With more news emerging of Prince Andrew’s alleged abuse of an Epstein victim, along with revelations that he continues to live rent-free, without working, at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, campaigners from Republic paid him a visit yesterday with banners and a megaphone.
Right outside the main gates to his property, flanked by two large gatehouses, the activists unfurled banners calling for an end to royal secrecy and a full “Royal Epstein inquiry”. Park security claimed that no protest is permitted in the park, but Republic head Graham Smith refused to leave and used a megaphone calling for Andrew to come out and give himself up to police. Staff gathered at the gate, and a BBC journalist also filmed the protest and interviewed Mr Smith, but the state broadcaster failed to publish any reference to it.
Returning to the main entrance to the park, various journalists photographed and interviewed the protesters. Four police officers arrived, saying that they had come in order to ‘facilitate the protest’. Graham Smith showed the police the entrance to the property where a suspected child abuser was thought to reside, but they laughed and said they were more interested in knowing whether there were any more plans to protest, and claiming they’d deal with the serious child abuse “later”.
Republic are currently suing the police for wrongful arrest after several activists were detained on the morning of the official Coronation event in London in 2023. Despite a long process of liaising with the Metropolitan Police and an arranged place to protest, Graham was among those arrested and held for more than 12 hours as they began unloading banners from a van in a nearby street.
We apparently live in a functioning democratic society.
