Accuser has personality disorder, how to prove it?

[Hopeful]

Hi everyone,

My partner is currently waiting for his trial which is in the beginning of January. The woman who has accused him was his wife for ten years and they have a child together. When she left him she dragged him through court proceedings for custody of their child, and when she discovered she was losing, she started with the false rape allegations. This woman is very clever and has done her research, but after spending two years looking at her behaviour towards my partner and what I have been told from when they were together, I have been researching and I believe she has narcissistic personality disorder. The problem is, I am not a specialist in this subject and I don't know anyone who is, so is there any way we could have this brought up in court without sounding like we are just clutching on to straws? I seriously think if she had a mental health assessment, she would be found to have a personality disorder, and this would seriously help my partners case.

Our barrister has asked for her counselling notes but I am not sure we are going to get them. We have managed to get over 11 references from friends, most of whom have said that she was a control freak and not very liked, but feared by most people. Is there any way we could have her personality disorder brought to light in court? We do have a good barrister and I am sure he will do his best when questioning her to drag her true personality out, but she is a good actress too.

This forum is a great support and I just want to say I hope you all keep strong, as the date is approaching, we are becoming more and more anxious and struggling to focus, but we are just trying to keep busy.

[largactyl1]

HI hopeful,
Sorry that you are going through the mill at the moment. I think yr best bet is to have yr legal team drag out her personality issues as I really do not see that she will be assessed by a Psych at your request - I maybe wrong on that but it seems unlikely. Also, is it in yr best interest to have her labelled as something, whereas if her dysfunction is pulled out in court it may well be better understood by the jury, making it clear as to what sort of person she is and how a false allegation which conveniently comes out when she is losing at custody battle fits in with her personality faults. I hope I'm making what I am trying to say as clearly as possible????
Best wishes
Jen

[the advocate]

I can understand exactly where you’re coming from on this one, Hopeful. In answer to your question, in my opinion it’s impossible to have a mental health diagnosis done on your partner’s accuser, but on the other hand, it would not necessarily be helpful and you don’t actually need it.

If you were to try to force the issue of having an assessment performed, I suspect that this could backfire on you as there is a big possibility that it would be seen as your side attempting to discredit the accuser, in the same way as genuine rapists who represented themselves in their criminal trials used to be able to question and cross examine the victim in court. It’s quite possible that a view would be taken that a personality disorder does not exclude a person from being a victim of rape or sexual assault, and that the your attempts to get such a diagnosis are merely a power play to try to get her to drop the accusations.

However, as above, I don’t think that you actually need this. The fact that you have got 11 statements from people who knew her in the period before any allegations were made is far more helpful to your defence, as these can be introduced as showing her character as being the sort of person who is likely to make up such false allegations for her own ends. I believe that it will sway a jury more to have normal people saying the “she was like this” and “she did or said that” than having had an expert opinion from a psychiatrist which can easily be countered by another expert opinion from another psychiatrist which says exactly the opposite.

Having been falsely accused of over 1000 rapes by my ex wife, I can understand why you want to come up with as many points in your favour as you can. However, in this case I think that you can demonstrate more easily to a jury exactly what she is like than by a rather technical defense. And by the way, I’ve used “you” in this post as meaning you and your partner. It’s absolutely wonderful for him that he’s got your support, and all credit to you for giving it to him.

[Hopeful]

Thank you both of you for your support and replies. I had never thought of it like that but yes you are both right. It would be better if her personality came out in court and the jury see her for what she is. She seems to love playing the victim so I suspect she will be in her element in court and her acting will be first class. She gave video evidence initially, but the judge claimed it was too long so she has now given a written statement which unfortunately paints my partner out to be a monster, so I am going to start helping him pull that to bits this week.

I am so sorry to hear you had been accused of over 1000 rapes... that almost happened to my partner... his Solicitor spoke to him before the initial interview with the Police and he asked my partner what his sex life was like and he said to his Solicitor "she was never really bothered about sex"... his Solicitor said "right there, you can be accused of rape for every time you have had sex"... so he opted to go no comment through the whole interview.

I will always support him, he is a wonderful man with such a gentle nature. Unfortunately he was in the wrong relationship with a control freak who emotionally abused and battered him and he ended up very poorly at the end of it, she had knocked his confidence and spark out of him and he felt completely useless when she left. I have helped him re-discover himself and I have watched her try and bring him back down over the past three years, I am not going to let her win. He has children who are lucky to have a dad who is so involved and I am lucky to have a partner who makes me so happy, I will not let the witch take him away from us and I will fight by his side throughout.

I just hope the jury see her for what she is and what she is doing, it's such a scary thought that our future depends on those four days and a bunch of strangers who will have four days to get to know my partner and his ex-wife... my partner will be an emotional wreck and his ex-wife will be on top form. :-(

[lawlessone2009]

Just and extension on 'the advocates' sound advice.

I have over recent years been stopped for speeding. Being quite a long-term naughty speeder I have amassed some knowledge about the 'loop holes' and have been able to prepare to advance 'technical' defences but generally relied on procedural errors.

Both are 'technical' points and do not in anyway persuade anyone that I was not guilty but rather forces them to back down. If I was to try anything similar in a jury trial they would have me for breakfast!

I believe you should follow the advice of 'the advocate' and stick to a nice simple defence with relevant info being presented in court. I understand the frustrations and the feeling of 'am I doing enough' but sometimes it results in doing too much. Keep it simple as juries are simple people, not rocket scientists.

If there is one area I would really ask you to focus on it is 'presentation'. How would your partner 'appear' to jurors, how would he 'act', how does he 'talk', is he articulate and too the point?

Just my five pence worth...

[Rights Fighter]

Hopefully counselling notes can be helpful. If she is strangely silent in her sessions with any counsellor or psychologist/psychiatrist then that would be a good cross-examination point.

It is unusual for defence to insist on an assessment of a complainant but it can happen. It really depends on the circumstances.

Being a control freak with narcissistic tendencies doesn't mean she's lying.

As another member has said, concentrate on the timing of the allegations.