Parents being ‘crucified without shred of proof’

A FAMILY friend of Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin has strongly denied reports that the couple got so drunk that they were unable to look after their three young children during a holiday to Portugal.

Speaking on Newstalk radio, Kate Lagan, an SDLP councillor for Maghera and a friend of the couple, said Portuguese police had “misinterpreted” what had happened and the parents were being “crucified” without “a shred of proof”. She said the couple had taken a blood test but — as far as she understood — the sample had not yet been analysed.

Ms Lagan said: “Antoinette particularly is not a drinker at all. She came back to the hotel, she felt violently sick and she told the staff that she was so. They called the emergency services because she was so sick and vomiting very badly... The manager said look, you go on to the hospital, I will look after the children because they have a creche there. And the police arrived with the ambulance and I believe misinterpreted the entire situation.”

Ms Lagan dismissed allegations that the couple, from Maghera in Co Derry, had been drinking all day. She suggested Antoinette may have been suffering from a bug or food poisoning.

“The family spent the afternoon on the beach, contrary to reports they had been drinking all day. They came back from the beach and got ready to go out. They spoke to their families between seven and half seven. They were fine. They went out to dinner. They had dinner with their children. They called at a pool bar on the way home to play pool and they left there at 10 o’clock and came back to the hotel.”

She said relatives were very upset by the media coverage of the incident and had travelled to Portugal to be with them.

“Their relatives are very distressed... Because they are very good parents. There is absolutely no way they could have got into a condition that they couldn’t look after their children. It’s ridiculous. Absolute nonsense and it’s a typical example of irresponsible journalism. Crucifying innocent people like that without a shred of proof,” she said.

“I mean the whole thing never added up... It didn’t add up at any point.”