Welby: We shouldn’t ask royals to be saints
After Andrew scandal, the archbishop intervenes
‘Everybody is human’
IT IS wrong to expect the royals to behave like ‘superhuman saints’, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Justin Welby has spoken out after the Prince Andrew scandal and appeared to defend him by insisting ‘everybody is human’.
His remarks come amid the backlash over Andrew’s previous links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He made the intervention as Andrew faced renewed calls to speak to US investigators about the Epstein sex slave accusations.
The duke, 59, has struggled to move past the scandal despite stepping down from public service in the fallout from his disastrous BBC interview.
Further criticism mounted in recent weeks after the duke faced claims that he had slept with two of Epstein’s victims.
The archbishop became the latest high-profile figure to intervene in the scandal when he was asked about the duke and whether the royals should adhere to a higher moral code.
He replied: ‘I think to ask that they be superhuman saints is not what we should do because nobody is like that.
‘Everybody makes mistakes, everybody is human. I am not commenting on any member of the royal family except to say that I am astonished at what a gift they are to this country.’
The head of the Church of England
made the comments in an interview with The Big Issue.
It came as the duke’s sex accuser, Virginia Roberts, yesterday claimed on Twitter that the prince knew she had been trafficked to the UK when they allegedly met.
Miss Roberts, 31, claimed in a
BBC interview earlier this month that she was abused by Andrew at the age of 17 and was left feeling ‘ashamed and dirty’.
She claimed Andrew bought her alcohol in London’s Tramp nightclub before they had sex at the home of Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Miss Roberts – who now uses her married name, Giuffre – said she felt sick when she realised she was expected to have sex with him.
Andrew has repeatedly denied this and said he does not remember meeting her, despite a photograph of the pair in which he has his arm around her bare waist. Mother-of-three Miss Roberts is one of more than 80 women who have claimed they were abused by Epstein. She has joined a number of victims who have urged the duke to be interviewed by the FBI about Epstein’s criminality.
Andrew has so far resisted pleas to speak to US investigators despite publicly saying he is ‘willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required’.
Earlier this week, it emerged that one of Epstein’s victims wrote to the prince to say he had been used as ‘bait’ to attract victims by his wealthy friend. And lawyers in the US last week said a second alleged victim of Epstein had come forward to say she had sex with Andrew.