FORMAL WITNESS INTERVIEW

SUBJECT: Chief Officer Ben Okoro

CLASSIFICATION: OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE // INVESTIGATION

REFERENCE: CONTROLLED COPY // COT/JOINT/2035/CTC034

Document control

CASE REFERENCE: COT/JOINT/2035/CTC034

SUBJECT: Chief Officer Ben Okoro

CENTRAL RECORD: COT933C7C9A19335

RANK / APPOINTMENT: Chief Officer

ORGANISATION: MV Solace civilian crew

VESSEL / POSTING: MV Solace

DATE OF BIRTH: 1995-01-22

PLACE / NATIONALITY: Unknown, Unknown, Not established; likely British or Commonwealth maritime background, not locked

INTERVIEW STATUS: Witness / account holder

LOCATION: Secure interview suite — location withheld

DATE: 19 September 2035

LEAD AUTHORITY: Joint Investigation Team

RECORDING MEDIA: Two sealed digital masters and one independent evidential hash

DISTRIBUTION: Named recipients only. No automated onward distribution.

NOTE: Handling notice. This document contains operational, personal and evidential material. It may be read only by a person with both the required clearance and a recorded need to know. Extraction of images, transcript segments or metadata creates a new controlled copy.

Identity and visual evidence control

VISUAL ASSET STATUS: Passport image: not attached; dossier image frames available: 0; surveillance frames available: 0; identity match: asset missing or unmapped.

IDENTITY EXHIBIT P-01 // NOT ATTACHED. No matching passport-style WebP asset is present in assets/images/character/passport for this subject.

Visual asset review note: Missing: no Ben Okoro passport or surveillance asset found.

Reason for interview or reconstruction

This record concerns the subject's knowledge of events, communications and decisions under active investigation. The scope of this record is confined to the matters set out above and to evidence formally introduced during the session.

Preliminary investigator note

The subject arrived before the scheduled time, requested confirmation that the recording route was isolated, and inspected the exhibit seals before answering substantive questions.

Recorded interview transcript

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: State your full name for the record.

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Chief Officer Ben Okoro

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Do you understand the status of this interview and the limits placed on distribution?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Yes. I also understand that a classification marking is a handling instruction, not proof of integrity.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Have you been offered the representation, legal advice or staff support applicable to this procedure?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Yes.

DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-01 Retained extract: Investigators retained a record concerning the retained record concerning Chief Officer Ben Okoro.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: I saw what happened. I did not know then what it meant. I will not improve my memory to make the chronology easier.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: What did you understand at that moment, before later analysis supplied a larger explanation?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: The record may be right. I can only tell you what was in front of me. Check the physical record against the unprocessed record before you accept the later label.

DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-02 Retained extract: Investigators retained a record concerning the retained record concerning Chief Officer Ben Okoro.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: That is broadly how I remember it. I cannot confirm the exact time from memory. the person who held the contemporaneous log can confirm the sequence, but not necessarily the interpretation.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Who else was physically present and capable of confirming your account without relying on the same electronic record?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: That is broadly how I remember it. I cannot confirm the exact time from memory. The missing interval matters more than the wording placed around it afterwards.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Are you saying the official record is wrong?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: I am saying it may be accurate about the event and wrong about the cause.

DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-03 Retained extract: Investigators retained a record concerning the retained record concerning Chief Officer Ben Okoro.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: I am not refusing the question. I am separating what I remember from what I learned afterwards. the person who held the contemporaneous log can confirm the sequence, but not necessarily the interpretation.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Why was the matter not escalated through the ordinary reporting route?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: That is broadly how I remember it. I cannot confirm the exact time from memory. The missing interval matters more than the wording placed around it afterwards.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Is there any material fact you have withheld because you consider this recording or its distribution unsafe?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Yes. The existence of that fact is the most I will place in this copy.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: What is the single next action this investigation should take?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Speak to the people who were physically present before asking another database to explain them.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Do you wish to add or correct anything before the recording is suspended?

CHIEF OFFICER BEN OKORO: Yes. Do not improve the certainty of my answers in the written summary.

[Recording suspended. Source media sealed. Any resumed session requires a new opening declaration and exhibit schedule.]

Confidential investigator assessment

The account is internally consistent on physical chronology but remains deliberately limited on attribution. No adverse inference should be drawn from refusal to expose a source through a distribution route the subject challenged at the start.

Actions and inconsistencies outstanding

1. Recover acquisition authority, original-resolution files and adjacent frames for every surveillance exhibit.

NOTE: Finding limit. Nothing in this record establishes guilt, operational direction or final causation unless expressly stated as a supported finding. A valid credential, image or system entry proves only what that item can independently support.

LEAD INVESTIGATOR — sealed electronic signature held separately

Evidence custodian — receipt and hash recorded

END OF CONTROLLED RECORD — CTC-034