Worcester Lie Detector Test exposes Family Lie
Our client was worried that she might develop an hereditary mental illness but family gossip caused her to book a Worcester lie detector test for her father.
Eleanor’s Case
From a very early age Eleanor was told that her grandmother spent most of her life in a mental institution with clinical depression. Suffering from depression herself she worried that she had inherited the illness and would end up on a psychiatric ward.
However, talking to her aunt Marion one day she was told that not all she had been told was the truth. Her grandmother was considering leaving her grandfather and taking the children with her. Their eldest son Ross, Eleanor’s father, remembered the arguments even though he was away studying for his law degree. He felt his mother was at fault and believed his younger siblings should stay with his father.
The truth of the matter was that her grandmother was sectioned under the Mental Health Act by her grandfather. He told lies to the doctor about her behaviour and convinced him to sign the necessary papers. He’d already paid a ‘friendly’ private psychiatrist to diagnose clinical depression.
Ross had apparently suggested the plan to his father.
Eleanor’s grandmother died 20 years later still in the mental institution.
Worcester lie detector test
When Eleanor confronted her father with what she had learned from Marion, he denied all knowledge of the situation. He said she should ask her grandfather what he had done.
At 80, her grandfather was suffering with dementia. Eleanor got no clear answers at all from him. So she raised the matter with Ross again.
Her father became very defensive and it was this behaviour that convinced Eleanor to call us. In consultation with one of our West Midlands polygraph examiners, she decided to book a Worcester lie detector test for her father.
Initially Ross refused to take the test but Eleanor was determined. She explained that she suffered from depression most of the time and needed to know if it was hereditary. Ross only relented when she said she’d never speak to him again if he didn’t attend the polygraph examination.
Test and results
Having carefully worked out the questions to derive the answers Eleanor needed, our West Midlands polygraph examiner administered the lie detector test.
In the pre-test interview Ross seemed uncomfortable about the questions. He confessed he knew a little more about the situation than he had told his daughter but insisted he hadn’t told her a lie. Being economical with the truth is not a lie so the questions remained.
Deception was found in all of the answers Ross gave. Not only did he suggest the plan to his father but actively arranged it.
On receiving the Worcester lie detector test results, Eleanor was horrified. Her father tried to justify his actions by saying that he was acting in the best interests of his younger siblings. His mother wasn’t capable of taking care of them, mentally or financially.
While Eleanor learned that she hadn’t inherited a mental illness, what her father and grandfather had done was unforgivable. She hasn’t spoken to them since.
