The Torture Debate.

Once again Americans can't decide whether it's ok to torture people. The excuse always used is that Jack Bauer couldn't save the world without torture. In reality, it would be interesting to know how many "ticking time-bombs" have been found this way. None, I suspect, as at the very least the country involved would have bragged about their successful thwarting of a plot through "interrogation", following which someone would have leaked the truth in book-form.

Just to show I do have some training, in UK law, a confession is inadmissible if gained by "oppression" or "in consequence of anything said or done which, in the circumstances existing at the time the confession was made, render any confession made unreliable".

I have come to define "Oppression" as anything not specified by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice. Eg: not bringing your prisoner enough tea, food, blankets; not giving them a watch or allowing them to know the time; not allowing them eight hours uninterrupted sleep BUT interrupting their sleep if ready to interview... it's a minefield. I must have tortured a few poor souls unintentionally when I forgot to keep them updated of the weather forecast and who would be on Jonathan Ross this week (Borat).

I agree wholeheartedly with PACE and feel that it is right and fair that if I encourage my prisoner to tell the truth, I should be struck down with all the fury of the SMT. I also feel it a positive thing for Human Rights that different rules are applied for a denial: it is not inadmissible for the prisoner's solicitor to say and do things which, in the circumstances existing at the time the denial was made, render the denial made unreliable. This is the tenet on which our nation's justice system works.

I think Blandshire Constabulary's approach is that it isn't so much whether you torture the person or not, but whether there's a Detection at the end of it.

Dostoevsky said famously (quick pause for breath and a cup of tea to recover from my sudden onset of academia), and I paraphrase, "Is it ok to make the world happy and nice if it means torturing some poor innocent baby to death?"

I do not know the answer, but I know that if I can be considered a poor innocent baby, and I think you'll agree I can, Tony McNulty is having a damn good try.

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