Allegations of child sex abuse arose from hypnotherapy

Editorial Department • Published 25 Feb 2010 10:23

A child sex abuse case has collapsed after the court heard that the allegations emerged during a hypnotherapy session conducted by a former builder.

The allegations led to a 71-year-old man from Fermanagh being charged with indecently assaulting and buggering a boy under the age of 16.

Yesterday(Wednesday) at the direction of the judge, Her Honour Jemma Loughran, a jury at Omagh Crown Court found the pensioner not guilty on all charges. She also ordered that his name should not be published.

Earlier she had thrown out the evidence of hypnotherapist Laurence McCann, from Omagh.

Mr. McCann told the court that he had no formal educational qualifications but had worked in the construction industry and was a plasterer by trade. He explained that as a result of something that happened in his own life he had undergone hypnotherapy and became interested in the subject. He took a distance learning course through the International Association of Hypno-Analysts. It involved about a month's work and dealt with the repression of memories and "how to uncover or unlock those memories and what kind of feelings to expect when somebody would be reliving a memory of trauma".

He said he studied the history of psychology, completed assignments and met a tutor twice at seminars in Dublin when he was supervised in getting a fellow student to relax and recall memories. Since commencing work as a hypnotherapist in 1993 he had attended seminars twice a year and completed further training.

His web site refers to people stopping smoking and losing weight and offers "assistance with any problem where emotional or psychological forces are involved".

It states: "As the therapy progresses, the work of regression and reliving past, traumatic or negative experiences will enable them to reach a liberating enlightenment of the cause of their problems."

It was during the course of that therapy that the man at the centre of the allegations against the Fermanagh pensioner discussed for the first time claims that he had been abused as a boy. He subsequently went to the police and the pensioner was charged with six counts of buggering the boy when the boy was under the age of 16, and 16 counts of indecently assaulting him on dates between October 1980 and December 1988. The pensioner denied the charges.

Questioned by defence barrister, Mr. Martin Rogers, Mr. McCann said he kept no record of a client's history or previous memories and accepted that there was a risk of false memories.

"Without being too technical, all I want to do is the therapy, to relieve people of their symptoms, whatever is holding them back in life, and set them free," stated Mr. McCann.

The defence called Dr. Peter Naish, a senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University, as an expert witness. He explained that it would take one of his students a minimum of six years to obtain a degree. The course involved "many hours" of work each week, frequent assignments and meetings with tutors. He said he had investigated the International Association of Hypno-Analysts' web site and "there seems to be no comparison". He was struck by the enormous number of therapies that could be learned in just a month whereas, even with a degree, his students would not be qualified to do any of them. They would have to go on and study for further qualifications.

He described the evidence that any memory can be repressed as "very weak". He said scientists don't like to deny something categorically because "there's always the chance" but it was unnatural. Animals have memories of good things, like where to find food, and bad things, when they have escaped by the skin of their teeth.

"The idea that humans have developed something to over-ride that seems implausible," Dr. Naish told the court.

He said one of the defining symptoms of abuse is the "horrible flashbacks" that victims cannot get rid of.

Dr. Naish said there were "enormous dangers" in trying to unlock hidden memories.

"It does presuppose there are memories to unlock," he stated.

He said we grow up with the idea hypnosis can do this but if you simply add the word hypnosis to the process of getting someone to relax and recall memories then they will remember a great deal more than if you don't and it has been calculated that a proportion of those memories are false.

He explained that in 1988 the Home Office issued guidelines to chief police officers about the use of hypnosis. Up to that date the police had been in the habit, if a witness did not seem to have a memory of an event, of having them hypnotised to "improve" their memory. However, this was so likely to produce false memories that it was strongly advised against. If the witness came up with something new under hypnosis there was no way of telling whether it was a genuine memory. The only value of any new recollection was as a lead the police could follow up and establish the veracity of the memory by some other means.

Dr. Naish said it was in the nature of hypnotherapy that memories "flesh out" from session to session.

"They're not genuine; they do have the habit of becoming more and more elaborate," he stated.

Mr. Rogers submitted that the evidence of sexual abuse in this case emerged through hypnosis. The sessions were not recorded so no-one knew how the memory came into being.

The judge ruled that the evidence should be excluded from any trial. She said she would give a written judgement on her decision at a later date.

Following a short recess the Crown prosecutor, Mr. Simon Reid, said he had taken instructions and did not propose to offer any evidence.

On that basis the judge then instructed the jury to dismiss all charges against the Fermanagh pensioner.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 25 Feb 10

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