Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested by US federal agents in Florida on Friday and charged in connection with possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Markle, 82, was taken into custody at a senior care facility in Polk county early on Friday, and made a brief initial appearance in federal court in Tampa on Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. He was later released with the condition that he be electronically monitored.
A 14-page federal criminal complaint says that agents seized approximately 78 items and alleges that Markle kept child sexual abuse material, including sexually explicit photographs of himself with prepubescent girls, in two Los Angeles-area storage units that he rented for nearly two decades.
An affidavit filed with the complaint that led to the arrest stated that two of the images inside the units showed a man identified by a witness as Markle with a nude underage girl.
The document, filed in federal court in California, said the recovered material included dozens of slides, photographs, film negatives and books containing the illegal material. It said the FBI was still reviewing the material.
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, said: “Mr Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions. This FBI will use every single resource at our disposal to protect innocent kids – any predator who targets children will have zero safe haven in this country or anywhere they try to hide.”
Patel thanked FBI agents in Los Angeles and Tampa, and authorities in Mexico, the Philippines, and Marshall Islands that he said were involved in the investigation.
Some details in the criminal complaint are redacted, such as the name of the federal agent who signed the complaint, who states that they are assigned to the violent crimes against children unit in the LA office of the FBI. The case is presented as United States of America v Thomas Wayne Markle.
“Mr Markle is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, including photographs depicting himself with minor girls,” Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney for the central district of California, said in a statement released by the US department of justice.
“These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr Markle to the fullest extent of federal law.”
Essayli told the Associated Press that there was no evidence of victims in the US, based on the seized material, but that the investigation was ongoing. He said his office was aware of public reporting that Markle might have dementia.
Markle is charged with one count of possession of child sexual abuse material, and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Efforts by the AP to reach Markle’s court-appointed lawyer for comment were unsuccessful, the news agency said.
Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, said last month that she was “deeply distressed” about allegations that a collection of child sexual abuse images was found at her father’s former home in the Philippines.
The duchess also revealed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about her father was sent to police in London in 2018.
She had issued a statement after the Sun newspaper published claims that her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, alleged he had found a stash of images belonging to their father at his Philippines residence. He was named as a person of interest in the case earlier this week.
According to the justice department statement, FBI agents interviewed a person last month who was aware that Markle was renting the two storage units in California after the bureau became aware of developments in the Philippines.
Markle rented the units since 2008, it said, with his most recent payments on both made last month by auto-pay.
Photographs produced by the Daily Mail showed Thomas Markle Sr being taken away in a wheelchair, in handcuffs, wearing a black T-shirt and surrounded by agents wearing jackets marked “FBI”. The UK tabloid asked Markle if he was a pedophile and he replied: “No.” Markle did not answer when the newspaper asked if he had ever collected child sexual abuse material.
A spokesperson for the duchess did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Authorities in the Philippines, where Markle had previously lived for some time, began investigating him last month over allegations he possessed child sexual abuse images. British police last month said they would refer allegations about him to overseas law enforcement agencies after finding that claims had not been passed to other authorities when they were first received.
He has denied the accusations, telling the Daily Mail they were untrue and “sick lies”.
Markle is a retired television lighting and photography director and he did not attend the 2018 wedding of Harry and Meghan, amid acrimony and estrangement between father and daughter. Meghan has since said she decided to distance herself from him to protect her children.
The duke and duchess returned to live in Britain in the summer after six years in the US.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
