常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

false mea culpa(回答)

記事答えさせて頂きます。False mea culpa - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心:言葉の森から

False mea culpa in hacker case begs question: What's behind a made-up confession?

When a young Fukuoka man was asked why he had confessed to e-mailing a threat against a Tokyo kindergarten, a threat actually made by a mysterious hacker who had hijacked his computer, he apparently told police it was to protect a woman.

"I wanted to shield the woman I'm living with," the 28-year-old apparently told Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigators of his false mea culpa. He was arrested in Sept. 1 this year on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business over the threatening e-mail sent from his PC's IP address. When MPD officers searched his home that day he denied making the threat, but then admitted to it after investigators found a copy of the incriminating text on his computer.

Later, the man told police that it was "too painful to keep on lying" and once again denied sending the e-mail. When officers told him that the woman he was living with had also denied sending the e-mail, the man once again claimed responsibility. The man apparently swung between the desire to help the woman -- whom he believed had sent the threat since she was the only other person to use the computer -- and to prove that he had nothing to do with the crime.

In the end, he appears to have elected for the former, going as far as giving a detailed explanation of his motive for the threat. Even after the Osaka and Mie Prefecture online threat cases came to light, senior investigators were confident the man's statements constituted good evidence. He had, however, made up the entire story.

So why would a suspect make a false confession, even building an imaginary story to back it up?

"There's a real problem here with the investigating officers. There's no way that motives for a crime he never committed should be written on his deposition," commented journalist and critic Akihiro Otani. "We must consider that the police led him and threatened him," he added, underscoring the need to record full processes of questioning in all crime cases.

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121020p2a00m0na013000c.html

記事中の表現の方がわかりやすいです。mea culpaはラテン語からの表現で、「わが過失なり《ラテン語の祈り文句で、過失を認めたり後悔示す感嘆詞》」(『ジーニアス英和辞典第4版』大修館)とあります。さらにLDOCEでは"used humorously to admit that something is your fault"とあり、滑稽な表現であることも分かります。
今回はその表現にfalseが修飾しています。「一緒にすんでいる女性を守りたかった」と福岡県警に述べた部分から、ここのfalseは「嘘の」ということであります。
よって記事にあるfalse mea culpaは少し皮肉的な意味を含んだ「嘘の自白」といったところでしょうか。(Minnesota)