UK's ex-prince leaves Windsor home amid Epstein storm: reports / Photo: © POOL/AFP
UK's ex-prince leaves Windsor home amid Epstein storm: reports
Britain's former prince Andrew has moved out of his sprawling home on the royal Windsor estate, media reports said Wednesday, after newly released documents reignited the scandal over his links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The younger brother of King Charles III is under renewed pressure to explain his appearance in the US Justice Department's (DOJ) latest batch of documents released about the disgraced US financier.
Andrew, 65, who continues to strenuously deny any wrongdoing, left his Royal Lodge mansion earlier than planned, the BBC reported.
His departure from his home of two decades came under cover of darkness on Monday after the latest revelations triggered further concern for the royal family, The Sun daily added.
Buckingham Palace has so far declined to confirm the reports to AFP.
Andrew is said now to be living in Wood Farm, the former residence of his late father prince Philip on the king's private, remote estate in Sandringham, eastern England.
The move comes as a second alleged Epstein victim claimed through her lawyer that the late US financier had sent her to Britain in 2010 to have sex with Andrew -- now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor -- at the 30-room Royal Lodge.
Thames Valley Police told AFP "any new information about any such offences will be assessed in line with our established procedures".
A lawyer's letter in the DOJ cache also alleges that Andrew and Epstein pressured a woman hired as an exotic dancer for sex as part of a threesome in 2006.
"At his home, Mr Epstein introduced my client to his guest Prince Andrew... Mr Epstein and Prince Andrew then told my client they wanted to have a threesome.... and they prevailed upon her to engage in various sex acts," the lawyer said in his letter.
- Stripped of royal titles -
Several high-profile figures including politicians and royals have been caught up in the growing Epstein maelstrom.
New revelations have been emerging daily from a huge stockpile of some three million emails and photographs released on Friday.
Other documents already released and a posthumous memoir by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre prompted King Charles III to strip Andrew of all his royal titles last year.
The monarch also ordered him to leave Royal Lodge where he has lived for the past two decades with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who has also been caught up in the Epstein affair.
Ferguson was also stripped of her duchess title and has been left to seek a new home on her own. There was no indication Wednesday at to where she might be living now.
Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, had accused Andrew of sexual assault.
The then prince paid her a multi-million-pound settlement in 2022 without making any admission of guilt.
- 'Remember the victims' -
Andrew is now reportedly living temporarily at Wood Farm, while renovations are carried out on his planned permanent residence there, the much smaller Marsh Farm.
Pressure on him has intensified since the latest release of documents by the DOJ.
The documents included photos of Andrew kneeling over a clothed woman lying on the ground, and emails inviting Epstein to Buckingham Palace to talk in "private".
The disclosures prompted Prime Minister Keir Starmer to say Andrew should testify before the US Congress about what he knows of Epstein's crimes.
Andrew stepped back from royal duties in 2019 over his links to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail that year while awaiting trial for sex crimes against minors.
In the royal family's only public comments on the unfolding controversy, Andrew's younger brother Prince Edward said Tuesday at an event in Dubai it was "really important, always, to remember the victims and who are the victims in all of this".
(U.Stolizkaya--DTZ)
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