Aug. 12 (UPI) — Authorities said Thursday that they’re reviewing files related to Britain’s Prince Andrew after accusations made in a U.S. lawsuit this week that links him to billionaire and American sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
London’s Metropolitan Police are again examining the accusations of sexual assault, Commissioner Cressida Dick said during a monthly call-in show.
Virginia Giuffre, who has accused Epstein, sued Prince Andrew on Monday. The complaint says he raped and sexually abused her when she was 17.
DIck said Thursday that police are reviewing their files on Prince Andrew, but stopped short of opening an investigation.
“It’s been reviewed twice before,” Dick said during her Call the Commissioner show on LBC. “We’ve worked closely with the [Crown Prosecution Service], we are of course open to working with authorities overseas. We will give them every assistance if they ask us for anything within the law obviously.
“As a result of what’s going on, I’ve asked my team to have another look at the material.”
Dick said the Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, has reviewed more than one accusation connected with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while being held on sex trafficking charges.
“No one is above the law,” Dick added.
The commissioner said police review accusations by asking, “is there evidence of a crime, is this the right jurisdiction for this to be dealt with and is the person against whom the crime is alleged still alive?”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, says Prince Andrew sexually assaulted Giuffre, who was then known as Virginia Roberts, on three separate occasions in the United States and Britain. The suit also mentions Epstein acquaintance and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and says Giuffre was “lent out for sexual purposes.”
Prince Andrew, 61, is the son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and is ninth in the line of succession to the British throne. He has denied any wrongdoing related to Giuffre.