Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
The shadow of a conscious cover-up is gathering ever more heavily over the British monarchy in relation to the suspected misdeeds of the former Prince Andrew, former favorite son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and younger brother of King Charles III. Target of now explosive investigations into his interactions with the late American pedophile fixer Jeffrey Epstein and into a whole series of no less embarrassing collateral dossiers.
The BBC’s revelations about the secret archive
Officially under investigation for a few months for the suspected crime of ‘misconduct in the exercise of a public office’ (and even subjected to unprecedented police custody for a few hours in February), the former Duke of York – reduced to the nickname Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after being belatedly stripped of any residual royal title – is currently at the center of new shocking revelations.
The BBC spreads them. They concern an archive of 30,000 emails, partly containing information on years of rumored activities and financial transactions of the former prince, which – as it has now been discovered – was delivered to Buckingham Palace as early as 2020: that is, six years ago, well before the start of the current investigations following the re-explosion of the scandal, when Elizabeth was still alive and reigning.
Delivery to Buckingham Palace in 2020
The documentation, as announced by the BBC, which became aware of the facts after turning to the Kingdom’s justice system at the conclusion of a legal dispute on the accessibility of the file, was transmitted by a court in copy, “in May 2020”, to the Lord Chamberlain, the highest official of the Royal Household, when Andrea had just been forced to renounce any public role of official representation of the monarchy. But they remained kept in the court drawers. Without any consequences or reports known to the police, it seems.
The emails were reportedly stolen from a personal business contact of the then Duke of York. On the contents, the palace currently offers a meager no comment, taking refuge behind compliance with the judicial action: “As a police investigation concerning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is underway, it is not possible to comment on these facts.”
The lines of investigation: sex and opaque affairs
The investigation, in fact, is made up of various strands. Including the one carried out by the Thames Valley Police which in recent days has not ruled out the possibility of extending it to the suspicion of sexual crimes, in light of recent accusations launched in particular by a victim of Epstein’s ring, who said she was taken at a very young age to Andrea’s former residence adjacent to Windsor Castle to have sex with him.
But the emails in question, according to the BBC and other media, refer to the opaque business relationships that the former prince is accused of having maintained for years with friends and business associates (his own and in some cases also that of his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson). And above all to the suspected improper sharing of confidential government information, which has already resulted in the accusation of ‘misconduct’ (essentially abuse of office): perverse information obtained while carrying out the role of international trade emissary of the British government between 2001 and 2011.
The pressures of the Crown and the future of the Monarchy
A role originally conferred on Andrea by Tony Blair’s team, not without explicit pressure put on the cabinet on behalf of her mother. As certified by a memo delivered to the Westminster Parliament a few days ago.
Yet another link in a chain of unhealthy entanglements that threatens to suffocate not only the memory of Elizabeth II, in the midst of the solemn celebrations of her centenary, which fell last month, but also the image of those who, Charles first and foremost, “could not fail to know”. And, with it, the future – entrusted to the restless heir to the throne William – of a monarchical institution far from its peaks of popularity.