"Now, Peter, on the other hand, in full awareness of his actions, denied that he even knew Jesus. He knew that Jesus needed all the support he could get and yet not once, or twice, but three times he refused to acknowledge the poor blokes existense!"

I've always had a certain amount of sympathy for Peter, though. If you read "the rest of the story" you'll see that, rather than chicken out and not stand up for Jesus, just 24 hours previous to the famous denial, he had stood up for Jesus to the extent of even attacking (cutting off the ear) those who were trying to arrest Jesus.

Peter was rebuffed for his aggressive stand -- but he stood. Bravely, too. He just misunderstood. And who could blame him? He didn't have the benefit of reading the end of the book to see how it was SUPPOSED to end. He shared three years and lots of discussions with 12 guys, several of whom were CERTAIN of Jesus royal ascendancy RIGHT THEN. And Jesus, for his part, didn't REALLY correct them. Partly (I'm assuming) because he didn't know himself exactly how it would all play out.

So, having JUST stood up for Jesus -- moreso than any other of the 12 -- and getting rebuffed for it, is it any wonder he was gun shy to make yet another stand? At the VERY LEAST Peter was, at that point, mostly just becoming aware that he didn't understand what he thought he understood. He later understood.