LONDON (AP) — A man has been arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after reports that the former Prince Andrew was threatened by a masked man while walking dogs near his home.
Norfolk Constabulary said that the arrest came Wednesday evening after a man was reported “behaving in an intimidating manner” near the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England.
“Officers attended, and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public
order offense and possession of an offensive weapon,” the force said.
The suspect is being held for questioning at a nearby police station. The term offensive weapons covers knives, truncheons and other items used to cause injury. Police didn't specify what type of weapon was involved.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse. It said the incident occurred near the Sandringham Estate while the former prince was out walking his dogs, and that Andrew and his protection officer got in their car and sped away.
Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, moved to the king’s private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, after he was evicted from his longtime home near Windsor Castle and stripped of his royal title following revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew now lives at Marsh Farm, a property on the Sandringham estate, after leaving Royal Lodge last year.
He was arrested and held for hours by British police in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office in a case related to his links to Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.
Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was the United Kingdom's special envoy for international trade.
Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.
