Queen Elizabeth II called a 'disgrace' for abandoning Prince Andrew amid legal battle

Queen Elizabeth II received some harsh words over her alleged abandonment of her son Prince Andrew amid his sexual abuse case filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Lord Conrad Black called it a "disgrace" that the British monarch abandoned and stripped the Duke of York of his royal patronages as he battles to clear his name from accusations of "rape in the first degree" in a New York court. He called her decision an "untimely lapse of judgment."

"For the Queen to have withdrawn from him all of the dignities exercised ex officio for centuries by the second son of the reigning monarch is not remotely justified by the almost irrelevant and inevitable fact that the Duke has been sued by a former companion of (Jeffrey) Epstein's," he wrote in his piece for the National Post.

The former Daily Telegraph owner also criticised the justice system in the U.S.A. for targeting "a prominent member of the British Royal Family." He said Prince Andrew was "unwise" in associating closely with the deceased sex trafficker Epstein. His friendship with the convicted pedophile reportedly made him a "target for such scurrilous abuse of the legal system."

"All we have to go on in terms of actual verdicts on the basis of any findings that included a recognizable version of due process are what Epstein pleaded guilty to 14 years ago, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Duke of York, and whatever may survive the appellate process in the Maxwell case, none of which implicated the Duke of York," he explained.

Lord Black further shared his support for Prince Andrew, who he said is being inflicted with a "serious injustice." He claimed it is only understandable that the royal would expect the support of his countrymen and especially of his own family in his legal battle. He called it "shocking" that Queen Elizabeth II "would submit to the hare-brained and unworldly advice of those who counselled her not only to attach a completely undeserved degree of credence to these so far unfounded allegations, but to put her own son over the side, prejudged and apparently abandoned by his family."