The Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick said “no-one is above the law” when questioned about claims of sexual assault against prince Andrew Windsor. Dick herself recently received criticism after refusing to accept the findings of a report which uncovered institutional corruption in the Metropolitan Police.
No investigation
Dick added that she has asked officers to review allegations connected to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, having so far decided not to open an investigation. Appearing on LBC Radio on 12 August, Dick was asked what inquiries have taken place into the allegations from Virginia Giuffre concerning the duke. Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Epstein, Windsor’s friend, to have sex with the prince when she was 17 and a minor under US law.
Windsor has denied the allegations in the past, and a spokesperson for the prince said there was “no comment” when asked to respond to Giuffre filing a civil suit for damages in the US.
Dick told LBC:
I’m not going to talk about individuals, but what I can say is that I think what you’re referring to is associated with Jeffrey Epstein, who I will talk about since he is deceased.
And the position there is that we have had more than one allegation that is connected with Mr Epstein and we have reviewed those, assessed those, and we have not opened an investigation.
She said the force looked at three things:
Is there evidence of a crime, is this the right jurisdiction for this to be dealt with, and is the person against whom the crime is alleged still alive?
“We have concluded that there is no investigation for us to open and we haven’t”, she said, adding it was the “right decision” after advice from the Crown Prosecution Service and being reviewed twice.
Dick added:
I’m aware that currently there is a lot more commentary in the media and an apparent civil court case going on in America and we will, of course, again review our position… but at the moment there is no investigation.
Asked if the prince is “above the law”, she replied:
No-one is above the law.
The recent report into the Metropolitan Police found the Met:
to be institutionally corrupt and the responses by senior officers to the report have been most disappointing.
The public statements which we have heard from the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner (and) Assistant Commissioner in the days following the publication illustrate exactly the problem we have been describing.
Dick said the Met is “open to working with authorities from overseas”, adding:
As a result of what’s going on, I’ve asked my team to have another look at the material.
