Thomas Markle could face between 10 and 12 years in a Philippine prison if convicted of offences involving child sexual abuse material, authorities say.
Investigators have begun examining a large collection of images allegedly linked to Meghan Markle’s 82-year-old estranged father.
Philippine Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said forensic analysis should be completed within about a week. He added that, while the investigation was ongoing, “all signs” currently pointed towards a suspected sex offender. Mr Markle denies the allegations.
Police will then determine whether to bring formal charges against Mr Markle, who is living at a rehabilitation centre in Florida. He returned to the US in May to continue medical treatment following the amputation of his leg.
The United States has an extradition treaty with the Philippines, meaning Mr Markle could be sent there to stand trial if charges are filed.
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 about the Metropolitan Police’s handling of earlier information. Scotland Yard has acknowledged that it did not act on a 2019 letter accusing Mr Markle of being a paedophile or alert the FBI.
Jim Gamble, an international campaigner against child sexual abuse, said the Met had a duty to pass the information on. He warned that the failure to do so may have left children at risk of “extended exposure” to possible abuse over the following seven years.
Thomas Markle is pictured with his daughter, Meghan Markle, in 2011
Exclusive images taken by the Daily Mail 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 UK police would normally be expected to share information about an alleged threat to children involving a person in another country.
He said the Metropolitan Police could have contacted the FBI’s legal attaché at the US embassy, making clear that the allegation had not been proven but asking American authorities to investigate and establish whether they held corroborating information.
Mr Gamble added that the information should also have been sent to the National Crime Agency, saying there was an established, if complex, network for sharing such intelligence.
The FBI said it was aware of the allegations and would support Philippine authorities where appropriate. The bureau also said it would investigate any related claims involving possible violations of US federal law.
Mr Markle’s lawyers could potentially challenge an extradition request on the grounds of his age and poor health. He has told the Mail that he has also been diagnosed with dementia.
The investigation began after the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father was reported to Philippine National Police by his son, Thomas Markle Jr. He alerted officers to an alleged collection at his father’s former home in Cebu.
The inquiry coincides with exclusive Daily Mail images showing Mr Markle, 82, receiving a letter from Meghan that cut him off from contact with his grandchildren.
The letter was delivered to him in hospital in December, when he was receiving treatment and connected to a drip after undergoing a leg amputation.
The message reportedly said Meghan knew her father had abused young girls and that he would never meet her children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five.
Mr Remulla said yesterday that Philippine National Police officers had searched the former home of “a certain Mr Thomas Markle” following the report from his son. They allegedly found a large quantity of child sexual abuse material and 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.
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
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.
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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.’
Last night, it was claimed that Mr Markle told his first wife that he visited the Far East because ’12-year-olds are legal there’.
The seven-page letter, seen by The Sun and sent to the Met Police in 2019, details a conversation which Roslyn Loveless, who died two years ago, claims to have had with the Duchess of Sussex’s father.
She reportedly 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’s letter was addressed to Scotland Yard’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, which analyses intelligence about threats to the Royal Family. It is said to have accused Mr Markle of being a threat to his daughter and her husband, Prince Harry.
The information was reportedly passed on to the Sussexes, though the Met Police did not investigate the allegations made by Mr Markle’s ex-wife because they occurred outside of Britain.
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