Met Police Accused of Failing to Report Child Abuse Allegations Against Thomas Markle to FBI
Former National Crime Agency chief says Scotland Yard may have allowed abuse to continue for seven years by not sharing claims.
Scotland Yard risked allowing child abuse to continue for seven years by failing to alert the FBI to allegations against Thomas Markle, the father of the Duchess of Sussex, a former police chief has stated.
The Metropolitan Police has admitted it received a letter in 2019 accusing Markle, 82, of being a paedophile but did not act on it.
Jim Gamble, former head of the National Crime Agency's child exploitation command, said there is a "well-worn path" for Met detectives to share serious claims with foreign agencies. He expressed difficulty in understanding why this protocol was not followed in Markle's case, especially as the letter "indicated that children might be at risk."
"If it turns out through the investigation ongoing in the Philippines and with the FBI that an individual is ultimately held to account for those offences, then there's seven years during which children will have potentially continued to suffer abuse," Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He questioned why the Met Police deemed the claims credible enough to pass to the Duchess of Sussex but not to other law enforcement agencies. "I would have expected them to prioritise an assessment with regard to the safeguarding and child protection issues that seem to have been included in [the letter]," he said.
Gamble suggested that if a UK police force receives information about an individual in a foreign jurisdiction posing a threat to children, they should inform the FBI. "Because in America, they may have more information that could corroborate it," he explained.
The National Crime Agency should also have been contacted, Gamble added, noting its international network connects with police services in countries including the United States, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mexico.
The Met Police is currently considering whether a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is necessary to review its approach. Gamble asserted that an external investigation into the force is "absolutely necessary."
"There's a serious question to be asked about the process here," he stated. "It's not just about administration, it's about children having an extended exposure to an individual, if it's proven, who represented a risk."
It is claimed the 2019 letter was written by Markle's ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, the mother of his children Samantha and Thomas. Samantha Markle, 61, has stated that if her late mother sent the letter, it was motivated by "hatred and bitterness," and accused her mother of being an alcoholic and "not credible."
Thomas Markle and Roslyn Loveless divorced in 1975. Markle later met Doria Ragland, mother to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan and her father have been estranged since at least 2018, following her marriage to Prince Harry. Their relationship deteriorated after Markle admitted staging paparazzi photos prior to the wedding.
In December, the Duchess reportedly wrote to her father after his leg was amputated in the Philippines, allegedly stating he posed a risk to children and would never be allowed to meet his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet.
Last Friday, police in the Philippines revealed they were investigating Markle over claims he possessed "hundreds, if not thousands" of child sexual abuse images, including one allegedly showing him with an underage girl. Philippines' interior minister Jonvic Remulla described Markle as a "possible sex offender of the grossest kind" and stated the country planned to take "appropriate legal actions."
Mr Markle has denied all wrongdoing, admitting to paying for sex in the Philippines but insisting it was only with adult prostitutes.
