STAMMERING GETS MAN CONVICTED

But it led to some good advice

Garry Coombe's downfall was his stutter. Charged with assaulting his wife, his speech impediment in court was mistaken for dishonesty. He was convicted after the magistrate did not believe his evidence because there was "a noticeable tremor in his voice". Fear of stammering caused him to pause before replying so that he could think of words that were easier to pronounce.

The conviction was overturned on appeal, but a Supreme Court judge, Peter McClellan, yesterday used that example to warn magistrates at their annual conference of the perils of cross-examination. Research showed that attractive, confident and likeable witnesses were more likely to be believed than timid, unattractive or unsavoury ones, and a truthful witness's demeanour may lose out to a liar's smooth delivery.

Justice McClellan pointed to a study that found judges and lawyers do no better than others in detecting deception. "These studies suggest that credit may not necessarily be given where credit is due," he said.

He suggested that changes in a witness's demeanour while being cross-examined may be more reliable, and warned magistrates of the fallibility of memory. "We rely on our memories on a day-to-day basis and the thought that other people's memories might not be accurate sits uneasily with the faith we have in our own recollections," he said. But memories deteriorate with time, and may be altered by other factors. "The most troubling aspect of memory - be it a child's memory or an adult's - may be its venerability to suggestion," he said.

In one study, 29 per cent of students who were told a man had walked into their class identified a man as having done so, despite seeing no man at all. Another showed that the likelihood of falsely remembering broken glass after watching a taped car crash increased when questions used "smashed" instead of "bumped".

Justice McClellan said that while adversarial trials remained effective, decisions had to be made knowing there were pitfalls. "Our objective must be, wherever possible, to ensure that the perceived truth is the real truth."

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