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Sex abuse trial told people can create “false memories”     20/6/14

 

A psychology expert at the trial of a priest accused of sexually assaulting two children about 50 or 60 years ago stressed that  “extreme caution” was required when people claimed to have delayed recollection of events said to have happened many years in the past.

 

In addition, “external verification” by other sources was needed to check if these events actually occurred, as creating “false memories” was a possibility, the court heard.

 

Father John Angus Macdonald, formerly of South Uist, is accused of raping a nine-year-old girl.

 

He faces a second charge alleging  he acted indecently towards a boy - then aged between 10 and 12 - around the same period, on the Uist machair, in a van at Beinn na Corradh, Uist, and elsewhere, including allegations of making him undertake a sex act as well as carrying out a sex act on him.

 

MacDonald,68, has lived at Ardeonaig, near Stirling, since retiring as a priest five years ago.

 

He was between 12 and 16 years at the time the incidents are said to have occurred.

 

One alleged victim had told the High Court in Aberdeen that  she blocked out all memory of the incident for decades.

 

But they rushed back after she took meditation in the 1980s - about 30 years after the alleged event.

 

Giving evidence on Thursday, Dr Lisa Cameron indicated her profession did not have one rule or framework to test “recovered memory” where people remembered things which were meant to have happened a long ago.

 

It was a controversial subject amongst psychologists with some theorists maintaining it cannot happen while others say it can, she highlighted

 

Dr Cameron agreed: “The science doesn’t tell us yes or no.”

 

The “recommendations are you have to proceed with caution,” she added.

 

She said it was recommended that memories recovered after years they were meant to happen should be treated with “extreme caution and external verification sought..”

 

She pointed out that recovered memories could be “contaminated by speaking to other individuals.”

 

Some theorists advocate that “forgetting trauma” and suppressing memories like “pushing it to the back of one’s mind and try not to dealt with it” helps people cope, she said.

 

The witness said that experiments showed that “memories could be created,” where people are led to believe they experienced something in the past when it never happened at all.

 

She said “planting a seed” in someone could create a (false) memory.

 

Dr Cameron agreed with prosecutor David Taylor it was not clear if memories of traumatic events could be forgotten.

 

She said that some people could create a “totally artificial” image in their mind.

 

The psychologist agreed with defence QC Mark Stewart  her profession did not have one rule or framework to test “recovered memory” where people remembered things which were meant to have happened a long ago.

 

It was a controversial subject amongst psychologists with some theorists maintaining it cannot happen while others say it can, she highlighted

 

Dr Cameron agreed: “The science doesn’t tell us yes or no.”

 

Mr Stewart suggested someone could have an image of a false event and retell the “complete nonsense” of a story about it.

 

The psychologist agreed and added the person may possibly have “quite convincing” emotions and “truly believe that’s what happened.”

 

Macdonald denies the charges. The trial continues.