Police say it’s ‘unlawful’ to delete photos from sex offender’s laptop

TORONTO – Human rights advocates are outraged after police in the UK said it would be “unlawful” to delete photos of an abuse victim from a convicted sex offender’s laptop.

The male sex offender, whose name cannot be released in order to protect the identity of the victim, is believed to be in his 50s. He was sentenced in 2013 to nine years in prison after admitting to a series of sex offences, including assault of a child under the age of 13.

According to the Daily Echo, the young victim is said to be his stepdaughter.

According to Liberty, a civil rights organization group in the UK, the man has made a formal request for his computer and phone to be returned to him upon his release in 2022. The group says that if the sex offender’s personal items are returned, he will have access to a large number of personal photos of the girl in swimwear and leotards.

“I am appalled that the man who abused my child can ask the police to hand over our family photos for him to keep for the rest of his life,” said the victim’s mother, who is now divorced from the man, in a statement.

“My daughters struggle every day with the devastating consequences of his abuse and this will only make them feel more humiliated and degraded.”

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“Why should we continue to be traumatized further?”

Dorset police officers said they cannot remove the images of the young girl and her family from the criminal’s computer “as they were not legally classified as indecent or prohibited,” said the BBC.

‘Enormous psychological harm’

In a letter to Dorset Police, Liberty said that if officers returned the computer and mobile to the sex offender that it “would breach articles three and eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect against inhuman treatment and invasion of privacy, respectively.”

The group also said that the abuse the victim suffered has caused her “enormous psychological harm” and that the victim “eats very little, self-harms frequently and is at risk of suicide.”

“We urge the police to protect these victims’ dignity – it’s surely common sense that these vulnerable girls aren’t degraded further?” said Rosie Brighouse, a legal officer at Liberty.

‘Powerless to delete the photos’

Dorset Police said current legislation used to seize the phone and computer requires officers to return the property and that under current law, they are powerless to delete the photos.

“Furthermore it would be unlawful for police officers to alter the computer and phone’s memories by removing the disputed photographs before returning them,” the force reportedly said in a reply to Liberty.

The police commissioner, however, said he would “fight tooth and nail” to prevent the convicted sex offender to get the pictures returned to him.

“I’ll go to court before he gets his devices back with the pictures on them,” said Martyn Underhill in an interview with the Daily Echo.

“This needs to be blocked legally first of all and then dealt with through a change in the law. It’s a gaping legal loophole that must be closed.”

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Underhill has set up a petition online to lobby to change the law.

“Think of the trauma this causes to the victims? And think of the control and power this gives the abuser? This is not the fault of the police,” says the petition. “The legislation is wrong. It is double jeopardy for victim’s photos to be viewed by their abuser – it opens old wounds. Victims need better protection, Government should legislate to stop all victim images being retained by sex offenders.”