Despite my being American, I listen to some British media, and I think it was James O'Brien who I heard wondering about Andrew. Basically, the royal family has "an heir and a spare." Charles the heir, and Andrew the spare.

The question really is, what if it was the heir who had been accused and not the spare? Actually, since Charles had his own heirs by then, Andrew wasn't really even the spare. He is completely disposable. But what if Andrew had been the heir? What if he had already become king and all of this came out? What would the UK do about it?

I think the suspicion is that the investigation would have gone nowhere and not have led to an arrest in that case. Neither the current king nor the heir would have been charged with raping children or leaking confidential material, whatever they did.

They're going after Andrew because he's a family embarrassment anyways, and because this scandal reflects badly on the royal family, so if they have him face justice, and they can hope that it makes their image look better, then that's what they'll do.