I fully agree with you John, both as guilty as each other.
My understanding is that any 'beating' Leonor may have received was initiated AFTER her vile confession rather than to obtain a confession.
At first, I'd assumed that they were probably guilty, based on translated articles which seemed to substantiate it, what appeared to be a translation of the ruling in the case, and the sad fact that sometimes families do cry abduction when the reality is different. However, in this case... Hmm.
A first point is that a physical beating is not the only means of extracting a confession or a "reconstruction". Some may be valid, others not. Only the "reconstruction" was allowed to be shown to the court, but there is no evidence as to what conditions led up to that.
There was someone who used to post here who has sadly left. In his absence, here is what I find to be useful background reading:
Confessions of a forensic psychologist
Why do people admit to crimes they never committed? Bob Woffinden meets Gisli Gudjonsson, whose pioneering studies changed the face of law
Bob Woffinden
The Guardian, Tuesday 17 December 2002 02.17 GMT
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/17/law.ukcrimeThere was no evidence of any substance that could indicate whether the child had ever got home that evening, let alone had suffered the alleged fate. There was no forensic evidence whatsoever to substantiate the theory.
I find it curious how the tone of the coverage changed the day that a coordinator-who-must-not-be-named took charge of the case and within days the "culprits" were banged up. I also find it curious that many of the neutral-to-positive witness statements in the trial summary were never translated. Odd, that.
By the time the case came to court, the country had been convinced of the horrific PJ theory and were baying for blood.
Yes, there have been varying versions over time, but these were people who'd only had 3-4 years of education and would have been dependent on the advice of a never-ending sequence of pro-bono lawyers.
IMO, this case should never have even gone to court, but it did.
In the meantime, there is still a missing little girl whose fate remains unknown.