The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (Canada) has overturned the conviction of Brandon Klayme, who baselessly served 18 months in prison on child sexual abuse charges. The cause of the wrongful conviction was a police typo during a request for user data.
The case began in 2018 in Wisconsin (USA), where police were investigating a 12-year-old girl's correspondence with a perpetrator on the Kik messaging app. Law enforcement established that the suspect used the username "fus__ro_dah" (with two underscores). The nickname itself was created in honor of the famous "dragon shout" from the cult video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. However, in the legal request to the company, the police accidentally specified the name "fus_ro_dah" (with only one underscore). This exact account belonged to a Canadian, Brandon Kleim.
Based on the data received from Kik (email and IP address), American investigators handed the case over to their Canadian colleagues. The Halifax police searched Klayme's house and seized his electronics. Despite finding no evidence of a crime, intimate photos, or any connection to the girl on the devices, the man was arrested in 2020.
The case went to trial, and in 2023, Klayme was found guilty. The following year, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, which he served in full. Neither side of the proceedings, including the defense and the judge, noticed the mistake in the username during the trial.
The critical discrepancy was discovered only during the preparation of the appeal, after the man had already been released. Following the discovery of this fact, the prosecution agreed to overturn the conviction.
Last week, the Court of Appeal officially declared Brandon Klayme factually innocent and dropped all charges against him. It was noted that had the request been formulated correctly, the investigation would have led to the real suspect named Jay with a Californian IP address. The court also added that although the information about the usernames was available during the trial, there is no explanation as to exactly how this detail went unnoticed.
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