Andrew asks a court to quash the warrants used before his February arrest

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has opened a legal challenge to the search warrants used at Sandringham and Royal Lodge before his arrest in February, and a court will start hearing the bid on Thursday.

The former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office after material from the Epstein files in the United States reached British police. His lawyers want a judicial review of the warrants. The challenge is against the chief constable of Thames Valley Police and the Central Criminal Court, which issued the warrants.

Thames Valley Police confirmed the case in a short statement. "We are engaged in legal proceedings in relation to warrants previously obtained from the Central Criminal Court." The force did not describe the items taken or the status of the criminal investigation.

The warrants were issued on 18 February, the day before the arrest. Searches followed at Sandringham, the Norfolk estate, and at Royal Lodge in Windsor, the house Mountbatten-Windsor had occupied. The Telegraph reported the challenge first. The BBC confirmed the police statement and the Thursday listing.

Thursday's hearing will begin in private. The judge will first hear a request by the police to keep some documents closed. Only after that application does the court turn to the bid to quash the warrants. A private opening is ordinary when the papers include the basis on which a warrant was granted. It does not decide the review.

A warrant from the Central Criminal Court is a judge's order, not a police note. Quashing it would say the order should not have been made, or should not stand. It would not, by itself, end the suspicion on which he was arrested. Misconduct in public office is the offence named at the arrest. No charge has been announced in the public accounts of the case.

Mountbatten-Windsor lost the title of prince and the dukedom of York over his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 after a conviction for sex offences. The February arrest was the criminal step that followed the release of further Epstein material. The October case is about the searches, not a retrial of that material.

The two addresses matter because they are not ordinary houses. Sandringham is a royal estate. Royal Lodge is a Crown property he has fought to keep. A warrant for either address needs a judge to be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds and that the search is proportionate. That is the legal test his lawyers are putting in front of the court.

The police application to keep documents private is the first fight. If the judge grants it, part of the warrant file stays out of the public hearing. If the judge refuses, more of the basis for the 18 February order becomes public on Thursday afternoon. Either result tells the public something the February arrest did not: how much of the warrant file the force is willing to show.

Mountbatten-Windsor is not in custody. The challenge does not stay the investigation unless a judge says so. What it does is put the searches, the date of the warrants, and the Central Criminal Court on a timetable. Thursday is the first date on that timetable.