A strong 2023-relevant post for your audience would focus on how courts and investigators in Ireland and the UK are grappling with mobile phone evidence, disclosure duties, and the explosion of digital data in crime.
Smartphones, Backlogs and Fair Trials: Digital Forensics in Ireland and the UK in 2023
Why 2023 was a turning point
By 2023, digital evidence was no longer a niche issue in a handful of cybercrime cases – it had become the backbone of everyday policing across Ireland and the United Kingdom. Senior prosecutors publicly acknowledged that most criminal files arriving on their desks now contained data from smartphones or other digital devices, and that this material often made the difference between a conviction and an acquittal.
This shift created a paradox for investigators and lawyers alike. Digital artifacts could unlock powerful timelines of calls, messages, locations and media, yet the sheer volume of data threatened to overwhelm forensic units, disclosure processes and court timetables.
Smartphones as “game‑changer” evidence
In Ireland, the Director of Public Prosecutions described smartphones as a “game‑changer” in criminal cases, reflecting how routinely handset data now appears in serious prosecutions. Garda investigations increasingly relied on combinations of handset content, traffic logs and location information to build narrative timelines around a suspect’s movements and contacts.
At the same time, courts were required to integrate evolving EU data‑retention jurisprudence and domestic legislation such as the Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Act 2022, which sought to reconcile access to traffic and location data with fundamental rights. Appeals in cases involving mobile phone metadata underlined that even technically robust extractions can become vulnerable if the legal basis for retention, access or attribution is not carefully managed and documented.
Disclosure, defence rights and evolving case law
2023 also highlighted the disclosure risks created by rapidly changing forensic tools. In one Irish Court of Appeal decision, an expert using more up‑to‑date software recovered additional material from a complainant’s phone after trial, prompting arguments that the original extraction and disclosure had been incomplete. The court ultimately accepted that the initial logical acquisition had not deliberately withheld data, but the case underscored how quickly tool capabilities can move ahead of historic extractions, and how that can feed into arguments about fairness and fresh evidence.
For defence teams, these developments reinforced three practical imperatives: to probe how extractions were carried out, to understand the limits of particular tools and methodologies, and to seek independent review where appropriate. For prosecutors, they underscored the importance of clear audit trails, repeatability and transparent communication with both the court and the defence about what has – and has not – been captured and analysed.
Capacity, backlogs and accreditation pressure
On the operational side, digital forensic units in the UK reported mounting pressure as a very high proportion of crime began to feature at least one digital device. Estimates based on national crime figures suggested a workload that could easily run into tens of thousands of devices per year across England and Wales alone, with significant backlogs and turnaround‑time challenges.finance.
Ireland experienced similar growth in demand. Forensic Science Ireland’s 2023 reporting highlighted a rise in submissions and a large volume of forensic reports, alongside investment in upgraded systems for fingerprints and DNA and a strong focus on ISO 17025 accreditation across multiple disciplines. Independent forensic providers noted that this rising demand, coupled with the statutory code of practice in the UK and accreditation expectations on both sides of the Irish Sea, increased the need for rigorous quality assurance, validation and peer review in digital work.
AI, deepfakes and “next‑wave” digital evidence
While mobile telephony and traditional device forensics dominated case‑work in 2023, new forms of digital evidence were already testing the boundaries of existing laws and workflows. Artificial intelligence began to appear both as a tool within forensic platforms – for example to help triage large datasets – and as an enabler of new offences through AI‑generated imagery and so‑called deepfakes.
Irish commentary pointed to the way intimate‑image laws, including provisions in the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, intersect with AI‑generated sexual content and the challenges of proving harm where the image may not depict a real person. For practitioners in Ireland and the UK, this raised forward‑looking questions about how to preserve, authenticate and explain such material in court, and how to educate judges and juries about the limits and risks of AI‑manipulated evidence.
What this meant for legal teams in 2023
For solicitors, barristers and instructing firms across Ireland and the UK, these trends carried several practical implications. First, digital timelines built from calls, chats, locations and media have become central narrative tools, but only if they are presented in a way that is comprehensible to the tribunal of fact and clearly anchored in defensible methodology. Second, disclosure strategy must now account for the pace of change in forensic software and the risk that older extractions may not reflect the full potential dataset recoverable using current techniques.
Finally, there is a growing need for collaboration between investigators, digital forensic specialists and lawyers to bridge the gap between technical complexity and evidential clarity. As digital footprints continue to expand, 2023 showed that those who could convert raw device data into reliable, human‑readable timelines and visual presentations gained a real advantage in both prosecution and defence litigation.
If you like this angle, the next step is to:
- https://www.caci.co.uk/insights/how-digital-forensics-can-scale-up-its-mission-critical-role-to-improve-modern-policing/
- https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2023/november/smartphones-game-changer-in-criminal-cases–dpp/
- https://irishtechnews.ie/byte-and-the-badge-policing-in-the-digital-frontier/
- https://ie.vlex.com/vid/the-director-of-public-1045469706
- https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/supreme-court-appeal-on-admissibility-of-phone-traffic-and-location-data-dismissed
- https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/648a1714d72ae126cdaa0e1e
- https://www.keithborer.co.uk/news/45-years-and-counting-independent-forensic-review-across-ireland/
- https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-forensics-industry-assessment-2023-121800097.html
- https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/news/forensic-science-irelands-annual-report-2023-published/
- https://www.cjini.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Forensic-Science-Report-Tagged.pdf
- https://infinitesolutions.ie/wp-admin/post-new.php
- https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2024/november/almost-800-cyber-security-incidents-in-2023/
- https://digitalwell.com/blogs/cybersecurity-landscape-ireland-and-the-uk/
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-security-sectoral-analysis-2023/uk-cyber-security-sectoral-analysis-2023
- https://pulse.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Cybersecurity-Trends-Ireland-2023.pdf
- https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2025/june/eu-digital-data-roadmap-for-crime-probes/
- https://cyberireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PE-All-Island-Cyber-Security-Sector-Research-Report-FINAL.pdf
- https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-forensics-global-market-report-103300174.html
- https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/nucleus/ireland-digital-forensics-market
- https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/65bd39337ebe7f29688b6e45
- https://www.algoodbody.com/insights-publications/cracking-the-code-high-court-defines-rules-for-obtaining-passwords-to-digital-devices