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THE GARDA CYBER crime bureau has cut the backlog of material due to be assessed as part of child sex abuse investigations in half over the last three years, but delays are expected to continue as the number of cases increases.
During the sentencing hearing in 2017 for a music teacher who had hundreds of child sex abuse images on his computer, the judge was told it had taken five years before files found on the man’s computer could be properly assessed.
He was told this was because of resource issues in the computer crime investigations unit. A number of judges in cases such as these have expressed concern about the delay in analysing material.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Detective Superintendent Pat Ryan of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau said staff in the bureau have done “fantastic work” in reducing the time it takes from receiving a device to handing back evidence to investigators on the case.
“This has resulted in a significant drop in the time taken to forensically examine items,” he said, adding that the bureau’s oldest case at one point was “five or six years”.
“Our oldest case now would be two and a half years. There’s no law enforcement agency that doesn’t have a backlog in this area, because it takes time to do this kind of work.”
The bureau has 28 officers working in the digital forensics unit, but these gardaí are not just tasked with examining devices connected to child sex abuse material cases. This unit is responsible for examining all devices connected to any investigation, from theft and drugs offences to murder.
A full forensic copy of each device is taken and the material goes through a triage process, whereby one team will do an initial sweep to determine whether there is relevant evidence on the device. Then, another team carries out a full forensic analysis.
In any search An Garda Síochána does, you’re talking about multiple devices for one case and that all has to be gone through to see if there is anything of evidential value. In one case we had recently we had about 30 exhibits and only two of the devices needed to be fully examined. We were able to discount the others, that saved a lot of time and effort on our behalf.
The detective superintendent said with advances in technology, even a smartphone now is as powerful as a computer, so it takes time to be examined.
“And on top of that the volume coming at us is going to increase,” he said.
“This is this one of the key drivers for our restructuring and our expansion programme of the bureau.”
Six divisional cyber crime investigations hubs are due to be established by the end of next year. These hubs will allow for analysis work at a more local level as part a tiered investigative approach to this type of crime.
“It’s really to provide a local response which will definitely speed up the whole process and the bureau will still be here as a national oversight to provide support and guidance,” Ryan said.
When it comes to the analysis of child sex abuse material, Ryan said the welfare of staff is a priority for garda management.
“It can obviously be very difficult, to be honest this job is not for everybody but somebody has to do it. We provide support for all of our members and we do it in a number of ways. They have access to counselling services and we try to swap it around as much as we can, so it’s not the same people doing that job every day.
With plans to expand the bureau, I’m hoping we’ll be able to give members that break from doing child pornography cases to move them to cyber crime investigation. That’s a challenge for us at the moment based on our numbers and the workloads we have, but I can see it improving over time.
Although Ryan said the reduction in the amount of time it takes now to analyse this material has been a positive step, he knows delays will continue to be a challenge for the bureau in 2020.
“We will continue to work based on the resources we have to bring it down as much as possible,” he said.
“The time it takes and the number in the backlog has significantly reduced. Looking forward to 2020, there will be a vast increase in the number of cases we have to deal with so volume will still be a challenge.”
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This is great! We’ll be able to watch live as these snakes sell this country out from under us and sell it’s people into slavery.
Ah damn. Was hoping to be the first to post one of these tired, overposted comments.
The Oireachtas has been available to watch on the Net for a few years now. So for those who can’t wait for a channel to appear on Saorview,
http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/livewebcast/Web-Live.htm&CatID=83&m=o
Dáilafornia.
Dail-less da da da da da da da Starring Enda Kenny as Useless Smarmy, Eamon Gilmore as the invisible man, Bruton as Jobless, Burton As Social Neglect, Reilly as Death, Noonan as Scrooge, Hogan as Cat Burglar, etc etc etc
WOW, televised empty seats.
What, empty seats?! Surely the amount they claim in expenses for travel and overnight must mean their there all the time…
Who will watch it ? Hey here is a plan …. Why not pipe it into all classrooms in the country …
I think Eileen that could be classified as Child Abuse if it were to happen.I love my kids too much to have them subjected to constant lies and bullshit.
wouldn’t we want our students to be engaged and learning Eileen rather than bored asleep????? Think of the children lolololol ;-)
:) :) :) Lol ,Lol,
I am glad we all still have a sense of humpr :)
i did not know there was such a dedicated T.V. channel what have i been missing here lol
Who in their right mind would want to watch this bunch of sneering,smirking assholes.Ni difference between any of them.All greedy in it for themselves assholes.Here ends my rant.
PEOPLE, ISN’T OIREACHTAS REPORT ENOUGH ?
what are we going to watch. the Dail is never in session. it’ll be reruns of bertie, brian, charlie and all the other crooks over the years.
Good God..how much will.this crap cost! Is there noone to say STOP! Our public services at frontline are creaking…our young and not so young are fleeing faster than.the anfield cat and our gloruous leaders want to have their own tv channel….i feel.like yer boy on.Harry Enfield…NO!!!
It will lead to greater public scrutiny of the goings on in the Oireachtas, surely that can only be a good thing? In light of what went on in there that “brought us to our knees” and lead to the “current economic climate” and “[insert horrendously overused cliché to describe the late-2000s recession here]“, “bankers”, “bondholders”, “Merkozy”, “WAKE UP PEOPLE” and so forth.
Sorry Muc all decisions happen in committee and private cabinet meetings never ever in front of cameras and never will.
No, all the legislation is debated and voted upon in the Dáil. Pretty fundamental stuff there Norman.
Muc the recent debate in the Dail reference the internet copyright act decision already taken before debate.
That was a statutory instrument, it wasn’t required. Debate happened in spite of that. Actual legislation has to be passed by the Dáil, as is the case in most parliamentary democracies/representative republics.
If you have kids in secondary school, pick up one of their CSPE books and learn the law-making process, separation of powers and the general basics of how a state functions before you go on ill-informed, cynical rants about the government. It’s really not that complicated
Ah yes I can see it now celebrity T D
Celebrity Minister Lotto draw to see what patients get seen this week probably hosted by some tallaght tv air head.
Jesus is there no end to this waste
Maybe KPMG could stand over the debates and say if they’re impartial.
You realise that this expansion is only been suggested so these useless twats in the Seanad can keep/justify their jobs!
A business plan! There’s no money in it. This is exactly what the national public service broadcaster should be doing – Hello RTE? BBC Parliament is the model but they want to waste cash on a tender to advise? Just tell RTE to do it – they’ve loads of spare capacity on the white elephant that is Saorview – they’d be able to claim a whole EIGHT channels then!
How much will the special consultants for makeup and hair cost us?
Don’t forget photography…
if the Gov are serious about this isn’t there a state broadcaster that could do it at very little cost?
But again – who would watch it? It’s so tedious – that’s why they show that political show on RTE really late at night so it’ll help insomniacs sleep.
and as Colm mentioned, front line staff and services in the country are crumbling and this is just a complete waste of money (no matter how little it costs)
It needs to be more widely available – Sky, Saorview as well as UPC. More homes have Sky I think then UPC.
A waste of money. They are barley able to keep the main tv Channels going. Have they not already got time on main stream television How many people would want to watch it anyway.In the present climate it is a non starter. Money can be better spent elsewhere.
Put the whole feckin’ thing on-line and make sure there’s a censorship free comments section with a thumbs up/down option. Instantaneous public feedback! And a nightly highlights show, with a panel that discusses the issues of the day and the most popular points raise in the comments section. Online would also be way more cost effective.
Tadhg, I was thinking of a LED display board on the back of the House (just like kid’s TV when b’day wishes etc are sent in) where we could text them about their filibustering. ;-) It’d have to be severely edited I think lol
Have it on UPC. Came in handy when I was trying to follow the debate on the copyright SI.
Folks if you don’t like the people on the TV, don’t put them there in the first place!
Get real, please. I mean please. Of course, maybe the feasibility study will realise that all the people at work soon after the Jobs Initiative won’t have time to watch this.
So polite.
Disgusted at the anti-openness comments on this feed. Looks like the conspiracy theorists have taken over the comments section of journal.ie! I wish ye’d cop on to yourselves!
Well considering the money currently being spent on televising the oireachtas and dail leaves the state (the last tender was awarded to a northern irish company) hopefully they will consider supporting local companies a priority for any further tenders.
Dario if you’d thrown a few more noughts on your €10 bid and buddied up with any of the TDs, you’d have been a shoe-in!!!!! ;-)
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