Damien Nettles: Language analysis of Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared interviews – Part 4

In this sixth post of a series that examines the disappearance of 16-year-old Damien Nettles on 3 November 1996 from Cowes, Isle of Wight, I will be applying language analysis to the interviews with Shirley Barrett from the Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared documentary series that aired on BBC3 in 2016. If you have arrived here without having read the previous posts in the series, here are the links in order: 

Damien Nettles – The facts
Damien Nettles – Murder, manslaughter or misadventure?
Damien Nettles – Language analysis of Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared interviews – Part 1: Chris Boon
Damien Nettles – Language analysis of Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared interviews – Part 2: Abbie Scott, Chris Boon and Davey Boon
Damien Nettles – Language analysis of Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared interviews – Part 3: The Weatherman

The reason I am spending so much time analysing these interviews is because only when someone’s choice of words and how they are spoken are scrutinised, may the truth of what is said emerge. One of my aims of writing this ‘body not found’ blog is to try and separate facts from rumours in ‘no body’ murder cases. Damien Nettles’ case is no exception, but unlike many missing-presumed-deceased cases, an investigative documentary series was made about it. The interviews with Damien’s family and friends, witnesses, informants and persons of interest, are a source for information that simply can’t be ignored just because language analysis is incredibly time-consuming, laborious, open to interpretation, and doesn’t always generate new or definitive information. The point is that it might, and so it must be done. 

Shirley Barrett

Shirley Barrett is interviewed in episode 6. One of the reasons that Unsolved spoke to her was because of an unsigned statement that she gave to private investigator, Ivor Edwards, in which she claimed that on the night that Damien disappeared, Nicky McNamara had picked up Damien with another man who she refused to name, on the Cowes end of Baring Road not far from Bars Hill. At 3:27 in episode 6, Ivor Edwards, who began investigating Damien’s case in 2007 five years after Nicky McNamara died, confirms that Shirley told him this, and also that if he repeated it that she would have him ‘murdered’. In her book, The Boy Who Disappeared, Damien’s mother, Valerie, writes that the police spoke to Shirley about her claim, but that it didn’t amount to anything. It is not clear when Shirley made her claim to Ivor or when the police spoke to her about it, but Valerie writes about it in between events that happened in late 2012 and early 2013.

Shirley lived in a house on Prospect Road in Newport, Isle of Wight, for at least ten years until 2003, when she was forced to move out under a court ordered Antisocial Behaviour Injunction. During that time, her home was the centre of four deaths – two men who died in the property, one of whom was Nicky McNamara, a regular visitor to the house who discovered Nicky’s body in the bath and was found hanged nearby a few months later, and the garden was excavated by the police in a search for another body. At the time of Damien’s disappearance, Shirley was a 34-year-old heroin addict and drug dealer. She was married to Christopher Thomas, who in 1999 was convicted of attempting to murder Edwin Wilcox who Thomas claimed sexually abused him from the ages of 11 to 16 when he lived in care. Thomas said that he kicked Wilcox off Culver Cliff. Wilcox’s scarf was found part-way down the cliff, which was enough to convict Thomas, but Wilcox’s body has yet to be found.

Prior to interviewing Shirley Barrett (SB), Unsolved reporters Bronagh Munroe (BM) and Alys Harte (AH) speak to her on the doorstep of her flat. The following excerpt was filmed by one cameraman, but the final edit that we see and hear is not in the order that questions were asked and answered. It may or may not have been filmed on the same evening. Here's the link to episode 6 on YouTube so that you can watch the interview that accompanies my analyses should you wish to. The single digits indicate four different scene shots as applied to what is being said, and the double numbers indicate the minutes:seconds of each scene start:

1 BM 8:16: Do you remember Damien Nettles?

1 SB: Yeah, vaguely, yeah.

1 BM: He's the little boy who disappeared 19 years ago…

1 SB: Yeah…

1 BM: …and we are looking to help his mummy find him.

1 SB: Yeah. It’s…

2 SB 8:24 If I knew anything… I’ve-h I’ve-had the police round to me about a thou… about a million times.

3 BM 8:29: For years, Nicky McNamara has been blamed, right, so we're looking to

2 BM 8:33: talk to people who knew Nicky McNamara as well. Can you tell me if you thought Nicky was a violent person? Was he ever violent?

2 SB: Yes. Very violent.

2 BM: Very violent?

2 SB: Yeah.

2 BM: Really?

2 SB: Yeah.

4 BM 8:42: Did you ever see him be violent?

4 SB: Yeah.

4 BM: To-to whom?

4 SB: Most people.

4 BM: Everybody? Boys…

4 SB: Everybody.

4 BM: ...girls? We have been told that he was a big dealer in Cowes.

4 SB: Yeah he was.

4 BM: He was?

4 SB: Yeah.

4 BM: Did he deal drugs to young boys?

4 SB: Yes.

2 BM 8:57: Do you remember talking to the police?

2 SB: Many a time about that.

2 BM: About Damien?

2 SB: Yes, many a time.

2 BM 9:03: Do you remember telling them

1 BM 9:05: that Nicky McNamara and somebody else picked Damien up on Baring Road?

2 SB 9:09: Well that’s th… well that’s what how what… you know what people are like when they say things over here, it’s just the story that’s carried on and probably got out of hand and…

2 BM: Do you remember saying that to police, though?

2 SB: Probably, I don’t know, I can’t remember. It was, you know… th-they’ve seen me so many times.

Analysis: Shirley says that she ‘vaguely’ remembers Damien. This may be true: she may not have met him, it had been 19 years since his disappearance and she was a heroin addict for many of those years, which may have affected her memory; or she may have said it to downplay the extent to which she remembers him – not necessarily personally, but in order to distance herself from knowing any information about his disappearance. At 8:24 she says: ‘If I knew anything… I’ve-h I’ve-had the police round to me about a thou… about a million times.’ However, she’s not asked if she knows anything about Damien or his disappearance and the scene shot changes after Bronagh speaks, and so although Unsolved are trying to imply that her answer is about Damien, we simply don’t know why Shirley says this. All that can be said is that after she says ‘If I knew anything’ there is a brief moment of apparent cognitive load (… I’ve-h) as she thinks about what to say next, before going with ‘I’ve had the police round to me about a thou… about a million times’. ‘A million times’ is an example of hyperbole (exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally). Exaggerating the fact of how many times something has happened can either be meant as a humorous remark, an expression of exasperation or annoyance, or to emphasise a point. Both downplaying and exaggerating are forms of deception, but of things or events that contain elements of truth – she does remember Damien, and the police have visited her many times – however, the two are not necessarily connected. ‘If I knew anything’ is also an interesting turn of phrase. Certain statements can indicate a higher probability of deception, but are not necessarily accurate predictors of deception. These statements include ‘I don’t remember doing that’, ‘why would I do that?’, ‘I don’t know what I did’, ‘are you accusing me?’ and ‘you can’t prove that’. ‘If I knew anything’ is similar in connotation because it implies knowledge of the thing that is being discussed, and so it’s something to bear in mind when considering the probability that Shirley is being deceptive.

The question that Bronagh asks at 8:29 is split across scene shots 3 and 2. This suggests what she says at 8:33 did not directly follow what she says at 8:29. However, Shirley appears to reply quickly to the questions about Nicky McNamara that are fired at her during the 9 second excerpt between 8:33 and 8:42 (scene shot 2) and the 15 second excerpt between 8:42 and 8:57 (scene shot 4), and so even though Bronagh’s question and the section about Nicky McNamara being violent and selling drugs to teenage boys have been edited together, there is nothing to suggest that Shirley is lying.

At 9:03, Bronagh asks Shirley a question that is split across scene shots 2 (Do you remember telling them) and 1 (that Nicky McNamara and somebody else picked Damien up on Baring Road?). The camera then cuts back to scene shot 2 and we hear Shirley speaking at 9:09. This suggests that Shirley’s answer: ‘Well that’s th… well that’s what how what… you know what people are like when they say things over here, it’s just the story that’s carried on and probably got out of hand and…’ may not be in direct response to being asked if she remembered telling the police that Nicky McNamara and somebody else picked Damien up on Baring Road. All that can be said about it is that she is experiencing some cognitive load (Well that’s th… well that’s what how what…) before she says: ‘you know what people are like when they say things over here, it’s just the story that’s carried on and probably got out of hand and…’. This may indicate responsibility avoidance – speaking in the third person to remove herself from the ‘the story that’s carried on’. Bronagh then asks from the same camera angle: ‘Do you remember saying that to police, though?’ and Shirley answers: ‘Probably, I don’t know, I can’t remember. It was, you know… th-they’ve seen me so many times.’ Again, because of the switch in scene shot between Bronagh’s previous question and Shirley’s answer, we can’t be sure that this answer is in relation to Shirley speaking to the police about her supposed claim to Ivor Edwards that Damien was picked up on Baring Road by Nicky McNamara and another man. All that can be said is that ‘Probably, I don’t know, I can’t remember. It was, you know… th-they’ve seen me so many times’ may indicate self-handicapping and responsibility avoidance, which could be suggestive of deception, particularly as she begins with ‘probably’, which is an expression of greater certainty than ‘maybe’, ‘perhaps’ or ‘possibly’, and follows this with ‘I don’t know, I can’t remember’, which may be to downplay any implied certainty in relation ‘probably’.

The next excerpt of note is when Bronagh asks whether she can ‘pop back and do a little chat’ with Shirley ‘in relation to talking about back then’. Shirley replies ‘What do you mean, an interview?’ The camera then cuts away to a zoomed out scene shot as we hear Bronagh saying ‘Yeah, would you do one and set the record straight for us?’ It then cuts to a zoomed in scene shot where Shirley’s face can be seen in the light coming through the doorway, and Bronagh and Shirley can be both be heard speaking at the same time for a second before Shirley continues:

BM 9:52:   and then
SB 9:52: I’ve been running from this for years. Just because I was friends with Nicky Mac everyone thought I knew all this and I don’t know anything… I don’t know nothing.

Analysis: Again, with the switch of scene shots, we don’t know what ‘this’ is that Shirley has been ‘running from’. Additionally, her use of ‘I don’t know nothing’ shouldn’t be taken as a double-negative (that she does know something) because ‘I don’t know nothing’ is such a commonly used, grammatically incorrect phrase that the feeling expressed by it takes precedence over the logic behind it. It’s not even close to being an indicator of lying.

The footage then cuts to the inside of Shirley’s living room and remains there for the rest of the interview, although as with the doorstep footage, the final edit is made up of several scenes shot by one cameraman. At 10:40, Shirley confirms that she had a relationship with Nicky McNamara but that it was ‘a long time after, a lot longer after’ Damien went missing. Alys then asks:

AL 10:49: I think he might have been spoken to by police before he died. Did he ever mention that to you?

SB 10:54: No.

AH 10:55: So he never talked…

SB 10:56: No.

AH 10:56: …about Damien Nettles?

SB 10:57: No, no.

Analysis: This excerpt is a continuous scene shot and so we know that Alys’ questions and Shirley’s answers are in order, and there is nothing of significance to suggest that Shirley is lying about Nicky not speaking to the police before he died – she answers with a single ‘no’ to this question and the next without hesitation, and her words and gestures (‘no’ shaking of the head) are congruent. Shirley's 'No, no' at 10:57 is probably in response to Alys changing the focus of her original question (spoken to the police before he died, did he ever mention that to you) and her next (so he never talked) to ‘about Damien Nettles’. Compared to truth-tellers, liars tend to use multiple denial words and phrases – ‘no, not ever, never’ – to overstate lack of involvement or to overemphasise denial, but a double ‘no’ is not a reliable indicator of this.

Bronagh then tries to question Shirley about the circumstances surrounding Nicky McNamara’s death. Nicky died in Shirley's bath and it is said that his body remained there for three days before his death was reported. What is said during the next excerpt is continuous camera footage. Shirley states that she doesn’t want to talk about the circumstances of Nicky’s death. Bronagh then asks her about the supposed deathbed confession that Nicky made about Damien, to which Shirley replies:

SB 11:12 I told you I don’t wish to talk about… (BM I’m sorry I don’t) …and no, there was no deathbed confession.

Analysis: As Shirley says this, she raises her left hand with her palm towards Bronagh in a ‘stop’ gesture. Linguistically, there is nothing to suggest that she is lying about there being ‘no deathbed confession’. In support of this, 90% of heroin overdoses are accidental, meaning that the significant majority of people don’t know that they are going to die. The odds of a heroin overdose deathbed confession are negligible at most. Bronagh keeps pushing for information in relation to the circumstances surrounding Nicky’s death and about who else was in the house when he died, to which Shirley replies: 

SB 11:38: It doesn’t… I don't want to talk about that. You keep on talking about that and I tell you I’m not talking about that. That’s nothing to do with Damien Nettles.

Analysis: Again, there’s nothing to suggest that Shirley is lying when she says that the circumstances and people surrounding Nicky’s death had ‘nothing to do with Damien’. Shirley is clearly annoyed by this line of questioning – she rolls her eyes and subtly shakes her head in a ‘no’ gesture when she finishes speaking – but she doesn’t become aggressive or lose her temper. Bronagh then asks:   

BM 11:46: What about the suggestion that Nicky McNamara picked up Damien in Baring Road along with another man? We know that information came potentially from you (Shirley frowns) about Nicky McNamara.

AL 12:02 Do you think you might have said to the police or...?

SB 12:06 Well… if-if I did, I don't remember, but also, another thing that was said about me was that I was supposed to have known what field he was buried in. I didn't know anything about it.

Analysis: When Shirley frowns after Bronagh says ‘you’, her left eyebrow drops before her right. Some body language experts say that uneven micro-expressions of the face are a sign of deception – that only expression symmetry reflects genuine emotion. However, according to left-right brain symmetry and associated emotional expression, the right brain is activated by uncomfortable or negative emotions. This can mean that emotions such as anger, sadness, disgust and doubt may be expressed by the left side of the face before the right side follows. Shirley’s uneven frown alone is therefore not a reliable enough indicator of deception; however, her subsequent use of double hand gestures as she says ‘if I did, I don’t remember, but also, another thing that was said about me’ and the giving of additional information that wasn’t asked for (another thing that was said about me) ‘was that I was supposed to have known what field he was buried in’ may be – she is not denying that she spoke to the police about her claim to Ivor Edwards of seeing Nicky McNamara pick up Damien on Baring Road, she is saying that she doesn’t remember doing so. ‘I don’t remember’ is associated with memory – that either she knew and then forgot, or that she was in a position to know but made no note of the event when it occurred. However, whether the claim itself is true or false is a separate matter. Within her deflection from speaking to the police about Damien being picked up on Baring Road, she says ‘what field he was buried in’. It is easy to assume that this must mean that she does know where Damien is buried because none of the rumours about where his body might be mention a field, but the sudden offering of a veiled truth just doesn’t fit with her saying that she doesn’t remember speaking to the police about her claim. Even if she does know where Damien’s body is buried, ‘field’ is unlikely to be a slip of the tongue truth-tell because she doesn’t correct it, and police did in fact search a field in 2002 in connection with a convicted paedophile who made an admission about being involved in a murder on the Isle of Wight in the mid-1990s.

In the next excerpt, Bronagh asks Shirley when ‘yous’ were partying and taking drugs together, whether anything was ‘ever talked about in relation to’, and Shirley is quick to say ‘no’ before Bronagh finishes her question:

BM 12:24: Damien’s disappearance?
SB  12:24:     No…                             Never. Never.

BM 12:28 Never?

SB 12:29 No, never.

Analysis: Unlike her denial that Nicky spoke to the police before he died, Shirley may be overstating her denial of Damien’s disappearance ever being talked about with ‘never’ being added to her ‘no’ answers. At first glance, her ‘no’ headshakes appear to be congruent, however, when her first ‘no’ headshake (before Bronagh had finished her question) is compared to her headshakes at ‘never’ (12:28) and ‘No, never’ (12:29), there is a slight alteration in plane – her first headshake is very much wide and remains horizontal, whereas her subsequent headshakes are shallower, and on her third ‘never’ she raises her chin slightly. This may indicate incongruency between her words and gestures from her second ‘never’, and that aspects of Damien’s disappearance were talked about.

Bronagh then talks about articles that she’s read, her giving Shirley an opportunity to respond, and one article that mentions Shirley in relation to the deaths associated with her house on Prospect Road. There is a change of scene from a continuous wide angle shot of Shirley’s living room where we see Bronagh, Shirley and Alys, to a close scene shot of the side of Alys’ face seen previously all the way back at 10:53 and we hear Bronagh say ‘Shirley’ as Shirley shouts: ‘They’ve destroyed me outside and inside.’ The camera then cuts back to a wide shot of the living room but from a lower angle:

Up until the scene shot changes to the close up of Alys, Shirley has been wearing spectacles, but suddenly at 12:50 she is without them. She’s holding a tissue in her right hand and is upset and agitated. Clearly there is a major lack of continuity in footage and so we don’t know who ‘they’ve’ is in reference to – it could simply be drugs. Shirley continues:

SB 12:50 I can't do any more. I know nothing. I don't know fuck all. I wish I fucking did then they'd all fucking leave me alone, wouldn't they? Cos I'd tell them. I know fuck all. I don't know nothing. Fucking hell, I wish I did and then it would all go away, wouldn't it? But it just won't and is-it’s all in my head, all these deaths and all this shit is-n-I didn't kill any fuckers, they-it I had a house, it was a drug house, people took overdoses. They died.

Analysis: On average, liars use more swear words than truth-tellers because it takes a lot of cognitive energy (conscious brain power) to lie, making it harder to monitor themselves in other areas. Liars will also repeat phrases as they struggle to buy time to gather their thoughts. Compared to truth-tellers, liars tend to become more emotional the longer questioning goes on due to the mental strain that the effort of lying generates, with emotions expressed rooted in agitation and frustration – crocodile tears are common, as is defensiveness and anger. Shirley is clearly experiencing ‘pressure release’ as she speaks through this final excerpt. Her swearing and repetition (I know nothing. I don't know fuck all. I wish I fucking did then they'd all fucking leave me alone, wouldn't they? […] I know fuck all. I don't know nothing. Fucking hell, I wish I did and then it would all go away, wouldn't it?) could suggest deception – that she does know something – but because of the significant change in scene shot between Bronagh’s question and Shirley’s answer we simply don’t know what question Shirley was responding to. Her outburst may be genuine defensive anger at being repeatedly asked something that she really doesn’t know anything about or doesn’t want to talk about. She is living with memories of ‘all these deaths’ (plural) as opposed to death (single), and what she finishes with are truths – she did have a drug house, people did take overdoses there and they did die. ‘All these deaths’ followed by the truths about her Prospect Road house suggests that she may have been responding to a question in relation to Nicky McNamara’s death and/or supposed deathbed confession. There is nothing to suggest that this outburst is in relation to Damien.

Summary: Shirley remembers Damien and the police have visited her many times; however, the two events are not necessarily connected. She claims that Nicky McNamara could be violent and that he dealt drugs to young boys. Before he died, Nicky did not mention to Shirley that the police spoke to him about Damien. He did not make a deathbed confession. The switching of scene shots when Shirley is asked about her claim about Nicky picking up Damien with another man on Baring Road makes it impossible to know whether her answer at 9:09 is in direct response to the question that Unsolved want viewers to think was being asked. However, when asked at 11:46 whether this information came from her and if she remembers telling the police, she says that she doesn’t remember and is quick to offer something else that she was supposed to have known about Damien. Importantly, she doesn’t say that she didn’t make the claim or that she didn’t speak to the police about it – she says that if she did, she doesn’t remember. In terms of being deceptive, it is simply easier to say ‘If I did, I don’t remember’ than it is to say ‘no’ because it’s ‘less’ of a lie. ‘If I did, I don’t remember’ probably indicates that Shirley does remember the police speaking to her about her claim. However, this says nothing about the truthfulness of the claim itself.

Applying these findings to the events and people surrounding Damien’s disappearance

There had been a two-day police search for Damien’s body in Gurnard in 1998. Valerie Nettles was interviewed about the activity on South Today. The slow police response was challenged in the Isle of Wight County Press. ITV filmed a reconstruction of Damien’s last steps in April 1999. Valerie also writes that she spoke to countless journalists about Damien for newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The search of the cornfield at Branstone Cross in connection with the convicted paedophile was covered by the Isle of Wight County Press in August 2002, a month before Nicky McNamara died. It’s unlikely that anyone living on the Isle of Wight during those six years, never mind people who according to Damien’s friends and younger brother were dealing drugs to them, didn’t talk about Damien’s disappearance.

Shirley made her claim to Ivor Edwards about Nicky McNamara picking up Damien with another man on Baring Road on the night that he vanished sometime between November 2007 and April 2013. Going by the sequence of events in Valerie’s book, this was in late 2012/early 2013 – 16 years after Damien disappeared and 10 years after Nicky’s death. However, Shirley’s claim raises more questions than it provides answers to Nicky McNamara’s rumoured involvement in Damien’s disappearance. Unless Shirley was with Nicky when he supposedly picked Damien up, from where or whom did she hear the information? Even the way that her claim is worded can be taken two ways – does ‘picked up Damien with another man’ mean that Nicky and another man picked up Damien, or that another man was picked up with Damien? Who is the other man that Shirley refused to name to Ivor? It's a shame that Unsolved didn't ask these questions instead of pushing Shirley to confirm that the police had spoken to her about her claim – something that Valerie had already confirmed had happened in her book. Another question that the rumours surrounding Nicky McNamara's involvement in Damien's disappearance raises is when did his name become associated with Damien's – was it before or after Nicky died? In the next post I will be taking a break from language analysis of Unsolved interviews to critically examine the timeline of public information in which Nicky McNamara’s name is mentioned or implied.

Damien's disappearance remains an active missing person case. If you have any information that could help find Damien, please contact Hampshire Police on 101, quoting 'Operation Ridgewood', or if you would prefer to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Sources

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2019) Drug-related deaths and mortality in Europe.

Google maps.

Goupil, L., Ponsot, E., Richardson, D., Reyes, G. & Aucouturier, J-J. (2021) Listeners’ perceptions of the certainty and honesty of a speaker are associated with a common prosodic signature. Nature Communications, 12 (861 & 5781).

Inside Housing (25 June 2003) Injunction bars addict from her ‘house of death'.

Nettles, V. (2019) The Boy Who Disappeared. London: John Blake Publishing.

Pallister, D. (16 October 1999) Life jail for victim of abuse. The Guardian.

Schafer, J. & Navaro, J. (2004) Advanced Interviewing Techniques: Proven Strategies for Law Enforcement, Military, and Security Personnel. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publishing Ltd.

Southern Daily Echo (20 June 2003) BOOTED OUT.

Unsolved – The Boy Who Disappeared: 6. The House of Death (2016) BBC3, 30 July.

Van Swol, L., Braun, M. & Malhotra, D. (2012) Evidence for the Pinocchio Effect: Linguistic Differences Between Lies, Deception by Omissions, and Truths. Discourse Processes, 49 (2): 79-106.