Social media evidence used in murder and assault trials

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Social media evidence was used in criminal trials, including murder and assault cases, according to a report published on 28 July 2014. It described a woman’s cross-examination in the Central Criminal Court following her rape while asleep in bed, and said the accused was later convicted.

Digital forensic investigator Ross Donnelly described how Facebook material can help lawyers examine account access, recover deleted content and challenge evidence about an accused’s state of mind.

Donnelly cited a man charged with murder by strangulation. The prosecution presented evidence that the accused had twice searched Google for “garrotted” before the alleged murder. Computer analysis found that the first alleged search had never taken place. Investigators linked the second search to the man’s use of the word immediately afterwards in “friendly banter” on Facebook. The report said the defence showed that this search was unrelated to the death and followed naturally from checking the word’s spelling and meaning before posting it.

The report said investigators generally relied on publicly available information. Permission could provide direct account access, while investigators could seek a court order for private data. Donnelly said Facebook often rejected orders it considered overly broad.

In 2011, gardaí used an accused’s Facebook friends list to demonstrate closer links with alleged kidnappers than he had initially acknowledged. He was later jailed for sourcing a vehicle for them. The report also described a garda using his own Facebook friends list to trace a distant acquaintance who had assaulted him at the Swedish House Mafia concert in the Phoenix Park in 2012.