Origins of Mbenenge’s ‘explicit image’ undetermined: Expert
The Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations of sexual misconduct against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge heard, on Monday, that the origins of an alleged explicit image or WhatsApp sticker cannot be determined.
Mbenenge has denied claims from his accuser, High Court Secretary Andiswa Mengo, that he made inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances towards her nearly four years ago.
In her testimony before the tribunal in January, Mengo told the chair, retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe, that Mbenenge sent her images of his private parts.
Mengo presented screenshots of alleged WhatsApp exchanges between herself and the Judge President.
Cellphone expert Francois Moller was asked about the image, which was of a "pornographic nature”.
“When a sticker is just saved onto the gallery and the original message is deleted, then there is no way to determine the origin. So, where it came from – whether you created it yourself, whether you downloaded it from the internet, or whether you received it from an individual – it cannot be determined from the sticker itself.”
Earlier, Moller explained that once a record had been extracted from a device during a forensic investigation, it cannot be tampered with.
“The moment that the extraction of this specific device is started, and the information is saved to my computer, there is no way that I can go into the software and make any changes, delete or add any information to this report.”
Mbenenge has maintained that he will testify that the relations between himself and Mengo were consensual.
During his cross-examination of the complainant earlier this year, the Judge President’s lawyer, Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, focused on Mengo’s role in the exchange of messages to which she conceded the interactions could be perceived as consensual in part, and that she had omitted some message that she sent to the judge president from her evidence.
At the time, Mengo testified that she sometimes responded to the sexually suggestive messages from the judge president in a seemingly approving manner because she was afraid of what rejecting someone in such a senior position could mean for her employment.
Mengo denied being in a romantic relationship with Mbenenge.
ALSO READ:
