Family and Friends Forum

I'm afraid it will probably be a while before you hear anything. It varies around the country, but will likely take between 6 months and 2 years for the police to examine devices.

They do not normally communicate with you while this is going on, but some are better than others.

It does seem to vary greatly around the country. Got the Knock in August 2023 and the police took a lot of stuff from the house. I think it was about 15 individual pieces of equipment. The police finished the investigation in February 2024 and was charged in June 2024 with obscene publication. Less than a year in total which I think is quite quick considering how long some people have been waiting.

Hi,

As Edel says you are probably in for a long wait. The Police probably turned up at your address as they have intelligence of illegal activity from your IP address but they need to see exactly what's happened. Although nothing was found in their initial search, in-depth forensic searches are done by outside companies who are experts and have all the equipment etc to look through every device. Someone might have downloaded something but deleted it which the Police wouldn't necessarily "see " but the forensic team would. Unfortunately it can take many months sometimes more depending on area for this work to be completed. Until it's done, you're unlikely to be told much. I stress that what I've said is what happens under "regular" conditions/circumstances. Wishing you all the best. X

We have literally just had one of the seized devices returned today, the knock was 7 months ago and this was the item they said that they would fast track, so who knows how long for the other items which are just being done as routine.

For us it took 9 months - the only device with anything on was his phone but they keep moving the goal posts as to when we will get the rest of the devices back.

We are in the South East and I think it's been quite quick in comparison to others experiences on here xx

lostinthewoods - if the police are deliberatly failing to return devices that are no longer relavent to the investigation then you can instruct a solicitor to take them to court under the police property act to order there return. I've also read of someone who tried to get their property back after an investigation was dropped but was continually fobbed off, eventually he contacted the police and reported it as stolen, unsuprisingly it was returned the next day.

If emails to the OIC are not getting your items returned the next step would probably be a formal complaint

26a20

At 2nd interview he was told we could have devices back once charged. He asked on Monday and was told it'll be after the plea hearing.

His OiC is quite unpleasant and was even more objectionable on Monday, letting a door swing shut in OH's face and just being generally obnoxious.

I can only put it down to the fact that the OIC is disappointed that he hasn't picked up a prolific offender, and that they were expecting far more offending than they got. Seems he takes pleasure in making our lives hell. And his toupe is shocking too....

But we have mentioned it to the solicitor - hopefully when he's not too busy he will find time to help..........

I hear you. I ended up homeless with my child. Feel free to message me. X

26a20

I lost thousands of pounds worth of equipment that belonged to my family, including all my family photos because the Police wouldn't return them. There were 3 pieces of equipment that was ordered to be destroyed that the offending took place on. The rest, the Police sent me a letter saying I needed to pay the outsourcing company £70 per hour (8 years ago) to go through each item. It would have cost more than the thousands the equipment was worth, so we lost the lot! Subsequently I emailed them asking what happened to my belongings. I was told they were broken down by the them and used a spare parts for their computer equipment. I was staggered. It was such a huge injustice and I'm still p***ed about it to this day.

LittleRobin – I remember you mentioning all the devices you lost when we have talked about getting devices returned in the past. It’s understandable that devices that have indecent material on them won’t be returned though really it should be easy enough for the forensic specialist to wipe any illegal material from a device, after all it’s the data that’s relevant to the case not the physical phone, laptop etc.

One of our items seized was a shared PC which resulted in me loosing all the work I had done as a student and for my newly qualified portfolio at work, fortunately I had just had my portfolio signed off a few weeks before the knock but if I hadn’t I would have been totally screwed.

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) make it very clear that seized property can only be held whilst it is relevant to the investigation or as evidence for a trial. The way I read that is that as soon as a device has been found to contain nothing related to the investigation the police have no legal basis for holding on to it and should return it as soon as possible, providing of course that the item isn't illegal to posess in the first place. In fact the PACE code of practice suggests that owners of seized property should be informed of their right to get the property retuned including by making applications to court under the Police property Act.

26a20

Even his solicitor is skirting around the issue of the police not returning devices - even though he was present when OH was told he would get them back after charging.

Solicitor has said they may be keeping hold of them 'just in case'

Just in case of what??? He's been charged and already advised that the offences occured on his phone - so why not let us have the other 16 devices back (including my laptop, my daughter's camera and an old tower computer which came from MIL's when she passed away, just to extract the family pics).

OH is now like a dog with a bone over it which terrifies me - I'd rather not rock the boat so to speak.

The 'just in case' reasoning sounds like a bit of a cop out. As you said the CPS have decided they have extracted enough evidence from the devices in order to bring charges, what are they planning to do, forensically examine them all over again?

I get what you mean about not wanting to rock the boat, but it seems like it’s the only way to actually get anything done. Between myself and my partner we are currently on three formal complaints with one having been sent to professional standards department and one referred to an external ombudsman.

So having spoken to our 'new' solicitor today (the original one has passed the case to a colleague as he is away on the plea hearing date) she said that often devices aren't returned until sentencing is done and dusted 'in case' the defendant decides to plead not guilty and they need more evidence, or there is a problem with the evidence they have and we question it.

i can understand the reasoning, but she is going to contact the OIC about the devices which don't belong to my OH.

Still sounds like a cop out, if a device has been found to contain nothing incriminating on what basis are the CPS going to enter it into evidence, a clear device supports the defence case rather than the prosecution if anything.

lostinthewoods

"And his toupe is shocking too". This really made me laugh out loud and I so needed that today.
The Police in my ex's case desperately tried to convince me that loads of people - children - would come forward saying they'd been abused by him. I was convinced that wouldn't be the case because my ex won't say boo to a goose! No one ever did come forward even after the case was reported on everywhere. They were clearly really p***ed about that.

We all need to laugh sometimes Robin! I'm glad I could do that for you xx

It's been 2 years this month, we haven't heard a single thing. Every month we get the same solicitors letter saying "it's with the cps" etc obviously everyone's case is different but we all surly feel the same and alone /: message me if you need support (: