La Quotidienne de Bruxelles - UK police agree searches for ex-prince Andrew's homes 'unlawful': judge

However, the court in London must still decide whether police can continue to hold the items seized in the raids, with both the judge and police stressing the investigation remained ongoing.

King Charles III's brother was arrested on his 66th birthday in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Police searched his former home in Windsor, west of London, and Sandringham, eastern England, but the disgraced royal subsequently launched a legal challenge over the legality of the warrants obtained.

The Daily Telegraph first reported the legal challenge late on Sunday. The newspaper noted it was the first time a member of Britain's royal family has challenged the lawfulness of criminal proceedings against them since the trial of Charles I in 1649.

In the first detailed public disclosures on it, High Court judge Nicholas Hilliard on Thursday revealed Thames Valley Police had agreed that "the search warrants were unlawful".

But he added: "The fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end, or mean that the whole of the investigation was unlawful".

Hilliard noted he was still to decide on a legal application allowing police to retain property obtained under an unlawful warrant "if it would be lawful to seize the property under some other provision".

"I will decide that question in due course," the judge said.

- Repeated denials -

In a statement, Thames Valley Police accepted the decision to issue the warrants "was incorrect".

But it added "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".

Andrew's arrest and the police searches marked a new low for the ex-prince, who was stripped of his royal titles last year and ousted from his Windsor home over his Epstein connections.

The government has even mulled passing a law to remove him from the line of succession.

Scandal has engulfed the king's younger brother since one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, claimed in her posthumous memoirs that she had been trafficked three times to have sex with Andrew when she was a teenager.

The former prince has repeatedly denied the claims. He settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.

W.Smets--LCdB