The short version
- The Independent Office for Police Conduct has opened an independent investigation into the Metropolitan Police’s decision not to forward a 2019 letter alleging serious offenses by Thomas Markle to international law enforcement agencies.
- The Met voluntarily referred itself to the watchdog after admitting it passed the handwritten note from Markle’s former wife, Roslyn Loveless, to the Duchess of Sussex rather than treating it as a potential criminal matter requiring cross-border cooperation.
- The inquiry coincides with active investigations in the Philippines regarding alleged child sexual abuse material found at Markle’s former residence, claims he denies and describes as fabricated.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has initiated a formal investigation into the Metropolitan Police Service regarding its handling of sensitive information concerning Thomas Markle, father of the Duchess of Sussex. The watchdog determined that an independent probe was necessary after reviewing a voluntary referral from Scotland Yard. The central issue involves the force’s failure to transmit allegations of serious offending contained in a 2019 letter to relevant overseas law enforcement bodies at the time they were received.
The letter in question was written by Roslyn Loveless, Markle’s first wife, who divorced him in 1975 and passed away in 2024. It was sent to the Met’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, which handles security concerns for high-profile individuals. According to police statements, officers assessed the document as raising security concerns for the Duchess of Sussex rather than containing actionable criminal intelligence requiring immediate international cooperation. Consequently, the letter was forwarded to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness in January 2019.
The IOPC will now scrutinize the decision-making process within the Met that led to this outcome. Investigators will examine which officers determined that the claims did not warrant sharing with police forces in countries where the alleged wrongdoing occurred, including the United States, the Philippines, and Thailand. The inquiry will also assess whether established policies and procedures regarding data handling and cross-border information sharing were followed during the seven-year period before the matter came to public attention.
The Metropolitan Police has since acknowledged that it did not share the details of the allegations with other agencies because they related to potential unlawful activity outside the United Kingdom. However, the force is now in the process of sending the contents of the letter to the FBI and law enforcement counterparts in the Philippines and Thailand. This belated transmission comes after years of silence, raising questions about the initial assessment of the letter’s severity and the protocols for handling such sensitive disclosures.
The timing of this investigation aligns with escalating legal scrutiny of Thomas Markle in Southeast Asia. Authorities in the Philippines are currently examining digital images and physical media alleged to contain child sexual abuse material. These items were reportedly discovered at Markle’s former home in Cebu and handed over to police by his son, Thomas Markle Jr. The Philippine interior minister has stated that evidence points to Markle being a possible sex offender, though a full forensic analysis is required to confirm these suspicions.
Thomas Markle has vehemently denied all allegations against him, characterizing the claims as sick lies and fake news. He has admitted to paying for sex but maintains that he does not possess any illegal material. His daughter, Samantha Markle, has also supported his denial, dismissing the accusations as fabricated. The scale of embarrassment for the Metropolitan Police may depend largely on whether Philippine investigators find credence in the allegations regarding child abuse images, which could retroactively validate the seriousness of the claims made in Loveless’s letter.
The Duchess of Sussex stated last week that the 2019 letter contained troubling and disturbing allegations that provided sufficient reason for her to end contact with her father. She noted that the contents prevented her from visiting him or allowing him to meet his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet. While she did not provide specific details about the accusations, her comments underscore the personal impact of the information withheld from international authorities for nearly a decade.
Family members have expressed concern over the police force’s actions. Noel Rasmussen, Markle’s granddaughter and the Duchess’s niece, told the BBC that she was deeply troubled by the questions surrounding the Met’s handling of the information. She argued that if allegations of such seriousness were brought to authorities, it is reasonable to expect steps to be taken to share them with relevant agencies. The IOPC investigation aims to clarify whether those steps were neglected due to procedural error or misjudgment.
The watchdog has decided not to investigate a separate aspect of the Met’s conduct: whether passing the letter to the Duchess’s office breached data protection rules due to its sensitive nature. Instead, the focus remains on the failure to alert overseas partners. The outcome of this probe could have significant implications for how UK police handle cross-border allegations involving high-profile individuals and may influence future protocols for sharing intelligence with international counterparts.
As the investigation proceeds, the Metropolitan Police faces scrutiny over a seven-year gap in communication that potentially allowed serious allegations to go unaddressed by relevant jurisdictions. The case highlights complex challenges in balancing royal protection duties with broader law enforcement responsibilities. The IOPC’s findings will determine whether systemic failures occurred and what corrective measures are needed to prevent similar oversights in the future.
Sources behind this briefing
Go to the original reporting
- The Guardian World↗Police watchdog to investigate Met’s handling of Meghan warning letter
- BBC News↗Police watchdog to investigate Met over letter about Meghan's father
