Cellphone expert: Grenade attacker’s phones were not tampered with

Francois Möller. Picture: Mahira Duval

Francois Möller. Picture: Mahira Duval

Published Nov 1, 2024

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Cape Town - A forensic cellphone analyst says there is no evidence that the cellphones of a Cape Flats mom accused of planning the grenade attack on the home of gang detective Charl Kinnear were tampered with.

Francois Möller took to the stand at the Western Cape High Court on Thursday where he provided Judge Robert Henney with an in- depth explanation of the recovery of data from the cellphones of Jantjies.

This comes after legal teams questioned the evidence presented by the Hawks against Jantjies and her ex-boyfriend Janick Adonis in the mammoth underworld trial centred on the murder of slain Anti-Gang Unit detective.

The Cape Flats duo are accused of orchestrating various attacks on Kinnear’s Bishop Lavis home in November 2019 which included the grenade incident.

They face several counts of conspiracy to commit murder after explosive texts, calls and voice notes found on Jantjies’ phones revealed she liaised with at least five co-conspirators to attack the Kinnear home.

Möller, who testified against notorious 28s gang boss George ‘Geweld’ Thomas several years ago, was flown in from Johannesburg to explain the analysis of the phones.

The former police officer who specialises in the forensic analysis of cellphones said the data from the devices were first extracted by police officers in December 2019 and he received the phones a year later to assess whether there had been any tampering with the information.

Möller explained that investigators initially found 181 138 media files but as he had used the latest version of the XRY software he was able to retrieve 192 201 files. Addressing Henney, he explained that if the devices had been tampered with he would have found fewer files, not more.

The most contentious issue was a claim made by Jantjies that audio files where she allegedly recorded meetings at the AGU base with Major-General Andre Lincoln were deleted by cops after her arrest.

Möller confirmed that he had found over 20 deleted files but these were not the files as alleged by Jantjies.

In the cross-examination he explained that the files obtained on the phones where the voice recorder function of the cellphone only had four files. These four files were duly played and described during proceedings.

The trial continues.

Cape Argus