Anti-monarchy protesters once again had a rather ‘simple question’ for King Charles today: ‘What did you know?’
The monarch was met by booing members of Republic today, quizzing him from afar about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Charles and Queen Camilla were heckled by the demonstrators as they entered London’s Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service.
Prince William, Kate Middleton and Princess Anne also attended, in what was the largest gathering of royals since Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest.
Republic waved flags and held banners reading, ‘Done with the crown’ and ‘Not my king’ while chanting at the royals: ‘Charlie, Charlie, time to go.’
Some held up signs with a photograph of Mountbatten-Windsor with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued the ex-prince for sexual assault.
Mountbatten-Windsor, Charles’ younger brother, was arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
He was questioned at a police station for 11 hours on his 66th birthday before being released pending an investigation.
The arrest came only days after details about his relationship with the convicted sex offender Epstein came to light in a batch of the Epstein files.
Among the tranche of thousands of documents released by US officials was a photograph appearing to show the royal kneeling over a woman.
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Mountbatten-Windsor, who has long denied wrongdoing, was photographed touching the fully clothed woman’s stomach and waist.
A third photo showed Mountbatten-Windsor looking at the camera while on all fours next to the woman, whose face was blurred.
A Republic protester previously heckled the King in October, similarly asking: ‘How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein?’
Republic CEO Graham Smith said today: ‘Charles and William – what did you know about Andrew?
‘It’s a simple question, but one the royals have failed to answer. It’s inconceivable to think that they knew nothing about the allegations against Andrew.’
Charles told the event that the ‘precious’ Commonwealth must work to improve the lives of billions in an ‘increasingly fragmented’ world.
Yet the prime minister of the Commonwealth nation Canada, Mark Carney, this weekend called for Mountbatten-Windsor’s removal from the line of succession over the ‘deplorable’ accusations.
Carney joined similar calls made by Australia, another Commonwealth realm, saying that the country takes the ‘grave allegations seriously’.
The former Duke of York remains eighth in line to the throne – to remove him would require new legislation, the approval of all 14 Commonwealth realms and from Charles as head of state.
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