You have been asked to write a report for the court about a case, the details of which are given below. You have been specifically asked to comment on the credibility of a particular witness' testimony.

PY610: Expert report assignment (2000 words maximum; 50% of total mark)

You have been asked to write a report for the court about a case, the details of which are given below. You have been specifically asked to comment on the credibility of a particular witness’ testimony. This witness is the key prosecution witness but the court wants an independent expert to give their opinion about the strengths and weaknesses of this testimony. Using your psychological knowledge you should comment on what factors might have impaired the witness and what factors suggest that the witness’ evidence could be strong. Would you recommend that the court accept this witness’ evidence?

You should back up the points you make with reference to the research literature, both applied and theoretical. Your report should follow the outline given at the end of the case information. It should be noted that the events depicted in this case are fictional and that this exercise is purely for the purposes of assessing this module and does not constitute any form of training in writing expert reports.

Case Information

The offence

On the 11 December 2004 at 7pm a young male was attacked in the street by a group of 3 males and was so badly injured that the victim is still in a coma.

The defendant

The defendant is T. who is a 17 year old white male and it is claimed that he was the ringleader of the group. He was identified by the witness (Mrs P) as being the person who kept attacking the victim once the victim had fallen to the ground. T. is being prosecuted for GBH.

The ...

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Case Information

The offence

On the 11 December 2004 at 7pm a young male was attacked in the street by a group of 3 males and was so badly injured that the victim is still in a coma.

The defendant

The witness

Mrs P. is the main prosecution witness. She is a 40 year old, white married woman who lives on the same estate as the defendant.

The witness’ evidence

Mrs P. claims that she was walking down the High Street in her town on her way to play bingo. She could hear shouts coming from down one of the side streets and she decided to investigate. On going down the badly lit side street she came across a gang of three males who were fighting with a fourth. She saw the fourth male being knocked to the ground and one of the gang started kicking him and hitting him hard with a piece of wood. The man on the ground was obviously in a lot of pain. The male who was attacking the man on the ground looked up and she says that she recognised him as being T. Mrs P. claims that T. is a well known trouble-maker on the estate where she lives and she has often seen him around. Mrs P. ran back to the High Street called the police and an ambulance on her mobile phone but did not give her name or details because she says she was scared about reprisals. Mrs P. only contacted the police four weeks later when she found out that the victim was still in hospital in a coma.

The police initially showed her a series of photographs of possible suspects and she picked out T. with no hesitation. Two days later, Mrs P. was invited to attend a live line-up (which was carried out correctly as per PACE Code D) where again she picked out T. as being the main attacker of the victim.

Expert Report Outline

You should follow this outline when writing your report. You may use subheadings to differentiate the different sections.

Give very brief details of your professional competence and what information you have seen about the case.

You should then give an overview of the main issues that you think are important when considering the credibility of the evidence.

You should then go on to discuss these issues making reference to the psychological literature to back up your discussion.

Next you should give your recommendations to the court about the credibility of the witness’ evidence.

Finally, you should provide a list of references mentioned in the text (this is not included in your word count).

Learning Outcomes

This assessment is designed to assess the following learning outcomes:

The ability to critically analyse forensic psychological research
The ability to apply psychological theory to forensic psychology practice
The ability to illustrate your awareness of ethical issues in the area where appropriate
The ability to suggest how theoretical knowledge can be applied within the Criminal Justice System, including the use of expert reports
To show the ability to construct fair, coherent, convincing and sustained arguments, using an appropriately wide range of evidence
The ability to evaluate primary source material critically
Evidence the ability to use written communication clearly, coherently and grammatically, within a given structure, using the standard referencing techniques of the discipline, demonstrating effective choice and organisation of material.
The ability to use ICT skills to present information effectively using a format and style to suit the intended purpose, subject and audience
The ability to use databases and other computer sources effectively to retrieve and select information
The ability to make critical judgements and evaluations, identifying general principles and evaluating competing perspectives
The ability to work autonomously, setting personal goals and deadlines as appropriate in order to complete set tasks
To demonstrate subject knowledge through independent appraisal of a range of learning resources