The Duchess of Sussex has attended an event remembering children who have died after being subjected to online harm, in her first public appearance since her father was charged with child sexual offences.

Thomas Markle, 82, was arrested by FBI agents at a care home for dementia patients, where he had been living, in connection with possessing alleged child sexual abuse material. He was placed under house arrest on Saturday by a court in Tampa, Florida.

Federal agents had seized material from two Los Angeles storage units he had rented for nearly two decades after his son, Thomas Markle Jr , found alleged child abuse images in his father’s belongings and reported him to police in the Philippines and the US.

Meghan has said she is “deeply distressed” at the allegations surrounding her father, from whom she has been estranged since the run-up to her 2018 wedding.…