Despite his villainous behaviour, anyone feel a teeny bit sorry for Andrew?

He isn’t arrested for sex with underage -he’s arrested for passing on government confidential info

If the 11 year old story is true I can understand you feeling sorry for 11 year old him, and I would too.

Transferring that sympathy onto the horrible man he has reportedly become is what the kids would call "toxic empathy".

Honestly, I think the purpose of that photo was to illicit sympathy along the lines set out in the OP - look at how he’s fallen, how hard it must be for him etc.

Do you find yourself thinking the same about other rich people who are held to account for their actions? How about poor people?

The Royal PR machine wants you to focus on his ‘downfall’ and the fact he was arrested on his birthday, so the money keeps coming in. The reality is we are dealing with a man who has been born into unimaginable privilege and luxury, with staff catering to his every whim, who has never had to pay a bill in his life. Even his ‘fall’ has resulted in him living, rent free, in a detached house in the Norfolk countryside with staff. I don’t feel sorry for him. I feel angry with the system of privilege that exists in this country that somehow means he still gets his living arrangements paid for at a time when many people in this country are struggling with a cost of living crisis, and will no doubt stretch to the best legal team money can buy. Joe Bloggs wouldn’t get any of that.

He’s been born into a life in which he simply cannot lose. This investigation will rattle on for ages, and in the end will probably be quietly dropped or he’ll get a little slap on the wrist. The Royals are not like us, our society is inherently unequal and the unfairness is baked in. Open your eyes and reserve your sympathy for the true victims in all of this.

He’s highly unlikely to ever face criminal proceedings or even be formally questioned, for anything to do with Epstein.

The most, if anything, he’ll face court for is misconduct in public office.

He’ll have top flight barristers defending him, and probably walk away from it.

So, no, I don’t feel sorry for him.

I don’t feel sorry for him at all.
I do think he’s been naive, arrogant and cosseted his entire life which has led him to believe he didn’t do anything wrong.

No. Are you nuts? He raped trafficked girls and allegedly took part in the torture of children. This is in the Epstein files.

I'm not commenting on the OP but what I will say is that if the case comes to trial, there is no way that it could be fair. Every single potential jury member will have an opinion and know all there is to know about alleged offences.

It's awful isn't it. The amount of victim blaming as well is alarming. Posts saying the girls weren't children and were 17 as if that somehow makes everything OK. These were trafficked girls. Their age is completely irrelevant.

I agree with an earlier post too in that I hope this the start of people stopping fawning over people in entitled, inherited positions of power. I think it needs a question of what usefulness the Royal family actually provides in todays society and why we continue to pay for them.

The late Queen and if reports are true King Charles all loaned Andrew money to pay off Virginia Guiffre. So I really take their current stance that their "thoughts are with the victims" with a massive pinch of salt. They've been pretty quiet about it over the last few years. I still struggle to see why anyone defends them at all.

And as for seeing sorry for some pampered prince all alone on his birthday with no family support? If any of my brothers had been friends with a known sex trafficker, I can't say I'd be providing them with any support far less rushing round to see them on their birthday.

Not in the slightest

my sympathy is for the victims

I also do not want him to be the fall guy, many many men deserve to face justice including the president of the US and some men who we previously thought were good guys

I don’t feel remotely sorry for him but i have long felt sorry for his daughters.

Strongest you are being unreasonable vote I’ve ever given on mumsnet,
wish their was a better vote to say hell no, not one teeny tiny ounce of sympathy, he helped to make a paedophile richer get your head around that.
Save your sympathy op for the victims, young girls trafficked for the “amusement” of rich powerful men I wish there were no redactions used in the Epstein files ( for Trump ) and hope we see a list of all who took part in this sordid web.

Honestly I normally think of myself as a pretty empathetic person, I understand how one big mistake or a series of horrible circumstances can fuck up your life. I was arrested when I was younger for a stupid mistake and it really scared the shit out of me and was very hard on my family. I can’t say I feel sorry for Andrew though. He had so many opportunities to cut Epstein off, he has had so many opportunities to tell the truth and he didn’t, he’s arrogant and I think he has actual contempt for the general public. He thinks he is above the law. He’s not some hard done by guy who’s made a bad choice and is sorry, he’s a crusty old perv who thinks he has every right to exploit women.

Gosh no, at what point do people have to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming an upbringing. He absolutely knows what he did and what he has done. The only sympathy I feel is for the victims in this. These were greedy self entitled men that used their power, status and money to buy young vulnerable women and then on this arrest use his position to sell out the very country he’s supposedly a patron of. The man is despicable

He’s a member of the Royal Family. Of course there is going to be a lot of media attention. He knew that when he went to spend a 3 day jolly with a convicted paedophile. Well he would have done if he thought for a minute that he’d ever get held to account for his actions.

He’s not a fall guy, he did those awful things and needs to face the law.

But the US does need to tackle their own rapists in the files, they shouldn’t just use Andrew’s scalp as a way to hush this up.

That’s a ridiculous comparison, stop minimising what Andrew has done by comparing him to Harry, it’s disrespectful to Andrew’s victims.

He’s such a hapless fall guy being used as a scapegoat for all the other unnamed men in the files. I don’t feel sorry for him in terms of the fact that he did something wrong and should be punished but this constant media hounding is disgraceful. It reminds me of Caroline Flack and I wonder if it will end up in the same way…..

Fuck no

If the US does want to extradite Andrew, they should be told that they need to arrest some US paedos in the files first.

Yes, Harry whinging and having a wife who didn’t wear tights, is on the same level of entitlement as being part of an international elite paedo ring, trafficking vulnerable children to private islands headed up by a convict who was also a spy, and sharing sensitive info against our national interest with said spy, during your tenure in a senior government job you were given despite having no qualifications for it.

Yes, yes completely on a par, that makes sense.

No. My pity is for his victims only. My anger on their behalf is stronger.

He's always been vile and predatory. He's a liar. That face was of a "man" who couldn't believe he wasn't treated with deference and that the jig is up.

I'm sure he expected his family to protect him like his mother did at the expense of themselves.

You stated your thoughts as facts. I never said she didn't commit suicide, but you have no knowledge of the reason why she did it.

I don't think he or his siblings had the best early childhood, brought up by nannies while their mother put duty first. However, he had a good education and knew right from wrong. His upbringing of being indulged, flunkeys who did his bidding etc, helped develop his incredible sense of entitlement. There are stories of him summoning a maid if he'd dropped something by his chair, or if the curtains weren't drawn quite to his liking.

He thought he could get away with anything because of being a member of the royal family. I'm pleased that he's being shown that's not the case. I find him vile and odious and he deserves everything he gets.

If he's sentenced to prison, I wonder how it would be managed so that he didn't get attacked?

For years he has had a reputation as a selfish and arrogant man. Yet he never reflected and never changed.
Any other 66 year old man who had lived the selfish and lazy way he has would get no sympathy at all.

Not sympathy but I can recognise that he must be absolutely baffled. He thought as a Prince he could do whatever he wanted without any consequences - this chain of events must be blowing his mind 🤯