Tampa, Nov 11:
Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been remanded to federal detention without bond after removing an electronic ankle monitor required under his release conditions.
US Magistrate Judge Lindsay Saxe Griffin issued the detention order in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday following submissions from federal prosecutors that the 82-year-old had breached the terms of his pretrial release. Markle was placed under home confinement following his arrest on Friday on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse material, but authorities discovered that he had removed the tracking unit early on Monday.
According to an FBI affidavit, investigators recovered photographs, slides, negatives, and books containing explicit imagery involving minors from storage lockers Markle rented in Los Angeles since 2008. While Markle has denied the charges, the court ordered that he undergo medical and psychiatric evaluations to assess his fitness, directing that he remain housed separately from the general jail population where feasible.