Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

522 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
Comments
Their Lordships viewed the safety of the conviction in accordance with standards
which would currently apply in any other appeal, and not by the standards
that existed at the time. This has important implications for future cases.
Although the linguistic evidence, of the kind and quality produced by Professor
Coulthard and Dr French, would according to their Lordships probably not
have been sufficient on its own to alter the verdict of the jury in this case, this
kind of expert evidence is important in disputed cases where there is no audio
or video recording of the police interview.
CONCLUSIONS
Apart from demonstrating the use of oppressive interviewing in the case of
Stephen Miller, the other cases show that police officers sometimes mislead the
courts by fabricating evidence or improperly interfering with their records of
suspects’ statements. The Carl Bridgewater case is particularly serious in that
the police fabricated a confession, which was used to coerce a confession from a
co-accused, and then lied about it. Four defendants were as a result wrongfully
convicted. Molloy’s allegations against the police were repeatedly ridiculed by
the authorities, but were eventually proved right (Foot, 1998).