A case of acquittal following confession in a police videotaped interview

Abstract

The case described is of a 17‐year‐old man who confessed during a police videotaped interview to arson. At his trial he was acquitted by the jury. His confession would appear to have been a false confession of the coerced‐compliant type. Psychological testing revealed him to have a specific learning deficit The author describes the lack of guidelines in New Zealand for police interviewing of mentally ill or intellectually disabled suspects. It is argued that the “Judges' Rules” are an insufficient safeguard in certain circumstances, to unsafe or even false testimony coming before the courts, with the resulting possibility of a miscarriage of justice.