by Peter James
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.’
He gave a signal to the clerk.
50
Tuesday 14 May
On the monitor screen, to the left of where the judge was seated, angled so that everyone in the courtroom would see it, a colour, low-resolution video began playing. It showed a wide urban street, with traffic passing. On the far side were three firms of solicitors, shoulder-to-shoulder, a Chinese takeaway, Sun Yip Lee, with the name TG LAW across a first-floor window, and a small fashion store next door. A clock in the top right-hand corner of the frame showed 11.17 a.m.
An elderly woman walked along the far pavement, pulling a wheeled shopper. Then a man appeared, wearing a bomber jacket, jeans, dark glasses and a beanie. He was walking determinedly, on a mission, passing the premises of the first three firms of solicitors, then the takeaway restaurant, and stopping just beyond it, at a doorway. Reaching out his left arm, he pressed what was, presumably, the entryphone bell. The door opened shortly after and he went in.
As the video ended, Stephen Cork asked, ‘Mr Parker, are you able to identify the man in the footage we have just seen, who entered the premises
of TG Law?’
‘No, the quality of the footage doesn’t allow me to identify who that is for certain, but whoever it is was carrying Michael Starr’s phone.’
Cork thanked him.
Primrose Brown QC stood up. ‘Good morning. I appear for the defendant. I believe that eleven people worked in the law offices of TG Law: four other solicitors, in addition to the defendant, one paralegal, two legal executives, two legal secretaries and an accounts clerk. You can’t be certain he was visiting TG Law, can you?’
‘No.’
‘Or, if he did, that he wasn’t visiting one of the ten other people who worked there?’
‘No.’
‘There’s nothing to show that he met anyone at all, is there?’
Parker replied, ‘No.’
‘Mr Parker, you have mentioned the subject of Wi-Fi connectivity. What margin for error in these connections might there be? Are they completely accurate or could there be doubt – by which I mean sufficient doubt to allow for the possibility of error within the criteria of this court? Can you really trust the accuracy of the Wi-Fi?’
Meg watched Parker shift uncomfortably. Good, she thought. Good question!
Parker answered. ‘We don’t rely solely on Wi-Fi records – we always try to support these, where possible, with CCTV footage, and in this instance, we have obtained footage from the camera of Brighton Law Courts, located directly opposite number 176A Edward Street. Significantly, we have footage on the date of the last recorded visit of a male in possession of Mr Starr’s phone in the vicinity of 176A Edward Street on Wednesday November 21st of last year, which clearly shows the male entering the door to the side of Sun Yip Lee, which is the entrance to the offices of TG Law.’
Brown continued. ‘You have no evidence that the two men met. Is that correct?’
Parker replied reluctantly, ‘That is correct.’
‘Mr Parker, is there CCTV footage showing that same male leaving the premises?’
‘No, this is all we have.’
‘So we don’t know if it was Mr Starr who was there, if he met anyone, or even, on the CCTV evidence, if he ever left?’
Parker replied a grudging, ‘No.’
‘Then I have no more questions.’ Brown sat down.
Cork told the court he also had no further questions and Judge Jupp told Parker that he could stand down.
‘I would now like to call my witness Haydn Kelly,’ Stephen Cork said.
Defence Counsel Primrose Brown rose. ‘Your Honour, can I ask for a short adjournment of no more than twenty minutes? I have arranged for an expert witness to listen to the evidence that this next witness for the prosecution will be giving to the court. I understand his train this morning was delayed but he is on his way to court as I speak.’
Richard Jupp responded, ‘Very well, Ms Brown, we will adjourn for twenty minutes.’
51
Tuesday 14 May
Meg, along with her fellow jurors, filed out of the court and into the jury room. It was furnished with a long, plain, rectangular table taking up much of the space, with reasonably comfortable chairs upholstered in purple and a blue carpet. There was a fan on a tall stand, a dehumidifier, a monitor, a whiteboard with a selection of coloured marker pens, tea and coffee-making facilities, as well as male and female toilets. The solitary, curtained window looked out at a blank wall. There was nothing, she had noted previously, to distract them from their purpose for being here.
And on one wall was a stark warning notice.
It is contempt of court punishable by a fine or imprisonment for a juror to disclose to any person any particulars of statements made, opinions expressed, arguments advanced or votes cast by members of the jury in the course of their deliberations.
Everyone took their seat, in the same order as earlier today, with herself, now she was foreperson, given the one chair with arms at the head of the table.
‘Are we going to be long? Shall we get refreshments?’ Gwen asked in her affected accent. ‘Or is there someone who will bring drinks?’
Harold Trout – Meg remembered his name – said, ‘I’m afraid it’s self-service. I’ll put the kettle on.’
The woman frowned, as if never before in her life had she had to stoop so low as to make a drink herself. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘I hope we can get rid of this beastly business before Royal Ascot. Can anyone imagine the disappointment of missing it – especially Ladies Day – because of some horrid little drug dealer?’ She looked around, her face a mask of contempt.
From the blank expressions around the table, it didn’t seem to Meg that anyone else could imagine it.
‘I mean to say, the man is obviously guilty,’ she went on. ‘I think we’ve already heard quite enough to reach a verdict, don’t you all?’
‘Well,’ Trout said, standing up and pottering over to the kettle, ‘I don’t think I can agree with that.’
Meg looked at the woman. ‘Mrs Smythson—’
‘Oh, Gwen, please, Meg,’ she simpered then added, ‘As we are all becoming such good friends here.’
‘Very well, Gwen,’ Meg said. ‘I really don’t see how you can have formed a verdict when we have only heard the opening statement by the prosecution counsel and the first witness. And we’ve barely heard anything yet from the defence.’
‘Really?’ Gwen retorted. ‘Well, I think I’ve heard quite enough, and we could all save a lot of time and unnecessary expense by agreeing to an early verdict, don’t you think?’
‘No,’ Meg said, firmly. ‘I don’t.’
To her relief, from the expressions and nods of her fellow jurors, they did not either.
‘I think it would be extremely inappropriate not to hear out the full trial,’ said Maisy Waller.
‘And unbalanced,’ Meg said, emphatically. ‘It would be a complete dereliction of our duty.’
Mike Roberts chipped in. ‘Gwen, we might have our private opinions of the defendant at this stage – and as a former detective who has dealt with plenty of Terence Gready characters in my time, I do understand where you are coming from – but as the judge has reminded us, persons on trial under English law are innocent until proved guilty. I agree with our foreperson and Maisy, we need to hear all the evidence from both sides.’
‘Huh,’ Gwen said with a scowl. Then she turned to Trout. ‘I’ll have an Earl Grey, with just a touch of milk and two sweeteners.’
He smiled at her politely. ‘I think it’s best if we all make our own drinks.’
Gwen gave a what’s this world coming to? shake of her head.
‘I really don’t think we have enough information at this stage to even begin to discuss what we’ve heard so far, Gwen,’ Meg said, sternly.
‘Really? Well, let me tell you, the hat I’ve had made for Ascot this year has cost me a fortune.’
‘Would you like me to ask the judge if he will excuse you from this jury on the grounds of what your hat has cost?’ Meg asked her.
There were some smiles around the table.
The woman looked at them all, partly in disgust and partly in bewilderment. ‘Well, surely none of us wants to miss it, do we?’
‘I’m afraid I’ve never been,’ Meg said. ‘And to be honest, Ascot is the least of our worries.’
52
Tuesday 14 May
Under blazing hot, cloudless sunshine in Guayaquil’s Seminario Park, Laura knelt, smiling happily, beside a large iguana, as Cassie took a video. They had both been a little subdued after thinking they might have had their drinks spiked last night. Two very sleazy guys had been hitting on them in a bar, and they had both felt very drunk after just two small beers. They’d asked the barman to call them a taxi, and drunk a lot of water, at Cassie’s suggestion – she’d read about it somewhere – when they got back to their room. But Laura perked up at the sight of the camera.
‘Hey, everybody!’ Laura said to the camera. ‘When I marry, I’m going to marry an iguana! Aren’t they beautiful? Did you know, here’s an interesting
fact for you . . . they have two penises.’ She paused. ‘It’s true!’
Cassie snorted and ended the video laughing. ‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously!’ Laura replied. ‘They’re called hemipenises. One works with the left testicle and the other with the right. It gives them two shots at impregnating the female.’
‘Are you sure it’s not so the female has a choice of sizes? I mean, how cool would that be?’ She put on an affected accent. ‘Eow, Rodders, I think tonight I’ll go for the big one.’
Laura laughed. ‘And if he can’t raise one, well, hell, he’s got backup!’
The crazy-paved paths through the small park in the centre of the busy city were teeming with iguanas of every size, a sanctuary the creatures had made their own. Tourists, many backpackers like themselves, were posing with them and the iguanas seemed quite happy.
Suddenly, Cassie looked serious. ‘Let’s go and sit down.’ She pointed to an empty bench.
They eased their heavy backpacks off their shoulders and sat, placing them on the ground in front of them, watching the interaction between the people in the park and the prehistoric-looking creatures in silence for some moments. Both of them took several photographs. Then, still holding her phone up and without looking at Laura, Cassie said, quietly, ‘Someone is following us.’
Laura replied, ‘Oh yes? Is he fit?’
‘I’m serious.’
Laura gave her a sideways look. Her friend wasn’t smiling. ‘One of the guys from last night?’
Cassie shook her head. ‘No, but I’ve got a feeling I’ve seen him before. Creepy. Don’t look now, he’s on that bench, the far side of the tree in the middle of the path, with the turquoise building behind him.’