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When he proved to the police that the information he would given for adult access had been stolen and then reused at Landslide to send money to child porn merchants, he was told that he was innocent. He would had to wait, but 'it was less than two months, investigated, cleared, no issue'.

Legal Aftermath

The records suggest that because of the media and police enthusiasm to hunt down supposed Internet paedophiles, important questions about the evidence were never asked, or asked in time. As recently as last December the police were still unwilling to admit

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to the House of Commons that thousands of names on the Landslide list were not paedophiles and were known to have paid only for adult material.

Through no fault of their own, many people and their families will never recover from the false stigma of having been associated with child pornography. They are the victims of a combination of technical naivety and fear, fed by a media circus demanding fast results and the exposure of big names. As the Internet continues to become more transparent, the risk is that the stage may be set for a 21st century witch-hunt.

The report of the police raid on Adam Smith is fictitious but based on many similar accounts.

Duncan Campbell is an investigative journalist specialising in privacy, civil liberties and secrecy issues. His best known investigations, including uncovering the existence of the GCHQ, have led to major legal clashes with successive British governments. Here he writes exclusively for PC Pro following his involvement as an expert witness in a number of Operation ore investigations. Email: duncandc@blueyonder.co.uk