Jeremy Barton secures an acquittal at Newcastle Crown Court defending a man facing allegations of attempting sexual communication with children.

This private instruction involved an undercover operation, whereby police had intercepted text messages and photographs sent via social media  and messenging applications.   

The prosecution evidence came from an expert who linked the defendant to the source of the messages. This was done via IP addresses, sexual photographs of the defendant himself and via his full name that had been linked to the accounts.  

Jeremy was able to cast doubt as to whether it was the defendant himself using the accounts or someone pretending to be him. This was achieved through demonstrating the unreliability and limits of the prosecution expert evidence and by use of a defence expert who showed how it was possible to use someone’s social media details without them knowing, or by setting up identical a ‘fake’ account. The defendant was acquitted unanimously. 

The instructing solicitors in this case were Haswell’s Solicitors via Richard Haswell.  

Authors

Jeremy Barton

Call 2004