to suck it up and keep quiet about a mishandled CEOP investigation?

[Deedingle]

CEOP have had reason to send local sex offender unit police here with a search warrant.

It’s become very clear that they have no intent to carry out the investigation CEOP sent them for, and have gone for something random and much easier (us) that will make it look like they have instead. (using up a precious forensic outsource budget on from their POV random likelihood of success as well.)

It feels like it's a very serious allegation to make, and I’ve been trying to convince myself that somehow I haven’t seen what I’ve seen happen, that I’m mistaken or confused, but it’s there all day, every day, and most of the night, and it isn’t getting better and won’t go away. I feel so sick.
I know what I’ve seen and I know what it means, I just want to be wrong.

The police know that while he’d be difficult to catch, a potential paedophile who if it’s who we think, will have future access to vulnerable children, is left undetected. Paperwork will make it appear an investigation took place and uncovered no wrong doing.

But there hasn’t been anything you could honestly call a proper investigation into the crime they say was reported, or use of warrant. (they didn’t bother searching even letting us the new ‘suspects’ choose/tell them what computers and phones to take for investigation or not, which I’m grateful for but shocked at.)

I’m left wondering how many other situations similar to this are happening. My faith in modern CP which I thought had got better, is completely shattered.

We're not criminals but I’m so scared that if we make a fuss they might claim to find something to shut us up, or make our lives even more miserable.

Sucking it up and keeping schtum seems safest, but I’m sick to my stomach and don’t know which way to turn. Would you put protecting your family first, or speak out?

I think I understand.

You believe the police are only looking into you because they don't believe they will find anything, and can close the case quickly, despite not investigating properly, saving their budget and therefore the real culprit is still able to commit these crimes.

And if you say anything about the holes in the investigation, they will threaten to frame you (your DS) in order to shut you up.

I am inclined to think that due to the upsetting nature of the charges, you are being slightly paranoid. If CEOP has evidence that a crime has been committed at that IP address, then why would they accept a "nothing found" verdict from the local police? They know the crime has been committed, if you and your son are ruled out then surely the local force will have to move on to another person in the house, and keep going until they find the culprit?

Okay. I get what you're saying now. So you are not concerned about being investigated yourself, your concern is that you have given information to the police which is not being investigated and you're concerned they're not going to catch the person responsible? Because your local police are not following up on CEOPS information correctly? If that is the case it's not CEOP you need to complain to, it's the senior level of your local force and potentially the Independent Police Complaints Commission if you feel your local force still don't handle it correctly when you have brought it to their attention.

CATZ and Slice, YES!

Except police have said they won't be moving on to others if nothing on our equipment is found.

Yes I am probably paranoid, but I'm not sure it's entirely unreasonable paranoia in the circumstances.

Your local police force should have a professional standards department that you can contact. I'd suggest that you write everything down first so you get all the facts.

I'd be upset in your situation too.

So basically the local police are ticking boxes not investigating a crime. Do you know where the previous tenant lives now? Could you report him to the local police there?

Yep. Get it now. So you are worried that if they when they find nothing on you and DS they will drop it and not bother catching the person who is really responsible. And you suspect that the person responsible is in a position of trust with children.

If that's the case YADNBU and should take this further.

Aermingers we didn't give info to CEOP. We knew nothing until police raid.

What we've been told (and yes, maybe it isn't true, I just believed them because they're the police!) is someone else found something nasty on the internet and informed CEOP.

CEOP traced it to the IP address, and sent local sex offenders squad of to court with evidence to get a warrant.
They did and turned up expecting one male IP address holder only to be there and therefore could make an arrest as they'd be the only person who could have done it.

When they found that wasn't the case everything changed and it became only 2 out of 8 they where now interested in.

You know that CEOP packages are forwarded to the local force to progress? (At least, it is for my force).

The warrant gives the power to seized items listed on the warrant but they have obviously been satisfied that the suspect no longer resides at the address initially provided. Are you annoyed that they didn't seize your iPad, laptop, xbox, phone etc? Because if they did then you wouldn't see them for possibly 6 months minimum.

Quite frankly, I would possibly do the same in their position. Assuming I had a named suspect then if I was completely satisfied that the occupants are not involved then I might not seize their items. Our computer crime departments are snowed under so I'm only going to send items that I think might have images, not to prove devices don't have images.

I'm so sorry that I haven't been able to explain myself before, but yes you're all getting what I've been trying to say all along. Thank you.

The person we think it might well be (and it is circumstantial) has left the country for one that has little CP, but has a professional level job allowing them access to children and might well come back working here if he can.

We don't know it's them. We all turned on each other. It's what happens. They are the only one who wouldn't know how traceable what they were doing was, and the only one who wouldn't have a hell of a lot to lose if the IP address holder found out. That and the date of the specimine offence for the warrant is what sadly has put the finger pointed at them.

I get that OP. CEOP have linked somebody accessing something nasty to your house. They have passed this on to the local police force and they have turned up and because it's not an open and closed case where they can just make an arrest they've made a half hearted effort which will neither rule your DS properly or take effective stes to catch the person who really did it.

You and DS are happy to cooperate with the investigation, but you have given them information on the person you think may be responsible. But they're not following that up properly and are just investigated in a box ticking exercise instead?

Is that right? Jesus. You'd think after all the cases where police forces have failed in this kind of investigation over the last few years they'd at least try and appear to make the effort.

Nicknacky I only know what they told us, and I'm doubting everything at this point, even if this is what they were really here doing at times, though I think that's probably just stress.

I'm not annoyed that we didn't lose everything, I'm torn between terribly grateful, very disgusted, and totally conflicted!

There is no named suspect other than us saying someone was the most likely out of all of us.
The named suspect was originally the IP holder who they lost interest in once they realised loads of people had IP access.

I know everyone's snowed under and had forensic budgeting processes explained and it's clearly a big deal to go round randomly examining things without good reason to believe there's something likely to be on it, but no indication as to why items we chose for them might have images on them was given.

Is surely not normal to let suspects choose what you do and don't investigate?

I would take comfort in the fact that they did let you choose which would suggest they don't believe you or your DS to be guilty of anything.
If they can access IP details from one of your computers, could they possibly then see which units were online at the time of the specimen offence and therefore don't need to access all equipment at this point? I'm not terribly au fait with the technical details but I know that if I go into my router IP address I can see what equipment was connected and when.

Aermingers, yes. They aren't even trying to make this look like they are actually trying to achieve anything more than a random fishing exercise on whatever 2 of 8 possibles gives them to look at.

If we told 'someone' I can't really see how they could properly justify their actions and inactions, but maybe I'm missing something. I certainly don't trust myself not to be any more.

I think it's the fact they are being so blatantly casually random and effectively 'who cares' about it, while telling us how serious it is that scares me so much.

The fact that the way they've behaved means things aren't quite as awful as they could be, has made me feel guilty and conflicted for being grateful that they aren't doing their job properly, and even though they've told us what (they say) will and won't happen next, I no longer know what to believe other than 'shut up and do what your told.'

Catz I'm trying to take comfort in it but if they don't believe us guilty of anything, then the only reason I can see for doing it and spending what they say is a very restricted budget is to make it look like they investigated without doing it, which is what's been tearing me apart.

I'm not au fait either, but we think ds can't have been on line at the time, I may well have been, two others definitely where, but they aren't investigating them. maybe that's what's supposed to happen, we find out for them and save them the work finding out. Lord knows.

That would make me feel very uneasy too.

So the person left between the findings of the offensive content and the raid.
I don't know what is the best course of action but if I had a very strong suspicion about child abuse I would not be able to let it rest.

You can try and forward that information to Ceop, what they do and if they react is up to them.

Surely the sleuthing should have been done by the police, and such a haphazard approach to finding the culprit of a nasty offence would unsettle me too.

I would get legal advice and ask a lawyer to handle a complaint.

Why? Because they'll know who and how to complain, and also because you're clearly distressed and not able to communicate effectively about this.

If you pursue this yourself and in this state? I think you could end up with wires completely crossed and making yourselves sound guilty, or complaining about being investigated, instead of the investigation not being done thoroughly.

If they expected there to be only one person there, then that would be the only name they had on the warrants.

So they could not search you against your will, nor remove items without your consent, because you were not the person specified in the warrant. Nor could they remove items belonging to other occupants, not named on the warrant, without their consent, so no point in asking for them at this stage.

When did all this happen? They may well be back with new warrants allowing a full search.

I’m sorry, I know I’m not properly coherent anymore. I thought I was doing better and didn’t realise just how bad it was until I posted last night and couldn't easily make myself understood.

Thank you to everyone who tried to make sense of me. I can see it’s annoying.
It’s been like this for several weeks. I know I shouldn't be, it’s stopping me trying to ask for help.

I’ve tried to pull myself together. It’s across all areas of my life and everything’s suffering and falling apart. I’m ashamed I could react like this, it’s not who I thought I was. It feels like I’ve suddenly gone mad.

People have commented on sudden changes in my speech, organisation, and appearance. I’m doing my best to cover it up, keeping a low profile, supporting ds, expecting to ‘fix’ and haven’t.

I hoped posting about what’s happened and what I should morally do or not, might somehow get me back to being me.

Meditrina, the warrant was to search the address, for any devices. No one is named on it, only the address, and it said it was for one use.

It’s the police who gave us all other information. We believed everything they said at the time, I now can’t believe anything.

We know they could come back at any time, and possibly don’t need a warrant now. Another occupant says police had a battering ram and we assume they’d have used it if we hadn’t been in.

Logically it makes little sense for police to come back now they’ve made sure anyone who’d done anything wrong knows they’ve attracted attention and has been given the opportunity to get rid of anything they wanted, but we understand they can do anything they want.

We didn’t consent or not consent because we didn’t know there was any choice. We were shocked and obeyed instructions. We did ask if we or they, could copy some vital things we desperately needed access to, in front of them, they said no.

It happened several weeks ago.

You do sound very distressed. If you feel that the stress and anxiety of this situation are tipping you over the edg,e and from what you describe about it does sound that way (life falling apart, impact on speech, appearance etc) then I think your first port of call should be your GP to see what support they can offer in getting you to a point where you can control the anxiety and the paranoia. Whilst you are not thinking straight you probably shouldn't be considering any complaint process. Also, the stress will be clouding your judgement and you won't be thinking rationally, so things will seem catastrophic that actually wouldn't seem that bad if you weren't so distressed. For instance, thinking the local police will frame you does seem to me to be extreme catastrophising.

I am saying this with the utmost sympathy for your situation and not accusing you of being hysterical. I just think you do sound like you need some support for your state of mind and that should come from the GP and it could be medication and/or talking therapy of some form.

Thank you for being sympathetic and not treating me as hysterical, but actually I can see I may be being hysterical on some level. I'm definitely missing a grip.

I have been through plenty of tough situations before and it has never even slightly affected how I look, speak, or string sentences together before, and I've had trouble believing it could now, but it clearly is.

I can see the fear of being framed if we complained could be catastrophising, but also have childhood experiences (long time ago) that make it less unreasonable. I don't feel confident to decide logically if I'm catastrophsing or not.

Other people here feel questioning how things have been done, can only result in trouble.

I've always felt the modern police force might be very different, but never have much contact with them normally.

I have been to the duty GP to ask for a few days sleeping tablets, explaining that something I found unbearably stressful was happening and I couldn't sleep, and had reached a point where asking for short term assistance sleeping to break the cycle wasn't unreasonable. GP doesn't know what I normally look like but was slightly concerned about facial appearance and speech but said medication wasn't an answer.

If I thought I could get get help from my GP without saying what has happened that seems to have started all this, I would, but I can't bring myself to tell them and it's clear from last nights attempts here that I'm not explaining myself well anyway.

I do think you're right that I'm in no fit state to make any sort of complaint whether one should, or shouldn't normally.
I think I need to suck it up whatever is, or I think is, going on.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. You really do sound like you're suffering from acute anxiety. As a GP I would certainly want to try and help and I think if you're not any better after the weekend it would be worth going back to your GP- perhaps one who knows you better? It may be necessary for them to know more of the details to help you properly though. I also think it would be sensible to get some independent advice- perhaps citizens advice bureau could help. Whatever you decide to do look after yourself.

There are two problems here really.

1. Your son may be charged with something.

1. The person who has committed these crimes will go undetected and go on to re-offend. As a result of shoddy police work perhaps.

I really think, that given the state you are in, you need to let go of any sense of worry or responsibility towards point 2. You are not responsible for catching the person who did this. That might be easier said than done, but at the moment you are in no fit state to be processing all of this, and your son is your main priority.

Your son will be fine. It costs a lot of money and time to prosecute actual criminals without framing innocent people too.

SliceofSoup, I think it is extremely unlikely her son will be charged with anything if nothing is found on his own personal devices.

SliceofSoup, I think it is extremely unlikely her son will be charged with anything if nothing is found on his own personal devices.

Where did I say otherwise? The OP is clearly worried about that though.