Prince Harry's father-in-law Thomas Markle arrested over alleged child sexual abuse material

Thomas Markle, the father-in-law of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and one of the heirs to the British throne, has been arrested on allegations of possessing material related to the sexual abuse of children.

He was arrested on Friday in the city of Polk in the US state of Florida by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the American intelligence and law enforcement agency.

Thomas Markle is the father of Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's wife. The 82-year-old was taken into FBI custody early on Friday morning from a senior care facility in Polk County. He was later presented in the afternoon before a federal court in the city of Tampa.

Thomas Markle has been granted bail by the court. He was released on the condition that he will remain under electronic monitoring from now on.

The FBI has filed a 14-page written complaint against Thomas Markle in court. It states that he had rented two storage units in the city of Los Angeles in the state of California for nearly two decades.

In a recent raid on those units, FBI agents seized 78 items connected to the sexual abuse of children. The complaint says the material included sexually suggestive photographs of himself with underage girls.

According to the Associated Press, an affidavit was filed along with the complaint before the arrest. It states that two of the photographs found in the storage units show a man whom a witness identified as Thomas Markle.

In those photographs, he is seen with a naked underage girl. According to documents filed in a federal court in California, the recovered material includes dozens of slides, photographs, film negatives and books. The complaint says all of these items contained illegal material.

The FBI is currently examining these items.

In a statement, FBI Director Kash Patel said that, according to the complaint, Markle had targeted innocent children and sought to take away the sanctity of their childhood through criminal acts. The FBI will use every resource at its disposal to protect innocent children, he said, adding that there will be no refuge in this country or anywhere else for any criminal who targets children.

Patel expressed gratitude to the FBI agents in Los Angeles and Tampa, as well as to the authorities in Mexico, the Philippines and the Marshall Islands.