Forensics: The Real CSI - Series 3

Episode
Tracking a Paedophile
Broadcast Info
2023 (57 mins)
Description
A parent rings 999 to report that their twelve-year-old daughter has been approached by a man on social media and has been raped by him several times. West Midlands Police quickly identify and arrest the suspect and bring him into custody. As the victim was too scared to tell anyone at first, there is limited physical forensic evidence. "It can be quite difficult in cases such as rape or sexual assaults; the forensic window is quite small... 48 hours to a few days. So victim’s samples ideally should be taken as soon as possible after the offence.In this case it’s been several weeks since the incident, so forensic evidence can be lost." - says Jo Ward, Crime Scene Coordinator. The investigation therefore has to rely heavily on digital forensics. An initial look at the victim’s phone does not show the messages she claims the suspect sent to her. Digital Forensics officer Dan Coley suspects the messages may have been deleted and turns his attention to two smart phones seized from the suspect. However, he refuses to give his PINs to the police, so a specialist team must attempt to hack into the phones to get to find the crucial evidence. "The assumption with Snapchat is when a message is sent to another user that it’s gone forever. That is not always the case. People may think that they have deleted stuff off a device when, in actual fact it isn’t. There can be remnants in other areas of the device, and we can use tools that sometimes can recover that." - says Dan Coley, digital forensic officer Evidence recovered from the suspect’s car - including the discovery of large quantities of cannabis-infused sweets known as ‘gummies’ raises concerns that the suspect may have targeted multiple victims. The investigation takes a significant turn when a second teenaged girl comes forward to report she was approached for sex by a similar man on Snapchat. The phone number provided by the victim matches the number of the suspect in the first case. The digital forensics team are able to crack the suspect’s phones and the full extent of his grooming and child sex abuse is revealed.
Genre
Criminology; Policing; Forensics

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Forensics: The Real CSI - Series 3". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/245537 (Accessed 12 Jun 2025)