Chr ld Ahux d Nr pk r . Vol IO. pp X3-258. 1986 Pnnted 8” Ihe US A All nghts reserved 0145 2134/M $3.00 + (NJ (‘opynght ” IYXh Pcrpamon Prc\\ Lid zyxwvutsrqp CAN HER zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA DAVID CASE REPORT A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD BEAR WITNESS TO SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ATTEMPTED MURDER? P. H. JONES, M.R.C.PSYCH., D.C.H. AND RICHARD D. KRUGMAN, M.D. Kempe National Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Denver. CO 80262 Our general policy is not to publish case reports unless they are identifying a unique problem that is best described by way of a single case report. Ray E. Heifer, M.D. Editor in Chief INTRODUCTION IS IT POSSIBLE for young children who have witnessed traumatic criminal acts to accu- rately recall and relate their experiences? Traditionally courts of law in the U.K. and U.S.A. have been reluctant to hear such testimony. reflecting the popular view that children are unreliable witnesses and unable to relate the truth accurately [l]. There have been gradual changes [2] but there exists a serious concern among the public [3] and among professionals [4] that children, especially those younger than 6 years, may not be reliable historians. Recent psychological studies of children who have witnessed events and subsequently re- called them show that even children as young as 3 years can register and recall events accurately, particularly if they are given toys and materia!s with which to cue their memories [5, 61. However the drawback of these laboratory investigations is that most have involved the study of brief exposure to an event to be later recalled, or for ethical reasons have not involved traumatizing children deliberately and then studying their memory of such an event. Clinical work suggests that the emotional poignancy of a memory may be a very important factor in memory function [7]. Clinical reports constitute a springboard from which labora- tory investigations can develop because they provide a traumatic situation which is. thank- fully, nonreplicable. This paper reports a 3-year-old girl’s abduction. sexual abuse and attempted murder; her investigative interviewing; her testimony to a criminal court; and the accused’s eventual confession. The girl’s psychological trauma, its treatment and the family’s stress and method of coping are only briefly mentioned here as this paper’s emphasis is the accuracy of the young child. Her distress and that of her family is reported along with that of other children in a separate publication [8]. CASE HISTORY In the summer of 1983. a 3.1 year-old-white child, Susie, was abducted from the street outside her home by a man driving an orange car. The alarm was raised within minutes 253