Martin's QC suggests faulty memory

A book in which attempted murder accused Lesley Martin described trying to kill her mother could not be relied upon as evidence, her lawyer said yesterday.

Lesley Martin is standing trial in the High Court at Wanganui on two counts of attempting to murder her mother Joy Martin in 1999. One count relates to an alleged overdose of morphine and the other to an alleged suffocation attempt.

Martin's lawyer, Donald Stevens, QC, opened Martin's defence yesterday and said the Crown's case was almost entirely based on his client's book, To Die Like A Dog.

However, Martin's account of her mother's death as written might not be accurate, Dr Stevens said.

He said there was a distinct possibility events in Martin's book might not have happened, even though Martin believed they had, because of "cognitive dissonance", or memory distortion.

Professor Richard Glynn Owens, a Welsh professor of forensic and clinical psychology and expert in end-of-life care, who flew to New Zealand to give evidence in the trial, told the court that cognitive dissonance was "the way in which our recollection of events may become changed because we need to resolve two things in our minds which appear to conflict".

He said people remembered things the way they wanted to reconstruct them, based on what had happened since, as well as what happened at the time.

"Memory can mislead us terribly," Professor Owens said.

He said reading Martin's book it appeared she had promised her mother she would help end her life, but this conflicted with her own views at the time.

Martin's views on euthanasia had changed since her mother's death, so her recollection of events might have altered to match her new beliefs that helping her mother die would have been appropriate, he said.

- NZPA