Case Studies of Cell Site Analysis - Prosecution

Case Study 1 -The murder of Diane Chenery-Wickens.

Diane Chenery-Wickens had worked as a makeup artist for the BBC for over 20 years on shows such as The League of Gentlemen, Casualty and Pride and Prejudice, she won an Emmy Award in 2000 and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2003.
Her husband, David Chenery-Wickens reported Diane missing in London on the 24th of January stating that she’d failed to attend a meeting with BBC bosses in London, and a hairdressing appointment.

A brief phone call between Mrs. Chenery-Wickens and a close female friend in the early evening of January 22, 2008, was the last time that anyone spoke to her.

Mr. Chenery-Wickens’ initial story to Police was that he and Diane had travelled to London on the train together. CCTV obtained from the Railway showed Mr. Chenery-Wickens travelling alone, though Diane’s mobile telephone was used during the time taken to complete that journey.

Later he said that Diane had disappeared in a motor vehicle from the station in East Grinstead whilst he had taken the train.

Diane’s mobile was switched on and used to send text messages to her friends on a number of occasions over the following weeks, clearly intending to suggest that she was alive and well.

The investigating team discovered that Mr. Chenery-Wickens had been filmed on CCTV at a jeweler’s in Tunbridge Wells shortly after her disappearance. He was seeking to sell some of Diane’s jewelry, including some that had been a gift from her godmother and which was of great sentimental value to her.

Forensic Mobile Services carried out Route Surveys, both on the train for the entire journey, and on those roads running parallel to the track. A Location Survey was also carried out at the station in East Grinstead. These proved that Diane’s telephone could only have been used on the train in which David Chenery-Wickens was travelling, at the relevant times.

Location surveys combined with analysis of the Call Data Records corroborated the CCTV evidence with regard to David Chenery-Wickens’ trip to Tunbridge Wells from his home, and his presence in the jewelers there.

Other surveys and analysis showed that after her disappearance Diane’s phone was used in the area of the home address of her husbands’ alleged lover at the same time as her husbands’ telephone was there. 

The body of Diane Chenery-Wickens was found on May the 16th 2008 concealed close to a lane in Little Horsted, near Uckfield, East Sussex, some eight miles from her home.
Her husband, was arrested on suspicion of murder, and charged later that month.

David Chenery-Wickens was found guilty of his wife’s murder on the 2nd of March 2009 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge said he would serve a minimum of 18 years in jail.

Case Study 2 - Indecent Assault

The allegations which led to this investigation were made by a woman (‘A’) who on the day in question, together with a male work colleague (‘X’) had two prearranged business appointments with representatives of other companies.The first was in Portsmouth on an industrial estate to the North of the City, adjacent too but to the North of the M27, and the second in London.

‘A’ stated that they left their place of work in High Wycombe, travelled to Portsmouth and that having successfully concluded the first meeting her colleague invited her to take the opportunity to ‘see the sea’, a suggestion to which she agreed.

Some days later ‘A’ reported to a close friend that she had been taken to some undeveloped land between housing and the sea, two or three miles to the South of the meeting place, and having left the car in which she and her colleague were travelling, was then indecently assaulted by him. The matter was subsequently reported to the Police.  The second meeting in London had not been kept, and they were late in returning to their place of work.

When interviewed ‘X’ denied the offence, and denied travelling to the South of the M27 at any time on that day. Their late arrival back in their workplace was explained away by ‘X’ who stated that he had turned the wrong way on the M25. 

When Forensic Mobile Services analysed the mobile telephone Call Data Records they revealed that several of those cells used after the aforementioned meeting were located to the South of the M27 and Coverage Surveys of those cells proved that none of them provided any coverage within a mile to the South of the location at which that meeting had been held. Several of them did however provide coverage at the scene of the alleged indecent assault.

The proposal put forward with regard to having turned the wrong way onto the M25 was also completely disproved by mapping the cell use and movement of the telephone which showed that that it had travelled North from Portsmouth on the A3(M) and the A3 and then turned left onto the M40 returning to High Wycombe.

Case Study 3 - Lorry Hi Jack & Kidnap (A Desktop Exercise)

An incident occurred when having been stopped on the hard shoulder of the southbound exit slip road of Junction 36 of the M1 motorway by what appeared to be a Police vehicle, a driver suffered the hi-jacking of his lorry and its’ high value load, and his own false imprisonment and removal from the scene in the fake Police car.

Police enquiries identified seven mobile telephones which were believed to have been associated with these offences and the investigating officers obtained the relevant Call Data Records (CDRs) for each telephone from the network to which it was connected at the time of the offences listed.

It was decided that no surveys were necessary in this instance and that analysis of the CDRs and the mapping of the movement of the subject telephones by recourse to the cells used would be sufficient.

Forensic Mobile Services produced a single combined call table listing chronologically all of the calls made and received by all the subject mobile telephones during the Period of Interest (PoI), and hi-lighted the calls made between them.

Note: Not every call was to be plotted, but sufficient to show significant movement in relation to four Locations of Interest (LoIs). i.e.

• The location from which the load commenced its’ journey.
• The location at which the lorry and its’ load were hi-jacked.
• The location at which the pseudo Police Volvo was burned out, and the lorry    driver released.
• The location at which the stolen HGV unit was burned out.

An individual map was produced for each of these mobile telephones mapping their movements throughout the PoI, which were in turn supported by maps showing their combined movements, all compared to the movement of the lorry and the Locations of Interest.

The similarity of movement and location were shown to be significant. The four defendants pleaded guilty prior to the start of the trial, and the excellent cell site evidence played a major part in obtaining that guilty plea.