Former Prince Andrew arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines. Today, we're looking at the. arrest of Britain's former Prince Andrew. Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of. misconduct in public office. I'm joined. by our UK correspondent Rob Watson. Rob, this is unprecedented. As far as I know, it's unprecedented, Alex, as well as. utterly astonishing. I mean, certainly. not. in living memory can anyone think of a. senior member of the royal family,

albeit that he's been distanced and. stripped of his titles, who's been. arrested arrested on such an incredibly. serious charge. And so, people have been. scratching their heads thinking, well, you know, what royal scandal what what. on earth could this possibly compare to? And I think people can't think of. anything in recent times, not even the. the marital problems of the now king, King Charles. And the police involvement. was sparked by emails that appeared in.

the other great scandal of our time, great global scandal, the the Epstein. files. Yes, absolutely. I mean, the the. chain of events is that a complaint was. made to the police. by an organization, a Republican. organization I could slip in there, Alex, which said that when these emails. were were made public released in in the. United States by the Department of. Justice, they seemed to suggest that. Andrew, when he was a trade envoy on. behalf of the UK government, that was. between 2001 and 2011, essentially.

pushing Britain as a good place to do. business, pushing British trade deals, that he had sent confidential. information, a confidential reports, to. his friend Jeffrey Epstein. In. particular, it relates to emails sent in. 2010 and 2011 relating to business trade. trips to Singapore, I think, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. So, that that's at the. basis of what the police have been. looking at. Yeah, Andrew's career has.

been in trouble ever since that. disastrous interview with the BBC a few. years ago now, but it has been his. relationship with the late sex offender. Jeffrey Epstein which has powered his. fall from grace. Yes, absolutely. And. what a fall from grace. I mean, I. suppose you could say that Andrew had. been struggling ever since he he left. the military. And as the as the second. son of the Queen, you are you are always.

what is it referred to Alex as an as a. an a spare to the heir. And that throughout history that has. created difficulty for members of the. royal family who are are not a close in. line to the succession. I think he's. still eight. So, yeah, ever since the. ever since he was in the military he'd. been sort of searching for a meaningful. role in life. And of course, how to finance his life. And that appears to be where he's got. horribly unstuck. And in particular, this what is what is seems pretty clear.

from these emails an incredibly close. relationship with Jeffrey Epstein both. sort of socially. and financially. And it is the the. revelations from that friendship which. have seen really I mean, I don't think. we can say there's been anything quite. on this scale in Britain recently Alex. that terms of the you know, the fall. from fall from grace to a state. of disgrace. And we you know, we are a. country that perhaps unlike the United. States, we we we revel as a country in. in in scandal and shame. And Andrew is.

very much at the center of that. How. much worse can it get? I mean, these are. really serious charges. Could he go to. jail? Goodness, how much worse could it. get apart from this fall from grace? Well, I suppose we should start off Alex. by saying just how grim uh being. arrested has been. Because for for. people watching who don't know this, about Britain, I mean it's not a. glamorous process whether you're a. former prince or just an ordinary. criminal suspect. I mean he was taken.

from his home apparently without any. notice, advanced warning, 8:00 a.m. Pretty early. There were. police cars at the back and the front of. the home. He will be in custody, put in. custody somewhere and you should. understand when he goes to a police. station there's a officer at the front. desk. No no bowing and scraping all the kind. of thing that Andrew would be used to. You're given your name, your your. details. You will spend some time in in. a small cell. I mean all that's there is.

a toilet and a bed. It's pretty spartan. affair. Now you said could things get. worse? Well, when you're arrested in the. UK there's sort of three things that. could happen. One, I guess it's the. worst thing, is that you are charged, possibly released on bail in a situation. like this where it's not violent. Two, you could be released but you're warned. without being charged but you're warned. that the investigation continues. And. then the third is you're released and. the police say you're in the clear, don't worry, we've looked at all of. this. So, you know, to answer your.

question the worst thing that can happen. is, you know, that he's charged and that. there is a trial and as you as you said. Alex, this is an incredibly serious. offense, misconduct in public office. I. mean that the worst penalty you could. get would be life in prison. So, you. know, this isn't this isn't a parking. ticket. And this is the royal family have never. had to deal with something like this. How bad is it for the royal family? You. know, I've seen two theories about this. Alex which I will share with you. I mean one theory is that you know, of.

course it's bad to have a senior member. of the royal family again, albeit. someone stripped of his titles, arrested, charged potentially with. something serious, certainly at least. investigated. But that actually, under. this first theory, you could see the. constitution works. That no matter how. grand you are, even if you're the second. son of the former Queen Elizabeth, if. you're suspected of wrongdoing, the. police are going to turn up at your door. and take you off to the police station. So, that that is one theory that.

actually, you know, short-term. discomfort, but it proved the system. works. And the second theory is that. this is just truly bad news for the. royal family as people, but also for the. monarchy as an institution. And that. Republicans, those who don't see a. monarchy, will will use this to say, "Look, you know, we really need to have. a really deep think in this country. about we whether we need a royal family. or not." I mean, that there is, I. suppose, if you like, a view which amalgamates the two, which.

is to say that the royal family as. people, you know, maybe in a difficult. position, but the monarchy itself is. something rather different. And that, you know, public opinion tends. to show that there's more support for it. than not, whatever individuals are. currently occupying the throne or places. near to it. Briefly, Rob, before you go, of course, massive legal troubles here, but potentially Andrew being called to. appear before the US Congress. Yes, I. mean, absolutely, you could say that. Andrew's woes are transatlantic. I mean,

potentially very, very serious here, as. we've been discussing, but absolutely, there have been repeated calls from from. Congress that he should appear because. it's one of the congressional committees. is doing a series of hearings into all. of this. And absolutely, they have. demanded, I think, more than once now. that that Andrew testify. I mean, again, I think it immensely unlikely based on. past experience and past requests that. he would ever cross the Atlantic to. somehow appear in Washington. That. really does seem fanciful. But, he's.

certainly under pressure both sides of. the of the Atlantic to cooperate with. investigators, whether they be, you. know, American congressmen or or British. policemen. Rob, thank you. The BBC's Rob. Watson. And we should say that Andrew. has of course previously denied. wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. He. has not responded to the BBC's requests. for comment on any of the specific. allegations to the release of the. millions of Epstein files in January.

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