Meghan’s father Thomas Markle detained for allegedly cutting off ankle monitor, officials say

Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been detained in Florida for allegedly removing his ankle monitor, according to justice department officials in Los Angeles.

Markle appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Tampa after allegedly removing the monitor at 01:45 local time (06:45 GMT), a justice department (DoJ) spokesperson told the BBC.

The judge ordered him jailed without bond and he is now in federal custody, the spokesperson said.

Markle, who has previously denied possessing images of child sex abuse, was arrested in Florida last week and placed under house detention. He was also ordered to wear a location monitoring device.

The BBC has contacted representatives for Markle.

“Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions. 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,” Bill Essayli, the US attorney for Central California, wrote on X on Tuesday.

Markle was first arrested last week after the FBI, acting on warrants, searched storage units in Los Angeles registered to him which he had rented since 2008, with the last payment being made in October this year, the justice department (DoJ) said.

Inside the units the FBI says agents seized about 78 items, including film negatives, slides and books that they allege contained child sex abuse material.

Witnesses “positively identified” Markle in two of the images believed to contain child sex abuse material.

In those images, the man pictured “appears to be in the age range of 30s to 40s”, which suggests the alleged abuse dates back decades as Markle is currently 82 years old.

Markle appeared in court last week following his arrest. No plea was taken during the appearance, which set several conditions for his pretrial release, including that he be kept in home detention.

He is charged with one count of possessing indecent images of children, according to the DoJ.

FBI director Kash Patel said last week that Markle “allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions”.

Markle has called the allegations “sick lies”.