Prince Andrew allegedly broke strict security protocols to secretly bring young women into Buckingham Palace, according to bombshell claims made to the FBI by a former royal protection officer.
The disgraced former prince, who was stripped of his royal duties following his association with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is said to have bypassed official procedures that would normally log and record visitors entering the palace grounds.
A former royal protection officer reportedly told FBI investigators that Andrew used his position and knowledge of the palace’s inner workings to bring young women inside without going through the standard security checks that would have created a paper trail.
The claims add yet another deeply troubling layer to the long-running scandal surrounding the Duke of York, who in 2022 settled a civil sexual assault lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre out of court. Giuffre had alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew on multiple occasions, including when she was 17 years old. Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The revelation that these claims were passed directly to the FBI suggests American investigators were building a broader picture of behaviour connected to the Epstein network, which operated across the United States and internationally. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Andrew stepped back from royal duties in November 2019 following a catastrophic BBC Newsnight interview in which he attempted to defend his friendship with Epstein. The interview was widely regarded as a PR disaster and triggered a wave of organisations and charities cutting ties with the prince.
His links to Scotland have remained a point of public interest, given that Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire serves as the royal family’s private Scottish retreat. Andrew has continued to use royal residences, a situation that has itself drawn criticism from the public and politicians who feel he should have faced greater consequences.
The FBI’s wider investigation into Epstein and his associates has kept pressure on Andrew despite him avoiding criminal charges. American prosecutors had previously requested the UK government assist with obtaining an interview with Andrew as part of their investigation, a request that caused significant diplomatic tension. Andrew’s legal team at the time insisted he had offered to cooperate but that offer was disputed by US authorities.
The latest claims about palace security breaches will raise fresh questions about how much those around Andrew knew about his behaviour and whether concerns were ever raised internally within royal household staff.
Royal protection officers work closely with members of the royal family and are responsible for maintaining both physical safety and adherence to strict protocols around access to secure royal residences. Any deliberate attempt to circumvent those procedures would represent a serious breach of the rules governing palace access.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the specific claims made to the FBI. Andrew’s representatives have not publicly responded to this latest development.
With Epstein-related legal proceedings continuing to generate new revelations on both sides of the Atlantic, it seems unlikely that Andrew will be able to fully move on from the scandal that has defined the latter part of his public life. For many people in Scotland and across the UK, the questions surrounding his conduct remain very much unanswered.