Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
The royal family
Original poster

Who advised the Queen to walk into the Abbey escorted by Andrew??

996 replies

TinyTortoise · 29/03/2022 13:07

This seems to be the most tone deaf and damaging decision. It's a public facing event with international leaders and royals. If it was a closed family gathering I could understand it - he is her son still- but why on earth would they allow him to escort her to her seat?! He should be invisible from now on and never represent the RF again. He could have attended and stood somewhere out of the way. She could have chosen anyone to escort her. It's staggeringly awful!

OP posts:
Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 07:58

I will add my sources, he was most definitely sued for rape:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10351055/Prince-Andrew-new-bid-rape-claim-thrown-out.html

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 07:58

It was in the Daily Mail today!

whiteroseredrose · 30/03/2022 07:59

@LadyShatterly

It was the only way to have him attend in the least official capacity for the shortest possible time. Less on camera than anyone else in his family. He will be at the Queen’s funeral, just to warn everyone outraged by a man (convicted of no crime at all) attending his father’s memorial and assisting his nonagenarian mother.
Bought his way out of being convicted of a crime.......£12 million is a lot to pay if he was innocent. If he had nothing to hide, why not have your day in court??
MissMarpleRocks · 30/03/2022 08:03

For the avoidance of doubt a civil case is not the same as a criminal case.

LadyShatterly · 30/03/2022 08:03

He wasn’t going to be convicted of a crime. Neither US and UK law enforcement could find any evidence that would support criminal charges. VG brought a case against him. He, for example, could bring a civil case against you. Doesn’t meant the same as the police bringing charges. I don’t know why so many people confuse criminal and civil cases.

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:04

In August 2021, Giuffre filed a civil claim against Andrew accusing him of raping her when she was 17

www.google.com/search?q=prince+anrew+sued+for+rape&oq=prince+anrew+sued+for+rape&aqs=chrome..69i57.9983j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:06

Prince Andrew was accused of rape of a minor, a trafficked young girl.

Whether this is a criminal or civil case is hardly relevant! What is relevant is that HE paid her 12 million pounds to keep quiet and go away.

You can not rewrite history and remove the parts that are unpalatable.
Have you considered the victims in all of this thank you?

I will not be asking for my post to be removed so you can silence me as well.

Roussette · 30/03/2022 08:09

I just don't understand it. Is it the Queen's decision, his decision, the aides' decisions? What...

Because unless the royal household are totally blind, they will know the furore caused by the queen taking Andrew to church and going riding with him, literally straight after the carcrash interview. Yet they do this?

I'm sick to death of people out there saying 'he was entitled to be there, it was his father' Yes. Of. Course he should be there. But he should've been seated there already in the second row or something because all focus would be on the Queen and he was the one escorting her in.

It could've been Andrew. It could've been Charles. It even could've been Anne. What a lovely touch that would have been, a mother and a daughter together.

But no... there he is again. Front of stage with the Queen.

Thankyoupeter · 30/03/2022 08:11

[quote Swayingpalmtrees]I will add my sources, he was most definitely sued for rape:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10351055/Prince-Andrew-new-bid-rape-claim-thrown-out.html[/quote]
You said he was charged with rape. He was not. It was a civil case and it really isn't ok to confuse the two as they mean very different things.

GreenFingeredNell15 · 30/03/2022 08:11

Regardless of criminal or civil he paid £12M to make VG go away. Smacks horribly of guilt to me. I'm assuming his Mother thinks differently.

MissMarpleRocks · 30/03/2022 08:12

Of course it’s relevant whether it’s civil or criminal. He settled a civil claim which he would have been advised to do. He would have been unable to settle a case had it been criminal.

I despair of some people on this thread if they were ever jurors I really do.

If you cannot understand the burden of proof is different in both courts I give up & hope someone more eloquent than me will try & explain to you.

BadgerB · 30/03/2022 08:12

If she was underage, then technically it was rape. But I don't suppose she was dragged to bed, kicking & screaming. Epstein had apparently told her to see that Andrew "had a good time".
She had worked for Epstein for some time, her father, it is said, had driven her to Epstein's home. Is she suing him for trafficking? Or did he think she was being flown around on millionaire's jets to serve the tea?

Grasping · 30/03/2022 08:12

Regardless of any crime or not.
Andrew is her son and it was his Fathers memorial service.

Monarchy aside, let’s not forget they are human too.

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:15

Thank you - you can pick over the detail, but the overall situation is the same! He was sued for an alleged rape of a minor! You can't change what the lawsuit was all about....and you can't change the fact he did pay her 12 million pounds to shut up.

The gall of the man to then inflict himself on such a tender and beautiful memorial, particularly because the Queen is so ill she is unlikely to be making many more public appearances. He has made it all about him once again, asserting his entitlement to be front and centre stage after all that has happened - it is a disgrace, a national scandal.

God only knows what they will be making of this in the US. I hope they don't think there is any support for this here in the UK. Nobody supports this terrible decision, whoever made it.

ssd · 30/03/2022 08:16

He must be laughing at us all, drivibg from the royal lodge, a beautiful house he gets for free to live in, up to see his mammy in Windsor Castle, where he goes riding every day. And drives around in his top of the range car. Honestly, these people dont want a thing to change, they have lives of complete and utter luxury, that they didn't work for or deserve. And we are meant to admire them.
I think William is shitting himself at all this. He knows his generation and younger wont put up with this nonsense. He's trying to find ways to make his family seem more like the people they are meant to represent. But i think the old school ways of the RF are what will end them all. And the sooner the better.

Roussette · 30/03/2022 08:16

Regardless of any crime or not
Andrew is her son and it was his Fathers memorial service

We all know that. No one anywhere on MN or elsewhere has said he shouldn't be there. That's not the point.

Roussette · 30/03/2022 08:18

ssd I agree. And let's add... pay for his EX wife to live on the 90 acre estate too. You couldn't make it up.
Your post makes complete sense. People are fed up with it.

PurpleDaisies · 30/03/2022 08:18

@BadgerB

If she was underage, then technically it was rape. But I don't suppose she was dragged to bed, kicking & screaming. Epstein had apparently told her to see that Andrew "had a good time". She had worked for Epstein for some time, her father, it is said, had driven her to Epstein's home. Is she suing him for trafficking? Or did he think she was being flown around on millionaire's jets to serve the tea?
Disgusting victim blaming, rape apologist bull shit. How dare you minimise what happens to those girls.
Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:19

It is making my blood boil as well. As a survivor I take great exception to the minimising going on here purple

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:22

The general tone is that the Queen and RF simply do not care one jot about the victims.
They don't care what the public thinks.
They could not care less how this will be seen on the global stage or the impact it will have on other victims of abuse that will be too afraid to come forward as the justice system no longer serves them.

Just as long as what Andrew wants, Andrew gets.

This is so damaging on so many levels it is hard to write them all in one post. Final straw springs to mind.

MoggyP · 30/03/2022 08:28

As the complainant did not allege rape, and as she was over the age of consent in relevant jurisdictions, then it's wrong to change the terms of what was in the suit. She alleged sexual assault. There was no trial.

Also, @prh47bridge explained the law at the time, and that having sex with a trafficked woman was not a crime at the time unless money changed hands. AFAIK VG has never alleged he paid her. We do not know how she presented herself the DofY and whether it would have been reasonable for him to have believed she was consenting (if as she contends but he denies, anything happened) and have no reason to suspect she was trafficked.

We do know he's sleazy and had horrible friends. But it's not been established that he committed any specific offence.

Swayingpalmtrees · 30/03/2022 08:30

moggy please see my links, I do not agree with you.

User76745333 · 30/03/2022 08:30

£12 million is a lot to pay if he was innocent. If he had nothing to hide, why not have your day in court??

Because it would have cost millions anyway to defend the claim and in the meantime the publicity and stress causes even greater damage to those involved and their families. Any lawyer would have told him to settle (and I speak as one).

ssd · 30/03/2022 08:31

Most people seem to see the queen as a lovely old benevolent granny with her tweed skirts and corgis round her ankles. I don't. Andrew and the rest of them get to do exactly what they want because of her. Yet she is seen as untouchable, above our lowly selves. Its unreal.

EdithWeston · 30/03/2022 08:31

Just as long as what Andrew wants, Andrew gets

We have no idea whatsoever who wanted what on this one. For all we know he might desperately have wanted to be at the front entrance where all the non-invalid senior working Royals made their camera appearances.

Swipe left for the next trending thread