Law & Justice
Philippine Officials Name Duchess of Sussex’s Half-Brother as Person of Interest in Child Abuse Inquiry
The Philippine interior and local government secretary, Jonvic Remulla, announced at a press conference in Manila that Thomas Markle Jr., 60, the estranged half‑brother of the Duchess of Sussex, has been named a “person of interest” in the country’s investigation into child sexual abuse image allegations against his father, Thomas Markle Sr. Remulla said there were “signs that point that the son is involved in the crime as well,” but clarified that Markle Jr. is not yet being treated as a suspect and that his alleged involvement is not thought to be directly linked to the material he handed to police. The investigation uncovered more than 7,000 photos and one video of under‑age males and females of Asian, Latin and European descent, some as young as 10 and 11. Remulla described the images as “the most deplorable displays of impunity towards sexual activity that I have ever seen.” Markle Sr., 82, who is estranged from Meghan Markle, has reportedly been moved to a dementia care home in the United States. He returned to the U.S. from the Philippines in May and has admitted paying for sex in the Philippines but denies possessing child abuse imagery, claiming he was “set up.” His son remains in Cebu City. Remulla has previously described Markle Sr. as “a possible sex offender of the grossest kind.” Markle Jr. reported his father after finding four storage boxes at his father’s home in the Philippines that contained “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sex abuse images. Police and FBI agents have been investigating whether Markle Sr. possessed illegal images while living in the Philippines and in Mexico, where other illegal images were reportedly found in one of his storage units. Markle Jr. was interviewed at his home in Cordova, Cebu, as part of an international, multi‑agency meeting via Microsoft Teams, according to the Sun, which first published the claims. He gave his statement to an FBI agent based in Florida who specializes in child sex abuse cases. In a statement issued when the allegations against her father were first published, Meghan Markle said she was “deeply distressed” by the claims and had been informed of disturbing allegations against her father in 2018, leading her to keep him from having contact with her children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to protect them.