The mother of missing Bristol student Jack O’Sullivan has thanked phone company EE after the firm answered her call for it to release data about his phone on the night he disappeared. Catherine O’Sullivan said she was ‘thrilled’ after EE responded to a campaign to get them to release information from his phone that police had refused to request.
The data, which Jack’s family hope will provide new information about what happened to him on the night he vanished in the Hotwells area of the city, is now being sent to a cyber forensics company hired by the family, which will spend the next couple of weeks analysing everything the data contains.
Family and friends and the wider ‘Find Jack’ campaign lobbied EE for months to persuade the company to release detailed data about Jack’s phone on the night he disappeared after attending a house party in Hotwells and then trying to make his way home to Flax Bourton in North Somerset.
Jack has not been seen since CCTV picked him out walking around the Cumberland Basin area of the city in the early hours of Saturday, March 2. Police said data they had been able to get from the phone company suggested his phone never left the Cumberland Basin area, and it stopped sending or responding to signals after 6am – some time after he was last filmed by CCTV.
But the family had asked the police to get much more detailed phone data from EE, and back in August, Avon and Somerset police rejected the family’s first approach, saying it would not tell them anything new.
Assistant Chief Constable Joanne Hall said: “We have taken time to carefully consider the data request to see if there was any way we could agree to it in order for Jack’s family to get the answers they deserve following his disappearance.
“However, on this occasion, we are restricted by law and have been unable to identify a clear legal basis which would allow for the disclosure to take place,” she added.
So Catherine O’Sullivan and family friend Jayne Caple began to call for EE to release it to the family direct – leading to a huge social media campaign.
Jayne said: “We need the cell site data to try and work out Jack’s journey and what happened in the missing hours while the phone was still active. This info could help unlock so much more than we have.”
Now, after Catherine and the police officer leading the search for Jack appeared on BBC Crimewatch to appeal for any information about Jack’s disappearance, EE have now released all the data they have.
An EE spokesperson said: “We’re aware of Jack’s case. This is a police matter so we currently can’t comment any further at this time.”
On a social media post, Catherine said: “I just wanted to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to EE for allowing the release of the phone data that we have tried so hard to get over the last few months.
“We really appreciate the help that they have given us – thankfully common sense prevailed in the end and we are so grateful!” she added.