How One Missing Underscore Sent an Innocent Man to Jail for 18 Months

Brandon Klayme spent 18 months in jail before an appeal court found he had been wrongly convicted after investigators traced the wrong online username.

The Halifax man was acquitted after it emerged that a missing underscore in a Skyrim-inspired username had led police to the wrong person, overturning convictions that should never have been brought against him.

The case began with a 2018 investigation in Wisconsin and resulted in Klayme's arrest in 2020 on charges including child luring and possession of child pornography.

It was only while preparing his appeal that his legal team uncovered the mistake that had altered the course of the case.

The appeal court ruled that Klayme was factually innocent, saying there was no evidence linking him to the 12-year-old girl involved in the investigation.

The judges also vacated the ancillary orders against him, bringing an end to a case that they concluded should never have reached the courts.

The Username Error That Should Not Have Been There

The investigation that led to Klayme's conviction began in Wisconsin in 2018, before Halifax Regional Police arrested him in 2020. He was accused of exchanging intimate images and engaging in sexually explicit conversations with a 12-year-old girl.

Investigators believed they had identified the suspect through an online username. However, the account attributed to Klayme was 'fus_ro_dah', while the actual suspect used 'fus__ro_dah', with two underscores after 'fus' instead of one.

That seemingly minor difference proved to be the foundation of the mistake.

According to reports, the appeal panel wrote: 'The Wisconsin police identified Mr Klayme as the offender using the incorrect username. His conviction rested on the internet username being attributed to him.'

Following a trial in Dartmouth provincial court in April 2023, Klayme was convicted of child luring, making sexually explicit content available to a minor and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The conviction remained in place until his legal team revisited the evidence while preparing the appeal.

Appeal Revealed Critical Mistake

Klayme's defence lawyer, Zeb Brown, said the mistake only came to light while reviewing the case ahead of the appeal.

'We noticed the problem when we were working on the appeal arguments this spring,' Brown told CBC News.

'We were trying to figure out why the digital forensic evidence pointed at him given his denial of any involvement.'

Klayme later submitted an affidavit explaining that a subpoena issued by Wisconsin police contained what he described as a subtle mistake that ultimately changed his life.

Speaking to Dexerto, he said: 'In the latter stages of preparing my appeal arguments, it was discovered that the subpoena contained a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life.'

He continued: 'Instead of requesting details for the username "fus__ro_dah", the subpoena requested details for the username "fus_ro_dah". The police officer did not notice that the perpetrator's Kik username "fus__ro_dah" contains a double underscore. This discrepancy went completely unnoticed at the trial. It was never brought to the attention of the trial judge.'

The appeal court made clear that the outcome was unlike a typical appeal, where a conviction is overturned because prosecutors fail to meet the legal standard of proof or because of an error during the trial.

Instead, the judges concluded that Klayme had been wrongly identified from the outset.

The panel wrote: 'This is not a situation where an acquittal is entered because the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of an offence or an error during the trial made the verdict unsafe.'

It added: 'In these circumstances, Mr Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.'

According to reports, the appeal court also found there was no evidence connecting Klayme to the girl involved in the investigation. Along with acquitting him, the court vacated the ancillary orders that had been imposed following his conviction.

It remains unclear whether Klayme will pursue compensation for the 18 months he spent in prison after being wrongly convicted because of the mistaken username.