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Report for the Court About a Case Essay

Decent Essays

Report for the Court About a Case You have been asked to write a report for the court about a case, the details of which are given below. You have been specifically asked to comment on the credibility of a particular witness’ testimony. This witness is the key prosecution witness but the court wants an independent expert to give their opinion about the strengths and weaknesses of this testimony. Using your psychological knowledge you should comment on what factors might have impaired …show more content…

T. is being prosecuted for GBH.

The witness -----------

Mrs P. is the main prosecution witness. She is a 40 year old, white married woman who lives on the same estate as the defendant.

The witness’ evidence ---------------------

Mrs P. claims that she was walking down the High Street in her town on her way to play bingo. She could hear shouts coming from down one of the side streets and she decided to investigate. On going down the badly lit side street she came across a gang of three males who were fighting with a fourth. She saw the fourth male being knocked to the ground and one of the gang started kicking him and hitting him hard with a piece of wood. The man on the ground was obviously in a lot of pain. The male who was attacking the man on the ground looked up and she says that she recognised him as being T. Mrs P. claims that T. is a well known trouble-maker on the estate where she lives and she has often seen him around. Mrs P. ran back to the High Street called the police and an ambulance on her mobile phone but did not give her name or details because she says she was scared about reprisals. Mrs P. only contacted the police four weeks later when she found out that the victim was still in hospital in a coma.

The police initially showed her a series of photographs of possible suspects and she picked out T. with no

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