But if Mark did phone home from abroad it does show that he did so secretly out of Senta's earshot or elsewhere when not in her company.
We've had a chance to go over the transcripts in more depth and found that Mark did at least mention to her that he'd tried to get in touch with his father on Christmas day:
"I don't know what contact he made with his father, but I think he said over Christmas he had called his father... I was not actually personally aware of any contact by Mark with his father over Christmas".We know from her testimony that this was quite normal. The Judge summed up her evidence to the jury as follows:
"Her impression was, she said, that Mark cared for his father deeply, but she acknowledged that Mark's father's relationship with Mark was very different from the relationship she had with her parents".
"She said that when during her relationship Mark ever took any phone calls from his father he would normally go out of the room so he could talk privately to his father, 'and he told me he didn't like speaking to his father when others were around' and that perhaps he was embarrassed to do so... 'He told me sometimes he didn't like to go into details about his father... In our relationship Mark often glossed over the topic'"In her original statement to the police she explained that
"Mark seemed embarrassed about the relationship with his Dad, I think this is because I have a very good and informal relationship with my Mum which is so different from mark and his Dad... Early on in the relationship I quickly understood that Mark didn't like talking about his Dad, so I didn't really question him about his Dad or family... I know Mark respected his Dad so they were close in that sense... Mark's phone would ring, and Mark would always leave the room to take the call in private, and once he had finished he would tell me it was his Dad. He didn't like me or anyone overhearing his calls. As long as I've known Mark... Mark would make calls to his Dad when I was not around, again I believe this is because of privacy reasons... he would always delete his Dad's emails as he was embarrassed of the formal relationship he had with him and didn't want me reading them."I have raised this with Mark and he said this is totally untrue and he is sending me the trial transcript which shows totally the opposite.
Daisy is right of course, though if Mark is sending you the transcripts we might be pre-empting what he has to say.
Certainly in her witness statement of 6 February, she explained that "Mark’s father was aware that Mark and I were boyfriend and girlfriend", and she repeated this evidence on the stand. Sami mentioned it to a number of other people too, including one of the contractors he hired: "Last summer I saw Samuel, I knew Mark had a girlfriend. Sami said he had a new girlfriend. He said Mark had had a holiday with his girlfriend".