UK police end review of Prince Andrew sexual abuse allegations

Britain’s biggest police force says it has closed a review into allegations accusing Prince Andrew of sexual abuse brought in a US civil suit by Virginia Giuffre.

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) chief Cressida Dick had said in August that “no one is above the law”, after Giuffre filed her claim alleging Queen Elizabeth II’s second son sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. 

“As a matter of procedure MPS officers reviewed a document released in August 2021 as part of a US civil action,” the Met said in a statement late on Sunday. 

“This review has concluded and we are taking no further action,” it added, saying it would work further with other law enforcement agencies leading the investigation.

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The London force said it had also looked into a report by Channel 4 News that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked, groomed and abused women and girls in the UK.

“This review is complete and no further action will be taken,” it said.

According to Giuffre, the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein regularly abused her and lent her out to “powerful men” for sex. 

She alleged that Prince Andrew abused her at the London home of Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, who is on remand in jail awaiting trial in New York.

Andrew, 61, a divorced father of two and a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, was forced to step back from frontline royal duties in late 2019 after defending his friendship with Epstein in a television interview.

Last week, a US judge agreed that Andrew’s lawyers can receive a copy of a 2009 settlement they believe will nullify Giuffre’s civil case.

Andrew has until October 29 to respond formally to the lawsuit. He has been not been criminally charged, and has repeatedly denied the allegations.

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