Prince Andrew Becomes Mr Mountbatten Windsor

It was the opening of (some of) the Epstein files that proved to the World what multiple victims had said over the years: the former Prince Andrew had been party to the Epstein/Maxwell pyramid of abuse.

The timing of a released email to Epstein was a crushing blow for Andrew, being released the same week as Nobody’s Girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s account of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

There is a lot to feel let down about: woman after woman had stepped forward to give their stories. There was photographic evidence of Andrew and the young Virginia together. Andrew has paid Virginia off to avoid a civil court case. He doesn’t deny being Epstein’s friend. He was on the flight logs.

Yet it took his own email being released to create a situation where his position in the beleaguered Royal Family was no longer considered tenable.

This comes after years of people bravely speaking out. - an act that any whistleblower knows is far from easy, and which has often resulted in some frightening, menacing behaviours against Epstein’s survivor/victims and those surrounding them.

The only person I’ve not yet seen comment on his new position in life is Andrew himself, and who can blame him? The last time he tried commenting on the allegations against him, the interview (with Emily Maitless) was a disaster.

The interview confirms that he was at Epstein’s mansion at least three times a year, that Epstein was a friend. That Ghislaine Maxwell introduced Andrew to Epstein. That he, Andrew, stayed on Epstein’s island. That he saw Epstein after Epstein’s release from prison.

Virginia is dead, like so many surrounding Epstein and Maxwell’s awful web of abuse.

I cannot celebrate this man losing his titles and his home as a victory - he has lived a life of luxury, lived it to the full whilst Virginia has, for decades, had to move around to stay safe. Her book recounts the fear in which she and her family lived right up until the end of her life.

I have no inside track but I believe the victims. Account after account by victims say the same thing from different angles. Andrew was there. Flight logs from the ‘Lolita Express’. And now emails.

Re-listening to the interview with Andrew, he’s telling us something deeper, I suspect, a truth: he was friends with Ghislaine Maxwell. The same Ghislaine who procured girls for Epstein.

Virginia’s book, ‘Nobody’s Girl’ alongside Vicky Ward’s ‘Chasing Ghislaine’, along with report after report, point to the fact that Maxwell was a complicit partner in the Epstein ring of abuse rather than Epstein’s victim. Somewhat pathetically under Epstein’s thrall, perhaps, but a ringmaster nonetheless in the procurement of girls. (Yet we’re not calling this a grooming gang?)

It takes bravery to speak truth to power, and Andrew has had all of the protections of a royal family and of wealth. Virginia started her life away from her parents as a teenage runaway and was almost immediately sucked in by a trafficker. Epstein was not the first.

Epstein has escaped justice. The US police have not done what it takes to bring Andrew to justice. He’s almost certainly a bully. Has a reputation as unpleasant. And controlling. So it’s not hard to believe that he’s arrogant and entitled and feels he’s above the law.

Nothing short of a fair and open trial of Andrew - and others at the highest levels of both UK and US society - can really see justice done. It’s hard to believe that a genuine trial could actually happen. Epstein’s first trial resulted in very little that could be called a punishment. His second one didn’t happen.

Until such a trial happens, Andrew will continue to live in relative comfort. Perhaps in disgrace. Perhaps away from the Royal Lodge he currently calls home. But he’s hardly going to be on the streets claiming Universal Credit.

This is not a victory to crow over. We should be hanging our heads in shame.

Virginia, who was campaigning on Twitter against grooming at the same time as many of the other girls, and as us, and who is desperately missed for her forthright truths, won’t ever have that luxury. The stark truth is that she’s dead. The only way she could be believed without being accused of exposing the truth just for financial gain.

Dead. That’s pretty final. No amount of accolades or recognition can ever change that. So rather than celebrating dislodging Andrew, let’s resolve to believe the women who have bravely stood up to be counted.