False confessions are shockingly common. The Innocence Project does a lot of good work exonerating people who were wrongfully convicted: https://innocenceproject.org/false-confessions/

Here’s some more info on false confessions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_confession

Police coerce “confessions” out of people pretty often. People swear up and down that they’d never confess like that, but it’s hard to know until you’re in the situation yourself.

There is a way out too: say lawyer and refuse to talk to them.

The guy’s mental state was likely in the toilet, and then they sweated him for hours at the station.