July 2005: The Kerr/Haslam Inquiry
I have published the above official document in full only because I have been unable to extract the relevant section, in particular Chapter 31, Chaperones, which begins at page 651.
I will not comment here on the guilt or innocence of the doctors concerned, suffice it to say that anyone treating mentally disturbed women or mentally disturbed anyone should never be alone with any of these individuals. That applies to women almost as much as to men.
In an earlier chapter, at page 518 (Section 27.20) we find this interesting observation:
“The other problem with some sedatives is that at a high dose they can produce a major memory distortion, including fantasy and false memory, but this only seems to occur if the drug is given intravenously. For example, there has been a discussion on how some women heavily sedated with benzodiazepines, given intravenously, report false allegations of sexual assault. The study involved 41 incidents where women reported fantasies during sedation. Of those, 27 (66 per cent) contained sexual elements, including allegations of sexual assault. Seven of the 41 cases led to litigation against the anaesthetist.
All the women were certain of the authenticity of their accusations and their experiences were apparently vividly recalled.”
Some of the sexual assaults reported were said to be physically impossible, but in historical cases this is often far from clear, which is one reason such prosecutions should never be permitted in the absence of compelling physical evidence.
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