Gillymor - whatever Dick (The Sandman) is trying to ‘prove’, what I’m trying to debate are fundamental principles of UK law (and US law too, I imagine), that...

1) A person can only be tried in a criminal court if the prosecuting authority can put forward an evidence-based, prima facie case. The photo of Andrew with his arm around the girl’s waist is not evidence that he sexually abused her, yet Dick said, in the post I quoted from earlier, that he should be tried on the basis of it...

”I am not saying all preists are abusers any more than all the royal family are , but since prince andrew has his arm around an underage girl [in a photoraph] ,it does seem possible he may have abused her, stil perhaps he should be tried and then if he is guilty he should lose his job, same as priests do, is that clear joe, have i explained myself, joe do you understand clearly what i am saying joe?”

That suggestion, under our laws, is simply ridiculous.

2) The jury must consider the verdict based on the evidence presented in court, and they are specifically instructed to disregard anything they may have seen or heard elsewhere - in the media, Internet forums, social media, etc. - yet Dick is saying that he would go against that instruction and allow his decision to be influenced by a photo that has gone viral before there has been any investigation into this matter, or any charges made against Andrew.

I’ve seen the photo, and I’ve read about Andrew’s friendship with Epstein, but I have absolutely no idea whatsoever if he sexually abused Virginia Roberts Guiffre, and neither does anyone else on this thread. But what I do know for certain is that the photo doesn’t prove anything other than that he put his arm round a smiling girl’s waist, and that Epstein’s girl-friend was present at the time. That’s all.