The Duchess of Sussex’s father has been moved to a specialist care home for dementia patients, according to reports.
Thomas Markle Sr, who is being investigated over a stash of suspected child sex abuse images, was taken to a “memory care” facility in Florida on Friday, The Sun revealed.
The move has raised concerns that the FBI may never be able to interview Meghan’s estranged father because of the legal barriers to interrogating suspects with cognitive issues in care homes.
The 82-year-old was reported to police in the Philippines and the FBI last month by his son Thomas Markle Jnr, who handed over a haul of alleged child abuse images he found in his father’s belongings in Cebu City.
A second hoard was reportedly discovered on Friday in a storage unit Mr Markle is said to have rented near his former home in Rosarito, Mexico, during a raid by Mexican police.
Meghan was left “deeply distressed” at the allegations and revealed she was sent a letter via the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection seven years ago which made “troubling and disturbing allegations” about her father, but that she was given assurances these were being investigated.
The Metropolitan Police has admitted it never shared the details with other law enforcement agencies, with the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), now investigating the force’s conduct.
The duchess had wanted to “speak out” immediately after reading the letter, but police advised her against this, sources said.
Meghan has been estranged from her father since the run-up to her 2018 wedding when he was caught staging paparazzi photographs and then had a heart attack, meaning the King, then the Prince of Wales, stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle.
When Mr Markle had his leg amputated in the Philippines last year, he made pleas for the Duchess to contact him, saying he did not want to die while they were still estranged.
A spokesperson for the Duchess confirmed at the time she had “reached out to her father”.
Last week, it emerged Meghan wrote in this final letter that she knew he was an abuser and that he would never see his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Mr Markle Sr has admitted to paying for sex in the Philippines but denied ever possessing child abuse imagery, calling the accusations by his son “sick lies”.
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