Meghan’s father Thomas Markle is back in custody, accused of cutting off his ankle monitor four days after he was charged

Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is back in federal custody in Tampa, Florida, after prosecutors said he removed the ankle monitor that was a condition of his release.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, of the Central District of California, said on X that Markle “allegedly cut the bracelet off at 1:45 a.m.” on Tuesday, local time (about 2.45pm AWST on Tuesday), and was arrested shortly afterwards. Essayli said prosecutors were asking the court to revoke his release and keep him in detention until trial. The claim that he removed the monitor has not been tested in court.

It is the second time in five days that he has been taken into custody. FBI agents first arrested him on Friday, US time, at Maravida Senior Living, a care home in Lakeland, Florida, east of Tampa, on one count of possession of child sexual abuse material, a federal offence that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

At that first appearance, before Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin in federal court in Tampa, he was released on his own recognisance to home detention with electronic monitoring. He was ordered to surrender his passport, undergo a psychiatric examination and have no contact with children, and he was barred from travelling outside central Florida and the Los Angeles area. He has not entered a plea.

What have the authorities said?

The charge is an accusation, not a finding. Essayli earlier called the allegations “extremely serious” and said prosecutors would pursue the case to the fullest extent of federal law. FBI Director Kash Patel said agents had moved quickly to identify the material and make the arrest.

Prosecutors say the material was found in storage units he had rented since 2008 in the Los Angeles area. Those are prosecution allegations that have not been tested in court.

What has Thomas Markle said?

He has denied the allegations. In October, when reports of an investigation first surfaced, he publicly called them lies, described them as “sick” and said he would welcome a forensic examination of the computers that had been seized. He has made no public comment on the monitor allegation. His court-appointed public defender has not commented.

How did the case begin?

Authorities learned in October of suspected abuse material among his belongings at a former home in the Philippines, where he had lived before moving back to the United States. Police in the Philippines seized items from the property. He has not been charged there.

What has Meghan said?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s spokesperson declined to comment on the arrest. When the allegations first emerged, the duchess said she was “deeply distressed” by them, and said a letter raising concerns about her father had been sent to London’s Metropolitan Police in 2019. She has also said she kept her children away from him.

Why does breaking a release condition matter?

In the US federal system, a defendant released before trial must keep to every condition a judge sets. Prosecutors can ask for that release to be revoked if they believe a condition has been broken, and a judge then decides whether the defendant should be held until trial. For an 82-year-old living in a care home, that would mean waiting for his case in detention rather than at home.

Why is this a global story?

Thomas Markle, a retired Hollywood lighting director, has been a public figure since his daughter’s engagement to Prince Harry in 2017. He did not attend their 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle, and his falling-out with the couple has played out in interviews and court documents for most of the years since. The couple stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and live in California.