Palace says King Charles III will support police assessing former Prince Andrew's Epstein links

Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, has made his first intervention in the latest round of revelations in the Epstein scandal, saying Buckingham Palace is ready to support the police as they consider allegations against his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the BBC reported citing a Palace spokesman.

"The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's conduct," the BBC quoted the Palace spokesman as saying.

"While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect," he said.

Thames Valley Police confirmed it is assessing whether there are grounds to investigate a complaint by the anti-monarchy group Republic, which reported Mountbatten-Windsor for suspected misconduct in public office and breach of official secrets.

Emails from the recently released batch of Epstein files appear to show the former prince passing on reports of visits to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam and confidential details of investment opportunities.

After the trips, on 30 November 2010, he appears to have forwarded official reports of those visits sent by his then-special adviser, Amit Patel, to Epstein, five minutes after receiving them.

There were also details of investment opportunities in Afghanistan, described as "confidential", which appear to have been passed on to Epstein on 24 December 2010.

Since the release of three million more documents related to Epstein, there has been growing pressure on Mountbatten-Windsor, with claims a second woman was sent to the UK by Jeffrey Epstein for a sexual encounter with him.

Photographs appearing to show him kneeling on all fours over a female lying on the ground were also included in the latest batch of files.

The Epstein files are a collection of millions of documents, images and videos detailing the criminal activities of American financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 awaiting trial.