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Wednesday 29 May 2013
Investigation officer denies he mentioned bolts, nuts or pulleys
The last day of the coroner’s inquiry into the death of American engineer Shane Todd ended with conflicting accounts from his parents and an investigation officer called to the scene of the death.
Investigation officer denies he mentioned bolts, nuts or pulleys
He and Todd’s parents also appear to clash on who first found the hard drive
Nisha Ramchandani 28 May 2013
The last day of the coroner’s inquiry into the death of American engineer Shane Todd ended with conflicting accounts from his parents and an investigation officer called to the scene of the death.
Two major points of contention relate to the chain of events that unfolded in the days after Mr Todd was found in his Chinatown apartment last June 24, hanged by a strap from a bathroom door.
Sergeant Muhammad Khaldun Bin Sarif, 23, the last witness on the stand yesterday, rounded off testimony presented in court by a total of 40 witnesses over the past two weeks.
Denying Richard and Mary Todds’ version of events at his first meeting with them on June 27, 2012, he said he briefly described to them only the circumstances of the death, and made no mention of bolts, nuts or pulleys.
With Mr and Mrs Todd having walked out of court abruptly last week, their version of events, given in statements, was read out by state counsel yesterday.
In her statement, Mrs Todd said of Sgt Khaldun’s briefing to her and her husband: “It was an extremely detailed and complex explanation that included holes and bolts drilled in the wall, attached to ropes and pulleys slung around the toilet and over the door to form a noose.”
The Todd family has flown back to the United States, having walked out of the inquiry mid-way, expressing doubts on the transparency and fairness of the proceedings.
Sgt Khaldun, referring to Mrs Todd’s statement, said: “I do not see any reason for me to mention nuts, bolts or pulleys to the next-of-kin, given that there was no evidence (of such).” He also told the court that the scene bore no signs of a struggle or indication of foul play.
Senior State Counsel Tai Wei Shyong told the court yesterday that he had been informed by the US Embassy that Traci Goins from the embassy, who was at the June 27 meeting between the Todds and Sgt Khaldun, was unable to assist with the proceedings.
Sgt Khaldun also met the Todds two days later in their son’s apartment, where Mrs Todd said she asked him why she could find no evidence of holes, screws or ropes in the bathroom.
Her statement read: “At first, they denied all the details I had vividly remembered him reading to us. He (Sgt Khaldun) told me that I must have misunderstood what he said.”
She went on to add that the police were unable to release a copy of the report that was read to her as investigations were ongoing.
Sgt Khaldun said he told Mrs Todd her son had been found hanged with his back against the bathroom door; as she was “emotional”, he did not want to agitate her further.
Mr Todd’s parents and he also appeared to clash on another point, namely, who first found a certain hard drive in Mr Todd’s apartment.
In his account, Sgt Khaldun said he had found it in the apartment on June 24, and taken it to the police station. On June 27, he checked the drive for evidence, and then returned it - together with other belongings - to Mr Todd’s parents the next day.
Mrs Todd acknowledged the return of several items, including the hard drive, by signing an acknowledgement slip, the court heard.
But in their statements, both Mr and Mrs Todd insist they found the hard drive in their son’s apartment themselves and had taken it back to the US with them, where they gave it to computer forensics expert Ashraf Massoud.
Mr Massoud’s finding - that someone had accessed some files in the hard drive after Mr Todd’s death - led the Todds to believe that their son was murdered and the hard drive accessed by an unidentified individual.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has examined the hard drive in the Todds’ possession and concluded in a report that the drive and the one the police took from the scene of the death were one and the same.
Last week, Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam expressed his regret that the Todd family had chosen to leave the inquiry, as their presence could have explained the conflict in evidence and their main assertions.
The Todds walked out of the proceedings on May 21, the same day their key witness, medical examiner Edward Adelstein, recanted part of his earlier statement, though he maintains Mr Todd was murdered.
Mr and Mrs Todd believe their son was killed because of a classified military project he was working on for his former employer, the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Chinese telco Huawei. They say their son had told them that he was “in some form of danger”.
But Dim-Lee Kwong, IME’s executive director, stressed that IME does not have a military project for Huawei.
The two parties had been in talks for a power amplifier with commercial applications, but the deal fell through as they could not agree on some technical aspects of it.
The court was also told that Mr Todd’s mobile phone, seized by police, showed outgoing data activity from June 25 to 29. Sgt Khaldun said he had left Mr Todd’s mobile phone on to monitor calls and texts as part of the investigation.
A StarHub employee yesterday, referring to the data activity on the phone between those two dates, suggested that it could be from applications left running in the background. He said that StarHub no longer had the detailed logs of the applications accessed, as the telco typically deletes these every three months.
The Todds’ team of lawyers, led by counsel Gloria James-Civetta, had tried to show that there were flaws in the way police investigations were carried out, including in the handling of material evidence.
In the course of the inquiry, the court heard that Mr Todd’s Internet history showed he was surfing suicide-related websites. In particular, he accessed 51 such sites on June 23, 2012, the day before he was found.
In an email message seen by BT, Mr Todd, who had a job offer from US firm Nuvotronics, had been asked by the firm whether he had any level of security clearance from the US Department of Defense (DOD).
IME’s counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, pointing to Mr Todd’s Internet history - which included searches on entry level separation, a military discharge term - asked Prof Kwong whether a history of depression could affect DOD security clearance.
Prof Kwong said yes.
Mr Todd served in the US Air Force in 2003, when he suffered from depression.
The inquiry concluded yesterday, a day ahead of schedule. The verdict is due on July 8.
2 comments:
Investigation officer denies he mentioned bolts, nuts or pulleys
He and Todd’s parents also appear to clash on who first found the hard drive
Nisha Ramchandani
28 May 2013
The last day of the coroner’s inquiry into the death of American engineer Shane Todd ended with conflicting accounts from his parents and an investigation officer called to the scene of the death.
Two major points of contention relate to the chain of events that unfolded in the days after Mr Todd was found in his Chinatown apartment last June 24, hanged by a strap from a bathroom door.
Sergeant Muhammad Khaldun Bin Sarif, 23, the last witness on the stand yesterday, rounded off testimony presented in court by a total of 40 witnesses over the past two weeks.
Denying Richard and Mary Todds’ version of events at his first meeting with them on June 27, 2012, he said he briefly described to them only the circumstances of the death, and made no mention of bolts, nuts or pulleys.
With Mr and Mrs Todd having walked out of court abruptly last week, their version of events, given in statements, was read out by state counsel yesterday.
In her statement, Mrs Todd said of Sgt Khaldun’s briefing to her and her husband: “It was an extremely detailed and complex explanation that included holes and bolts drilled in the wall, attached to ropes and pulleys slung around the toilet and over the door to form a noose.”
The Todd family has flown back to the United States, having walked out of the inquiry mid-way, expressing doubts on the transparency and fairness of the proceedings.
Sgt Khaldun, referring to Mrs Todd’s statement, said: “I do not see any reason for me to mention nuts, bolts or pulleys to the next-of-kin, given that there was no evidence (of such).” He also told the court that the scene bore no signs of a struggle or indication of foul play.
Senior State Counsel Tai Wei Shyong told the court yesterday that he had been informed by the US Embassy that Traci Goins from the embassy, who was at the June 27 meeting between the Todds and Sgt Khaldun, was unable to assist with the proceedings.
Sgt Khaldun also met the Todds two days later in their son’s apartment, where Mrs Todd said she asked him why she could find no evidence of holes, screws or ropes in the bathroom.
Her statement read: “At first, they denied all the details I had vividly remembered him reading to us. He (Sgt Khaldun) told me that I must have misunderstood what he said.”
She went on to add that the police were unable to release a copy of the report that was read to her as investigations were ongoing.
Sgt Khaldun said he told Mrs Todd her son had been found hanged with his back against the bathroom door; as she was “emotional”, he did not want to agitate her further.
Mr Todd’s parents and he also appeared to clash on another point, namely, who first found a certain hard drive in Mr Todd’s apartment.
In his account, Sgt Khaldun said he had found it in the apartment on June 24, and taken it to the police station. On June 27, he checked the drive for evidence, and then returned it - together with other belongings - to Mr Todd’s parents the next day.
Mrs Todd acknowledged the return of several items, including the hard drive, by signing an acknowledgement slip, the court heard.
But in their statements, both Mr and Mrs Todd insist they found the hard drive in their son’s apartment themselves and had taken it back to the US with them, where they gave it to computer forensics expert Ashraf Massoud.
Mr Massoud’s finding - that someone had accessed some files in the hard drive after Mr Todd’s death - led the Todds to believe that their son was murdered and the hard drive accessed by an unidentified individual.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has examined the hard drive in the Todds’ possession and concluded in a report that the drive and the one the police took from the scene of the death were one and the same.
Last week, Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam expressed his regret that the Todd family had chosen to leave the inquiry, as their presence could have explained the conflict in evidence and their main assertions.
The Todds walked out of the proceedings on May 21, the same day their key witness, medical examiner Edward Adelstein, recanted part of his earlier statement, though he maintains Mr Todd was murdered.
Mr and Mrs Todd believe their son was killed because of a classified military project he was working on for his former employer, the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Chinese telco Huawei. They say their son had told them that he was “in some form of danger”.
But Dim-Lee Kwong, IME’s executive director, stressed that IME does not have a military project for Huawei.
The two parties had been in talks for a power amplifier with commercial applications, but the deal fell through as they could not agree on some technical aspects of it.
The court was also told that Mr Todd’s mobile phone, seized by police, showed outgoing data activity from June 25 to 29. Sgt Khaldun said he had left Mr Todd’s mobile phone on to monitor calls and texts as part of the investigation.
A StarHub employee yesterday, referring to the data activity on the phone between those two dates, suggested that it could be from applications left running in the background. He said that StarHub no longer had the detailed logs of the applications accessed, as the telco typically deletes these every three months.
The Todds’ team of lawyers, led by counsel Gloria James-Civetta, had tried to show that there were flaws in the way police investigations were carried out, including in the handling of material evidence.
In the course of the inquiry, the court heard that Mr Todd’s Internet history showed he was surfing suicide-related websites. In particular, he accessed 51 such sites on June 23, 2012, the day before he was found.
In an email message seen by BT, Mr Todd, who had a job offer from US firm Nuvotronics, had been asked by the firm whether he had any level of security clearance from the US Department of Defense (DOD).
IME’s counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, pointing to Mr Todd’s Internet history - which included searches on entry level separation, a military discharge term - asked Prof Kwong whether a history of depression could affect DOD security clearance.
Prof Kwong said yes.
Mr Todd served in the US Air Force in 2003, when he suffered from depression.
The inquiry concluded yesterday, a day ahead of schedule. The verdict is due on July 8.
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