Madeleine McCann And Blaming the Parents
NEWS from the Madeleine McCann crime scene: no news.
Nothing other than the obvious – Madeleine is missing – has been established in weeks of investigating, speculating and empathising.
And now the Express says that Portuguese police are blaming Madeleine’s parents for destroying evidence.
Chief inspector Olegario Sousa tells us that more than 20 people – friends, family, tourists, voyeurs – visited the McCanns’ apartment in the first hour after Madeleine’s disappearance.
Says Sousa: “The presence of so many people in the room where the little girl slept with her brother and sister could have complicated the work of the forensic team.
“At the worst, they could have destroyed all the evidence. This could prove fatal for the investigation.”
Sousa makes a valid point. Best that all possible crime scenes are preserved at the moment of impact. No-one should move or breathe.
Help Where You Can Get It
But this is not likely. Contamination occurs. Voices on the Anorak comment pages say that when a child goes missing parents will accept any help on offer; the more people who know of the situation, the greater the chance of finding the girl.
And then there are the police, who may not consider it an urgent matter. Children do wander off.
Recently, Anorak learnt of a girl who strayed from her apartment while staying on a Mark Warner complex in Greece. The parents were dining elsewhere. They were informed by baby listeners that their five-year-old was not in the room. A search found the child playing by the swimming pool.
Should police have been called? Should police have attended? Should police have sealed off the area?
Pointing The Finger
The Sun thinks they should. It thinks it shameful that Sousa has “blamed” the McCanns for “his bungled investigation”.
Insensitive, perhaps. But Sousa has not blamed anyone. Indeed, back on the Anorak comment pages some readers blame the parents for so much more.
Sousa is stating the obvious. With no leads, no clues, no-one stepping forward to claim the Sun’s reward (did they offer enough?) or respond to the Sun’s posters (are they too tame?), there is no news of Madeleine McCann. Perhaps if the local police had confided in the Sun things would be better?
All we do is to watch the parents, examine their snapshots and point fingers. We hear the Sun say how Sousa has “sunk to a new depth in his amateurish investigation”. He is a “buffoon”. His words are “craven”.
Keystone Kops
He has not found Madeleine. But he is right. And, if the Sun is right, then all British police who have an unsolved murder, abduction, missing person or paedophile case on their books are stupid and inept. And what of the British police helping to find Madeleine?
Is this what the Sun has learned after weeks of covering the story: police don’t always solve a crime; the Portuguese police are no different to our own; criminals are cunning and try to avoid detection; the McCanns are upset?
Posted: 18th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (98) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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November 11th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
http://www.vernoncoleman.com/mccann.htm
Y the hell is this such a big story???
LOADS of ppl go missin….oh,wait…they’re rich….not working-class like us…i hate them…and they’re crappy parents…
August 8th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I am quite skeptical about this whole Madeleine issue… There is something terribly wrong with this “abduction,” aside from the fact that the parents SHOULD NOT have gone out to have dinner and enjoy themselves leaving their kids alone!! What the heck is wrong with them??? And besides, what about all the blood they found, the contradicting information given by family, friends, witnesses and the parents, as well as the strange calm with which the mother seemed to have taken the news when she first found out her child was missing? She left her other two children in there and immediately assumed somebody had taken madeleine (she could have left on her own, since the door was not locked and she was alone…) Maybe I am just thinking too much, but there is something with this whole case I don’t quite get. I wish this little girl is somewhere safe, alive and well, but I recognize is highly unlikely - unfortunately.
August 8th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Parents fault clear as day! Everyone here seems to somehow think that leaving a child of 3, with siblings of 18 months, is ok because the parents are on vacation and just trying to enjoy themselves. Well those better have been killer tapas and mojitos you enjoyed then!
First its completely stupid to leave a child unattended, period! But if you were to leave a child unattended at least lock those doors. Second, these are doctors! You’d think they would have better sense than to leave that child alone like that! I espescially like the whole “checked on the kids every 30 minutes” deal. HOW LONG COULD YOU HAVE REALLY GONE FOR DINNER!?!? Every 30 Minutes?!? Thats plain selfishness staring in the face of reason. Yeah the parents are suffering for their idiocy but they arent suffering as much as that girl did. I dont care that they lost their daughter, their daughter lost her life. Now theyre media whores blaming the police in Portugal and rubbing shoulder with big names. Maybe next they want the world to throw a concert. I can honestly say i dont feel one bit remorse for them. If theyve suffered, they havent suffered enough. much emphathy for Madeline though.
August 5th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
it is not madeleine mccanns parents fault they were trying to enjoy there holiday but there was obvouisly a pervert watching them and if in this day and age u cant leavea child for a half an hour wats this world coming to i hope they find her unharmed xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
June 27th, 2007 at 8:12 am
and also why are people so hell bent on standing by the parents?come on people who in there right mind goes out and leave there kids all alone in a foreign country might i just add to go eat its down right disgusting.if it happened over here the parents would have social servises banging on the door.i have three kids and i would never leave them by themselves ever.not even to go into a shop you just cant do it not with all the sickos that are about.your kids are too precious they need too be looked after,and if the parents cant do that well they shunt have kids then.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:05 am
you know what chris i completely agree with you.and sa for leaving the oarents alone no chance,at the end of the day they left three very small children on there own while they went out so they are to blame aswell,they might be suffering now but that is guilt nothing else.that poor child must have been so scared to wake if thats what happened and be all alone.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:28 am
They keep saying she was taking while sleeping? Is it not possible she woke then realised her parents werent in and then left the room in search? This would explain the difficulty in finding her as there’s no break in or forensic evidence leading to anyone.
June 22nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Pete you’re absolutely right. fed ups knowledge on parsimony and occams razor extends to copying and pasting from wikipedia. No depth of understanding has been demontrated.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Fed Up you are well into the realms of fantasy with your theory about this case although you’re not the only one. This isn’t a complicated case - in fact its sadly probably quite simple and tragic. The experts are quite clear as to what has likley has happened - Madeleine is most likely to have been snatched by a paedophile who lives locally. Here’s 2 examples from many ~
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91210-1269761,.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1760014.ece
You mention Occam’s Razor nearly every post but using this (called the “law of parsimony” when I was at uni) the lone paedophile theory is the most likely - hence one of the reasons why the experts favour it.
The crazy McCann’s did it themselves for the money, fame, cover their tracks etc conspiracy theory is the least probable hypothesis using the Law of Parsimony correctly (which you aren’t).
June 20th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
But there was a hell of ahooha about the ‘parents’ of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were also minors. Where did they learn all that from?
June 20th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Didn’t he run out while she was being served? There was a lot of speculation about that at the time, but no, she didn’t leave him outside, and certainly not for two or more hours…..If memory serves me well that all got cleared at the inquest. You could check with Public Records
June 20th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I wonder. In 1993 did 2-year-old James Bulgers mum get punished because Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 10, lured James away from a shopping center in Bootle, near Liverpool in northeastern England, as the youngster waited outside a butcher’s shop for his mother?
June 20th, 2007 at 3:52 am
Fed Up,
I don’t have balls nor do I want them (They look uncomfortable and they’re ugly) but I will admit the McCanns did something wrong by leaving Madeleine unsupervised. Feel better?
Have you seen this freak?
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=41033
Child Predator Caught On Tape
This is the image captured from the video.
View LargerThe FBI has uncovered another child predator on the Internet. This time, instead of still pictures, they say the suspect created a disturbing video of himself molesting a baby. Agents want to bring him in before he does any more damage to this child or to any other children he may come in contact with.
“John Doe” Warrant Issued
The suspect has a large scar or birthmark on his right arm.
View LargerA tipster reported the video to a detective in Florida, and investigators were able to obtain a “John Doe” warrant charging this suspect with the distribution of visual depictions, via interstate commerce, of a minor engaging in explicit sexual conduct. The FBI wants the public to know that the suspect could be anywhere in the United States, and just because they were able to obtain the warrant in Florida doesn’t mean the suspect resides there.
Police don’t know this man’s name, but there is a clear picture of the side of his face, a shot of a large scar on his right arm, and a picture of his left hand with a ring. He could be married.
Investigators say because of the length of the video, they think the suspect knows his victim well. They hope he can be put behind bars before he hurts any more children.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Joanne the facts have been established. I’m not going to spend time looking for you.
Jonathon, the Soham case and record checks are irrelevant. The crime took place in Portugal not the UK.
Anyone going with the paedophile scenario is hiding their head in the sand because that is the easiest option. There is no evidence to support it.
Its about time people had the balls to say the McCanns did wrong, and the evidence points in only one direction, at them.
I’m fed up with the case its old news and I have better things to do with my time so I’m outta here now.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Molly Cruz has it exactly.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Please light a candle for little Madeleine.
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=mccan
Just click on a candle and write your message.
xxx
June 19th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I suggested Occam’s razor because I felt that the complex chain of events is not part of some complex master plan. The simple answer is there wasn’t a master plan. There was an abduction and the rest has been a reaction to that.
One can imagine all sorts of scenarios but the simplest one is a ‘paedo’ working at or very close to hotel because its child centric. How many times has this pattern emerged in these cases? These sicko’s just gravitate towards children. For a variety of reasons, (eg. PJ procedures, lack of supporting technology, multi-national employee profiles, language differences etc) I am not confident that possibility has trully been eliminated.
In the Soham case, it took a relatively time long to identify Huntley from background checks because of county level police force differences. That was in an investigation where eveyone spoke the same language, there was technological support and records to check etc. Only 18 months ago, Ruth Kelly was apologising for poor background checks in UK schools and changing the law etc etc.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
its all forum speculation….
June 19th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Fedup - what facts? How do you know that the McCanns lied? Can you please point me to a reputable news article (or even an irreputable one)?
To my knowledge this is just forum speculation.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
There is of course the option of accidental death and parental panic
June 19th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Pixie girl you said - occam’s razor states :-one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
Sorry but it means a whole lot more than that.
Occam’s razor (sometimes spelled Ockham’s razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or “shaving off,” those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (”law of parsimony” or “law of succinctness”):
In its simplest form it is defined as - a principle that states that when a series of solutions are present, the simplest one is usually the best.
Given the evidence my solution is the simplest because it is the only one that actually fits.
If and when more evidence comes to light, it may prove me to be incorrect, but until that happens my conclusion is as valid as anyone elses.
You also said “so therefore by stating that she was taken ‘by the Mccanns themselves’ they would know how everyone in the world would respond”.
I did not state that they would know how the world would react. That is you adding to what I said and coming up with the wrong conclusion.
However as you raise the point, it is a fact that we live in an abnormally tolerant society. It is therefore resonable to assum the public would get behind them even though they were at fault. (They even lied about that to begin with and thereby sowed the seeds of doubt as to their involvement).
They themselves increased awareness to further the influence over the newspaper readers and watching tv audience. Ask yourself why they waited for the media interest to die down before issuing more pictures. The most important one showing the eye abnormality was not released for more than three weeks when it was the most important picture of all. They then, (albeit it through friends) used the internet to make the case even more high profile as media interest waned. They then waited just long enough for the case to reach its height on a world wide basis prior to launching the fund. In addition, people for the first time could donate without having to make a phone call or go to the bank. They could do it online.
Once the abduction took place the setting up of the web site and fund by friends allowed them to be seen to be removed from those activities. No one has stated just whose idea they actually were.
No matter what opinion you choose to follow, I am entitled to mine, and this case makes me and a mulitude of other people very uneasy. Why when it goes against my normal nature of keeping an open mind.
I simply believe there is something seriously wrong with the facts as they stand.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Sorry to hear about your story. Again without getting too detailed, I don’t mean chemical castration as means of solely removing certain physical responses (e.g viagra in reverse), but hopefully as actually completely removing the offenders sex drive.
If the sex offender’s drive isn’t actually sexual e.g. power/control and chemical castration doesn’t nullify the urge to express this sexually then the government needs to seriously rethinks it’s recently announced strategy. GPS tracking, hopefully with global co-operation, is a must in any event?
There seems to be concensus that sexual offenders show a typical escalation pattern. Decisions need to be made as to what level of offence justifies the techniques being considered. Unfortunately this might mean that in many cases, these measures would come into play after the event and wouldn’t help early victims?
June 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I haven’t disagreed with much you have said jonathan but I am going to on this point.
Chemical castration what a joke!!
I was abused and traumatised by it for a long time, and without going into details about my case I can assure you that had my abuser been chemically castrated it would have made no difference to the abuse I suffered.
Not sure what the answer is for known peodophiles but that isn’t it.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
pixie girl: good memory! The MacCann actually wanted to have an accountable body to handle the donations. Talk about cart before the horse.
Chipping will become a well debated topic. The biggest hurdle is probably technology and powering a GPS capable device. Then there’s the long term health implications e.g ten years down the line somebody writes a paper on juvenile cancers etc. Then there’s the psychological impact on the child and the complacency of parents etc. Then there’s problems with black spots (Faraday cages etc) and what an abductor might do in the way of amateur surgery etc. Horrible thoughts.
Maybe mobile phone/devices with panic buttons is less invasive.
Equally debatable topic, but ‘enforced’ chemical castration using slow release drug technology administered at tracked regular intervals has more appeal. Either that or offenders are imprisoned until they “no longer represent a threat to society”. Should probably throw in GPS tracking for good measure.
As usual the world ends up inconveniencing and subjecting the 99% of innocents to catch the 1%. At least chemical castration is targetted at the 1% or whatever the magic number actually is.
Not sure what the answer is yet, but no doubt we can develop technical solutions to meet these problems, but I do think we should focus our efforts on the offenders and not the potential victims.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
More than likely thats the reason it was set up, but still badly timed. So may be it is now time that a central fund with Charitable status is set up. It does deny the doubters their doubts, and an independent body administering it would be better. And of course the Gift Aid benefits would make it much more efficient, more funding for parents in need to take the necessary time off work.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
It might seem premature but remembering back wasn’t the fund set up because so many offers of cash were sent in. Everyone trying to do their bit to help?
June 19th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Fedup and the Fund, I think the powers that be shall be watching the Fund, I agree its timing is premature, and most people would fund their own schemes through remortgage/familyfunding and not public subscription/donations. I think its likely that the McCanns will be advised to wind it up and rename it, and step away from the running of it. They really do need to be as pure as Caesars wife in this matter, until they are cleared of all suspicion in their child’s disappearance.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I only have one daughter pixie, but if I had another I’m sure I would feel differently.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
In addition, Joanne your comments about paedophiles and stopping them: perhaps a Petition thru Downing Street web site to encourage the powers that be that they are NEVER released. Perhaps if Sara Payne could be contacted she could give advice and guidence on this matter, as no one would want to make such a thing redundant or ignored, and she would have advisors for the correct wording.
Even if Madeleine has not been taken for this purpose but to fulfil some maternal emptiness, this surely would be the time that the country pushes the politicians into action?
June 19th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
yeah i know what your saying it does kind of remind you of animals,and kids certainly are not…well not in most cases anyway but yeah i suppose it would be worth trying out.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
sorry i meant stating that she was taken by the McCanns themselves **