Ex-partner arrested for child sex crimes, my devices were mistakenly seized
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In summer this year, my ex-partner got arrested for possessing indecent images of children which resulted in his devices being seized. For clarification, I had no idea he was doing that so the arrest was a total shock, I broke up with him on the same day and later moved out.
When they came to arrest him, they first arrived at our home address, however, we both weren’t there at the time. They went through our shared bedroom and seized all the devices in the room, including mine which they mistakenly assumed belonged to my ex. I had my laptop, iPad and external drive taken and I still haven’t got them back. I contacted the police and got in touch with the investigative officer responsible for the case. In short, she explained that due to the nature of my ex’s offences, the devices cannot be returned until they have been forensically analysed.
Here’s the response from the officer:
"Unfortunately due to the nature of the offence and the fact we were unable to identify which devices didn’t belong to him we had to seize them all.
We can not give devices back at this stage unless you can provide evidence that you have bought your devices or that these devices belong to you. If you and [my ex] can identify which devices belong to him and which ones belong to you then maybe this can be considered otherwise all devices will be examined by our forensic team unfortunately."
I have absolutely no problems with my devices being examined, I have nothing to hide anyways, I’m happy to let them do what they need to do. Unfortunately, I cannot ‘prove’ the devices are mine because I didn’t purchase them myself, they were all secondhand from family, but there are personal documents on them that could identify the devices as mine.
A lot of my academic and creative works are on those devices, I was very much gutted to lose it all. I’ve basically had to start from scratch all over again and it’s seriously impacted my creative and academic life. I did ask the investigative officer again via email but have had no response. I am worried I will never get them back or if they will be returned to my ex’s family (which I really don’t want).
If anyone has dealt with a similar situation or knows what to do to get my belongings back, please let me know.
TLDR: My ex got arrested for child sex crimes and my devices got mistakenly seized by the police and I can’t get them back.
When they came to arrest him, they first arrived at our home address, however, we both weren’t there at the time. They went through our shared bedroom and seized all the devices in the room, including mine which they mistakenly assumed belonged to my ex. I had my laptop, iPad and external drive taken and I still haven’t got them back. I contacted the police and got in touch with the investigative officer responsible for the case. In short, she explained that due to the nature of my ex’s offences, the devices cannot be returned until they have been forensically analysed.
Here’s the response from the officer:
"Unfortunately due to the nature of the offence and the fact we were unable to identify which devices didn’t belong to him we had to seize them all.
We can not give devices back at this stage unless you can provide evidence that you have bought your devices or that these devices belong to you. If you and [my ex] can identify which devices belong to him and which ones belong to you then maybe this can be considered otherwise all devices will be examined by our forensic team unfortunately."
I have absolutely no problems with my devices being examined, I have nothing to hide anyways, I’m happy to let them do what they need to do. Unfortunately, I cannot ‘prove’ the devices are mine because I didn’t purchase them myself, they were all secondhand from family, but there are personal documents on them that could identify the devices as mine.
A lot of my academic and creative works are on those devices, I was very much gutted to lose it all. I’ve basically had to start from scratch all over again and it’s seriously impacted my creative and academic life. I did ask the investigative officer again via email but have had no response. I am worried I will never get them back or if they will be returned to my ex’s family (which I really don’t want).
If anyone has dealt with a similar situation or knows what to do to get my belongings back, please let me know.
TLDR: My ex got arrested for child sex crimes and my devices got mistakenly seized by the police and I can’t get them back.
If the devices are password protected and you know the passwords that might help to convince the police.
Hi, I feel your pain.
When my ex was arrested they took the family pc, kids ipads and gaming consoles and external hard drives which had All our family photos on.
I was told they would be returned after but not sure what stage exactly. (as long as no images are found on that specific device).
I will be chasing up again once it goes to cps (although I imagine they may want to keep still incase cps want further info from devices?)
Over 12 months in and sign of return yet
When my ex was arrested they took the family pc, kids ipads and gaming consoles and external hard drives which had All our family photos on.
I was told they would be returned after but not sure what stage exactly. (as long as no images are found on that specific device).
I will be chasing up again once it goes to cps (although I imagine they may want to keep still incase cps want further info from devices?)
Over 12 months in and sign of return yet
What the police seize seems to be really inconsistent, as there's post on here of everything in the house being seized regardless of who it belongs to and then in others relatively few devices are seized.
In our case they took my OH phone, ipad, laptop, another laptop that was given to him by his dad but was never used, the shared PC and various external drives and memory sticks.
But they didnt take the games console and also left several memory sticks and an external drive. There was also a laptop and kindle which belong to me which I know they found as they had definitely been in the the drawer they were kept in but they never even asked who they belonged to.
In our case they took my OH phone, ipad, laptop, another laptop that was given to him by his dad but was never used, the shared PC and various external drives and memory sticks.
But they didnt take the games console and also left several memory sticks and an external drive. There was also a laptop and kindle which belong to me which I know they found as they had definitely been in the the drawer they were kept in but they never even asked who they belonged to.