Warrants to Raid Former Prince Andrew Were Unlawful, Court Says

The warrants that allowed police to raid former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s homes as part of a criminal investigation earlier this year were unlawful, a High Court judge said.

Mountbatten-Windsor, who is under investigation over misconduct in public office, has challenged the legality of the warrants. A London judge will decide at a later date whether police can still retain the material seized during the investigation, a judge said on Thursday.

“The fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end, or mean that the whole of the investigation was unlawful,” Judge Nicholas Hilliard said.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February after the US Department of Justice’s publication of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that allegedly showed the former prince leaking sensitive information.

The ruling comes after Thames Valley Police conceded that the warrants were unlawful. The investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor remains ongoing and no charges have been made, a lawyer for Thames Valley Police said during the hearing on Thursday.