WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Thomas Markle Sr, who is being investigated over alleged child sexual abuse images, has been moved into a memory care home for dementia patients in Florida
Meghan Markle’s dad, who is currently under investigation over a collection of suspected child sexual abuse material, has reportedly been transferred to a care facility for dementia sufferers.
Thomas Markle Sr was admitted to a specialist “memory care” unit in Florida on Friday, The Sun reported. This development has sparked worries that the FBI may be unable to question Meghan’s estranged father due to legal protections surrounding the interrogation of suspects with cognitive impairments residing in care facilities.
The 82-year-old was reported to authorities in the Philippines and the FBI last month by his son Thomas Markle Jnr, who surrendered a cache of alleged child abuse material he discovered among his father’s possessions in Cebu City.
A second collection was purportedly uncovered on Friday in a storage facility Mr Markle is believed to have hired near his previous residence in Rosarito, Mexico, during a police operation by Mexican authorities.
Meghan was left “deeply distressed” at the allegations and disclosed she received correspondence via the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection seven years ago containing “troubling and disturbing allegations” about her father, though she was assured these matters were under investigation.
The Metropolitan Police has acknowledged it failed to pass the information to other law enforcement bodies, with the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), now examining the force’s handling of the matter.
The Duchess had been eager to “speak out” immediately upon reading the letter, however, police advised her against this, sources said. Meghan’s relationship with her father broke down in the lead-up to her 2018 wedding, after he was caught staging paparazzi photographs before suffering a heart attack, prompting the King, then the Prince of Wales, to step in and walk Meghan down the aisle.
When former TV lighting director Mr Markle underwent a leg amputation in the Philippines last year, he publicly appealed for the Duchess to get in touch, expressing his fear of dying while the pair remained on bad terms.
A spokesperson for the Duchess confirmed at the time that she had “reached out to her father”.
It emerged last week that in this final letter, Meghan wrote that she knew he was an abuser and that he would never see his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Mr Markle Sr, who returned to the US in May, has admitted to paying for sex in the Philippines but denied ever possessing child abuse imagery. He also denied ever having sex with anyone under the age of 18.
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