Sorry, waki, what I know about Outlook Express could fill a thimble with plenty of room left over. In Outlook, when you delete an item, it’s sent to your deleted items folder. Until the deleted items folder is emptied or the specific item is deleted from the deleted items folder, it’s still readily accessible.
I’ll say this, though, there are people who make tons of money pulling files or partial files from hard drives that have been ‘wiped clean’ as non-techies put it.