Passport fraud trial: photos of bio pages said to have been found on defendant’s phone
By Zaya Williams
In the ongoing passport fraud trial involving suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police Ray John and former passport worker Shakema Charles, a digital evidence expert disclosed that he found of cache images of passport bio pages on one of the accused’s phones.
The expert, Kemar Burke from Barbados’ Digital Evidence and Cyber-crime unit, stated that the original images had been deleted.
John and Charles are accused of conspiring with Vincentian resident Lonzel Jones to create fraudulent passport pages in 2018.
Burke testified that he examined the defendants’ devices, uncovering relevant information on Charles’s phone.
The court observed ten images, the first being Charles’s passport bio page taken with her phone’s camera on March 11, 2018, at 16:25 hours.
Explaining that the other nine images were cache images, miniature versions created for faster loading, Burke clarified that they contained no residual data because they are small versions of deleted photos.
The images shown in court matched those discovered in St Vincent.
Burke also identified phone numbers John used to communicate with Charles, proceeding to detail conversations from one of the numbers in his report.
He revealed a dialogue on March 20, 2018 where Charles expressed that something looked wrong.
John responded, indicating it was printed on the wrong paper, and Charles mentioned she couldn’t see the signature.
John, comparing it to his passport, later called her an expert, prompting Charles to request that they meet for further discussions.
This story was first published by Antigua News on : antigua.news/2024/02/01/passport-fraud-trial-photos-of-bio-pages-said-to-have-been-found-on-defendants-phone. © 2024 Antigua News. Republication without permission is not allowed.
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