10 November 2023
It’s been three years since French police infiltrated EncroChat, an encrypted messaging service allegedly used by organised criminal groups across the UK and Europe. In this week’s NLJ, criminal barrister Thomas Schofield, of No5 Chambers, looks at the prosecutorial challenges that have arisen since
Thousands of arrests have been made, and the authorities have seized an astonishing 40 planes as well as properties, cars, boats and tonnes of drugs. Schofield looks at the ways in which investigators used EncroChat to identify criminals and highlights issues surrounding the admissibility in court of the evidence obtained.
Schofield looks more widely at the use of evidence from encrypted messaging services in general. He writes: ‘I suspect criminal trials in the future will increasingly hinge on the admissibility of the methods law enforcement agencies use to access encrypted communications.’
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