A British man saw his father on a television show — five years after he thought he had been cremated, police said last week.
John Renehan’s father John Delaney vanished into thin air in 2000. When the body of a man with similar clothes and distinguishing wounds was found in January 2003, the man was duly identified and cremated.
But the real Delaney, 71, was in a nearby care home. He was found in 2000 wandering the streets suffering from amnesia following a brain injury. He was unable to recall his identity.
Given a new name, “David Harrison” appeared on a missing persons television appeal, seen by a stunned Renehan, 42, who called in.
DNA tests confirmed they were indeed father and son. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in northwest England have now launched an inquiry to discover the identity of the man cremated in 2003.
The force said they accepted that the man admitted to the care home “should have been identified as Mr John Delaney and that the inquiries made at the time to establish the unknown man’s identity were not sufficient.”
Greater Manchester Police accepts that mistakes were made and that Mr Delaney’s family has been through a traumatic ordeal.
(AFP)
英國警方上週表示，有一名男子看見自己的父親出現在一個電視節目上──他以為父親五年前就已化為灰燼了。
約翰．雷尼漢的父親約翰．戴拉尼二０００年時忽然自人間蒸發。二ＯＯ三年一月，警方發現一名男子的屍體，該男子的衣物和傷疤特徵都和約翰．戴拉尼十分相似；這名男子的屍體經過正式身份確認後，即被送去火化。
但其實真正的戴拉尼現年七十一歲，一直住在附近一個看護之家裡；二ＯＯＯ年時，腦傷後罹患失憶症的他，想不起自己的身份而流落街頭被人發現。
看護之家給他取了一個新名字叫「大衛．哈瑞森」，他出現在一個協尋失蹤人口的電視節目中，四十二歲的雷尼漢看到後瞠目結舌，於是致電電視台。
經過DNA比對後，證實他們確實為親生父子。英國西北部大曼徹斯特區警方（GMP）目前已展開調查，希望能找出二ＯＯ三年那名被火化男子的真實身份。
警方說，看護之家收容的這名男子「身份經證實確為約翰．戴拉尼先生。我們承認當初對無名男屍的身份調查並不完全。」
大曼徹斯特區警方坦承疏失，害戴拉尼一家蒙受痛苦折磨。
（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
Gerard: I must be getting old, Paddy.
Paddy: Why do you say that?
Gerard: Well, last night I walked to the store to buy something, then when I got there I couldn’t remember what I wanted.
Paddy: Don’t worry. That happens to me all the time.
Gerard: But it gets worse. When I left the store I couldn’t remember how to get home.
Paddy: Uh oh, it sounds like you’ve got bats in the belfry!
傑哈：我一定是老了，派迪。
派迪：為什麼這麼說？
傑哈：唔，昨晚我出去買東西，結果到了店裡卻想不起來要買什麼。
派迪：別擔心，我常這樣。
傑哈：但更糟的是，離開商店後，我不記得回家的路了。
派迪：喔哦，聽起來你是腦袋不太正常！
bats in the belfry 瘋瘋癲癲的
If somebody has bats in the belfry, they are slightly mad or eccentric. For example: “Mrs Taylor goes to the store in her nightgown during the winter. I think she’s got bats in the belfry.”
「bats in the belfry」用來形容人有點瘋瘋癲癲或是古里古怪的。例如：「泰勒太太在冬天穿著睡衣出門購物，我覺得她神經神經的」。
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