Prince Andrew Mail Hypocrisy

Following the claim made that the Duke of York had been involved in sexual activity with an under-age girl, the press has moved swiftly to confirm what Zelo Street said yesterday, which is that Royals sell papers. The Fourth Estate has also shown the limits to what they can claim, by making sure they deploy lots of quote marks, and the most practiced of these, by a long way, is the Daily Mail.

Hence the headline, “Andrew and the under-age 'sex slave': Duke denies claim in court papers that teen was picked to sleep with him by Robert Maxwell's daughter”, and similarly treated sub-headings “She was told to 'give the prince whatever he demanded' by Jeffrey Epstein … Claimed underage girls were ‘procured for sexual activities’ by Maxwell”. As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point.

And there’s more: “The woman – named only as Jane Doe #3 but said to be 30-year-old Virginia Roberts – says in court documents she was told to ‘give the prince whatever he demanded’ by his friend Jeffrey Epstein, the US billionaire paedophile who hosted the sordid parties … She claimed she and other underage girls were ‘procured for sexual activities’ by Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite daughter of crooked tycoon Robert Maxwell”.

Don’t you love the Mail, which, as revealed in the fallout from Operation Motorman, procured a huge amount of illegally obtained information from Steve Whittamore, calling “crooked” on Cap’n Bob? But let’s cut to the key comment: “Legal documents lodged with a court in Florida name Andrew, 54, as one of three men allegedly involved in abusing the woman 13 years ago when she was 17 – which is underage in Florida state law”.

So the Mail is piling in behind the alleged exploitation of a 17 year old. And that, as Spike Milligan might have observed, puts the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre and his obedient hackery in a very difficult position, as can be seen by one look at the infamous “Sidebar of shame”. Just thee items down from the claims about the Duke of York is one about Kylie Jenner. The Mail does lots of stuff about her.

Earlier this week, readers were treated to “Ah, isn't he cute? Kylie Jenner reveals the name of her new pup in sweet snap that shows him reclining on a furry white rug” with a photo of “of herself wearing a coat, leotard and boots”. Soon after came “Just an ordinary girl! Kylie Jenner heads to the supermarket... but is hard to miss in her stomach-baring crop top”. There’s prurient for you.

And only yesterday came “For her first photo of the New Year, Kylie took a snap of herself dressed in a sleeveless grey crop top and black trousers … She wore her long locks around her shoulders and styled her flawless complexion with dark eye shadow and thick mascara”. Kylie Jenner is 17. Which is underage in Florida state law. We know this because the Daily Mail says so.

Exploitation of 17 year olds is A Very Bad Thing. Except when the Mail does it.