A haggard Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was driven away from a police station on Thursday night following his arrest that shocked the world, Daily Mail reports.
Some 11 hours after officers knocked on his door on the Sandringham estate to arrest him on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a stunned looking Prince Andrew was released under investigation, according to the report by Daily Mail
As his arrest triggered arguably the biggest crisis in the monarchy for nearly 400 years, his brother, the King, insisted Andrew should be subject to the full force of British justice, saying: ‘The law must take its course.’
In an unprecedented and historic personal statement, Charles, 77, expressed his ‘deepest concern’ at the news police had picked up Andrew, on his 66th birthday, in extraordinary scenes on Thursday morning.
The King also pledged his ‘full and wholehearted support and co-operation’ with the ongoing police investigation.
The charge is a rare but serious crime, liable for trial by jury, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
He has not yet been charged.
Andrew’s arrest sensationally took place on the monarch’s private estate in Norfolk, to where the former Duke of York was recently exiled following his public disgrace.
Following days of behind-closed-doors planning, officers from Thames Valley Police swept along the Sandringham roads in six unmarked police vehicles at 8am.
In the tightly co-ordinated operation, one car advanced on Wood Farm – Prince Philip’s former home which is being used as a temporary bolt-hole by Andrew – via its main driveway while the others circled towards the back, blocking the rear entrance of the five-bedroom property.
While Prince Andrew was being taken into custody at the unassuming Aylsham Police Station about an hour away, a simultaneous raid was being launched 130 miles west at Royal Lodge, his former home in the grounds of Windsor Great Park.
Andrew’s recent departure from the mansion was so swift that many of his belongings remain in the property.
Neither the King nor Buckingham Palace were informed in advance, signalling the police’s determination to show that no-one – not even a former prince – is above the law.
Just after 7pm, following a day of being questioned, he emerged red-eyed and jowly, the image of his release encapsulating his fall from grace as he tried to cower on the back seat of a car driven by privately funded security guards.
The ex-Duke is accused of passing potentially confidential and sensitive documents to his friend, convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while working as a UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.
The clamour for a police investigation had reached a crescendo in recent days following revelations in the three million pages of Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice at the end of last month.
The investigation and now arrest of a senior member of the Royal Family – the first since Charles I was taken prisoner by parliamentarians in 1637 – has sparked an unprecedented crisis for the monarchy.
While the King has done his best to distance himself from his disgraced brother, including stripping him of his remaining titles and securing his departure from his Royal Lodge mansion last October, the charge still relates to his time as a working royal.
It will, inevitably, raise questions as to who else knew about his behaviour during the decade he served as the UK’s globe-trotting ‘special representative’ for trade and industry, apparently feathering both his own nest and those of his questionable friends.
And it could see senior royal officials, both past and present, dragged into the official police investigations – as well as other members of the royal family, most notably his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie as possible witnesses.
They have all been frequently referred to in Epstein’s recently revealed correspondence, particularly the former duchess.