March 20, 2004
Jury is handed SMS evidence in murder trial
The Sunday Mail reports on a sensational murder case being tried in Bundaberg, Australia, involving a violent attack where the victim was left on the dance floor bleeding from stab wounds, after being threatened to put his body through a mincer.
That's just to set the stage, because what is relevant to this column is that after the Supreme Court trial opened, the jury members were given transcripts of 2500 SMS text messages exchanged between the protagonists - most of which were deleted, then retrieved from mobile phone records for the six weeks before the attack.
Other reported incidents where text messages were used as evidence:
-- SMS was used as evidence in a criminal investigation in Durham North Carolina, cf Cellphone records help police in murder case.
-- In Norway, a rapist's messages led to conviction.
-- In Italy, text messaging is now commonly used as evidence in divorce suits. cf Cell phones exposing more cheating spouses
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