Amanda Knox has defended Patrick Clancy after social media users questioned his conduct and grieving following the deaths of his three children.
Writing for The Free Press, Knox said she was affected by the online scrutiny directed at Clancy, whose behaviour and testimony were closely examined during the Lindsay Clancy trial.
She said the reaction brought back memories of the scrutiny she faced after her roommate was murdered in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox was imprisoned over the killing before ultimately being acquitted.
“Seeing this gave me flashbacks to the relentless scrutiny of my own behavior in the wake of my roommate’s murder in Perugia, Italy, in 2007, for which I was falsely imprisoned,” she wrote.
Knox said some people had turned against Patrick Clancy because they disapproved of the way he grieved. Social media sleuths have also alleged that he was involved in the murders of his three children, although that claim is not established in the material.
“There is no one ‘right’ way to react to trauma, or to grieve, but when the lens of suspicion falls on you, everything is wrong,” Knox wrote.
During the Lindsay Clancy trial, people pointed to alleged inconsistencies in Patrick Clancy’s account of the timeline on the day of the murders. The case ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict, voting 11-1.
