[IP] Operation Ore exposed
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 4, 2005 8:31:33 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Operation Ore exposed
Hi Dave:
There's a very detailed and interesting account in the PCPRO website
about problems with a highly-publicised IT crime investigation here
in the UK. The full story is at:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html
Here is my attempt to extract the main points:
Operation Ore exposed
Operation Ore is the UK's biggest ever IT crime investigation, but
expert witness Duncan Campbell reveals that many prosecutions were
founded on falsehoods
...
Operation Ore launched on British TV screens on 20 May 2002. The
BBC led on 'mass arrests over online child porn'. Thirty-six people
were arrested, with promises of thousands more to follow. It made
for compelling television, and provoked a rash of tabloid activity,
but it also led to increased pressure on the police to bring the
remaining thousands to justice.
...
Unfortunately, not all the evidence presented was quite as clear
cut as it seemed. Clearly visible on the bulletin was a computer
screen displaying Exhibit One of Operation Ore. In the middle of
the screen were the words 'Click Here CHILD PORN'.
...
However, this most critical computer evidence produced in Operation
Ore, I have found, was flawed. On 2 October 2002 in Fort Worth,
Texas, incorrect evidence was handed to a British police officer by
Nelson. He swore it as true evidence and was backed up by Mead. The
evidence was then distributed throughout Britain, shown on TV and
paraded in courts up and down the land.
The objective of Operation Ore was the protection of vulnerable
children from adult abuse and harm. But the mistakes meant huge
quantities of police, technical and social work resources were
misdirected to some futile and ill-founded investigations. The
worse result was damage to innocent lives, and the welfare of
families and children.
...
Their common cause was a 1999 police operation in Fort Worth,
Texas. Billed as the exposure of the world's largest 'paedophile
ring', America's 'Operation Avalanche' had swelled by 2002 to a
global crusade.
The entire investigation depended on computer evidence. What was on
the Internet, who logged in to it, when and how? On this digital
sword, many lives and careers would be tested and some would end.
...
My work so far has led to three Ore defendants being acquitted and
to all the American evidence being ditched in respect of a fourth.
But even for those never charged, or acquitted before trial, the
experiences are so scarring that no-one wants to talk.
...
The records suggest that because of the media and police enthusiasm
to hunt down supposed Internet paedophiles, important questions
about the evidence were never asked, or asked in time. As recently
as last December the police were still unwilling to admit to the
House of Commons that thousands of names on the Landslide list were
not paedophiles and were known to have paid only for adult material.
Through no fault of their own, many people and their families will
never recover from the false stigma of having been associated with
child pornography. They are the victims of a combination of
technical naivety and fear, fed by a media circus demanding fast
results and the exposure of big names. As the Internet continues to
become more transparent, the risk is that the stage may be set for
a 21st century witch-hunt.
...
cheers
Brian Randell
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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