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Disgraced Ex-Prince Andrew Handed Legal Lifeline Over Police Raids

The disgraced former Duke of York has won a key court battle after police admitted the searches of his homes were “unlawful.”

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been handed a legal boost after winning a court battle over police searches of his two homes.

The disgraced former prince was arrested on his 66th birthday in February after it was alleged he shared sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein while he was a U.K. trade envoy.

But he challenged Thames Valley Police’s search warrants for Wood Farm in Sandringham and his former home of Royal Lodge in Windsor.

And Andrew was granted a lifeline on Thursday when a judge in London’s High Court said the searches were unlawful.

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It means that police will now have to ask the court to let them retain any of Andrew’s seized items–or risk handing them back to him. The criminal investigation into Andrew remains ongoing.

The former prince has not been charged after his Feb. 19 arrest. A judge at the Old Bailey in London issued the warrants on Feb. 18.

Andrew did not attend the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday, where Mr. Justice Hilliard said an “agreement was reached” between Andrew and the police that “the search warrants were unlawful.”

But he added that this “does not bring an investigation to an end, or mean that the whole of the investigation was unlawful.”

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police later said the decision “is not a judgment on our ongoing investigation.”

“Legal proceedings are currently ongoing to decide how material seized during the searches will be managed and whether we can lawfully retain it in support of our ongoing investigation,” they added.

Late last year, King Charles stripped his brother of his right to be a prince, as well as his Duke of York title, over his links to Epstein.

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Thursday’s decision means Thames Valley Police will have to wait until next year to know whether they can keep the items they seized. The judge said in his ruling that police “took possession of documentary material and electronic devices.”

The former prince’s legal challenge was based on the “legal privilege” of some of his documents, which may have fallen in a “special procedure” category as he may have acquired them during his “paid or unpaid duties,” the judgment said.

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Police admitted they could not say if the seized material fell into this category. They can keep Andrew’s belongings only if they can show another reason to retain them, which is expected to form the basis of their argument next year.

Andrew has lived full-time at Sandringham since King Charles evicted his brother from his 30-room home at Royal Lodge.

It came after the release of a posthumous memoir from Virginia Giuffre, who repeated her allegation that she had sex with the then-Prince Andrew when she was a teenager. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025. Andrew denies the claim.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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