Thomas Markle Charged in Federal Court Over Child Abuse Material
Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been arrested in Florida and charged with one federal count of possessing child sexual abuse material, the US Justice Department announced on Friday, 6 November.
Markle, of Lakeland, Florida, appeared in federal court in Tampa on Friday and was released to house arrest with electronic monitoring. He did not enter a plea, and his arraignment in California has yet to be scheduled.
The charge is set out in a federal criminal complaint filed in the Central District of California. It centres on material prosecutors say was found in two storage units in the Los Angeles area that Markle had rented since 2008.
What prosecutors allege
According to the Justice Department announcement, FBI agents searched the two Los Angeles-area storage units under judicially authorised warrants and seized about 78 items, including slides, film negatives and books containing suspected child sexual abuse material.
Prosecutors allege the material included sexually explicit photographs of Markle with prepubescent girls. A witness identified Markle in some of the images described in the affidavit, according to the complaint.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said: “Mr. Markle is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, including photographs depicting himself with minor girls. These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr. Markle to the fullest extent of federal law.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “Mr. Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions.”
How the case came to light
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, law enforcement learned in October 2026 that an individual had signed an affidavit about the discovery of suspected abuse material among Markle’s possessions in the Philippines. Another person told investigators that Markle rented a storage unit in the Los Angeles area, and information from the first person later led agents to a second unit.
Reports say the investigation began after Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jr., alerted authorities in the Philippines last month. The arrest came nearly two weeks after The Sun, a British newspaper, reported that Markle was under investigation over claims he kept abuse videos and images at his home in the Philippines.
Federal prosecutors will handle the case in California. The FBI investigation is continuing, the bureau said.
Court appearance and next steps
Markle was arrested early on Friday at a senior care facility in Polk County and taken to federal court in Tampa, where Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson ordered his release to home detention. The court barred him from travelling outside the Middle District of Florida and the Central District of California.
No plea was entered at the hearing, which lasted about 30 minutes. Prosecutors said an arraignment in California would take several weeks to schedule.
If convicted, Markle would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The Justice Department stressed that a criminal complaint contains allegations only, and that all defendants are presumed innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Denial and family response
Markle has previously denied allegations that he possessed child sexual abuse material, describing them as “sick lies” in a statement to Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, the Associated Press reported.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they were not commenting on the arrest, according to the Associated Press.
