iPad was underwater for five years before it helped solve an attempted murder

In what that sounds like the plot of a thriller, an iPad thrown into London’s River Thames spent more than five years underwater before it was found and provided key evidence to convict three men of attempted murder – all the more so given that the man shot was a key figure in one of the world’s biggest ever armed robberies …

One of the world’s biggest ever armed robberies

Paul Allen was one of eight men convicted of taking part in an armed robbery of a cash depot back in 2006. The security depot was used by the Bank of England as a cash distribution center for new bank notes, and to store older currency before it was destroyed.

The robbers stole £53M ($68M), but their haul would have been even bigger if they’d used a bigger truck. The gang were forced to leave behind a further £154M ($199M) because it wouldn’t fit into the truck they drove into the depot.

Allen was sentenced to 18 years, but was released in 2016 after serving less than half of this time.

A museum heist and an attempted murder

Three years later, Allen was shot at his home, six rounds passing through his kitchen window, one of which struck him in the throat and became lodged in his spinal cord, almost killing him. He was left paralysed from the chest down.

Three major criminals were later arrested for an unrelated series of robberies, BBC News reports, including a museum heist.

Within seconds of forcing their way through the front door, they shattered glass casings housing 14th Century Chinese Ming Dynasty antiques. Three items were seized – a rare pomegranate vase; a doucai-style wine cup and a porcelain bowl – and had a combined insured value of £2.8m.

They stupidly attempted to sell one of these items at a public auction. The auction house notified the police, who set up a string operation to capture the robbers. DNA evidence then linked them to Allen’s shooting five years earlier, and a statement made by one of the defendants indicated that the getaway car had briefly stopped at a location close to the River Thames.

The unexpected discovery of the iPad

Police searched this section of the river, expecting to find the firearm used in the shooting. Instead, they found an iPad.

When found by a police officer with a metal detector on a cold November morning last year, the iPad was found caked in mud having been underwater for more than five years.

Forensics were able to clean it and open the Sim tray – which still contained a pink Vodafone Sim card.

Call data that was subsequently salvaged provided damning evidence on three men – Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne and Daniel Kelly – who were all also involved in a heist at a museum in Switzerland a month earlier.

The SIM was also linked to a GPS tracker the criminals had attached to Allen’s car in order to track him to his home. It’s believed the killing was attempted because the gang owed money to Allen.