Police mistake could have ended our careers
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Hi ladies, have been reading posts here for SO long, you seem like a wonderful and supportive community, so I thought I might share this and ask if any of you had any ideas as to how we should best proceed... hope it's OK to post here, as it's a rather odd case.
My partner was the one re: IIOC and I know for a fact he didn't do it. Essentially, he had 2-3 images of a young girl on his phone that was reported in by the people he sent the phone to be fixed. The thing is though, my partner is a senior journalist for the regional press, and the photos (young girl with bare shoulders, showing a small bruise/injury). The reason he had the images was because the girls mum sent them over to the paper to be used, if I recall correctly it was for an article re: some accident in town. Face blurred obviously, and yes it was his work phone.
In Jan 2022, we get a dawn raid. Both me and him are arrested, ALL devices seized including journalistic and academic material (I'm a uni prof). Suspicion of making IIOC — devices sent to forensics. All this is after both his work and the girls mum herself (!!!) both wrote in and confirmed that the photos were for the paper, an easily provable fact since it's literally published on their website. And no, I have no clue why I was arrested alongside!
I won't go into how hellish the next almost 3 years was — everyone here knows the feeling. Had to explain it to jobs, reputational damage, left in limbo, huge anxiety. Additionally, I'm a foreign national, so any police scrutiny counts against my ability to stay in the UK. As such I didn't see my family for 3 years (partner is a UK citizen so had no issues on that front). Released under investigation, no conditions — we're both relatively young and have no kids.
We hear nothing at ALL until early this month, when I made my embassy call the force to ask what on earth was taking THIS long. And that's when I find out the case was quietly NFAed in May because, and I quote directly, "the digital evidence corroborates the suspects claim, as it is explicitly clear that the images were for purposes of journalism".
But that's three years we can never get back — for the first six months, I felt like I was rotting away. I understand it's obviously very important to double check especially with IIOC. But we do think the 3 year timeline was immense overkill, even after the written account by his employers and the girls mother — not to mention arresting me for no reason at all, knowing full well that I'm a foreign national, technically speaking, and would face far steeper consequences, including deportation. And frankly pure cheek to close it quietly as NFA and not inform us for months, even though the devices cost around 10K, to avoid public embarrassment — which they would have 100% received due to my OH being the editor of the regions local press.
Basically, I wanted to ask if this warrants a complaint, and if anyone here has successfully put in a complaint to the police on how they handled your OHs situation, and was just hoping for some clarity because honestly the entire thing just seems shambolic to me...
Thank you in advance! xxx
My partner was the one re: IIOC and I know for a fact he didn't do it. Essentially, he had 2-3 images of a young girl on his phone that was reported in by the people he sent the phone to be fixed. The thing is though, my partner is a senior journalist for the regional press, and the photos (young girl with bare shoulders, showing a small bruise/injury). The reason he had the images was because the girls mum sent them over to the paper to be used, if I recall correctly it was for an article re: some accident in town. Face blurred obviously, and yes it was his work phone.
In Jan 2022, we get a dawn raid. Both me and him are arrested, ALL devices seized including journalistic and academic material (I'm a uni prof). Suspicion of making IIOC — devices sent to forensics. All this is after both his work and the girls mum herself (!!!) both wrote in and confirmed that the photos were for the paper, an easily provable fact since it's literally published on their website. And no, I have no clue why I was arrested alongside!
I won't go into how hellish the next almost 3 years was — everyone here knows the feeling. Had to explain it to jobs, reputational damage, left in limbo, huge anxiety. Additionally, I'm a foreign national, so any police scrutiny counts against my ability to stay in the UK. As such I didn't see my family for 3 years (partner is a UK citizen so had no issues on that front). Released under investigation, no conditions — we're both relatively young and have no kids.
We hear nothing at ALL until early this month, when I made my embassy call the force to ask what on earth was taking THIS long. And that's when I find out the case was quietly NFAed in May because, and I quote directly, "the digital evidence corroborates the suspects claim, as it is explicitly clear that the images were for purposes of journalism".
But that's three years we can never get back — for the first six months, I felt like I was rotting away. I understand it's obviously very important to double check especially with IIOC. But we do think the 3 year timeline was immense overkill, even after the written account by his employers and the girls mother — not to mention arresting me for no reason at all, knowing full well that I'm a foreign national, technically speaking, and would face far steeper consequences, including deportation. And frankly pure cheek to close it quietly as NFA and not inform us for months, even though the devices cost around 10K, to avoid public embarrassment — which they would have 100% received due to my OH being the editor of the regions local press.
Basically, I wanted to ask if this warrants a complaint, and if anyone here has successfully put in a complaint to the police on how they handled your OHs situation, and was just hoping for some clarity because honestly the entire thing just seems shambolic to me...
Thank you in advance! xxx
I've already put a complaint in to our police.
I'll PM you?
I'll PM you?
Hi Marvel, yes please that would be fab, thank you!