Philippines<\/a> \u201cfor a fresh start\u201d. He said: \u201cThis is bullshit. It\u2019s just a bunch of lies. It\u2019s sick. I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.\u201d<\/p>\nThe duchess, already estranged from her father, broke off all contact with him last year, reportedly telling him she and the authorities were aware of allegations he had abused young girls, it is understood.<\/p>\n
In a final letter to her father first reported by the Sun on Sunday, sent while he was in a hospital in the Philippines having had a leg amputated, Meghan made clear he would never see his grandchildren Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, and that she would never contact him again, it is understood.<\/p>\n
The Sun reported on Friday that Meghan\u2019s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, told detectives in the Philippines he had discovered \u201chundreds, if not thousands\u201d of child sexual abuse images on computers and mobile phones stored in four large boxes at the home in Cebu. Markle Jr, 60, said he had also contacted the FBI in the US, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n
Meghan has revealed she learned of allegations against her father in 2019, having been told by the Metropolitan police, but said she was given assurances these claims were being investigated. Sources said she had been advised that speaking publicly about the claims could have jeopardised any potential legal case and also put her at risk of legal action.<\/p>\n
On Saturday the Met confirmed it had passed a letter \u201ccontaining a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom\u201d to Meghan and the Duke of Sussex in 2019 but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies. Scotland Yard is considering whether to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct to review its actions.<\/p>\n
The duchess was \u201cupset and really frustrated\u201d that the Met had not acted on allegations made in that letter, sources said.<\/p>\n
In a new interview with the Mail on Sunday, Markle Sr said he had \u201cnever had sex with anyone under the age of 18\u201d, telling the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and paid for sex.<\/p>\n
He is reportedly in a Florida rehabilitation centre after his leg amputation.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Friday, Meghan said she was \u201cdeeply 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications\u2019 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. I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sources later clarified she had misremembered the year in which the Met had contacted her, and confirmed it had been 2019, not 2018 as she said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The FBI said in a statement on Friday it was \u201caware of the allegations and will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities.We will also investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All signs point to Thomas Markle Sr being a \u201cpossible sex offender of the grossest kind\u201d although a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-813388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}