King Charles faces an impossible dilemma if asked to help pay his brother’s criminal legal fees, royal sources say.The Palace is in an “extremely delicate” position, needing to balance Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s right to legal advice alongside the King’s role as head of state. Not least because any prosecutions in the UK are brought in the name of the monarch.
For the British monarchy, the worst-case scenario is not a prosecution or conviction, but the collapse of a case that could lead to conspiracy theories.The appalling optics of “Rex [monarch] against brother” have obviously been considered – but worse would be any perception of special treatment.Members of the Royal Family are determined that the criminal justice process take its course, without them saying or doing anything that might influence decisions. That’s one reason for the reluctance to meet victims of Jeffrey Epstein.Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over his long-standing links to the convicted sex offender.There will be no quick resolution to the allegations. The police investigation is predicted to take a long time. If any file were eventually handed to the Crown Prosecution Service, prosecutors would also be expected to take many months considering the facts before them.
