UK Police confirm receiving letter containing number of claims about Meghan Markle's father in 2019, not 2018

Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle, is currently in the spotlight for alleged wrongdoings. Days after the Duchess of Sussex said that she is 'deeply distressed' by the reports alleging her estranged father, Thomas Markle Jr has kept “child sexual abuse” images at his home.

The royal also revealed that she was made aware of the investigation against her father in 2018 by the Metropolitan police. Days later, London's Met police have confirmed receiving a letter containing allegations against Markle's estranged father.

The police have also added that the details were never shared with other law enforcement agencies.

On Oct 24, the Met said it received the letter in January 2019 containing a number of claims alleging offences by Markle's father outside the UK, as reported by People.

Now, the police force is reviewing how to handle the matter further.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said, via Mirror, “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 United Kingdom. It was sent to the MPS Protection Command to raise concerns in relation to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.''

The letter was passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as per multiple reports.

“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.

Police are now reviewing how it was handled in 2019 and considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review their approach.

Meghan said 2018, Police said 2019: What Duchess's Rep says now

The next question is that the Duchess said she received the letter in 2018, a year before the date mentioned in the Met Police's recent statement, which is Jan 2019. The discrepancy in the timeline is likely to confuse people.

However, soon after a representative for the Duchess of Sussex, said in a statement to multiple outlets, have said it's understandable that she [Meghan] may have been mistaken by a few months.

“If the MPS holds a time-stamped record confirming that the letter was reviewed in 2019, that should be treated as the accurate reference point for when it was received and shared with the Duchess,” Meghan’s rep said.

“It is reasonable to recognize that she is doing her best to recall the precise timing of events that were not diarized at the time, and that any discrepancy of a few months is an understandable consequence of that passage of time,” the representative added.

This comes after it was reported that Thomas was investigation by police in the Philippines over alleged child sex images.