Typo In IP Address Led To an Innocent Father's Arrest For Paedophilia (buzzfeed.com)

An anonymous reader has shared a shocking story about the arrest of Nigel Lang by the British police for a crime he didn't commit. It all happened because of a typo, according to a report. From the report: On a Saturday morning in July 2011, Nigel Lang, then aged 44, was at home in Sheffield with his partner and their 2-year-old son when there was a knock at the door. He opened it to find a man and two women standing there, one of whom asked if he lived at the address. When he said he did, the three strangers pushed past him and one of the women, who identified herself as a police officer, told Lang and his partner he was going to be arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. [...] He was told that when police requested details about an IP address connected to the sharing of indecent images of children, one extra keystroke was made by mistake, sending police to entirely the wrong physical location. But it would take years, and drawn-out legal processes, to get answers about why this had happened to him, to force police to admit their mistake, and even longer to begin to get his and his family's lives back on track. Police paid Lang 60,000 British Pound ($73,500) in compensation last autumn after settling out of court, two years after they finally said sorry and removed the wrongful arrest from his record.

Comments

Brazil

[Anonymous Coward]

Brazil, come to life.

Reminds me of 'Brazil'

[Hussman32]

For those who haven't seen the movie 'Brazil,' this event is so close to the premise of that movie that it's eerie.

Re:familyâ(TM)s

[fisted]

Yep, same here.
Karma: Excellent, 15 moderator points expire 2017-03-16, and all notwithstanding. The checkbox has gone. Before it only occasionally unchecked itself.

Re:Zero tolerance has failed

[gweihir]

"Zero tolerance" is the authoritarian idea that every deviation from what they find acceptable has to be crushed with extreme force. Of course, in the case at hand, the accusation was extreme, but the same shit does happen for things that are nowhere near as bad. And you would think that before destroying a person's life they would double-check they have the right person. But not so, because the authoritarians behind this believe everybody to be guilty and giving people a chance to prove they are innocent is optional.

No, there is nothing at all "noble" with zero tolerance. It is a purely fascist idea. (And yes, I do know the actual definition for "fascism". It fits.)