Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has launched a High Court bid to quash the search warrants police used to raid two of his former homes on royal estates, in a case that pits one of the country’s most scrutinised men against the officers who arrested him. The judiciary confirmed on Monday that a London court is likely to hold a private hearing on Thursday, with the dispute focused on warrants issued by a judge at the Central Criminal Court on 18 February.
The application, brought by the former prince, seeks judicial review of those warrants, meaning he is asking the High Court to examine the lawfulness of the authorisations on a formal, higher-stage footing rather than simply disputing them at the outset of a police search. The same Thursday hearing will also deal with a request from Thames Valley Police to restrict access to the court documents in the case.
Officers searched his home on the remote Sandringham estate in eastern England and his former Royal Lodge residence in Windsor, west of London. Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, was arrested on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, having been released later the same day. He remains under investigation and has denied wrongdoing. He was stripped of his royal titles last year following his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a prison in New York in August 2019.
What the hearing will cover
Two distinct strands will be in front of the judge. The first is Mountbatten-Windsor’s own application to have the February warrants quashed. The second is a police request to limit public access to the paperwork, which the judiciary press office confirmed will be dealt with at the same private hearing.
Thames Valley Police said in a statement that while its misconduct in a public office investigation continues, the force is engaged in legal proceedings over warrants previously obtained, and that it would be inappropriate to comment further while those proceedings are ongoing.
Why it matters
A successful quashing order would not end the police investigation, but it would strip away an early legal foundation of it and raise serious questions about how the original authorisations were sought and granted. Judicial review of search warrants issued by a Crown Court judge is a rare step, and one that tends to draw scrutiny well beyond the individual case. For a man who has spent two years moving from public collapse to formal legal proceedings, the outcome will be the first substantive judicial ruling on the search of his homes.
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What happens next
The private hearing is listed for Thursday in London. Any ruling on quashing the warrants is likely to be the first firm outcome in the legal challenge. The underlying investigation into alleged misconduct in a public office continues in parallel, and Mountbatten-Windsor remains under investigation and denies wrongdoing.
Reporting on this case is being updated as the hearing approaches, with Al Jazeera and other outlets following the outcome at the Central Criminal Court and the High Court.
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