Digital forensic investigator and data analyst, Francois Möller, gave evidence at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal Hearing on sexual harassments complaints against Judge President Selby Mbenenge.
Image: Supplied / Judicial Conduct Tribunal
Proceedings in the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on the complaint lodged by Andiswa Mengo against Judge President Selby Mbenenge resumed on Monday where a digital forensic investigator and data analyst gave evidence.
JP Mbenenge presides at the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court and was accused by Mengo - a judge’s clerk - of sexual harassment, in which she alleges several disturbing communications from Mbenenge.
The first witness called on Monday, Francois Möller, gave evidence at the Tribunal hearing relating to forensic data retrieved from two cellphone devices - a Samsung S20 and a Samsung A12 - each belonging to JP Mbenenge and Mengo, respectively.
Möller confirmed that he did a logical extraction of information from both devices, which included calls, contact information, media files, messages, and locations.
In the logical extraction of information from Mbenenge’s device, they were able to retrieve 95 deleted messages, but he confirmed that these messages did not relate to this matter.
On Mengo’s device, Möller confirmed that they retrieved 275 deleted entries.
According to Möller, after a specific data download was conducted on both devices, 855 chat messages were retrieved and specifying that these messages were exchanged between Mbenenge and Mengo.
Andiswa Mengo during the tribunal against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.
Image: Office of the Chief Justice / N Mabusela
Möller confirmed that his forensic report resulted in a 433-page report which was extracted from the specific download.
Evidence leader in the tribunal, Advocate Salome Scheepers, pointed Möller to several screenshots of pictures and conversations sent between the devices of Mengo and Mbenenge.
Further, in relation to two WhatsApp stickers sent to Mengo, which Mengo claimed were sent to her by Mbenenge, Möller said due to the stickers being deleted by Mbenenge before Mengo could make a screenshot of the conversation, it could not be ascertained from which sender the stickers were received, although the stickers were saved in the WhatsApp sticker gallery.
Counsel for Mbenenge, Griffits Madonsela SC, probed Möller about the private part picture that Mengo said she had received from the Judge President.
Möller confirmed that the graphic picture had a timestamp of 09.05; however, “there were not enough features” on the picture to conclude whether the picture was a screenshot or a WhatsApp message she received. This was because a search for messages between the devices showed no results.
According to Möller, the information could not be retrieved through a forensic extraction from Mengo’s device and could not be correlated with Mbenenge’s device, as he could only perform a logical extraction from Mbenenge’s device.
The software used for extraction did not support a forensic extraction on Mbenenge’s device, which limited their correlation efforts for WhatsApp conversations between the two devices.
Mengo’s counsel had no questions for Möller on Monday.
Judge President Selby Mbenenge presides at the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court and was accused by Andiswa Mengo of sexual harassment.
Image: Supplied / Judicial Conduct Tribunal
The Tribunal is expected to run until May 16.
Cape Times
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