Memory at centre of sex abuse trial

The Crown said it was not a "trial by experts"

A jury will soon consider experts’ theories about how memory works as it decides its verdicts in a trial on allegations of historical sexual abuse.

Two memory experts – called by the Crown and the defence – gave evidence in the trial, but the Crown said it was not a ‘‘trial by experts’’.

Colin Robert Williams, 49, denies charges of inducing an indecent act with a girl aged under 12, doing an indecent act on a girl aged under 12, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and 10 of indecent assault.

Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the experts agreed memories ‘‘can be wholly inaccurate’’. ‘‘You can get memories of events that never happened,’’ he told the Christchurch District Court jury in his closing address before Judge Alistair Garland. ‘‘If you have got a wrong memory, you don’t know it’s wrong.’’ Fournier said there were inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the Crown witness’ accounts of abuse involving two girls, from 1989 to 2003, which raised serious questions about witness reliability. He said one witness said police told her she ‘‘needed to sort out fact from anger, because of course I was angry’’.

Crown prosecutor Kathy Basire said in her closing address that the defence claimed there had been no sexual offending, and allegations put at the trial were the result of the complainants lying or their memories being distorted or inaccurate.

She expected the defence would say one of the complainants had mistaken Williams’ actions many years ago, and the other woman had learned about that woman’s allegations and they had somehow become part of her memory. The defence would say that led her to incorporate sexual abuse into her narrative, arising from her own internal grievances.

But Basire said it was ‘‘simply implausible’’ that two people could have separately ‘‘got it wrong’’ with false memories of abuse by the same person. ‘‘The Crown says to you that is a highly unlikely coincidence.’’

The jury should also consider Williams’ ability to recall things, she said. For nine years, he was ‘‘popping pills’’ and smoking cannabis daily, and using alcohol.