Ella takes a polygraph test

David “Polygraph” Howard must be wetting himself with joy.

In her first public appearance since she quietly informed Nathan Stolpman that she had lied about her ex-husband and eldest son’s involvement in the imaginary “Hampstead SRA cult”, Ella Gareeva Draper takes a polygraph test on-screen.

Ignoring the fact that she outed herself as a liar a year ago by admitting that she and Abraham Christie had forced her two younger children to state that their half-brother had abused them and that his father was “in the cult”, Ella takes one more stab at convincing the world of the hoax.

The poorly made video, titled “Hampstead Mystery Solved”, and starring Ella Gareeva, Amável Carvalho Sanches, and the long-since-deceased Ted Gunderson, is currently available, for a fee, via Amazon. It appears to be yet another attempt by Abe and Ella to earn a bit of dosh while blowing frantically on the dying embers of the hoax they conspired to create in 2014.

According to the Amazon blurb,

Ella Gareeva takes a lie detector test. The question is: Did she lie about her children being abused by a Satanic cult in England? The Mystery about the “Hampstead 2” and the question of Satanic ritual abuse gets closer to the truth. World trusted polygraph expert Amavel Sanches puts the outcasted mother to the ultimate test.

Drama and suspense galore!

In the video, Ella is questioned while hooked up to a polygraph machine which is monitored by Portuguese polygraph “expert” Sanches, who describes himself as the “spiritual leader” behind BEAR Forensics. BEAR, which has an office in Madrid, describes itself on its webpage as deliverers of “Forensic Polygragph” (sic).

Sitting stone-faced in a straight-backed chair, lips in permanent duck-face mode, Ella answers Mr Sanches’ questions (all three of them) in her usual stilted, robotic style. To save you the trouble of sitting through this video, we’ve made a transcript of the polygraph part (sorry, spoiler alert):

Sanches: Do you understand I will only ask questions we have talked about?

Ella: Yes.

Sanches: Concerning the testimony of your children, are you going to answer truthfully each question on this test?

Ella: Yes.

Sanches: Are you sitting down?

Ella: Yes.

Sanches: Did you train your children to accuse their dad?

Ella: No.

Sanches: Are you aware of your children being conducted?

Ella: No.

Sanches: Did you coach your children, leading their testimony?

Ella: No.

Sanches: Okay, done!

Seriously? That’s it? That can’t be right—these things go much longer on television!

This strange little video, which is currently being passed around amongst the Hoaxtead mobsters as clear-cut evidence that the entire story was completely true, is riddled with gaping holes…which will, of course, be ignored by the troofers.

However, there are a number of reasons to treat Ella’s polygraph test with scepticism.

The truth about polygraphs

The American Psychological Association states on its website that polygraph tests are based on an unproven premise:

[T]he idea that we can detect a person’s veracity by monitoring psychophysiological changes is more myth than reality. Even the term ‘lie detector,’ used to refer to polygraph testing, is a misnomer. So-called ‘lie detection’ involves inferring deception through analysis of physiological responses to a structured, but unstandardized, series of questions. …

The accuracy (i.e., validity) of polygraph testing has long been controversial. An underlying problem is theoretical: There is no evidence that any pattern of physiological reactions is unique to deception. An honest person may be nervous when answering truthfully and a dishonest person may be non-anxious. Also, there are few good studies that validate the ability of polygraph procedures to detect deception. 

As for the admissibility of a polygraph test as evidence in a criminal court, a website called UK Lie Detector Test, which advertises as a purveyor of polygraphs, says:

In a legal zoom article, attorney Michelle Fabio points out that, “People do confess before, during, and (most frequently) after polygraph tests, and so their use in police investigations is fairly common.” In this sense, polygraphs are more of an interrogation tactic for police and attorneys than a real piece of evidence intended to be brought before a judge and jury.

In other words, even a firm which sells polygraph services states quite clearly that polygraph results are not intended for use as evidence to be brought before a judge and jury.

However, contrast this forthright explanation of lie detector tests with the hype on Mr Sanches’ BEAR Forensics site:

Forensic polygraph tests are mostly applied to defendants looking to prove their innocence.

Especially in cases where charges are based on someone’s accusations without any physical evidence or witnesses, a polygraph test can be the only procedure to test or confirm somebody’s innocence.

That is why forensic polygraph has started to find its place within the justice system. With the popularization and access to more professionals, it has become more available.

Not quite, Mr Sanches.

Who is Amável Carvalho Sanches?

On the BEAR Forensics website, Mr Sanches describes himself as follows:

Amável has a bachelor degree from the Amsterdam School of Business in The Netherlands. He graduated in forensic psychophysiology from the Marston Polygraph Academy and later obtained a postgraduate in forensic sciences from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

As it happens, the Marston Polygraph Academy, located in San Bernardino, California, has been the subject of complaints that it has skimped on the hours required to certify polygraph operators:

The current class of this expensive academy is in its second week. On the first day, last week, it was learned that the scheduled hours on their web site (8am-5pm M-F, 1 hr lunch, 40 class hours per week) was only to be appease [sic] APA and BPPVE as students were told it would really be 9am-330pm M-F, 1 hour lunch. After it was realized that this didn’t meet the APA requirement for schooling hours, the students were advised, an exact quote:“If you don’t tell them (American Polygraph Association), we won’t either”. 

And what about Ted Gunderson?

Ted Gunderson, granddaddy of all the conspiracy theorists, is featured in this video as a kind of Greek chorus, because of course he is.

For those who might be unfamiliar with Mr Gunderson’s interesting history, we can state that he was indeed an FBI agent between 1951 and 1979. Apparently he received a number of commendations for neat grooming and appearance, so go him!

It’s worth reading this synopsis of Gunderson’s descent from respected (and very well-groomed) FBI agent to certifiable bull-goose loony conspiracy theorist. Astonishingly, Mr Gunderson appears in the Ella polygraph video from beyond the grave, as his son reported him dead in 2011.

How to foil Abe and Ella’s cunning plan

First, and this should go without saying, don’t buy this video. It’s clearly a ploy on the fugitive pair’s part to scrape up some cash via Amazon sales. If you’d like to listen to the video in all its bizarre glory, you can find the audio here. (Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything with the visuals): ELLA VIDEO (audio only)

Second, you can complain to Amazon about this video, using the “Send us feedback” on the bottom right-hand corner of the video page. Here’s what EC said on his complaint:

The video “Hampstead Mystery Solved” features a woman who, along with her current partner, is currently wanted in the UK on charges of child abuse and contempt of court. This video is in violation of a court order currently prohibiting her from spreading further information about the children, whose identities may be inferred from her surname. They were removed from her care in 2015 due to negligence and child abuse. As such, this video is not an appropriate product for Amazon to sell.

And third, if you have an Amazon account and feel so inclined, you should feel free to express your opinion of the video in the customer review section.

This feels like a last act of desperation on the part of the Hampstead SRA hoax’s instigators…let’s not let them get away with it.

Ms Gareeva ran the whole gamut of emotion–from A to A.