Beaten by a stranger: true or false?
The words reveal a lot
Here’s a story from a local paper which contains some great examples of language in use and how we can detect or rule out deception. It also shows how to uncover what isn’t being said.
Have a read on this link and then read on for the analysis.
Victim:
He had asked me out on a date the Tuesday before. But I cancelled the day before. Then I told him I was going to be at this gathering in Worsley and I said meet us there.
The evening was fine. I had a few drinks and he had a couple. He had booked a hotel locally but at the end of the night he said he would drive me home and my friends were returning to my house in another car.
We left the place and went off walking to his car. He said he couldn't find it. We must have spent 15 minutes looking for it. I had a bit of a go at him saying 'how can you not know where you have put your car.'
He told me to get an Uber. I said 'no, the least you can do is take me home. What kind of person leaves a girl alone at 2.30am in Salford."
I was on the phone to my friend telling her we were heading back and he was being rude to her. He stopped the car, and was trying to grab hold of my legs. He then grabbed my hair. I came out of the car and said 'what the f*** do you think you are doing'
He then punched me a couple of times in the face. He hit me again when I was on the ground. My skin was broken. In my book it was GBH. He then drove off and I was in despair because my phone was still in his car being charged.
I'm embarrassed. I should have known better than to jump in a car with a man I don't know.
At the end of the day I have made some wrong decisions. But I don't think I took in the severity of all this at first. It has only recently dawned on me how horrendous this was.
[A week after the attack the victim says the alleged culprit rang her up.]
He asked if I was okay. He said his actions were self defence. I said 'what, you dragged me out of of the car in the middle of the night'. He claimed he had never laid a finger on anyone. I told him he would be hearing from the police
I later checked and found out that GMP had received that phone interview on September 23. Since then nothing has happened. It was soul destroying. I was prepared to let it go in the end because I was sick and tired of the police not doing anything. I lost all faith in them.
Her ex-husband also spoke:
She recognises she has made basic mistakes on the night. But this man dragged her out a car and kicked ten bells out of her and left her in the middle of Salford, taunted her afterwards with a phone call, and the next day was again in dating sites talking to other women.
I am dismayed at the police response. My ex is a lovely wonderful person. She is not aggressive and for this to happen is heartbreaking. She would never provoke anyone. I think the police were negligent and most importantly I want this guy arrested.
The police called her today and they told her they're still awaiting for her to make a statement
She made a statement on the 21st September, on many calls they confirmed they had this statement and now they are saying they don't.
If they have lost the statement, why have they not contacted her again for another statement?
Let’s break it down
The victim's statement is totally credible here. There are no linguistic indicators that she is falsifying any detail of what happened to her. Everything she recounts is direct and to the point. She isn’t trying too hard to convince us that she is telling the truth or over stating what happened to her.
An example of this is “in my book it was GBH”. That is direct and to the point, she doesn’t feel the need to tell us why it was GBH, she’s stating something she firmly believes is true.
Everything is told in the past tense, her pronouns are consistent throughout her telling of events.
She puts very little judgement on her attacker, as she’s speaking the truth she is confident her story stands for itself and it doesn’t need her to do anything else to make him sound worse.
You can compare this to when she is talking about the aftermath where she seeks to downplay things “I made some mistakes”. Later she seeks to convince us how disappointed she is at the police handling of the case, “it was soul destroying” “I lost all faith in the police”.
These are linguistic touches we use to reinforce our point and make sure it’s heard. In cases where they are used like this, they aren’t deceptive.
The only time she seeks to downplay anything during the attack is when she says “I had a bit of a go at him”, she says “a bit” to persuade us it wasn’t much of a go.
But
There is a but coming. Her ex-husband is keen to point out that the victim is a lovely person, who isn’t aggressive and would never provoke anyone.
He doesn’t have to state this, and it’s a very exact way to portray someone when you don’t need to. When someone uses terms state in the negative, “she’s not aggressive”, “she would never provoke” they are worth analysing.
I’d suggest the reason he mentions this is that she can be aggressive and that can provoke people. She says herself, “I had a bit of a go at him”.
In her description of what happens in the car there are two points where she appears to skip over details with the word “then” which is often used to move a recount past something you want to avoid mentioning.
After my but comes my however
She shouldn’t have to do that, her character or actions aren’t relevant here.. It’s obvious that she is a victim and I don’t care how angry or annoyed or mouthy she got when her attacker couldn’t find his car, she did not deserve what happened to her. There is no excuse for it at all.
Sadly, many victims feel they are in someway to blame for what has happened to them. She may make different decisions the next time, but that she isn’t to blame for the beating she was subjected to.
She has no reason to mention the follow-up phone call. If she was being deceptive, she could leave it out. If her account of what was said during the call is faithful, the attacker's words have all the hallmarks of someone being deceptive. “I never laid a finger on anyone” is about as deceptive as denials get.
Conclusion
A truthful account or a horrific incident, one in which the victim thinks she has to take some blame for. She doesn’t.
More words analysed