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in a similar vein to a warning from Wormald. He had been told by the FBI that Dotcom: “Carries a device to delete servers around the world.”

The information, along with details of a possible safe room, was then passed onto the STG sergeant.

The means of the assault were also considered closely. An approach on foot was ruled out, for fear of electronic warning beams playing across the carefully manicured lawns. Anyone running through the beams would alert the mansion to intruders — as would any dog patrols on mansion grounds. The exposed nature of the lawns also reduced the number of potential hiding places, a problem made worse by the belief security staff wore night vision goggles.

Police also considered using a van but were troubled by the need to get through the low mansion gates. “Trojan Horse good if access,” the sergeant wrote, describing a plan to hide the assault team in the back of a van to sneak them onto the property. It was the “preferred” and most common method used by the STG, the sergeant said. In this case, it would have needed 12-14 armed officers to scrunch together in the back of a single van — using two, the sergeant said, would raise suspicions. It was possible to send one van ahead, secure the gatehouse, and then send the team to raid the mansion in two vans immediately after.

Instead, there was another column. “Air”, it read — possibly even by military helicopter, the sergeant explained. Civilian helicopters were considered more “moderate”. Davison pointed the sergeant to the notes taken during the 5.30pm briefing by the STG Inspector who was assessing Wormald’s needs for the operation which would end Operation Debut, the code name for the Dotcom raid. The inspector’s notes asked if an airborne entry to the property was “overt, over the top for fraud?” The inspector’s question prompted Davison to ask what equivalent examples there were. He couldn’t recall any fraud cases in which the STG had been involved but explained STG assistance wasn’t about the charge being faced, but about the risk posed. The sergeant said: “Fraud is clearly not a violence offence. Well, we accepted that. However, there were some concerns around the possibility (for violence).”

So Davison moved onto the question of risk.

THE DOCUMENT ON which the STG involvement was based had a check list which was used to assess the level of danger posed to police and others. It asked:

Does the subject have access to weapons? Yes

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