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Nadine Saad, Regan Morris (Los Angeles)
The father of Duchess Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, was charged with possessing child pornography and ordered to remain under house arrest, but on the 10th he was again detained by federal authorities in Florida on suspicion of removing an ankle monitoring device. This was revealed from court documents.
Defendant Thomas Markle, 82, appeared in federal district court in Tampa, Florida, on the same day. The magistrate rejected the defendant's bail application. Prosecutors said the defendant removed his ankle monitoring device early in the morning.
According to court documents, U.S. District Judge Lindsey S. Griffin ruled that Markle violated the terms of his pretrial parole.
Markle was arrested in Florida last week and placed under house arrest at the nursing home where she had previously lived. At that time, he was also ordered to wear a location monitoring device.
The defendant denies the charge of possessing child pornography.
The BBC has contacted his agent.
Magistrate Griffin ruled that Markle's housing situation was "unsustainable," writing that "no condition or combination of conditions can reasonably ensure the safety of others or the community or the defendant's appearance in court because of the lack of adequate housing."
The magistrate also ordered Mr Markle to undergo a medical examination and said he "must be given all necessary prescription medications unless discontinued by his physician".
Bill Esseri, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on the social media site X on the same day that ``the conditions of release are a court order, not a suggestion.''
"We continue to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law," the prosecutors wrote.
According to the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Markle on the 6th after raiding a rental storage unit in his name in Los Angeles. The defendants have been renting the warehouse since 2008, and the last payment was made in October of this year.
According to the FBI, agents seized about 78 items from the warehouse, including film negatives, slides and books. The FBI alleges that it contains material related to child sexual abuse.
According to court documents, multiple witnesses testified that Markle was "definitely" the adult man in the photos seized by the FBI from a rented storage facility that appeared to show him sexually abusing a child.
The man in the image "appears to be in his 30s or 40s," which, when taken together with the defendant's current age of 82, suggests that the alleged sexual abuse may date back several decades.
Markle was arrested and appeared in a federal court in Florida on the 6th. No arraignment took place, and several conditions were set for pretrial parole, including house arrest.
The Department of Justice charged Markle with one count of possessing indecent images of children.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement at the time of the indictment that authorities "acted quickly" to arrest the suspect, who "is suspected of targeting innocent children and attempting to rob them of their innocence through his criminal activities."
Markle previously denied allegations that she was in possession of images of sexually abusing children, calling them "sick lies."
Markle moved to the Philippines last year after suffering repeated strokes and lived in Cebu until May of this year. After that, one of his legs was amputated, and he was reportedly receiving walking training at a rehabilitation center in Florida.
Meghan has been estranged from her father, Markle, since 2018 and reportedly stopped communicating with him last year. In late October, it was reported that during her last contact with the accused, Meghan told him that she and the authorities knew that he had been sexually abusing young girls.
In a statement released on October 23, Duchess Meghan revealed that a letter containing allegations about her father was sent to the Metropolitan Police in 2018, and that she later became aware of its contents. "I am deeply saddened... and I am concerned about the children who may have been affected," he wrote.
Meghan also said she hoped people would understand why she had largely cut off all contact with her father and "not allowed him any contact with our children".
London's Metropolitan Police said on October 24 that it received a letter in January 2019 making "multiple allegations" about Meghan's father's activities outside the UK and passed it on to Prince Harry and Meghan's office, but did not share it with other investigating agencies.
The Metropolitan Police Department then voluntarily reported its handling of the letter to the UK government's independent office for police conduct (IOPC).
(English article: Meghan's father Thomas Markle back in federal custody after apparently removing ankle monitor / Meghan broke contact with father in letter citing abuse claims / Met Police says letter with claims about Meghan's father not shared with other law enforcement )
