Unreliable admissions to homicide. A case of misdiagnosis of amnesia and misuse of abreaction technique.

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 under took 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.

Customers and contractors in the new NHS.

Presents the results of a study in the former Yorkshire region to discover the effect of the changes in the NHS on relationships between Community Health Councils (CHCs) and health service authorities. Respondents were asked to comment on how the changes had affected these relationships in six aspects; interaction with the public, accountability, independence, effectiveness, representativeness and prioritization of work. Identifies a number of questions about the relationships which can be grouped under four headings: CHCs' identity problem; the effect of the greater discretion which health service authorities have in their relationships with CHCs; the balance between independence and co-operation in these relationships; and the influence of superior bodies on the relationships. Suggests that answers to these questions will help to release the potential of CHCs to contribute to the quality and effectiveness of the NHS, in accordance with the priority given in the reforms to obtaining the views of the public.

A proven case of false confession: psychological aspects of the coerced-compliant type.

This paper describes the case of a 17-year-old youth who falsely confessed to two murders during police interrogation while not legally represented. He again confessed during a second interview in the presence of a duty solicitor, and later made further misleading admissions to prison staff and another inmate while at the beginning of his remand. The confession elicited by the police appeared very detailed and apparently convincing. The confession subsequently by chance proved to be false. It appears to have resulted from persistent pressure and psychological manipulation of a man who was at the time distressed and susceptible to interrogative pressure. Following the withdrawal of the charges by the prosecution and the conviction of somebody else for the offense, a detailed psychological assessment indicated a clear improvement in the man's ability to assert himself and to cope with interrogative pressure. The youth was of average intelligence, suffered from no mental illness and his personality was not obviously abnormal.

Life after death: the role of administration post-Griffiths.

When the Institute of Health Service Administrators changed its name, in October, 1984, to the Institute of Health Service Management, nearly 3,000 health service administrators became, by implication, managers over-night and ceased to exist as administrators. Nevertheless, there still remains an important administrative role within the health service. The purpose of this article is to look at what this role is and how it might best be carried out.