Palace paralysis over Duke’s case
As Andrew faces twin setbacks on sex claims, insiders say royal staff ‘sleepwalked’ into crisis
BUCKINGHAM Palace ‘sleepwalked’ into the Prince Andrew crisis and has been paralysed with indecision over to how to handle things, it was claimed last night.
Senior royal insiders said the duke operated with ‘impunity’ as a member of the Royal Family because staff were ‘too scared’ to stand up to him.
And they say the idea he could still return to public life, despite the swirling controversy around his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, must be quashed.
The comments came as Andrew suffered two setbacks in his US sex case, admitting he has no proof over his infamous claim he cannot sweat and also seeing the judge throw out an attempt to stall the case.
Lawyers for his accuser Miss Roberts, who is suing the prince for damages in a New York civil case, have demanded he hand over evidence he does not perspire, as he said in a car crash Newsnight interview two years ago when denying her allegations.
But his legal team said ‘no documents exist in his possession, custody or control’ to back the claim.
And the judge denied Andrew’s requests to delay the case after he claimed Miss Roberts cannot sue in the US on the grounds that she lives in Australia.
The prince was seen in public yesterday for the first time since his friend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of multiple counts of child sex trafficking for her boyfriend Epstein, driving himself to Windsor Castle.
In his Newsnight interview he also told interviewer Emily Maitlis that on the date Miss Roberts says they slept together in London, he was at a Pizza Express in Woking. He has been told to prove this too.
Miss Roberts, now Giuffre, claims she slept with Andrew three times in 2001, at a time when she was 17 and under the control of Epstein.
The prince vehemently denies the accusations. But pressure has increased on him this week following Maxwell’s conviction.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior former royal adviser stressed that while there was no knowledge of the extent of the duke’s friendship with Epstein and
Maxwell to anyone outside of the prince’s private office, the ‘Andrew problem’ was a long-running issue for the royal household in general.
‘Anyone who even dared to offer their professional advice that maybe his way wasn’t the right one was met with a decisive “f*** off out of my office”,’ the source said.
The account is backed up by other former royal staff, all of whom claim the prince acted as if he ‘didn’t have to answer to anyone’ and was allowed to ‘go rogue’.
Particularly troublesome, it was said, was Andrew’s role as a roving trade ‘ambassador’, which saw him repeatedly criticised for cosying up to highly controversial world leaders and businessmen.
A former Buckingham Palace staff member recalled how it was an ‘impossible job’ to persuade the prince or his advisers to take any instruction. ‘The duke made clear
‘He was allowed to go rogue’
that the only person he answered to was the Queen,’ they said.
‘He wouldn’t take advice from anyone. [He] acted with total impunity and staff were just too scared to stand up to him as a member of the Royal Family. Her Majesty almost always backed him and he fully exploited that.
‘There’s an element of Buckingham Palace sleepwalking into his whole crisis. Andrew would tell his family that it was all untrue and it would all go away.’
Andrew stepped back from official duties following the Newsnight interview. But the insiders said it was it was ‘unsatisfactory’ the option of his return to public life remained open. ‘It would be better for all concerned to lance that boil now, once and for all,’ they said.
On Tuesday, Andrew will try again to have the case brought by Miss Roberts thrown out.
But in court papers filed yesterday, her legal team made it clear they would test his Newsnight alibi, when he disputed her claim he was sweating while they danced together in a London nightclub by saying he had a ‘peculiar medical condition’ which made it ‘impossible’ for him to perspire. Lawyers want the court to order him to hand over proof about his ‘alleged medical condition of anhidrosis’.
And they could ask for his former police bodyguards to testify about the duke’s whereabouts at the time Miss Roberts says they were having sex. Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night.