Photos of Thomas Markle sexually abusing children in the Philippines have been found by the FBI in storage units in California, according to a criminal complaint filed against him on Friday.
Markle, 82, was arrested by the FBI on Friday morning at the rehabilitation center in Lakeland, Florida where he has been living since having his lower left leg amputated last year.
He was handcuffed and taken away in his wheelchair by agents. Asked by the Daily Mail whether he was a pedophile, the Pennsylvania-born former Hollywood lighting director said: ‘No.’
The FBI’s investigation was sparked by the Daily Mail’s discovery at the end of October of a storage unit near his Mexican beachfront home, which contained images of child sex abuse.
The Daily Mail passed the information over to the FBI, and the agency then discovered that there were two additional storage units rented by Markle in Los Angeles, where he lived until moving to Mexico in 2011.
The Department of Justice today charged Thomas Markle with possession of child pornography after discovering an additional two storage units in Los Angeles
Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old father of the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested by the FBI on Friday morning in Lakeland, Florida
The units contained a series of photos, which seemed to have been taken several decades ago, of Markle sexually abusing young girls at a Philippines motel.
The first storage unit, which Markle rented from 2008 until the present, contained 27 items seized by the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children unit.
The complaint describes the items as slides, film negatives and books that contained suspected child pornography.
The negatives were developed by the investigators, and revealed photos of Markle in what the FBI now believes to be the Anahaw Lodge motel with naked ‘pre-pubescent’ girls.
At least three of the photos, described in the complaint in graphic detail, depict Markle sexually abusing the girl.
One of the three photos also has a girl of ‘indeterminate’ age in the bedroom with Markle and the child.
Markle’s identity was confirmed when the FBI on November 5 showed the pictures to a person who has known him since the 1970s.
The second storage unit was also rented from June 2008 until the present.
The FBI seized 51 items from the second unit, including film negatives, books and slides that the agency suspects contain child pornography.
Markle will appear before United States Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson at 1:30pm on Friday.
He told the Mail on Sunday last month that he paid for sex in the Philippines when he was single, adding: ‘I never had sex with anyone under the age of 18. I like Asian women but that is not a crime.’
Markle separated from Doria Ragland, the Duchess of Sussex’s mother, when their daughter was two years old, in around 1983.
They officially divorced several years later.
