Prosecutors have asked the Court of Appeal to review a judge’s ruling on evidence related to mobile phone masts, claiming that it will present ongoing difficulties in criminal trials.
The appeal was taken following the acquittal of two persons for their alleged role in a historic crime.
Details of the persons and the alleged crime cannot be published as they are not presently charged with any offence.
The judge’s ruling was made on the question of whether records from mobile phone masts could be relied upon to place individual phones and accused persons at relevant locations at relevant times.
Prosecuting counsel in the case told the Court of Appeal on Thursday that it had not been alleged that any of the accused were in a particular location but that they were in a general location.
Exactly where calls examined in the case were made had never been established, nor could it, he said.
However, if a call was routed through a particular cell site, the call wasn’t made from the other side of the country, but was made from within the cell site’s coverage, he said.
It was real evidence, he said, that those calls were made at that time and the conclusion to be drawn was a matter for the jury.
He said the judge extended the requirement necessary to adduce such evidence and had done so in error.
‘Ongoing difficulties’
If the error was not corrected by the Court of Appeal, counsel said, ongoing difficulties would persist and present themselves in criminal trials.
Mr Justice George Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the court would reserve judgment.