Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, removed his ankle monitor days after being arrested on child sexual abuse image charges, a Justice Department official said Tuesday. Markle is now in custody awaiting a federal court hearing in Tampa, Florida.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Markle cut off the monitoring device at about 1:45 a.m. He had been arrested Friday after investigators seized roughly 78 items from a storage unit in the Los Angeles area, including slides, film negatives and books containing suspected child sexual abuse images.
Markle was taken by ambulance from a senior care facility in Lakeland after his arrest. A judge later released him under electronic monitoring and ordered a mental competency evaluation, with a report due by Nov. 20.
Essayli said prosecutors would ask the court to revoke Markle’s release and keep him in custody until trial. He added that the government would pursue the case to the fullest extent of the law.
Meghan, an American actor who starred in the television drama “Suits,” married Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018. She has said she was deeply distressed by the allegations about images found at her father’s former home.
Meghan also said a letter containing troubling allegations about her father was sent to London police in 2019, and that she had been told the claims were being investigated. She said her decision to keep her father away from her children was made to protect them.
Markle was living in the Philippines earlier this year when he suffered a stroke and had his left leg amputated. He later returned to the United States.
Reports that Meghan’s half brother found suspected child sexual abuse images while clearing out their father’s home in the Philippines led investigators to two California storage units Markle had rented since 2008, according to earlier accounts.
