What Do We Do? Accusatory Texts

[needadvice]

Can I strongly recommend new hard drives on laptops or pcs in the house. I ignored increasingly bizarre emails and texts (hysteria and threats of suicide) and as a last resort she went to the police and @ccusef me of violent rape. Phone and laptops were held for over 7 months and forensic ally examined.

Felix - that is awful. Dare i ask if all turned out OK?

I will ask husband re the hard drives etc. I didn't know that on a simple accusation they could take away your PCs etc (oh my naivety).

We are also compiling a list of anyone who can testify to the things she has done in the past.

We will not be sending any more texts to her. Am a bit worried about this strategy as ignoring her sends her mad but so does replying...

[lawlessone2009]

Felix - that is awful. Dare i ask if all turned out OK?

I will ask husband re the hard drives etc. I didn't know that on a simple accusation they could take away your PCs etc (oh my naivety).

We are also compiling a list of anyone who can testify to the things she has done in the past.

We will not be sending any more texts to her. Am a bit worried about this strategy as ignoring her sends her mad but so does replying...

Well, it'll become 'Put up or shut up'...

Unfortunately some people never give up on their torment of others....

[fighter]

hi need advice...sorry you have to be here in this forum.
lots of good advise already and i hope this would have calmed you down a lot and hopefully prevented you from doing any action that could be taken against you..Will be praying that it will not go to the police..and the harassment/threats will just die down..take care of yourself!

[felix]

Yes it did turn out ok. I got effectively an NFA and although through her solicitor she tried a civil case on a somewhat different matter it all petered out. But do worry about your hard drive. I worried about porn picked up when using torrents....

[jaycube]

She was minor

As you said the main accuser was 16 years old, Don't you think this trial will become weak if you registered.

[Casehardened]

Jaycube,

By 'registering' are you suggesting that the OP contacts the police?

If so, this is mischievous advice from you, the consensus of opinion from other members is that this is not a good idea; in any case you appear to have not read the thread properly as the OP has stated that the accuser is under 16 (therefore the case would have much more serious repercussions for the accused)

The accuser would have been under 16 at the time, and my husband in his early twenties.

Please consider carefully any future comments you may make on other members threads; any further misleading advice will result in you being put on mod preview.

[Rights Fighter]

Felix - that is awful. Dare i ask if all turned out OK?

I will ask husband re the hard drives etc. I didn't know that on a simple accusation they could take away your PCs etc (oh my naivety).

We are also compiling a list of anyone who can testify to the things she has done in the past.

We will not be sending any more texts to her. Am a bit worried about this strategy as ignoring her sends her mad but so does replying...

The problem is, if you remove hard drives and the police find out about it (they may be able to tell when it was fitted against when the computer was first fired up after you bought it) - you could then be done for an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

[IvorBinWronged]

Tech Tac Toe

If you are worried about what lurks (beyond your knowledge and control) in the far recesses of your computer and mistrustful of how a third party or hacker would use that, take off what you need with a stick, securely wipe the hard disk (with a hammer and blowtorch) and sell the remaining PC on a carboot. That is not breaking any law. You'll feel better for it.

[Faith]

It is if the police find out somehow, as RF points out above.
It could be considered as an attempt at covering up aka perverting the course of justice.

[Rights Fighter]

There was a case a few years back where somebody removed the hard drive and it was found under water somewhere. He was caught and done for that.

The bottom line is, if you remove your hard drives and get rid of them - you ARE perverting the course of justice and why would you? If you know you have not downloaded anything illegal then you would be happy to hand over the whole lot lock stock and barrel.

Yes illegal files can be downloaded without your knowledge either via dodgy links (causing pop-ups or pop-unders) or via Trojans and viruses. These days it is much easier to identify how the illegal files came to be there, when and where on the hard drive.

I really would never advise that anybody should remove their hard drives and destroy them in any event. If they know for sure that nothing will be found on them what would be the point? That sort of defeats the object doesn't it? If you no longer have them then you cannot prove there is nothing on them.

What removing and destroying them does suggest is that you KNOW something illegal will be found on them. If that is the case then anybody who does that with that knowledge has no place on this forum.

[Saffron]

Sorry, but in my opinion removing and destroying a hard drive smacks of having something to hide.
We have had a member here whose computer was used by a third party who also happened to be his accuser. It became overrun with viruses once the accuser had enjoyed regular access to it, so he chucked it and bought a new one. That sounds far more reasonable to me than hammering and blowtorching the sodding thing.

If I was a juror and the prosecution told me that forensic analysis of the accused's computer wasn't possible because the defendant had voluntarily destroyed it, my first question WHY did the defendant feel it was necessary to do that. And my devious little mind would tell me that he/she obviously had something to hide.

[Rights Fighter]

Saffron it doesn't take a devious little mind to think that. Any right minded-person would assume that there was something to hide.

I have an idea that those who subscribe to the idea of destroying hard drives are thinking that they would never get caught so that scenario would never arise. As I said, in that case I would have serious doubts as to why somebody would want to do such a thing and what they are doing on this 'falsely accused' part of the forums.

[IvorBinWronged]

Data doesn't just reside on hard drives...

Any person who uses the web leaves a data shadow. Most emails are stored elsewhere. If you are concerned about security, then destroying a hard drive with a decorators blowtorch is the only way that your personal and private information cannot get into the hands of someone you don't want to have it.

If you torched a car then I am sure that any questions would be legitimate, but not a hard disk.

It is not the action of someone wanting to hide something nefarious. Those people, I imagine have their own ways of coveting the unsavoury and perhaps illegal data. They would not, I imagine let Bill Gates store that stuff for them.

The blowtorch idea came from an IT professional friend who is a marvellous and well-loved caring person - the type of person you'd wish to look after your nearest and dearest if God took you so I am slighted by your misdirections there.

Do you think that paper shredders are the Devil's work too?