Originally Posted by
jimgriff
Thanks for responses so far.
It might be worth noting the following:
I have to have my job to pay mortgage- no job- no house.
I have a young family.
I cant just walk into a job that pays as well as this. I have been in post for 14 years.
I have no savings so cant fight them or employ IT forensic service. Its a stand alone PC not a laptop- we don't have an IT department.
I would suggest that:
1) Under the 'innocent until proven guilty' tenet, it would be the company that would need to employ an IT forensic service rather than yourself.
2) Any findings they come up with that form any part of a case against yourself should therefore be easily refuted unless they DO employ a forensic service.
3) In many cases, it doesn't necessarily matter what they find as to whether your job is in jeapordy or otherwise, as unless it's blatant misuse you won't get to hear about the reasons (unless you ask the questions and they're open about it all, which they're unlikely to do if it relates to subject-matter in which they're not expert, such as IT).
4) Have you signed a computer use policy as part of your employment? as if you don't have a proper IT dept that important aspect could possibly fall between the cracks. Any dismissal would normally depend upon non-adherence to that policy....which, if you haven't seen/signed one, is a bit of dodgy ground for the employer.
/Have done this from the employer side too many times.
/It's depressing how some employers try to hide behind technology instead of doing proper employee management themselves.
/All IMHO.
Further advice:
- Each file that is written to your hard drive has 4 datestamps. Some are easy/trivial to change, whereas others are considerably beyond the expertise of most users.
- If the PC in question is not solely for your use, and there are others who are capable of logging into it (even if on the same login), then the employer will be facing an uphill battle to prove that you were (a) logged in at the time, and (b) actively at your computer performing the task of downloading the images. For instance, you could have stepped away from the computer to make a cuppa, and someone with a grudge could have downloaded the images and then whistleblown.
- Timestamps of file creation/access are likely to be the key to any 'successful' dismissal of your services here, and if the computer is a standalone with no other IT infrastructure then the chances are that the timestamps retrieved will not be accurate or even bear any resemblance to accuracy.
- If they are alledging you downloaded the images and emailed them to your home email account, request the following:
1) The email address they believe it was sent to
2) The exact date and time stamp on the email
3) Whether the email went through their email systems or not
This should enable you to (a) find out whether the email address IS your home email, (b) find out whether your home email address service actually DID receive the email, (c) find out what time and date they believe the alleged offence occurred on, and (d) find out a lot about their method of investigation
As Mixture says, it sounds very much like your lawyer is crap or you're not understanding the process he's using. I would suggest talking more to him and finding out his credentials in this matter and how engaged he is with the process you're experiencing.