At 1:45 am on Tuesday, someone cut or gnawed off Thomas Markle’s ankle monitor. The ankle monitor was one of the terms of Markle’s release after he was arrested and charged for being a depraved PDFile last Friday. Following the cut of the ankle monitor, Markle was immediately apprehended and hauled back to jail. The judge has ordered Markle to be kept separate from the general population until trial, and the judge once again ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

A US judge has ordered that Thomas Markle Sr be separated from other prisoners on his return to jail. In a Florida hearing on Wednesday, Judge Lindsay Griffin said the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father had violated his bail conditions by cutting off his electronic tag while under house arrest.

Mr Markle Sr, 82, was first arrested by the FBI last week for allegedly possessing child sex abuse material. He was rearrested on Monday after he forcibly removed the ankle monitor, US authorities said.

Judge Griffin recommended that he be separated “to the extent practicable” from his fellow inmates. She added that his pretrial release had been revoked because his housing situation had “become untenable”, as well as because of his removal of the monitoring device.

Mr Markle Sr had been living in a dementia care home in Florida when FBI agents seized a haul of material from two storage units he had rented in Los Angeles for almost two decades. After his recent arrest, he had been released on bail by the court on condition he was subject to home detention and wore an electronic tag. He was also ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination, amid concerns he may not be unable to understand the proceedings or properly assist his lawyer.

Prosecutors requested his recall to jail and detention pending trial, after he removed the location monitoring bracelet in the early hours of Monday. Bill Essayli, the first assistant US attorney, said: “Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions.” Judge Griffin approved his return to custody following a hearing in Tampa, Florida.

Her ruling said: “I found that the defendant violated the conditions of his pretrial release and that, based on the lack of suitable housing, no condition or combination of conditions would reasonably assure the safety of any other person or the community and the defendant’s appearance in court. Accordingly, for the reasons stated at the hearing, the defendant’s pretrial release is revoked, and he is detained pending the resolution of this case.”

She added: “The defendant is committed to the custody of the attorney general or his designated representative for confinement in a corrections facility separate, to the extent practicable, from persons awaiting or serving sentences or being held in custody pending appeal.”

[From The Telegraph]

The judge basically said that Markle is staying in jail until trial unless his lawyer and family can come up with a different housing situation. Samantha Markle and her partner moved Thomas out of his senior living facility last weekend, and the rumor going around is that Thomas was moved into Samantha’s trailer, although that hasn’t been confirmed. I would assume that they had little choice in the matter though – no one is saying so, but I’d guess that Thomas was kicked out of the senior facility after his arrest, and I would also assume that no other senior facility wants to house him. So jail it is. That was probably the math being done by the Markles too. I’d love to know who cut the ankle monitor and why it was done at 1:45 am.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, screencaps courtesy of 60 Minutes Australia.