Alleged EncroChat 'drug boss' James Harding 'not biological father of girl he brought up' as court also hears of 'missing messages'

Alleged drug boss James Harding is not the biological father of a girl he was bringing up as his daughter, his trial heard today.

Harding, 34, alleged by the prosecution, to be a "cocaine kingpin", who controlled an operation importing cocaine to the UK that generated £5million in profit in only ten weeks, from a luxury Dubai villa, was ruled out as being the girl's biological father by DNA tests for both the defence and prosecution, the Old Bailey heard today.

Harding, (seen in selfies shown to the jury below) who is also on trial for plotting the murder of a drug courier on the encrypted EncroChat phone system, earlier told the court all the incriminating EncroChat messages the prosecution alleges he sent, were actually sent by his "secret male lover," who he claimed was the girl's real dad.

French police infiltrated the supposedly secure Encrypted EncroChat mobile phone system, being used by huge numbers of organised criminals across Europe, in April 2020.

They gained access to huge numbers of messages and allowed the British National Crime Agency (NCA) access to those sent by British users.

The prosecution claims the messages showed Harding controlled the huge drugs operation from Dubai using an EncroChat mobile phone with the handle "thetopsking".

The court was shown selfies of Harding sent on the phone by thetopsking and messages in which the handle appeared to discuss personal aspects of Harding's life and make family arrangements.

But, Harding, who has denied throughout his defence being thetopsking, has claimed the unnamed father of the girl sent selfies of him from the phone, because they were embroiled in an affair behind the back of the girl's mother who Harding was living with in Dubai.

Harding claims this was all funded by thetopsking, so he could be close to his daughter, who he fathered when he was with Harding's girlfriend at an earlier time.

Harding denies one count of evading a prohibition on the importation of cocaine and another of conspiracy to murder.

Today the trial also heard from Professor Sarah Morris, a digital forensics expert from the University of Southampton, who studied the EncroChat data for the defence.

She told the court that "hashing" was a "mathematical process" that allows experts to assess the accuracy of the dates that data was created.

She said that if the dates on any date were changed then the "hash" would also be changed.

Clare Montgomery KC, defending Harding, said it was agreed by the prosecution that the French police had not provided any hash information with any of the EncroChat data provided to British police, and Ms Morris confirmed that she had not seen any.

Ms Montgomery also said that former NCA officer Luke Shrimpton, who is now a private witness for the agency, after performing his own tests on the EncroChat data, had earlier told the jury that about 80 or 90 per cent of the overall EncroChat messages sent on the phones was "missing".

Asked by Ms Montgomery about that, Ms Morris, said: "To have such a high level missing makes it very challenging to understand the context.

"The missing date could substantially alter the context of the messages... it would make it very difficult to context the data, as in understanding the flow of the conversation - was it a joke? Or how quickly the messages were flowing. These kind of things."

During cross examination of Ms Morris, Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said the French had used a system called rsync to look for any errors in the EncroChat data and none had been found.

He suggested Ms Morris had no criticism of how the data had been passed from Europol to the NCA and no cross referencing of messages had been identified.

He said: "This was done by technicians and there were checks done and they were designed to ensure the integrity of the data."

He also said if investigators were "looking at streams of messages" between users A to D, who were all discussing same theme and event, does that not suggest reliability?

Especially if there was separate evidence that they had attended the event discussed and supporting images had been sent.

But, Harding has insisted thetopsking was sending information about him in messages as their lives were entwined during the affair he said began at the end of 2019 and continued through the alleged offending period in the first half of 2020.

The defence has produced messages not raised by the prosecution that it claims show Harding messaging thetopskig about their affair.

The court has heard that Harding was previously jailed for involvement with "legal highs".

He relocated to Merseyside in 2011 where he met his partner, who had a daughter born in 2010, and began an on-off relationship.

In August 2012 he was arrested and charged with drugs offences and possession of false ID documents, jurors were told.

He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to prison in October 2013.

While in prison, his girlfriend rekindled her relationship with her daughter's father - the man behind thetopsking account, Harding said.

But, upon his release in 2016, she got back with Harding, and she moved in with him in Alton, Hampshire, with her daughter, the court heard.

But thetopsking, who Harding described as being very rich, wanted to remain involved in his daughter's life, the court heard.

Harding said that in 2019, thetopsking, who he said was "very generous", paid for the three of them to move close to him in a four-bedroom villa at the exclusive The Nest development (above) in Al Barari, Dubai.

He paid all their rent, bills and for a family car, he said, so he could be part of the girl's life.

But, while living as a family unit with the mum and daughter, Harding began an intense affair with thetopsking from 2019, the court was told.

He said he had always found thetopsking, who was referred to as "TK", good-looking and charming.

After they were left alone in TK's villa after a night out in late 2019, things became sexual, he said.

He said: "TK and I were drinking, and drinking quite a lot, and we ended up becoming intimate.

"I wasn't proud of myself at all. I felt disgusted with myself."

When asked by Ms Montgomery if he would reveal "TK's" real name to the jury, Harding said: "No, I can't."

He said it would be too dangerous for him and he could be attacked in prison.

Harding went on to describe why TK had images of him on his EncroChat phone.

He said that during the relationship, TK would often ask for selfies and hand him his phone to take one.

He felt flattered that someone found him so attractive, he told the court.

But, he did not know why TK was then sometimes sending them to his associates, while discussing drug deals, as if it was him.

He had been very annoyed when he found out about one instance but TK had brushed it off as a joke, he said.

The jury was read messages, that had not been introduced in evidence by the prosecution, in which the defence allege that Harding and thetopsking are discussing time they spent together.

The prosecution case is that Harding is thetopsking who revealed much of the former's personal information as his own in messages, including exercise sessions, family events, his prison history and the death of his grandfather.

Harding suggested the messages were confusing because he and thetopsking had discussed the respective deaths of their grandfathers around the same time.

But, he told the court he had no understanding of why TK would have used some of his photos and personal information as if they were his own.

Mr Atkinson earlier told the court that said Harding had been so assured by the EncroChat encryption, that he sent "pictures of himself to people who clearly knew him' and 'made reference to locations and events" at which he could be shown to have been present.

He said that on May 14 2020, thetopsking messaged that he was staying at the five-star Waldorf hotel in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, for the weekend, and sent an image of the hotel pool area via EncroChat.

Mr Atkinson said: "Enquiries with the Hilton Hotel Group showed that Harding stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in the United Arab Emirates and gave (his) mobile telephone number and produced a UAE identification card.

"During the stay, thetopsking had sent an image of James Harding relaxing on a sun lounger at, of all places, the Waldorf.

"Was thetopsking staying at the same hotel as Harding at the same time, and sending images of Harding at its pool for some unexplained reason or was thetopsking in fact James Harding?"

But, asked about this, Harding said thetopsking was also at the hotel at the same time as him as they were in a group of about 20 people, including his girlfriend and her daughter.

Harding's co-accused Jayes Kharouti, 39, from Epsom, Surrey, who is alleged to be Harding's right-hand man, admitted in November to using two EncroChat handles: "besttops" and "topsybricks".

He also admitted one count of evading a prohibition on the importation of cocaine, but denies any involvement in the murder conspiracy.

The jury was told 9,136 messages were sent via EncroChat between besttops and thetopsking between March and June 2020.

At the time they were unaware French police had infiltrated the encrypted platform in April 2020 and had made historic and ongoing messages available to police across Europe, including the NCA, which investigated and handed other cases to local police forces, including Met Police.

Harding and Kharouti are also alleged to have discussed the plan to shoot dead another drug courier during a "cryp robbery".

The plan developed over time, and on May 25, 2020 there were further messages involving Harding and Kharouti which referred to a hit, locations for it, and the use of a bike and a strap (gun).

Kharouti contacted an associate asking for assistance to source a stolen car and Glock machine gun, before he also offered to source a gunman for the contract killing, which is understood to never have happened, the court heard.

Harding was asked if his girlfriend or her daughter had known about the affair with TK at any stage and he said "no".

He said he did not tell his solicitor until six months after he was extradited to the UK from Geneva in May 2022, because he had hoped the EncroChat evidence would be ruled as inadmissible.

He said: "I never admitted to anyone that I'm bisexual. I did not want it to come out this way."

The trial continues.