Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

526 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
He now denied having indecently exposed himself to the girls. He also retracted
his confession to the murder of Lesley Molseed. The explanation he gave to the
police for having made a false confession was:
I thought if I made a statement like the other one I would get home tonight.
Later that night, at the request of Detective Superintendent Dibb who was in
charge of the murder investigation, Kiszko was examined by the police surgeon,
Dr Tierney.
In the afternoon of 23 December Kiszko was interviewed in the cell area by
Detective Superintendent Holland, who allegedly asked him only one question:
From your first statement you have described the effects of the drugs if you were
hazy and can’t remember how do you know that what you told me in the first
statement is untrue?
Kiszko allegedly replied:
I am all of a blue. I have told you the truth. I remember the girl by the shop in
Broad Lane and taking her to the moors. I must have stabbed her. That’s how I
showed you the handled knife. (Out of the several knives in Kiszko’s possession,
the one he identified in his confession as the murder weapon did have traces of
blood on it.)
This indicates that Kiszko was now reiterating the confession, although in less
detailed and definite terms. The content of these two sentences suggested that
after Kiszko made his retraction the previous evening, there had been a discussion
with him about the case and he was claiming not having any memory
of committing the murder. In addition, if Kiszko had genuinely remembered
murdering the girl the previous day, then there would be no reason for him not
being able to recall it a day later.
At 10.15 p.m. on 23 December 1975, Kiszko was taken to the crime scene and
is reported to shake and hold his hands in a praying position, stating:
I can hear noises can’t you?
Kiszko was charged with the murder at 11.50 p.m. that same evening. He made
no reply.
The Trial
Kiszko was convicted of Lesley Molseed’s murder on 21 July 1976 by a 10–2
majority verdict at Leeds Crown Court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In his direction to the jury, the judge stated:
Well ladies and gentlemen, this defendant held up well in cross-examination by
a skilled prosecutor in the middle of a murder trial, so how can he say he could
not cope with the two policemen in an interview room? (Rose, Panter & Wilkinson,
1998, p. 179).
The trial judge was clearly implicitly telling the jury that he believed Kiszko to
be unlikely to give in to the pressure of a police interview, and by implication
that the confession to the murder was reliable.