Meghan’s father Thomas Markle appears in court over child sex abuse material

Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has appeared in court after being charged over possession of child sex abuse material.

Markle was arrested on a federal complaint alleging he held images that show child sex abuse, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

The 82-year-old was arrested in Florida after the FBI searched two Los Angeles-area storage units he rented for almost 20 years.

He is charged with one count of possessing indecent images of children, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said. Markle has previously denied allegations of possessing images of child sex abuse, calling them “sick lies”.

Markle’s court hearing lasted for 30 minutes, and the charges were laid out against him by federal prosecutor Courtenay Derry, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

He was brought into court a wheelchair, escorted by two US Marshals. Markle was wearing black trousers and a black t-shirt.

The court ordered Markle to submit to home detention at his assisted living facility in Florida and electronic monitoring.

No plea was taken during the hearing, and an arraignment date in California will be determined in due course, a joint statement from the DoJ and the US Attorney’s Office Central California said.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not commented on Markle’s arrest.

FBI director Kash Patel said authorities “moved quickly” when arresting Markle.

“Mr Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions,” Patel said.

He added that the FBI would “use every single resource at our disposal to protect innocent kids – any predator who targets children will have zero safe haven in this country or anywhere they try to hide”.

Markle was arrested after the FBI, acting on warrants, searched storage units in LA registered to him which he had rented since 2008, with the last payment being made in October this year.

Inside the units the FBI says agents seized about 78 items, including film negatives, slides and books that they allege contained child sex abuse material.