I bet you didn’t have this one on the radar today! Thomas Markle Sr., the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was arrested Friday morning in Florida on a federal charge of possessing child s-xual abuse material. Authorities say the material was found in storage units in the Los Angeles area.
Federal agents searched two storage units and “seized approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books” that contained suspected child s-xual abuse images, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. Markle, who has rented the units since 2008, is charged with possessing images of child s-xual abuse. He was arrested outside Tampa, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
The arrest followed reporting by The Sun, a British tabloid, that Meghan’s half brother, Thomas Markle Jr., found a collection of such images while clearing out their father’s former home in Cebu City in the Philippines. That overseas discovery led investigators to the U.S. storage units. Thomas Markle Sr. arrest and charges Some images appear to depict Markle with children, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.
Markle Jr. told The Sun he reported the images to police in the Philippines and contacted the FBI. “I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years, but that stops now,” he said. “I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.”
Meghan said in a statement that she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations. She also revealed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about her father had been sent to London police back in 2018. “It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” she said. She added: “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.”
Essayli was direct about where this case is headed. “These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr. Markle to the fullest extent of federal law,” he said. Markle was expected to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon in Tampa. It was not immediately known whether he has retained an attorney.
Markle, a retired television lighting and photography director, was living in the Philippines earlier this year when he suffered a stroke and had his left leg amputated, which forced his return to the United States. He did not attend Meghan’s 2018 wedding to Prince Harry at Windsor Castle. Meghan and Harry have two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
