False history expressed by victims during medico-legal examinations: experience of a Forensic medicine practitioner in Sri Lanka

During the medico-legal practice sometimes false history is expressed by victims. Such instances can be divided as false statements related to injuries, events of the incident, sex assault, child abuse and intimate partner violence. Detailed history taking, second history taking following physical examination, collection of information from other sources such as from relations, records of bed head ticket, and police are helpful to obtain true history during reexamination. Medico-legal opinion should be mainly based on evidence such as examination findings and investigation results. False history is one possibility that should be considered before expressing the final medicolegal opinion.