The main tasks of the defence barrister when cross examining a complaint is to persuade the jury that the complainant’s evidence is unreliable. In other words, the proposition put to the jury is that the jury cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the complaint’s evidence is truthful. There are at least nine tell-tale traits that indicate the lack of sincerity in a witness:
- Fidgeting
- Speaking loudly
- Use tears to avoid explanations
- Talk excessively but share no specific detail
- Going from calm to flying off the handle
- Avoiding eye contact
- Isolating individuals to get their story to match
- Extreme over-explanation of simple things
- Lacking in specifics
In future blogs these traits will be further explores using examples from real cases.
