A clinical psychologist whose evidence the judge refused to allow before the court said Boy B was suffering from PTSD after witnessing the attack on Ana and his lies to gardai did not show he was guilty.
During legal arguments in the absence of the jury, it also emerged Boy B gave Dr Colm Humphreys details of what he saw, including witnessing her top and pants being “ripped off”, hearing gasping sounds and Ana struggling before “everything stopped” and the schoolgirl said nothing.
Boy B told him he didn’t know if she was dead when he saw Boy A stand up with his pants open at the crotch.
Dr Colm Humphreys was called by Boy B’s defence but Justice Paul McDermott refused to allow him to give evidence before the jury after the prosecution objected on the grounds his evidence would make him a 13th juror, deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused.
Defence counsel Damien Colgan said he wanted to call Dr Humphreys to explain why Boy B reacted the way he did in Garda interviews and how trauma can affect a child of his age and cognitive ability.
The prosecution alleged Boy B lied when quizzed by officers because he wanted to cover his guilt but Dr Humphreys said his deception was not evidence of this.
Prosecutor Brendan Grehan said it is the jury’s role to decide if an accused lied and why they did so.
Giving evidence during legal argument in the absence of the jury, Dr Humphreys said his first impression on meeting Boy B was that he was, “overly friendly, very polite, a bit unboundaried but a pleasant, nice lad”.
When recalling events around what happened to Ana he would show signs of “disfluency” and avoidance.
He would be unclear, went from ease to discomfort and seemed to “disconnect as if elsewhere”.
Dr Humphreys said this was a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
