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Unreliable admissions to homicide

A case of misdiagnosis of amnesia and misuse of abreaction technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Gisli H. Gudjonsson ,
Michael D. Kopelman  and
James A. C. MacKeith
Gisli H. Gudjonsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London
Michael D. Kopelman
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatry and Memory Disorders Clinic, Division of Psychiatry and Psychology, St Thomas's Hospital, London
James A. C. MacKeith
Affiliation:
Denis Hill Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent
*
Dr G. H. Gudjonsson, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Cresipigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

Background

The past decade has witnessed a recognition that unsafe criminal convictions may be occasioned by unreliable confessions.

Aims

To present a case which illustrates the dangers of using abreaction interview techniques in a legal context and demonstrate the relevance of the memory distrust syndrome to an unsafe confession to murder.

Method

We undertook a detailed assessment of a person appealing against his original murder conviction/the appellant’, and a careful scrutiny of all the relevant papers in the case.

Results

The appellant served 25 years in prison before his conviction was quashed as ‘unsafe’ on the basis of fresh psychological and psychiatric evidence.

Conclusions

Amnesia for an offence had been misdiagnosed, and the use of repeated abreaction interviews had further confused both the appellant and the original court. At the Appeal Court, the advice was that the man had experienced a form of source amnesia which resulted in an unreliable confession.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 5 , May 1999 , pp. 455 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

Declaration of interest

All three authors were instructed as expert witnesses at the Appeal Court. There was no further involvement of the authors in legal proceedings or advice. The appellant's signed consent to publication was obtained after he had read a longer version of this paper.

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