A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
一个下划线的缺失，让一名无辜男子蒙冤入狱 18 个月
One missing underscore in a Skyrim-themed username put an innocent Nova Scotia man in prison for 18 months. A 2018 child-luring investigation, which began in Madison, Wisconsin, and eventually extended to Halifax, Canada, was based on a false premise. Police were looking for a man using the Kik messaging service under the name “fus__ro_dah” (two underscores after “fus”), but they accidentally requested records for the username “fus_ro_dah” (one underscore after “fus”). This one-character difference led them not to the perpetrator but to a Canadian man named Brandon Klayme. (Ars readers may recognize “fus ro dah” as the Unrelenting Force “dragon shout” from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.)
由于一个《上古卷轴5：天际》（Skyrim）主题用户名中少了一个下划线，导致加拿大新斯科舍省的一名无辜男子被判入狱 18 个月。这起始于威斯康星州麦迪逊市、最终延伸至加拿大哈利法克斯的诱拐儿童调查，其基础完全建立在一个错误的假设之上。警方原本要寻找的是一名在 Kik 通讯软件上使用“fus__ro_dah”（“fus”后有两个下划线）的用户，但他们却意外地调取了用户名“fus_ro_dah”（“fus”后仅有一个下划线）的记录。这一个字符的差异，没能让他们找到真正的罪犯，反而指向了一名名叫布兰登·克莱姆（Brandon Klayme）的加拿大男子。（Ars 的读者可能认出“fus ro dah”是《上古卷轴5：天际》中“不卸之力”的龙吼。）
Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term. Even after release, Klayme continued to fight his conviction. In the process of preparing his appeal, the username mistake that led to all these years of disruption was finally discovered. On Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned Klayme’s conviction, writing: “Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.”
尽管在克莱姆的数字设备中没有发现任何犯罪证据，加拿大警方还是在 2020 年以虐待儿童罪逮捕了他。他在 2023 年的审判后被定罪，并于 2024 年被判处 18 个月监禁。他服满了全部刑期。即便在获释后，克莱姆仍坚持为自己的清白而战。在准备上诉的过程中，导致他多年生活被毁的用户名错误终于被发现。上周四，新斯科舍省上诉法院推翻了对克莱姆的定罪，并写道：“克莱姆先生在事实上是无辜的。他本不该被起诉，更不该被定罪。”
One underscore
一个下划线
The case began in 2018. From August through December of that year, a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl communicated with an adult male through the Kik messaging service. During a check of the girl’s phone, her mother found an “inappropriate” photo of the male and called local police. The Dane County Sheriff’s Department responded. A deputy took the phone, and the department ran a forensic search on it. The report identified 125 Kik messages between the girl and an adult with the username “fus__ro_dah” (two underscores after “fus”). To identify this person, the cops contacted Kik, but their subpoena accidentally requested information about the Kik user “fus_ro_dah” (one underscore after “fus”).
案件始于 2018 年。那年 8 月至 12 月期间，威斯康星州一名 12 岁女孩通过 Kik 通讯软件与一名成年男性进行交流。在检查女孩手机时，她的母亲发现了一张该男子的“不雅”照片，随即报警。戴恩县治安官办公室介入调查。一名警员取走了手机，并进行了取证搜索。报告显示，女孩与用户名“fus__ro_dah”（“fus”后有两个下划线）的成年人之间有 125 条 Kik 聊天记录。为了确认此人身份，警方联系了 Kik，但他们的传票却意外地请求了关于 Kik 用户“fus_ro_dah”（“fus”后仅有一个下划线）的信息。
Kik provided Klayme’s email address in response. Google records showed that this email address was used to access Google services from an IP address in Canada, so the Dane County investigators turned the case over to Halifax Regional Police. Halifax police took the IP address they had been given to local Internet provider Bell Aliant. Bell connected the IP address to the physical address of their subscriber, Brandon Klayme. The cops then obtained a search warrant for Klayme’s residence and took phones and laptops from his bedroom. Searching these devices produced no evidence relevant to the case. Nothing linked Klayme to the girl. No intimate images were found. Klayme did have a Kik account, but cops couldn’t even show that he had accessed the service during the period in question.
Kik 回复提供了克莱姆的电子邮件地址。谷歌记录显示，该邮箱曾从加拿大境内的 IP 地址访问过谷歌服务，因此戴恩县调查人员将案件移交给了哈利法克斯地区警察局。哈利法克斯警方将获得的 IP 地址提交给了当地互联网服务提供商 Bell Aliant。Bell 将该 IP 地址与他们的用户布兰登·克莱姆的实际住址关联了起来。随后，警方获得了对克莱姆住所的搜查令，并从他的卧室中带走了手机和笔记本电脑。对这些设备的搜索没有产生任何与案件相关的证据。没有任何东西将克莱姆与那个女孩联系起来，也没有发现任何私密照片。克莱姆确实有一个 Kik 账号，但警方甚至无法证明他在案发期间曾登录过该服务。
Still, Klayme was arrested and hit with three charges: Luring a person under 14 years of age by means of telecommunication, Providing sexually explicit material to a child, and Possession of child pornography. The case went to trial, where Klayme was found guilty. He then went to prison for 18 months. No one involved, even on the defense side, appears to have noticed the username confusion.
尽管如此，克莱姆还是被捕并面临三项指控：通过电信手段诱拐 14 岁以下未成年人、向儿童提供色情材料以及持有儿童色情制品。案件进入审判阶段，克莱姆被判有罪，随后入狱 18 个月。案件的所有相关方，甚至包括辩护律师，似乎都没有注意到用户名上的混淆。
The appeal
上诉
Klayme continued to press his appeal, but only late in the process did his team figure out what had happened. Here’s how Klayme himself describes the discovery: In the latter stages of preparing my appeal arguments, it was discovered that the subpoena contained a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life. Instead of requesting details for the username “fus__ro_dah”, the subpoena requested details for the username “fus_ro_dah”. The police officer did not notice that the perpetrator’s Kik username “fus__ro_dah” contains a double underscore. This discrepancy went completely unnoticed at the trial. It was never brought to the attention of the trial judge.
克莱姆坚持上诉，但直到程序后期，他的团队才弄清楚到底发生了什么。克莱姆本人这样描述这一发现：“在准备上诉论点的后期阶段，我们发现传票中存在一个细微的错误，正是这个错误改变了我的人生轨迹。传票请求的不是用户名‘fus__ro_dah’的详细信息，而是‘fus_ro_dah’的。警官没有注意到罪犯的 Kik 用户名‘fus__ro_dah’包含两个下划线。这一差异在审判中完全被忽视了，从未引起审判法官的注意。”
After this was pointed out, prosecutors took another look. They agreed that Klayme’s appeal should be allowed. Had the case been properly investigated, the court says now, evidence “would have identified an individual whose first name is Jay whose IP address appears to be in California.” Given this, the Court of Appeal last week acquitted Klayme on all charges. His sentence (including his ongoing probation) was vacated. How could such a crucial mistake have been missed for so long? No one seems to know. As the court puts it, “Although the information about the usernames was available at the time of the trial, there is no evidence confirming or explaining how it went unnoticed.”
在这一点被指出后，检察官重新审视了案件。他们同意克莱姆的上诉应当被批准。法院现在表示，如果案件得到妥善调查，证据“本可以锁定一名名字叫 Jay 的人，其 IP 地址显示位于加利福尼亚州”。鉴于此，上诉法院上周宣判克莱姆所有指控无罪。他的刑罚（包括正在进行的缓刑）被撤销。这样一个关键的错误怎么会被忽视这么久？似乎没人知道。正如法院所言：“尽管有关用户名的信息在审判时就已经存在，但没有任何证据证实或解释它是如何被忽视的。”