Experts discussing footage of convicted sex offender Gary Glitter have shared the several giveaway signs of deception - including vocal changes, stuttering and more. You can watch them analyse a clip of Glitter speaking below:
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In new discovery+ documentary Gary Glitter: A Faking It Special, experts dissect archive footage of Glitter - real name Paul Gadd - who was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13.
In one clip, we see Gadd speaking to press in a Vietnamese court in 2006, after he was arrested in 2005 for child sex offences in the country - several years after his initial conviction for possession of child pornography in 1999.
A member of the press asks if he is sorry for what he did, to which he replies after a short pause: "I haven't done anything."
Surveying the clip, body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley says: "The initial reaction is almost one of disdain and 'Who do you think you are, asking those questions?' as he stares at the interviewer."
Professor of Linguistics Dawn Archer adds: "We get a 1.5-second pause and then he moves forward in order to speak into the mic, so we end up hearing this at a higher volume."
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Examining how Gadd says 'I'm innocent' in the clip, Archer continues: "If someone's doing a level of distancing or they're trying to emphasise something, they'll say 'No I am not, I have not done anything, I'm innocent'.
"He's not doing that level of emphasis at all - he's not using contractions. This signals his reality paradigm; this is somebody whose lens on the world believes that his actions are not wrong."
Lansley says we see 'a little flash of contempt', explaining: "The lip corner on the left hand side is rising up towards the inner cheek. This is activated by what we call the buccinator muscle, which is a reliable indicator of contempt."
In another clip, we see Gadd being interviewed by the BBC in a Vietnamese prison that same year.
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In the video, Gadd is asked if he had ever slept with an underage girl, to which he replied: "Not to my knowledge."
Lansley says: "He clamps his hands together. This is what happens when we experience fear or anxiety. You see his right fingers gripping into the back of his left hand. We see a slight raise of his left shoulder.
"To its full extent, a shrug is usually the shoulders up and hands with palms outwards. It means 'I've no idea what I'm talking about'."
Noting a rise in pitch in Gadd's voice, he adds: "When we tighten up with anxiety, that tightens the muscles around the larynx and the throat, and that can lift the voice up."
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Referring to another moment from the interview, Lansley points to Gadd's raised eyebrows, wide eyes and open mouth.
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He continues: "We get the head and the body moving backwards. When we're under attack and we're fearful, we move away from the threat. His eyes close, his mouth closes, and then he licks his lips which signal the level of anxiety.
"That anxiety will dry the mouth, and the way to compensate for a dry mouth is to swallow or lick the lips."
Elsewhere in the documentary, we also hear from the experts about other key moments, including a 1992 interview on The Big Breakfast and another interview on This is Your Life the same year.
Gary Glitter: A Faking It Special is available to stream on discovery+ from Saturday 25 September.
Featured Image Credit: discovery+Topics: Entertainment, Celebrity, Documentary