Sam Healey represented a client who was jointly charged alongside five others in relation to an allegation of conspiracy to commit murder, in addition to other counts of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm and violent disorder. It was suggested by the prosecution that the client had conspired with others to plan and execute an attack on a group of individuals who were working in the local area. It was suggested that the attack was arranged following an earlier altercation between the client’s brother and a group of individuals where injuries had been caused. It was further suggested that there were more than 15 individuals who had been called upon to provide support in the attack that took place.

The prosecution case relied heavily on telephone call records and cell site analysis, in addition to CCTV evidence and eyewitness accounts. Also, in order to assist the Jury in interpreting the relevance of calls and the location of individuals, diagrams and coloured charts were prepared to aid the Jury in not only understanding the information, but also in the hope that the Jury would agree with the suggested inferences that should be drawn from the information.

In order to rebut the suggested adverse inferences by the prosecution, through careful scrutiny of the CCTV evidence, raw call data records and having independent experts analyse the area that the cell site masts covered, we were able to present a robust defence case that showed that our client could not have been part of the altercation. In addition, that our client was located elsewhere (albeit in close proximity to the altercation) and that the theory and interpretation by the prosecution of the sequence of events was fundamentally flawed. Through this expert analysis of the prosecution case and careful preparation, we were ultimately able to show to the Jury that the prosecution’s case rested on one call. A call that lasted a number of seconds and that they were being invited by the prosecution to find our client guilty of conspiring with others to commit murder (with five others), let alone having sufficient time to introduce himself on the call and explain the reason for the call.

It probably comes as no surprise that Sam Healey and Andrea Lock of counsel (Barrister at 9 St John Street) was able to secure a unanimous acquittal of their client on all counts that he faced.