Jury at Wick raids trial told of call patterns
A POLICE intelligence analyst this week gave evidence about mobile phones which were believed to have been used by the two men accused of 15 break-ins in Caithness and other parts of the Highlands.
Maria Wright, the Inverness-based principal analyst with Northern Constabulary, looked at data from phones which were linked to John Hind and Matthew Peters. They are suspected of carrying out the raids between July and October 2007.
Ms Wright told the jury trial at Wick Sheriff Court she reviewed data from the phones which were recovered from a Vauxhall Omega found at the scene of a break-in at the Glenuig shop and post office on October 11, 2007.
Most of the calls coincided with the period of the break-ins and were made from Colne in Lancashire where Hinds lived. Others came from the Manchester area where Peters was living at that time.
Ms Wright said the pattern of calls fitted with the timescale of the break-ins and trips to Scotland from the north of England.
She said the analysis, which included phone records and phone mapping, showed the phones were not being used on journeys north. "This may have been because the users were travelling together," she told senior depute fiscal David Barclay on Wednesday.
However, she pointed out analysis revealed contact was made between two of the phones on August 16, 2007, at the time of the break-in at the Canisbay post office.
Contact was also made the day after the Embo post office break-in near to where a safe was recovered.
Ms Wright acknowledged phone analysis is not an exact science but is compiled using the best available
evidence.
She also stressed she had no proof of who was using the phones or answering the numbers dialled.
Hind (54), from Colne in Lancashire, and Peters (40), from Bournemouth, deny stealing £34,497.60 in cash and £10,508.97 in stock from post offices and commercial premises throughout the Highlands between July 27 and October 11, 2007.
They also pleaded not guilty to stealing a car and using it to assault Fort William police officer Andrew Cooper to the danger of his life.
Hind is further accused of failing to give information as to the identity of the driver.
The trial before Sheriff Andrew Berry is to continue next week.