N.S. psychologist examines 'Mr. Big' technique

A psychology expert in Halifax says the police technique known as Mr. Big used to extract a confession from Jason MacRae about the murder of his wife seems to work because people who have been harbouring secrets are often looking for a way out.

Steven Smith, an associate professor of psychology at Saint Mary's University, said people implicated in the stings are oftenin desperate situations.

I think people ask the question, 'Why do people ever fall for this?' But you have to remember the context that these people are in," said Smith.

"They are desperate and they want to believe that they have a friend, and this gives them that opportunity. Not only a friend, but often a way out. They know they've been a suspect for years and they're being told, 'Look, all you need to do is tell us what happened and we can get rid of this evidence for you.'"

In a Mr. Big sting, undercover police investigators pose as members of a criminal gang in order to lure suspects into a world of fake crime. The suspects are given minor jobs as money counters or lookouts for staged robberies and assaults.

They are paid for their work, promised more and told that crime bosses the so-called Mr. Big can make any case against them disappear if they reveal all the details and re-enact the crime.

Smith said 95 per cent of those who are targeted by Mr. Big stings do just that and most are convicted.

"It's not a big step to go from confessing to the crime to re-enacting because once you're over that hump of actually confessing, it's really a small step to re-enact," he said.

In 2004, the RCMP used the Mr. Big technique 350 times across Canada, according to Smith.

Two of the most recent cases in Nova Scotia have been high-profile murder cases: Jason MacRae, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his wife Paula Gallant, and Penny Boudreau, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to strangling her 12-year-old daughter Karissa with twine.

In the latter case, Boudreau gave details to police officers posing as organized crime bosses, who said they could help her destroy evidence held by police, which she believed implicated her as a suspect.

Smith said in regular police interview, officers are good at getting confessions, but many who confess are actually innocent.

While the Mr. Big technique is legal, Smith said there should also be significant physical evidence of a crime because the psychological pressure to embellish a crime during a sting can be powerful.

"We know that the Mr. Big technique puts a lot more pressure on a person than a typical police interview would, and so the likelihood of a false confession has got to be higher there," he said.