Thomas Markle could be sentenced to as many as 12 years in a Philippine prison if convicted of alleged child sexual offences.
Authorities have begun examining a large collection of child abuse images allegedly linked to Meghan Markle’s 82-year-old estranged father.
Philippines Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said forensic analysis should be completed within about a week. However, he said that “right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind”. Mr Markle denies the allegations.
Police will then determine whether to bring formal charges against Mr Markle, who is currently living at a rehabilitation centre in Florida. He returned to the US in May to continue medical treatment following the amputation of his leg.
Because the US and the Philippines have an extradition treaty, Mr Markle could be sent to the Philippines for trial if prosecutors decide to charge him.
Under the Philippines’ 2022 Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act, anyone convicted of accessing child abuse images can receive a prison sentence of between 10 and 12 years.
The developments have also prompted questions for the Metropolitan Police over why it did not notify the FBI after receiving a 2019 letter containing “a number of claims about alleged offending outside the UK” involving Mr Markle.
Jim Gamble, an international campaigner against child sexual abuse, said the Met had a duty to pass on the information. He warned that children may have remained at risk of “extended exposure” to possible abuse over the past seven years.
Thomas Markle is pictured with his daughter, Meghan Markle, in 2011
Exclusive images taken by Our News Outlet show the moment Mr Markle, 82, was given a letter from Meghan cutting him out of his grandchildren’s lives
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Gamble said: “If you get information that comes to you about someone from a foreign jurisdiction who represents a threat to children, there’s a well-worn path and you’d expect a UK police force to share that information.
“I would have expected the Metropolitan Police either to have gone to the FBI Legat, the legal attaché in the embassy here, to say, ‘Look, this isn’t proven – it’s an allegation. You might want to look at it because in America you may have more information to add to this, so you can see whether you can corroborate it.’
“But ultimately, it also should have gone to the National Crime Agency. Whilst it seems simple, there is a complex network whereby you can share information, and you should share information.”
The letter sent to the Metropolitan Police in 2019 is understood to have been written by Mr Markle’s first wife, Roslyn Loveless, who died two years ago.
The seven-page document, seen by The Sun, reportedly described a conversation Ms Loveless said she had held with the Duchess of Sussex’s father.
According to the report, she wrote: “I questioned Thomas Sr. He denied accusation but stated that he went to the Philippines and Thailand because 12-year-olds are legal there.”
Ms Loveless addressed the letter to Scotland Yard’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, which reviews intelligence concerning threats to the Royal Family. The document is said to have alleged that Mr Markle posed a threat to his daughter and her husband, Prince Harry.
The information was reportedly shared with the Sussexes. However, the Met did not investigate the allegations made by Mr Markle’s former wife because they concerned events outside Britain.
The force also acknowledged that “the details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies”.
The investigation into Mr Markle began after his son, Thomas Markle Jr, alerted the Philippine National Police to a reported stash at his father’s former home in Cebu.
The FBI has said it is aware of the allegations and would provide support to the Philippines where appropriate. It added that ‘any related allegations of federal violations of US law’ would also be investigated.
A spokeswoman for No10 said it was a matter for police, but ‘they are extremely distressing allegations’.
Mr Markle’s lawyers could in theory attempt to block an extradition due to his old age and ill-health. He told the Mail that he has also been diagnosed with dementia.
It comes as exclusive images taken by Our News Outlet show the moment Mr Markle, 82, was given a letter from Meghan cutting him out of his grandchildren’s lives.
It was delivered while he was in hospital in December, hooked up to a drip after having a leg amputated.
The explosive message revealed Meghan ‘knew her father had abused young girls’, and that he would never meet his grandchildren, Archie, now seven, and Lilibet, five.
Yesterday Mr Remulla, the Filipino interior minister, said: ‘The Philippine National Police, upon the reports of the son, inspected the former home of a certain Mr Thomas Markle. Found were a trove of child pornography materials as well as a laptop.’
He said the data on the laptop found among Mr Markle’s possessions was being analysed ‘to determine the contents and come up with a definitive picture’.
He said the country planned to take ‘appropriate legal actions’ if sufficient evidence was found.
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Mr Remulla told The Guardian: ‘In these cases where family disputes are mixed up, we have to consider all the angles. Right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind. We want to be sure before we release the findings. The forensics data will be complete in a week.’
Last night, when asked for a response to the interior minister’s claim that he may be a ‘sex offender of the grossest kind’, Mr Markle said: ‘I am not. I am innocent. I never did anything in the Philippines.’
Mr Markle has told the Mail his computers had not been in his possession since he left Mexico with his son in 2025 and moved to the Philippines.
It is the latest revelation of criminality levelled at Mr Markle after it was revealed yesterday that Meghan had accused him of child abuse in her letter last year.
Meghan and her father in an undated photo. The Metropolitan Police faces questions over why it did not alert the FBI about Mr Markle
A newly uncovered letter allegedly sent by Roslyn Loveless (pictured in 2016) – his former wife of nine years – claims that Mr Markle admitted he travelled to the Far East to have sex with young girls
Captured by the Mail at the time, the video showing the letter being delivered was filmed as Mr Markle was in hospital in the Philippine city of Cebu.
The retired Hollywood lighting expert was recovering after having his left leg amputated below the knee due to a blood clot.
Mr Markle did not disclose the contents at the time.
He left the Philippines in May to stay in a rehab centre in Florida, leaving his possessions in Cebu with his son, Thomas Jr, who had been his carer.
The Sun reported that Thomas Jr, 60, found ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child-sex images in four boxes, and had reported his father to Filipino detectives and the FBI in the US, which are both investigating.
One 35mm photograph reportedly shows a bearded man resembling Mr Markle having sex with a young Asian girl – although he has said in response he has ‘never been in a photograph like that’.
Thomas Jr said: ‘When I found this material I was horrified and I had no option but to report my dad. I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years, but that stops now. I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.’
He later said: ‘I’m so, so sorry Meghan. I now know I have been protecting the wrong person for the past nine years. Having seen what I’ve seen, I believe the man I’ve been defending and caring for is a monster.’
After his revelation, Meghan said she had learned of child sex allegations in 2019 after being contacted by the Met.
She said she was assured the ‘troubling and disturbing’ allegations were being investigated and was advised that speaking out could jeopardise any legal case.
But the Met has now admitted failing to pass on the details of the ‘alleged offending outside the UK’ to other law enforcement agencies, presumably those in the US, Mexico and the Philippines where Mr Markle has lived.
The force is considering whether to report itself to the regulator for its failure to do so.
It is unclear why the letter was sent to London with allegations it claimed related to ‘offending outside the United Kingdom’.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Mr Markle denied all the allegations, saying he would ‘do whatever it takes’ to clear his name. He confessed to paying for sex in the Philippines, but added: ‘I have never had sex with anyone under the age of 18.’
He said: ‘I have always dated age-appropriate women.’
He admitted that when he was single he went to the Philippines at least twice and ‘slept with prostitutes’, adding: ‘I like Asian women, but that is not a crime.’
He said he would willingly speak to police and believes any child-abuse images found on his computer were ‘planted’ to destroy his reputation. He said Meghan ‘never said a word’ for seven years about the Met allegations, and then ‘cut him off’.
Thomas Jr’s sister Samantha said: ‘Thomas Jr had possession of those boxes with Dad’s computers and phones. They were in storage places which God knows how many people had access to. I believe this is a set-up.’
Meghan has spoken of her ‘deep distress’ at the allegations, that were ‘more sickening than one could ever imagine’.
She added: ‘My thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.’
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