Previous News Items from 2003
Probe on libel case - The Journal
(Newcastle), 13 January 2003
In the rush to protect children, 'experts'
use junk science to accuse innocent parents. Evidence is growing of disturbing
flaws in the way allegations of abuse are laid and then pursued - The
Daily Telegraph, 13 December 2003
by James Le Fanu & David Derbyshire
First there was Sally Clark, then Trupti Patel, and now Angela Cannings.
Three women wrongly accused of serial infanticide - one of the most horrendous
crimes imaginable.
Each prosecution relied on evidence from Sir Roy Meadow, Britain's leading
cot-death expert who decided that, on the balance of probability, these
mothers had murdered their children.
Yet, according to a growing body of concerned lawyers, doctors and parents,
these are not isolated cases but symptomatic of a legal and medical system
so determined to protect children that it fails to protect the innocent.
In this culture junk science can be seen as fact, medical opinion is confused
with truth and guilt is determined not by hard evidence, but by a checklist
of medical or psychological symptoms.
Three further diagnoses - shaken baby syndrome, Munchausen Syndrome by
proxy and recovered memories - account for hundreds of other wrongful
convictions of innocent parents over the last two decades.
What they all have in common is that they are based on flawed opinions
rather than forensic evidence. Too many doctors still embrace pseudo explanations
for things they do not really understand. There is no obvious medical
reason why Sally Clark and Angela Cannings should have lost more than
one child: therefore they must have smothered them.
This boy's injuries seemed too serious to have resulted, as the parents
insist, from a minor fall: therefore he must have been shaken violently.
There is no clear reason why this teenage girl is suffering from anorexia:
she must have been sexually abused by her father.
In the past it has been almost impossible to counter such accusations.
Over the last 18 months, however, the scientific basis of each of these
diagnoses has been seriously undermined.
The most common false allegation is Shaken Baby Syndrome. The "characteristic"
sign for this is the presence of bleeding at the back of the eyes, known
as retinal haemorrhages. This may sound plausible, but recent studies
have shown it is actually very difficult to generate the necessary forces
to cause such an injury.
Rather, it is now clear that there are several alternative explanations.
The impact of a baby's head on a hard floor, following a trivial fall,
can burst a vessel on the surface of the brain. A rapid increase of pressure
within the skull impairs the return of blood from the eye and can cause
a retinal haemorrhage. It may also occur immediately after birth - caused
by pressure on the baby's head in the birth canal - or as a result of
meningitis and other devastating illnesses. Retinal haemorrhages, are,
in short, not "characteristic" of SBS.
Next we have Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, a diagnosis first described
by Sir Roy Meadow who claimed that some mothers seek the attention of
doctors and others by covertly harming their children. MSBP has now been
invoked to explain more than 100 unexplained patterns of illness, including
epilepsy, abdominal pain, bleeding, diarrhoea, fevers, lethargy and so
on.
The third source of false allegation is "recovered memories"
of sexual abuse. Here, the guiding principle is the assumption that there
must be a "cause" for an adolescent's psychological disturbance
- and if it is not forthcoming, this is because she is repressing her
memory of some traumatic event - ie that she has been a victim of sexual
abuse. It is easy enough to imagine oneself in any of these situations,
when your child tumbles off a bed, bangs his head, has some mystery illness
or goes temporarily off the rails.
If you are then swept into a legal nightmare, the only protection against
intimidatory tactics, threats, court orders and technical jargon is a
good lawyer. Campaigners for parents wrongly accused of abuse say that
the system has to change. They believe that a handful of medical experts
have had too much influence in the family court system.
*****
Recovered memory. A daughter in therapy, a family
in danger - The Daily Telegraph, 13 December 2003
by James Le Fanu & David Derbyshire
Recovered memories nearly destroyed the Dyer family. Hayley, now 28 years
old, started seeing a child psychotherapist for depression during her
GCSE year. In hospital for treatment, she began cutting her arms and legs.
Four years later, her first "memories" of abuse were "recovered"
during therapy.
"There was a lot of pressure to remember my childhood. " I
was consumed with how I was feeling and couldn't remember anything clearly,"
she said. "To them, that was a sign I was repressing abuse. I was
starting to recover memories of being abused, first by my uncle and later
mum and dad."
Her mother Gillian, 71, from Nailsworth, Glos, and father Jim, who died
three years ago, learnt of the allegations from Hayley's therapist. Initially,
they were told an uncle was involved. "We were dumbstruck,"
said Gillian. "Her uncle was dead. So there was no way to ask him
but, although it was a shock, I felt she was being drawn into this."
Hayley added: "I accused my mum of being in the same room when I
was abused by my father and of being held down when my uncle abused me.
"I recovered memories of my dad and my uncle using razor blades on
me."
Her parents were arrested in their village, interviewed and then released
on bail. Hayley could not face confronting her parents and moved to Devon.
"Away from the psychiatric team, and with a lot more time to think,
I realised slowly that things didn't add up," Hayley said. "Events
that I remembered couldn't have happened."
After a few months, she told the police her mother had not been involved.
She later withdrew her statement completely and arranged to meet her parents.
"The first thing my dad did was give me a hug. He knew right from
the start that it wasn't my fault."
The police dropped charges but her parents' names remained on the child
protection register. "I got solicitors involved and retracted it
legally," said Hayley. "My mum and I are fine now. In a lot
of ways, our relationship has changed for the better. "The memories
felt real and I had no reason to doubt them at the time but I now know
they were false. "I had problems and this was a solution."
Gillian added: "We are extremely lucky because innocent
people have gone to prison. But we forgave her totally."
*****
SNP man sues over "ruined life" claim -
The Herald, 12 December 2003
by Cameron Simpson
She went into hospital for an operation and came out believing she had
been raped by her father, who she claimed had also killed a six-year-old
girl with an iron bar. Katrina Fairlie believed she had been raped by
17 other men, including two MPs she had never met. "Confronted"
with her claims by other family members in 1995, police told Jim Fairlie,
63, former SNP deputy leader, they were investigating. Later, they assured
him no action was being taken.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, it was Mr Fairlie's turn to
make accusations when he sued Perth and Kinross Healthcare NHS Trust and
Perth and Kinross Council for £250,000. In the dock, effectively,
was recovered memory therapy, which Mr Fairlie claimed wrecked his life
after a doctor used the controversial technique to extract false memories
from his daughter.
Mr Fairlie, from Crieff, Perthshire, is the first person in the UK to
take legal action claiming his life has been ruined by allegations made
during the psychiatric therapy. At the start of the case, Mr Fairlie was
embroiled in a bitter dispute over what evidence will be allowed.
In 1994, Miss Fairlie was admitted to Perth Royal Infirmary complaining
of severe abdominal pains and later that month had her appendix removed.
It was found to be healthy. Surgeons carried out a further operation to
remove her gall bladder a few weeks later and doctors prescribed Pethadine,
a powerful but addictive pain-relief drug. Medical staff concluded Miss
Fairlie's symptoms were psychosomatic, or imaginary, and might be a response
to something traumatic that happened to her. They referred her to the
psychiatric unit at the Murray Royal Hospital in Perth for further care
and treatment.
Mr Fairlie contests claims that doctors at the PRI were not aware of
a laboratory report which concluded his daughter had a chronically inflated
gall bladder caused by chronic cholecystitis. He claims it provided an
explanation for his daughter's abdominal cramps and meant she would not
have needed to go to the psychiatric ward.
The consultant psychiatrist who was in charge of Miss Fairlie during
her 15-month stay at the MRH carried out intensive therapy on her. After
five months of the therapy, Miss Fairlie had disturbing nightmares and
came to believe her father had sexually abused her, including raping her
in a hospital waiting room.
Mr Fairlie believes recovered memory therapy, which claims to unlock
painful memories that patients block out their conscious minds, was to
blame. Proponents of RMT claim the memories can be accurately retrieved,
but the therapy has been discredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Miss Fairlie, 30, had alleged her father and 17 other men had sexually
abused her and that she witnessed her father murder a young girl. Mr Fairlie
claims the psychiatrist persuaded his family he had raped his daughter
and maintains the consultant twice ordered Miss Fairlie to undergo a pregnancy
test. Because of Miss Fairlie's allegations, which she withdrew in December
1995, police and social workers became involved.
Both the council and NHS trust are contesting the case, which continues.
Outside court yesterday, Mr Fairlie said he was getting his life back
together. He said: "These claims devastated my life and the life
of my family. I have not forgiven Katrina, because I never blamed her.
"Katrina has made great strides in the last year and is really improving.
She has even begun horse-riding again. What happened to me and my daughter
should not be allowed to happen to anyone else."
*****
Letter from Dr Ray Aldridge-Morris - New Statesman,
10th November 2003 in response to the review of 'Set this House in
Order'
Me, myself and I
Whatever the merits of Matt Ruff's novel Set This House in Order, I am
sure he will be amused by Jonathan Headwood's review (Books, 27 October),
which discusses multiple personality disorder (MPD) at length. MPD is
itself fiction. I debunked this psychiatric hoax in a book in 1989. There
is no such clinical entity as MPD and no psychopathologist with any credibility
would ever make such a diagnosis. It was always largely a North American
phenomenon, and those clinicians foolish enough to so label their patients
are now facing the consequences. These include lawsuits from the patients
themselves and their families. MPD is exciting stuff and has been inspiring
novelists since Stevenson created Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but let's leave
it where it belongs - in the world of fiction.
Dr Ray Aldridge-Morris
*****
Extracts from the review of Set this House in
Order by Matt Ruff - New Stateman, 27th October 2003
Dissociative identity disorder - also known as multiple personality disorder
- must be one of the most frightening psychological conditions. The sufferer's
body becomes like a puppet, with a range of puppeteers and ventriloquists
fighting over the strings and the voices. Whenever an alter ego wins control,
the owner of the body becomes oblivious to whatever he or she is doing
in the outside world. Weeks, even months, may pass while the victim is
unconsciously carried around within their own animated corpse, only to
wake up in a strange town, with strange people, having done something
very strange, perhaps even criminal.
MPD is often the result of childhood abuse, as victims compartmentalise
various elements of their personality. Thus, an extremely shy person will
generate a violently aggressive persona. Some sufferers even have a caretaker
soul, like a nominated driver, who will protect them from their worst
excesses, or leave notes to explain what has happened.
It is a mark of Matt Ruff's narrative skill that his third novel (his
first to be published in the UK) explains this complicated condition almost
in passing. His protagonist, Andy Gage, has MPD; his soul was shattered
by persistent sexual abuse from his stepfather 'from an age before it
was even obscene'. With the help of a maverick therapist from Seattle
he has learnt to accommodate his various personae in an imaginary house.
Each of his souls has its own bedroom. Ruff even provides a plan, indicating
the sleeping arrangements........
*****
BBC bias promotes recovered memory - Beebwatch item
in The Daily Telegraph, 8 October 2003
One of the most frequent complaints against Radio 4 is that it has become
a sanctuary for axe-grinding pressure groups whose claims receive only
minimal scrutiny from sympathetic reporters and presenters.
An item on last Wednesday's Woman's Hour offered a striking illustration
of this phenomenon. It was prompted by the failed appeal of Jane Andrews,
former dresser to the Duchess of York, who says that she stabbed her boyfriend
with a carving knife because she had suffered the childhood trauma of
being sexually abused. (Supporters of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be
hanged in Britain, make a similar claim.) Strangely, there was no mention
of this at Andrews's trial: the memory of the abuse has apparently been
"unlocked" by psychotherapy in prison.
The item was entitled "Is abuse an excuse?"; but, as so often
on Woman's Hour , the question was not properly debated because Jenni
Murray's two guests were singing from the same hymn sheet. Lee Moore,
of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, and Vera Baird, Andrews's barrister,
both suggested that child abuse causes later criminal behaviour, which
should be treated with a mixture of therapy and reduced sentences.
There was no one to argue that the use of "recovered memory"
as evidence in a criminal trial can lead to gross miscarriages of justice.
Murray made a couple of sceptical noises, but she did not question Moore's
extravagant assertion that one in four people suffers child sexual abuse.
Nor did she explore the possibility that "Miss Andrews" (as
she was respectfully described) is a liar as well as a ruthless killer,
though the Court of Appeal seems to have thought so. This was an irresponsible
broadcast that sought to promote, rather than debate, a highly controversial
hypothesis about child abuse.
*****
Letters from Madeline Greenhalgh, Mark Pendergrast,
Mary Pillai and an accused mother in reponse to 'Teenagers rebel: it doesn't
mean they were sexually abused' by James Le Fanu
Is sexual abuse the root of all neurosis?
Madeline Greenhalgh: SIR - James Le Fanu (Comment, Sept 10) rightly
points out that the GMC case against Dr John Eastgate raises disturbing
questions about the boundaries of acceptability in mainstream psychiatric
practice, and the difficulties for a third party in bringing a complaint.
This pressing issue continues because of the widespread belief in sexual
abuse as a diagnosis without adequate concern for establishing the facts
and determining the consequences of mistaken belief. The potential damage
is
incalculable: families torn apart, careers ruined and the real prospect
of criminal prosecution - even conviction - for non-existent crimes.
The Eastgate case is a warning shot across the bows of the psychiatric
profession. Now is the time for the professional and statutory bodies
to seize the moment in establishing a third-party complaints system when
innocent people are wrongly implicated in serious crimes. This would promote
improved diagnosis and treatment in mental health, as well as preventing
needless suffering and injustice.
Mark Pendergast: SIR - Dr Le Fanu's article is a much-needed
dose of common sense. When a troubled 13-year-old doesn't want to talk
to a psychiatrist, it is not a signal that he should fish for "repressed
memories" of sexual abuse.
It is outrageous that his colleagues should rally round and say that
his strengthening of such unlikely fantasies (the girl was supposed to
have been abused by a physician while her parents were present during
an examination) fell within the bounds of legitimate clinical practice.
Unfortunately, this sort of therapy, based on the misguided and unscientific
notion that people somehow block out massive trauma, is still all too
prevalent in Britain and North America.
Mary Pillai, Consultant Gynaecologist and Forensic Medical Examiner:
SIR - James Le Fanu has succinctly explained why the "damned if you
do and damned if you don't" argument put forward whenever child protection
practice is called into question ignores the urgent need to address a
problematic area of practice.
The Eastgate case goes to the heart of what happens to children and adolescents
entering the mental health system. The GMC largely concerns itself with
dealing with individuals whose practice deviates from standards upheld
by their peers. There seems to be no mechanism for protecting the public
from a misguided practice that has gained peer acceptance.
At present there is no information about the extent to which mental health
problems are being identified as indicators of repressed sexual abuse,
but there is overwhelming evidence of harm. The practice consistently
initiates a dramatic and long lasting decline in the young person's mental
health, often heralding the onset of self-mutilation and suicidal behaviour.
Most cases are referred in good faith and without knowledge of the practice,
even among the wider medical community.
Human nature strongly leans towards apportioning blame for personal difficulties
elsewhere, and this lays the foundation for opting for the explanation
of abuse, especially when supported by someone in a position of trust,
or where that person has asked leading and directive questions.
The legitimate aim of preventing child abuse must be balanced by a clear
understanding of 'best interests', which requires review of the effects
of the process on the child at all times. Whatever Dr Eastgate's belief
system, it is clear his methods had a disastrous effect on Miss A and
her family.
The indiscriminate collation and disclosure of one-sided information
to other agencies does not protect children, and may take the form of
a type of secondary 'professional' abuse. Once the process becomes abusive
to the child it is endeavouring to protect, it is time to reappraise.
The GMC should not underestimate the importance of this. No doctor should
fear professional repercussions for acting in good faith in a child's
best interests where this is based on sound practice. The same should
not reasonably hold for a practice so manifestly unsound.
An accused mother: SIR - Tears filled my eyes at every new paragraph
of this article: it was an exact mirror of our family's story. Six weeks
after our elder teenage daughter entered a psychiatric hospital I was
asked to attend the local police station where I was arrested and charged
with child sex abuse.
Our daughter was obviously unhappy, but we could find no reason for this,
and hoped that the professionals would be able to help. Far from it -
it was the start of a downward spiral that lasted for five years and cost
both BUPA and ourselves dearly in financial terms. More important was
the deterioration in our daughter's demeanour and health and the collapse
of the family unit.
Our daughter has not lived at home since, but was put into foster care.
Mercifully, my husband was allowed contact, but at that time was made
to believe our daughter's accusations, the psychiatrist telling him he
was giving her "all the wrong vibes" bcause he wasn't leaving
me.
Seven years later, our daughter is picking up the pieces of her life,
and we are now all trying to rebuild our relationships. I hope one day
we might be able to discuss with her what happened during those very bleak
times, but for the moment we are just delighted to have unfettered contact
with her.
*****
Teenagers rebel: it doesn't mean they were sexually
abused - The Daily Telegraph, 10 September 2003
by James Le Fanu
The child psychiatrist Dr John Eastgate may have been cleared of professional
misconduct by the GMC, but the account of how a troubled teenager came
to believe she had been sexually abused, first by an eminent doctor and
then by three others - including her father - sent shivers down the spine.
The significance of the GMC's ruling extends far beyond its likely effect
on Dr Eastgate's future as a psychiatrist - and ends up touching everybody's
lives. During the proceedings, professorial colleagues from Great Ormond
Street Hospital and the Tavistock Clinic argued that his conduct fell
within the boundaries of legitimate clinical practice. And if that is
what they believe, it raises disturbing questions about mainstream NHS
psychiatric practice. These issues have so far been concealed from public
view and so require some clarification.
The worst parental nightmare must be that a much loved and loving child
should, on reaching adolescence, suddenly go off the rails. It can, as
many parents know only too well, happen to anyone. These can be difficult
times when the instinctive desire to rebel against parental authority
produces an evasive and hostile pattern of behaviour that, in technical
jargon, is known as the "adolescent adjustment reaction". Most
parents, with patience and perseverance, somehow manage to ride it out
in the hope that, sooner or later, their child's behaviour will improve.
But when such problems are compounded by others - eating disorders, drug
abuse or self-harm, there is little alternative than to seek professional
psychiatric help.
There is initially a honeymoon period, with the reassurance of feeling
that one's child is in safe hands and receiving appropriate treatment.
But the hoped-for improvement does not materialise. The families may learn
instead that their daughter has been sexually abused and that this serious
allegation has already been acted on without their knowledge. Worse still,
they find the focus of accusation shifting to themselves. Their ordeal
has begun.
That, in brief outline, was the sequence of events immediately following
Miss A's admission to Dr Eastgate's unit. Over the following months, her
mental and physical condition continued to deteriorate. Her father, whom
she had wildly accused of sexual abuse, along with two others, was served
with a court order preventing any contact with his daughter. Repeated
attempts at obtaining a second opinion or transfer to another unit were
denied. Miss A was eventually taken into foster care, after which she
made a rapid recovery before finally being reunited with her family after
three-and-a-half years, acknowledging that all her allegations had been
unfounded.
The GMC's disciplinary committee then found that Dr Eastgate's conduct
in the interview with Miss A "was inappropriate and unprofessional
because it was likely immediately to strengthen her impression that she
might have been improperly touched at medical examination". The judgment,
furthermore, brought to public attention just how common the subsequent
pattern of events turned out to be.
Late last year, forensic examiner and consultant gynaecologist Mary Pillai,
writing in the journal Medicine, Science and Law, reported no fewer than
17 similar cases from adolescents' psychiatric units across the country.
In every instance she gives, there was no corroborative evidence of the
child's allegations, and, while "a robust alternative explanation"
was available, it was not pursued. "The ramifications were widespread
harm to all involved," she concludes, "but the falsely believed
teenagers suffered the most, with a dramatic deterioration in their mental
condition. The cases with the worst prognosis were those where all contact
with the family had been severed [my italics]."
The notion that psychiatrists can view with equanimity this chilling
pattern of events, seeing it as part of the therapeutic process, seems
too incredible to be true. But, as psychiatrist Janet Bokes of St George's
Hospital in London points out, it is an almost inevitable consequence
of a very influential "belief system" that has come to permeate
psychiatric thinking.
The first priority in psychiatry - as in medicine generally - is to try
to define what might be the cause of the child's problem if there is to
be any hope of treating it effectively. This is not easy, as many factors
may be involved, not only family tensions and surging hormones, but also
depression, hypomania or some other form of mental illness. Not surprisingly,
the process of sorting it out can be complex, requiring considerable experience
in clinical judgment.
But then, about 15 years ago, some psychiatrists started to claim that
the fundamental cause of teenagers' psychiatric problems was actually
much more straightforward than had previously been supposed - it had just
been ignored or overlooked. They had been sexually abused. They may have
been reluctant to disclose this or may even have forgotten about it altogether,
but whatever the problem - perhaps an eating disorder such as anorexia
or repeated attempts at self-harm - the chances were that sexual abuse
lay at the heart of it.
And if that was the case, then clearly every attempt had to be made to
encourage the patient to disclose the identity of the abuser. Only then,
as Dr Bokes describes, do the protagonists of this false "belief
system" maintain that it becomes possible to "free the patient
from the pathologising effect of their past, so that they can lose their
symptoms and move forward".
But that, as has been noted, is precisely what may not happen. The teenager's
mental condition can deteriorate and, in the process, the child can be
estranged from the only disinterested source of support in her distress
- her family. This process is further compounded by the adversarial legal
proceedings and the police investigations of the allegations which so
undermine the parents' morale that they, too, become seriously mentally
distressed.
The person who emerges with most credit from this saga is Miss A's father,
a doughty opponent who, at considerable personal and financial cost to
himself, overcame the many obstacles placed in his path, before finally
bringing Dr Eastgate to the GMC's council chamber. It must be hoped that
this case might inspire the medical profession to bring the litany of
false belief cases to a belated end.
*****
Doctor led his patient to make sex claims - The
Daily Mail, 9 September 2003
by Zoe Catchpole
AN EMINENT child psychiatrist has been rapped for using leading questions
to convince his 13-year-old patient she was sexually assaulted by a professor.
The General Medical Council yesterday told Dr John Eastgate his behaviour
had been 'unprofessional' and 'inappropriate'.
But it found him not guilty of serious professional misconduct.
Dr Eastgate used leading questions and suggestions which led the girl
to believe she had been abused by the professor, who treated her for a
growth disorder when she was nine years old.
He then colluded with social workers to keep the family in the dark about
their daughter's claims for three days.
The girl, now 20 and an Oxbridge university student, went on to make
false allegations against her own father and a family friend.
Her claims ripped apart the wealthy family, who divide their time between
an estate in the west country and a home in London. She was taken into
care for three years.
All accusations were subsequently dropped and the police never questioned
the professor.
The council criticised Dr Eastgate - a child and adolescent psychiatrist
with 25 years' experience - for his handling of the sex abuse allegations
made by the troubled teenager when he was treating her for depression
at a Swindon hospital in July 1996.
Its chairman, Professor Peter Richards, told Dr Eastgate: 'This case
goes to the heart of a doctor's dilemma in circumstances when, whatever
he or she does, criticism and controversy are likely to follow.'
Dr Eastgate, 53, of Swindon, Wiltshire, became the first doctor to face
disciplinary action linked to the controversial field of 'recovered memory
therapy', which was banned six years ago by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
The treatment became fashionable in the 1980s, with techniques such as
hypnosis and dream interpretation being used to uncover traumatic memories
the patient had supposedly locked away.
The girl was referred to Dr Eastgate after she stopped eating and subsequently
took an overdose of antidepressant drugs.
The council hearing was instigated by her family. Yesterday, they said:
'Today marks the end of a long and difficult journey. For the last seven
years we have striven to open up to public scrutiny the practices which
we believe caused our daughter so much harm.
'Although we are disappointed in some aspects of the decision made by
the committee, with which we fundamentally disagree, we have no regrets
at what we have done if it helps to save other children and families from
a similar fate through the tightening of professional standards in child
and adolescent units.'
The family's solicitor Christopher Coffin said they loved their daughter
and had fought 'only for her well-being and happiness'.
Supported by his wife, Elizabeth, and three children, Dr Eastgate said:
'I am thankful that after seven years of this hanging over me, this has
now finished. The strain on both myself and my family has been considerable.'
Two investigations by the Swindon NHS Trust - one in 1997 and one earlier
this year
- found no concerns with Dr Eastgate's handling of the treatment of the
girl.
Dr Eastgate is still the senior consultant at the hospital's adolescent
unit.
*****
Churches' report denies "false memory"
by Margaret Jervis
The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev Rowan Williams has endorsed
an ecumenical report on sexual abuse which condones "recovered memory"
and dismisses "false memory" allegations.
Time for Action was published by the Group on Sexual Abuse set
up by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). Discredited claims
of symptoms of sexual abuse in the report include "body memories"
such as "extreme pain in the abdomen, stomach or solar plexus, severe
throat constriction, cramp-like pain in the chest, palpitations in the
heart, headaches, fear of fainting or falling, severe sweating or blushing."
The report goes on to say "Denial of the experience can manifest
itself in repression of the memory, that is the 'shelving' of the experience
until the person is able to attempt to process it in a safe place."
The Group cast aside "false memory syndrome" allegations. "We
are not persuaded by this argument," it stated. "Having considered
it very carefully, we have come to the view that there are many reasons
why those who have been abused remain silent," the final report Time
for Action concludes.
The Group was led by the Rev David Gamble of the Methodist Church and
members included former Rochdale NSPCC social worker, Eileen Shearer,
who is now the director of the Catholic Office for the Protection of children
and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA), Harley St psychosexual and psychotherapist
Rev Thaddeus Birchard, a retired Anglican priest who specialises in sexual
abuse and sexual addiction, chartered psychologist and Anglican lay preacher
Elizabeth Ingram, feminist and leader of the Iona Community, the Revd
Kathy Galloway, and Margaret Kennedy, catholic founder of the Christian
survivors of Sexual Abuse.
Ms Kennedy is also editor of a previous book published by CTBI, The
Courage to Tell. Echoing its near-namesake The Courage to Heal,
the book contains a preponderance of "recovered memory" multiple
and "ritual abuse" narratives by alleged sexual abuse survivors.
The CTBI group received presentations from workers in the field of sexual
abuse treatment and support but did not take evidence from organisations
concerned with false allegations of abuse or authors of the Royal College
of Psychiatrists' Brandon report which condemned reliance on "recovered
memory".
*****
Hypnosis, airplanes and strongly held beliefs
- The Skeptical Inquirer, 1 May 2003
Click the link for Loran Pankratz's review of a case
history report of 'repressed memory' by Bertram Karon and Anmarie
Widener entitled "Repressed memories and World War II: Lest we forget!"
published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
*****
Expert team to probe Shieldfield doc's work
- The Newcastle Sunday Sun, 18 May 2003
Health chiefs have appointed a top-level team to investigate a sex abuse
expert in the wake of the "malicious" Shieldfield inquiry.
Doctor Camille San Lazaro examined alleged victims for the completely
discredited Abuse in Early Years report. But her reputation was left in
tatters after a judge described her as "unbalanced, obsessive and
lacking in judgment" in a High Court libel trial.
The action was taken by nursery nurses Christopher Lillie and Dawn Reed,
who were awarded the maximum £200,000 each in damages. Mr Justice
Eady found that all allegations made against them in the report to be
totally untrue.
Dr San Lazaro is a top consultant paediatrician at Newcastle Royal Victoria
Infirmary and senior lecturer in paediatric forensic medicine at Newcastle
University. Hospital bosses last week confirmed the details of the probe
into her role.
Len Fenwick, Chief Executive of Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "What's
underway at the moment is an independent professional review with a team
of four external assessors, reviewing clinical practice, quality and standards."
Mr Fenwick said that the probe was prompted by Mr Justice Eady's judgment
at the end of the libel trial. He said: "His remarks must be viewed
in the context of a libel action. "It has led to a requirement for
the Trust and the agencies with whom it works to quality assure our services.
"We do acknowledge that there is a continuing public interest in
this matter. We believe that we are being very thorough in addressing
that." He added that the panel is comprised of "peers"
of San Lazaro who have extensive child protection experience in forensic
and general paediatrics. He added: "They will report on their findings
to the Trust board who will then consider what needs to be followed through."
Asked whether there was a possibility of disciplinary action, Mr Fenwick
added: "I am not in a position to comment on that. "Dr Lazaro
is suspended from duty. But we would not regard that to be disciplinary
action. She's suspended from duty in order to facilitate the review."
A spokesperson for Dr Lazaro yesterday said she did not wish to comment
*****
When Memory Fails
- The Big Issue, 12 - 18 May 2003
David doesn't trust people. He even doubts himself. As soon as he speaks,
he switches a tape recorder on so that he can keep track of the truth.
"I know that part of recovery is forgetting," he says, "but
I have been left questioning every aspect of myself and six years later,
I'm still dealing with what has happened to me."
David, 25, from Swansea, is one of over 1,500 people in the UK who have
suffered false memories of child sexual abuse after therapy. But despite
controversial new evidence that false memories can be created by suggestion
and that 'recovered' memories are inaccurate, therapists, the police and
the general public still believe in forgotten memories of abuse.
"I started therapy to sort out my drug use but ended up accusing
my dad of abusing me as a child and even reported him to the police,"
says David, who underwent recovered memory therapy, a technique based
on the belief that child sexual abuse can be forgotten until adulthood.
"My therapist used my vulnerability to create a past that never existed,"
he claims.
"Terrifying or life-threatening events are rarely forgotten,"
argues Richard McNally, Harvard professor of psychology and author of
a controversial book, Remembering Trauma, published this month.
"The more terrifying an event is, the more likely it is to be remembered.
Moreover, memories are vulnerable to suggestion."
McNally found that although people can later recall abuse that they didn't
understand as a child, they are extremely unlikely to forget traumatic
abuse completely.
McNally's book coincides with the false memory experiments of University
of California-Irvine psychologist Elizabeth Loftus. In her study, Loftus
asked adults if they had ever met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland. Over one third
of participants 'remembered' stroking his ears and fur, despite the fact
that Bugs is not a Disney character and the memory was false.
"It is the sensory details that people use to distinguish their
memories," says Loftus. "Imbuing the story with them is a receipt
for getting people to remember things that aren't true."
David's therapist used real memories to build imagined events. "She
focused on my dad hitting me and blowing raspberries on my stomach,"
he says. "Then she asked if he had forced me into oral sex and if
he had raped me."
At first, David told his therapist that his father had not abused him
but she persisted. "The books she gave me said that if you have certain
problems, like drug abuse, you have been sexually abused even if you can't
remember it."
As the sessions progressed, David's therapist asked him leading questions
such as: "Can you remember your dad coming up behind you? Did he
touch you?" She then persuaded him to accuse his father, telling
him about another of her patients who had successfully prosecuted his
father with herself as a third-party witness. Worn down and confused,
David called the police and told them that he had remembered being sexually
abused by his father as a child.
"The police were quite insensitive, saying they deal with much worse
but, in retrospect, I'm glad that they were cautious," he says. Though
David's father denied the abuse, he looked upon the allegations as a punishment
for being a violent father.
Once the memory has been 'remembered', it is emphatically believed to
be true. McNally found that people who had False Memory Syndrome suffered
physical reactions as extreme as people suffering post-traumatic stress
disorder from war.
"For a long time I really believed I had been abused," admits
David. "But some of the things that I had begun to recall - like
my dad trying to rape me - were bizarre. I couldn't tie them down to a
time or place." When David questioned his therapist, she severed
all contact, leaving him suicidal.
Now, having moved back home, he knows that nothing will ever be the same.
"My relationship with my family was destroyed," he says. "My
brother and I don't get on any more and my dad can't talk about what has
happened.
The consequences for alleged abusers are always devastating, as Richard,
a 58-year-old father from the Midlands, recalls: "Since my daughter
accused me of abusing her as a child, she has turned her back on everyone
who doesn't believe her, except for her therapist. She had me arrested,
but when I was proven innocent, she walked out of my life." Sarah,
a 69-year-old mother from Cambridge whose son accused her of satanic abuse,
has lost all hope of normal relations ever resuming.
"It's a feeling of absolute powerlessness. I still don't know what
he thinks I did to him. It's like ripples in a pond; there are grandchildren
who I'll never know."
The psychology world has been divided since the 1988 US release of Ellen
Bass and Laura Davis' notorious book The Courage to Heal, which
stated that if you have certain problems, such as depression, you were
abused. Jeffrey Gray, professor of psychology at the University of London,
says that psychotherapists' belief in Freudian theory drives the continued
use of Recovered Memory Therapy.
And it is not just a few psychotherapists who hang their professional
careers on forgotten trauma. Madeline Greenhalgh, director of the British
False Memory Society (BFMS), says: "Police investigating cases now
expect victims to disclose information gradually. But emotional memories
cannot be reliable indications of truth."
According to Dr Ray Aldridge-Morris, NHS consultant clinical psychologist,
there has been a fall-out of people accused on the basis of recovered
memories in the UK. "Obviously there is genuine abuse, but there
are also false allegations. I have seen eight cases in the last six months,"
he says. "People's accounts can be bafflingly detailed and it's very
confusing for a judge and jury when someone is telling you what they had
for breakfast 20 years ago."
Last month, Lord Falconer, Home Office minister, responded to calls for
caution when dealing with delayed accusations of child abuse, saying,
"We must not deprive victims of justice." But in many cases
brought to trial, the alleged abuser is guilty before proven innocent.
Real abuse shouldn't be underestimated but fear can drive witch-hunts.
"Therapy should help people to help themselves," says David.
"But to move on, you have to put the past behind you.
The names in the case studies above have been changed to protect their
identities.
*****
Tricks of the Mind - Total recall: how
reliable are our memories? - The Independent,
14 May 2003
Imagine that you went on a fantastic holiday five years ago. Picture
strolling along the golden beaches, the waves lapping at your feet, the
feel of the warm sunshine and the taste of that delicious coconut drink.
If you daydream for long enough you may well be able to convince yourself
that you did have that holiday. And as imaginary holidays are much cheaper
than real ones, this could be quite a bonus for your bank balance.
This may sound ludicrous, but recent experiments have shown that we are
capable of creating false memories simply by imagining them. This is fine
if you think you have been on a relaxing holiday, but not if you dredge
up memories of traumatic and terrifying events that never really happened.
For some people, this nightmare becomes reality when they believe they
have recovered a previously forgotten memory of being sexually abused
as a child. Many of these "recovered" memories emerge during
therapy or while reading a self-help book. But is it really possible to
repress a traumatic memory, banishing it from awareness, only to see it
resurface many years later? This question is fiercely debated among psychologists.
Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have fractured families,
at times resulting in criminal trials and civil suits. Their reliability
or otherwise is, therefore, a hugely important issue, and psychologists
are now devising new tests to measure the true worth of such recollections.
Professor Giuliana Mazzoni of Seton Hall University, New Jersey and Dr
Amina Memon of Aberdeen University have recently shown that people can
develop a memory of an event that didn't happen to them by simply imagining
its occurrence. In a series of experiments, they asked 82 British students
to rate the likelihood that they had experienced 20 given events before
the age of six.
What the students didn't know was that one of the events could not have
happened to them. This "non-occurring" event was: "Having
a nurse remove a skin sample from my little finger." This medical
procedure has never taken place in the UK. By contrast, another of the
events was a relatively frequent procedure that would apply to many -
"having a milk tooth extracted by the dentist before the age of six".
Three control events were included that may or may not have happened.
These
were: "Finding a pounds 10 note in the car park"; "Getting
sick and going to casualty late at night"; and "Feeling an earthquake".
In the first experiment the participants filled out a questionnaire about
the likelihood of these 20 events having happened to them before the age
of six. A week later the participants returned and were split into two
groups. One group was asked to imagine the milk-tooth event happening
to them and read a passage about having a skin sample taken. The other
group did the reverse, imagining having a skin sample taken and reading
about having a milk-tooth removed. Then each group was asked to fill out
a second version of the questionnaire about the likelihood of those 20
events happening to them before the age of six. Finally, the participants
were recalled after a further week to fill out a third version of the
questionnaire, asking them about the likelihood of childhood events. This
time they were also asked to describe any memories they had of the skin-sample
event, the milk-tooth event and the three control events.
Amazingly, over the three-week period there was a significant increase
in the number of people who believed that the event they had been asked
to imagine had actually happened to them. After imagining the skin-removal
event, participants were four times more likely to believe that it had
happened to them. Some even started to remember details, such as: "I
remember the stairs, grey and shiny. The place smelled of disinfectant.
There was a nurse, she took my finger. I felt no pain." Equally,
memories of milk-tooth removal became more likely after having imagined
it happening. By contrast, there was no obvious increase in belief about
an event for those people who had simply read about it.
"This study demonstrates that memory is easily malleable,"
Mazzoni says. "Simply imagining an event made 25 per cent of the
participants develop a memory for it and a belief that it had happened."
For legal cases that depend upon the reliability of someone's memory,
these results have worrying implications. "In the light of psychological
research such as ours, the courts will have to consider how a memory was
elicited when assessing its veracity," Dr Memon says.
Meanwhile, another group of psychologists have been looking at memory
formation from a different angle. Professor Gail Goodman and Dr Jodi Quas
of the University of California head a team who have been looking at how
likely it is that people will forget a traumatic event that happened to
them. They interviewed 175 young adults who, more than a decade earlier,
were involved in criminal prosecutions as victims of CSA. A past study
had indicated that nearly 40 per cent of adults fail to report their own
documented CSA when asked about it, but in Goodman's study only 19 per
cent of the participants failed to report their CSA. "This shows
that the majority of people who have experienced CSA do remember the events,"
says Goodman. She doesn't rule out the possibility of repressed memories,
but thinks that there are plenty of other reasons why people may not want
to talk about their CSA. "Perhaps they were embarrassed, or possibly
they were too young at the time of abuse to remember it," she says.
At Harvard University, Professor Richard McNally has been carrying out
experiments to test mechanisms of how people either forget and then recover
memories of traumatic events, or develop false memories of them. Specifically,
he has been looking at whether some people are better at disengaging their
attention during a traumatic event, thereby reducing their chances of
remembering it. In one experiment, participants were shown a series of
words on a computer screen. Some of the words were trauma-related (such
as "molested"), some were positive ("charming"), and
the rest were neutral ("mailbox"). After each word was shown,
the person was told to either remember the word or forget it. At the end
they were asked to write down all the words they could remember, regardless
of whether they had been told to remember or forget them.
"If CSA survivors have a heightened ability to disengage attention
from threat cues, we would expect them to recall few of the trauma words
in this experiment, especially the ones they had been told to forget,"
says McNally. But exactly the opposite happened. Participants who had
recovered memories of CSA tended to forget many of the positive and neutral
words they had been told to remember, while demonstrating an excellent
memory for the trauma words, including the ones they had been told to
forget. By contrast, control subjects showed no enhanced memory for trauma
words and were better at obeying the instructions to remember some words
and forget others. "This shows that people with recovered memories
of CSA are not characterised by a superior ability to forget trauma-related
material," McNally says.
While not completely dismissing recovered memory, all these experiments
are showing that in most cases, recovered memories are probably false
memories, generated from our imagination.
Where does this leave people who claim to have recovered memories of
CSA? Such memories are all too real and vivid to them, and the distress
surrounding the victim is certainly not imagined. In 1991, the False Memory
Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was set up in the US to provide support and
legal advice to families and friends of people who claim to have recovered
memories of CSA. It was followed by the British False Memory Society (BFMS),
which deals with hundreds of UK families whose lives are turned upside
down when a member "recovers" a memory of CSA.
In the meantime, psychologists are learning more about the way we store
and retrieve memories. Although memories feel very definite to all of
us, it appears that they are not as perfect as we would like to believe.
It is a little terrifying to think that our treasured memories may not
be accurate, but perhaps there is a good reason for our daydreaming ability.
Now where was I on my desert island holiday...?
Remembering Trauma' by Richard McNally is published in the UK on 22 May
(Harvard University Press), pounds 23.50. Details of the BFMS can be found
at www.bfms.org.uk
*****
Ministers reject children's home injustice claims
- The Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2003
Ministers have dismissed a damning report by MPs which claimed police
investigations into allegations of abuse in children's homes decades ago
had created "a new genre of miscarriages of justice".
In a response issued yesterday, the Government rejected claims that some
complainants may have been motivated to make false allegations by the
prospect of winning compensation, early parole or improved conditions
in prison, encouraged by the police and personal injury lawyers.
The Government's response said the Home Affairs committee failed to provide
sufficient evidence. It rejected most of the recommendations, made last
October.
Claire Curtis-Thomas, the Labour MP for Crosby, who has campaigned for
former care workers who claim they were falsely accused, said the response
was a whitewash.
In the past five years at least 34 of the 43 police forces in England
and Wales have investigated historic allegations of physical and sexual
abuse by care workers in children's homes and approved schools.
Thousands of former residents were interviewed and several thousand former
care workers were investigated. The Home Affairs committee criticised
police methods of "trawling" for victims by writing to former
residents asking if they had been abused.
The committee was told the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute
79 per cent of cases referred by the police. Figures from the Association
of Chief Police Officers showed 226 people were charged, 189 cases reached
court and 78 were convicted, 55 of whom pleaded guilty.
The committee reported that hundreds of alleged victims were claiming
compensation. Civil payouts averaged £30,000.
In a written statement yesterday, Lord Falconer, a Home Office minister,
said: "We must ensure that all investigations minimise the risk to
the innocent, but these are complicated cases where the damage done to
many people has been severe and permanent and we must not deprive victims
of justice".
Chris Mullin, chairman of the Home Affairs committee, said he was disappointed
with the Government's response and will seek a debate in the House of
Commons.
He said many of the people falsely accused had never recovered from the
damage to their reputations.
*****
Remember, remember... A victim of child abuse,
or just prey to fantasies? Jane Feinmann on new evidence which reignites
the furore over 'recovered' memory
- The Observer, 6 April 2003
Have you repressed the memory of a traumatic experience from childhood?
Is it now a leaking toxin, exerting a malevolent influence on you from
your deep unconscious - explaining perhaps your attachment to alcohol
or irrational mood swings? And, if so, what will it take for you to recover
that memory and set yourself free?
According to a significant proportion of UK therapists, the chances that
adult depression is linked to an episode of sexual abuse in childhood
are relatively high. Estimates of the extent of childhood sexual abuse
vary wildly from one in four to one in 100. But a substantial proportion
of mental health professionals and other therapists signed up to the message
in the late 80s and early 90s that 'just because you don't remember being
abused, doesn't mean you weren't'.
Over the past 10 years, this theory has been challenged, not least by
the British False Memory Society (BFMS) set up to represent the thousands
of adults who say they've been falsely accused by children whose 'repressed'
memories were 'recovered' in therapy.
A 1995 study of the British Psychological Society's 38,000 members found
that four out of 10 of them use 'recovered memory work' in therapy. Following
bitter internal disagreements, the Royal College of Psychiatrists failed
to adopt as policy a 1997 report by Professor Sydney Brandon which dismissed
'recovered memory' as lacking evidence, denounced the 'unscientific' practices
that were being widely used to achieve them, and warned that expectation
of finding memories of sexual abuse in childhood, could be self-fulfilling.
Perhaps the single characteristic that identifies these 'extractions',
is the length of time they take. The BPS reported that clients on average
begin to have flashbacks after four months of therapy - with full recovery
taking roughly 50 weeks. It can take longer.
Take the case of Linda Caine, co-author of the recently published Out
of the Dark with her psychiatrist, Dr Robin Royston. The book documents
the 'unravelling of the secrets of her childhood'.
'There's something she wants to tell us, but she can't get it out,' Dr
Royston notes a year into therapy. A sinister, 'dark-haired man' starts
to figure in Caine's dreams, six months later, however, the crucial memory
refuses to materialise. 'Whenever I think about the worst thing that could
have happened to me, I can't.' Linda tells Dr Royston, 18 months into
therapy. He reassures her: 'Your mind will deliver when it's ready.'
When it does emerge, a full 32 months after the start of her therapy,
the memory is indeed horrifying. The dark-haired man, a boyfriend of Linda's
mother, not only raped the five-year-old child repeatedly but chillingly
silenced her, terrifying her into repressing her memories.
'The evidence suggests that a high proportion of people who have been
sexually abused as children will have no memory of that abuse,' says Dr
Royston, 'though they may well have other problems with alcohol, sexuality
and depression. And many will only recover those memories through therapy.'
But another book, due out in May, puts forward new evidence suggesting
that if the phenomenon cannot be entirely ruled out, it can be shown to
be highly unlikely. Remembering Trauma by Richard McNally, Professor of
Psychology at Harvard University, describes innovative research into the
phenomenon. Using 'behavioural, imaging and psychophysical methods', the
research is the first to study people with various experiences of remembering
sexual abuse in childhood, rather than playing word memory games with
'healthy' students, as most previous research has done.
'What we found,' he says, is that most people remember horrific experiences
all too well. Victims of abuse are seldom incapable of remembering their
trauma, in fact they're far less likely to forget traumatic than everyday
events and if anything, would prefer to remember them less well,' he says.
Of course there are cases of people forgetting about unpleasant events.
'A common pattern is that something happens that you know was wrong. You
don't mention it to your parents or friends because you don't want to
worry them. Then you get on with your life and it seems to disappear from
your memory.'
People do recover those memories, he says. Something happens - they see
a TV programme that brings up the memory or a friend talks about a similar
experience. 'What happens, though, is that they remember immediately.
There's never any question of them remembering slowly bit by bit, or requiring
therapy to help them remember.'
Equally significantly, Professor McNally's research has also shown up
the ease with which memories can be created. A recent investigation of
people who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens showed that many believe
in these experiences 'so deeply that they display real stress symptoms
similar to those of traumatised battlefield veterans'.
'This research underscores the power of emotional belief, particularly
in vulnerable people who have a tendency to believe in fantasies,' McNally
says. 'It's the beginning of an explanation of how people "recover"
memories, and it's very worrying.'
Mark Pendergrast, author of Victims of Memory and a consultant to BFMS,
estimates that 10 years ago, around 5,000 British therapists specialised
in extracting abuse memories. 'I believe that such therapists urged clients
to unearth what they thought were real incest memories. But the evidence
continues to stack up that this type of therapy is flawed. It is startling
that inspite of the numbers involved, there are no corroborated cases
of massive repression in which people supposedly forgot years of traumatic
events only to recall them much later in life. And the stories of people
who recovered memories and subsequently retracted their allegations are
chilling testimony to the harmful effects of this type of misguided therapy.'
*****
Phantom events that you will remember well - The
Telegraph, 18 February 2003
One in three people can be fooled into remembering with certainty a childhood
event that never took place, a study reveals.
Researchers have also shown that it is relatively easy to implant false
memories about events that happened just one week ago.
The findings could affect the judicial system, where witnesses may be
influenced by police interrogations, and in sex abuse cases where hypnotism
is used to uncover "hidden memories".
In one experiment, 80 Russians were asked to describe their memories of
the 1999 terrorist bombings of Moscow and 2001 World Trade Centre attacks.
Six months later they were interviewed again and wrongly told that they
had talked about seeing a wounded animal during the previous session.
Although the event was fictitious, about 12 per cent "remembered
the animal and even began to elaborate on what they had seen".
In a second study, volunteers were shown fake adverts for Disneyland that
featured Bugs Bunny - a character owned by Disney's cartoon rivals Warner
Brothers.
When asked whether they had met Bugs Bunny during childhood visits to
the theme park, 36 per cent said yes. Many remembered details about the
meeting such as stroking Bugs's ears, even though the character was never
at the theme park.
In a third experiment, researchers succeeded in implanting false memories
from just a week ago, the annual meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science in Denver was told.
About 15 per cent were persuaded that they had carried out a series of
actions that they had not, such as kissing a toy frog.
"There's a common belief that somehow traumatic memories are immune
from memory distortion," said Dr Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in false
memory who led the research at the University of California, Irvine.
"We don't believe this. We believe there's almost a recipe beginning
to develop for how you get people to come to having a false memory.
"You first make them believe that something is plausible; you then
do things to make them believe it happened to them, even if they have
no memories of this experience; finally, there are certain steps you can
take to embellish that belief with certain sensory details."
During the hunt for the serial sniper in Washington DC last year, attention
focussed on a white van said to be driven by the killer.
Dr Loftus said initial reports of a white van may have created false memories
for many of the eyewitnesses that came forward. The alleged killers were
found to be driving a dark coloured Chevrolet Caprice.
*****
Alien abduction stories brought down to earth -
The Telegraph, 18 February 2003
People who believe that they were abducted by aliens are victims of a
sleep disorder, an American study suggests. The disorder may also account
for visitations by angels, demons and vampires.
A personality profile of "abducted" people showed that almost
all suffered from sleep paralysis, a condition in which terrifying sensations
and sinister figures from the world of dreams intrude upon the waking
brain. They suffered symptoms of post traumatic stress similar to those
of Vietnam veterans.
According to some polls, tens of thousands of Americans claim to have
encountered aliens, a phenomenon explored in Steven Spielberg's television
series Taken.
Dr Richard McNally, a psychologist at Harvard University, studied 10 adults
who claimed to have been kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. Most were firm
believers in tarot cards and astral projection and were prone to fantasy.
But, significantly, they had all suffered episodes of sleep paralysis.
During REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, the body is unable to move. About
30 per cent of people suffer from sleep paralysis, from which they wake
up and are partially conscious of being paralysed.
Five per cent of people also experience waking hallucinations. Sufferers
can see figures in the room, flashing lights, experience feelings of levitation
or simply a sinister presence. Eight of the 10 people who thought they
had been abducted had consulted "experts" in recovered memory
to find out more about their experiences.
During these sessions they began to recollect more details. Many studies
have shown that attempts to recover supposedly lost memories can plant
false memories.
Dr McNally said: "When you piece together the New Age beliefs, the
hallucinations, the fantasy proneness and get a little help from the memory
recovery folks, you have yourself an alien abduction."
Psychologists have argued that sleep paralysis and hallucinations can
explain many paranormal phenomenon.
"In Newfoundland, it's called being visited by the Old Hag,"
said Dr McNally. "In southern United States, it's being ridden by
the witch. In Europe in the Middle Ages, it's the incubus and succubus.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, it's space aliens."
The volunteers were also asked to write an account of their abduction
and then listen to a 30-second tape of their memories while their heart
rates and perspiration levels were monitored.
"Heart rate and skin conductance responses were at least as great
in alien abductees when they heard memories of being abducted and molested
by aliens as people with genuine traumatic events."
*****
So what does 'Expert' mean? - Scotland on Sunday,
2 February 2003
The Sally Clark case is not the first in which the testimony of expert
witnesses has been called into question:
David Ashbury, the man jailed for murdering Kilmarnock spinster Marion
Ross in 1997, had his conviction overturned after the accuracy of fingerprint
evidence presented by expert witnesses from the Scottish Criminal Records
Office was challenged.
Ashbury was freed after it was agreed a print found on a tin in his bedroom
did not, after all, belong to Ross. Evidence from the SCRO led to police
officer Shirley McKie, left, being accused of perjury after her print
was allegedly found at the crime scene. She too proved the print was not
hers and was acquitted.
Dr Camille San Lazaro, a consultant paediatrician at Newcastle Royal
Infirmary was roundly criticised for evidence relating to two nursery
nurses, Christopher Lillie, below, and Dawn Reed, who were accused of
paedophilia.
Her testimony was branded variously "unbalanced, obsessive and lacking
in judgment".
The inquiry wrongly concluded that, despite their acquittal at the Crown
Court, Lillie and Reed had been guilty not only of carrying out horrific
acts of abuse themselves, but of supplying children to a paedophile ring.
Senior Home Office Pathologist Dr Paula Lannas is currently being investigated
by the General Medical Council. At least six prisoners serving life sentences
for murder say their convictions hinged on evidence provided by Dr Lannas,
which they believe was flawed.
*****
Abuse report: Sackings call - Evening Chronicle
(Newcastle), 3 February 2003
Union leaders are calling for sackings over the nursery scandal where
two members of staff were falsely accused of being child abusers.
Dawn Reed, 31 and 37-year-old Christopher Lillie were wrongly branded
in a Newcastle City Council report published in 1998 four years after
they were acquitted of child abuse charges. The pair were both awarded
the maximum possible libel damages of £200,000 each after a six-month
battle at the High Court last year.
Now Unison chiefs are calling for the sacking of Northumbria University
professor, Dr Richard Barker, who headed up the team which wrote the Abuse
in Early Years report.
At a meeting due to be held today members will call on the branch secretary
and the regional secretary to demand the sacking of Dr Barker claiming
he is unsuitable for his role as the university's head of the Division
of Childhood and Family Studies. Members will also demand:
The authors pay back the £360,000 they were given to write the
report.
The document sent to more than 400 people, is returned and destroyed
That City Council bosses apologise to all those implicated in the report.
*****
Probe on libel case - The Journal (Newcastle), 13
January 2003
A libel trial following a "malicious" report into child abuse
at a Newcastle nursery has sparked an internal university probe, it emerged
yesterday.
Northumbria University is carrying out the investigation after a report
commissioned by the city council made unfounded allegations against former
nursery workers Dawn Reed, 31, and Christopher Lillie, 37. The pair won
their libel trial in July, each winning £200,000 damages, awarded
by Mr Justice Eady.
He branded the 1998 report a shambles and found the four-strong review
team including Dr Richard Barker, a social worker in an academic post
at the university had "forfeited" the protection of qualified
privilege because they acted "maliciously".
The burden for the damages and costs has fallen on the city council which
indemnified the report authors.
A university spokesman said: "We have set up an internal inquiry
to look at any implications the case might have."
*****
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