LONDON (AP) — Police investigating former Prince Andrew 's links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein unlawfully searched his homes, a London judge said Thursday.
Justice Nicholas Hilliard said significant errors were made by Thames Valley Police in applying for search warrants and by a judge in granting them in the investigation into the disgraced former prince now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Mountbatten-Windsor was not in court, but he was already aware of the partial legal victory because police had previously conceded in July that the warrants were improper.
Police, however, had tried to keep the matter out of the public eye while the investigation continued, leading to a delay in its revelation.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested Feb. 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office and police searched two of his homes.
His lawyers had asked the High Court judge to invalidate the warrants that allowed those searches.
Attorney Mark Stephens, who wasn’t involved in the case, said the development "opens a door to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s lawyers to start to chisel away at some of the fruits of that unlawful warrant.”
The judge, however, said “the fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end, or mean that the whole of the investigation was unlawful.”
Hilliard said he still needs to rule on whether to return Mountbatten-Windsor’s property because there’s a provision by which police can retain unlawfully seized property for evidence.
Stephens said that under English law, there will be further hearings to determine exactly what, if any, evidence would be thrown out.
“The judge will make that decision based on whether or not it’s likely to be probative,” Stephens said. “But, of course, it’s very different in other countries. For example, in America, if you have the fruits of an unlawful warrant, then all that evidence is out. But that’s not the case in the U.K., so we’ve got a few more rounds to go here.”
The judge said the warrants were unlawful because the judge who issued them had not considered whether items being seized were subject to legal privilege or another protection known as “special procedure material.”
Thames Valley Police said in a statement that it accepted that the warrants must be quashed, but said the investigation was continuing.
King Charles III stripped his younger brother of his princely title last year as he sought to shield the rest of the royal family from the continuing fallout from Mountbatten-Windsor's links to Epstein.
While Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, continues to receive a stipend from the king’s private funds, Buckingham Palace has made it clear that those funds may not be used to fund his effort to challenge the search warrants.
The police investigation initially focused on allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor shared sensitive information with Epstein when the former prince was a U.K. trade envoy, but police later said they could also consider other matters.
Police questioned Mountbatten-Windsor for 11 hours before releasing him under investigation, meaning he was neither charged nor exonerated.
It was the first time in nearly four centuries that a senior British royal was placed under arrest.
The allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor came to light when the U.S. Justice Department released millions of pages of documents from its investigation into sex trafficking by Epstein and his connections to a network of wealthy, powerful men around the world.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s ties to Epstein have been a source of embarrassment to the royal family for more than a decade.
Lawmakers questioned the relationship as far back as 2011, when the then-prince was forced to give up his globetrotting role as the U.K.’s special trade envoy. Eight years later, he failed to explain his continuing ties to Epstein in a disastrous interview with the BBC, ending his career as a working member of the royal family.
