British police acknowledge that the searches of Andrea’s home in the Epstein case were unlawful

 Hilliard stated that he has yet to rule on whether Mountbatten-Windsor’s property should be returned, given that there is a provision allowing the police to retain unlawfully seized property for evidential purposes.

 Stephens explained that, under English law, further hearings will be held to determine exactly which pieces of evidence, if any, will be excluded from the trial. “The judge will make this decision by assessing whether or not the evidence has probative value,” said Stephens, “but, of course, the situation is very different in other countries.

In the United States, for example, if evidence has been obtained under an unlawful warrant, all such evidence is excluded.

In the UK it doesn’t work like that, so there will still be several stages to go through”. The judge ruled that the warrants were unlawful because the magistrate who had issued them had failed to assess whether the assets subject to seizure were covered by legal privilege or by another form of protection known as ‘material subject to special proceedings’.

Although Mountbatten-Windsor, aged 66, continues to receive an allowance from the monarch’s private funds, Buckingham Palace has made it clear that this money cannot be used to fund his legal challenge to the search warrants.

The police investigation initially focused on allegations that Andrea had shared confidential information with Epstein whilst serving as the UK’s special trade envoy; subsequently, however, the police stated that they might also look into other aspects of the case.

The police questioned Mountbatten-Windsor for 11 hours before releasing him, whilst keeping him under investigation; this means that he has neither been formally charged nor cleared of suspicion.

It was the first time in almost four centuries that a senior member of the British royal family had been arrested.

The allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor came to light when the US Department of Justice released millions of documents relating to the investigation into the sex trafficking ring run by Epstein and his links to a network of wealthy and influential men around the world. Mountbatten-Windsor’s links with Epstein have been a source of embarrassment for the royal family for over a decade.

As early as 2011, some MPs had raised doubts about this relationship, forcing the then prince to step down from his role as the UK’s special envoy for trade, which involved frequent travel around the world.

Eight years later, in a disastrous interview with the BBC, she was unable to justify her continued association with Epstein, thereby bringing her career as an active member of the royal family to an end.