assessing credibility slides 24th november
TRANSCRIPT
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Assessing credibility
Leslie CuthbertCrown Court Recorder,
Tribunal Judge, Adjudicatorand Trainer for the Judicial College
and La Touche Training
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Session aims
By the end of the session you will have had an opportunity to:
Consider what demeanour is made up of.
Consider how much reliance should be put on demeanour in assessing a witness's evidence.
Become acquainted with some of the 'myths' surrounding the assessment of credibility.
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Exercise
You will need a pen and a piece of paper.
You have 2 minutes to write down as many
of the individual states of the United States
of America as you can remember by
yourself - no discussions!
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Why a session on assessing demeanour?
In parts of Germany in the 13th century the
hand of a believed victim of murder would
be brought in to court and given to the
suspected killer who, clad only in a loincloth,
would have to hold it and assert their
innocence 3 times. If the judge detected
signs of discomfort in either the Defendant
or the hand, guilt would be established.
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Watch the following and assess
the demeanour of the family
members
• Carmen Thomas -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtxfHeJw65E
• Stuart Hazell -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xRGr8KwGj
o
• Aisling Symes -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AByKwX9Yz
ms
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Five (suggested) aspects to demeanour
Can you identify them?
• Body language
• Facial expressions
• Tone of voice
• Style of speaking
• Content
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Demeanour as described by Lord
Bingham
"the sum of a witness'
conduct,
manner,
bearing,
behaviour,
delivery,
inflexion"
[1968] 2 Lloyd's Reports 5
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What indicators do you take from a
person's body language?
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What indicators do you take from a
person's facial expressions?
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Observing
Contempt Disgust
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What indicators do you take from a
person's tone of voice?
• A person telling the truth has nothing to fear
and therefore has no reason to stammer or
hesitate?
• Therefore people telling the truth will be
confident, spontaneous and relaxed.
• Will a person who is attempting to lie lower
their voice or alternatively will they speak in a
'squeaky' high pitched voice?
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What indicators do you take from a
person's style of talking?
• Aggressive.
• Passive.
• Assertive.
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What about the content of what
someone is saying?
• Often a better means of assessing a person's credibility.
• A form of 'forensic linguistic analysis’ helps to detect possible
deceit due to the increased cognitive load when lying.
• Look out for:
• distancing language i.e. avoiding the use of I - "how can you say
that?"
• passive language - "if you say so"
• negative language - "You cannot be serious"
• content at odds with non verbal - saying "No" but nodding head
• longer pauses in their speech
• making more word and phrase repetitions
• a tendency to make generalised statements
• a tendency to make shorter statements
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What do people believe are the
non-verbal cues to deception?
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What people believe about non-
verbal and verbal cues to deception?
• Global Deception Team (2006)
• Beliefs relate to:
• Gaze aversion
• Body movements and nervousness
• Inconsistency
• Lack of plausibility
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Further beliefs
• Untidy people are more suspicious/less
trustworthy than smartly dressed
people
• People wearing dark clothing are more
suspicious than those wearing light
clothing
• Attractive people are more honest than
less attractive people
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Exercise Part II
• You again have 2 minutes to write down as
many of the individual states of the United
States of America as you can remember by
yourself.
• Do NOT look at the earlier sheet on which
you wrote down the list.
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Exercise Part III
• How did you do?
• Compare your first and second lists. Is there a
difference - an inconsistency?
• The likelihood is that on your second list you had
more states listed. This is called 'Reminiscence' (in
psychology) - which refers to a gain in performance
without practice. It is perfectly natural and does not
indicate deceit by itself.
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What are the causes of
unreliability in a witness's
account?
• Three common sources according to Lord
Bingham:
• Exposure to later information
• Loss of recollection through passage of time
• Wishful thinking
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Yet what do we perceive the
verbal cues to deception to be?
• Consistent v Inconsistent statements
• Lord Justice Maurice Kay:
‘The mere fact that a witness has said substantially the
same thing on a previous occasion will not generally be
a sufficient basis to adduce the previous statement
when the truthfulness of his evidence is put in issue.’
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How good are we at detecting
lies told by adult strangers?
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Discriminating between truth and
lies in children we haven't met
before?
• When do children start to lie?
• How do they learn to lie?
• Accuracy rates in laypersons in identifying
lies in children are 49 - 66%
• Accuracy rates in professionals in identifying
lies in children are 43 - 67%
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Who was telling the
truth?• Carmen Thomas -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtxfHeJw
65E
• Stuart Hazell -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xRGr8K
wGjo
• Aisling Symes -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AByKwX
9Yzms
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Some conclusions
• Don't make snap judgments (gut feelings) based upon
a sole aspect of someone's demeanour.
• Instead be alive to inconsistencies between the
content of what someone is saying and the other 4
communication channels.
• On spotting an inconsistency probe the content/topic
being spoken about - use an information-gathering
style - SNORE!
• Be suspicious - but do not show it
• Let the witness repeat him or herself
• Ask the witness temporal questions - work backwards
• Consider how readily the witness makes
concessions?