Met should have passed on child sex abuse allegations against Thomas Markle to the FBI, former police chief says

Scotland Yard risked allowing child abuse to continue for seven years by failing to alert the FBI to allegations against Thomas Markle, a former police chief says.

The Metropolitan Police has admitted it did not act on a letter it received in 2019 accusing the Duchess of Sussex's father of being a paedophile.

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 said it was 'really difficult to understand' why that path was not followed in the Markle case when the letter 'indicated that children might be at risk'.

Mr Markle, 82, denies any wrongdoing. 

'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,' Mr Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He questioned why the Met Police assessed the claims as being sufficiently credible to pass to the Duchess of Sussex herself, but not to other law enforcement.

'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.

'If you get information that that comes to you about someone from a foreign jurisdiction who represents a threat to children, there's a well-worn path, and generally you'd expect a UK police force to share that information.

'I would have expected the Metropolitan Police to have gone to the FBI to say, "Look, this isn't proven, it's an allegation, you might want to look at it." Because in America, they may have more information that could corroborate it.

'It also should have gone to the National Crime Agency. They have an international network that connects with police services, not just in the likes of America, but in the Philippines, in Thailand, and in Mexico.'

The Met Police has said it is considering whether a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is necessary to review its approach.

Mr Gamble said an external investigation into the force is 'absolutely necessary'.

'There's a serious question to be asked about the process here,' he said. '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's claimed the letter received by the Met in 2019 was written by Mr Markle's ex-wife Roslyn Loveless, mother to the Duchess of Sussex's half-siblings Samantha and Thomas, who died in 2024.

Meghan's half-sister Samantha, 61, has said that if her late mother sent the letter, it was out of 'hatred and bitterness', accusing her of being an alcoholic and 'not credible'.

Mr Markle and Ms Loveless divorced in 1975, four years before he met Doria Ragland, mother to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

Meghan and her father have been estranged since at least 2018 when she married Prince Harry. Their relationship broke down after he admitted staging paparazzi photos of himself prior to the wedding.

The Duchess wrote to him last December after his leg was amputated in the Philippines, allegedly telling him he posed a risk to children and would never be allowed to meet his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet.

On Friday, police in the Philippines revealed they were investigating Mr Markle, 82, over claims he had 'hundreds, if not thousands' of child sexual abuse images, including an image of himself allegedly having sex with an underage girl.

The Philippines' interior minister Jonvic Remulla said Mr Markle appeared to be 'a possible sex offender of the grossest kind' and the country planned to take 'appropriate legal actions' against him.

Mr Markle has denied any wrongdoing, admitting he paid for sex in the Philippines but insisting it was only with adult prostitutes.