Alexander Litvinenko murder suspect failed lie detector test, court hears
|
Version 0 of 1. The man widely suspected of having murdered the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko failed part of a lie detector test, getting a score of -2 when asked the question: “Have you ever handled polonium?” The public inquiry into Litvinenko’s murder heard on Monday that Andrei Lugovoi took a polygraph test in April 2012. Russian state media reported that the test had emphatically “cleared” Lugovoi of any involvement in Litvinenko’s death. Lugovoi has consistently denied slipping radioactive polonium into his victim’s tea during a meeting in November 2006 at the Millennium hotel in London. Litvinenko died in hospital 23 days later. On Monday, the inquiry was told that the British polygrapher who administered the private test in Moscow had a previous conviction for perverting the course of justice. Bruce Burgess got a two-year suspended jail sentence for giving the police a “fictitious name” after he was caught speeding. Asked by Ben Emmerson QC if he were “a proven liar”, Burgess answered: “We are all liars. We all lie about one thing or another”. Emmerson, acting for Litvinenko’s widow Marina, added that in the wake of his 2009 conviction Burgess was clearly “damaged goods” and someone “who would take any work he could get”. “He who pays the piper calls the tune,” Emmerson said. The high court heard that Burgess and his son Tristam flew to Moscow at the behest of Alexander Korobko, a Russian TV documentary producer. Burgess was paid £5,000 plus expenses to carry out the lie detector test, which took place in a Moscow hotel. He had no idea until he got there that his subject was accused of murder, he said, and merely knew he was meeting a “celebrity”. Lugovoi was asked several questions including: had he killed Litvinenko, or handled radioactive polonium? Burgess conceded that although he had told Lugovoi afterwards that he had passed the test, he actually failed the polonium question. The following morning Lugovoi invited the two men to have breakfast in his daughter’s Moscow restaurant. RT, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, broadcast video from the test and described Burgess as a member of the British Polygraph Association. It also cited his report, which said: “In our professional opinion, Andrei Lugovoi was telling the truth.” On Monday, Burgess said he resigned from the association following his criminal conviction. The inquiry heard there was evidence that Lugovoi had used “countermeasures” to dupe the test, which measures blood pressure and breathing. Tristam Burgess noted repeated “movement” by Lugovoi. Giving evidence, Professor Ray Bull, an expert in forensic psychology, said it was “quite easy” to train subjects to cheat. It was possible to take mental countermeasures and physical ones, he said. “Spies and intelligence agents are particularly well trained and largely effective in the use of countermeasures,” he added. Mental techniques to fool the result include counting backwards from 100, thinking of a sexually arousing scene, or imagining “walking your dog on a promising spring morning”. Sir Robert Owen, the inquiry chairman, remarked: “I’m bemused that walking the dog on a promising spring morning is compared with thinking of a sexually arousing scene”. The inquiry continues. |