Philippines minister says signs point to Thomas Markle Sr as possible sex offender of the ‘grossest kind’

Philippine officials say forensic signs point to Thomas Markle Sr as a possible sex offender of the grossest kind, while he denies the claims and the Met faces scrutiny.

Philippines Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said investigators reviewing forensic data from materials tied to Thomas Markle Sr now see a grim picture taking shape. He told reporters the work is not finished and asked for more time before any final release of findings.

Remulla’s update lands on an 82-year-old former Hollywood lighting technician already estranged from his daughter, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and now at the center of a cross-border inquiry. Cebu City’s anti-trafficking and anti-child abuse task force has logged boxes of evidence. The FBI says it is aware of the allegations. London’s Metropolitan Police has admitted it failed to pass details of alleged offending outside the United Kingdom to other agencies.

No charges have been announced. The core fight is over what sits on devices and storage hauled for analysis, who controlled those machines, and why warnings raised years ago did not travel farther.

Remulla asks for a week before any definitive picture

Remulla spoke bluntly about the direction of the forensics. “Right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind,” he said, while stressing caution on timing.

"We want to be sure before we release the findings."

He added a clear request for space to finish the work.

"Please give us a week to determine the contents and to come up with a definitive picture."

That stance keeps the case in the evidence phase. Philippine authorities have been trawling alleged materials linked to Markle’s time in and around Cebu City. On Friday, police hauled off four boxes of evidence and spent nine hours logging material with Tom Markle Jr., Markle’s son. Markle Sr. had relocated to Cebu from Mexico last year and later returned to the United States for medical care. He is now in a Florida nursing facility, learning to walk with a prosthetic after his left leg was amputated in December last year.

Daily Mail reporting laid out the minister’s remarks alongside the family claims, the police admissions in London, and Markle’s denials. The investigation remains open. The public is being told to wait for the forensic readout rather than treat a press update as a verdict.

Tom Markle Jr. says he found the stash and called it in

Tom Markle Jr., 60, half-brother to Meghan, has driven the newest wave of attention. He said he found materials on computers left behind and brought police in. He has described large volumes of alleged child sexual abuse images and said the discovery changed how he sees the man he once defended.

"Having seen what I've seen, I believe the man I've been defending and caring for is a monster."

He also apologized publicly to the duchess and said the break with their father now made sense to him. “I now know exactly why you don't talk to him any more and why you won't let him meet Harry or his grandchildren.”

The New York Post reported that Tom Jr. described finding hundreds to thousands of alleged images in storage at the Cebu home, that Philippine authorities formed a task force under the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, and that the FBI has sought contact channels with Philippine counterparts. A source close to the Cebu case said there is strong precedent for FBI involvement in circumstances like these.

Cases that cross borders test whether agencies share what they know. When they do not, children pay first and families clean up the wreckage later, a pattern familiar from other high-profile abuse probes that stunned the public.

Meghan says a 2018 letter explained the distance

Meghan, 45, issued a statement on Saturday tying the new disclosures to decisions she made years earlier. She said a letter sent in 2018 to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection was later shared with her, and that it carried troubling allegations against her father.

"I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed."

She said she received assurances then that the claims were under investigation. She framed the estrangement, and her refusal to allow contact with her children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, as a safeguard rather than a media feud.

Fox News reported her account that the 2018 letter held disturbing allegations and that she barred contact to protect her children, while Philippine officials confirmed a task force investigation and the FBI offered support language on related federal violations.

Her statement went further on motive and on what she wants from the system now.

"I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications' distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them."

She added that she trusted authorities were doing the same for other families, and that justice should put innocent children first. A later letter from Meghan to her father, sent last year while he was recovering in a hospital in the Philippines, reportedly told him he would never hear from her again or meet his grandchildren and referenced knowledge that he had abused young girls, as described in secondary reporting of that correspondence.

Breitbart underlined the same timeline: Meghan’s statement that she has known about the disturbing allegations since 2018, Tom Jr.’s account of material found at the former Philippines home, seizure of a computer for forensic analysis, and Markle Sr.’s denial that the accusations are true.

Scotland Yard’s missed handoff draws its own heat

The Metropolitan Police’s role is now a second front. Reporting states the force first told Meghan about the claims seven years ago, after the 2018 letter, understood to have been written by Roslyn Loveless, Markle’s late first wife and mother of Tom Jr. and Samantha Markle, reached Scotland Yard and Royalty and Specialist Protection. On Saturday the Met admitted it had failed to pass on details of the alleged offending outside the UK to other law enforcement agencies. It may refer itself to the police watchdog.

That admission matters on its own. If a letter flagging serious allegations against a U.S. citizen with overseas ties sits inside one force and never moves, every partner agency starts late. The FBI has said it is “aware of the allegations” and would “investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law.” Tom Jr. has also contacted the bureau. Awareness is not a completed case file. It is a starting gun that should have sounded earlier if the British side had shared what it held.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, asked about the swirl around Meghan, called the Met matter “an operational issue.” She also spoke about the personal cost to a daughter and mother living under constant coverage.

"Meghan Markle has faced a tremendous amount of intrusion into her family. It must be difficult as a daughter to have all this out in the open."

Rayner said Meghan has been clear on some of the reasons for the estrangement and that, at the heart of it, a mother is trying to raise and protect her children in public view. Sympathy for a parent shielding kids is not a substitute for chain-of-custody work, forensic results, and proper referrals across borders.

Markle denies underage sex and blames others for any device content

Markle Sr. has answered with flat denials on the central charge. He told the Mail on Sunday he had paid for sex while living in the Far East but denied sleeping with under-age girls. He has vowed to clear his name.

“I have never had sex with anyone under the age of 18,” he said. “I like Asian women but that is not a crime.” On an alleged photograph, he said, “I have never been in a photograph like that.” He described a normal sex life with age-appropriate partners and said ex-partners would back that account. He named his former wife Doria in that defense; Roslyn Loveless died in 2024.

On the machines themselves, he drew a bright line around control and packing. He said he never shared a house with Tom, that his computer and old phone were packed in Mexico and sent by boat to the Philippines over months, and that his son would not turn the computer over. “I have not had my computer or phones for nearly two years. If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.”

Those claims put intent, access, and custody in dispute. Forensic teams exist to test exactly that kind of fight, timestamps, accounts, installation trails, and who held the hardware when. Remulla’s one-week ask is aimed at that work, not at a cable-news verdict.

Family split runs through old wounds and new evidence boxes

Samantha Markle, 61, Markle’s daughter and main caregiver, has pushed back on the idea that their late mother quietly branded him a predator for years. She said if Roslyn was behind the 2018 letter, it sprang from “hatred and bitterness” after the marriage ended and his Hollywood career took off. “She never ever once mentioned to me that she thought dad was a paedophile.” On a possible photograph, Samantha suggested it might show a girlfriend, citing past partners who looked younger than their ages.

Rio Canero, 46, Markle’s most recent girlfriend in the Philippines and a nurse, has not been accused of prostitution in the reporting. Background on the marriage years includes King Charles stepping in to walk Meghan down the aisle at Windsor when her father did not attend after a heart attack around the 2018 wedding period. None of that social history resolves a hard-drive case. It only explains why every new filing hits a family already broken in public.

Markle’s own timeline puts him in Mexico, then Cebu for a “fresh start” into 2025, then back to the States in May this year for medical care. Tom Jr.’s account puts police in the house on a Friday with four boxes and a long evidence log. Meghan’s statement hit on Saturday. Remulla spoke as forensics continued. Relative dates dominate the public file because the seed reporting leaned on “last night,” “last week,” and “today” rather than a single calendar stamp. The sequence is still clear enough: letter in 2018, estrangement, fresh discovery claims, seizures, denials, and a minister willing to describe the emerging forensic direction while refusing to publish unfinished results.

What is proved so far, and what is not

Here is the honest inventory. Philippine authorities are investigating. Evidence boxes have been taken. A minister says signs point to a possible offender of the worst kind and wants a week to finish. Tom Markle Jr. says he found extensive alleged child sexual abuse material and alerted police and the FBI. Meghan says she learned of disturbing allegations in 2018, kept her children away to protect them, and wants justice focused on kids. The Met says it failed to share overseas allegation details and may go to the watchdog. The FBI is aware and open to federal angles. Markle admits paying for sex overseas, denies anything under 18, denies the photograph claim, and says any bad content on old devices was planted or introduced by others after he lost control of them.

Missing from the public package: filed charges, a completed forensic report, full verbatim text of the 2018 letter, full verbatim text of Meghan’s later letter to her father, and an independent courtroom airing of who packed, shipped, and accessed the devices between Mexico and the Philippines. Until those gaps close, officials should speak in evidence language, not victory laps and not whitewash.

Child sexual abuse material cases demand speed and precision at the same time. Speed protects kids still at risk. Precision protects the integrity of any prosecution and the rights of the accused. A force that sits on an overseas allegation for years fails the first duty. A minister who flags ugly forensic signs but holds for a definitive picture is doing the second duty in public. Families who cut contact to shield children are not required to perform transparency theater for tabloids while labs work.

Law and order is not a slogan when the file includes kids. It is referrals that move, forensics that finish, and agencies that do not lose the thread across an ocean.