Legal News

Running from the law with a click of a button

By rdasgupta

One crafty criminal on the run decided to put a new spin on the traditional investigation. The convicted burglar escaped prison in Suffolk, England, earlier this fall and had remained without a trace until he started updating his Facebook page and taunting the police with posts such as a seasonal photograph showing him holding a cooked turkey and wearing a strand of tinsel while raising his middle finger to the camera — and a caption reading: ?Here’s proof. How could I get my hands on a bird like this in jail. ha ha.?

London police began tracking the posts and used them to make valuable connections regarding the location of the fugitive.

While Facebook has been used in the past as evidence in criminal cases and, as we more recently reported, as an alibi, this may be the first time the social networking site has been utilized in a high stakes cat and mouse game.

While the escapee, Craig Lynch was able to keep his whereabouts under wraps for nearly four months, the authorities finally caught up with him last night.

For more on this story, check out the coverage at CNN and Times Online.

Full post as published by Fastcase Legal News on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).