Prince Andrew, Epstein and the Palace

There’s a vignette about Prince Andrew’s childhood in this new book by the journalist Nigel Cawthorne that seems telling.

The royal family were watching Coronation Street and as the barmaid Bet Lynch had an argument, Andrew cried: ‘‘Oh God, look at all those common people.’’

This two-tiered view of humanity was not something he shed as he aged, the book implies: there’s royalty and the plebs; his daughters and the girls abused by his paedophile friend.

In Prince Andrew, Epstein and the Palace, Cawthorne charts Andrew’s descent from the ‘‘royal who could do no wrong’’ to the ‘‘pariah prince’’. This is not a book teeming with revelations or even fresh interviews; instead it relies heavily on newspaper reports. However, seeing the scandal laid out in what will be excruciating detail for the palace still hits hard.

Even a fervent royalist would be left thinking that Andrew is an egotistical oaf who chose not to see his friend’s abuse, and there are many who feel that the allegations against him should still be tested in court. What a fall from grace for a prince who was once the poster boy for the monarchy, a regal Harry Styles.

Andrew had always cast himself as a ladies’ man.

The Queen turned a blind eye for years to her favourite child’s flaws and floozies, tolerating his car-crash marriage to Sarah

Ferguson and his proclivity for dating much younger models post-divorce. Andrew became, Cawthorne writes, ‘‘the son whom the nonagenarian monarch considers her ‘rock’’’. But even his mother could not overlook his friendship with Epstein in the end.

In 2008, the American billionaire pleaded guilty to soliciting underage girls for prostitution and served a measly 13 months in a low-security Florida jail. He was arrested again in July 2019 and eventually exposed for sexual abuse on an industrial scale.

Up to 80 victims have been identified, including 12-year-old triplets.

They did not get their day in court; Epstein died in prison last August in a reported suicide.

Andrew had been photographed with Epstein in 2010 – after the latter became a registered sex offender.

Andrew categorised this meeting as a break-up trip, but stayed with his former friend for four days.

A year later, Fergie admitted accepting money from Epstein.

But the most damning allegation emerged last year, when Virginia Roberts Giuffre – one of Epstein’s victims – alleged that Andrew had had sex with her three times, including when she was 17.

The final time Giuffre claims to have had sex with Andrew was in an orgy with some Russian girls and Epstein.

She alleged: ‘‘Jeffrey and the prince were laughing... and then they undressed and then I performed a sex act on them – Jeffrey first and then Andrew. It was disgusting.’’

A second woman, Johanna Sjoberg, claimed Andrew had groped her breast with a Spitting Image puppet of himself at Epstein’s house in 2001.

The palace said that the allegations were ‘‘false and without any foundation’’.

Nonetheless, Andrew decided to end the speculation about his links with Epstein by giving an interview. This was a mistake. BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis slipped him just enough rope to hang himself.

He made extraordinary claims – about sweat and Pizza Express in Woking – managed not to express sympathy for Epstein’s victims, and downplayed the repeated rape of young girls as ‘‘unbecoming’’.

Afterwards the allegations still persisted as a series of witnesses claimed