Thomas Markle Sr, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was arrested in Florida on Friday on a charge of possessing child sexual abuse material, US authorities said.Federal agents searched two storage units in the Los Angeles area that Markle had reportedly rented since 2008. They “seized approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books” containing suspected child sexual abuse images, first assistant US attorney Bill Essayli said, news agency AP reported.Markle was arrested outside Tampa, according to people familiar with the investigation. The case came to light after Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, reportedly found a collection of such images while clearing out their father’s former home in Cebu City, Philippines. The discovery led investigators to the storage units in California, the US attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said.“These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr Markle to the fullest extent of federal law,” Essayli said.Meghan recently said she was “deeply distressed” by reports about the alleged discovery. She also disclosed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about her father had been sent to London police in 2018. “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them,” she said.Meghan married Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018. Her father, a retired television lighting and photography director, did not attend the wedding. He was living in the Philippines earlier this year when he suffered a stroke and had his left leg amputated, forcing him to return to the US.