Could Dotcom have destroyed digital evidence?

10.08.2012
In the third day of a judicial review of the legality of the search of Kim Dotcom's Coatesville mansion earlier this year, Auckland High Court has heard evidence from a member of the Police's Electronic Crime Laboratory (ECL) on Dotcom's ability to destroy digital evidence on his property.

This is crucial to determining the legality of the raid on Dotcom's house, as the Police earlier testified that Dotcom's ability to tamper with potentially incriminating data in part led to the use of helicopters, the Special Tactics Group and Armed Offenders Squad.

Allan Langille, supervising analyst at ECL, confirmed for the court that while preparing for the January raid (with which he was involved in for a month before Dotcom's arrest) concerns were raised that Dotcom would be able to remotely wipe data on his property.

"All my career when we attend scenes with digital evidence, considerations are given to damage to data," says Langille.

"It's as simple as someone destroying an electronic device, this happens quite often in drug searches where phones are destroyed."

Langille told the court that investigators were particularly worried that Dotcom would have software running that would destroy evidence and then proceed to warn others over the internet , which Justice Helen Winkelmann described yesterday as a "doomsday button".