A heckler has shouted an apparent reference to the Jeffrey Epstein affair at the King and Queen during a high street walkabout.

The monarch and his wife held umbrellas as they walked in the Essex village of Dedham in the drizzle on Thursday (British time), with crowds gathered behind metal barriers to meet them.

“Charles, Charles, have you pressurised the police to start investigating Andrew?” a man in the crowd, who was wearing a grey hat and holding a blue umbrella, shouted as the King neared him.

Police officers approached the man afterwards and walked with him away from the barriers. Essex Police later confirmed no arrests had been made.

Shortly afterwards a journalist in the crowd – who was beside a cameraman – apparently tried to ask the King a question about his brother, the former prince Andrew.

The King was then led to the far side of the road, away from the crowds, to continue the walkabout.

The incident comes after the release of more files relating to sex offender Epstein, some of which feature Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The youngest royal sibling, Prince Edward, is the only senior royal to have commented since the files were made public.

While in Dedham, the King and Queen earlier met local groups inside the Sun Inn pub and went into the kitchen, where the Queen tried her hand at cutting ravioli pasta.

Towards the end of their walkabout, they listened to a choir of schoolchildren in the street, before briefly going into the Essex Rose Teahouse where the King unveiled a plaque and cut a cake.

After going back outside they spoke to more people, before leaving in a Bentley.

Adrian Sharpe, of Dedham, was among the crowds who turned out to see the King and Queen.

The 62-year-old handyman said it was “nice and casual really for a village event – obviously high security”.

Asked about the heckler, he said: “I think it’s pointless, really, as what Andrew’s done is what Andrew’s done. It’s not what King Charles has done, is it?

“He’s his own person.”

He said that “they’ve taken the HRH off of Andrew”.

“What else can they do?” Sharpe said. “Surely it’s a police matter now.”

Retired health and safety consultant Russell Townsend, of Stratford St Mary, was also in the crowd.

“We shook the Queen’s hand but the King went across the road so we only saw the back of him really,” he said.

Asked about the situation with Mountbatten-Windsor, the 67-year-old said: “I must admit today I didn’t think of it really.

“I kind of see it as quite a separate issue really. I just think it is what it is and I can kind of separate the two.”

Townsend’s daughter Phoebe, 22, said: “I don’t really follow that. I’m just here to see the King.

“If it was Prince Andrew maybe not, but the King’s the King.”

The latest Epstein files release has subjected Andrew to more scrutiny.

Photographs of Mountbatten-Windsor released in the so-called Epstein files appeared to have been scattered around Dedham ahead of Thursday’s visit by the King, the East Anglian Daily Times reported.

The image was included as part of the latest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice relating to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A video of the scattered printouts of the image was posted on social media on Wednesday.

Mountbatten-Windsor, who has previously strongly denied any wrongdoing, moved from Royal Lodge, his Windsor mansion, to the King’s Sandringham Estate on Tuesday.

It has been reported that his arrival has triggered a “strike” among royal servants, who do not want to serve the disgraced former prince.

–PA