Maddy McCann

[Erstwhile Bóz]

The McCanns made a stupid mistake but what their going through is only something a parent can understand.

I'm a parent and I have no clue what they're going through. I can empathize on a human level but it's all as much speculation as my childless friends (and far, far less of an understanding than unfortunate acquaintances of acquaintances of mine who have a still-missing relative).

The thing is, there are far more things about this that I can't understand as a parent, more than people with no children who would just think of these things as curious. Leaving my kids sleeping alone in a room with an out-of-view door they could up and walk out of (well, only the one that was old enough to walk )? That's unfathomable -- not that I'm a great believer in there being hordes of bogeymen child-rapists out there, more that I know that sleeping children have this tendency to, well, wake up (something "only a parent can understand"). And if they wake up alone they get scared. Now, I worry about my daughter getting scared about fifty billion times more than I worry about her getting plucked from her bed by that chap from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. If they don't recognise the place they're in, they get even more scared. And when they're scared they try and find one of their parents so that they can calm them down.

Everybody's saying things like they were mad unlucky that this child-snatcher (totally hypothetical) happened to break into (lies) this safe place (lies) and steal their adored child from under their very noses (lies) and it was a one in a million chance and all. What is not a one in a million chance, though, is that a sleeping kid would wake up. They appear either not to have been aware of this fact -- even though they're doctors and this is pretty much a 'medical' fact -- or not to have given two hoots.

How many other times has that kid woken up on her own not having a clue where they were, and they out gallivanting? How many times has she wandered off, crying, frightened, from where she was sleeping to go and find them and get a hug off them?

I do relate to this story as a parent, but that's not where my compassion and whatever empathy I feel for them comes from. Absolutely the opposite. I feel for them despite being a parent myself.

Hopefully they get their kid back (unless they had something to do with it, obviously).

[drinkfeckarse]

A sense of perspective from the UK press

Hardly the McCanns fault even if they have rightly courted the press in an effort to keep the story in eveybody's minds. It is us who continue to talk about it and wanting to hear about it that have kept it a story.

Anyway, a sense of perspective will follow as soon as this is resolved whether it's good or bad news.

[galwayhoop]

Hardly the McCanns fault even if they have rightly courted the press in an effort to keep the story in eveybody's minds.

it is the mcCanns who have driven the whole press story. obviously they feel that by keeping it in the public arena that it may increase the chances of the child being returned safely (a debatable point imo). but to say that the story would be in the limelight as much without the mcCanns pushing it is simply not true.

[galwayhoop]

Oh right, so with all the publicicty you don't think people will have learned from what has happened to the McCann's or do you think that it needs to be spelt out in black & white in a courtroom or something?

i think it needs to be spelt out in black and white tbh.

i know they were wrong to leave their children unsupervised, you seem to know they were wrong but the press has been blinkered on that particular issue. by leving their children unsupervised they increased the odds of the child being abducted (assuming that is what happened) by many times.

do i want to see them suffer in court? No. should social workers visit them and interview them about their parenting ability? Yes.

their actions contributed vastly to the situation they now find themselves in and as such are partly responsible.

[bellavistaman]

The police said last night there was strong theory for her being dead!

[OneRedArmy]

The police said last night there was strong theory for her being dead!

The fact she hasn't been seen alive for months and isn't able to look after herself?

[bellavistaman]

The fact she hasn't been seen alive for months and isn't able to look after herself?

. Correct as you say 5 months and its just a theory

[Magicme]

God I hope her Mum had nothing to do with it. I just cant understand how any parent could do such a thing.

[jebus]

God I hope her Mum had nothing to do with it. I just cant understand how any parent could do such a thing.

To be honest the signs have pointed to the Portugese police believing she had for a while now, I mean when the McCann's asked why they weren't clued in on the breakthroughs on the case straight away I thought, it's because you're a suspect. I find it worrying that the McCann's released a statement to the moronic press saying that they are worried they are going to be framed (by who? the police?) for Maddy's murder on the day they were taken in for questioning, it just smells of damage limitation, and a possible 'Free the Innocent McCanns' appeal should they be charged with the kid's death.

The only, and it's a stretch, silver lining that might come from this case if the McCann's are charged with Maddy's death is that it might be a wake up call to the media and the public to not believe everything the British/Irish families tell you just because we're from the same country, and to not be so reactionary until the details of the case are known

[endabob1]

I've thought from the early stages that the parents know more than they've let on, something hasn't seemed right from the start, difficult to put a finger on it because as said above it's unimaginable that a parent could be invoved.

Sky News have sent Martin Brunt, their Crime Correspondent out there, he hasn't been out before. Makes me think something's going to happen.
There will be some serious U-Turns in the British media if the parents were involved.

[jebus]

Sky News have sent Martin Brunt, their Crime Correspondent out there, he hasn't been out before. Makes me think something's going to happen.
There will be some serious U-Turns in the British media if the parents were involved.

To be honest they'll probably all say they've been telling us for weeks that something was fishy, ALL newspapers have gone the way of the Sun in that respect

[Dodge]

To be honest they'll probably all say they've been telling us for weeks that something was fishy, ALL newspapers have gone the way of the Sun in that respect

I don't think that will happen. What I think will happen is a backlash of biblical proportions. It'll be like it was worse that she lied to the British press than actually killing her own daughter (and I'm not saying she did)

[bennocelt]

i would have tought it was the fella more so than the woman, so it is quite a surprise

[Dodge]

i would have tought it was the fella more so than the woman, so it is quite a surprise

Any reason for thinking it was him rather than her?

[joeSoap]

I'm pretty sure that this is all just another dead end. Nothing new, nobody will be charged, and we'll be wondering about this for the rest of our lives.

[Ringo]

I think the theory of a sedative given to keep the child quiet or asleep is credible. The child woke up, fell and died. The other children didn’t wake up, because they had been given the same sedative. Someone hid the body. The media circus makes it impossible to for whoever did it to come clean. The sedative could have been given innocently. The likes of Phenorgen, for *****ly heat, usually knocks out or makes kids drowsy.

[Risteard]

I'd say so.
The main headline on Sky last night was that the mother was making a fresh appeal for the culprit to come forward.
I didn't understnad the significance of it at all.

[Ringo]

I'd say so.
The main headline on Sky last night was that the mother was making a fresh appeal for the culprit to come forward.
I didn't understnad the significance of it at all.

Madeleine mother named as suspect


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6982969.stm

[Macy]

Madeleine mother named as suspect

As with the case of that poor fooker who the UK press decided was too "huntley like" to not be considered, being a suspect actually gives more rights under questioning. However, it's been fairly obvious that the cops had more questions - everytime the McCanns mentioned going home, the cops released to the press that they were close to a breakthrough and that they should stay.

Just caught the start of liveline there - someone already on claiming their being made scapegoats and calling on Gordon Brown to intervene!

[Dodge]

Interesting to see the Portuguese crowd boo and whistle as she was brought in. As the English crowd would do if she was in England.