Meghan Markle's father arrested in Florida over child pornography charges
Thomas Markle Sr. faces federal charges for possessing images of prepubescent girls in storage units he rented for 20 years.
By Tunde Bailey ·
Thomas Markle Sr. was arrested Friday morning in Lakeland, Florida, on federal charges of possessing child pornography. The 82-year-old father of Meghan Markle was taken into custody by agents from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Federal documents state that Markle kept suspected child sexual abuse material in two storage units in the Los Angeles area. He rented these units for nearly 20 years. Investigators seized approximately 78 items from the locations. The collection included slides, film negatives, and books containing the alleged images.
The complaint alleges the material includes sexually explicit photographs of Markle with prepubescent girls. One specific image described in the affidavit shows a nude prepubescent girl with Markle. Other images show him with children in various stages of undress.
Markle is scheduled to appear in a court in Tampa, Florida, on Friday. If convicted on the single count of possession, he faces a maximum federal prison sentence of 20 years.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the government will prosecute Markle to the fullest extent of federal law. FBI Director Kash Patel stated that Markle allegedly targeted innocent children. Patel said the agency would use every resource to protect children from predators.
The arrest follows reports from The Sun newspaper about two weeks ago. The British tabloid said Markle was under investigation for keeping child sexual abuse videos and images at his home in the Philippines. Authorities in that country later said they recovered thousands of photos of underage males and females. Markle denied the earlier claims in a statement to the Daily Mail, calling them sick lies.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said the couple is not commenting on the arrest at this time. Meghan Markle said last month that she was deeply distressed by the news. She noted that police had informed her of disturbing allegations against her father in 2018.
