He added that the appellant alleged he had misled the jury and his "integrity and professionalism" had been called into question. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Andrew Jones, a barrister instructed to deal with the appeal against conviction mentioned above, said he was "shocked to read in the grounds of appeal that a significant part of the appeal relied on documents that had clearly been obtained by the CPS - both marked non-disclosable". The police were alerted and the documents seized and Simpson's fingerprints were discovered on the front and back page of each bundle of documents, as well the fingerprints of two other suspects of serious crime on the rest of the pages. On one occasion, sensitive documents Simpson had obtained were sent anonymously to a law firm in Birmingham that was representing another defendant involved in organised crime and the information - which the solicitors would not normally have been privy to - was used in an appeal against his conviction. She entered "clear and targeted" search terms and named individuals to seek out desired information from a wide range of areas around the country, he added, and sometimes she downloaded the material and printed out hard copies of it. Mr Temkin told the court she often made unauthorised access to the computer systems when she was away from the office and outside her hours of employment - such as on bank holidays, on sick leave or late at night. Some of the documents she accessed contained highly confidential information only for the eyes of the police and the prosecutor - such as police tactics used to investigate crime. He noted that many of the cases she accessed were handled by the CPS complex case unit which deals with the most serious sensitive and complex cases. He added that there was no evidence she had benefitted financially from her offending and she had provided no explanation as to her motivations. "Investigations from that point by the South Wales Police identified the case to which that document referred to and further identified the very limited number of individuals who had access to that document, and that led them to Ms Simpson," said Mr Temkin. They found the criminals had exchanged photos of a sensitive and privileged police document. Prosecutor David Temkin KC told the court that her offending had come to light during a police operation which focused on encrypted communications on a messaging platform between high level criminals. The case was then led by Tarian, the Regional Organised Crime Unit for South Wales. She was arrested by officers from the South Wales Police anti-corruption unit in June, 2020. Over the course of her offending, she worked as a deputy court manager, a paralegal assistant and a victim liaison officer with Cardiff Crown Court prosecution service. Read more: Crack dealer was selling drugs to 'fund his own habit' You can get more courts news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here. She gained unauthorised access to the CPS computer system and Crown Court digital system between 20 during her employment with the CPS, where she had worked since 2003 and held a number of positions. On two occasions, Rachel Simpson passed this information onto third parties, before it made its way into the hands of criminals, who on one occasion "modified" their criminal strategy.Ī sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard the 39-year-old, of Argosy Close in Newport, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in public office and 29 counts of computer misuse. A former employee of the Crown Prosecution service abused her position to gain unauthorised access to sensitive material relating to investigations into major drug operations and money laundering over a number of years, a court has heard.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |