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Thomas Markle, Sr., the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has reportedly been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Florida.
Markle was arrested at Maravida Senior Living, a specialized elderly care facility in North Lakeland, Florida, over his alleged possession of child pornography, the Daily Mail reported Friday, November 6.
The arrest comes in the wake of allegations of child pornography possession and child sexual abuse against Thomas Sr. He previously acknowledged to the Mail on Sunday that he paid for sex with adult women in the Philippines, but he denied ever having sex with anyone under the age of 18 or possessing child sexual abuse material.
Thomas Sr.’s son, Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Markle Jr., reported his father to authorities after he claimed to have discovered child pornographic material at his father’s home in the Philippines. (Thomas Jr. was recently named a “person of interest,” according to authorities in the Philippines.)
Police in the Philippines alleged during a Nov. 3 press conference that child sex abuse images were found in Thomas Sr.’s home as they searched through computers, phones, and storage devices located at the Cebu City home, according to The Times.
Additionally, Mexican authorities reportedly raided Thomas Sr.’s former storage unit in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, over the weekend after The Daily Mail claimed to have found explicit photographs and magazines featuring young girls in the abandoned unit.
His arrest follows reports by The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, that Meghan’s brother found a collection of child sexual abuse images while clearing out the home of their father in the Philippines.
Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, recently said she was “deeply distressed” by allegations that a collection of child sexual abuse images had been found at her father’s former home. She also revealed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about him had been sent to London police in 2018.
“It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” Meghan said of the letter. “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them.”
