Digicel worker says he was unwilling to get involved in Klansman case
KINGSTON, Jamaica – An independent fraud and risk consultant employed to telecommunications giant Digicel on Wednesday morning testified during the ongoing Klansman Gang trial that he had been unwilling to get involved with the case when summoned by the Crown in 2021.
The witness was taking the stand for the first time since the trial began last September following much haranguing on the part of prosecutors who disclosed that the police had faced “challenges” in obtaining the records from both telecommunications companies. They subsequently indicated that the impasse had been resolved in part with telecoms provider FLOW having turned over the requested information to the cyber forensic division of the force. The prosecutors at that time indicated that they might have to invoke the powers of the court to have Digicel fulfill the request. According to prosecutors at the time, the reticence from Digicel was not so much as it related to providing the information but more in respect to having to take the stand during the proceedings.
On Wednesday morning, the independent consultant, finally taking the stand after arriving in the island on Monday, said he has had to produce call data records for specific cases over time.
In relation to the Klansman trial, he said he had received a request to prepare a statement and extract information between the end of November into December last year.
According to the witness, he had initially been “reluctant to get involved” but after “several conversations” agreed to travel here to conduct the extractions.
He said the records extracted were from September 2018 to February 2019 mainly with “one or two outside that period”.
He told the court that he accessed Digicel”s databases using a secure company laptop and loaded the related call data and SMS records to the device before transferring them to two thumb drives.
He told the court that he detected no errors while conducting the procedure and that despite his level of access he would still be unable to alter the data in anyway.
He further said it was not possible for there to be human interference with the data collected during telephone exchanges as this was a completely automated process.
The witness said he turned the thumb drive and his statement to an inspector of police at the Cybercrime Unit.
He identified for the court one of the thumb drives which was successfully tendered and admitted into evidence. The Crown said the other thumb drive was not available.
The representative from Flow also took the stand Wednesday morning.