Court quashes warrants used to search Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s homes

The search warrants used to raid Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s homes after his arrest in February were unlawful, a High Court judge said Thursday, but police can hold on to seized material while a legal dispute continues. The criminal investigation into the former prince remains open.

Thames Valley Police agreed that the warrants must be quashed after Mountbatten-Windsor challenged their legality. He was arrested on February 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, released later that day and remains under investigation. He denies wrongdoing.

“The fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring the investigation to an end or mean that the whole of the investigation is unlawful,” Justice Nicholas Hilliard said.

The arrest followed the U.S. Department of Justice’s publication of documents suggesting Mountbatten-Windsor had forwarded confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, while serving as a UK trade envoy in 2010, according to the BBC. Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Police searched his former home in Windsor, west of London, and a property at Sandringham in eastern England, according to Al Jazeera. They seized documents and electronic devices, the BBC reported.

The legal dispute centers on how the warrants were issued. According to the BBC, police sought warrants under sections eight and nine of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 at a hearing before the Central Criminal Court the day before the searches. That court decided section eight warrants alone were needed and granted them on that basis. The subsequent challenge established that they should have been issued under section nine.

“We accept the position that the initial court’s decision to issue warrants under the specific piece of legislation used was incorrect and therefore these must be legally quashed,” a Thames Valley Police spokesperson said. The force said it had provided the court with the necessary information and paperwork and followed the correct legal processes.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s lawyers challenged the actions of the force’s chief constable and the Central Criminal Court through a judicial review. Police are seeking to retain the material seized during the searches, a request Mountbatten-Windsor opposes. The BBC reported that the items will remain with police until a hearing in 2027. Al Jazeera reported that police said they had returned only material deemed unconnected to the investigation.

Hilliard said property obtained through an unlawful search can still be retained if officers could lawfully seize it under another provision after returning it. “There would be little point in handing property back if it could then simply be lawfully seized under some other provision,” he said.

The force said the ruling on the warrants was not a judgment on its investigation and that it would continue pursuing reasonable lines of inquiry.