Evaluation of the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses:
Testimony of the Complainant - General:
- I examined, re-examined, and examined the complainant's testimony before me, which lasted over two sessions (16 September 2019 and 28 October 2019). I went back and reviewed her statements, and watched her last police interrogation (on 7 September 2016), which was also visually documented.
The complainant was subjected to a difficult, exhausting and revealing cross-examination. More than once, during the cross-examination, the defense attorney raised his voice. He accused the complainant of not telling the truth. Because she is making false accusations against the defendant for various vindictive motives. Because its versions are evolving and twisting. Because her testimony is inconsistent with her children's versions. More than once, the complainant was required to relate to subtleties. Some of the questions touched on personal, intimate topics.
Still, the complainant's version remains on the machine. She still gave her testimony, in detail, while trying to be as precise as possible in giving her testimony. In my opinion, I have no doubt about the credibility of the complainant and the credibility of her version. Her testimony before me reflects reality as it is, without extremism and without exaggeration. In her testimony to me, the complainant described what happened in the family home. In courageous, honest, open and reliable testimony, the complainant spoke about what she experienced in her life together with the defendant. The complainant testified "from her heart", and it is clear that there was a lot of residue left in her about the way the defendant treated her and their children together.
- In her testimony before me, the complainant did not spare criticism of herself. For not protecting her children enough. For not leaving home with her children beforehand. about the way she functioned as a mother. About the fact that only after long years of therapy did she learn to embrace her children. for repressing the violence that the defendant used against her children (except for child C). for not seeing the different ways of violence and the different cycles of violence in which the defendant surrounded her. For being silent and not seeking help, until her older daughters urged her to "take action." In addition, the complainant's testimony also contained a tone of self-criticism that she gave in to the defendant's pressure and continued to become pregnant even after the birth of G. (contrary to her desire not to have more children – see the complainant's testimony, pp. 47-48 of the transcript). The complainant stated that her two older daughters were still angry with her for the way she functioned as a mother, during the period when they all lived with the defendant.
Here is the place to emphasize that this self-criticism does not completely crack the complainant's credibility. The opposite is true. Her testimony was sober and "complete," while providing a glimpse into the depths of her soul, and the circumstances that led to the events described in the indictment.
- The complainant's testimony was full of details. Sometimes associative. Description followed description, and event followed event. The complainant tried to explain and be precise, sometimes precisely, bordering on exaggeration. Even when she did not remember the date on which a certain event occurred, she tried to tie it to other significant events: so and so months before leaving the house; On this and this day of the week, when God was so and so old and so and so on.
See, for example, the multitude of details in her response to the question regarding the events that led her to file the complaint – pp. 41-44 of the transcript; The multitude of details in the complainant's descriptions of the atmosphere in the house - pp. 46-50 of the transcript.