Lenihan v. Shankar

What happened

In a contested custody dispute, the mother produced numerous digital records from her own devices, including emails, messages and other documents, in support of her position. Court examination found that multiple emails had been spoofed or fabricated, and that other digital records had been altered. The pattern of fabrication extended across multiple categories of evidence and multiple incidents. The Ontario Superior Court found the mother's credibility to be entirely destroyed as a result. Custody was awarded against her, with the court directly attributing the outcome to the fabricated digital evidence. The case demonstrates the vulnerability of personal device evidence in high-stakes adversarial family proceedings. A blockchain-anchored record of communications would have provided the independent timestamp that cannot be fabricated on a personal device, making the authentic communications immediately distinguishable from the fabricated ones. Note: the CanLII-confirmed citation is 2021 ONSC 1537; earlier references to 2021 ONSC 330 are incorrect.