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.”