The police watchdog will independently investigate the Metropolitan Police’s handling of a 2019 letter containing allegations about the Duchess of Sussex’s father, after the force voluntarily referred itself on Thursday.
An Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) spokesperson said: “Following a voluntary conduct referral from the Met Police, we have decided an independent investigation is required into its failure to pass on allegations of serious offending, contained in a letter it received in 2019, to relevant overseas authorities at the time.”
The watchdog also decided that a further conduct matter — relating to an alleged data breach where information was passed on to a third party — should be returned to the force to be dealt with, including via its data breach policies if required.
The decision is the next step after the Met’s voluntary referral to the IOPC on Thursday, which this site reported yesterday. The referral itself is not a finding of wrongdoing; the investigation will now examine what the force did — and did not do — with the letter in 2019.
What happened in 2019
In January 2019, the Met received a letter addressed to its Protection Command, specifically the Fixated Threats Assessment Centre. The author suggested they were writing to raise concerns relating to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.
Commander Adam Slonecki, who leads the Metropolitan Police’s Protection Command, said: “While the letter did not actually contain any information specifically related to security matters, it did contain a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom. The letter was assessed and subsequently passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness.”
He added: “The details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies. In recent days, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards has carried out an initial review into our actions following receipt of the letter in 2019.”
Following that review, a voluntary referral was made to the IOPC “in respect of the decision not to inform other law enforcement agencies, and the decision to pass the letter to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”, the Met said.
The Met has also said it intends to make a number of referrals to relevant overseas law enforcement agencies in relation to the allegations contained within the letter, a process it says is under way and will be completed in the coming days.
The allegations in the letter concern Thomas Markle Sr, the Duchess of Sussex’s father. They are allegations contained in the letter and reported in the press — they have not been tested in court, and no finding has been made against him. The IOPC investigation is into the Met’s handling of the letter, not into the allegations themselves.
The case has returned to public attention as police in the Philippines investigate suspected child sexual abuse images reportedly found at Mr Markle’s former home there. The Duchess said last week that the letter had made “troubling and disturbing allegations against my father”.
