Meghan Markle’s Father Thomas Markle Arrested on Federal Child Sexual Abuse Material Charge

Los Angeles: Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was arrested on Friday on a federal charge of possessing child sexual abuse material, which authorities allege was discovered in storage units he rented in California.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the 82-year-old father-in-law of Prince Harry was taken into custody by federal agents in Florida, where, according to the Daily Mail, Markle, who uses a wheelchair, had been a patient at a nursing home. In a statement, Patel said Markle allegedly targeted innocent children through his criminal actions.

A criminal complaint filed on Thursday in the US District Court in Los Angeles charges Markle with one count of possession of child pornography. The Justice Department said he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Markle, a resident of Lakeland, Florida, made his initial court appearance before a US magistrate judge in nearby Tampa. According to the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, the judge ordered his release pending trial on the condition that he remain under home detention with electronic monitoring. No plea was entered, and an arraignment is not expected for several weeks. It was not immediately known who is representing Markle or when he may be transferred to California to face the charge.

According to an FBI affidavit filed with the complaint, the material was kept in two storage units in the Los Angeles area that Markle has rented since 2008. Agents searched the units last week under a warrant and seized around 78 items, including slides, 35mm film negatives and books containing child sexual abuse imagery. The affidavit states that at least two frames on the negatives allegedly show a man, identified by a witness as Markle, with an underage girl in sexually explicit circumstances.

The FBI said it opened its investigation in October after a witness reported finding suspected child abuse material among Markle’s belongings in the Philippines, where he previously lived for a period. A second unnamed witness later told investigators that Markle rented at least one storage unit in California. According to the affidavit, at least one of the photographs reviewed suggests it was taken at a hotel or motel in the Philippines, based on a logo visible on the bedding.

Authorities in the Philippines began investigating Markle last month over similar allegations, while British police said they would refer claims about him to overseas law enforcement agencies after finding the allegations had not been passed on when first received.

Markle denied the accusations when they first emerged, describing them to the Daily Mail as “sick lies.” Meghan, an American actor who married King Charles’s younger son in 2018, has said she was deeply distressed by the allegations. Buckingham Palace and a spokesperson for the Duchess did not respond to requests for comment.