Police have uncovered more than 7,000 child sexual abuse images on devices allegedly belonging to the Duchess of Sussex‘s father Thomas Markle Snr.
Officials in the Philippines said the photos and one video were all of under-age males and females of Asian, Latin and European descent, with some as young as ten and 11.
Interior and local government secretary Jonvic Remulla described the images as ‘the most deplorable displays of impunity towards sexual activity that I have ever seen’.
He also told a press conference in Manila that Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Markle Jr has now been named as a ‘person of interest’ in allegations facing her father.
Mr Remulla said there were ‘signs that point that the son is involved in the crime as well’, but added that Mr Markle Jr was not being treated as a suspect at this stage.
It was Mr Markle Jr who first alerted local police in the Philippines and the FBI over a haul of images he claimed he had found in his father Mr Markle Snr’s belongings.
Mr Markle Snr, who is estranged from Meghan, has been moved into a care home for dementia patients, prompting fears the FBI will not be able to interview him.
Mr Remulla said: ‘We’re determining if son is involved… There are signs that point that the son is involved in the crime as well but only as a person of interest so far.’
Meghan has been estranged from her father Thomas Markle Snr (pictured in 2011) for years
Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Markle Jr is pictured walking with his partner Rose in the Philippines in May 2025. There is no suggestion she is involved in the police inquiry
He added: ‘We will know in the next few days.’
Mr Remulla also confirmed that Mr Markle Jr was still in Cebu City.
He also told journalists: ‘We have witnesses that underaged girls are brought to his house and we are following it up.’
Mr Remulla stressed that Mr Markle Jr was ‘only a person of interest so far – he is not yet treated as a suspect’.
And last night The Sun, which has been speaking to Mr Markle Jr for weeks, said the claim about underage girls had been made by a neighbour who had seen young relatives of Mr Markle Jr’s Filipina fiancee at the property.
It said his partner of two years, Rose, had told police her siblings aged 11, 14, 16, and 17, were regular visitors to the property, as well as a three-year-old niece.
She is said to have shown officers TikTok videos which she and her siblings made inside and outside the house.
The dramatic widening of the inquiry came as the FBI was urged to search for a third stash of child sex abuse images in Meghan’s father’s storage containers in Los Angeles.
After Mr Markle Jr reported his father to the Philippines police, last week the Daily Mail found another sickening stash of child pornography in a lock-up in Rosarito, Mexico, where Mr Markle Snr also used to live.
One photo showed him on a bed with his arm wrapped around a young Asian female, both fully clothed. She also appears, alone and naked, in other pictures.
Thomas Markle Snr is pictured with a mystery young woman in his belongings in a storage unit
The moment last December when Thomas Markle Snr is given a letter from Meghan in hospital
Mexican investigators raid Thomas Markle Snr’s storage locker in Rosarito last Saturday
Mr Markle Jr has since told the FBI to search his father’s lock-ups in LA, saying: ‘I dread to think what the FBI might find, especially given what has already been found in the Philippines and Mexico.’
The Philippine National Police (PNP) previously said videos of alleged child sexual abuse and exploitation were among files found in four storage boxes that allegedly belonged to Mr Markle Snr, after he was reported by Mr Markle Jr.
Major General Wilson Asueta of the PNP said earlier this week that it had yet to be confirmed who owned the devices which included nine mobile phones, three SD cards, five hard drives and a camera.
Mr Markle Snr, who is now in a dementia care home in Florida after moving back to the US in May, has admitted to paying for sex in the Philippines but denied ever possessing child abuse imagery.
Meghan, who moved back to the UK with Prince Harry in August, said she was ‘deeply distressed’ at the allegations about her father, from whom she has been estranged since the run-up to her 2018 wedding.
She revealed she was sent a letter via the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection in 2019 which made ‘troubling and disturbing allegations’ about her father, but that she was given assurances these were being investigated.
The Met has admitted it never shared the details with other law enforcement agencies, with the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), now investigating the force’s conduct.
The duchess had wanted to ‘speak out’ immediately after reading the letter but police advised her against this, sources said.
When former TV lighting director Mr Markle had his leg amputated in the Philippines last year, he made pleas for the duchess to contact him.
Meghan is said to have written him a final letter in which she said she knew he was an abuser and that he would never see his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Mr Markle Snr has denied all the allegations against him, describing them as ‘sick lies’. Mr Markle Jr has been contacted for comment by the Daily Mail.
