Long and Complicated...Hoping someone can help.

It is possible ANYWHERE! And it IS done! If you can get a person that is a reputable network admin, THAT KNOWS THE HARDWARE AND PROTOCOL, to tell the court the TRUTH, you can TEAR APART the STUPID myth that the IP is tied to the person.

If he has a wireless system(COMMON), leased IP(COMMON), or any system had a router problem(POSSIBLE), or someone tapped the cable(possible), intercepted a hub(possible), or there is a system hack somewhere(possible), then YEP, they have to get MORE evidence!

Frankly, if they don't have him there, logging in somewhere with his account within less than 20 minutes preceding the event, they have a shaky case! So they need to subpoena the logs from the ISP and maybe do some research. HOPEFULLY, they would have to impound his computer and examine it to really bolster their case.

Steve

I know lots of people that are deeply religious that look at a lot of "photos of an adult nature" lol. Not sayin your friend would ever do such a thing, but I'm just sayin lol.. And by the way, since when is sharing photos of an adult nature a crime???

I am in Australia, and have a broadband subscription, and one of the things I have noticed is that my IP address keeps changing - so not sure how anyone could be connected to an IP address - or am I missing something ?

Yes - it is quite well-known about hackers that can turn PCs into 'zombies' - by exploiting unused ports they can somehow use the computer to send emails and all sorts of things WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE of the owner.

Tell him to look up root kit busters and when they 'bust' they also generate reports about what was there -

this might be important enough to have it done professionally by a data recovery technoid - for the documentation.

what a nightmare if the root kit buster wiped the evidence when it cleaned the system. oh yeah we saw it! yes we did.

I also was about to say something about shared IP addresses but I am not sure - in this situation - with shared servers @ cheap hosting companies, I know that I have read years ago that is the drawback - if someone sharing the IP is into something nasty or dirty your domain can be painted with the same brush.

but i don't know how that applies to the home IP address - so it does sound like some malware - then again - i know they can't see where my IP address resolves to because I am behind my cable internet service provider (not 100%) but just as an analogy - (how it is shared).

Even if he is on some kind of shared network at work or I am not sure how that would be in an apartment buildilng - could very well be they are sharing connectivity.

So it could be something 'innocent' or demonic.

Interesting to hear the resolution - it is real scary when someone innocent is railroaded - the feeling of helplessness - just makes it hard for me to breathe when I think about it.

Uh,... an open wifi source doesn't need to be hacked, all you need is the signal strength to be strong enough to get online. Try a Google search for war driving. An easier bet is a neighbor If wifi is involved.

Most people don't have a clue that they should password protect their wifi at home (or anywhere).

OP didn't say If the guy has wifi so all we can do is guess.

OK. He doesn't have WIFI. He is a webmaster so regularly scanned his pc for malware, etc. They seized his pc so he can't check anything. The pics were minors. As I said I KNOW he is innocent. I know his IP doesn't change.

If you guys need more info, let me know as so far I can't see much to help but I do greatly appreciate all the feedback so far.

You hit the nail on the head with this. He is a grown man and yet, the other day, he was in tears. Another stupid thing with lawyers is that because he can't even afford to pay for one to go through the whole case of pleading not guilty and a full trial, he is being forced to plead guilty.
He is trying to get declared mentally unfit because if he goes to prison, he wouldn't last long due to advanced age and ill health.
When a grown man cries on the phone, you know it's very, very upsetting.

They did find incriminating evidence in a file which he did not even know existed and did not know the password to. I really wish I could help him because I know he is at the end of his rope and hanging on for dear life right now.

Lawrence,

I read a story about hackers using remote computers to store porn a few years ago. It took a while to find it, but here are a couple stories about it.

Child Porn: Malware's ultimate evil | ITworld

http://www.abusewatch.net/news_virus.php

Hope that helps. If nothing else, it will give you a lead to search for more info about.

How do you "KNOW" that he's innocent though?

A friend of mine went to prison. For two years. I think he was 50 something.

This was about 5 years ago. Florida.

His Girlfriend .. (who I know well) and He played sex games.
With her approval he purchased a membership to a site that role played.

IN THE MEMBERSHIP SITE ... he chatted up some woman.

contact abruptly ended.

two months later, sheriffs showed up at his door and arrested
him for a bevy of charges ... from child endangerment to child porn.

IN this ROLE playing MEMBERSHIP site was COPS pretending to be
something they were not ... he payed a monthly fee to go to prison.

plus like 25k.

he got out on parole.

I think he was out for six months. His girlfriend was a prominent community figure.
Everyone new both of them, him because of her.

not everyone likes her.

A real shit bag went to her her house one day ... only HE was there and he opened the door.

The shit bag saw an opportunity .. called the cops ... said he opened the door naked

BAMM ... no judge ..jury .. or anything ... because of her lie he instantly violated parole.

I wont see him for another 15 years ... IF he lives that long.

*uck you system
*uck you people who use it to screw over good people.

btw. He never even had a parking ticket, much less any run in with the law ... ever
NOW he will probably die in prison ... because our laws protect the "innocent".

Years ago a guy I worked with, in the IT department, admitted to me that his computer had been hacked. He noticed one day when he wasn't using his computer that it seemed to accessing the drive and spinning the hard drive. He started running diagnostics on it and found that someone had actually hacked in and partitioned his drive. The ghost partition was acting as a file server for porn!

I wanted to bump this one up to see if anybody else had anything of significance to add to the already mountain of info offered. All ideas gratefully appreciated...although things are looking very bleak for my mate.

Your friend NEEDS to hire a tech savvy lawyer who will
bring in the right expertise. If it was in the US he could
be permanently on THE sex offenders list even if not proven guilty
or the charges are dropped.

The problem my friend faces is that his lawyer has even told him the costs involved in pleading not guilty and court and all the other things involved and he literally can't afford it. Because there is now a court date looming, he doesn't even have time to find, let alone coach, a legal aid lawyer, even if he could find one with enough of the relevant experience.

I am scared for him because it seems he will be forced to pleas guilty and then see what the court decides...whether it is prison, a mental health ward or probation (considering his advanced age and poor health.)

The irony is that he could use a "hacker's defence" if he was in the US but here in Australia they don't believe in that sort of thing.

The stupid thing here is that the police don't have to prove guilt. You have to prove innocence. That is what he was told. The cops only gather the evidence and then the lawyers battle it out.

2 years is not a lot for some people. I doubt my mate would last a week in the condition he is in. That is why I am asking in here. Normally I would not do such a thing.

Here it is also supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.
However, he was told it would cost a minimum of $40000 just for the lawyer to go to court. He would also need expert testimony and that would cost a minimum of an extra $40,000.
He has already sold his house to cover current costs. He got fired from his job and can't get another one...nobody wants to hire a 62 year old man with ill health, living in a country area of Australia.

I actually offer more moral support than his family...and that saddens me deeply.
I wish I was wealthy so I could help him.

I even thought about starting a collection in here but didn't think it was appropriate. I know that has happened for a few members before.

I do appreciate everything that people are sharing in here...more than you could know.

Laurence,

I'm sorry for the situation your friend is in.

I do think the $80k sounds high, unless the
conversion is that different. I would think
$15k USD at the high end and would talk to
several attorneys. (but I don't know case specifics.)

Here we have public defenders.

Dan

Here's a question for the more technical folks that might be relevant. When people use VPNs they have at their disposal numerous IPs to mask their own. Where do these IPs come from? I've never tried to find out. I guess I just sort of assumed some sort of scraping software "harvested" them from innocent people online and delivered them to the clients of the VPN service.

I could be way off because I'm not much of a techie but if my assumption is correct or even close maybe that's what has happened.