Hannah Furness, Patrick Sawer and Victoria Ward
London: The Duchess of Sussex is “upset and frustrated” after the Metropolitan Police admitted it had failed to act on sex abuse allegations against her father, the London Telegraph has revealed.
The duchess, whose father, Thomas Markle, has been accused of serious offences against children in the Philippines, has been aware of separate allegations since January 2019, but police are said to have told her not to discuss them publicly.
Scotland Yard confirmed on Saturday that it received a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending” outside its British jurisdiction, but admitted it had not passed it on to overseas authorities.
The force is now considering whether to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over how the letter was handled.
According to the Telegraph, when Meghan wrote to her father while he was in hospital last year, she accused him of being unsafe around children, saying he would never be permitted to meet her own and urging him to seek professional help.
A friend of the Duchess of Sussex said: “She’s obviously upset and really frustrated that, having effectively been told to stay quiet and having been given assurances it would be investigated, it appears nothing was done.
“She’s obviously pleased that the Met is now considering referring itself to the police watchdog.”
The police force now faces questions about why information contained in a letter, which a whistleblower close to the Markle family sent to the Met’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, was not shared, and whether opportunities were missed to prevent further harm to children.
After receiving the letter, Scotland Yard passed it to royal protection officers, who shared it with the duchess.
When she asked at the time what she should do about it, she was assured that “it was all in hand” and that to act could prejudice further investigations, the Telegraph says.
When news of the letter’s existence emerged on Friday (UK time), the Met contacted the duchess’s office to ask whether she had retained a copy because they could not find the original. The Sussexes supplied them with it.
One source told the Telegraph: “Thankfully, the duke and duchess are good record keepers and still had it.”
Dai Davies, the former head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command, said he was “gobsmacked” that the Met had not contacted any other law enforcement bodies about the allegations.
Speaking to the Telegraph he said: “I’m frankly astounded that, having received this material, they did not contact other relevant forces. One of their roles is to protect the reputation of the royal family against any allegations.
“I believe they had a duty of care not only to Meghan but to any alleged victims to investigate. They would have been duty-bound, especially given Harry and Meghan’s level of fame just after their marriage, to carry out their own initial assessment and, if necessary, take it forward.”
Davies added: “The allegations that her father was alleged to be a paedophile would have made them duty-bound to liaise with Harry’s protection team, the FBI and other police forces, where the alleged offences were said to have taken place.
“It frankly beggars belief that they didn’t contact any other law enforcement agencies. I’m gobsmacked that they didn’t.”
Davies also expressed surprise that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not appear to have followed up the allegations against Thomas Markle Snr that they had received from the Met.
“This would have been the obvious thing to do, especially as they shortly after went on to have children of their own,” he said.
A former senior Met detective told the Telegraph: “There is a very simple mechanism for passing this kind of information on to Interpol. You would grade the intelligence received and pass it through the National Crime Agency to Interpol.
“It’s a bit surprising someone hasn’t said, ‘we need to pass this on to Interpol’, given the seriousness of the allegations concerning a relative of a member of the royal family.”
It emerged on Thursday that police in the Philippines were investigating Markle Snr, 82, for allegedly possessing “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sexual abuse images that had been found in recent months.
The Sun reported that one of the images under investigation allegedly showed the duchess’s father having sex with a girl who appeared to be underage.
In a statement on Friday, the duchess said she had received a letter in the summer of 2018 making “troubling and disturbing allegations” about her father. Scotland Yard said it had received the letter in January 2019.
A spokesman for the duchess said: “In recalling events from more than seven years ago, without the benefit of a diary entry or contemporaneous record, it is understandable that she may have been mistaken by a few months.”
The Telegraph has since seen the letter to confirm its existence and the details of the “disturbing” claims within it.
‘I could never do what I’m accused of’
Thomas Markle Snr has denied the allegations, saying: “I could never do what I’m being accused of. It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
On Saturday, a police spokesman said: “Following a thorough review of Met Police systems and records, we have confirmed that in January 2019, we received a letter containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the UK.
“It was sent to the MPS Protection Command to raise concerns in relation to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.
“The letter was reviewed, and a decision was made that it should be passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness. The details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies.”
The FBI has said it is “aware of the allegations and will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities”. “We will also investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law,” a spokesman added.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
The Telegraph, London
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