Phone plotting fingers suspect

TUESDAY JUNE 20 2017 A VODACOM forensic liaison manager has testified that cellphone data billing captured by the service provider was 99.9% accurate, the Port Elizabeth High Court heard in the ongoing murder trial against Christopher Panayiotou.

It emerged in court that cellphone billing for various cellphone numbers was released to the State after a court order last year.

According to the State, cellphone plotting shows co-accused Zolani Sibeko was with alleged shooter Sizwezakhe Vumazonke and Sinethemba Nenembe outside Jayde Panayiotou’s Stellen Glen complex in Kabega just five days before she was abducted, forced into the boot of a vehicle and then taken to a remote area behind Kwanobhule and murdered. Vumazonke has since died. Jayde’s husband, Christopher, 29, the alleged mastermind behind the crime, was arrested shortly after her murder in April 2015.

Johanna Heyneke was tasked by the state with plotting cellphone towers in several areas as well as providing cellphone data to the state.

Heyneke testified that cellphone billing obtained showed the detailed history of a specific SIM card, which included incoming and outgoing calls, text messages as well as information on data activities such as Facebook and e-mail.

Heyneke said a SIM card could show the type of contract used and could even indicate the type of handset used at the time, and whether handsets were interchanging with a specific SIM card.

She detailed a cellphone billing document – but it was unclear if the billing belonged to Panayiotou, Nenembe or Sibeko.

“The data is 99.9% accurate. The system can lose data if there is a lightning strike, for example. We would face huge penalties, so checks and balances are done, but at the end of the day the system can’t generate data that doesn’t exist,” said Heyneke.

The trial continues. – ANA