Can Cell Site Analysis Help My Case?
I had a call recently from a person who is to stand trial for an offence and who is adamant that he was nowhere near the scene of the alleged incident. I would normally be having this conversation with either the defendants Solicitor or Counsel.
This case is slightly different however, as there is no Crown cell site evidence to review and the person told me that he had read about cell site and was sure it could help him.
The first thing we need to consider is whether or not the police have not obtained the call data records and how much time has elapsed since the alleged incident took place. The network providers are only required to keep the call data records for 12 months, and in this particular case there is still time to obtain them.
The other important factor is whether any calls or text messages were made or received around the time of interest. In this particular case the defendant said there was no usage of the phone. The phone was however enabled to connect to the internet so the GPRS data could be looked at, as well as looking at calls or texts before or after the event in order to establish locations and whether it could have been possible to be at the offence location around the given time.
The other thing that had not been considered was obtaining the call data records for the complainant to ascertain if she was in fact at the location given as the scene of the crime, at the time given.
The call data from both the defendant and the complainant can be analysed for the same time period in order to show whether it is possible that they were together at the time, or whether, as the accused states, that they were in fact nowhere near each other, showing the complaint to be fictitious.
If you have a client who strongly denies that they were in a given location, it may be worth considering introducing cell site analysis in order to assist with corroborating your clients details.
In the event of requiring this type of evidence then we urge you to call us first. There are many issues in relation to phone attribution which we can advise you on in preparation of your case.
The Cell Site Experts at Footprint Investigations can assist and advise you in relation to obtaining the call data records for your client, or a complainant’s phone. Once we have the data, we will advise on whether cell site analysis may assist, and if so provide you with a quote for LAA funding.
Should it be deemed that this type of analysis would not help on seeing the relevant data then we will tell you, and there would be no charge from us for this initial review.
For more information or to discuss a particular case, please contact us on 01527 467467 or email