1.2 DI Bullet’s evidence

Figure 3

When you first listened to the interviews conducted by DI Bullet you may well have formed an impression that, just as with his statements, he managed to quickly collect quite a bit of very consistent evidence that told a fairly straightforward story. Having now looked more closely at the question style he used, you will have noticed that he relies almost exclusively on leading questions.

His leading questions tend not only to suggest an answer to the witness, but often provide information for them which they have not previously mentioned – such as the driver being bald.

DI Bullet does this because he is using the interviews to collect evidence to support his hunch that the armed robbery and kidnapping were conducted by a criminal gang led by ‘The Sergeant’. How well do you think he did? If you heard the evidence gathered from the interviews presented in court, would you find it convincing and would you find yourself thinking that The Sergeant and Fat Baz must be guilty? After all, the descriptions and evidence provided do seem very consistent across the two witnesses, and a fairly precise description of the two perpetrators was produced.