Are text messages and social media posts enough to charge someone with a crime?
<p>A person vandalized a ups type work van by opening the brake bleeder valves , causing the owner of van to nearly crash when leaving for work . Despite there being no hard evidence , just a police report , are suspects texts and posts claiming responsibility enough for a charge and or prosecution ? </p>

<p>It depends.</p>

<p>Confessions, in whatever form, are problematic because the person who made them can simply say later "I was lying" or "My phone was stolen, someone else said that". Social media posts and texts are not made under oath. It may come as a surprise but not everything posted on social media is 100% true.</p>

<p>If the info they contain is not something that anyone other than the perpetrator would know at the time they were posted then they may be sufficient on their own. In conjunction with other evidence it may secure a conviction.</p>

<p>Failing that, it could certainly assist an investigation.</p>

criminal-law