Electronic trails snare suspects

Legalbrief reports that she was snared by her own SMS messages and e-mails between her and the mule she recruited. Prosecutors are growing increasingly reliant on electronic trails to snare criminals. In another ongoing case, the Western Cape High Court has heard that a convicted killer of slain honeymooner Anni Dewani made the last call from his cellphone moments before she was killed. Vodacom forensic expert Petro Heyneke said phone records showed the last call from Zola Tongo's number was at 10.53pm on 13 November 2010. According to a report in The Citizen, the Nokia E90 phone was unavailable until 4pm the next day, when it was switched on or entered an area with cellphone reception. The report notes Heyneke was testifying in the trial of Xolile Mngeni (25), who has pleaded not guilty to hijacking, robbing, and killing Dewani in Gugulethu on 13 November 2010. Tongo had been shuttling Dewani and her husband Shrien around Cape Town during their honeymoon. The report states the taxi driver was jailed for 18 years as part of a plea bargain, in which he alleged Shrien arranged for the killing of his wife in a faked hijacking. As part of the hijacking, his phone was taken and he was ejected from the vehicle. The cellphone expert's evidence matched that of the testimony given by Mziwamadoda Qwabe, who was jailed for 25 years for his role in the murder, according to the report. It says he previously testified that he got a call from Tongo past 10.50pm, telling him 'the husband wants the job to be done the same night'. Full report in The Citizen

Yesterday, the court heard that numerous calls were recorded between two alleged accomplices in the murder. A report on the IoL site notes that MTN data analyst Hilda du Plessis said phone records showed activity on Mngeni's cellphone number between 7 and 16 November 2010. Du Plessis said Mngeni's SIM card was first used in a ZTE phone. It was then placed in a Nokia E90 phone on 14 November that year. The last activity on his number was at 1.11am on 16 November. Full report on the IoL site

The courts are increasingly relying on evidence from cellphone experts that can place suspects at certain places and times when crimes have been committed. In a recent high-profile murder trial, Cape Town's notorious 'black widow' Najwa Petersen was found guilty of hiring hitmen to murder her music legend husband Taliep Petersen. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, investigating officer Piet Viljoen immediately noticed that although Najwa Petersen said there had been a robbery, she still had two cellphones. He took the phones, but she asked for one back, saying she needed it for business and needed to retrieve a number. Viljoen returned the phone. But, says the report, when Viljoen got the phone back, he found that Najwa Petersen had called one of the suspects 10 times on the day of her husband's murder and that afterwards she tried to remove his number from her phone. In devastating detail, Peter Schmitz, from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, testified exactly where each of the accused had been when they talked to each other by cellphone, according to the report. It says Schmitz drew maps showing the calls made and received by all the accused and was able to detail where Najwa Petersen had moved during the night of her husband's murder. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Cellphones of the 'Sunday Rapist' were used in areas where his alleged victims were abducted. A report on the News24 site notes that Petra Heyneke was again the expert called to give this information to the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court in Alberton, during the trial of Johannes Jacobus Steyn who was last month found guilty on 33 charges, including murder. She said the GPS signal on both Steyn's mobile phones registered at towers in Danville and Roodepoort on the days and times where two murdered girls were abducted. Full report on the Legalbrief site

And in the ongoing trial of Thandi Maqubela, widow of slain High Court Judge Patrick Maqubela, Heyneke has told the Western Cape High Court about cellphone calls and SMS messages between Maqubela and her alleged accomplice Vela Mabena before he died. She said Maqubela and Mabena called each other and exchanged messages days before the acting judge's death, notes a report in The Times. She said cellphone usage showed Maqubela had travelled between Eastern Cape, Durban and Johannesburg, and that she was in Cape Town on 3 June 2009. Heyneke testified that both the acting judge's cellphone and Maqubela's were traced to Butterworth on the day he died and that she had called his phone. The trial continues this week. Full report in The Times

In the Cwele case, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by her and her co-accused, Frank Nabolisa, against their convictions. Instead, the court increased their original 12-year sentences to 20 years. In his judgment, appeal court Judge President Lex Mpati, with four judges concurring, outlined how the evidence had stacked up against Cwele, including drug mule Tessa Beetge's arrest at São Paulo Airport in Brazil in 2008 for drug trafficking. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, two packets containing 9.25kg and 1.025kg of cocaine were found in her luggage and she was jailed for seven years and nine months. When Beetge's mother, Marie Swanepoel, heard the news, she visited her daughter in prison in Brazil and brought home her cellphone, a SIM card from Peru and another from Colombia, plus a SIM card from SA. Swanepoel used her daughter's password and downloaded all the data messages between Cwele and Beetge and handed the evidence to the police. E-mail correspondence was then obtained by an investigating officer who had visited Beetge in Brazil. According to the judgment, on 6 June 2008, while in Peru, Beetge wrote an e-mail to Cwele questioning when she would be leaving the country. Cwele responded two days later advising her to 'keep well and avoid people who may end up asking a lot of questions'. Full Mail & Guardian Online report