Meghan's half-brother named 'person of interest' in Philippines child abuse inquiry

Thomas Markle Jr, the estranged half-brother of the Duchess of Sussex, has been named a "person of interest" in the Philippine authorities' inquiry into child sexual abuse image allegations made against his father, Thomas Markle Sr.

The country's interior and local government secretary, Jonvic Remulla, told a press conference in Manila that there were "signs that point that the son is involved in the crime as well". He said Markle Jr, 60, was not yet being treated as a suspect, and that his alleged involvement was not thought to be directly linked to material he handed to police.

Markle Jr alerted local police and the FBI to images he said he found among his father's belongings.

Thousands of images uncovered

Remulla said more than 7,000 photos and one video had been uncovered, all of under-age males and females of Asian, Latin and European descent, with some as young as 10 and 11. He described the images as "the most deplorable displays of impunity towards sexual activity that I have ever seen".

"We're determining if [the] son is involved," Remulla said. "There are signs that point that the son is involved in the crime as well but only as a person of interest so far." He added: "We will know in the next few days."

Markle Sr, 82, who is estranged from Meghan, has reportedly been moved into a care home for dementia patients in the US, where he is now living. He returned to the US from the Philippines in May. He has admitted paying for sex in the Philippines but has strongly denied possessing child abuse imagery and suggested he had been "set up". His son remains in Cebu City.

Remulla has previously described Markle Sr as "a possible sex offender of the grossest kind".

Investigations in two countries

Police and FBI agents have been investigating whether Markle Sr was in possession of any illegal images while living in the Philippines and in Mexico, where he previously lived and where other illegal images were reportedly found in one of his storage units. Markle Jr reported his father after claiming to have found four storage boxes at his father's home in the Philippines containing "hundreds, if not thousands" of child sex abuse images.

Markle Jr was recently interviewed at his home in Cordova, Cebu, as part of an international, multi-agency meeting held via Microsoft Teams, according to the Sun, which first published the claims. He gave his statement to an FBI agent based in Florida who specialises in child sex abuse cases.

In a statement issued when the allegations against her father were first published, Meghan said she was "deeply distressed" by the claims. She said she had been informed of disturbing allegations against her father in 2018 and had kept him from having contact with her children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to protect them.

Source: The Guardian World.