Step data ‘not admissible’ in murder trial
Written by admin on October 13, 2024
A NSW judge has ruled that data recorded by the iPhone’s Health app cannot be used as evidence as part of a murder trial, setting a precedence in Australia that is out of step globally.
Sydney man Bahra Youseff was found guilty following a trial on the murder of Adnan Salameh, who was shot in front of his partner in a granny flat in Sydney’s west in 2020.
This week, the judge in charge of the case – Justice Sarah McNaughton SC – published a decision that revealed vital data recorded on Youseff’s phone was excluded from the trial.
Youseff’s data proved that he was in the vicinity of Salameh when the murder occurred and arrived and departed at the times alleged by police.
Ms McNaughton, however, did not allow the police prosecutors to use the data, ruling that step count data was “not necessarily an accurate representation” of the steps taken by the person with the iPhone.
She noted that step data on Apple’s Health data had an error rate of about 2 per cent and said that “false positives” could have been recorded.
“The probative value of the evidence is substantially outweighed by the danger that the evidence might be misleading,” she said.
Despite the evidence being excluded, the jury still found Youseff guilty.
He will be sentenced on November 12.
The ruling is in opposition to many countries globally, with murder cases in both the US and Germany allowing step data to be admitted as evidence.
Other states in Australia have already ruled data from smart devices can be used as evidence.
In 2018, data collected from a smartwatch worn by an Adelaide grandmother brutally attacked in her home led to the arrest of her daughter-in-law.
Her daughter-in-law was found in their driveway gagged and distressed, telling police they had been victims of a home invasion.
However, the Apple Watch data was at odds with her version of events and she was charged with murder.
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The court heard how the data showed that the daughter waited three hours after her mum’s death before calling police.
She was found not guilty of murder, however, a second jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of manslaughter.
Iphone step data has been successfully admitted into evidence in court cases around the world, including a 2018 German murder trial and a 2023 double murder trial in South Carolina. Other types of data recorded by Apple’s Health app have also been used, including heart rate data from a victim to ascertain the time of an attack.
