In 1980, after McCrone had given his presentation on his findings from the sticky tapes, the press asked:
Dr McCrone, are you saying that the Turin Shroud, from your scientific analysis is a fake or
a forgery. Are you really sticking to the fact that it is a fourteenth century image put on by an
artist and I’d like to ask whether you are alone in saying this or whether you have other
scientists to back you up. And when can the public at large hear the results — from all the
scientists who did the tests in Turin. I believe that the public have a right to know because the
Turin Shroud belongs to the whole Christian world and not just to a group of scientists and I
would like to ask you, on the record, are you saying the Turin Shroud is a fake or a forgery?
McCrone responded:
I am not saying that it is authentic or not authentic. I am saying, which I
cannot prove (and that’s not very good scientifically) that I feel that probably the date will
come out in the middle of the fourteenth century. It is entirely possible that an artist could
have done it much earlier than that. My reason for picking that date was simply that it was
appropriate for it to be done then by the reasoning of the de Charnay family (who owned it).
The style of painting at that time included the style of the Shroud. The materials were
available then, as they were earlier. It was very fashionable to make shrouds at that time. So I
have a reasonably strong feeling that it will turn out to have been done at that period. Again, I
have to leave it open because it could have been a first century cloth and that’s going to cause
utter confusion if it turns out to be true.
Press responded with:
Would you like to put on record that the Turin Shroud is a fake?
McCrone replied:
NO! I tell you I can’t say that but I can explain the possibility that
he would have been able to do it and I think in my heart of hearts that it was done at that
time. I think it was a fake but I cannot prove it as a scientist.
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/sn002Oct80.pdf
So, even by McCrone’s own testimony he says he cannot scientifically prove the TS is a fake.
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1117605#p1117605