Innocent people accused of being paedophiles were arrested and had children taken away by police

innocent people were arrested and had their children taken away after police errors meant they were wrongly accused of being pedophiles.

The mistakes emerged in a report by Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Stanley Burnton who analyzed a series of blunders by officers handling phone and internet data.

It means blameless individuals were arrested, saw their homes and electronic devices searched and had their children taken care as a result of serious errors.

 

In one instance the incorrect day and month were typed into an IP resolution request during an investigation into the use of blackmail to incite sexual acts by children over social media.

As a result, police searched an address unconnected with their investigation, carried out a forensic examination of a large number of devices owned by innocent people and conducted voluntary interviews of four people, including two children who were then subject to formal safeguarding processes and separated from their parents for a weekend.

 

Last year 1,101 communications data errors were reported to the Commissioner’s office, with 29 cases classified as serious. There were seven occasions when innocent people were arrested or had their homes searched.

Sir Stanley Burnton said errors in attempts to “resolve” IP addresses are “far more common than is acceptable”.

He added: “People have been arrested for crimes relating to child sexual exploitation.

“Their children have been taken into care, and they have had to tell their employers.”