Thomas Markle is now behind bars after he removed his electronic ankle monitor days after he was charged with possession of child sexual abuse material.
The 82-year-old father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested and appeared in federal court, with the First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli telling him, “Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions,” The Associated Press reported.
Essayli did not know why the monitor was removed or where it was done. Essayli said it was cut off at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday. Markle had been under house arrest, according to The New York Times.
Markle, who was living at a senior care center, was arrested on Nov. 6 in Lakeland, Florida, after officials seized 78 items from storage units in the Los Angeles area. The items allegedly included slides, film negatives, and books that contained suspected child sexual abuse images.
He had rented the storage units since 2008, Reuters reported.
Markle has denied the claims but did not enter a plea, the Times reported.
A judge had ordered Markle to undergo a psychiatric evaluation because there is reason to believe he “may presently suffer from a mental disease or defect” that prevents him from understanding the charges and helps his lawyers in his defense. The judge cited his “advanced age and lack of recall.”
Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry in 2018, recently said she was “deeply distressed” about the finding of alleged sexual abuse images of children that had been found in his former home in the Philippines. She also said she had received a letter that contained “troubling allegations” about her father that had been sent to London police in 2019, the AP reported.
“It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” Meghan said of the letter. “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 recently made her first public appearance since her father’s arrest but did not answer reporters’ questions, The Washington Post reported. She was at an event with her husband, who spoke about greater protections for children online. Meghan Markle was supposed to speak as well, but she canceled her address, Reuters reported.
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