Philippine police find child sex abuse material on devices linked to Thomas Markle

Philippine police said on Wednesday that three memory cards and a mobile phone turned over by the son of Meghan Markle’s estranged father contained child sexual abuse material.

Last week, Philippine police said they were investigating a laptop found alongside images of child abuse at an alleged former residence of Thomas Markle, whose daughter is married to Britain’s Prince Harry.

Philippine interior minister Jonvic Remulla said at the time the country planned to take “appropriate legal actions” if sufficient evidence was found. Markle has denied all claims against him.

On Wednesday, the country’s national police said child abuse materials had been discovered among the cache turned over by Markle’s son amid an “intensifying” investigation.

“It is not enough to simply come across some materials and immediately draw conclusions,” Philippine national police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jnr said in a statement provided in response to questions about the investigation.

“We have to establish where these came from, who may be responsible and whether Philippine laws were violated.”

The revelation came a day after Mexican authorities raided a storage unit rented by Thomas Markle as part of the ongoing investigation.

The prosecutor’s office of Mexico’s Baja California state said on Monday it had received an anonymous tip about the existence of child sex abuse material in a storage unit rented by Thomas Markle.

Investigators said the owner of the storage unit reported the 82-year-old had stopped paying rent for it in 2024 but his possessions remained secured inside.

Authorities reported finding “magazines from Asia” dating back 20 years, without giving further details, as well as computer equipment that has been taken in for further investigation.

British tabloid The Sun first reported last month that Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jnr, had discovered the child abuse images while going through boxes found in his father’s former home.

Markle had been living in Cebu in the Philippines until reportedly returning to the United States earlier this year.

Meghan Markle has previously said she was “deeply distressed” by accusations that her father had possessed images of child abuse, adding she had blocked contact between him and her children over previous “troubling and disturbing” allegations.