British police have agreed that the search warrants they obtained to search properties linked to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were unlawfully issued and must be quashed, but said their investigation into King Charles's younger brother is ongoing.
High Court judge Nicholas Hilliard said on Thursday that Thames Valley Police had made a "serious error" when applying for warrants to search the former prince's properties, and that police had agreed "the search warrants are unlawful."
But he added: "The quashing of the search warrants does not end the investigation, nor does it mean the entire investigation is unlawful."
Thames Valley Police said it agreed the warrants were not validly granted by the court. A force spokesperson said: "We accept the position that the court's original decision to grant the warrants under the specific legal provision used was incorrect, and that the warrants must therefore be quashed in law."
The spokesperson added: "Legal proceedings are now underway to determine how to handle the material seized in the searches and whether we can lawfully retain it for the purposes of the ongoing investigation."
The younger brother of King Charles III was arrested on his 66th birthday in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office relating to his ties to the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was released later that day but remains under investigation.
Mountbatten-Windsor was also stripped of his royal titles last year following his links to Epstein, who died in a New York jail in August 2019. The scandal-hit former prince has denied any wrongdoing.
Police searched his former home in Windsor, west of London, and in Sandringham, eastern England, but he subsequently launched legal action over the legality of the warrants that were issued.
At a hearing at the High Court in London on Thursday, Judge Hilliard said the police force was seeking to retain the seized property — which Mountbatten-Windsor opposes — and the issue would not be resolved until next year.
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said the force had not returned any documents to the former prince other than items deemed irrelevant to their investigation.
