Contradictions and Inconsistencies in the Case of Elvira

All the judges involved in the trials of Oswald and Helena have proven an astonishingly low capacity for comparing different pieces of the evidence and, as a consequence, for detecting factual, logical or psychological inconsistencies and contradictions.

At the end of the proceedings of the trial of Oswald and Helena in the court of appeal in 1994 an audio-tape was played, which was made especially for this trial. Elvira told how awful she felt when people did not believe in her allegations.

However, in 1994 as well as during previous proceedings, it had constituted a problem for the prosecutor, for the judges, and all expert witnesses except one, that all the information provided by Elvira had turned out to be false – with the sole exception of such evidence whose truth-value had not been tested at all. Elvira had pointed out graves where no one had dug since the Ice Age. And she was unable to find any sex clubs or apartments.

During the four earlier sets of proceedings she had more or less admitted her inability to find such places. However, during the proceedings in 1994 she provided a new explanation, which is described in the following excerpt from the judgement (p. 37, italics added). Elvira stated "that she thinks she can find the houses in which the assaults were supposed to have occurred [ ] but that she is not willing to do so or does not dare to do so, because then she would obtain final verification that her recollections are true."

This is a typical example of a kind of evidence that judges should definitely compare, even if they are not in the possession of any specific technique for comparison. Elvira claimed, on the one hand, that it was extremely important to her that other people should believe in her allegations. And she claimed, on the other hand, that she herself was not sure that these events had happened.

According to her narratives she had been abused by both her parents and by many other men and women. She had experienced genital, oral and anal sex, both at home, in sex clubs, and in the customers' own apartments. These experiences had occurred continually for some 5-10 years. It is almost a miracle that these numerous events left no certainty that they were anything else than fantasies – while a single look in one of the apartments would convince Elvira of the fact that her recollections were true.

The same pattern is found in the case of Inga-Lisa, who had allegedly been abused continually for 8½ years. These experiences did not prevent her from thinking that she might have dreamt all the assaults. By contrast, one tiny event did convince her of the reality of the abuse. She was reading a book; her stepfather said he would like to see her naked; and at the precise moment one of her schoolmates rang the doorbell.

If both parents had participated in the Lucia assault next to each other, how could Elvira merely believe that the mother was aware of the father's abuse And if Elvira had procured young boys for her father, how could she merely believe that he also abused other children

Twice we have encountered the perplexing idea that Helena had abused Elvira, and had willingly paid for her psychotherapy – although Helena cannot have overlooked the immense risk that Elvira would tell her therapist about the abuse.

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Uppdaterad: 2009-11-19

Yakida