PSYCHOMANIPULATION - Tomasz Witkowski

manipulated, and his activities as a result of manipulation.
The fact that the above description of manipulative behaviour resembles the legal approach to
evaluation of an act, which is usually based on finding its motive, suggests that it is an accurate
one. In the words of Seneca the Younger: - Cui prodest scelus, is fecit – the perpetrator of the
crime is the one who benefited from it.
I have recently read about a certain incident in a newspaper which is a clear illustration
of the above. The incident occurred in Gdansk, where a police car was involved in a collision
with a private car one night. As a result of the accident, the driver of the second car (a Daewoo
Espero) was killed, and three policemen were injured. The police and the prosecutor’s office
issued official statements appealing for witnesses to come forward. At the same time, they began
investigation of the incident. “The Regional Prosecutor’s Office(…) acknowledged that Jan O.,
the deceased driver of the Daewoo, caused the accident. According to the statement made by the
driver of the police car, it was O. who drove onto the crossroads despite the stop sign. (…)
Investigation of the incident would probably have been discontinued in view of the death
of the alleged perpetrator, had it not been for further calls for witnesses in the media, which
bore fruit at the end of last year when Jaroslaw D. and Leszek B. – two businessmen who had
witnessed the accident – came forward.
- We saw the whole incident. The police car overtook our Toyota on Rzeczpospolita Street.
It didn’t have its headlights switched on. (...)
In September this year the Prosecutor’s Office unexpectedly accused both witnesses of giving
false testimony. Yesterday, the trial of B. and D. began at the Gdansk Regional Court.
- (...) Decent people who only wanted to help clear up the case are being prosecuted in the name
of the law. They were naïve enough to come forward when they heard that someone had died in
the accident. They only wanted to act for the good of society- said the counsel for defence (...).
He emphasized that the defendants had neither any motivation nor anything to gain by giving
false testimony. They had no connection with the deceased driver of the Daewoo. (...) The
indictment does not make any mention of their motive at all.13
13 K. Wójcik, Już nie będę świadkiem (No longer a witness). “Gazeta Wyborcza”, December 16th, 1999, p. 4.
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