Lords backs hi-tech evidence in cases

The House of Lords has backed a ruling that cases can be decided solely on evidence retrieved from deleted computer files, after it dismissed an application to appeal from a convicted paedophile who had been accessing pornographic pictures on the Internet.

The Court of Appeal had earlier this year upheld the conviction in R v Jayson after forensic technology revealed the defendant had logged on to Web sites featuring child pornography and clicked on thumbnail images to make them larger.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) successfully secured his conviction last December at Luton Crown Court by arguing that by viewing the pictures in full, the defendant was 'making' a pornographic image.

CPS caseworker Pam Hough said the forensics formed a vital part of the evidence.

'We were not told what weight was put on it because the court looked at the situation as a whole, but it played an important part because of the nature of the case,' she explained.

Forensics specialist Vogon International provided the service and expert witness.

Senior computer investigator Chris Watts said: 'The use of advanced forensic computer investigation techniques were not only able to recover the data that [the defendant] thought he had obliterated, but also allowed us to clearly demonstrate to the court his intentions at the time he was accessing and viewing the pictures from the Internet.'

Paula Rohan