Thomas Markle, Meghan Markle's estranged father, appeared in a Florida court in a wheelchair, accused of possessing child sexual abuse images. The 82-year-old was wheeled into the arraignment hearing hours after his arrest at a care home, where federal prosecutor Courtenay Derry detailed the charges against him.
Markle was arrested by the FBI in Tampa on Friday morning and charged with one count of possession of child pornography. If convicted, the charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, meaning he would likely die in prison.
Arrest and Charges
Dressed in a black t-shirt and black trousers, Markle was escorted by two US Marshals during the hearing. Photographs from his arrest show him being pushed to a waiting ambulance by an FBI agent, with more than 20 agents said to have swooped on the $3,900 per month specialist dementia care home where he has been living since last week.
The US Justice Department accused him of "targetting innocent children" and "stealing their innocence through his criminal actions." The material was found in two Los Angeles storage units he had rented for nearly two decades and seized by investigators.
Evidence Found in Storage Units
Acting on warrants, the FBI searched the storage units registered to Markle, which he had rented since 2008, with his most recent payments on both made last month by auto-pay. Inside the units, agents seized about 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books that contained suspected child sex abuse material.
Two of the images allegedly depict an adult man, whom a witness "positively identified" as Markle, with a nude young girl. Court documents state that in one of them, the man "appears to be in the age range of 30s to 40s." A third image is said to show a nude young girl in a room that appears to be part of a motel chain in the Philippines. Other photographs allegedly show Markle with children in various stages of undress.
Investigation and Jurisdiction
The arrest came after Markle was reported to police in the Philippines and the FBI last month by his son, Thomas Markle Jr, who allegedly found illegal images amongst family mementos in his father's belongings. Police in the Philippines reportedly found 7,500 images of underage children on devices allegedly belonging to Markle Snr, with some of the children as young as ten, according to Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla.
Another stash of child sex abuse images was reportedly found in a storage unit that Markle rented near his former home in Mexico, sparking a criminal probe in that country. It has not been decided whether he should face charges in Florida or California, where the stash of alleged indecent images was found by investigators. A bond hearing was scheduled for later on Friday.
Markle, who was living in a dementia care home in the US, has admitted paying for sex in the Philippines but has denied ever possessing child abuse imagery.
