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Former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has won a legal challenge over police searches of his royal residences after officers admitted the warrants were “unlawful”, a High Court judge revealed on Thursday.
The court must still decide whether police can keep items seized during the searches. Both the judge and police said the investigation is ongoing.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard revealed on Thursday that police had acknowledged “the search warrants were unlawful”.
However, he stressed that “the fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end”, adding that Thames Valley Police (TVP) were continuing their investigation.
Hilliard said he would decide “in due course” on a June legal application by police to retain property obtained under an unlawful warrant “if it would be lawful to seize the property” under a new warrant.
“There would be little point in handing property back if it could then simply be lawfully seized under some other provision,” he explained of the police request.
In a statement, the police said they accepted “the initial court’s decision to issue warrants under the specific piece of legislation used was incorrect and therefore these must be legally quashed.”
King Charles III’s brother was arrested in February, on his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office linked to his ties with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor was released the same day after several hours of questioning but remains under investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing linked to Epstein.