Family and Friends Forum

My OH's phone at the time of offending was ordered to be destroyed by police. But his iCloud account was not ordered to be destroyed and his old iPhone was not ordered to be wiped.

I used to check his old phone as I was suspicious something was going on and it was partially synced, but I never found anything illegal on it. His iCloud storage was full so it had stopped syncing photos about a year and a half before his arrest, the only thing that stayed synced was notes and texts.

When I get it back I don't know how to handle the phone and his iCloud. It has so many pictures and memoires I want to leave it untouched, knowing it hadn't synced anything illegal to it, so one day we can retrieve the pictures from 2020 and before. But I'm paranoid if I turn it on it'll somehow download the illegal images from the destroyed phone. But that would be physically impossible as that phone is gone and his iCloud storage was full anyway.

If I keep it untouched then when he's released from prison he may have to register it with police and have the software installed etc as it's his property, but his plan is to have a basic phone until his SHPO ends to avoid issues. His SHPO says he is allowed a phone and cloud storage if he gives them access to it but it seems easier to avoid a smartphone.

I am a very sentimental person and hate the idea of losing years of memories in photographs, his whole life is in pictures and "notes" on that iCloud account. But it feels selfish to request to my OH "Can I keep your old phone until your SHPO ends so you can look through it and download what pictures and notes you want onto a new device, because I don't want to look through it myself and remind myself of the hurtful things you were doing behind my back"...

Particularly as A) he is less sentimental than me B) it's his property / photos / notes that will be lost, not mine C) he may not want to be reminded of the person he became who went down that dark path

I don't know what to do. Could I keep the device myself for years? Or look through it and download the pics onto my own hard drives then delete the iCloud account? But then I risk seeing something I don't want to be reminded of (pics of other adult women and conversations). And that doesn't solve the hundreds of notes he had like his bucket list and cute memories he'd written down of our times together, or all of his saved contacts. Could I make my own apple account to transfer it all to that then just never touch it until the right time?

Sorry if I sound a bit crazy its just I can't bear to delete my own things, so the thought of my partner losing a decade worth of photographs, notes, phone numbers, conversations etc and half of that decade involves me breaks my heart.

I asked the solicitors what to do about it and they advised it could be that my OH waits until he is released and actually gets a new smartphone, then logs into it in front of visor and wipes his iCloud in front of them, but they weren't really sure. If he does that then he loses everything without even a chance to save any sentimental pictures. I'm going to ask the police what to do when I get the devices back, but in the meantime wondered what you helpful ladies thought!

Thanks for everyone's replies, the police didn't find any iioc his old phone, but they are wiping two other devices they found stuff on and destroying his current phone. But they've not advised about iCloud, my worry is what if there is something on his iCloud but they just didn't find it? He doesn't want a smartphone until his SHPO ends so I'm struggling to decide what to do with the old iPhone I'll get back which I know at least some of our memories on it.

The OIC told me near the beginning that the problem is if they downloaded all the pictures from OH's current phone onto a new device and try to delete the ones that are illegal to keep the normal ones for me, then whoever has done that has essentially committed the crime themselves by viewing the pictures on a different device.

My OH told me last night he had a secret Dropbox account but doesn't remember what email address he used to set it up, so that's yet another cloud account which probably has iioc on it, so how on earth do we go about wiping the account without "viewing" the images all over again because the police certainly didn't put that in to be wiped! That seems like a much bigger problem to me now instead of what to do with an iCloud account with nothing illegal on it. Or maybe because the Dropbox account is linked to the laptop they're wiping it deletes it off the Dropbox?? Like you said Baffled, what's the point physically destroying a device if the cloud account still exists with stuff on it!

It's so bloody confusing, I thought when my OH signs onto the register he has to tell them every username and password he's ever had so they can monitor them all. But that's interesting, my OH hadn't used the laptop with the dropbox on for over 2 years as it was too slow to function, maybe some images were saved on the hard drive so that's why it's being wiped. Either way as long as the dropbox gets deleted I'm happy! Thank you ladies!

Oh no! :( I want to delete it for him so he isn't at risk of it ever being linked to him again, but I can't do that without logging in and therefore the images will be on my device. Maybe we will have to wait until he can do it in front of visor but he doesn't even remember what email he used to sign up for it

I'm not in contact with the solicitors anymore so would feel uncomfortable to ask their advice now especially as it was all legal aid so not like I'm paying them. I'll ask the OIC when I get the devices what to do about cloud accounts but he'll probably say what he did before, that OH has to log in in front of visor and delete. But surely that still counts as "viewing", and then he will be reminding himself of what he used to look at because there'll probably be thumbnails of the images saved to the account