The Duchess of Sussex is reportedly hoping for a “full and thorough investigation” into her estranged father after he was charged with possessing child abuse images.
A friend of Meghan, 45, said she wants justice for the alleged victims of Thomas Markle Sr, whose alleged crimes are said to have been captured in images.
The 82-year-old, who strongly denies any wrongdoing, was released to house arrest after FBI agents allegedly found a cache of child sexual abuse material in storage units in Los Angeles.
Federal agents arrested him at his Maravida Senior Living care home in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday morning. The material was allegedly discovered in two units he had rented for almost 20 years.
The former Hollywood lighting director, whose arrest was first reported by the Daily Mail, faces one count of possessing child pornography.
Markle did not enter a plea at his initial court hearing. He was released on bond on Friday afternoon and ordered to remain under house arrest at the care home.
Exclusive Daily Mail photographs showed Markle, who has used a wheelchair since having a leg amputated in the Philippines last year, being escorted from the facility in handcuffs shortly after 9am local time as police surrounded the property.
A close friend of Meghan has now said the Duchess wants justice for her father’s alleged victims, according to reports.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, 45, is pictured here with her father Thomas Markle Sr, 82, before the pair became estranged
Thomas Sr is pictured after he was arrested over allegations of possession of child porn in LA
The Duchess and her husband Harry, the Duke of Sussex, were told what the FBI had found stashed inside her father’s LA storage units on Friday
The friend told The Sun: “It is her sincerest hope that a full and thorough investigation will now help deliver justice for the victims.”
Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, 42, were informed of the FBI’s findings as her father was taken to court on Friday.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Sussexes for comment.
Mr Markle had not visited either storage unit for years, but continued paying £520 a month to rent them.
His arrest came just two weeks after his son, Thomas Markle Jr, 60, reported him to police in the Philippines.
Thomas Jr had been living in the Philippines before his father returned to the US after a blood clot led to the amputation of his leg last December.
He contacted police after allegedly finding the material among his father’s abandoned belongings in Cebu.
He is also reported to have alerted the FBI to material allegedly being kept by his father in Los Angeles.
Among the stash of alleged child pornography, Thomas Sr held images that are said to be of him ‘abusing pre-pubescent girls’
A close friend of Meghan has claimed the Duchess hopes for a ‘thorough investigation’ into her father
A security guard waits outside an assisted living facility in Lakeland, Florida, US, November 6, 2026, before the arrival of Thomas Markle Sr, after he was charged with one count of possession of child pornography
US law enforcement allegedly recovered film negatives and books said to contain child pornography.
The FBI used specialist equipment to convert the negatives into colour digital images. Investigators allege that some showed Thomas Sr abusing a naked pre-pubescent girl.
In a sworn affidavit released on Thursday, an FBI agent said one negative showed “an image of an adult man wearing a white button-down shirt and blue jeans sitting on a white surface”.
The agent continued: “A nude pre-pubescent girl is sitting on the adult man’s lap so that her back is against his left chest.”
The agent alleged that the man was touching the child while engaging in an act of abuse.
“Based on my training and experience, the girl pictured in image one is pre-pubescent,” the agent said.
“The child’s nudity, pose, and the adult man’s actions appear designed to elicit a sexual response from the viewer.”
Another image allegedly shows an adult man with his arm “wrapped around the girl’s hips”, apparently looking down at her nude body.
A third photograph allegedly depicts a naked child sitting on a bed, with another partially clothed girl behind her.
FBI agents have interviewed witnesses as they attempt to identify the adult shown in the images. A source who reportedly knew Thomas Sr since the 1970s is said to have identified him.
During his arrest, Mr Markle appeared distressed, scowling and looking around in disbelief as agents placed him in a waiting ambulance.
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When a Daily Mail reporter asked whether he was a paedophile, the 82-year-old answered “no” in a weak voice. He did not respond when asked whether he had ever collected child pornography.
The silver-haired retiree was still wearing the same untidy T-shirt and black sweatpants when he was wheeled into court for Friday afternoon’s hearing, his hands visibly trembling.
He listened as Judge Lindsay Griffin outlined the allegations and said the criminal complaint claimed he appeared in two of the images.
When asked whether he understood, Markle winced and replied “yes” in a quiet voice.
The arrest came days after the Daily Mail alerted US police to a suspected cache of child pornography in a storage unit Markle had rented near his former home in Rosarito, Mexico.
Thomas Sr has vehemently denied wrongdoing and when asked by a Daily Mail reporter whether he was a paedophile, replied ‘no’
Separately, police in the Philippines are reportedly “very close” to filing formal charges against Markle after alleged child abuse images were found at his former home there last month.
“Mr Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
“Working with our Justice Department partners, our agents moved quickly, identified and located the explicit material, and arrested Mr Markle in Florida.”
After spending years overseas, Markle moved to Florida in the spring. Shortly before his arrest, he had moved into a senior-living facility specialising in dementia care, which costs an estimated $3,900 (£2,900) a month.
The multinational investigation into Thomas Sr began after child pornography was allegedly found at two locations where he spent much of his retirement.
During the California search, FBI agents seized about 78 items from the two units, including slides, film negatives and books containing suspected child pornography, according to court documents.
Investigators developed some negatives that appeared to have been taken several decades ago. Court papers allege they showed Markle sexually abusing young girls at a motel in the Philippines.
Other images allegedly showed Markle with children in various states of undress at what the FBI believes was the Anahaw Lodge motel, according to the complaint.
Markle had rented the Los Angeles units since 2008 and made an automatic payment as recently as last month, the criminal complaint states.
“These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr Markle to the fullest extent of federal law,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.
The Los Angeles raid followed a search by Mexican police at a Rosarito storage facility the previous weekend, one day after the Daily Mail alerted the FBI to the discovery.
Guardia Nacional officers identifying themselves as state sex-crimes investigators were seen entering the 5ft by 10ft unit, located three miles from Markle’s former home in the Mexican beach resort.
The team included forensic computing specialists, a crime-scene investigator and officials from the Baja state attorney general’s office. They were seen examining the boxes with a flashlight and searching through the contents.
According to an onlooker, one agent recoiled while viewing the material and said “Ay cabron”, a Spanish expression that can mean “holy crap” or “oh, damn”.
A search warrant obtained by the Daily Mail showed that a judge had authorised investigators to look for “evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material” and “the alleged commission of the crime of human trafficking in its aggravated form”.
A source said officers catalogued and seized items including a computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and magazines before sealing the unit with an official seizure notice.
The raid at Baja Storage, a gated facility about 10 miles south of the US border, followed the Daily Mail’s discovery of photographs of naked Asian women and magazines depicting the sexual abuse of children inside Unit 22.
After the search, Markle’s unit was locked and covered with Mexican Guardia Nacional notices reading “Aseguramiento de inmuebles”, meaning “seizure of property”.
The Daily Mail reporting team located the unit while examining Markle’s former life in the gated expatriate community of San Antonio del Mar.
Unit 22 was rented to the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father in 2017. He reportedly fell behind on payments two years ago and moved to the Philippines in early 2025 without clearing the unit.
Staff and the owner of the storage business said they had known nothing about the alleged cache and were appalled by its discovery.
Markle has strongly denied wrongdoing. After reports of the alleged cache first emerged, he told the Daily Mail on Saturday: “I had no storage units in Rosarito!”
Alongside family keepsakes, letters and photographs, the unit reportedly contained black-and-white prints of naked Asian women, some of whom appeared notably young, as well as books and magazines sexualising children as “Lolitas”.
Investigators also found strips of 35mm negatives showing voyeuristic images of children on a beach and dusty VHS tapes with titles including “Boys – Brother and Sister – Russian XX” and “Manila Nites”.
The unit contained old computers, hard drives and a paper plate marked “DARK WEB” in red ink beside various URLs. It remains unknown what the hard drives or tapes contain.
The Daily Mail’s tip-off triggered an investigation involving authorities in both the US and Mexico.
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