Vivid memories

The website Kapook recently ran a story about a janitor, 48-year-old Kamon Phaekhiaw, who was sent to jail for 21 years after he was identified by a foreigner’s two young children as a thief, and that he could soon be released from jail.

Two inmates, jailed for other offences, who met Kamon in prison realised they were responsible for the crime he was convicted of and wrote to the Justice Ministry. Kapook reported there is a chance the caretaker was wrongly accused and will be freed.

The case reflects the fact that witnesses are considered the prime source for identifying criminals, here and elsewhere.

However, as once said in a detective novel: “According to eyewitnesses, he was a tall, short, fat, thin man, with long straight or bushy hair, with and without a mustache and glasses”. A witness puts any suspect in a precarious position — to prove a negative — which is always difficult.

Experiments show again and again that people will subconsciously change their memories under pressure — as in trying to remember an event precisely, or during police questioning, for example. Pushing on a memory makes it move.

A little over 40 years ago, a pickup plowed into my car and pushed it into a parked car. My copy of the police report had the parked car ramming the pickup which hit my car. Obviously, no one remembered the incident in exactly the same way. MICHAEL WELDON