‘I am, sir.’
‘Can you please explain what work you do in the Sussex Police Digital Forensics Unit?’
Parker half turned towards the jury. Meg studied him hard. He looked a decent man, she decided, if a bit nervy. She would have been, too, in that box, in front of everyone. He stumbled over his first few words before he got into his stride.
‘Well, I’m sure many people in this court have heard that boast, by the phone companies, that even the most basic handset today contains more computing power than NASA had in 1969 when they put a man on the moon. But really, it’s no idle boast. Not only are phones getting more powerful by the day, they contain more and more data about their owners.’
Blinking hard, he stopped, pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his forehead, before continuing. ‘This began as a cunning ploy by the phone companies to learn more about their customers, to find out their travel habits, their likes and dislikes, the purchases they made, to help target them for future sales. Technology is evolving rapidly. Today, people are carrying around in their handsets computers that will record an astonishing amount of data about who they contacted, what they said, where they were. A forensic download of that information can paint a detailed picture of their life.’ He was looking more confident now, Meg thought, comfortable expanding on his world. He managed a sly smile at the jurors.
‘That information is of immense value to companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, as they can use it in all kinds of commercial ways. But —’ he smiled again — ‘it is also of great value to the police when they want to trace someone’s movements. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the expression digital footprints. Most of us who own a mobile phone leave digital footprints wherever we go. I don’t mean just to a town, or even a particular street. The technology today is accurate enough to give us an address. Sometimes even the number of a particular apartment in a block of flats.’
Stephen Cork prompted, ‘It is not in issue that you prepared a report on this matter for this trial. Could you turn to Tab A in the bundle and confirm to the jury what that is?’
Parker took a few moments to leaf through the papers in front of him, then again addressed the jurors, looking even more confident. ‘Mobile phones, just like their owners, tend to be very sociable creatures — they like to find friends wherever they are!’
That brought a smile to most of the jurors’ faces, but not Meg’s; she was frozen in concentration.
‘It’s a bit like that Steven Spielberg film, ET,’ he continued. ‘They constantly send out signals, looking for friends. They get a signal back from the nearest mobile phone mast to them. Like a lot of neurotic people, they need constant reassurance, so they carry on sending out signals — like, Hello, I am here! — until a second mast responds. Then, because they are still neurotic and unsure of themselves, they try for a third mast!’
‘And these conversations of an ET nature,’ Cork asked with a good-humoured smile. ‘What do these phones and the masts chat to each other about? The weather? Politics? Football?’
Parker smiled nervously. ‘The chat is all through electronic signals; it is possible to interrogate and establish from them the location of a specific phone.’
‘And what were you tasked with in this report?’
‘I was tasked with providing an account of the movements of the mobile phone belonging to Mr Michael Starr between the dates of January 1st and Monday November 26th of last year.’
‘What can you tell us about Mr Starr’s movements?’
‘During this period, Michael Starr made trips most days from an area identified as his home, in Chichester, West Sussex, to an area which includes the offices of the classic car dealership, LH Classics, just outside Bosham. By further interrogation of Wi-Fi signals, I was able to establish that the precise location Mr Starr attended was indeed the offices of LH Classics.’
‘Apart from weekends and holidays, were there any variations to this routine? Any other places Mr Starr visited occasionally other than the Bosham premises of LH Classics?’ Cork queried.
‘Yes, on occasion during the past year — which were the records I checked, and the dates are marked by Tab N — Mr Starr attended premises in the city of Brighton and Hove.’
‘Are you able to give us, accurately, the address of these premises?’
‘Yes. Number 176A Edward Street, Brighton.’
‘Would I be correct in saying that the premises at 176A Edward Street is in a row of terraced buildings which include a vintage women’s clothing store, a Chinese takeaway and three other law firms?’
‘That is correct.’
‘And is it correct that the ground floor of 176A Edward Street is occupied by a Chinese takeaway called Sun Yip Lee?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And is it also correct that the three floors above Sun Yip Lee are occupied by the premises of TG Law, legal aid law practice?’
‘That is correct.’
Cork paused before continuing. ‘A further question: are there any other premises occupying this same address in Edward Street, Brighton, where Sun Yip Lee is located? Somewhere else in the same building that Mr Starr might have visited?’
‘The rest of the building is occupied by the law offices of TG Law. They would be the only other possibility.’
‘Thank you.’ Cork continued. ‘Mr Parker, could you please explain to all of us in this court how the process of identifying the specific location of a mobile phone works in more detail, to help us all understand this better?’
Ray Parker turned back to face the jurors directly and went into expert mode. ‘I need to point out that triangulation between three phone masts gives an indication of the location of a phone but rarely the precise location.’ He drew a large imaginary triangle with his finger as a diagram for the jurors. ‘The phone will be somewhere in the centre of this triangle.’
‘So, you could not be certain which address, precisely, the defendant visited the morning of November 21st?’ Cork asked.
‘Well, yes, I can be, and I will explain how. It is hard to pinpoint an exact location in a rural environment, where several square miles could be covered by triangulating mobile phone masts. But in an urban situation we can be a lot more precise, partly due to the density of masts and partly due to other aids available to us, such as Wi-Fi and CCTV. In this case in particular we can be accurate to within two hundred square yards. That is still quite a big area, including Brighton and Hove Magistrates’ Court and Brighton Crown Court, the premises of Sun Yip Lee, a ladies’ vintage clothing shop, Dig For Victory, the law offices of TG Law, and also the premises of Latest Television and the Argus newspaper, as well as a substantial number of residential addresses. However, we have other tools available to us, as I mentioned, to pinpoint the location more precisely.’
He paused to mop his brow again. ‘The first is all the Wi-Fi that the phone logs on to in an attempt to connect. In this particular instance I have obtained the Wi-Fi logs of six premises within the immediate area of 176A Edward Street, including those of Sun Yip Lee and TG Law, which put Mr Starr, on each visit, to a location within two square metres of 176A Edward Street.’
‘Thank you.’ Cork smiled, the very picture of confidence, at the jury. ‘Wednesday November 21st. Perhaps the jury would like to take note of that date, as it will be important in due course.’ Meg realized that this was just a few days before the car arrived at Newhaven. ‘We will now look at this address and the link between Gready and Starr. I will start by playing you a video from a CCTV camera across the road from the premises of TG Law.’