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

[busymomtoone]

Before I get totally flamed, I despise his attitude, and the things he appears to have done - particularly the subsequent lying and apparent determination to shield/ hide misdemeanours. However, seeing the photo of his release today looking a broken man after such huge public downfall , plus thinking of him going back to an empty house on his birthday with no family support - even though I initially felt he deserves every indignity and consequence - there’s still a teeny part of me that just can’t help feeling just a little bit sorry for him. If it’s true that he was taken to a brothel at age 11 , whilst it would in no way excuse abusing others , it means he has also been a victim of abuse. Additionally it seems the Queen and his entourage have never ever said no to him in his whole life- so to reach his 7th decade before any consequences hit makes me question how resilient he will be able to be. Obviously main sympathies are always rightly with any victims , but even the most hardened and perpetual criminals often retain family support, he seems to have nobody. ( albeit if his own making ) or am I just being too soft?!

You were very brave and well done for advocating for yourself. Your father is a cunt.

I understand why you think and say this but it also chills me to the bone. You think that her experience wasn't horrific because he apparently wasn't rough? Having to go through with it, knowing you have no agency or capacity to say no is somehow 'better' because your rapist isn't rough? It's views like this that add to the difficulty of getting people/the police/juries to believe victims.

No, none whatsoever. I’m angry that he has been protected for so long and that this hasn’t happened sooner. He should be in prison.

What blows my mind is he was born with every advantage. All he had to do was be broadly decent like pretty much everyone I know is. But he couldnt even manage that.
Absolutely pathetic.

he has plenty of people to support him (either paid or his many friends)

he probably also has plenty of money from his various overseas dealings and inheritances.

all this - no money and being alone rhetoric is nonsense.

spend any amount of time around these people and you’ll see the scales fall away and the true reality - immense privilege.

do they all think we the public are idiots. And still King Charles doesn’t address “his” nation.

I am a lifelong royalist who would vote their abolishment today as a result of this nasty exposure which started 15 years ago.

Even royal fans have long called Andrew a pompous arrogant prick. So no.

Not even a little bit. He is an adult, a man in his sixties who has had every resource, every opportunity. We can feel sorry for the child but that child grew into an adult responsible for his own actions.
Until recently, he was smugly grinning at reporters, clearly confident he couldn't be touched. He is not only in a bed of his own making, but it's still a double poster gilt framed one.
That photograph is of an extremely arrogant and nasty man realising that actually he might have to face the consequences of his actions.
Even if he were convicted of every single crime he is speculated to have committed and goes to prison, he still won't be going in with the general population because of who he was born. Privilege is going to follow him for the rest of his life.

I agree with this. I think you have to be able to both want to see justice done, and hold onto the humanity of the perpetrator. The more I have lived, especially in the past ten years, the more convinced of this I am. Dehumanizing the ‘perpetrator’ ( and I’m using this widely here to include those you disagree with or you think have done something wrong) leads to atrocities and massacres. It’s always important to hold in mind justice not vengeance.

Fergie, is that you?

As a victim of sexual abuse and assault………..absolutely NOT!

No sympathy.

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 🤯

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

Fuck no

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…..

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 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.

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.

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

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.