The Home Office and Ministry of Justice announced last week that counter terrorists will now face polygraph tests in the wake of the most recent London Bridge attack, in a bid to improve the quality of intelligence.
Polygraphs, commonly known as lie-detector tests, remain inadmissible in UK courts but their use within the probation service for monitoring offenders is increasing. Sex offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators are already subject to the technology, and failures to pass a test can lead to further investigation or supervision.
The question is, should lie detector testing now be introduced into the family court arena?
The ‘family’ court has been proven time and time again to be a dangerous and often fatal place for children. Additionally, innocent parents have false findings made against them, with no evidence whatsoever.
There should be no room for error when concerned with the most vulnerable in society - children. But we are seeing all too often the fatal ‘mistakes’ that are being made by family court judges.
It is under debate as to whether these courts are simply making mistakes, whether they are being ‘taken in’ by charming abusive parents and false accusers, or, whether it is pure corruption.
Corruption aside, isn’t it about time that polygraph testing was introduced? Because in contentious private law family proceedings, let’s face it, one of the parties is a liar and that liar should be forced to take a polygraph test, along with the other parent. Similarly the local authorities should be made to take the tests in the case of public law cases where innocent parents are often vilified and have false findings made against them, often resulting in their children being stolen and forcibly adopted.
The current state of affairs is that the judges don’t listen to children, preferring to believe the lies of a well rehearsed narcissist over the honesty of a traumatised child.
Polygraph testing would surely improve this situation? If the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office have recommended their use in counter terrorism, then why not use them in within cases of domestic terrorism?
