Fresh revelations about Prince Andrew’s transgressions come less than 24 hours after he was forced to give up his remaining royal titles. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Andrew tried to smear his teenage sex abuse accuser by passing her confidential information to police, it has been claimed.
The Prince asked his taxpayer-funded police bodyguard to investigate Virginia Giuffre and passed him her date of birth and social security number, a leaked email revealed.
He then told Buckingham Palace aide Ed Perkins, who at the time was Elizabeth II’s deputy press secretary, that he had asked one of his personal protection officers to dig up information about Giuffre.
The revelations, published by the Mail on Sunday, came just 24 hours after the King moved against Prince Andrew amid fears that a newly unearthed email sent to Jeffrey Epstein would open the floodgates to more scandal, the Telegraph understands.
The Prince was forced to give up his remaining royal titles after it emerged he had stayed in touch with the paedophile longer than he had previously admitted.
The email, which emerged last week, exposed a fundamental “fault line” in Andrew’s defence and proved a “tipping point” for the King, palace sources said.
The revelation that the Prince had lied to the public presented a serious reputational risk to the monarchy and the King personally decided to act.
The matter was then dealt with swiftly, with Andrew pressed to accept the latest sanction in a matter of hours. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has also given up her title.
The Prince is said to have emailed Perkins hours before an infamous photograph was published in February 2011 that showed him with his arm around Giuffre’s waist.
“It would also seem she has a criminal record in the States,” he wrote, according to reports. “I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on-duty ppo [personal protection officer].”
Giuffre’s family said the email “exposes the lengths to which those implicated try to discredit and defame survivors”.
Legal experts warned there could be serious implications for Prince Andrew, who faced renewed calls for a police investigation.
Andrew Lownie, the Prince’s biographer, warned there was more scandal to come.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“I think the palace is worried about new allegations that will emerge Stateside; they know there is more damaging stuff to come.”
He said the King should have removed his brother’s titles entirely, rather than simply ordering him not to use them.
Lownie said the Prince should be forced to co-operate with the authorities to finally expose the full extent of his dealings with Epstein.
He also claimed the King should have made the announcement himself, demonstrating that he had taken the lead rather than allowing the Prince to suggest he had made the decision himself for the good of the country.
A source close to Prince Andrew insisted that he remained “stoic” about the latest development.
But the palace strategy of gradually stripping back his privileges in recent years was likened by one well-placed source to “slicing a salami”.
“It’s just optics,” they said. “It’s repetition of something which is already a demonstrably failed strategy.
“What they’ve done this week follows exactly the same pattern as has been happening since 2011; this tactical approach of asking Prince Andrew to salami slice his entire life until there is virtually nothing left. But it doesn’t solve the problem.
“He has never been given the chance to clear his name.”
Another source who knows both the Prince and Sarah Ferguson well said they would have taken the latest sanction “very hard”.
“It’s about the loss of status, and the public humiliation and the impact on his family, both the immediate circle and the wider royal family,” they said.
“Day to day, his life gets smaller, the retreat continues.
“Sarah will feel it just as keenly.”
As the pressure on the Yorks intensified, the Prince is said to have cancelled a lavish party planned to celebrate Sarah Ferguson’s 66th birthday last Wednesday at their Windsor home.
The family of Giuffre, the late sex-trafficking victim who alleged that the Prince had raped and abused her three times when she was 17, welcomed the news that he had given up his remaining titles and said it “vindicated” her.
But Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, said that for “true justice” to be done, Andrew should also give up the prince title with which he was born.
He revealed that the announcement had left him in tears and lamented that his sister was no longer “here to see it”.
“Why not go the full way? Remove the title of prince, too. He shouldn’t be able to call himself one,” he told the Sunday Times.
Giuffre’s posthumous book, published on Tuesday, has focused further attention on the sexual assault allegations, describing how Prince Andrew insisted his accuser sign a one-year gagging order after their settlement to avoid spoiling Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
William is said to be considering further measures to protect the royal family’s image when he is King one day, including choosing not to invite his uncle to his coronation.
For those close to the Prince, his latest demotion was greeted with little surprise.
They believe Buckingham Palace should have acted swiftly and decisively when Giuffre’s allegations first emerged, pausing all of his public activities to allow him to fight the claim he has consistently denied as a private citizen and bring the scandal to a conclusion one way or another.
“In any other walk of life, repeating the same thing in the hope of a different outcome is regarded as insanity, and yet in his case, that is exactly what happens.”
Prince Andrew had always done what had been demanded of him by the Royal household and had never criticised the King either in public or private, the source added.
He agreed to settle his claim with Giuffre in order to avoid overshadowing the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, despite knowing that it would be interpreted in public as an admission of guilt. “It was absolutely the right thing to do,” the source added. “But for the Firm.”
“He’s been held up as public enemy number one but there are masses of people far more deserving of that accolade, including many on both sides of the Atlantic who were much closer to Jeffrey Epstein than he ever was.”
This week, the King and Queen will travel to the Vatican for a long-awaited state visit that is considered hugely significant.
Palace aides are hoping they have moved quickly and forcibly enough to ensure that the trip is not overshadowed by further scandal.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.