judge curtin

TempestSabre

You are assuming their credit cards weren't used without their knowledge. Credit card fraud isn't unknown, especially with dodgy sites.

Eoin

constitutionus wrote:

its worth mentioning that as far as i recall no one else has been convicted on this "nationwide sting" either and thats somewhere around twenty people, i put that down to a combination of the heat curtain brought to the cases and the gardai incompetance. i mean for god sake they were given a list of people who bought the porn with their credit cards, how can you feck that up?:rolleyes:

Was Tim Allen not convicted? Having read all the details about the warrant, do you not think "Gardai Incompetence" is not a little harsh? Also, it is the responsibility of the DPP to convict, not the Gardai.

BuffyBot

i mean for god sake they were given a list of people who bought the porn with their credit cards, how can you feck that up?

Your in-depth knowledge does you credit..

constitutionus

TempestSabre wrote:

You are assuming their credit cards weren't used without their knowledge. Credit card fraud isn't unknown, especially with dodgy sites.

true, but people who steal credit card details to conduct illegeal puchases of kiddie porn generally dont send it to the credit card holders computer. kinda defeats the purpose of nicking the details in the first place if your not gonna benefit from it. unless of course your implying the judge was set up.

and buffybot, correct me if im wrong but didnt the gardai get the list of targets from the FBI who were monitering the transactions?

BuffyBot

Monitoring the transactions, yes. Finding the material, and proving it was purchased legitimately by the people involved is another thing though.

pete

constitutionus wrote:

and buffybot, correct me if im wrong but didnt the gardai get the list of targets from the FBI who were monitering the transactions?

PC Pro ran a rather alarming article on the quality of the original Landslide / Operation Avalance / Operation Ore "evidence" last year.

The UK's biggest ever crackdown on Internet paedophiles has been driven by misleading intelligence, causing dozens of innocent people to be falsely accused, according to PC Pro magazine.

Writing exclusively in the new August issue, Duncan Campbell (an expert witness in the defence of Operation Ore suspects) says prosecutions against many of the UK's 7,272 Operation Ore suspects were based on flawed evidence received from US officials.

The high-profile investigation began in 2002 when US investigators handed UK police the credit card details of people they claimed had subscribed to child porn. But Campbell says the list also included people who subscribed to legal sites, leading to prosecutions against computer users who had never possessed an offending picture.

'The most critical computer evidence produced in Operation Ore, I have found, was flawed,' says Campbell. 'The mistakes meant huge quantities of police, technical and social work resources were misdirected to some futile and ill-founded investigations. But the worse result was damage to innocent lives, and the welfare of families and children.'

Some prosecutions have centred on what's been claimed in court to be the front page of an adult website which prosecutors said was dominated by a direct link to child pornography.

But new evidence revealed in PC Pro shows that many subscribers could not have seen the page, while US investigators had only seen the link to the child pornography on one occasion.

The report also criticises the media witch-hunt that's increased the pressure on UK police to get results against huge numbers of British computer users.

'Until now, Operation Ore has been widely publicised as an indisputable breakthrough in the fight against child porn, but the computer evidence has been misused,' says Paul Trotter, news and features editor of PC Pro.

'Computer forensics shows that the illegal websites could not be reached from the front page of the legal websites many people subscribed to, and this puts question marks over a number of prosecutions.'

PC Pro's exclusive investigation is included in the August issue (#130) of PC Pro, available in stores from Thursday 23 June.

The full article is available here http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html

Depressing stuff.

MrPudding

pete wrote:

PC Pro ran a rather alarming article on the quality of the original Landslide / Operation Avalance / Operation Ore "evidence" last year.



The full article is available here http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html

Depressing stuff.

I heard that guy on Newstalk 106 a few weeks ago talking about the Curtin case. He makes a lot of sense.

MrP

Our man in Havana

I think Gardai slipped up badly. When Curtain was aquitted why was his computer not returned to him forthwith? What grounds did the gardai have to hold it?

If they gave it back, could a garda run outside the station and arrest him against for being in possesion (carrying the comp) of child porn?

If Curtain was cute he should have demanded it back and immediatley destroyed it by burning it and then no one could do a thing?

Eoin

Bond-007 wrote:

I think Gardai slipped up badly. When Curtain was aquitted why was his computer not returned to him forthwith? What grounds did the gardai have to hold it?

If they gave it back, could a garda run outside the station and arrest him against for being in possesion (carrying the comp) of child porn?

If Curtain was cute he should have demanded it back and immediatley destroyed it by burning it and then no one could do a thing?

Curtin never requested that the PC be returned to him.

Our man in Havana

I know that, but would they have gave i back?

Could he have been arrested again?

Eoin

Bond-007 wrote:

I know that, but would they have gave i back?

Could he have been arrested again?

Of course they would return it - they have absolutely no legal basis to withhold it. I doubt they could re-seize it immediately though, as this would make decisions about invalid warrants pointless. This is maybe one for the legal forum, but if the Gardai got new evidence that he was up to something, then I am sure they could seize it.