Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

Psychological Vulnerability 507
Fell, who was 22 years of age at the time of his interrogation, appears to
have become a suspect in the case for two reasons. First, the day after the
murders Fell, late at night and after his girlfriend had left him, telephoned the
police twice and anonymously directed the police to himself as the murderer.
Over a year later, after Fell had moved to Bournemouth, he made a series of
telephone calls to the police when plainly intoxicated. He referred to the double
murder and again anonymously identified himself as the murderer and gave
the police his address in Bournemouth. His wife had left him the previous day
and this seems to have precipitated the phone calls, as it did previously when
his girlfriend had left him in Aldershot. A month later Fell was arrested by the
police and questioned. The second reason why Fell became a suspect relates
to his resemblance to a photofit of the suspect seen on the common at the
material time. The police emphasized this resemblance during the subsequent
interviews and used it to challenge Fell’s repeated and persistent denials. Out of
157 calls to the police identifying persons resembling the picture, five identified
Fell and 152 identified various other people.
Fell was extensively interviewed on seven occasions over a period of three
days without access to a solicitor. The interviews were mostly tape recorded,
although the quality of some of the tapes was very poor. During his period of
detention, Fell was twice taken to the common where the murders had taken
place. The first visit was on the afternoon of the second day in custody, following
the fourth interview where it was repeatedly put to him in no uncertain terms
that he had been to the common and that he was the murderer.
After returning from the visit to the common Fell was interviewed again (fifth
interview). He was placed under considerable pressure to admit that he was on
the common at the time of the murders. He now admitted that he might have
been on the common, but remains unsure (‘might have’, ‘must have’, ‘not sure if
there at all’, ‘I was there’). Once Fell conceded that he might have been on the
Common previously the officers used this as an additional pressure to obtain a
confession from him to the murders. During this interview Fell sounded very
distressed.
The following morning Fell was taken back to the common and he claims that
prior to the sixth interview there was a discussion about the difference between
murder and manslaughter. During the sixth interview, and after having been
in custody for over 52 hours and denied guilt of the murders on 116 occasions,
Fell broke down and made incriminating admissions to the murders, which did
not quite amount to a full confession to both killings. During this period he was
unable to consume any food, undoubtedly due to the stress of his predicament.
About three hours after the confession interview was terminated, Fell requested
to see the senior officer in the case and then retracted the confession in quite an
assertive and determined way (‘I didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t see those women,
I don’t even think I was on the Common’). He explained to the officer on tape
during the seventh interview the reasons why he had made a false confession.
This involved his fear at the time that he could not prove his innocence, the
officers were not prepared to listen to his denial, he thought that he was about
to be charged with the murders and would eventually be convicted of either
murder or manslaughter. He decided to reach for a compromise and make a