ANZFSS NSW – Digital Forensics – The war on child exploitation – Operation ARKSTONE with Jennifer Garcia

The ARKSTONE cases have been complex and drawn out due to the sheer number of charges and victims.

Digital Forensics played a pivotal role in locating critical evidence at numerous premises. One of the major pieces of evidence located was a rack mounted sever concealed in the POI’s garage, he was an audio engineer and to the average person it wouldn’t of look like much let alone a server containing storage. This server was located at about 330am by a fellow DF examiner and myself after doing 24+ hours of back to back search warrants. On that server there was 1000’s of images and videos of contact offending. The location of this server was what enabled investigators to run a further 10 warrants and still counting. To date more than 50 children have been rescued due to the contribution of Digital Forensics. So far, every ARKSTONE case before the court has had the POI’s plead guilty due to the sheer amount of evidence Digital Forensics have been able to retrieve from devices. HARDEN (POI) pleaded guilty 179 charges + form 1 rolled up charges with 26 of the charges being life offences each. (25 years/ life offence). RADFORD received similar sentencing, and last year DOYLE the final POI to be trialled received a sentence of 37 years.

This was also the first time that Digital Forensics not only sat in on the interviews with POIs at the search warrants but due to the technical nature of some, we were conducting the interviews on the POIs.

Furthermore, United Kingdom (UK) National Crime Agency (NCA) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) , Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and other overseas law enforcement agencies continue to make arrests from the 146 ARKSTONE referrals from AFP.

Beginning as a technical officer in Forensics at the Australian Police Force (AFP), then moving into the Crime Scene Investigator role, Jennifer Garcia is now a Team Leader in Digital Forensics Operations and has recently made the move into an innovation and development role for Digital Forensics. Jennifer holds multiple honorary achievements including contributions to saving over 50 children in child protection role.

Date: 9th April

Time: 6pm arrival for 6:45pm start

Location: ANZAC War Memorial, Auditorium, Hyde Park, 126 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Entry is via Elizabeth Street between the fountains

Price: Free for members, $10 for non-members

Note: Due to the content this presentation is in person only and will not be recorded.