OPINION: Image of the previous prince being pushed residence from custody might be proven and reshown till the day he dies – and possibly then as nicely
Andrew might need one ace up his sleeve (Picture: REUTERS)
If there’s one certainty within the seething snakepit of questions surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor this extraordinary weekend, it’s this. The photographer who snapped his shattered face as he was pushed away from police custody is now a really wealthy man.
The picture of Andrew trying shocked and shellshocked after hours spent languishing in a naked police station cell will outline him for the remainder of his life. Each newspaper, tv station and information web site carried it. It will likely be proven and re-shown till the day he dies – and possibly on that day too. The one who captured the arresting picture of an arrested Andrew want by no means work once more.
A lot for certainty. The large, unanswerable query is: What occurs now? Andrew is not on bail. He does not should report back to a police station. It’s not thought that his passport has been confiscated. So, in principle, there’s nothing to cease him from making an attempt to depart the nation. What if he makes an attempt to? I feel we might most likely anticipate one other arrest, this time on the airport.
Learn extra: ‘Not the Birthday celebration Andrew anticipated – stand by for the aftershocks’
So he’ll most likely keep put at Sandringham. Then what? If he needs to be charged after his arrest, the ensuing court docket case would electrify a watching world. It’s nearly unimaginable to think about such a spectacle.
As Andrew has persistently denied any wrongdoing in connection together with his paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein, we might anticipate him to enter a not responsible plea to any fees. And now it will get actually, actually difficult. What if he have been to assert that he had saved his brother, the King, knowledgeable of his actions regarding Epstein?
By that easy technique, the case would doubtless collapse. Keep in mind what occurred with ex-royal butler Paul Burrell.
Burrell was accused of stealing Princess Diana’s property. He claimed he’d advised the Queen that he’d taken it “for safekeeping”. However the monarch can’t be referred to as as a witness in their very own Crown court docket (or be prosecuted both). So the case in opposition to Burrell couldn’t proceed. If that is so would the identical apply if Charles was named as a fabric witness in his brother’s trial?
There’s after all a technique Andrew might be sure to wind up within the dock. And that’s if US prosecutors extradite him and cost him in America with, say, intercourse offences. No royal safety for Mr Mountbatten -Windsor over there, is there?
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