LONDON - The Metropolitan Police has launched a probe into claims Prince Andrew embroiled the force in a campaign to smear his teenage sex accuser.
A bombshell email obtained by The Mail on Sunday exposes how Andrew asked his taxpayer-funded Met bodyguard to investigate Virginia Giuffre and passed him her date of birth and confidential social security number.
Astonishingly, Andrew then told Ed Perkins, Queen Elizabeth’s Deputy Press Secretary, that he had asked one of his personal protection officers – part of the Met’s elite SO14 Royalty Protection Group – to dig up information about Giuffre.
He emailed Perkins hours before this newspaper first published the infamous picture of the duke with 17-year-old Giuffre, which would ultimately bring about his downfall.
‘‘It would also seem she has a criminal record in the United States,’’ he wrote.
‘‘I have given her DoB (date of birth) and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo personal protection officer.’’
It is not suggested that the officer complied with the prince’s request, while Giuffre’s family last night said she did not have a criminal record.
Her relatives said our revelations ‘expose the lengths to which those implicated try to discredit and defame survivors. The truth will surface and there will be no shadows in which they can hide’.
A spokesperson for the Met Police confirmed: ‘‘We are aware of media reporting and are actively looking into the claims made.’’
Details of the shocking email come after Andrew was forced to relinquish all of his remaining titles, following new damaging revelations in last week’s MoS about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Metropolitan Police has launched a probe into claims Prince Andrew embroiled the force in a campaign to smear his teenage sex accuser. (Pic: Sky News)