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be the chance to wring some answers from his tormentors, forced into court to explain their actions.

Chief Judge Winkelmann's ownership of the case at the High Court was distinct from the extradition case's place in New Zealand's "lower" District Court. While the eventual case would be heard in the latter, any appeals or judicial challenges along the way had to be heard in the High Court — then, if challenged, at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. While other judges handled appeal on bail or arguments over access to funds, Chief Judge Winkelmann took on questions around access to FBI evidence and the legality of search warrants.

The question over the warrants had been raised by Davison and Foley. There was, Davison said, limited chance to challenge the charges against Dotcom without the information required to do so. There was the question of discovery (decided by Judge Harvey and later fought over in higher courts) but there was also the personal material seized during the raid. Police records show the extent of the seizures — taken from the mansion were 19 laptops, 19 iPhones, six iPad or tablet devices and 10 other mobile phones, some of which were smartphones of various models, along with dozens of hard or zip drives. During three hearings over the search warrant, in May and June 2012, he said the devices held personal material and data which had no relation to the case. It had been the centre of negotiations over cloning — copying entire computer hard drives — between the USA and lawyers for Dotcom and the three other accused men.

There was an embarrassing retreat on the issue of cloning the seized material by the Crown's lawyers. After spending the better part of a morning arguing against cloning the drives, because of the potential for accidental damage, they were forced to change tack when it emerged some had already been cloned. After a briefing during a break in the court hearing the Crown returned to explain clones had already been made by the FBI and sent offshore.

"How very convenient," said an exasperated Dotcom, throwing his hands up in mock astonishment.

The clones were sent despite a court instruction that the accused would be told before anything was sent. Crown Law appeared to have agreed — yet police seemed unaware of the restriction, having supplied the FBI with computers and hard drives to clone. The copies were then bundled and couriered to the United States.

The apparent bungle earned a sharp rebuke in a judgment from Winkelmann in a ruling which also found that the warrants issued for the raid were unlawful, making the raid itself illegal.

She itemised the failures in the search warrant used by police. When raid boss Detective Inspector Grant Wormald's second-in-command, Detective Sergeant Nigel McMorran, prepared documentation to get the

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