A recent EU survey highlighted that e-Evidence is relevant in 85% of criminal investigations and in more than half of those investigations, a request for e-Evidence from a service provider located in another country is necessary. Relying solely on mutual legal assistance for e-Evidence does not match fast-paced communications between organised crime groups and terrorist…

The CLOUD Act Agreement signed between the U.S. and U.K. on 3 October 2019 means that the U.S. will be able to serve U.K. Internet and Online Service Providers directly with U.S. legal process requiring production of electronic evidence. Undoubtedly, direct service of legal orders obtained in the U.K. on U.S. service providers, such as…

Drafting an updated model law on electronic evidence for the Commonwealth member states

I never thought I would present on my back! Meeting the energetic ‘Judge’ – the latest expert to join our panel of e-Evidence gurus for UNODC – was quite the spectacle! Using his vast experience of Pakistan and the region we were entertained with his ‘can do’ attitude. This infectious approach will no doubt have…

The Republic of Maldives is the lowest country in the world, with its highest point only at 5.1 metres – the height of two and a half men standing on each other’s shoulders! What the Maldives may lack in height, it more than makes up for with its natural beauty, consisting of 1,192 coral islands….

The yellow in the Colombian flag represents gold, the blue the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and red for the blood spilt for the country. Colombia’s past has been one fraught with turbulence and the agreement with FARC in 2017 brought hope for peace. This peace was shattered when the Santander police academy in Bogotá was…

“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for!”  Wrote Ernest Hemingway over eighty years ago. Now the fight is a different one – with climate change, plastic waste, destruction of native forests and deaths from pollution. The damage we all do to our world is at a tipping point! For the last week…

T.S. Eliot once said that, “The journey not the arrival matters.” I couldn’t disagree more! After 25,000 miles travelled in ten days it was an absolute pleasure to arrive and see my hotel bed! First stop was my old home of Barbados for the Workshop of Commonwealth Network of Contact Persons on advancing cybercrime investigations….

For the last three days I have been in Johannesburg for the UNODC/CTED/IAP/ComSec Meeting of Regional Cybercrime Focal Points and Central Authorities. This was an opportunity to present the UN/IAP Practical Guide for Requesting E-Evidence Across Borders and apply the tools in a real-time practical exercise. This participant led exercise tested the use of the…

For the last two weeks I have been part of a team assessing the training needs of the Special Tribunals in Dhaka adjudicating terrorism, money laundering, corruption and cybercrime matters. With a population of 160 million, Bangladesh has the eighth largest population in the world. Dhaka alone has a population of 9 million – the…