Is it only a possession offence or is it much worse? Let the images speak …
A Detective Constable, who works in a Computer Forensics Unit of a world-renowned law enforcement agency, had been provided with exhibits from different devices seized by police. They were seized from a suspect believed to have downloaded child sexual abuse material. The suspect had contact with children but was not believed to be a ‘hands-on’ offender.
Using S21 LASERi-X, the detective proceeded to review the images from each device, categorising them based upon the legitimacy or severity of the visual content – this revealed enough evidence for a charge of possession but it was not sufficient for an early admission of guilt. Moreover, something didn’t ‘feel right’ to the detective.
The detective was concerned that there were a number of genitalia-focused imagery that didn’t show the victim’s face and didn’t provide any other clues sufficiently well to identify the victim. Were these images and videos downloaded only, or could it be something worse? Could this be a case of creation rather than just possession? Perplexed, the detective wanted to dig deeper; knowing that S21 LASERi-X would enable her to do that.
The detective deployed S21 LASERi-X’s AI capability to detect first-generation images or videos. Rapidly, S21 LASERi-X produced a set of images that it predicted were likely to have been produced by the suspect. This process was almost instantaneous. The detective then filtered this set of images to show only the illicit images.
S21 LASERi-X also uncovered information which showed that the illicit images were in fact taken with the same device as other legally-held images known to have been produced by the suspect. S21 LASERi-X unearthed further firm evidence which showed that some of the illicit images were taken within meters from places where legal family images had been photographed, or even on the same dates.
Based on these undeniable facts, further questioning of the suspect, during the interview at the police station, confirmed that the suspect was in-fact a hands-on offender of family members, who had not come forward. The police was thus able to safeguard the victims from further harm, and charge the offender with multiple offences.
S21 LASERi-X uncovered undeniable evidence that the suspect was in fact a hands-on offender of family members, and the charge was escalated from the initial possession offence to the more serious creation offence. The offender was charged with multiple offences, and the police rescued and protected the victims from further abuse.