Mennell had never had any physical contact with this girl and had only been to the farm once, yet he was accused of raping and threatening the girl by tearing apart a cat to terrorize her and keep her silence. In the paper Mennell said he "was an animal lover and found the allegations unbelievable and horrific." This shows that Mennell would not have killed a cat if he were an animal lover to silence the girl, but instead would have done something else to silence her. The girl was suffering from false memory syndrome, meaning that she might have been convinced that the event had occurred when in reality it might not have been the case. The girl didn't report the rape until 20 years after it happened and when she recounted the event things always changed. According to McCarthy, "Many things have transpired during therapy and the jury is out on whether these are reliable memories or false memories." McCarthy suggests that the girl may have been manipulated into believing she had been raped by their family or by a psychiatrist. The girl may also have mixed information with other experiences she had in the past 20 years that could have created unreliable information. The newspaper reports that "the woman told nothing to anyone for 20 years and only revealed her allegations in dribs and drabs during intensive care. This means she had 20 years of experience in