Precedent: Paying restitution to the CP Victim

In an article posted by the Associated Press, the judge at the trial of Alan Hesketh ordered him to pay $200k to the victim protrayed in the CP images that Hesketh was charged with distributing. Hesketh did not take the images, nor was he the one  abusing of the victim, but the precedent is that as a distributor, he is causing the revictimization over and over.

I’m very cautious when it comes to CP cases – as the defendant is often tried in the community, the press and on television before ever heading to trial, resulting in guilty until proven innocent responses from people. Understandable of course due to the heinous nature of crimes against children. This is not the case – Hesketh is guilty, and jail time along with financial restitution is his punishment. The following quote from Heskeths’ attorney made me laugh “predicting it would lead to similar claims by other child pornography victims”. One can only hope so.

Deterrent? Doubtful, but it is a step in the right direction.

Mistrusted Allies

Legion of Spies Trying to Steal Britains’ Secrets

A UK-Restricted document made available to the Daily Telegraph discusses the large scale threat to the intellectual property of Great Britain. The threat? the almost complete compromise of all high level business, governments and departments. At least that is how the article would portray it. FUD? Who knows.

France is called out as one of the many countries dead set on obtaining every last bit of data. Is the US in the same shape? From my corporate perspective, the threat is most definitely real. The concept of hacking for fun is so 90s – hacking for profit is where it’s at, and it’s not just drive by hacking any more, we are talking advanced threats.

US intellectual property compromised or at great risk? I don’t doubt it. If only for the reason that the US shares so much with the UK, and vice versa, is this information at risk. France and other NATO countries…. yeah mistrusted allies alright.

Source

Human Nature versus Cold-hard Evidence

From this weeks’ 60-second psych podcast at sciam.com..

When an Innocent Confesses to a Crime

New research shows the persuasive power of a false confession. It seems the confession itself can corrupt other evidence that may excuse a defendant.

Not too much of an issue in the corporate investigative realm; nevertheless a valid qualitative study in to human nature, and how it can be manipulated by the persuasive power of the confession.

As I gain experience in the world of corporate investigations, I am becoming more and more aware that the successful investigation relies more on the understanding of human nature than on the technical black-and-white’ness of technical evidence. Technical artifacts have their place in the final report, but whether or not they carry weight should be determined by the skilled individual who can determine the human nature impact.