'My life was ruined by a typo'

When Nigel Lang was wrongly arrested on
suspicion of sharing indecent images of children,
he says his life fell apart. It all stemmed from
nothing more than a typing error by police.
"When I was arrested, I feared what was going to
happen to me.
"What about my family, will they be targeted? Will
they target my mum's house? Will they be
getting sworn at and attacked in the street?"
Speaking to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire
programme , Nigel Lang recalls the questions
racing through his head one July morning in
2011.
Aged 44 at the time, he had been working as a
drug recovery worker, helping young people
combat substance abuse.
But when police came to search his home and
arrest him, on suspicion of sharing indecent
images of children, his life changed.
His reputation has been left "in tatters", he is
unemployed and suffers mental health problems,
he says.
Not that he knew at the time, but it was all the
result of a typo.
'It made me paranoid'
In May 2011, officers at South Yorkshire Police
were informed by colleagues in Hertfordshire that
they had identified an IP address from which
more than 100 indecent images of children had
been shared in April that year.
The IP address passed on corresponded to an
internet account held by Nigel's partner. But it
had been typed incorrectly, with an extra digit
added by mistake.
When Nigel was arrested, all he could do was to
repeatedly assure himself the police would
discover the truth.
"You say to yourself, 'Well they're going to find
nothing and I haven't done anything, so I'll be
alright.'
Nigel spent the following weeks living away from
home, with his mother.
His young son, he says, could not understand
why he had disappeared and would cry.
After three weeks, police returned Nigel's
computers to him, and he had been found
completely innocent. But the events had caused a
deep psychological effect.
"Because of what happened I felt unable to go
back into the field of work I was working in," he
says. His role as a drug recovery worker had
involved helping teenagers.
"It was the best job I'd had in my life, and I felt I
was really good at it.
"But I became fearful of working with young
females in case any of them said I tried any
sexual advances. It made me paranoid."
'Shouting my innocence'
Eleven months after his arrest, and still without
knowledge of why his home had been raided,
Nigel began the search for answers - filing a
complaint against South Yorkshire Police on
grounds of racism and sexism.
He believed he had been unfairly targeted, given
that the internet account had been registered to
his partner - who is white - but she had not been
investigated.
The complaint was dismissed, but it was during
this process he first learned of Hertfordshire
Police's involvement in the case.
He asked whether it might be possible to check if
the cause of his arrest had been incorrect
information supplied by those in Hertfordshire,
but says he was told that "owing to the passage
of time" this would not be possible.
Nigel decided to ask his solicitor to look deeper.
The lawyer contacted Hertfordshire Police and
discovered the truth of the incorrect IP address.
Nigel says: "I've had to pay a solicitor to find out
the mistake, when the police could have done
that. That is what hurts.
"I'm screaming and shouting my innocence and
they tell me they couldn't do it, but then I get a
solicitor and he can.
"It shows me they don't care about my life. They
don't care about ordinary people."
Nigel received an apology, in writing, from
Hertfordshire Police in 2014, which accepted
responsibility for the error.
'Six years of fighting'
Following Hertfordshire Police's admission, Nigel
sought compensation for a breach of the Data
Protection Act 1998, false imprisonment, police
assault/battery, and trespass by police.
In October 2016, Hertfordshire Police settled out
of court. Nigel received damages of £60,000, plus
legal costs.
"It isn't enough money," Nigel says, "but after six
years of fighting, you're tired.
"I didn't even get two-and-a-half years' wages. I
haven't worked since.
"If you could take away somebody's livelihood,
then surely it's worth more than someone else's
wages."
In a 2017 statement to the BBC, Hertfordshire
Police said it "made an early admission of the
mistake once it had been identified and would like
to apologise again for the wrongful arrest and
further impact caused".
"It was an administrative error which led to this
occurring, and lessons have been learnt to help
prevent this happening again.
"This man was completely innocent and
compensation has now rightfully been settled."
South Yorkshire Police said it recognises "Mr
Lang's arrest in these circumstances was
extremely distressing for him and his family... he
has been rightly compensated by Hertfordshire
Constabulary."
'My personality has changed'
Nigel - who first spoke to Buzzfeed News earlier
this month - has decided to open up about the
ordeal in order to clear his name.
"I didn't have my day in court, and I need the
world to know I'm not a paedophile.
"I was an ordinary hardworking person who has
been reduced to benefits, and I don't know what
the future holds for me.
"I'm ill because of it, suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder.
"My personality has changed. I'm more angry, I
struggle with a lack of sleep and am hyper-
vigilant around people, being paranoid that people
are talking about me."
He says his loved ones were the reason he
managed to pull through.
"My children were great. They never wavered and
supported me all the way."