Ex-Prince Andrew may not have been at Pizza Express after all

Pizza Express held an internal inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s alibi that he was at the franchise’s Woking branch on the night he was alleged to have had sex with Virginia Giuffre.

The former prince claimed in a now-infamous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 that he couldn’t have been with Giuffre on March 10, 2001, as he was at the chain.

He denied having relations with Virginia Giuffre Roberts – a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein – on three separate occasions in 2001, twice while she was underage.

After his recent arrest, Newsnight revisited the claims made in his 2019 interview, during which he alleged that he ‘didn’t sweat’.

Andrew was arrested in February of this year – on his 66th birthday – on suspicion of misconduct in public office and held in custody for 11 hours before being released under investigation.

The arrest came shortly after the US Justice Department released a batch of the Epstein files.

Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.

The pizza chain has now launched a formal enquiry and looked into its records. This also included speaking to past employees.

Unfortunately, the Woking branch manager has since left and could not be contacted.

Pizza Express concluded it could find no evidence that Andrew had been at the restaurant that evening, but no evidence that he hadn’t, either.

The BBC reported that Newsnight made ‘extensive inquiries’ but could not find a record of anyone seeing him there on that night in 2001.

In response to a Freedom of Information request over the matter, which asked if any royal protection officers were there, the Met Police replied: ‘Confirming or denying that information is held would reveal whether protection had been afforded to a specific individual other than the King and the prime minister.’

Scotland Yard had previously stated that his close protection officers were being asked to ‘consider carefully’ whether they saw or heard anything that might be relevant to the case.

Six years ago, his family diary was leaked, which said he had a home manicure booked in the afternoon, before claiming to drop his then 12-year-old daughter off at the restaurant, according to the Daily Mail.

His daughter Princess Beatrice later said she has ‘absolutely no recollection’ of the birthday party, which her father claimed to have attended.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey criticised the police’s response, telling the BBC: ‘Of course, the police are rightly very careful about giving any information about who they give special protection to.

‘I completely understand that and it’s right. But too often we see these types of “neither confirm nor deny” answers where there really isn’t a legitimate security reason – and I think that’s what’s happening here.’

He asked for an ‘exception’ to be made by the force to reveal the information, adding: ‘I really can’t see how revealing that Andrew had police protection 25 years ago would play into the hands of terrorists as the Met claims.’

Metro has reached out to Andrew’s representatives for comment.

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