Andrew Windsor arrested
Norfolk man in his sixties in custody over misconduct allegations.
Andrew Windsor is in police custody.
The momentum that began with Virgina Giuffre’s lawsuit and continued with the partial release of the Epstein files in the US, has led directly to this moment.
A woman who endured a lifetime of abuse and ill treatment, of not being seen as human, has set in motion a domino topple that brings us to today and a member of the royal family in custody. If only she were here to see it.
Of course, Andrew isn’t being held over any of the multiple allegations that he raped and trafficked children and young women at his homes in the UK. But as with so many alleged sex offenders before him, another of his bad decisions has tripped him up. In this case, allegedly passing confidential information to his mates while acting as trade envoy to the United Kingdom.
Commentators on the news channels talk hopefully about this “closing the chapter” now for the royal family who have been seen to publicly cast him out (to a 5-bedroom property on one of their estates).
But I don’t think the rest of us are there at all, are we? I don’t think the firm’s part in this cover up can be dismissed.
Millions of pounds were scraped together by King Charles and Queen Elizabeth to bail Andrew out of the lawsuit brought by Giuffre. They paid to make the scandal go away so it didn’t spoil their jubilee celebrations.
That mentality - throw money at it - doesn’t sit well with any but the most ardent royalist now. Why did they think they were paying this American woman a reported 12 million? Because Andrew was innocent?
They actively helped him cover his tracks in the hope that the money would bury the story. Because whatever they say now about their thoughts being “with the victims” their real concern lies, demonstrably, only with themselves.
I always used to think there was no harm in having a small, paired down royal family. They could be a British quirk, a handful of core family allowed to ponce about in tiaras, opening hospital wings and drawing the tourists to London and Windsor.
That connection with history appealed to me, even as I tried not to look at the vast amount of money and land they were hoarding just by dint of whose vagina they fell out of.
But that family’s active complicity in laundering an actual (alleged) sex offender’s public image is never going to be cleansed by a quick down-sizing and the continued bank-rolling of same.
“I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor…” began the King’s statement, issued by Buckingham Palace today, before he goes on to say that the authorities have his full support blah blah something about the law taking its course. He has learned with deepest concern has he? I suspect this refers to the fact that the royals weren’t warned before Thames Valley police swooped this morning.
The madness of that though. Andrew can be potentially prosecuted over alleged misconduct, the King wringing his hands, while at the same time having his arse covered over the arguably more serious allegations of child rape by the same King. Child rape anyone?
Whatever comes next - Andrew being bailed back to his 5-bedroom limbo while the Windsor PR machine goes into overdrive - things can never be the same for the royal family now, can they?
We give them money, they give it to the alleged rapist to keep his alleged victim quiet. And we’re supposed to go back to waving little flags at them as they drive by in their bullet proof cars.
Maybe they’re so consumed by their royal bubble that they can’t see how this looks to the rest of us, their desperate need to shut the stable door long after the horse has bolted and to pretend there was never a horse at all.
They have a long track record of acting at the absolutely last minute whenever their public image has been tarnished in the past. See Diana’s death for one example.
But the world is watching now. However symbolic this arrest turns out to be, someone who was formerly protected is now fair game for the law. Around the world, other powerful Epstein associates are stepping down or being arrested.
The consequences are coming. They won’t necessarily be directly connected to their alleged abuse of children and young women. Isn’t it sad that we don’t even begin to hope for that? But consequences all the same.
The family of Virgina Giuffre responded to the news today with a short statement which ended with these words:
“For survivors everywhere, Virgina did this for you.”
