Thomas Markle Returned to Federal Custody After Judge Revokes Release

Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan Markle, was returned to jail on Tuesday, November 10, after he removed an electronic ankle monitor that had been required as part of his home confinement. At a hearing in Tampa, Florida, US Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin determined that Markle had broken the conditions of his pretrial release and ordered him returned to federal custody without bond, according to court records. Markle, 82, was arrested and charged on Friday with one federal count of possessing child sexual abuse material. The charge included two explicit photographs of him posed with an undressed underage girl, as well as other images showing him with children in various stages of undress. An FBI affidavit filed in court with the criminal complaint stated that one photograph showed an unclad girl in a room that appeared to be part of a motel chain in the Philippines, where Thomas Markle previously lived and where authorities began investigating him last month. The affidavit said federal agents seized the material, including photographic slides, film negatives and books, from two storage units Markle had rented in Los Angeles since 2008. FBI Director Kash Patel said on Friday that Markle "targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions." Markle, who most recently lived at an assisted-living facility in Lakeland, Florida, near Tampa, denied possessing sexually explicit images of children when the allegations first emerged, telling the Daily Mail they were untrue and "sick lies." No plea was entered at Markle's initial court hearing last Friday, November 6, and the judge allowed him to be released from custody on the condition that he remain in home detention and wear an electronic monitoring device. Federal prosecutors said they asked the judge to revoke home release and keep him detained pending trial after he was found to have cut off the ankle bracelet early Monday morning, November 9. Griffin agreed that Markle's housing situation had "become untenable" and granted the prosecutors' request. Markle was then re-arrested and returned to federal custody, according to the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, where the case was brought. The judge stipulated that Markle be held in a detention facility "separate, to the extent practicable, from" the general jail population. She also ordered that Markle undergo a "prompt medical evaluation."