10:57ELLEN KIRWIN
Cell siting data for Witham and Peers phones plotted on map
The jury are shown a map plotting an ANPR hit “capturing the travel of the vehicle bearing that registration number, consistent with it being the Hyundai that had been purchased in Sale”.
It is shown travelling eastwards from Roby towards Huyton at 11.07pm.
Cell siting data for the Witham and Peers phones is also plotted.
PW: “There is a footpath that goes from the road towards the estate, and indeed the defendant’s home address. There is activity from 23.09 involving the Peers phone. Between 23.09.46 through until 23.11.08, there is an attachment in respect of that phone to the network. Is that correct?”
JT: “It is, yes.”
PW: “There is a consistency of all of those cell sites providing the best server during the period which it is attached to the network.”
JT: “That’s right, yes.”
PW: “It doesn’t indicate any travel south.”
JT: “Not during this period. During this period, there is no movement south.”
PW: “Just to provide a note of caution. Is it correct there is an imprecision about that in respect of the precise time that activity can be interpreted as occurring?”
JT: “There is yes. Basically, on data calls the way the system records the cell used doesn’t exactly match the time the cell is used. It’s some time in the data session that it’s connected. The time given for a data record is approximate. When you have one or two on their own, there is ambiguity.”
PW: “Bearing in mind there had been an early period of time where the mobile phone was not attached to the network, it may have been turned off or it may have been put on aeroplane mode, this may indicate the phone having been on aeroplane mode is reconnected to the network. It’s a simple exercise. It takes but a moment to do.”
JT: “Yes.”
PW: “That activity would appear to have taken place in the area after the ANPR sighting of that vehicle going from west to east, travelling towards Roby in the close vicinity of Mr Peers’ home address. So far as the cell sites are concerned, these are sites that serve Woodlands Road and the surrounding area.”
Mr Tarpey says of two masts the phone connected to: “Those sectors definitely provide best server coverage at Woodlands Road.”
But he adds that the “southern cell site does not”.
JT: “At 23.10 it uses one in Huyton. At 23.11, there are no further records until 43 minutes past midnight. It suggests it did move southwards, but precisely when we cannot say.”
Mr Tarpey agrees that the 23.10 cell site would be close to Peers’ home address.
11:23ELLEN KIRWIN
Peers phone could have been 'switched off, put on air mode or run out of battery'
Mr Wright turns to a period between 1am until 1.17am, then 1.18am until 1.27am.
He asks for CCTV to be shown to the jury, images of Withan and Peers “very close to 267 Pilch Lane” at 1.25am and “very close to the cell site at that location”.
The footage is captured at the Go Local store, with the two men walking from the direction of Page Moss Lane before entering the flat.
Mr Wright says Mr Tarpey’s report states that Peers’ phone was found to have “used cells providing best coverage at Woodlands Road”.
He continues to read from the report: “I was informed two men believed to be Joseph Peers and James Witham were seen entering 267 Pilch Lane at 1.25. This sighting does not correlate exactly with the use of the phone attributed to Joseph Peers, but the user could have been one of the men seen. Can you help us with what you mean by that?”
JT: “There isn’t a record exactly at 1.25 when the people were seen. A few minutes earlier it is using the cell providing coverage at Woodlands Road, and a few minutes after the cell providing coverage at Pilch Lane.”
At 23.10, there was a 23 second call from Zeisz to Peers.
Mr Wright says his client’s phone is “migrating between” two masts in Huyton and Longview, as well as the “outlier” further south.
PW: “There has been a short reconnection with the network. It’s during that very brief period of time that there is a call that is received. 23 seconds in length, from the Zeisz phone to the Peers phone. What we don’t appear to get is that phenomenon where you put your phone back on, you get built up messages arriving in a cluster. It comes on, there’s a single activity there before the final activity on the phone recorded at 23.11. But we have to treat that with a degree of circumspection. The phone is receiving a call.”
JT: “Yes.”
PW: “On any view, shortly after that event this phone then is not connected to the network.”
JT: “Some time not long after that, it’s disconnected from the network until after midnight.”
PW: “There are a number of possibilities.”
JT: “It could be turned off, it could be put into aircraft mode or run out of battery.”
PW: “You’ve got three possibilities. It may have been physically switched off, put on air mode or it may have run out of battery. What it couldn’t have done, it couldn’t have run out of battery and then reconnected unless it had been charged.”
Mr Tarpey agrees.
PW: “It is consistent with, earlier, the phone being put on aeroplane mode then reconnected to the network somewhere in the vicinity of that church, a phone call being received and the phone running out of battery.”
JT: “Yes, though that would require a charge to be found after midnight.”
PW: “Yes, his home is a stone’s throw away.”
JT: “Yes.”
Mr Tarpey confirms there was no record of a “detach, an indicator that the mobile is detaching from the network”.
He adds: “That makes it difficult to say how the mobile was disconnected.”
PW: “It would be dangerous to come to any firm conclusion how it was that it detached from the network.”
JT: “It could have been any of those options.”
PW: “If there had been a manual disconnection of the phone from the network, would one expect there to be a detach?”
JT: “Sometimes you will get one, sometimes you won’t. It’s hard to say.”
PW: “If the phone ran out of battery, would one expect there to be a detach?”
JT: “That depends on the phone. It depends on whether the phone runs out of battery in an organised way. If the phone recognises its running out of battery, you would expect a detach.”
PW: “The more likely is it simply ran out of battery.”
JT: “I wouldn’t say that.”
PW: “It’s not possible to reach a firm conclusion.”
JT: “Both are possible.”
Mr Wright says there was then an “attach” at 12.43am.
11:36ELLEN KIRWIN
More details of Peer's phone cell sites
At 11.18pm, the grey Hyundai is seen on CCTV on Childwall Lane.
At 11.11pm, Witham’s phone cell sites nearby.
Mr Wright says there is “nothing to suggest” Witham and Peers’ phones are “colocating at that time”, and the witness agrees.
JT: “The Witham phone is in the area around Pilch Lane and Childwall Lane at 23.11.42. There’s nothing to suggest the Peers phone is in that area at that time. It doesn’t look as if they’re together.”
There are then sightings of the Hyundai “moving into the area around Old Swan”.
Mr Wright turns to the period between 12.29am and 12.47am.
At 12.33am, the Hyundai is seen turning onto Prescot Road from Leinster Road after the shooting and then travelling east.
PW: “It’s only nine minutes later at 12.43.22 that the phone then attaches to the network. Each of those activities from 12.43 to 12.47 are entirely consistent with the phone being in Woodlands Road.”
JT: “Yes, or that area.”
PW: “Of course, the mobile does not use any cell to suggest it was used in the Old Swan area.”
JT: “There are no records at all around that time. We can’t say where it was.”
PW: “Between 00.48 and 00.59, the cell siting is consistent with the phone at Woodlands Road.”
JT: “Yes.”
PW: “And inconsistent with being in the vicinity of Pilch Lane.”
JT: “I agree.”
PW: “The records are consistent, with between 01.00 and 01.22, providing best server coverage at Woodlands Road. At 01.32, consistent with being at Pilch Lane.”
JT: “Yes.”
Mr Wright says that, between 1.18am and 1.19am, there are “examples of migration of cell site, not migration of phone”.
Mr Tarpey says of this: “All of those cells were found to provide coverage around Woodlands Road. The phone may have been moving, but not necessarily.”
Mr Wright refers back to the CCTV footage at 1.25am, when Peers is seen walking into the Pilch Lane flat with Witham.
He says the cell siting data is then “consistent with him being at Pilch Lane”.
Footage then shows him leaving at 3.16am.
11:38ELLEN KIRWIN
Court takes a short break
Mr Wright turns to the “early afternoon” of August 21.
He says the “last recorded event” on Peers’ phone is at 1.15pm, until it is back in use at 7.57pm.
JW: “The phone may have been switched off. It may have been on aeroplane mode.”
PT: “Or the battery may have run out.”
JW: “You’re ahead of me. No further questions.”
The court will now take a short break before Mr Forte questions the witness.
The jury are asked to return at 11.50am.
The 28-year-old was shot dead at her home on Leinster Road in Old Swan
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