The Metropolitan Police commissioner has said “no one is above the law” when asked about allegations of sexual assault against Prince Andrew.
Dame Cressida Dick said a review into the case is under way but no investigation is taking place.
She told LBC: “It’s been reviewed twice before, we’ve worked closely with the CPS, we are of course open to working with authorities from overseas, we will give them every assistance if they ask us for anything – within the law, obviously – and as a result of what’s going on I’ve asked my team to have another look at the material.”
“No one is above the law,” she added.
It comes after a lawsuit was filed in the US accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre, according to one of her lawyers.
Ms Giuffre says she was a victim of financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Dame Cressida said on Thursday: “The position there is that we’ve had more than one allegation that is connected with Mr Epstein and we have reviewed those, assessed those and we have not opened an investigation.”
She explained that the police force asks “is there evidence of a crime, is this the right jurisdiction for this to be dealt with and is the person against whom the crime is alleged still alive?”
“We have concluded that there is no investigation for us to open and we haven’t,” she said, adding that it was “the right decision”, after taking advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.
“I’m aware that currently there is a lot more commentary in the media and the apparent civil court case going on in America and we will again review our position,” she said.
Ms Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, said on Monday that the duke will have to answer questions.
“The court process now is going to compel him. If he were to try to ignore the court the way he’s ignored us, there would be a default judgment entered against them,” he said.
“That could be enforced in the United States or in England or elsewhere in the world. So I don’t think he’s going to ignore the court.
“And as a result, he’s going to be held to account.”
In a BBC Newsnight interview in 2019, Prince Andrew said he had never had sex with Ms Giuffre, saying: “I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened.”
The duke said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting her and that there were “a number of things that are wrong” about her account.
He has also suggested a photo showing him with his arm around Ms Giuffre may have been doctored.
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