Thomas Markle arrested once more after trying to chop off his ankle monitor

News

By Linda Ikeji
11 November 2026, 6:28 am

Thomas Markle, the estranged father ​of Meghan Markle, was despatched again to jail on Tuesday, November 10, after reducing off an digital ankle monitor he was ordered to ‌put on as a situation of dwelling confinement.

US Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin discovered that Thomas Markle had violated the phrases of his pretrial launch and ordered him returned to federal custody with out bond at a listening to in Tampa, Florida, courtroom information confirmed.

Thomas Markle, 82, had been arrested and charged on Friday with a single federal rely of possessing youngster s£xual abus£ materials, together with two specific pictures of himself posed with an undressed underage ​lady and different photographs of him with youngsters in numerous levels of undress.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in courtroom as a part of the ​prison criticism lodged towards him, one of many photographs confirmed an unclad lady in a room that seems to be ⁠a part of a motel chain within the Philippines, the place Thomaz Markle beforehand resided and the place authorities initiated an investigation of him final month.

The affidavit says federal brokers seized ​the fabric in query, together with photographic slides, movie negatives and books, from two storage items Markle had rented in Los Angeles since 2008.

Commenting on the case on Friday, FBI Director ​Kash Patel mentioned Markle “targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions.”

Markle, who most lately resided at an assisted-living facility in Lakeland, Florida, close to Tampa, denied possessing s£xually specific photographs of kids when such allegations first surfaced, telling the Daily Mail they had been unfaithful and “sick lies.”

No plea was entered throughout Markle’s preliminary courtroom listening to final Friday, Novmber 6, and the choose permitted him to ​be launched from custody given that he undergo dwelling detention and the carrying of an digital monitoring gadget.

But federal prosecutors mentioned they requested the choose to revoke home-release ​and preserve him locked up pending trial after he was discovered to have minimize the ankle bracelet off early Monday morning, November 9.

Agreeing that Markle’s housing state of affairs had “become untenable,” Griffin granted prosecutors’ request. Markle was then ‌re-arrested and ⁠returned to federal custody, in keeping with the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, the place the case towards him was introduced.

The choose stipulated that Markle was to be saved in a detention facility “separate, to the extent practicable, from” the overall jail inhabitants. She additionally ordered Markle to bear a “prompt medical evaluation.”