Sponsored by
Murder-claim tapes unreliable – expert
AN expert in voice recognition said recordings in which a murder suspect allegedly confesses are inconclusive.
During a March 2005 bugging operation, 52 tapes were made of conversations which took place in Mohammed Reveshi's car and his Hornby Road, Blackpool, flat.
Charlene Downes trial archives
Mum weeps over daughter's gruesome death
"Blood on the walls" Charlene murder trial told
Charlene accused 'felt bit like serial killer'
For more archive stories see below
He is alleged to have disposed of the body of missing resort teenager Charlene Downes.
During the police operation Reveshi and co-accused Iyad Albattikhi are said by the prosecution to have discussed killing 14-year-old Charlene.
The prosecution and both the defendants' barristers have provided transcripts of what they claim the defendants said on those tapes.
Christopher Mills, a voice recognition expert brought in by Reveshi's defence team, said the fact all transcripts differed so much on their translations made them unreliable sources of evidence.
He added: "There isn't a bit of kit that you can put these tapes into and they provide you with a transcript, it's down to interpretation.
"I presume there will be bits I've got which other people haven't and bits they have which I haven't got.
"There is no machine that you can feed these tapes into and it nicely types it out for you. It's an individual thing.
"The problem with this is you would expect people who work in the industry to have some sort of correlation between transcripts.
Biased
"If two people write out a transcript and they were 95 per cent correlated you could say that the transcript would be fairly reliable.
"I would say the reliability here would be low if you cannot correlate the different versions."
Mr Mills also warned the jury that having a transcript while listening to something tends to make people biased translators.
He added: "I think sometimes when a transcript is in front of you and you're listening you tend to hear what you are reading. We are trained in a way so we can divert that.
"If the quality of what you are listening to is poor you can be influenced by what you are reading."
When asked about Tape 44, in which detectives believed they could hear reference to Charlene's body being put into a mincing machine, Mr Mills said it was the hardest to make out.
He added: "The quality is very low. It caused me the most problems when trying to transcribe it and relate that to other transcriptions."
The jury at Preston Crown Court had previously heard Charlene was murdered after one or both of the men became involved in a sexual relationship with the former St George's High School pupil.
Charlene, of Buchanan Street, Blackpool, has not been seen since November 2003.
Takeaway owner Albattikhi, 30, of Dickson Road, Blackpool, denies murder. Reveshi, 50, has pleaded not guilty to disposing of the body.
(Proceeding)
Other Charlene archives
Charlene received chilling letter
Kill stories are "fiction" jury is told
Murder trial: 'I am not lying about Charlene'
Charlene suspect 'sobbed in car' claim police
Police tell Charlene trial: "It was no set-up"
Charlene jury told how accused 'confessed'
Charlene trial: "Why did you kill her?"
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Blackpool
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: West
