– Leading and potentially misleading questions were asked of the children before arranged interviews, says Ellen Wessel. She is an expert in witness psychology and interrogation methods used in court cases. This week she appears in court and testifies in a very extensive abuse case in the Gulating Court of Appeal. A father, a mother, an older brother and a neighbor have been sentenced for extensive abuse in a neighborhood in Hordaland. The victims are the family’s daughter and youngest son, and the neighbour’s son. When the case was heard in the district court, all four were sentenced to severe penalties. The appeal case is now going to the Court of Appeal. The most central evidence in the first round in court was the interviews with the children. But what happened in the time before and after the three children explained themselves in arranged interviews with the police? Several conversations surrounding the interrogations Wessel criticized in court the procedure in the conversations that the son and daughter in the family have had with child protection and foster parents. She points out that the conversations may affect later interrogations. The expert has gone through transcripts of the conversations, and believes that the current guidelines were not followed. Many hours of recordings have been analyzed before she presented her conclusions in the Court of Appeal today. In summary, Wessel believes in his report that there are many conversations that are suitable to influence the children, because the recommended methodology is not used: Many yes and no questions. Consistently leading or loaded questions A quiz to which the one victim answered. The four defendants received severe sentences in the district court. The appeal case is now being carried out in the Gulating Court of Appeal. “Needed help to remember” The youngest boy in the family has himself made telephone recordings of the conversations with the child welfare services or the foster family, because he feared that the others in the family would not believe that he had said what he did. In one of the notes, one of the adults who are around the victim also writes: “She needs help to remember”. – This is obviously a formulation that the police should have reacted to, says Wessel. Summary of the case: A man in his 50s in Western Norway has been sentenced to 21 years in custody for gross abuse of his own children and the family pet. The mother in the family has been sentenced to 18 years in prison and an older brother has been sentenced to ten years in prison, for having himself abused the two children in the family. A man in the neighborhood has also been sentenced to twelve years in prison for assaulting the girl in the aforementioned family, and for assaulting his own son. All four convicted of assault deny criminal guilt and appealed the verdict. The appeal case starts on Monday in the Gulating Court of Appeal in Bergen. The defenders believe that the children’s explanations may have been influenced by the child welfare authorities’ behaviour, and criticize the police’s investigation and interrogation methods. The Court of Appeal has given the defenders the go-ahead to call in an expert, to assess whether there are factors that may have influenced the children’s explanation to the police. Public prosecutor Ellen Cathrine Greve describes the case as very serious and difficult for the victims. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. 2,500 pages of interrogations The documentation in the case is enormous – just the transcripts of the organized interrogations amount to over 2,500 pages. In addition, there are several hours of audio recordings made in connection with driving trips to and from Bergen, where the arranged interrogations were carried out. – The children’s statements are basically credible, and must be treated as further clues in the investigation, said Wessel. ‘ Ellen Wessel is an expert in witness psychology. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – Then you have to follow the information back to where it originated, to find out if there has been contamination, she said further. The work of analyzing every single question and statement that has been made between the victims and the people around them has taken time. Wessel says that the overall conclusion is that nothing has come up in the interrogations that has not been discussed in situations outside the children’s home. Many notes in Wessel’s analysis. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news Crushing verdict in the district court When the adults in the case were sentenced in the district court, the children’s explanations were central evidence. The prosecution believed that the children’s explanations were credible and reliable. In the judgment, the court agreed with this. “After an overall assessment of the evidence in the case, the court bases the children’s explanations on it. The court has not had any doubts about this,” said the judgment from the case. As an overall assessment, Wessel believes that many of the conversations do not follow recommended methods, and use methods that are directly discouraged. – In the material that has been analysed, there are many incidents that ring a warning bell, says Wessel. – The report would have been 900 pages long if I had included all the examples, but the court has asked that the most obvious ones should be commented on, says Wessel. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – If foster parents or other caregivers around the children are prejudiced or are looking for confirmation of something they want to uncover, it is important that they follow the guides or the methodology that is recommended, she emphasized in the Court of Appeal. – In the siblings’ get-togethers, they often talk about the matter, and this is not lucky either. If the case had been closed, it would be unproblematic, but when the children talk to each other along the way, one sibling’s story could influence the other’s, says Wessel. The municipality does not comment on the criticism The head of child protection in the municipality in question is due to testify in the case next week, and will therefore not comment on the criticism from Wessel. – I do not want to preempt my testimony, says the head of child protection to news and points to the mayor. Nor does the mayor want to comment on the expert witness’s criticism that the child welfare services may have influenced the children’s explanations. – The court is given the opportunity to take a position on the expert opinions and on the explanations from the prosecution and the municipality. It would be wrong of me to go into the details now, says the mayor to news. The politician also does not want to say whether the criticism is perceived as serious or surprising, or whether it is natural that the handling of child protection services becomes a topic in the trial. – I register that there are different views on this, says the mayor. Here you will find more articles about the abuse case December 2022: February 2023: August 2023: September 2023: November 2023: Published 24.10.2024, at 17.58 Updated 24.10.2024, at 18.25
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Witness psychology expert believes that children were exposed to outside influences in a serious abuse case in Vestland – news Vestland
