British police said yesterday that searches at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home in southeast England had concluded after the former prince was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on Thursday was part of a police investigation into his ties with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Officers have now left the location we have been searching in Berkshire. This concludes the search activity that commenced following our arrest of a man in his sixties from Norfolk on Thursday,” Thames Valley Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said.
Documents in the Epstein files released by the US Justice Department last month appeared to show that King Charles’ younger brother had sent confidential government documents to the disgraced financier while working as a trade envoy.
Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and said he regretted their friendship.
Separately, London’s police said they were contacting former protection officers who worked for Mountbatten-Windsor, urging anyone with allegations of sex offences relating to Epstein to come forward.
Lawyers representing Britain’s former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, who has faced scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, said his arrest stemmed from a “baseless suggestion” that he intended to leave the country and settle abroad.
Mandelson, 72, was released from police custody yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
He was fired from the most prestigious posting in Britain’s diplomatic service in September, when the depth of his friendship with the convicted sex offender started to become clear.
Police this month began a criminal investigation into Mandelson after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government passed on communications between the former ambassador and Epstein.
“The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad,” law firm Mishcon de Reya said in a statement on behalf of Mandelson. “There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.”
In the statement, it said Mandelson was arrested despite an agreement with police that he would attend a voluntary interview next month, and that it had requested evidence from the authorities to justify the arrest.
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