Madeleine McCann: Watching The Parents
MORE no news on the Madeleine McCann case.
It is now a week since the three-year-old girl was snatched from a Portugal holiday resort.
The story has been distressing to watch on our TV screens. What it must like for the parents of Madeleine only a few can know.
BLAME
But their misery is far from complete. With no news of Madeleine, and the Portuguese police having no need to indulge the British tabloids with speculation and theory, Madeleine’s parents are the central characters.
And today’s front-page news, as reported by the caring Mirror, is: “THEY KNOW LEAVING KIDS WAS WRONG.”
Does the Mirror mean to say that Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, now think they did the wrong thing in nipping out for a bite to eat and leaving the children in the apartment on what they thought was a secure resort?
Does the Mirror mean that the McCanns know that popping back regularly to look at their children and checking on their well being was less than perfect?
Does the Mirror mean that the McCanns realise they should not have left their children alone, just like it is wrong to leave a child in a hotel under the auspices of a baby monitoring service, to leave a child in the car while mum goes to pay for petrol, to talk to a neighbour over a garden fence while the children are indoors?
Of course this is not the Mirror’s view. Oh, no. This is Madeleine’s grandmother, Susan Healy, saying: “They know this was a mistake. But it wasn’t child neglect, it wasn’t not caring for your children.”
That she feels the need to say this is wrong. That the Mirror can lead with Madeleine’s grief-worn parents is pathetic and misguided. That the paper can talk of “people are asking why they didn’t make use of the crèche” at the resort or take the children out to dinner with them is wrong.
But the Mirror has news to write. And the police aren’t playing the game.
THEORIES
So the Mirror produces: “THE 6 THEORIES.”
Only six! Why this cautious approach? But it is all the Mirror has. And readers hear of the “PAEDOPHILE GANG”, the “LONE PAEDOPHILE”, the “JEALOUS MOTHER”, Madeleine wandering off and “DROWNED”, the “OPPORTUNIST PAEDOPHILE”, the “CHILDLESS COUPLE”.
But the Sun has more. It has 130 more. As the front-page headline screams: “MADDIE COPS HUNT 130 BRIT PAEDOS.”
The paper says “at least” 130 British paedophiles “might” have taken Madeleine McCann.
In “ALGARVE IS ‘HAVEN’ FOR PERVS”, readers learn that Portugal is a “magnet for sun-seeking perverts from Britain and the rest of Europe”.
Who knew that perverts get off on watching children at the beach?
Us And Them
But help is on its way. The Sun lists the British coppers who will go out there and see to it that justice is done. We, says the paper, are the only country with a sex offenders’ register.
All convicted perverts must inform the police of their desire to go abroad. At least 130 have. And the police are looking for them.
But – and whisper this – might it be that convicted sexual deviants don’t all tell the police what they plan to do? They are not monitored while overseas. And might it be that not all sexual predators are caught and make it to the list?
Among the policemans’ names is Detective Superintendent Graham Hill, attached to theChild Exploitation and Protection Centre. Hill is on the case. He has flown to Portugal.
Hill worked on the case of Milly Dowler. She was snatched from near Walton railway station, Surrey, in 2002. Her body was found six months later. Her killer or killers have never been caught.
Perhaps Hill’s experiences can help. Perhaps he’ll have more luck. Perhaps not.
Meanwhile, a family is distraught, and bearing up incredibly well under the strain and the merciless gaze of the newspapers…
Posted: 10th, May 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (2,260) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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September 7th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Children die with their parents close by, awful stuff happens. One of my own kids almost came to grief because their grandmother allowed them to play with toy cars not suitable for their age. She had begged to look after them and I walked in to my three year old son blacking out and grannie screaming, he had a small car part stuck in his throat. Thankfully, I have worked with kids for many years and stayed calm, I managed to extract the piece from his throat and revive him. It happened in minutes. Think of a child left for 30 minutes and then come to your own conclusions.
I never trusted my kids to her again!
September 7th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
oh and why does Kate need a lawyer if she didnt do anything?
September 7th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Read my earlier comment about the class assumptions that this country has and the extra protection that the patently suspicious McCanns have received by virtue that they are highly-educated members of the middle classes. ‘Mr and Mrs Factory Worker’ who left their 3 children unattended whilst they toddled off to drink cider and eat pork scratchings at the nightly quiz at Lineker’s Bar in Torremelinos would have been dragged over the coals and hounded off the face of the earth for their flagrant disregard for their children. Because the McCanns are Doctors and were eating Tapas and washed down by a ‘frisky little Alentejo’, their blatant neglect is sublimated. This case is taking the turn I thought it might, now that the net is closing in the McCanns and their obnoxious family spokeswoman are trying to make out that the Portuguese are a bunch of keystone cops who are clutching at straws. Just remember the pivotal and incriminating DNA material was retrieved by an elite squad of English detectives and analysed in a world-renowned laboratory in good old Birmingham, UK. RIP Maddie, sweet little angel. Let justice be swift and apposite.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
How can they say they found DNA belonging to Maeleine in the rental car?
They hired the car 5 weeks after she was reported missing?
How come just as they decide that the portugues media are to be sued along comes this?
Yeah the McCanns seemed suspicious to you all and maybe thy are but dosnt this ring as a bit of a cop out, they have no idea where Maddie is they messed up the Crime scene and didnt know what to do in an abduction case, they didnt even close down areas that the child could be taken out of the country. Then suddenly, after saying that the McCanns are not suspects, bang and they think they have the case solved.
Ok if they have were is the body?
Accidental Death !
They Have nothing left and are now looking for a way out.
If the McCanns did anything to Madeleine then for that 5 weeks before the rented car where did they hide the body?
They were in the Medias eye the whole time not a minute went by without someone watching them how did the move the body?
Again something sounds very suspicious here to me and i dont mean the McCanns.
But if this is true and they have killed thier daughter and fooled the world.
I will be glad to be wrong as at least Madeleine is not being hurt by a peadafile scum.
Not glad that the child is dead but glad that her little body can be put to rest and left in peace.
It would be So great if she was alive and happy unhurt but this dosnt seem to be how this is leading its such a sad thing to happen to such a small child.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
How the tide turns!
One minute an audience with the Pope - next minute jeering crowds.
There has been something ‘odd’ about this incident from the beginning but I cannot understand why the police are now picking at Kate McCann.
They were ‘advised’ not to show too much emotion while they did their interviews to the press by the PJ.
They have been told they cannot talk about the case because of the ’secrecy’ laws in Portugal.
The frustration must be mind numbing for them. Now, Kate..
I think they have done her a favour making her an Arguido - at least she might get some more information.
The Robert Murat fiasco is still in the background of most people’s minds and I predict that this will be too.
The Portugese Police in my opinion have screwed up - big time - and as they have nowhere else to go, with no leads and no-one else to pick at - then go for that % of parents which ‘truth please’ has mentioned.
They have been under the spotlight since day one - wouldn’t someone have noticed something?
Who rented the car before them?
Who were the policemen doing the tests? Have THEY been checked out?
It just doesn’t add up. In fact, you just couldn’t make it up!
I reckon we will hear in the next few days - weeks (everything seems to take weeks) that Kate is no longer a suspect. The tabloids will make a mint and we will be back, again. Meanwhile…. Madeline is out there somewhere - be she alive or dead - she is out there somewhere and we shouldn’t give up on her. She is the one who deserves not to be deserted again.
The person(s) who did this must be rubbing their hands in glee at the latest ‘breaking news.’
September 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
So indeed a body will, Truth Please. But for it to do so, it must be still decomposing, which means it would be fairly detectable - just by the smell, to be graphic about it. If it were not decomposing so as to be detectable through smell, then it would be fairly or completely mummified, and not leaking bodily fluids.
I think I’ve had enough. This is not going to be solved.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Hi Amazed,
I am reiterating the facts that have been gleened from all the muddy water lately - As i said, draw your own conclusions, and the fund has now over £1.1 million in donations since it was set up 130 days ago - not my figures but the offical website’s figures (www.findmadeleine.com)
To make my position perfectly clear, i started out very supportive of the McCanns position, as a parent myself it must of been horrendeous, but as time went on and more information came to light all it not what it seems with the case, and having worked in the crimal justice system i always worked under the attitude of leave no stome unturned,, and be paranoid…..meaning suspect everyone. an incidental statistic is that over 90% of all child killings are carried out by tier 1 or tier 2 family members (parents or close relatives)
as i said before…draw your own conclusions - as time will surely prove one of us right hopefully!
PS - to poster “Me” - within an initial short time of death a body will discharge bloody fluids from openings - grim but unfortuantely reality.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Ive got to reply to the last two posts.
Amazed I think you must be the most balanced and level headed of the lot in this forum.
And Truth please - look at what you have written! For one ” the police have found the kit” What “kit” are u refering to? It was in one of the daft newspapers that they had found a syringe. What? After all this time they suddenly find a syringe!!! You talk about FACTS!! Your entire post is full of factless comments! “
September 7th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Goodness me, Truth Please, you certainly seem to know far more about the forensic results / evidence than anyone else - either on this sort of forum or the media or, indeed, any police leaks. Fact is, you believe anything that supports your own ideas, which are not very credible. Even if you were eventually proved right, I would still say that at this stage, you have not a shred of valuable evidence … only rumour. So, stuff that, these are NOT facts.
Incidentally, they don’t have £1m turnover. That would be a repeating figure from sales or donations, year on year. They might have £1m ‘capital’ … and I’ve not the remotest idea what they’d be needing it for or doing with it … but it certainly is not turnover.
And, no - I have no connection whatsoever with the McCanns….
September 7th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
You may have a point there, but then an onverdose of sedatives may kill but not bleed… blood suggests something like falling from bed, being hit, cut, I don’t know, what do you think ? I suppose death by sedatives means the person dies during sleep ?
September 7th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Looks like the cynics among may all be proved right as the parents are now offically ’suspects’ - yet the family spokesperson (i thought only large businesses had these….oops i forgot about mccanns LTD! with 1 million turnover!) is trying to steamroll this with the pathetic reason that it affords them greater legal protection…..protection from whom i ask? - the prosecution team?
The evidence stacks up:
- The lethal overdose of sleeping sedative killed here (kit has been found by police)
- he finds her dead and panicks. (sniffer dogs detected traces of corpse in apartment)
- Take her body by car to bury here (blood found by sniffer dogs at time, and again 25 days later)
- is missing from the meal for approx 40 mins when he had went to check the kids - sufficent time to carry out actions
- returns and opens patio door to set the scene
- Over next few days conflicting facts are stated by mcCanns…patio was open, pation was wedged with stick, patio locked etc etc - fact is that the patio was unlocked, as stated by police.
- Blood on wall - DNA results clearly show it was Madelines as the turn of events today would support.
These are the facts - you draw your own conclusions either way.
sometimes truth is stranger than fiction……………….
September 7th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
To accept that Kate McCann being questioned as an arguida has any credibility at all, you have to accept the following:
- the child died early on the evening of May 3rd, probably accidentally;
- the distraught parents then instantly concocted a plan to make it look as though she had been abducted, conceived a way of concealing her body, and acted out their parts as jolly holidaymakers having a great evening out for three hours until Kate ‘found her missing’ and came back shrieking “They’ve taken her!”;
- the searches of the apartment and surrounding areas yielded no trace of where 2 foreigners had hidden the body;
- some / all of the friends were in on it since at least some of them were checking on children that evening, and have remained solidly quiet ever since;
- that they decided a high profile media campaign was the best way to preserve their innocence, their family, and their careers - instead of a quiet and dignified retreat to the UK;
- that the forensic evidence is so accurate, despite the obvious evidence that it isn’t, that they have a DNA match for Madeleine’s blood in a car hired 5 weeks after the abduction;
- that for 5 weeks they hid the body and then transported it … still bleeding? Without being detected either by the media who were following them everywhere, of the PJ.
All things are possible of course, but this one just sounds totally ludicrous. I’ve been worried about the ‘circus’ aspect of the whole thing, and find the McCanns rather odd - though I think I might well be odd myself in those circumstances. But gut feelings about parents, no matter how ill-advised their parenting decisions on that night, are no substitute for evidence and genuine suspects.
Here, we’ve had people futilely praying; people urging the McCanns to listen to Brian who dreams; people saying they have gut feelings, can read body language etc., and know the parents did it …. get a grip, everyone.
Besides, being an arguido / arguida in Portuguese law is a protection rather than a charge. Distressing though it might be for the McCanns now, they may be ultimately better off as such, despite the jeers of the crowd and the speculation of the media.
I’ve no idea if they did it, but I very seriously doubt it. If they did, then they defied detection to a truly stupendous level for over 110 days, which seems fairly unlikely to me, even if you don’t think the PJ are very experienced in cases like this (which is not a criticism of them … being so experienced is a sad reflection on a country).
Another Murat moment, perhaps …. going nowhere?
September 7th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Hi, from what I read and listen in the TV here, the DNA was from blood in the apartment..(from a wall and a curtain in the Mccanns bedroom) as for the car I did not read about DNA but yes the smell of corpse detected by the British dogs. These dogs also detected that small in some Kate’s clothes and Cuddle Cat.
The TVs here are following the case with a reporter at Praia da Luz and in the latest news and images there was a big truck aproaching the Mccann house (where they live now…) that is a truck used for changing things when someone changes home. Also the reporter said that if possible and allowed by the police they will leave Portugal the next minute, maximum tomorrow. Meanwhile Kate is at the police headquarters since 2 pm and Gerry goes next, and Monday anothet couple (from the group of friends) will come to Portugal to speak to the police.
I only wish Madeleine gets justice…this will be horrible, please be prepared for a great shock.
God Bless you Madeleine, we love you forever
Well, I don’t understand…I only wanted to
September 7th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
oops
should be ‘I don’t believe it!’
September 7th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I ont believe it!
Where the hell were the McCanns supposed to be hidiing her? Under the bed with the giraffe?
For god’s sake!
Five weeks after Madeleine McCann goes missing they then find blood!!!!
What about the people who had hired the car previous to them?
How do they know this wasn’t the car used as the one which kidnapped Maddie in the first place.
It’s a crock of sh##
I’m not a fan of the McCann’s - but this is frikkin ludicrous - IMO I believe they are being stitched up.
Now back to the bastards who have taken her..
September 7th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Funny Gerry doesnt have anything to say in his blog now!!
Kate is to be made a suspect and in for more questioning today. Then Gerry.
Kate asked about DNA found in their rented car trunk? Someone posted that there was also DNA in the cupboard of their apartment? Dont tell me Maddie died in the apartment (due to drug overdose?) and they put her in the cupboard, then in the trunk of the car and got rid of her body? That sends chills dn my spine.
I have not liked the Mccanns and their friends from day one. I have hoped all along that I was wrong. I just read in an article the Mccanns had planned to go home on sunday? Just as the wheels start to turn, WHY would they want to go home?
September 7th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I don’t know if Gerry will request acess to a computer to continue his blog whilst incarcerated. I think he will be there a while so maybe his second request should be for a tube of KY…
September 7th, 2007 at 11:57 am
I knew it! I always thought there was something not quite right about those two - if it had been my kid who “went missing”, I’d have torn that resort upside down to get her back, not “helped the police with their enquiries”.
They’ve shown no emotion that I have seen, and I SO hope I’m wrong, but I suspect we may one day see one if not both of these parents being charged - IF, and it’s a big if, IF the police can gather sufficient evidence to charge them with something.
God Bless you Maddie - wherever you are…..
September 7th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hi,
I don’t know if you read the latest news, here in Portugal, 1 hour ago it was published that Kate Mccann is to be made a “formal suspect” within 30 minutes. SkyNews confirms …their reporter is at Praia da Luz. Well, maybe Madeleine will finally get some justice.
Poor little girl, another star in the sky…
September 7th, 2007 at 9:30 am
the mccanns have never showed “grief” upset, maybe, but not out and out grief, if it was my child missing (although it never would be me in this position as i would not be irrisponsible enough to leave an infant unattended) i would not be able to walk, talk and carry on with normal life like what they have. they should look in the mirror for the ones to blame, and as for the comment of suing the press…….. DISGUSTING, they should be ashamed of themselves.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I wonder who’s going to get the film rights when it’s all over. It will be a cracker of a story. Wonder if Gerry will still be able to write his blog in prison.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:45 am
So.. should we just lock up the McCann’s now?
Pure speculation in my book, as we have no answers.
This is like the human version of the Marie Celeste. This is what has us all hooked on the case.
The ’secrecy’ laws in Portugal + the Media speculation have done nothing but added fuel to the fire.
Alice who is something of a gambler and is used to faces.. give me a break!
Why would they need a money making scam with their high salaries?
And why would they do it in Portugal? There are plenty more Pedo’s in the UK.
How about Madeleine woke up - walked out the door and fell down a hole.
Has anyone verified the guy who Gerry McCann was talking to (with his child) was the guy in the beige trousers, black shoes and dark jacket?
Has the only witness - one of the McCann’s ‘friends’ been thoroughly investigated?
I have to agree, there is something fishy about this case, but I don’t believe the McCann’s are involved. I am not a fan member of theirs. I would have knocked doors down in every street to find my lost child.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:05 am
is this info about the DNA in the cupboard in the mccanns apartment and on kate’s clothes accurate?
I hear that Kate may be interviewed into the night?
Not sure about the search and arrest in the UK
very confused…i just hope they are right when they announced something should happen in the next 48 hours
September 7th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Kate is now saying that she believes that she is being framed, presumably by the Portuguese police, but this does not make sense as the forensic results and the dogs came from the UK and they are certainly not trying to frame her.
They are simply presenting the evidence they have found which does not look good for the McCanns, though their supporters will find it hard to believe because they have so bought into the abductor ‘theory’ brainwashing.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Don’t know why everyones so obsessed with it. She’s obviously long dead. Life goes on. Time to move on.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Still in questioning and could go well into the night. Maybe a ploy to keep the two McCanns apart until Gerry faces his questions tomorrow. I thought at first that this was a money making scam and that hours before her abduction was anounced she was on her way back to the UK with someone she knew, and the McCanns were reaping in the “Fund” money.. I even thought that as the momentum grew and they realised that they could pretty soon net a million or more - they extended the timescale and were “delaying” Madeleine being “discovered” by being left in a church or something (such was the lengthy appeals from the McCanns to do this) Now I am not sure atall what to think. My mind will not let me even imagine that they deliberately harmed her - my logic goes with the possibility of sedation gone wrong - I have not a jot of inclination towards the abduction theory - never have and no matter what the outcome I never will. This may sound barmy, but until I retired last year my job involved reading the responses in peoples faces - nothing to do with the police I might add. Since I retired I have played a lot of poker (faces again) - the faces of the McCanns say it all, in my opinion, without even opening their mouths
September 6th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
The DNA that has been found where it should not have been is Madeleine’s herself which has been found in a cupboard in the McCann’s new apartment along with cadaver odour.
This odour also on Kate’s clothes and in boot of car which was hired by McCann’s after Madeleine’s disappearance.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I have watched this case with interest from day one, as have millions of others. I have been afraid to speak in general everyday conversation about my true feelings as the supportive lobby for the McCanns has been so fervent. Fact: the McCanns were highly negligent to leave their 3 children unattended. Their combined income must be in the order of £200, 000 per annum-the whole selling point of Mark Warner resorts is that parents can pay for a CRB-checked baysitter to actually be in the room with their children, surely the Mccanns did not baulk at the cost of such a service? Fact: replace the wealthy, well-educated, telegenic McCanns with a young married couple from a council estate, lets say, one or both of them from an ethnic minority the media coverage and level of sympathy from the general public would have been the diametric opposite ‘Typical’, ‘What more could one expect from such scum..’ etc. etc. This case has turned a mirror onto the in-built class assumptions in this country-I can recall Spanish and Dutch reporters seeing through the holes in the case as far back as late May and directly asking Gerry McCann if he and his wife were involved in Maddie’s disappearance. Fact: Kate McCann has always cut an anguished figure since day one, Gerry has been too cool, calm and collected-I care not that he is a Cardiologist trained to have courage under fire-we are talking about his first-born daughter going missing-that would eviscerate any father to the point of having great difficulty in front of the cameras. I have always thought that Maddie died in the apartment either from an accidental sedative overdose (she was heard by an elderly lady who lives above the apartment crying ‘Daddy, Daddy’ for 1hour and 15mins on the night of May 2nd) or the nefarious actions of a possible paedophile amongst the family’s group of friends possibly trying to cover their tracks. I pray to God I am wrong and that Maddie is alive and her parents are not involved but why on earth are the police interviewing the parents separately Kate was in today for at least 6 and a half hours! She has always presented as the more fragile of the two parents and it is no coincidence she is up for questioning first. The truth will out.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
A bit of news from Fox:
PORTIMAO, Portugal — Portuguese police Thursday questioned the mother of a missing British toddler, the girl’s family said, a day after authorities received new forensic evidence in a case that has gripped Europe for the past four months.
Kate McCann went to a police station in Portimao, a town in Portugal’s Algarve region, where she was answering questions from detectives investigating the disappearance of her 4-year-old daughter Madeleine, the family said in a statement
Why would they only question Kate? I believe we will be hearing something soon!!
September 6th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
John O…..You are so right! I thought there was something NOT right with the Mccanns from day one. I cant put my finger on it….But i really dont care to hear about him having lunch with friends, swimming with the twins, going to the zoo, having family time, or gettin his haircut.
Did he ever stop to wonder what Maddie was doing? I believe the whole Mccann group and friends knows something. We might find out within 48 hours.
I like how they were NOT going home without Maddie, then when things started appearing in the paper, they said they were gonna go home for the sake of the twins? That is almost funny, considering the twins are having a good ole time still on Holiday!! And mom and dad are worried about their reputation?!?!?