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Police were unable to access information stored on Oliver Drage's computer as it was protected by a 50-character encryption key
A teenager is to spend four months in jail for refusing to give police a password for his computer.
Oliver Drage, 19 from Freckleton in Lancashire, was originally arrested in May last year by police officers from Blackpool who were investigating child sexual exploitation crimes.
Officers seized his computer as evidence by could not access files stored on it as they were protected by a 50-character password.
Mr Drage was asked to tell the police the password, but failed to do so. He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 16 weeks in a young offenders' institution. His offence of failing to disclose an encryption key is covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Detective Sergeant Neil Fowler of Lancashire Police said: "Drage was previously of good character so the immediate custodial sentence handed down by the judge in this case shows just how seriously the courts take this kind of offence.
"It sends a robust message out to those intent on trying to mask their online criminal activities that they will be taken before the courts with the ultimate sanction, as in this case, being a custodial sentence."
Police are still trying to crack the password on Mr Drage’s computer, 17 months after it was seized.
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Computers
hello this is a new one,looks like the police own everybodys pcs these days whats happened to privacy,how about the public being able to have a look on the police pcs,might be surprising what u might see
Posted by Edgar mills, 07 Oct 2010
Guilty
He should be treated as if he where guilty of the crimes the police suspect. If he he isn't what has he got to lose !
Posted by Paul, 08 Oct 2010
encryption
There is something sinister about anyone being penalised (even goaled) for not wanting to disclose an encryption password. Surely it is not beyond the police to crack a security code but to do so must infringe a person's human rights, especially if nothing incriminating is found - how secure would the data accessed by the police then be? The excuse that you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide sounds like 1984 and it is worrying that no-one is challenging this heavy-handed approach. The sentence passed is worse than that for violent crimes where the perpetrator is proven guilty - so how long will it be before each of us gets a knock on the front door and our PC either confiscated or compromised?
Posted by K L Simpson, 09 Oct 2010