Police inform Andrew’s bodyguards to disclose what they know: Personal safety officers requested to recall any of the disgraced ex-Prince’s behaviour they may have witnessed or ‘turned a blind eye to’

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s police protection officers have been ordered to tell detectives everything they know.

Scotland Yard last night told staff closest to the disgraced former prince to ‘consider carefully anything they saw or heard’ while working for him.

Questions have been asked about what Andrew’s taxpayer-funded security may have witnessed, and potentially turned a blind eye to, during time he spent with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

Previous inquiries have drawn a blank but the Met last night put pressure on current and former officers as they investigate allegations made in the wake of the Epstein Files release.

On another extraordinary royal day:

• Andrew stands to be cut from the line of succession with ministers readying legislation for when any police investigations are finalised.
• His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, was said to be in ‘the depths of despair’ as others expected the authorities will look to speak to her as a potential witness soon.
• The King could be forced into footing the legal bill for his brother to defend himself against the allegations.
• The ex-duke’s former lawyer, known as ‘Good News Gary’, is masterminding his strategy once again.
• Creepy pictures of Andrew playing with a ‘boob ball’ with a toddler emerged.

Officers are today expected to continue searching Andrew’s former home, Royal Lodge in Windsor, following his arrest on Thursday morning, his 66th birthday.

Questions have been asked about what Andrew Mountbatten WIndsor’s (pictured) taxpayer-funded security may have witnessed, and potentially turned a blind eye to

Police officers patrolling Royal Lodge. On Friday night Scotland Yard told staff closest to the disgraced former prince to ‘consider carefully anything they saw or heard’ while working for him

Thames Valley Police released the former Duke of York under investigation 11 hours after picking him up at his new home on the royal Sandringham Estate, on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Andrew has faced allegations of passing potentially confidential and sensitive documents to Epstein while working as a UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011. 

The Met said last night it was continuing to look into the Epstein Files, but said it had ‘separately’ started the process of ‘identifying and contacting former and serving officers, who may have worked closely, in a protection capacity’ with the ex-prince. 

In a statement, the force said: ‘They have been asked to consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard during that period of service may be relevant to our ongoing reviews and to share any information that could assist us.’ 

They refused to confirm how many current and former staff members had been identified, and how many had been contacted to date.

It comes after an unnamed former senior Met protection officer this week told LBC Radio that members of its Royalty and Specialist Protection (Rasp) unit – officers who accompany high-profile people on public events and are with them at close quarters – may have ‘wilfully turned a blind eye’ during visits to Epstein’s private island, where multiple women said they were abused.

The former officer said there were ‘real concerns’ in the late 1990s and early 2000s that the ‘royal protection team became too close to their principals’, and staff were ‘terrified’ of being demoted. 

Police have yet to identify any wrongdoing by protection officers. Scotland Yard also said no new allegations have so far been made ‘regarding sexual offences said to have occurred within our jurisdiction’.

Thames Valley Police released the former Duke of York under investigation 11 hours after picking him up at his new home on the royal Sandringham Estate, on suspicion of misconduct in public office

A separate report made to Thames Valley Police alleges a woman in her 20s was trafficked by Epstein to Andrew for sex at Royal Lodge in 2010. The force are assessing the claims. Andrew has previous denied claims by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre that she had sex with him three times – in London, New York and on Epstein’s private island.

West Yorkshire Police yesterday became the tenth UK force to announce it was assessing the contents of the three million pages of Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice. 

Meanwhile, former prime minister Gordon Brown, who also served as Chancellor during Andrew’s decade as an envoy, said he had passed a ‘five-page memorandum’ to the Metropolitan, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and other UK police constabularies following Andrew’s arrest.

He said the document ‘provides additional information to that submitted last week where I expressed my concern that we secure justice for trafficked girls and women’.

Detectives have been reviewing allegations against Andrew after files suggested he shared reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore with Epstein.

Andrew has denied wrongdoing over his Epstein links but has not directly responded to the latest allegations. The King said that ‘the law must take its course’ and the police have his ‘full support and co-operation’.