To lie for a DP being investigated by police

[lboogy]

Entirely hypocritical and inspired by the recent post about Ian Huntley wanting a sex change.

I was always torn by the vitriol towards his partner Maxine who lied to the police for him. At the time I thought if I felt the police were trying to stitch up my DP and I was convinced he was innocent I might just lie to protect him. I might even do it for a child if I felt they were innocent.

What say you?

Not for a crime involving child victims. But for any other crime, if I thought that I couldn’t be found out, I would lie to protect my family's interests.

No, I would never deliberately lie to the police for anyone.

But would I volunteer information that might be relevant if I was not asked for it if I truly believed a loved one innocent? That I don't know.

I wouldn't lie for my DH.

But, depending on circumstances perhaps for my children. There would be so many variables that I can't give a definitive answer.

The mother upthread, I applaud her for what she did, but I can't 100% say I would do the same.

There's no point- you'll get yourself found out and have a nice jail term handed to you. They're heavy on this nowadays even if you had nothing to do with the actual crime.

So many people associate innocent with admissions of the truth. She was guilty, she knew he lied, she deserves no sympathy. If it was your daughter???

I can't believe the amount of sympathy on here towards maxine carr

It is a criminal offence to lie (pervert course of justice), so no I absolutely would never lie anyway, but it is also totally morally indefensible to lie in an investigation into the disappearance and murder of two children.

For something such as the crime in question, I would not lie, even for my own child.
For something minor, I might lie to protect my child, but not to protect a partner.

Nope. If innocent then they don't need me to lie.

I had a relative who was stitched up by the police. He has now had his conviction overturned and received substantial compensation, with the police force admitting huge failings.

No we didn't lie for him. We knew he was innocent. We told the truth.

Has anyone listened to the podcast "Serial"? Insight into some of the problems of the criminal justice system in the US... I think (hope) things are better in the UK (I am American)

Has anyone listened to the podcast "Serial"? Insight into some of the problems of the criminal justice system in the US... I think (hope) things are better in the UK (I am American)

I've not listened to it but my brother has, he's fairly recently retired from the police, he was horrified by some of the things that went on.

OP

I can understand Maxine Carr getting back from a trip to relatives and Huntly persuading her to lie, just. I can just understand that.

But she went on, she gave a TV interview showing a card on of the girls had made for her and referring to the girl (or both) in the past tense.

How dare you decry that evilness

'knowing in your heart' is NOT proof. It's an opinion, nothing more.

I might. I think I'd go with my gut. However, if I lied, I'd take responsibility for it rather than (Carr) expecting women on the internet to make excuses for me and blame my partner.

I don't think anyone should do the police's job for them. I might simply give 'no comment'.

Agreed OP

If my partner turned to me and said that the police were absolutely fitting them up then I'd believe them and lie to protect them

I for one am not trying to justify what she did, in case that isn’t clear. I do think that every inch of background influences a person and their actions, and therefore is potentially important in legal cases, to build a picture. The problem is that we cannot measure this stuff, we can only follow the letter of the law and apply accordingly. I totally understand why that has to be so, because it would be a slippery slope if we took everyone’s background as a mitigating factor. I read somewhere that a disproportionate amount of offenders were themselves victims of abusive childhoods, and more than the national average had been through the care system. We could argue that their upbringing was out of their control and therefore the negative effects caused them to commit whatever crime, and they themselves are the original victim. I realised I never actually answered the original question of the OP. My answer is no, but again my background helps me here. I’ve had only good experiences with police, and would feel confident in not being framed for something. I would be completely freaking out about two little local girls being missing and would be terrified of giving even one piece of wrong information that could cause them to go in the wrong direction in looking for them. If my neighbour’s kids went missing while I was away for the weekend, and my DH said to say I was here because otherwise the police might falsely accuse him, I would think he was being an absolute idiot, but I would probably assume that his own life experiences and misunderstanding of how these investigations work etc were making him paranoid. I still wouldn’t lie though. As far as I understood it, the only crime she knew about of IH’s was the rape accusation and from her comments on it she seemed convinced that he’d been framed for it. Hence the mistrust of police. Not defending her actions at all, but we have free reign here to look into it all objectively and ask questions about when and if something is ever right, and why people do what they do.

Mrs Christie was brought up in the time of always obey your husband, you are his keeper blah blah, it will have been instilled in her from a very very young age she wouldn’t have even known to do any different. Defintley not okay though!

Fair point - was there any debate over the phrasing of the wedding vows back then ? With the "obey" directive ?

A lot of absolutism here ... I think the answers more nuanced, and depend on my conscience before the law (as it should always be really ...). Maybe not in todays England. But there might come a time when I would lie for my DP.

If I lived in a place where people get arrested for their political views I might.

DH and I both come from police families. There is no way I would lie to the police. I would probably keep it factual and emotionless to deal with it but no bent truths.

I think a lot of people here don’t have much of an imagination.

If your partner came to you panicked and said that he was taking a walk when happened and you weren’t there but could have been, you may have reason to believe them and lie.

I don’t think I would. Particularly if it was to do with the disappearance of two children. But I can see how some would.

It’s not hard to believe that some abused women would absolutely believe in the innocence of their partners, you see it on here all the time. He never hits me in front of the children. He is a wonderful father.

(Not equating any of the above to Huntley and Carr btw. Just musings.)

I met someone who was involved loosely with the case who said Maxine Carr was a lot more culpable than she was charged with as there was no proof. Allegedly she's no victim.

Littleliferaft I am not surprised that MC was believed to be a lot more culpable by people working on the case. I thought the same. I don’t think she was a victim at all.

They find one another.

I remember there was some excited talk about Prince Charles marrying Diana, as she dropped the 'obey' and it was very very very unusual back then. As Mrs Christie married looooong befor at, I am pretty sure the 'obey' was completely undebatable. Furthermore, wives were still chattels and rape by husband of wife was NOT a crime merely his marital RIGHT.

I expect poor Mrs Christie never even got a chance to protest about what he was up to, and probably wouldn't have dared question him.