Police are investigating whether Prince Andrew called in an officer to dig up dirt on prosecutor Giuffre

LONDON (AP) — London police are investigating whether Prince Andrew asked an officer assigned to him as a bodyguard to dig up dirt on sexual assault accused Virginia Giuffre. The Metropolitan Police said it was “actively looking into” media reports that Andrew sought information to smear Giuffre in 2011 by asking an officer on the force to find out if she had a criminal record. The report by the Mail on Sunday followed Buckingham Palace’s announcement on Friday that Andrew had agreed to give up the use of Duke of York and other remaining royal titles after emails emerged showing he had been in contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for longer than he had previously admitted. Giuffre’s family welcomed the news of the Duke’s death, but said King Charles III should go further and strip Andrew of his title as prince. Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41. The emails were the final straw for the House of Windsor after years of dodgy headlines about Andrew’s dodgy friends and shady business dealings. The move to insulate the monarchy against Andrew’s scandals has continued since November 2019 when he gave up all his public duties and charity roles after a disastrous interview when he tried to counter media reports about his friendship with Epstein and deny allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old Giuffre, widely marketed by Andrew20. to show empathy for Epstein’s victims and for incredible explanations for his friendship with the disgraced financier. The BBC interview, in which he said he had cut off contact with Epstein in 2010, came back to haunt him and sowed the seeds for his dukedom demotion when emails emerged last week showing he emailed Epstein on February 28, 2011. Andrew told Epstein in the note that they were “in this together” and that they needed to “rise above it.” The Mail reported that in 2011, when the paper was about to publish a now-infamous photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre’s partially bare midriff, Andrew provided his bodyguard with Giuffre’s date of birth and confidential social security number to find out if she had a checkered past. It is not clear whether the officer complied with the request. Giuffre’s family said she does not have a criminal record. With this report and Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs to be published on Tuesday, the scandal will not evaporate soon. The British energy minister, Ed Miliband, who served as the government’s representative on the Sunday morning news programs, said a police officer should not be involved in a smear campaign. “These are very worrying allegations,” Miliband told the BBC. “I think people want to look at those allegations and what the substance is behind them. But if that’s correct, that’s absolutely not the way close protection officers should be used.” Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022 after she filed a civil suit against him in New York. While not admitting wrongdoing, Andrew acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a sex-trafficking victim. In his statement on Friday, Andrew said he continues to “vigorously deny” the allegations.