Passivity in Acid Attack

A 20 year old woman said that she was attacked by a woman in a burqua, who threw acid in her face, leaving her temporarily blinded and with severe burns.

Here is her statement made on TV:   "No words were spoken. There was no dialogue. I looked back and remember the person just staring at me.  The eyes were cold.  It was a cold stare."

What do we see in her statement?

1. "No words were spoken" is passive.

 Passivity is often used to conceal identity or responsibility.

2.  Passivity:  "There was no dialogue."

This is also passive, and it has a language change from no "words" to "no dialogue."

3.  Change in wording.

 Words have the tendency to remain the same unless there is a change in reality.  When there is no change in reality, we must ask if the change of words is an indication that the subject is not speaking from experiential memory.

4.  "I looked back and remember..."

Within an open statement, one can only tell us what they remember.

5.  "the person"

The "person" is gender neutral.  Why not the "woman" since her gender has been identified?

6.  "The eyes were cold" and "It was a cold stare" has the repetition of "cold", making it sensitive, but "it was a cold stare" is passive as well.  This appears to be an emotional recall, placed at the time of the alleged assault.  If "cold eyes" is to gauge an emotion, it would make the emotion appear to be artificially placed here in the alleged assault.

7.  She went from the "eyes" being cold to the "stare", which appears to be a change in language without anything appearing to change, in context (reality).

There is enough information in the statement to question if the subject knows the attacker and is concealing information.

Police should seek to learn:

Does she know the attacker?

 Is she, herself, the attacker of a self inflicted wound?