Trout

iTrader: (1)

I feel dreadfully sorry for Maddie McCann who was stolen away in the night by god knows who to suffer god knows what. I also feel sickened by the thought as the parent of a young child that it might happen to my family, which I believe is where the real angst for most of us is.

However my sympathy has started the wear a little thin.

The parents, who regularly left their three children alone in the apartment whilst on the original holiday, are now flying around Europe on a private Gulfstream Jet, they have an audience with the Pope, they are staying at the Ambassador's apartment in the Vatican.

They raise £300,000 in a private, non-charitable fund with no public oversight and the Treasury announced that they were going to find a way so they didn't have to pay VAT (I wish I didn't have to pay VAT). The money is being used to fund a 'legal team'. I am confused, I have lost my daughter wtf do I need an expensive British legal team for.

And on top of it all, the slightest erring or wavering on the part of the Portuguese police and the family is up in arms about it.

Well maybe if they had been more attentive to their own duties to start with then this MAY not have happened.

And right at the end of this - they protest how much they love their kids and how much they are there for them - and yet pretty much most days since the event they have left their two young twins at the resort day care and have now left them in Portugal whilst on their trip to see the Pope.

At the same time around the world a child dies every fifteen seconds, usually because they don't have clean water to drink.

Something to think about.

girl-in-a-scoob

Those two little ones left should be in their own beds at night getting back to some sort of normality .... nuff said

Infractfree

I think they are a very dubious and cynical pair. In addition to being bad parents their handling of this entire tragedy has been fishy in the extreme.

There's something I don't like about them, whether it's their need for a huge amount of cash for a 'legal team' or their self publicism I can't quite put my finger on it.

Of course the issue needs to be kept in the media and it goes without saying that the little girls safe return is the priority here but exactly why do they need behave as they are doing?

Perhaps it takes their minds away from the overwhelming guilt of having abandoned your child to the possible clutches of some pervert while you eat, drink and be merry?

r32

As you can plainly see the level of interest amongst the press is dwindling, they need to try and keep their lost child on the front pages. Its obvious that the Portugese Police have messed up big time so its likely to be a member of the public that finds Maddie, if she's going to be found at all. The money will fund the campaign to keep her face infront of the public (worldwide) and allow people to follow up on potential sightings. They deserve all the help they can get.
At the end of each day a small child is missing from their loving family, blaming them for their mistakes isnt going to help any and its hardly Maddies fault. We dont live far from their home village and the level of concern has to be seen to be believed, God bless their parents I hope they never give up and that one day this poor little girl will be found safe and sound.

One last thing, the parents have never complained about the Portugese Police, though it would seem that they have every right. What a hard person you are, do you have kids?

TelBoy

On a very separate note, what part does the mother's "deep" religious beliefs play? Is it only me who finds it slightly ironic that somebody who believes so fervently in God is now going through a nightmare that any overseeing power surely wouldn't dream of putting one of its believers through? Ah of course, i forgot, it doesn't work like that, does it? Silly me.

scoobynutta555

My sympathy wore thin a few days after the girl went. It's ridiculous the amount of time the story got in the news.

pslewis

I ask everyone here - what would YOU do if it was YOUR child?

Whatever we think about it, you must admit that you would do the very same if your child was lost - I WOULD!

I think it completely wrong that they left their children - but that does not get her back, this media campaign might - eventually.

I know that a child dies often, that children from poor countries are taken daily, but - that does not mean that parents should not do all they can to get THEIR child back.

So, just turn-off to it if it doesn't suit you.

scoobynutta555

It's not my child. And I'd like to think I wouldn't have left her all alone in the first place. Turn it off is what I do only to see the same load of rubbish taking another 20 mins of news up on a different channel.

Daveo

I have two young daughters, 2 and 7, and I totally agree with what Rannoch originally said.

Whilst sympathising with the parents for their loss, I do find them a very odd couple and there is something strange about them that I can't quite put my finger on.

I hope the child is found safe and well but it is time that the media moved on before they hack everyone off and it backfires on them.

girl-in-a-scoob

Iwan

I agree with Rannoch, they appear to be a couple of attention/sympathy ******. I wonder if the Pope will spell it out for them, as he's known to not mince his words.

When they were being interviewed on the news the other day, they struck me as strangely calm and detatched - they didn't seem sad or worried at all. It reminded me of Ian Huntley's composure when the BBC interviewed him without realising he'd killed those girls, it does make me wonder what the real story is.

Reality

I'd never heard the mother speak until last night when she was on the private jet.

I had been saying yesterday that I'd have thought she would have been in pieces / pleading for someone to find her child.

Instead we get her leaving her other two kids alone again while she jets around Europe.

Definately something not quite right with the whole thing !!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Rannoch, you have put into words my thoughts entirely. Coludn't agree more.

The bit that really confused me was a couple of weeks ago when they had members of their family go and lobby parliament. What in the name of God is parliament supposed to do or are the McCanns members of Scoobynet hence blame Tony Blair for everything including the disappearance of their child

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

I'm sorry, but why is this "obvious"? Because the kid hasn't been found? Or because they are not British and therefore incompetent?


M

TelBoy

Think a few people are being a tad harsh here. It's been over three weeks now. The mother looked close to suicidal in the days after the event. What do people want? Floods of tears every time she's in public? Believe me you'd be shouting "attention *****" a lot louder then. Relocating rather than making regular trips to Portugal might make them seem a bit odd, and the father does seem a bit vacant at times, but of all the things i'm prepared to believe, the parents' involvement in her disappearance isn't one of them.

TelBoy

Well let's start with the description of the suspect they released yesterday. Five feet ten they said, whereas the eye-witness reports said five feet seven. I think it would take the most ardent supporter of the Portuguese police not to admit that mistakes were and still are being made. If it makes Portugal re-evaluate their seemingly bizarre secrecy laws for crimes like this, then that will be a good thing in my opinion.

Reality

I reckon all the attention in the media may well contribute to the death of Maddie .

Now I don't know how a child abductor thinks - but being camped up in a bolt hole knowing that you cannot show the kids face in public is likely to lead to that Kid never seeing the light of day again .

DCI Gene Hunt

I'm infracted every 15 seconds..... you don't see me getting an audience with the feckin Pope!

Hope she safe, but the parents seem to be having a nice time, not one sign of either of them 'losing it'.... what's next? meet U2?

TelBoy

Let's face it, she's dead. It's just a case of whether any remains will ever be found.

Iwan

Yeah I wondered the same, maybe parliment can help by passing a law to criminalise parents who leave infant kids in a house on their own while they go out eating/drinking.

TelBoy

Like it is already in the UK.

Scooby Snacks 23

I hate to think it, but I agree with Telboy. Even if she is still alive, she will never see the light of day.

Who's put up the reward? I last heard it was at £2.5M and some UK "celebrities" had even put their hands in their pocket.

SiPie

agree

The other point that was mentioned on a thread here last week is:

only a matter of days after the young girl went missing, the parents were walking down the beach in staged press photographs with the mother holding a rose or the kid's teddy or whatever ....

Now........where the **** were their other two kids...??

Turns out they are being looked after in a creche !!!

If any child of mine had been kidnapped, murdered, disappeared etc then there is NO WAY AT ALL that my other 2 kids would be out of my sight for a split second. Not even when I was having a dump.

As highly irrational as that may appear, they would not be out of my sight.

Something very odd I'm afraid about the whole thing

TelBoy

What evidence do you have that those pics were staged? None, because they weren't.

It's very easy to pick apart the parents' every move, but until you're in that same situation, you have no idea how you'd react, neither can you criticise the McCanns for doing what they've done, in my opinion. Time alone together might have been just what they needed. Continually seeing to the two twins wouldn't have allowed them time to share their grief or collect their thoughts.

Sonic'

I also agree with Rannoch, and some of the other comments made here

I am sorry for poor Maddie, but I have read that the parents are using that donated money, to quit their jobs and to travel the world to tell their story of Maddie !!! WTF is that all about, their daughter is abducted/kidnapped etc, everyone donates, so they can jet set around the world telling the story, havent the all the news stations around the world already done this ?

It was also on the news this morning on the radio that they are going to see the pope and it is the first time they have left portugal since Maddie went missing, I am almost certain they came back to England, and then went back out to Portugal

PSlewis it is incredibly difficult to 'turn off' as you put it, when every building where I work has an A4 picture of Maddie on the entrances, and her picture is stuck on the back windscreen of cars etc

DCI Gene Hunt

I recommend that the 'thousands of people' that ssent messages saying thay have or would've done the same are checked out by social services. And the reason that their child is missing is explained in their second sentance!

There's something not quite right about this whole thing, too calm, to collected, as SiPie says they seem quite at ease to leave their other children and **** off to see the Pope.

SiPie

None......they just looked staged to me.

Disagree, think there is a hell of a lot to be criticised IMHO.

I agree that until you are in the exact same situation it is impossible to even comprehend how anyone would react and behave...... but that doesn't stop their behavious appearing unusual to me.

As mentioned earlier, not followed the case but just find certain bits (ie. leaving their 2 other kids....) utterly astonishing.

Neverguess

That was the dad, had to come back for a meeting apparently. Mother stayed in Portugal with the children.

MattW

I can see all sides of the argument, i nearly posted what Rannoch wrote yesterday but changed my mind. I'm a parent and I can empathise with their situation, and I honestly don't know what I'd do, but I have to agree how odd their publicity craving.

With regard to whether she is dead or not, I don't know. Maybe Ben Needham is dead too, maybe they will never find her, but if they don't expect to see the Mccanns on the news regularly, every time a child disappears, setting up charities etc etc..

Matteeboy

It takes a lot of energy to embark of such a massive campaign and keep it in the public eye.
I'm sure they have "people" helping them but the determination still comes from the McCann family.
Thye fact that they can manage it in the wake of such a nightmare gains maximum respect from me.