FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) — A forensic analyst Friday contested prosecutors’ assertions that a Virginia man and the family’s au pair used his wife’s computer and cell phone to orchestrate an elaborate double murder.
The testimony, from an expert in digital forensics, came during the eighth day in the trial of Brendan Banfield, 40, accused in the Feb. 24, 2023, killings of his wife, Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39.
Prosecutors argue that Banfield, alongside au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães, 25, concocted a catfishing plan to lure a man they didn’t know — Ryan — to the house for a fantasy rape in which Christine Banfield would be the victim. Reportedly posing as Christine Banfield, they contacted Ryan through a fetish website. As part of the ruse, prosecutors say, they used her tech devices…