten-Windsor, who lost his titles as a prince and Duke of York over his connections to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, wants a judicial review to consider the legality of the search warrants.
A court hearing will be held on Thursday afternoon as part of the process to consider this bid to quash the warrants, with the hearing set to begin in private. The judge will initially hear a request by the police to keep some documents private.
The warrants had been issued by a judge at the Central Criminal Court on 18 February - the day before Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested - and the legal challenge is an application for judicial review against the chief constable of Thames Valley Police and the Central Criminal Court.
"Even if Andrew succeeds in having the search warrants quashed, that would not necessarily be the victory it might first appear," said Nick Vamos, a criminal lawyer at Peters & Peters and former head of special crime at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Vamos said such disputes over warrants were not uncommon - but if the police lost on a technical error, they could still sometimes keep what they had obtained in a search.
"The police can apply back to the Crown Court to retain the material if they have grounds to immediately seize it again," said Vamos.
It would need to be a more fundamental issue with the granting of the warrants for the police to be required to return the material from a search, he said.
For several days after the arrest, police were seen searching Mountbatten-Windsor's property at Marsh Farm in Sandringham and at his former home, Royal Lodge, on the Windsor estate.
The arrest, carried out on his 66th birthday, followed a series of revelations from the Epstein files, published by the US Department of Justice.
They included emails appearing to show official documents being shared by Mountbatten-Windsor with Epstein and others, at a time when he was the UK's trade envoy.
Mountbatten-Windsor had already been stripped of his titles by King Charles, after emails had shown Mountbatten-Windsor had continued his links with Epstein, beyond when he had publicly said those links had been severed.
After Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest in February he was taken to Aylsham police station. A photograph captured his departure later that day, looking exhausted, after he was released under investigation.
The launch of this legal action against the police over the search warrants is the first public pushback from the former prince, who has lost his home, titles and public status, with charities and businesses distancing themselves from him.
Author Andrew Lownie said the legal move against Thames Valley could be a signal to the police to encourage them not to "pursue their investigations with such vigour in future".
But Mountbatten-Windsor's biographer called for other police forces to continue with their investigations - and that "diplomatic and international pressure needs to be put on the US Department of Justice to release the files".
Thames Valley Police says its investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor is continuing.
In a previous update it said the force had been "working with the United States Department of Justice to get further information that may be related to this investigation".
Detectives also highlighted that allegations of sexual misconduct could be considered as part of this inquiry into potential misconduct in public office.
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