No evidence, no case in Hi5 hacking claims

An oversight by the police who did not summon cyber-crime unit investigators to submit evidence establishing how a youth hacked his friend’s Hi5 social media account, led to the same youth being acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence.

Magistrate Consuelo Herrera had no choice but to dismiss the case instituted by the police who reacted to a report which was filed months ago by a distraught mother who found obscenities written on her son’s Hi5 profile wall.

A bewildered 18-year-old stood in the dock before Magistrate Herrera as the mother testified that officers at the Qawra Police Station had identified the accused as the person who had hacked her son’s Hi5 profile page.

Both mother and son confirmed that the identity of the alleged hacker was made known to them by the police at the Qawra Police Station, and that they got the name from investigators at the Cyber Crime Unit.

The accused was arraigned on the basis of what the Cyber Crime Unit told the Qawra police, and turned out to be a friend of the plaintiff’s family.

The case however had to be immediately dismissed as soon as the court was informed that cyber-crime unit investigators were not even listed as witnesses to the case to substantiate the claim and bring forward evidence implying the accused was the person who hacked the Hi5 profile.