The owner of Facebook is receiving ongoing criticism for not handing over potential evidence which could help investigators of a Southland toddler’s mysterious death.
Lachlan “Lachie” Jones was found dead in a sewage pond in Gore in January 2019, but requests for Facebook messages that allegedly backed up claims he was deliberately thrown in the water have gone unanswered.
There have already been two police investigations, and the coronial inquiry remained open. A third police investigation was now under way with new investigators brought in from the North Island in charge.
Facebook messages allegedly supported a witnesses’ testimony that they heard one of Lachie’s half-brothers was complicit in the toddler’s death – a claim the half-brother denies.
The witness could no longer access the messages.
Coroner Alexander Ho asked Facebook’s owner Meta to provide them.
A witness told the inquest last year that someone had allegedly confessed to killing Lachie, but some evidence was in Facebook messages they could no longer access.
His findings said in June: “While I appreciated that Meta was not a company based in New Zealand, and therefore I had no power to enforce the notice’s compliance, I had anticipated that — as a global company doing business in New Zealand and presumably committed to the rule of law — Meta would comply with the notice and provide the information that was sought.
“It did not, Meta has ignored the notice completely and has provided no assistance whatsoever in respect of it.”
However, the coroner also acknowledged he could not compel the company to comply.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed weeks later the data had still not been provided, despite the coroner issuing a statutory notice.
Paul Jones, Lachie’s father, told 1News: “It’s just been roadblocks after roadblocks after roadblocks… I’ve only wanted the truth, and I’m miles away from that.”
Jones said he needed Meta to listen: “This is a three-and-a-half-year-old boy that needs a voice, and I ask Meta to release the information and come forward and help the police do their job.”
His lawyer, Max Simpkins, said: “Without the help of Meta, we go nowhere. We don’t get justice.”
In his opinion, if the Facebook material was provided it would “clear a whole lot of things up”.
Simpkins had seen social media evidence hindered in other cases before through encryption, deletion or blocked users.
He said: “Trying to access that is nigh on impossible.”
In the past week, 1News has tried four different email addresses, and Meta’s head of New Zealand and heard nothing back.
University of Auckland Law and Technology chairwoman Professor Alexandra Andhov told 1News Meta was protective of messages, “because they believe in their users’ privacy expectation and therefore, they try to limit government’s access to this kind of encrypted data”.
Some countries wee considering banning encryption, she said.
“It’s happening in France, Sweden, in the UK.”
The new police investigators wee due to report back to the coroner next January.
