‘You don’t have to take my word for it. There have been studies done both by academics and government institutes. They all say the same thing. A few isolated incidences of people having their spirit broken by psychological torture, but very little abuse of the process. If you want details of documented cases, I have a colleague who could probably supply them. Also, you should bear in mind that the medical profession in general was resistant to the controlling efforts of the Stasi. They had a very low percentage of internal informers, they did all they could to maintain the right of patient confidentiality, and the state really didn’t trust them to be reliable administrators of government policy.’

Tony couldn’t help feeling disappointed at Wolf’s words. He’d been convinced he’d been right in his supposition. But it looked as if he’d been mistaken. Since the guilty practitioners from the old Communist regime had been publicly identified, if the killer believed his troubles had originated under the Stasi regime, those individuals would have been the obvious targets, not academics from the West.

‘You look depressed, Dr Hill. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to tell you what you wanted to hear. But if you’re looking for serious and widespread abuse of psychiatry and psychology in this country, you’re going to have to go back to the Nazi era.’

‘That all seems very remote now,’ Tony said.

Wolf stubbed out his cigarette. ‘Not necessarily. Don’t forget, they destroyed many children’s lives with their eugenics policies. Some of those children survived. They would only be in their seventies now. That’s still well within living memory. It’s certainly possible they will have told their stories to their children and grandchildren. And, of course, the people responsible for what was done to them are long dead, so they’re not available as targets.’

Tony perked up as the implications of what Wolf was saying sank in. ‘Are there records from that period of admissions to psychiatric units?’

Wolf nodded. ‘The Nazis were obsessive record keepers. It’s one of the more depressing things about them, I’ve always thought. They had to find a justification for what they were doing that went beyond the service of Hitler’s desire to create a master race, so they convinced themselves that they were carrying out proper scientific research. There are records of admissions, records of deaths, and records of a lot of the experiments they conducted.’

Tony felt a quickening of his pulse. ‘So where are these records held?’