Name: Why was Andrew arrested and what happens next? | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-20T17:21:23.000Z
Duration: 14 min 38 s
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You, voice as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is released under police investigation after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Well, officers have now arrived at his former home, Royal Lodge in Berkshire, to continue their searches.

There, former prince became the first senior member of the royal family to be arrested in almost four centuries.

Joining us to answer your questions is Joshua Rosenberg, legal commentator.

And our correspondent in Windsor, Helena Wilkinson is standing by for us as well.

Joshua, we're going to start with you, if we can, on the legal police investigation.

Just the state of play of where we are now.

He's been released under police investigation, searches continuing.

Just talk us through, firstly, what released under investigation means and where the police investigation is right now.

The important thing, of course, is that he has not been charged with any criminal offence and the police are continuing with their investigations.

And during that time, he is presumably, as far as we know, free to go about his daily activities.

He may have a long wait because the investigation which the police have started is by no means finished.

They will be going through all sorts of documents and papers, presumably going back 25 years to the start of his period as a trade envoy.

I would tell you that would probably take months.

And during that time, they've also got to compare notes with the Crown Prosecution Service, the lawyers, who will advise them on whether they have enough evidence to bring charges before the courts.

So it may be several months before he even knows whether there's to be a criminal charge.

Delve into a little bit more detail of the police investigation and the legal ramifications.

Let's come to you now, just on that broad question, we're throwing round kind of these historical dates.

Just how unprecedented is an event like this in the royal family?

Well, it's difficult to think of a president in terms of the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor yesterday.

He is the first senior member of the royal family in modern history to be arrested.

It's been more than 350 years since the last royal arrest.

That was in 1647, when King Charles was charged with treason during the English Civil War.

And you might also remember as well, Lewis, in recent times, more recent times, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's sister, Princess Anne, she was fined £500 in 2002.

But in terms of the President, this is unprecedented.

In terms of the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor yesterday, Helena thank you for that.

And so we're back with Helena, just in a little bit more detail.

You've given us that broad outline of where things stand with the police investigation as things stand right now.

Walk us through, if you could, the next steps that we're expecting.

Clearly, we're not asking you to predict the future or even perhaps the specifics of this case, but

just more generally, what are the police patterns and the legal steps that will be coming up.

I think one of the biggest challenges for the police is dealing with this offence that they have identified, this misconduct in public office offence, and

the reason for that is that this isn't a crime that created by Parliament, it's one that was developed by the judges over the centuries.

So it's not very clearly defined, in my view.

And I did put this point to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

He gave us a briefing last week, of course, before we knew that anything was going to happen like this, and

The Courts defined it 20 years ago in a particular case.

And what they said was, it's committed by a public officer, or whatever that may mean, but

I presume it covers a trade envoy working for the state, a public officer acting as such.

So in that particular role, who willfully neglects to perform his duty?

Well, there's a question about what that duty may be.

Or willfully misconducts himself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust, which is perhaps a rather vague concept, public's trust without reasonable excuse or justification.

And you can imagine a trade envoy would say, well, look, I've been given the job of deciding what's the appropriate thing to do with the information I have available.

Sometimes it's the right thing to do, to tell people of investment opportunities, sometimes it's not.

But that's the discretion you've given to me.

So once the police have got all this documentary evidence that I've been talking about, they will confer with the lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service and they will say, well, they.

Does this meet these tests or is there going to be a plausible defence put up by Andrew Mountbatten Windsor if and when we bring charges?

So, Joshua, Helena, both outlined kind of where we stand right now.

Plenty of people up and down the country and of course around the world actually been asking questions about some of the details here.

So, Helena, let's come to you one of the questions seems to be around Andrew and the line of succession and if it's possible for him to be removed from the line of succession.

We know that Andrew Mountbatten was stripped of many of his royal titles, all of them, in fact, in late last year, including the title of Prince, which he had since birthed birth, but

also the title of Duke of York as well, and

But he does remain eighths in line of succession to the throne.

It would, though, require legislation by Parliament and what it would also require is support from the other Commonwealth countries that have King Charles as their head of state, as it would obviously change the line of succession for them too.

It would affect them, but it wouldn't be a simple process.

Now, there is an argument by some people who say, what kind of difference would it make?

There are other younger royals in line ahead of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, but

there have been repeated calls for him to be stripped of that as well, to be removed from that line of succession.

So it can be done, but it's not an easy process.

Helena, thank you very much for clearing that up.

Now, as we're getting into questions from our audience, we're going to bring in a bonus expert now.

Royal commentator Pandora, thank you very much.

I'm going to hit you with a pretty big question straight away.

Derek from Carlisle asks, could this be the end of the monarchy?

I don't think it will be the end of the monarchy, but

there are more eyes on it than ever and their next moves are so important.

We know the monarchy historically haven't been very reactive to any sort of bad press, I suppose, about them.

The fact is, yesterday the King didn't know before Andrew did get arrested.

He sort of learned at the same kind of time as all of us, really.

And then within a matter of hours, at midday, he released an extremely honest statement, which I'm sure the public would have appreciated.

The next moves are so important for the image and for the longevity the Royal family.

The sad news really is for the King, despite the fact that he's tried to get the problem of Prince Andrew to move away from being a distraction, quite literally stripping him of his titles and booting him out, I suppose, of his home, the problem of Prince Andrew is going to hang over.

It's a story which will not be going away.

And is quite literally amplifying overnight.

We're going to go back to some of the legal and police questions, though.