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06/21/2008: "Uk Private Investigator Blog - "bugging solicitor-defendant talks""

Hi,

The Independent newspaper printed a story recently about the UK Metropolitan Police using a mole to inform them of the defendant’s private legal discussions. The case centres around a defendant who is charged with murdering a private investigator with an axe. The informant that was questioned alleges he recieved £21,000 over 9 years for being a mole for the police department within a group of businessmen, and the private detective axe mnurder was one of the cases he was involved with.

It’s rumoured this is not the only case where police officers have used this unlawful eavesdropping tactic. Obviously what’s said between a defendant and his solicitor should not be the target of a police investigation, but as my investigator colleagues pointed out this is a matter the police have to get to the bottom of.

So there’s the dilemma – do you allow police officers and private detectives to obtain as much information on a defendant as they can in the hope that it will show the whole case and a reasonable judgement of guilt or innocence can be made? Or by using increasingly invasive and “unlawful” techniques can the investigators end up purely gathering as much negative data as they can, producing a negatively skewed judgement?

Thanks,
Andy