LONDON: British police said on Sunday they were probing claims that Prince Andrew asked an officer to dig up dirt for a smear campaign against his sexual assault accuser, Virginia Giuffre.

The development comes after Andrew, on Friday, renounced his royal title under pressure from King Charles III, following further revelations about his ties to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said it was looking into allegations in the Mail on Sunday that Andrew tried to smear Giuffre, who accused the prince of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

Andrew, 65, has long denied the assault accusations, which have caused considerable embarrassment to the British monarchy and seen the prince virtually banished from royal life in recent years.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Andrew passed on Giuffre’s date of birth and social security number to his state-funded police protection in 2011 and asked him to investigate.

“We are aware of media reporting and are actively looking into the claims made,” a spokesperson for the Met said in a statement. Andrew’s request came shortly before the publication of a now-infamous photo taken in London appearing to show the prince with his arm around Giuffre’s waist, the paper said.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025