Man jailed over computer password refusal

[Richard Jones]

On Wed, Oct 06, 2010 at 12:59:10PM +0100, Paul Barnfather wrote:
> > A sentence of 16 weeks may be a good bargain compared with what he might
> > have got for a substantive offence if there were evidence hje had
> > committed one.
> 
> According to the reports, the police are "still trying to crack the password".
> Assuming they are eventually able to do this, he could still end up
> being prosecuted for the original crime as well...

Assuming he's guilty.

What I don't get is there must be some other evidence (eg. visits to a
website from an IP address which can be tied back to him or his
house).  With this other evidence, go to court and prosecute him for
the original offence, noting that this refusal to give up access to
the computer is strong circumstantial evidence.  A jury would surely
convict when face to face with strong IP address evidence and the
refusal of the defendent to absolve himself by giving up the password.

Or ... is the IP evidence not so solid, and the police made a mistake?

Rich.