Man jailed over computer password refusal

Originally posted by harryhaller
Innocent until proven guilty?
Or we're sure you're guilty so we'll make you guilty anyway, without evidence.

He was formally asked to disclose his password but failed to do so, which is an offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, police said.

He's guilty of what he has been imprisoned for.

reply to post by harryhaller


Well maybe we should just throw Obama in jail until he shows us his background records. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, no?

reply to post by harryhaller


reply to post by Detour


Mr. Drage has already been tried and convicted of a separate offense:

Drage was convicted of failing to disclose an encryption key in September. He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court on Monday.

Sourced from link in OP

This does not denote being held indefinitely without an establishment of guilt. It is a separate charge.

While being held on this separate crime I am sure that the authorities will crack his encryption. A desktop at the station wouldn't work, but a supercomputer should. With the time allotted on this separate charge I am sure that his hard drive will find its way to an agency with the proper equipment and skills to crack the drive.

It's noteworthy, also, to point out that Mr Drage could have avoided all of this by simply typing in fifty characters during the initial investigation. One could make the argument that his refusal to do so could constitute a reasonable admission of guilt.

~Heff

reply to post by TheDeader


On the face of it, it does sound draconian, however, the police are not generally nitwits, so they would actually know what he's been up to in regards kiddy porn etc in order to obtain a search warrant in the first place, they just need the evidence stored on his computer to take to court.

Understandable that they've given him time. The bloke thinks he's got away with it, because they cannot access his encrypted data...i think the four months they've given him will time to reconsider..especially if they make him share a cell with a bloke who's in for GBH on pedo's or similar.

Originally posted by Hefficide
It's noteworthy, also, to point out that Mr Drage could have avoided all of this by simply typing in fifty characters during the initial investigation. One could make the argument that his refusal to do so could constitute a reasonable admission of guilt.

~Heff

if that's your reasoning, then it would be safe to assume that everybody who refuses to submit to a breathalyzer is above the alcohol limit. Not true. It's the principal. Also if this man was jailed for 16 weeks in May of 2009, wouldn't he be out of jail by now? Why are they running this article a full year after the fact if not for an agenda?

reply to post by spikey


Of course, which is why every time DNA testing is improved, thousands of falsely convicted rapists are released from prison. They probably got an anonymous tip or something.

Originally posted by Detour

would be safe to assume that everybody who refuses to submit to a breathalyzer is above the alcohol limit. Not true. It's the principal. Also if this man was jailed for 16 weeks in May of 2009, wouldn't he be out of jail by now? Why are they running this article a full year after the fact if not for an agenda?

Refusing a breathalyzer test is an admission of guilt and results in the automatic suspension of driving privileges.

As for the sixteen weeks, I read the article to say that he was arrested and charged in 2009, but convicted last month:

Drage was convicted of failing to disclose an encryption key in September. He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court on Monday.

~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide

ah thanks for the clarification. still he has already served a year or more in jail. 16 more weeks is a drop in the bucket. Clarifying I am not saying what he is accused of is right. I am saying that it is his choice to give up his p/w or not. Needless to say, I doubt he ever gets his computer drive back in working order.

we are all assuming there is just child porn on his computer. but what if he has other stuff as well that he could be charged with, like illegally d/l movies or music or pirated software. All of those charges add up to maybe decades behind bars. 1.5 yrs served for refusing a p/w beats an additional 25 years for all of those added charges.

Originally posted by Detour
we are all assuming there is just child porn on his computer. but what if he has other stuff as well that he could be charged with, like illegally d/l movies or music or pirated software. All of those charges add up to maybe decades behind bars. 1.5 yrs served for refusing a p/w beats an additional 25 years for all of those added charges.

I'm not that familiar with the laws of the United Kingdom, but in the US anything found on the drive other than child pornography would probably not be subject to prosecution under 4th amendment protections.

Then again, these days, with the rampant abuses going on with rights, anything seems possible in these regards!

~Heff

reply to post by Varemia


Being convicted based on DNA evidence is one thing though, actually sitting in a chat room / monitoring porn websites and checking through ISP records for a users history is another entirely.

They wouldn't have got a court to issue a search warrant without him being involved in dodgy downloads. The UK police are stretched to the limit as it is, with drastic cuts to both financial and human resources on the near horizon, they don't go getting search warrants and waste time picking people at random.

A tip off may be a possibility, although again, they have to show a judge or magistrate they have a reasonable justification of suspecting someone to obtain a search warrant...it has to based on more than what could be a spurned girl/boy friend, a love rival, or anyone who might have it in for him.

They'd receive the tip off, then watch him online (quite easy to do), obtain ISP records, which will include logs of every byte flowing through their servers to his IP, then search his home and PC/Mac or whatever.

Situations like this are why paedophile-baiting specialist police teams need more funding. There was a short series on ITV not long ago following the work of one such force, they would use MSN to convincingly play the part of 11-15 year olds and document the offender's attempts at grooming until he suggested meeting up for sex. They would then sit undercover, watch him waiting around for ages and eventually nick him.

It was brilliant. The look on their faces when the coppers show up with a cameraman and ask them patronising questions like “So what are you up to matey?” “Who are you waiting for then?” it still makes my day just to remember it.

reply to post by Detour


Well...no, he hasn't served a year already..has he? He was sentenced on Monday, so he's only just gone down.

If they had him on remand for a year, he wouldn't be serving his four months now, as he would already have served that on remand.

He is obviously a berk though..all he had to do was claim he had forgotten the password, instead of getting all high and mighty and refusing to give it to them.

'Sorry guv, i'v only just changed it and now i can't for the life of me remember it, honest guv.'

Try..1234567890qwertyuiopasdft...no? Damn, i was sure it was that...these bleeding password guv, hard to remember them all these days innit!

Try...poiuytrewq0987654321 then, i think that's it...no? Damn, no...it's just not coming back to me...i'd tell ya if i could remember, honest!

reply to post by Brad-H


It is the hard drive that is encrypted, friend. The HD is where all information is. My own HD is encrypted, and I wouldn't give over the pass phrase either, without a warrant.

Teenager jailed for not revealing password

Oliver Drage, 19, was sentenced to four months under powers originally brought in to tackle terrorists. His 50-character encryption key has still not been cracked by police, 17 months after his computer was seized. Privacy campaigners say the number of jail sentences under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act could soar, as police increasingly enforce its powers. Drage, a takeaway worker, could have been jailed for up to five years if ‘national security’ was deemed to be at stake. The teenager, who was not convicted of any other offences, was arrested in May last year after police investigating a child exploitation network searched his home near Blackpool.

Oliver Drage, who has been jailed for four months for refusing to give police the password to his computer

reply to post by Expat888


That is such a narrow minded view. The charges he wa arrested on does not mean he is guilty of such charges.
Who knows the real reason why he is witholding his password - The Police are notoriuos for setting people up.
I know by first hand experience how corrupt the Police can be.
They make deals with thugs to intimidate law abiding citizens
Solicitors and Barristers can also be "Bent Up" as can the Ombudsmen I KNOW THIS.
Who if any chase these ones for their crimes

reply to post by harryhaller


A 19 year old given a porn picture by and featuring his 15 year old girlfriend would not serve anywhere near life in the UK..i'd be surprised if he actually served any time at all, considering how close their ages were.

Don't forget the legal age of sexual consent here in the UK is 16 years old.

I'd reckon he would get probation and possibly be put on the sex offenders register for a few years at most.

Might be different in SA, but he wouldn't get that sort of time for that here in the UK.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
reply to post by Expat888

 

Protip: being charged for something doesn't make you guilty.

of course it does, because the perception overrules any adjudicated innocence in the publics eye.

reply to post by artistpoet


What would they get out of going through all of this to set up a teenager on kiddy porn charges?

A conviction? If all they were interested in was conviction rates, it wouldn't been a lot easier to nick him on the street and plant a few dealer bags of H in his pockets to find when they were searching him..no password needed.

And contrary to popular belief, while humans are humans, and there will always be arsewipes who gravitate to the police force to lord it over the public and obtain a bit of power, the majority of the police force in the UK are good, honest hardworking people, who do what is pretty much a thankless task every day.

I'd much rather have the police, even with the few bad apples hiding among them, than try to protect my family from the thugs and thickos that would be rampaging without them.

Mainstream brainwashing aside, it's possible that the 19 year old guy involved in politically sensitive offense like anti-war movements. We need to think out of the box. The real motive behind the arrest like the article used the word "mask".

He may be going around dating girls younger than himself and got some photos/videos. Then the feds took him down conveniently.