Lancashire Telegraph's Facebook contact with Barry Morrow could track down location (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Lancashire Telegraph's Facebook contact with Barry Morrow could track down location

10:48am Thursday 8th December 2011 in News By Vanessa Cornall , Reporter

A FORMER Scotland Yard IT expert says police searching for lodger Barry Morrow should be able to track down his location, after he contacted the Lancashire Telegraph on Facebook.

Forensic computer investigator Jonathan Krause said IT experts should be able to pinpoint Morrow’s location using a combination of GPS signals and IP addresses after he logged on to the social networking site on Tuesday.

Detectives in Merseyside are hunting for Mr Morrow, who is originally from Burnley, in connection with the double murder of Southport mum and daughter Angela Holgate, 54 and Alice Huyton, 75.

The 51-year-old is believed to be abroad in either France or Spain, after being seen in Calais the same evening as the bodies of his landlady and her mother were found.

Yesterday the Lancashire Telegraph reported that Mr Morrow contacted the Lancashire Telegraph to protest his innocence.

Mr Krause said: “Online organisations such as Facebook will record user IP addresses every time a user logs in.

“An IP address is unique to an individual computer and is a series of numbers that can be tracked back to an individual through an internet service provider.”

Merseyside police are investigating Mr Morrow’s contact with the Lancashire Telegraph.

And Keith Rennison, of Donald Race and Newton solicitors, Burnley, confirmed he had been instructed by Mr Morrow but would not comment on his client’s Facebook contact with Lancashire Telegraph reporter Vanessa Cornall on Tuesday.

Social media expert, Mr Krause added: “Facebook has a dedicated SPOC – Single Point of Contact team – for law enforcement agencies to contact when dealing with a serious case like this.

“If Mr Morrow accessed Facebook by his mobile phone, his network provider would also be able to use GPS signal to track his location using a series of phone masts.

“Either way, this man has given away his location by making contacting with the Lancashire Telegraph.”