By Steve Gorman
Nov 9 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Florida has ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, to determine if he is mentally fit to answer to charges accusing him of being a child sex predator.
US Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin in Tampa wrote in a two-page order on Friday that the initial court appearance of Prince Harry’s 82-year-old father-in-law, including a “lack of recall,” raised questions in her mind as to whether he was competent to face prosecution.
Thomas Markle was arrested on Friday on a single federal count of possessing child sexual abuse material, including two explicit photographs of himself posed with a naked underage girl and other images of him with children in various stages of undress.
One of the photos showed a naked girl in a room that appears to be part of a motel chain in the Philippines, where Markle previously resided for some time.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in court as part of the criminal complaint lodged against Markle, federal agents seized the material in question, part of a cache of slides, film negatives and books, from storage units Markle had rented in Los Angeles since 2008.
Commenting on the case on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said Markle “targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions.”
Markle was most recently residing in Lakeland, Florida, where according to the Daily Mail he was a nursing home patient.
No plea was entered during Friday’s hearing, and the judge permitted Markle to be released from custody on personal recognizance on condition that he submit to home detention and electronic monitoring.
The Tampa-based federal public defender assigned to represent Markle, Mary Claire Wolf, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
In a court order after the hearing, Griffin said she found “reasonable cause to believe” that Markle may “suffer from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense.”
Griffin said she based her findings on unspecified information provided about his health condition, his “advanced age, and lack of recall.”
The judge also appointed Dr Amie Gerodimos, a forensic psychiatrist, to conduct an independent psychiatric exam of Markle and to render a diagnosis of his condition with a finding on his mental fitness to stand trial.
Griffin set a November 20 deadline for Gerodimos to report back to the court.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
