Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, cut an electronic monitoring device off his ankle just days after his arrest in Florida, federal authorities said on Tuesday.
Markle was in custody awaiting a hearing in federal court in Tampa, Florida, first assistant U.S. attorney Bill Essayli said. He was arrested shortly after he cut off the ankle tether at 1:45 a.m., according to prosecutors.
Four days earlier, a federal judge had allowed Markle to remain out of custody pending trial on the condition that he wear a location monitoring device. Prosecutors stated that the ankle monitor had been cut off and stabbed in an intentional way to disable it.
Four days ago, a federal judge allowed Mr. Markle to remain out of custody pending trial. He was ordered to wear a location monitoring device. He allegedly cut the bracelet off at 1:45 a.m. last night. Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions. We are asking the court… https://t.co/rjNknXuSA9
“He allegedly cut the bracelet off at 1:45 a.m. last night. Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions,” Bill Essayli wrote in a statement posted to X, as reported by Yahoo and Fox News. “We are asking the court to revoke his release and detain him pending trial, and we will continue to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.”
Markle’s initial arrest on November 6 followed the seizure of approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books containing suspected child sexual abuse material, Essayli said. Law enforcement discovered the items while searching two storage units in California that Markle had rented since 2008.
During his arrest last week, authorities took him from a senior care center in Lakeland by ambulance. The subsequent federal complaint charged him with possessing child sexual abuse material, according to ABC News.
Philippine authorities also planned to file separate charges against Markle after reports emerged that he was under investigation in the Philippines, Yahoo reported. The investigation began after Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jr., told police in Cebu that he found suspected abusive images among boxes at his father’s former home.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, recently stated that she was deeply distressed by allegations regarding the material found at her father’s former home. She married Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018, and the couple has two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
She also revealed that a letter containing troubling allegations about her father was sent to police in London in 2019. “It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” Meghan said, according to The Guardian.
“I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them,” she added.
Following the emergency hearing in Tampa, a judge remanded Markle back into federal custody. The court previously ordered a mental competency exam and a psychiatric evaluation, with a report due by November 20.
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