The moment Andrew was processed at Aylsham police station, every title he had ever held ceased to matter. To the custody sergeant logging his details, he was Detainee A — nothing more.

The Express reported last week how officers running Operation Ironville adopted the anonymous designation deliberately, determined to give no grounds for accusations that the former royal had been either favoured or targeted. Colleagues elsewhere in the station were kept in the dark entirely, told only that someone of significance was in custody.

The contrast with his former life could hardly be starker. The man once styled as His Royal Highness, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh — a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter until his brother the King removed every honour — had been reduced to a single letter.

A source told the Sun: “It brings it home doesn’t it?

“To go from Prince and Duke and Earl, Baron, Knight — all those fancy titles then suddenly you’re Detainee A.

“He must have thought just being plain ‘Andy’ was awful at one point.

“I don’t suppose he thought it could get much worse.

“Police in Norfolk are fed up that he’s effectively been dumped on them and made their problem.

“The only way left for them to deal with the frustration is through humour — so they all keep joking they have ‘a notable person’ to arrest.

“They wish he had never left Windsor.”

Arrested on his birthday

Detectives swooped on Wood Farm at Sandringham on February 19 — Andrew’s 66th birthday — arresting him on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The allegation centres on claims, supported by emails from the Epstein files, that the former trade envoy channelled sensitive information to his associate, among them details of investment prospects in Afghanistan.

Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Neither Norfolk nor Thames Valley police would be drawn on the Detainee A disclosure.