Lord Peter Rosslyn, who is now Lord Steward and Personal Secretary to the King and Queen, was head of Royalty and Diplomatic Protection between 2003-2014.

It is not clear if Lord Rosslyn - known at the time as Commander Peter Loughborough - was made aware of Prince Andrew's request. However, it reportedly happened in 2011 when it's claimed Andrew wrote in an email that he passed the date of birth and confidential social security number of his accuser, Virginia Guiffre, to one of his close protection team to find out information about her.

At the weekend, the Metropolitan Police said it was "actively looking into the claims made".

Sky News approached Lord Rosslyn for comment, which was passed to Buckingham Palace.

A palace spokesperson said: "As you may or may not be aware, Lord Rosslyn works for The Royal Household and thus this issue has been referred to me. However, since this matter relates to his time in service with the Metropolitan Police, they would be the appropriate body to approach with media enquiries of this nature."

The Met Police had nothing further to add.

Police sources have told Sky News the officer (CPO) involved would have been expected to escalate this request from Andrew to his superiors.

While there may have been other members of senior staff between the CPO and Lord Rosslyn, the request should have been considered serious enough to be referred to the top of the Royalty and Diplomatic Service.

Those with knowledge of the royal household tell us Lord Rosslyn is one of the King's closest and most trusted members of staff.

His role as Lord Steward involves managing all aspects of the King's personal affairs, and the non-state business of the monarch.

Who is Lord Peter Rosslyn?

As well as being much respected by Queen Elizabeth II, and affectionately known as her "favourite policeman", in 2014 Lord Rosslyn was appointed as Master of the Household of the then Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House.

In February 2003, he was made Lord Steward by the King, thereby becoming the "first dignitary of the King's court" - a sign that the monarch wanted to keep him around.

While Andrew's alleged attempts to smear Virginia Guiffre would have been morally wrong, he also would have been asking his police officer to put his career on the line.

Any attempt to use police databases to find information on an innocent individual not connected to a crime would have been a sackable offence, and unlawful.

In his statement on Friday, Prince Andrew again stressed that he vehemently denies the allegations against him.

A Buckingham Palace source told Sky News that the recent claims that have emerged are being viewed by the Royal Family with "very serious and grave concern" and "should be examined in the proper and fullest ways".

Andrew should give evidence to US authorities - minister

The revelation comes as a government minister said Andrew should give evidence to US authorities - and anger grows after it emerged he had been paying "peppercorn rent" for two decades.

On Friday, Andrew announced he was giving up his royal titles, including the Duke of York, after new, damaging reports about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Passages from the memoir released on Tuesday of the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her, provide further details of their alleged encounters.

Prince Andrew has always strenuously denied the allegations.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday he would "support" Prince Andrew giving evidence to US prosecutors.

He added he would also support any decision by the Met Police to investigate allegations that Prince Andrew used a Met bodyguard to gain information on Giuffre.

It comes as anger continues to grow over Prince Andrew's housing arrangements.

'Peppercorn rent'

The royal has only paid "peppercorn rent" for more than two decades at his Windsor mansion, according to a National Audit Office report published in 2005.

"Peppercorn rent" is a legal term used in leases to show that rent technically exists, so the lease is valid, but it's nominal, often literally £1 a year or just a symbolic amount.

In practice, it means the tenant pays no rent.

It also shows he was required to pay a further £7.5m for refurbishments.

A document from the Crown Estate also shows he signed a 75-year lease on the property in 2003.

It reveals he paid £1m for the lease and that since then he has paid "one peppercorn" of rent "if demanded" per year.

Read More:
Pressure grows on Andrew to be stripped of dukedom
Key claims from Andrew accuser's posthumous memoir

The agreement also contains a clause which states the Crown Estate would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 if he gave up the lease.

Pressure is mounting on him to give up the 30-bedroom mansion.

Senior Tory Robert Jenrick called for Prince Andrew to live privately.

'He has disgraced himself'

He said: "It's about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life.

"He has disgraced himself, he has embarrassed the royal family time and again. I don't see why the taxpayer, frankly, should continue to foot the bill at all. The public are sick of him."

Mr Kyle, however, said that would be a question for King Charles.

But he did say MPs could bring forward a motion to strip Prince Andrew of his remaining titles, adding it would be up to Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to choose one of these motions for debate.

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.

Ricky Stubberfield, 31, was convicted of 23 offences against seven women between 2013 and 2024.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said some of the assaults occurred at the Essex Smiles salon in Plymouth, Devon, during the 2022-2024 period he was the co-owner and manager.

The CPS said a number of the women were contacted by Stubberfield on Instagram and offered free treatment in exchange for promoting his business.

When they attended their appointments, Stubberfield made sexual advances before assaulting them.

Other offences were carried out by Stubberfield at a variety of locations around Plymouth.

The sex predator, of Plympton, was arrested in June 2024 after multiple complaints were made to police.

In July, he was found guilty of eight counts of rape; nine counts of sexual assault; four counts of assault by penetration; one count of making indecent images of a child; and one count of exposure.

Stubberfield was sentenced at Plymouth Crown Court on Tuesday.

He was handed a 26-year jail sentence, plus an additional six years on licence once released back into the community.

Stubberfield was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

HHJ Judge Linford stated: "Your behaviour was utterly remorseless predation."

The CPS said Stubberfield first came to the attention of police in February 2022 when a 16-year-old girl reported that he had sexually abused her on two occasions that month.

On one night, he had raped her in the disabled toilet during a concert at Plymouth Pavilions and later in the back of his van on Plymouth Hoe.

On the second occasion at a house, the victim was subjected to multiple rapes and other sexual offences while Stubberfield told her to "be quiet".

Some of the offences were captured during a FaceTime call to her friend after Stubberfield brazenly pulled her out of view to sexually assault her and forced her to commit a sexual act upon him.

Unbeknown to Stubberfield, his actions were reflected in a nearby cooker hood and seen by the caller, who shouted out to stop him. She had also recorded the call and provided this to police.

The court heard that in 2024, a woman reported that she had been abused by Stubberfield at Essex Smiles.

In response, Operation Highrock was launched by Devon and Cornwall Police's Project Gemstone, a specialist sexual offences investigation team.

After a third report in 2024, Stubberfield was arrested and charged with multiple offences.

A report in the local media prompted other victims to come forward.

Some believed they were the only one and Stubberfield's sexualised behaviour had often been dismissed by those who knew him as it being "just Ricky".

Between 2022 and 2024, he had abused five women, all in their 20s, at the teeth whitening and tanning salon.

Four victims were sexually touched while receiving teeth whitening treatments, three from his social media offers. He also exposed himself to a fifth victim.

In all cases, Stubberfield made inappropriate sexual remarks as a precursor and asked details about their sex lives.

Once in the treatment chair with a mouth guard in, he took advantage and sexually assaulted them, asked for photos and made repeated forceful sexual advances.

One woman described feeling trapped, while another told police she froze in fear of what may happen next.

The fifth woman was accompanied by her toddler when she went to buy a product from the salon.

Stubberfield asked her out on a date, which she declined. He then showed her a picture of his genitals before pulling down his trousers to expose himself.

After she left the shop, he called a few minutes later to ask her out again.

Read more from Sky News:
Ex-French president enters prison for five-year sentence
Man jailed for plotting to rape and murder TV star loses appeal

In 2013, Stubberfield sexually assaulted a woman he met on a dating site, forcing himself upon her before she was able to get away.

Another victim encountered Stubberfield in 2021 where he raped her twice before asking her if she "fancied a Nando's".

The CPS said the victims were aged between 16 and 27 at the time of the offences - all younger than Stubberfield.

Detective Inspector Marcus Hodges, senior investigating officer, welcomed the sentence.

He added: "My utmost thanks and praise are with the victims who not only had the courage to report the offences, but to support the police investigation and give evidence in court.

"Their strength and bravery is admirable, and I sincerely hope that they may find some closure and be able to start moving forward with their lives following this outcome."

A yellow weather warning for rain covers most of southern England, the East Midlands, parts of Wales and Yorkshire and is in place all of Thursday until 9pm, the Met Office said.

"A powerful jet stream will drive a deep low-pressure system across the UK on Thursday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to many areas," the forecaster wrote in a post on X.

Those within the affected regions have been warned by the weather service to expect heavy rainfall from Wednesday evening, with up 50mm in some areas by early Thursday morning.

Check the weather forecast where you are

Some areas, particularly North Devon, Cornwall and in the east of England, could exceed this amount of rain, the Met Office added.

For the majority of the yellow alert area, gusts of up to 55mph are expected with 65mph possible near coasts.

Strong winds may lead to power cuts, transport disruption and damage to buildings with a small chance of injuries and danger to life caused by large waves and beach material being thrown on to seafronts and coastal roads, the forecaster warned.

Another yellow alert for wind on Thursday covers southwest England and parts of Wales, including Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Swansea and Pembrokeshire.

Read more:
What are weather warnings and how do they work?
Why the weather has been gloomy in the UK recently

Gusts of up to 45mph are expected widely within this area, while winds of up to 60mph could be reached along exposed coasts and headlands, according to the forecaster.

"The low is deepening as it crosses the UK, it's likely to bring a swathe of strong winds as well, gales around southern and eastern coasts, the risk of 60mph gusts in some exposed spots, perhaps even a touch more in places," said Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern.

Before Wednesday, conditions are expected to be a "mix of bright spells and showers", he added.

The Met Office offered some advice for staying safe in strong wind, including protecting property from damage, preparing well before taking any journeys, driving safely, being wary of large waves and staying safe near cliffs along the coast and staying indoors as much as possible.

The 70-year-old was pictured with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on Tuesday morning ahead of travelling to Paris' La Sante prison.

He was found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential election campaign with funds from Libya.

Hundreds of supporters chanted "Nicolas, Nicolas" and sang the French national anthem as he left his home this morning and stepped into the car that would take him to jail.

It caps a stunning downfall of the man who led France between 2007 and 2012.

Sarkozy's sons and daughter, Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia, and his grandchildren showed up at the gathering.

As he prepared to begin his prison term, he posted a message on social media repeating his claims that he is an "innocent man" and said he feels a "deep sorrow for France".

Read more from Sky News:
Japan votes in country's first ever female PM
Chess grandmaster dies unexpectedly aged 29

He will be the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after the Second World War.

In his statement, Sarkozy said: "As I prepare to cross the walls of La Sante prison, my thoughts go out to the French people of all walks of life and opinions," he said.

"I want to tell them with my unwavering strength that it is not a former President of the Republic who is being locked up this morning, it is an innocent person."

He added: "I feel deep sorrow for France, which finds itself humiliated by the expression of a vengeance that has taken hatred to an unprecedented level. I have no doubt. The truth will triumph. But the price to pay will have been crushing."

Parisian resident Michelle Perie, 67, said she came out to support "because there is anger, injustice".

"He's not like any other defendants, he's someone who holds state secrets, he's someone who has always done his job with his head held high. We don't understand," she said.

Sarkozy's lawyers said he will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.

The former president told French newspaper Le Figaro he would take three books with him, including Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge.

There below you, you will see scattered around the fields and woods of the local area a set of vast warehouses that might to the untrained eye look like supermarkets or distribution centres. But no: these are in fact data centres - the biggest concentration of data centres anywhere in the world.

For this area surrounding Dulles Airport has more of these buildings, housing computer servers that do the calculations to train and run artificial intelligence (AI), than anywhere else. And since AI accounts for the vast majority of economic growth in the US so far this year, that makes this place an enormous deal.

Down at ground level you can see the hallmarks as you drive around what is known as "data centre alley". There are enormous power lines everywhere - a reminder that running these plants is an incredibly energy-intensive task.

This tiny area alone, Loudoun County, consumes roughly 4.9 gigawatts of power - more than the entire consumption of Denmark. That number has already tripled in the past six years, and is due to be catapulted ever higher in the coming years.

Inside 'data centre alley'

We know as much because we have gained rare access into the heart of "data centre alley", into two sites run by Digital Realty, one of the biggest datacentre companies in the world. It runs servers that power nearly all the major AI and cloud services in the world. If you send a request to one of those models or search engines there's a good chance you've unknowingly used their machines yourself.

Their Digital Dulles site, under construction right now, is due to consume up to a gigawatt in power all told, with six substations to help provide that power. Indeed, it consumes about the same amount of power as a large nuclear power plant.

Walking through the site, a series of large warehouses, some already equipped with rows and rows of backup generators, there to ensure the silicon chips whirring away inside never lose power, is a striking experience - a reminder of the physical underpinnings of the AI age. For all that this technology feels weightless, it has enormous physical demands. It entails the construction of these massive concrete buildings, each of which needs enormous amounts of power and water to keep the servers cool.

Read more from Ed Conway:
Blow to UK's bid to become minerals superpower
There's more to your AirPods than meets the eye

We were given access inside one of the company's existing server centres - behind multiple security cordons into rooms only accessible with fingerprint identification. And there we saw the infrastructure necessary to keep those AI chips running. We saw an Nvidia DGX H100 running away, in a server rack capable of sucking in more power than a small village. We saw the cooling pipes running in and out of the building, as well as the ones which feed coolant into the GPUs (graphic processing units) themselves.

Such things underline that to the extent that AI has brainpower, it is provided not out of thin air, but via very physical amenities and infrastructure. And the availability of that infrastructure is one of the main limiting factors for this economic boom in the coming years.

According to economist Jason Furman, once you subtract AI and related technologies, the US economy barely grew at all in the first half of this year. So much is riding on this. But there are some who question whether the US is going to be able to construct power plants quickly enough to fuel this boom.

For years, American power consumption remained more or less flat. That has changed rapidly in the past couple of years. Now, AI companies have made grand promises about future computing power, but that depends on being able to plug those chips into the grid.

Last week the International Monetary Fund's chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, warned AI could indeed be a financial bubble.

He said: "There are echoes in the current tech investment surge of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. It was the internet then… it is AI now. We're seeing surging valuations, booming investment and strong consumption on the back of solid capital gains. The risk is that with stronger investment and consumption, a tighter monetary policy will be needed to contain price pressures. This is what happened in the late 1990s."

'The terrifying thing is…'

For those inside the AI world, this also feels like uncharted territory.

Helen Toner, executive director of Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and formerly on the OpenAI board, said: "The terrifying thing is: no one knows how much further AI is going to go, and no one really knows how much economic growth is going to come out of it.

"The trends have certainly been that the AI systems we are developing get more and more sophisticated over time, and I don't see signs of that stopping. I think they'll keep getting more advanced. But the question of how much productivity growth will that create? How will that compare to the absolutely gobsmacking investments that are being made today?"

Whether it's a new industrial revolution or a bubble - or both - there's no denying AI is a massive economic story with massive implications.

For energy. For materials. For jobs. We just don't know how massive yet.