Meghan Markle’s father has been charged by US authorities following an investigation into his alleged child sex abuse collection.
Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been arrested and charged with possessing child sex abuse material, following the alleged discovery of the items at properties linked to the 82-year-old in Mexico and the Philippines.
In a statement on Friday, the US Justice department said: “A Florida man was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging he kept child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including sexually explicit photographs of himself with pre-pubescent girls, in two Los Angeles-area storage units he rented for nearly two decades.
“Thomas Wayne Markle, 82, of Lakeland, Florida, is charged with one count of possession of child pornography.”
Earlier, federal agents took Markle Sr into custody at a senior living facility in Lakeland, Florida, after he recently returned to the US, according to the reports. More than a dozen agents swooped in on Friday morning local time before he was cuffed and led in his wheelchair to an ambulance for escorting, photos published by The Sun show.
The FBI has not confirmed the arrest, and it is not clear whether any charges have been laid.
Markle, a former Hollywood lighting director who uses a wheelchair after a leg amputation last year, has previously denied wrongdoing.
The development comes after Thomas Markle Junior, Meghan’s half-brother, reported their father to authorities in the Philippines after discovering “hundreds, if not thousands” of images of child sex images found stored in boxes at his home in Cebu.
The following day, The Sun revealed that an image of Markle Sr allegedly sexually abusing a girl who appears to be underage was discovered among the sickening hoard – and over the weekend, a minister in the Philippines said that all signs pointed to the 82-year-old possibly being a “sex offender of the grossest kind”.
At a press conference on Thursday, Philippines Interior Minister Juanito Victor Remulla revealed there were “indications suggesting that the son (Markle Jr) may also be involved in the crime”.
“But only as a person of interest so far, he is not yet treated as a suspect,” he added.
“We have witnesses that underages girls are brought to his house and we are following it up”.
Authorities in the South-East Asian country are undertaking a full investigation, involving an analysis of the digital images found at Markle Sr’s former home.
“In these cases where family disputes are mixed up, we have to consider all the angles. Right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind. We want to be sure before we release the findings. The forensics data will be complete in a week,” Jonvic Remulla, the Philippine interior minister previously told TheGuardian.
“Please give us a week to determine the contents and to come up with a definitive picture. We will release a statement then.”
Markle Sr has denied the accusations.
He told the Daily Mail: “This is bulls**t. It’s just a bunch of lies. It’s sick. I have no idea why Tom [Junior] is trying to destroy me with these lies.”
Markle Sr also told The Mail on Sunday that he had travelled to the Philippines at least twice and had paid prostitutes for sex, but denied ever sleeping with anyone under the age of 18.
“I like Asian women but that is not a crime,” he said, adding:
“I have not had my computer or phones for nearly two years. If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.”
Meghan released a statement last month, just hours after the allegations were first made public, saying she was “deeply distressed” and confirming the “troubling and disturbing allegations” are the reason she has not allowed her father to have contact with her and Prince Harry’s two children.
A statement, shared with news.com.au via a spokesman, said Meghan first learned of the allegations after a letter sent to London’s Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection was forwarded to her.
She said it “made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.”
She went on to assert that she has distanced her children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, from her father over the allegations.
“I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them,” she said.
“I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.”
It was initially stated that the letter had been shared with her in 2018, at some point after her and Harry’s wedding, but has since been clarified that it was in early 2019.
The disturbing, fast-moving story has been undergoing significant developments since it broke last Thursday – so here’s everything we know so far.
Meghan’s final contact with her father
The duchess has been estranged from her father since 2018, following the fallout from the scandal of his staged paparazzi pictures in the lead-up to their nuptials. However, it was revealed late last year that she had reached out to him with a letter while he was unwell in a Philippines hospital, where he underwent surgery to amputate his leg.
There were some suggestions at the time that the tone was conciliatory, given the severity of Markle Senior’s health issues, but it has now been confirmed that it was in fact a final message declaring her intention to cut him off for good.
The Sun on Sunday reports that Meghan made it clear he would never meet his grandchildren, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, and told him that she and authorities were aware of all allegations he had abused young girls.
Handling of letter sparks UK police probe, Meghan 'upset and frustrated’ by process
It’s understood that Meghan is frustrated by how the matter has been handled by police.
The original letter, sent to authorities and passed on to her in early 2019, is understood to have been written by Markle Sr’s ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, and contained allegations related to her former spouse.
After the Metropolitan Police received it, the decision was made to pass on the information within it to Harry and Meghan, who kept a copy. As the duchess explained in her statement last Friday, she was assured at the time that authorities were investigating the shocking claims.
However, it has now emerged that the Met did not contact overseas law enforcement agencies, and is now considering reporting itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the public watchdog.
“She’s obviously upset and really frustrated that, having effectively been told to stay quiet and having been given assurances it would be investigated, it appears nothing was done,” a friend told the UK’s Telegraph.
“She’s obviously pleased that the Met is now considering referring itself to the police watchdog.”
Who is now investigating the allegations?
While British police are not investigating the US-based Markle, the Philippine National Police [PNP] has confirmed it is working alongside American authorities.
Nicholas Ty, the Undersecretary for the Philippines Department of Justice, told the BBC that “the matter is currently being investigated” by an anti-human trafficking and child sexual exploitation task force.
It’s expected that the comprehensive digital forensic examination currently being conducted may take around a week to complete.
The FBI last month confirmed it is “aware” of the allegations and that it was set to provide support, as appropriate" to authorities in the Philippines.
In addition, it said it would “also investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law.”
In recent years, the retired TV lighting director has lived in the US, Mexico and the Philippines. He left the latter in May this year amid his health issues.
