Footage from inside the police station where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was held show the conditions he likely experienced when he was taken into custody.
The shamed former prince was questioned at the Aylsham Police Investigation Centre for 11 hours yesterday following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
While no details have been released about the exact process he went through, his photographs, fingerprints and swabs of DNA would likely have been taken.
He was probably also offered a cup of tea and one phone call and treated like most people who are arrested.
A clip filmed at Aylsham police station in 2017 gives a fresh insight into the conditions Andrew was likely faced with when he was detained there on his 66th birthday.
The footage was taken by BBC Look East to explain how police handle drink driving suspects but the process is similar for anybody held under arrest.
It begins with a police car being driven into the station through a large security gate. The suspect is then taken to the front desk where they speak to a custody sergeant.
They are placed in a small cell, fitted only with a bed and a thin blue mattress before the door is shut.
A clip filmed at Aylsham police station in 2017 gives a fresh insight into the custody conditions Andrew was likely faced with when he was detained there on his 66th birthday
The clip begins with a police car being driven into the station through a large security gate
Andrew leaves Aylsham Police Station after he was released from custody on Thursday
The suspect is taken to the front desk where they speak to a custody sergeant
Aylsham Police Investigation Centre was built in 2011 to replace the outdated former station.
It is a functional, high-capacity site containing specialised interview rooms and a suite of custody cells.
Earlier, retired Met Police sergeant Graham Wettone, author of How To Be A Police Officer, described the likely conditions Andrew experienced during his stay.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘It’ll be no bigger than a box-room in a three-bed semi.
‘There’s no facility for any preferential treatment in any custody suite I’ve ever been in.
‘You can’t have an upgraded room, you can’t get upgraded meals – you get what’s there. Microwaved.’
Andrew was arrested shortly after 8am yesterday when police descended on Wood Farm in Sandringham, Norfolk, where he has been living for the past fortnight.
He has since been released from custody, but his ordeal would have begun with him being driven to an unspecified location for questioning.
First, he would have been brought before the custody sergeant at the police station.
A view inside one of the cells at the police station where Andrew was held
Andrew is pictured on all fours over a woman in this photo that was released as part of the Epstein files
Aylsham Police Investigation Centre was built in 2011 to replace the outdated former station
The arresting officer would have explained the reason for arrest – on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Andrew would have heard the officer state the time of arrest and the location.
‘Do you understand why you have been arrested?’, Andrew will have been asked.
He will then have been read his rights – the right to a solicitor and free legal advice, and to have somebody informed of his arrest. This is often a next-of-kin.
Andrew will have been entitled to speak with the duty solicitor, if he was unable to summon his own counsel.
Then he would have been searched and given a medical and welfare assessment.
Andrew will have been asked if he takes medication, has any physical problems, and asked a series of questions by the custody officer about whether he has any mental health issues.
He will have also been ‘thoroughly’ searched, although he would unlikely have been strip searched due to the nature of the offence he was arrested on suspicion of.
He would have likely had any belts, ties and shoe laces confiscated, for his own protection and that of police staff.
Mr Wettone said: ‘Even if they pose no risk, I took the shoelaces off every single person in custody when I was a custody officer.’
The former Duke of York looked shellshocked after spending 11 hours in police custody
‘If you haven’t met them before, they are in the box of being an unknown risk.
‘The only risk you can assess is because of their answers to you, which might not be true.’
While some suspects are ordered to take off their clothes and change into a paper suit, Mr Wettone said Andrew would not likely have been required to do so because forensic evidence would not have been needed in this case.
The cell itself would have been bare, with Mr Wettone saying: ‘He’s got a toilet and a mattress on the bed. There’s nothing in there at all.
The bed is actually a bench, about knee high, with a vinyl-covered mattress about three inches thick. He will also have been given a blue blanket to keep warm.
The toilet will be obscured by a half-height wall offering only a modicum of privacy – although modern custody suites have CCTV in them anyway.
Then the heavy door will have slammed shut behind him, with Mr Wettone saying: ‘They make a huge, loud bang when they go across.
‘It’s a lonely experience. It’s quite levelling, because the door slams and you’re in there on your own, four walls to look at. There’s no entertainment or anything.
Vehicles are seen arriving at Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on Friday morning
An aerial view of police visiting Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, on Friday
‘You haven’t got your phone with you. You’ve normally got nothing to read apart from the Codes of Practice if you want something to read.
‘The cells are bare, nothing at all. You are sitting there in just your clothes.’
Andrew’s elder brother King Charles has said ‘the law must take its course’ after expressing his ‘deepest concern’ over Thursday’s arrest.
Charles revealed the police would have his ‘wholehearted support and co-operation’ after his younger brother was held on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
The Prince and Princess of Wales also support the King’s unprecedented statement following the arrest of William’s uncle Andrew at Sandringham on Thursday.
The King said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace at midday: ‘I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.
‘What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.
‘Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.
‘As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all’.
