The answer is that Colin Port did.

It is one thing grandstanding to the tabloid readers and assorted bigots, quite another to face up to the wrath of three High Court judges.

Hours before Colin Port was due to appear before the Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Justice Wilkie and Justice Calvert Smith – a trio to strike fear into the stoutest heart, without contemplating the fate accorded to even junior police officers in Her Majesty’s finest squalid shower block, Colin Port arranged to have the bulk of the computer material that he had loudly declared the British public would support him in not returning, delivered to its rightful owner, Jim Bates.

Round one to Jim Bates.

Despite returning the material, Colin Port did not escape ‘scot free’, because he was not awarded his costs on the basis of his behaviour since the original order was made. This behaviour included comments made to the tabloid press which implied that Mr Bates had the ‘child abuse’ images in his possession out of an implied personal interest rather than in his professional capacity. Their Lordships criticised Port for these comments:

“all of which were directed to bring Bates into disrepute as a result of suggestions that there was salacious material which he had on computers otherwise than for purely professional purposes”.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton said Mr Bates had held all the material “in a professional capacity”.

Round Two to Jim Bates.

He added: “The conduct of the chief constable since the order was made has been of concern to us”.

Round Three to the General Public – no one is above the law.

I suspect Jim Bates will be consulting Carter-Ruck very shortly!

Who blinked first? is a post from: Anna Raccoon

John Ozimek in The Register has an exclusive interview today with Jim Bates, the man firmly in the sights of  Operation Ore Ire. I am reproducing it in full here for the benefit of those who won’t be reading the ‘other side’ of the story in their daily newspapers.

There are those who say (generally from behind usernames and with language so foul that I am forced to moderate their comments) that any attempt to insist on the rule of law where paedophilia – or ‘kiddy fiddlers’, as they insist on describing them, is concerned is ‘supporting child abuse’, ‘encouraging child abuse’. I have found comments on the Internet demanding that ‘I be burned at the stake, in public’.

Let me make something very clear. I do not support paedophilia. I do not support racism. I do support the rule of law, I do support the right of democratically elected representatives to take their place in whatever parliament they are elected to. Knee jerk emotive campaigning against political parties, or against whatever ‘panicomonium’ the government are currently filling the heads of the population with is a recipe for anarchy – and anarchy protects no-one.

What follows is from John Ozimek’s article.

Jim Bates, once recognised as one of the country’s leading computer forensic experts, has made the extraordinary claim that senior police officers in Avon & Somerset and in the Met’s Child Exploitation Online Protection Team (CEOP) have deliberately stirred up and misled public opinion, in an effort to distract attention from a scandal that could soon engulf them.

In a statement to the Reg Bates says that he is now going public unwillingly, but that the level of misinformation being fed to the national media by Avon & Somerset Chief Constable Colin Port is so significant that he has little option but to provide some balance.

The current controversy hinges on the status of hard copy images and hard drives seized by Avon and Somerset Police in September 2008: last month a court ruled that the seizure had been illegal, and that the material should be returned, in part to Jim Bates, in part to independent experts.

This was followed by some very high profile media comment by the Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, to the effect that he would rather go to prison than hand the material over.

Bates now claims that he is “aware (and will prove) that those images had been “exhaustively” examined (unlawfully) by Avon and Somerset police in September 2008 and were identified as being within active and archived case”.

Therefore, he goes on, Mr Port has either been “seriously misled by his own officers”, or presented a misleading and “emotive story for public consumption”.

Bates speculates that a number of elements are finally coming together. First, he observes that preliminary investigation of the drives relating to the case that sparked this train of events provided evidence that might have secured an acquittal: police actions (including their decision to apply for a warrant to a magistrate rather than a judge) disrupted his ability to present that evidence.

He also believes that these events finally link to fall-out from Operation Ore – perhaps the largest single operation by police against collectors of child porn in the UK – just as the likelihood of a class action against the police in respect of Ore cases nears the appeal courts. His view is that the investigation was hopelessly compromised by the presence of credit card fraud, and that a high proportion of the convictions were unduly influenced by a police tendency to interpret the evidence to fit their preconceptions.

Bates told us:

I also feel that the recent support for [Colin Port’s] position offered by Jim Gamble of CEOP is extremely interesting given that Mr Gamble headed the Operation ORE enquiry and has more to lose than most when the appalling shambles is eventually exposed.

He concludes:

The relevant facts will be presented to Senior Judges at the High Court during the contempt proceedings scheduled for 16th June. Their decision is what counts, not the unsupported, misleading, inaccurate and emotive utterances of an embattled Senior Police officer.

The Register has asked the relevant police organisations for comment. Avon & Somerset have declined. A spokeswoman for CEOP stated that the allegations of credit card fraud were not new.

CEOP also provided the following statement:

Within the UK we put child welfare first. We are duty-bound to establish an investigation where there is an indication that children may have suffered abuse.

During the course of Operation Ore, more than 130 children have been safeguarded and over 2,500 perpetrators held to account. 700 people have been cautioned, meaning that they have accepted their guilt and are now on the sex offenders register.

Assessments came to the UK, cases were analysed and then passed to the local police force. Further assessments were then carried out as to the veracity of the information. Where there were reasonable grounds to suspect an individual, an independent assessment was carried out. Where there was evidence found to say that a person had visited an adult site no further action was taken.

Death rattles from the ongoing Colin Port saga….. is a post from: Anna Raccoon

The Colin Port saga gets better and better.

Matters hotted up last week as, according to one legal source close to these matters: “Last Friday the police applied for a warrant against the Chief Constable to enable them to take possession of the computers lawfully. It was seen as a device by the court which refused to issue a warrant.

“The judge said it was an attempt to circumvent the order of the High Court requiring him to return the computers.”

This – the absurd spectacle of a police force applying for a warrant against their own Chief Constable – is almost certainly the catalyst for an application made to the High Court yesterday requiring that he turn up and explain himself. A spokesman for the High Court confirmed that “in the Divisional Court, Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Collins granted permission for the applicant (Jim Bates) to seek an order. That application will be heard on 16th June.”

Colin Port, remains adamant that he will not return 87 hard drives and 2,500 photographs of abuse seized from the home of Jim Bates, a forensic computer analyst, and expert witness in child abuse cases.

A Prime Minister who thinks he’s saved the world.

A Chancellor of the Exchequer who cannot fathom out his own tax forms.

A Home Secretary in court for fraud.

A Chief Constable banged up for contempt of court.

Truly you have to feel for those political bloggers who have soldiered on, year after year, building up their clientèle, searching for stories, us newbie’s are just having blogging manna thrust on our plate day after day……….

I think I’ve died and gone to blogging heaven………

H/T The Register.

Sublimely Absurd – Police Force apply for Warrant for their Chief Constable! is a post from: Anna Raccoon

They say if you stand still in Piccadilly Circus for long enough, eventually everyone in the world will pass by. Rummaging in the murky depths of ‘Operation Ore’ is beginning to acquire the same quality.

I wrote on Tuesday of the Chief Constable who was preparing to defy the writ of the High Court in the matter of returning the property of one Jim Bates. I note that the BBC have now removed the page that I linked to which I found alarming in its description of Jim Bates as a ‘fake expert’. In the light of the news last night of an accepted 2,000 children being the subject of abuse in Ireland, I have most productively overturned a few more stones in those hills.

The postulate that ‘children must be protected from the dangers of paedophilia’ is a self evident truism that is driving an entire industry, and allowing some remarkable players to apparently ride a moral ‘high horse’ over the rule of law.

I have neither sympathy nor support for child abusers, nor for the industry of paedophiliac pornography. However, I do not believe that the crime of child abuse is more important than the rule of law. That said, let us take a look at some of the facts lurking under these stones.

There is no ‘university of investigation into paedophilia’. No accredited qualifications. The authority of Colin Port, and Jim Gamble of  CEOP, moral and legal,  lies purely within the rule of law – as Police Officers, although a connection with Ireland would appear to be a useful item on a CV. Curiously, both were Police Officers working in Northern Ireland, indeed Jim Gamble is believed to hail from a village just a dozen miles south of the home town of one Gerry McCann, who is fast becoming another self styled expert in paedophilia. Jim Bates is not a policeman, and his accreditation as an ‘expert’ is dependent on the opinion of the presiding judge in any case – and no-one else [2009] EWHC 942 (Admin).

Jim Gamble spent twenty five years in the police force there, rising to become head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit. Colin Port, whilst deputy Chief Constable of Norfolk, was the officer in charge of the investigation into the murder of Rosemary Nelson, who had complained before her death of being threatened by RU officers. Even more curiously, the Chief Constable of Norfolk at the time was Carole Howlett, who was also the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police on Operation Ore, and later for the private ACPO organisation, a forerunner of CEOP, later to become Jim Gamble’s ‘platform’ in the ‘business’ of child abuse and on-line pornography.

Since Operation Ore was launched on the basis of 7200 names provided to the British Police as subscribers to a US based Pornography ring, Avon and Somerset police alone had over 200 names in their area. UK police have arrested almost 4000 of those named,  and searched over 4283 homes, a more diligent response than that of any other world police force. There have been some 1500 person charged. That still leaves a considerable number on a list of ‘suspects’.  Philip Lyons, a senior commons Clerk was one of those arrested and charged. There has been repeated and apparently well informed speculation that Senior Ministers, some with close connections to Ireland appeared on the list. A the time of writing, the Sunday Times is believed to have a copy of this list, but to be unwilling to publish it. In the 19th of January edition of The Sunday Herald, Neil Mackay sensationally reported that senior members of Tony Blair’s government were being investigated for paedophilia and the “enjoyment” of child-sex pornography. That edition has now been removed from the archives. Duncan Campbell exposed the unfairness of the investigation – highlighting the fact that many thousands of the names, whilst genuine people, had had their card details obtained by fraud, and they were not the people who had accessed the illegal sites. Some 31 people are believed to have committed suicide as a result of being named  – often by very senior Police Officers, in this operation. There has been considerable disquiet by many that Leicestershire Police saw fit to apply to the court in Portugal not to reveal the names of suspected British paedophiles believed to be living or at least visiting Portugal, during the investigation of the McCann case. There has been further disquiet at the involvement of senior politicians, including Gordon Brown, in the case, and in the appointment of a government media spokesman to act as general factotum to the couple, a position he still holds to this day some 2 years later, although it is unclear who pays his salary now.

Jim Bates ‘who is regarded in many ways to be the founding father of computer forensics in this country’ [2009] EWHC 942 (Admin) was the defence expert witness who ultimately exposed the shoddy nature of the British end of Operation Ore, by examining the logs of the US based web site, and showing that many thousands of the names on the UK list were there as a result of proven fraud. His computers were seized three days before he was due to appear as a defence witness in the trial of Graeme Harris. Since Graeme Harris was deprived of the use of his ‘expert witness’ by the actions of Avon and Somerset police in illegally searching Bates’ house and removing hard drives – which contained material integral to Graeme Harris’s case, and which, note,  were obtained under Police supervision at the headquarters of the Avon and Somerset High Tech Unit, (not from some late night ‘surfing’ expedition!), there would appear to be at least a question mark over the validity of Graeme Harris’s trial. A matter which I am sure his defence team are looking into following the Judicial Review of the Bates case. Following the Judicial Review of Jim Bates’ case, Colin Port declared that he was prepared to defy the High Court and not hand property back to Mr Bates as directed.

The news from Ireland concerning the 2,000 children accepted as being sexually and physically abused is desperately sad; it is an emotive subject and one that many would prefer to avoid – all the more reason for absolute transparency as to the background of those involved in the fight against child abuse, and for a total adherence to the rule of law, to remove any suspicion that anyone is above the law, or indeed, below the radar of the law.

The privatisation of ACPO and indeed of its sub division CEOP has caused additional disquiet, I note also speculation regarding the freedom of information request which disclosed that £90,000 of public money was paid by Chief Constable Colin Port to lawyers Carter Ruck in an attempt to stop Bristol’s TV and Radio stations reporting on the IBM/Southwest One contract in which he and his wife had a direct interest. His wife Sue Barnes has been paid £200,000 in salary and fees alone as part of the deal. This followed BBC Crime Correspondent Steve Brodie’s reporting of allegations of corruption which were made by Ian Liddell-Grainger MP in the House of Commons under parliamentary privilege.

We mustn’t allow the present level of interest in the misdeeds of our rampant executive to blind us to equally serious events in other areas, unreported as they are by a national media which maintained a discreet silence on the level of corruption in our Houses Of Parliament until Damian McBride was removed from a position of power over them – thanks to blogger Guido Fawkes.

There be ‘Ore’ in them thar Irish Hills. is a post from: Anna Raccoon

It is said of the Law that it is the glue which holds the fabric of society together – if that is so, we are in danger of unravelling fast.

The High Court appears to be losing – or rather ‘relinquishing’ – its authority. If the High Court doesn’t stamp its foot and cry ‘contempt of court’ when its authority is challenged by iconic figures in society, we cannot be surprised that lesser mortals have no respect for the law.

One of the most serious charges laid at the door of the Speaker of our House of Commons is that he ignored the order from the High Court to publish MPs expenses.

Today we hear of a Chief Constable, no less, who is also ignoring the writ of the High Court.

Colin Port, Chief Constable of Somerset and Avon Police, says “he is prepared to go to jail rather than return suspected child pornography”. That statement is worthy of closer inspection. The story appears on the BBC web site. It is ‘linked’ to an earlier story described as  ‘fake child porn expert sentenced’.

The casual reader must surely gain the impression that somewhere we have a man who falsely claimed to be an expert in child porn but in fact was revealed to be a common or garden (and thus despicable) viewer of child porn who was trying to reclaim his property consisting of sickening images.

Terence Bates, the ‘expert’ in question, is acknowledged on the BBC site as being an ‘electronics expert’, however he did lie about having a degree on his CV. Lying about a degree didn’t result in Derek Draper being described as a ‘fake web master’, nor was Jeffrey Archer ever described as being a ‘fake MP’.  Mr Bates – who must surely have celebrated the day he stopped being Master Bates – has spent many years delving into the murky depths of on-line pornography including that involving children. He was called as an expert witness in the case of Brian Stevens, the Soham murders detective cleared of child pornography offences, it was not suggested that Bates’ evidence had adversely affected the outcome of any trial. An alert Prosecution lawyer had merely managed to discredit him regarding his degree status.

Fast forward a year, and Somerset and Avon police seize 87 hard drives – including one belonging to Mr Bates – whilst investigating a suspected paedophile conspiracy. Before they had time to examine those hard drives and discover whether or not they did contain child pornography, or indeed anything more reprehensible than a grocery shopping list, the High Court ruled that the Police had exceeded their authority and that those hard drives should be returned, unexamined.

Thus we arrive at the position today whereby Colin Port, the Chief Constable, has decided that they probably ‘do’ contain child pornography, and he is ‘probably’, socially and morally, right to retain them and defy the High Court – and the BBC have seen fit to ensure that Mr Bates is seen as ‘probably’ part of a paedophile conspiracy.

Trial by Internet is becoming increasingly fashionable. We have a situation in Portugal where a Policeman –   Gonçalo Amaral -  investigating a crime,  is described as ‘defaming the reputation’ of witnesses who declined to answer his questions or return to his jurisdiction and risk arrest, and the BBC happily and almost gleefully, report that the McCann’s – two individuals who bizarrely appear happier to imagine that their daughter is alive and in the hands of a paedophile gang rather than mercifully dead – are suing him for suggesting that they may have been complicit in her disappearance; conversely, the BBC is happily reporting, almost gleefully, that a Chief Constable  in the UK who had the chance to investigate a crime, no absconding witnesses, no political interference, considers that paedophilia is such a heinous act that due process can be dispensed with and he can take punitive action against individuals that he only ‘suspects’ may have been complicit in a crime.

When we have a Speaker of the House of Commons who is prepared to defy the law, it ill behoves us to seek to impose our brand of democracy on other countries.

When we have a Chief Constable who is prepared to defy the law, it ill behoves us to speak ill of the judiciary in other countries.

Terence Bates may well be a master pornographer – if he is, it is for the Judiciary to decide, on the evidence.

Here be Anarchy, if we are not careful.

First the Speaker, now the Chief Constable……. is a post from: Anna Raccoon