Philippine investigators say they’ve counted about 7,500 images and a video – and now call the son who turned him in a “person of interest.”
Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of Meghan Markle, was arrested by federal agents in Florida on Friday morning on charges related to child sexual abuse material, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press, whose sources said he was taken into custody outside Tampa.
The Daily Mail, which first reported the arrest, said the 82-year-old was picked up at the Maravida Senior Living community in Lakeland. TMZ confirmed that FBI agents arrested him at the facility, and three sources confirmed the arrest to CBS News. Photos published by the Daily Mail and the Sun show him handcuffed in a wheelchair.
A Justice Department official confirmed the FBI arrest to Reuters but gave no reason for it, and it was not immediately clear whether Markle had been formally charged with any specific crime. FBI representatives could not immediately be reached, Reuters said. Markle has denied the allegations, telling the Daily Mail they were “sick lies.” He also told the paper he had paid for sex in the Philippines, but said he had never been intimate with anyone underage.
As we reported last month, the case began when his son, Thomas Markle Jr., told the Sun he had found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sexual abuse images in boxes his father left behind in Cebu, and that he had reported it to the FBI tip line on July 10 without hearing back. “I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years – but that stops now,” Markle Jr. told the paper.
Philippine Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Thursday that investigators have recovered about 7,500 photographs and one video showing underage boys and girls of Asian, Latina and European descent from devices linked to Markle Sr., GMA News reports. Some of the children appeared to be Filipino, he said, and the material included videos of children aged 10 to 11 engaged in sexual acts with adult men.
“It is the most deplorable display of impunity towards sexual activity that I have ever seen,” Remulla said. A day earlier, Philippine police told AFP that three memory cards and a cellphone turned over by Markle Jr. contained child sexual abuse material.
Remulla also named Markle Jr., 60, a person of interest in the case after witnesses told investigators that underage girls were being brought to his house. “We are determining if the son is involved,” Remulla said, adding that he is not yet being treated as a suspect. Ring lights were reportedly seen in the house; Markle Jr. told authorities he was making TikTok videos, and investigators found no underage girls in his TikTok account. Authorities expect to determine within a week whether he had any involvement. He remains in Cebu.
The Daily Mail reported last week that it had found images of children in a storage unit rented in Markle Sr.’s name in Rosarito, Mexico, about three miles from his former home, and referred it to the FBI. Mexican authorities then raided the unit, seizing computers, thumb drives, VHS tapes and other materials, per TMZ.
Last Friday, Markle was moved into a specialist memory care facility in Florida, ITV reported, raising concerns that legal barriers to questioning suspects with cognitive issues could keep the FBI from ever interviewing him.
Meghan said last month she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations, and disclosed that a 2018 letter to London’s Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection “made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father.” “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.
The Met confirmed it passed that letter to her in 2019 but did not share its details with other law enforcement agencies, and said it was reviewing how it handled the matter, including whether it should be referred to the police watchdog.
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