Met Police Will Audit 2019 Handling of Thomas Markle Complaint
London police confirmed receipt of a decade-old letter containing allegations against the Duchess of Sussex's father, which was shared with the Royal couple but not other agencies.
By Kenji Hassan ·
The Metropolitan Police has launched an internal review into how it managed a 2019 complaint against Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. A Scotland Yard spokesperson confirmed the existence of the document to CBS News on Saturday. The letter contained a series of claims regarding Markle's conduct.
Police stated that they forwarded the letter to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness. However, the specific details of the allegations were not passed on to other law enforcement bodies at that time.
The confirmation came after a sequence of reports this week regarding Markle. The Sun reported on Thursday that Markle's son, Thomas Markle Jr., had reported the elder Markle to authorities in the Philippines. The younger Markle allegedly discovered child abuse materials in storage boxes at the family home in that country. By Friday, reports indicated that Philippine authorities were handling the matter involving alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials. The Daily Mail noted on Friday that Markle denied the allegations.
Meghan addressed the reports in a statement sent to CBS News on Friday. She described herself as deeply distressed by the news. She stated that she had known of the allegations since 2018 and that they were shared with U.K. authorities at that time. Her statement noted that a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection in 2018. It added that the letter was subsequently shared with her and contained troubling allegations for which she was given assurances of an investigation.
The duchess said she had kept her distance from her father to protect her children. She explained that her decision to restrict his contact with them had one reason: to protect them. She added that she hoped this would be understood despite certain media publications' distortion over the years.
The two accounts differ on the date of the letter, with Meghan citing 2018 and Scotland Yard citing 2019. A spokesman for the duchess told BBC News that any discrepancy of a few months was an understandable consequence of the passage of time.
The Met will now decide whether to refer the case to the police watchdog as part of its review process.
Source: CBS News
