UK police not taking further action over Andrew bodyguard claim

LONDON, ‌Dec 13 (Reuters) - London's police force will not be taking ‍further ‌action over claims that Britain's former prince Andrew asked ⁠his protection officer to ‌carry out checks on Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually abusing her as a teenager, it said on Saturday.

In October, ⁠Britain's King Charles stripped his younger brother Andrew of his title of ​prince and forced him out of ‌his Windsor home, seeking to ⁠distance the royals from him over his links to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Earlier the same month, London's ​police force said it was "actively looking" into allegations in a Mail on Sunday newspaper report that Andrew had asked one of his personal-protection officers in 2011 to ​dig ‍up information about Giuffre, ​who died by suicide in April.

“Following recent reporting suggesting that Mr Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked his Met Police close-protection officer to carry out checks on Ms Giuffre in 2011, the Metropolitan Police Service has carried out a further ⁠assessment," it said in a statement on Saturday.

It said this assessment had not revealed ​any additional evidence of criminal acts or misconduct.

"To date, we have not received any additional evidence that would support reopening the investigation. In the ‌absence of any further information, we will be taking no further action."

(Reporting by James Davey. Editing by Mark Potter)