Monday 6 December 2010

A hardline, selectively enforced.

A number of appeals against Operation Ore convictions have been thrown out. According to El Reg:
The Court of Appeal has rejected claims that some individuals prosecuted under Operation Ore for incitement to distribute indecent photographs were themselves the victims of credit card fraud.

Operation Ore was a major, long-running investigation by UK police into individuals who appeared on a US-based database – Landslide – that prosecutors claimed was prima facie evidence of their having subscribed to child abuse material.

At issue was the claim by a Mr Anthony O’Shea that his conviction in October 2005 solely on the grounds that his name appeared on that database was unsafe.

I have no extra information on this case, but the appeal verdict seems to be the classic 'not going to bother to look at that'. In many other cases linked to Operation Ore (the British counterpart to the FBI's Operation Avalanche) there was plenty of corroborating evidence to nail the scum, but if the only evidence is a credit card number, that doesn't seem to be beyond all reasonable doubt. Are they saying there's no such thing as credit card fraud?

It's a shame the police weren't so thorough investigating the members of the Labour cabinet who were also named, according to early reports before the veil of silence descended. I guess that file will be placed in the 100 year vault.

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