The police knocked on the door around 6 weeks ago and, after confirming that everyone who lived in the property was present, told us that our IP address had been flagged as accessing indecent images (a mixture of Cat A,B and C). They took my eldest son in to another room and asked him a couple of questions (do you know why we are here, if we were to take your PC would we find anything untoward) and that was it. They then took my younger son in and started asking him about social media, specifically if he had Kik. He told them he used to have a Kik account and then they took him upstairs to get changed (they had to stand over him while he got ready and brushed his teeth etc) and then took himto the police station, telling the rest of us he'd be arrested later that day. His laptop, PC and mobile phone have all been taken the police.
He was at the station all day and eventually released under investigation. We don't know how many images or what the content was.
He is adamant that he's done nothing wrong and is going about his day to day life as normal, and I believe him.
what I don't understand is why none of my other sons, husbands or even my own devices were taken by the police? When they came to the door they didn't say they were there for my youngest son, so why aren't they looking in to all of us?
He was at the station all day and eventually released under investigation. We don't know how many images or what the content was.
He is adamant that he's done nothing wrong and is going about his day to day life as normal, and I believe him.
what I don't understand is why none of my other sons, husbands or even my own devices were taken by the police? When they came to the door they didn't say they were there for my youngest son, so why aren't they looking in to all of us?
Hi
you don’t say how old your sons are, it I presume they are over 18 as they were questioned without you there.
i can’t say for sure why they have done what they have done, but they generally rule out the females in the house. The reality is that every household has so many electronic devices that the police cannot possibly take everything. They make educated guesses as to what to take. So I have children in my house and they didn’t take the younger kids’ stuff, however took the oldest child’s stuff. But as the child is under 18 they said they probably didn’t need to. They did a quick cursory search of the stuff at the police station (ie. no real forensic search) and then returned it. Some police forces have software they can bring when they search the house, but my police force didn’t. They then spoke to my husband and even though he said he hadn’t done what they said he had done, he said he had looked at adult porn. They asked which devices he had used and he indicated of all the devices they had taken, it was one specific device that he used to look at it. So that is the device they sent to high tech forensic unit. They have to take this approach I think due to lack of resources. It really isn’t like in the films - it is a lot of guesswork by them.
So if the police info came that the images had been accessed via Kik then the person who admitted to having a Kik account would be the person who they would hone in on.
Please make sure your son doesn’t speak to the police without a solicitor. He may think he has done nothing wrong but the police have much more experience in this field and even innocent statements from your son can be made to look sinister by the police.
Good luck
you don’t say how old your sons are, it I presume they are over 18 as they were questioned without you there.
i can’t say for sure why they have done what they have done, but they generally rule out the females in the house. The reality is that every household has so many electronic devices that the police cannot possibly take everything. They make educated guesses as to what to take. So I have children in my house and they didn’t take the younger kids’ stuff, however took the oldest child’s stuff. But as the child is under 18 they said they probably didn’t need to. They did a quick cursory search of the stuff at the police station (ie. no real forensic search) and then returned it. Some police forces have software they can bring when they search the house, but my police force didn’t. They then spoke to my husband and even though he said he hadn’t done what they said he had done, he said he had looked at adult porn. They asked which devices he had used and he indicated of all the devices they had taken, it was one specific device that he used to look at it. So that is the device they sent to high tech forensic unit. They have to take this approach I think due to lack of resources. It really isn’t like in the films - it is a lot of guesswork by them.
So if the police info came that the images had been accessed via Kik then the person who admitted to having a Kik account would be the person who they would hone in on.
Please make sure your son doesn’t speak to the police without a solicitor. He may think he has done nothing wrong but the police have much more experience in this field and even innocent statements from your son can be made to look sinister by the police.
Good luck
Thank you for the reply.
I just can't understand why they didn't ask the elder son about social media/Kik but very quickly asked the younger son. And why they didn't question my husband at all.
The police gave us a timeline of when the activity took place and during that time period we had plenty of workmen in and out of the house, but when I said this they told me the timeline of the workmen didn't match what they are looking at?
none of it makes any sense to me. Do the police normally give more specific information on what they've supposedly found or is it all just a waiting game
I just can't understand why they didn't ask the elder son about social media/Kik but very quickly asked the younger son. And why they didn't question my husband at all.
The police gave us a timeline of when the activity took place and during that time period we had plenty of workmen in and out of the house, but when I said this they told me the timeline of the workmen didn't match what they are looking at?
none of it makes any sense to me. Do the police normally give more specific information on what they've supposedly found or is it all just a waiting game
Hi Inshock
i can’t answer your questions but is there the possibility that your younger son said something to the police when you weren’t there that made them think it might be him? I might be totally wrong, but I have known of one case where they have arrested everyone as nobody gave an indication it was them (it turned out it was none of them in the end). So, as you say, it is unusual that they didn’t speak to the other males in the house more. I don’t want you to doubt your son, however you may have to entertain the possibility that he is too ashamed to tell you the truth. Whilst you can’t get a copy of his police statement whilst he is under investigation, you could do a subject access request and you will get his custody record. Within this there may be a couple of lines summarising what he said to the police. As he is over 18 and an adult, he would have to do this, not you.
i can’t answer your questions but is there the possibility that your younger son said something to the police when you weren’t there that made them think it might be him? I might be totally wrong, but I have known of one case where they have arrested everyone as nobody gave an indication it was them (it turned out it was none of them in the end). So, as you say, it is unusual that they didn’t speak to the other males in the house more. I don’t want you to doubt your son, however you may have to entertain the possibility that he is too ashamed to tell you the truth. Whilst you can’t get a copy of his police statement whilst he is under investigation, you could do a subject access request and you will get his custody record. Within this there may be a couple of lines summarising what he said to the police. As he is over 18 and an adult, he would have to do this, not you.
The only other thing I thought was with a Kik account may be linked to an email address and perhaps it was his email address?
like I said before, they don’t have the resources to do a full investigation into everyone at an address so go on a best guess scenario
like I said before, they don’t have the resources to do a full investigation into everyone at an address so go on a best guess scenario