“Whatever You Say Will Be Taken Down in Writing”: What Handwritten Records of Suspect Interviews Leave Out

(Webinar with Dr. Adrian Gates.)

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In this keynote, Dr. Adrian Gates presents findings from his doctoral research into a question most justice systems rarely ask: how accurately do handwritten records capture what’s being said during suspect interviews? Ireland makes the question testable, because suspect interviews there are both audio-visually recorded and written down. Dr. Gates compared 15 real-world recorded suspect interviews with the written statements produced from them. The results raise serious questions about the evidential weight given to handwritten statements. They also build an evidence-based case for putting the recording first.

What the webinar covers:

• Lessons from miscarriages of justice: How cases in England and Ireland led to legislative reform
• A unique real-world dataset: 15 suspect interviews covering offences from burglary and fraud to sexual assault and murder
• The maths of the interview room and what goes missing: Suspects in custody speak at an estimated 150–200 words per minute, while interviewers write at around 30
• Inverting the evidential hierarchy: The case for treating the audio-visual record as primary evidence, with handwritten notes serving only as a navigational aid.

About the guest:

Dr. Adrian Gates is a former detective and sergeant in An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police service, where he specialised in serious and complex crime. He led the development and implementation of investigative interview training and strategic interview policy in Ireland, and he introduced the Cognitive Interview to criminal investigations in the Republic. Dr. Gates completed his doctorate at the University of Portsmouth, researching the evidential consistency of written records from suspect interviews. He is a member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) and the University of Portsmouth’s Centre of Forensic Interviewing. He is CEO of Mosney Unlimited Company and Managing Director of Insight Interviewing Ltd, which provides scientifically based, ethical investigative interviewing training and advice to the public and private sectors.