I grant you, the title is a tad clickbait ‘ish’ but one thing we often overlook in investigations is the credibility of a witness and the evidence they present. We know, or at least can surmise, that not all witnesses tell the truth and some even tell lies, but even honest witnesses can get it wrong and frequently do.

One area I think that is worth considering, is when we analyse a witness statement, word by word, line by line. For many witnesses I have no doubt that when they provided their evidence, they believed it to be true, but is that evidence always reliable?

For the life of me now, I can’t remember where I heard it, but it was a point that stood out for me and changed the way I thought about witness evidence.

When we think about the human witness, we can very easily fall in to the trap of thinking that just because a witness saw something, they’re going to remember it.

Before I go further, watch this video and then continue reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

We assume our minds are like video recorders, whatever is within their eyeline will be captured and committed to memory, when in fact, only a small amount of what we see will ever be remembered, as in the main, we have no reason to remember most of the things we see.

Think about the last journey you made, whatever the means you used to make it.

Can you remember every aspect of it? The answer would have to be no.

You need a reason to remember something, you don’t just remember it because it was there to be seen. Now think about your witness who is walking along a footpath on their way to the shops. A car passes them, many do. If one of those cars is involved in a collision, the amount the remember about that car will depend to some degree on how memorable that car was (i.e. was it driving normally and within the speed limit, or on the wrong side of the road travelling really fast flashing its lights and beeping its horn).

I would say I am no expert in this, this is based on my own experience gained through two decades worth of investigations, but I would always advise anyone who is assessing witness evidence to consider it and why that person might remember it.



Oh and the link above, how many saw the man in the monkey suit? Some of you will notice it and some of you wont have even known it was there. That’s real life. And this doesn’t just apply to witnesses, it applies to anyone we are asking to recall anything, victims, suspects and more.