I think I'll bow out soon as this thread is far too up and down for me.
The guy flying was in the RHS and was the least experienced of the three. The guy in the LHS was the other F/O who yes, would have little if any flying experience from that side.
RWA,
I think you might be reading too much into the THS "sticking" theory. I reiterate that the pilot must apply sufficent and sustained movement on the sidestike for the THS to move. Remember (without getting too technical) that Trim is a function of speed. A pitch change at slow speed has a different effect on Trim than at high speed.
For what it's worth. My reading of the 27th May update is as follows...
The autopilot and autothrust disconnect and the aeroplane reverts to alternate law 2 due to an ADR disagree. They are in turbulent conditions and the aeroplane rolls slightly to the right. The F/O who has been only mildly alert until this moment grabs the sidestick and makes a left nose up input. This may have been instinctive or he may have been reacting to what he saw on his PFD (apparent loss of altitude). This pitch input is enough to cause an increase in the nose attitude to 10 degrees and aeroplane starts a climb. Such an input is fairly agressive at altitude and this creates a zoom climb with a rate of climb momentarily reaching 7000'/min. The THS reacts to this significant and sustained input and starts to wind back relieving the "pressure" on the sidestick. He realises that his initial input is aggressive and slightly checks the rate of pitch reducing the rate of climb to 700'/min (is he seeking 10 degrees pitch?).
I am at a loss what happens from here but it would appear that following the second stall warning he applies TOGA and raises the nose still further, the AoA reaches 6 degrees and continues to increase reaching 16 degrees at 38,000'.
When the aeroplane stalls the AoA reaches 40 degrees and the aeroplane enters Abnormal Attitude law where auto trim ceases and the THS remains at it's previous nose-up position.
I don't know after that whether the elevator alone has the authority to pitch the nose down to what was required but I doubt it.