Madeleine McCann suspect

Yes I have heard that the locals in Praia da Luz were very judgemental of the McCanns and still believe the worst of them. And as for that awful Chief Investigator.

EllanVannin you are castigating anyone who critiscises the McCanns and their behaviour yet you are saying the most awful things about the Portuguese police and the Portuguese themselves. Portugal isn't a paedophiles paradise and why would the police have immediately sealed off the border with Spain which is 200km away and a two hour drive? If a child went missing in London would borders be immediately closed ? Of course not.

I bought my house here in Portugal just as Maddy went missing so have seen a different slant on the whole thing over the past 13 years. No the Portuguese police were not incompetent but they were hampered a lot by the press printing untruths. The Portuguese are very family orientated and take their children everywhere with them so they just could not understand why the McCanns would not have dinner without their children.

Smileless2012 described where the McCanns and friends were staying more accurately than what was printed at the time. There was no way that they could see the apartment or more importantly the door from where they were sitting. I dont think the McCanns were involved in her disappearance but they did make a big error of judgement for which they have paid ever since. This German was brought up in May 2019 by Sky news. I think he has been brought up again because the funding for Scotland Yard to carry on investigating has run out and with this man they could get more. He has been ruled out a few times before. I personally have always thought the poor little girl died soon after but it would be good for there to be closure now.

Sighs! Though I am glad to say that the majority of posts I have read are not slaggiing off the McCanns.

After I fled an abusive marriage 20 years we walked the fires of hell with the aftermath. We went through the whole system and more of this country. I won the battle I wasnt supposed too. It took 10 years altogether to clear up the main of the aftermath.

I tell you this because I identify with the highlighting, spotlighting, dissecting everything about me even finding to my bloody toothpaste (I kid you not) goal post moving and expectations beyond, they have and are going through. It took my already fragile health.

I count my blessings as at least mine happened in the private arena of this country with professionals. I thank God it didn't happen like the McCanns for everyone to be judge and jury.

All the others with them that night had done the same. This could have been any of the 9. Indeed many others before, then and after will do it. I'm not saying I would do it. I am saying they made an unintentional mistake that will pay for, for the rest of their lives.

I watched a program some years ago. It was a documentary about how forensic and police work out if those around were involved.

They gave examples and explanations on many. They were asked about the McCanns and the forensics explained categorically why they weren't guilty. I take the word of these type of people over keyboard forensic experts who think they can tell guilt or otherwise because someone didn't react as they think they should.

Kate McCann was told not to make any comment. The law works differently over their. I have read and explored this. They aren't guilty of their daughter disappearance.

Having training in body language, in counselling advisory etc it is not black and white.

I wish people would remember too, they have twins who are now around 15. They had to sit them down and tell them about the furough, vitriol and accusations against them.

Think of those twins please if you can't think of the parents.

As for Ben Needham. There was some money pumped in there. There was also accusations against the family at the time.

There was no internet back then for people to look up and spread whatever they wanted.

Would they have been treated differently if they were a working class family? Again we don't know.

I wonder if some look at them with covert glee because they are a middle class yet it has happened to the McCanns.

When your pointing the finger bring it back at yourself 3 times. No one is a perfect parent and we have all made mistakes that could have had different results.

Yes, mumofmadboys, they always seem very united in their grief and neither blames the other. Maybe, however, that also worked against them as onlookers saw it as complicity in an attempt to hide something.

Very true.

Kate and Gerry are fortunate to have held their marriage together. So often couples who lose children end up splitting up.

No parent is perfect. We all make mistakes. Luckily we don’t have to suffer unbearable pain, guilt and heartbreak for the rest of our lives as the McCanns have done, will continue to do.

In the name of human decency let them be.

I believe the McCann's made a terrible mistake, one which has ruined their lives and lost their beautiful daughter her life. They live with that pain and guilt every day. Maybe that's why Gerry comes across as aloof, maybe he's just holding himself together. You can see the pain and torment in Kate's face every time she's photographed. I believe all parents make mistakes but most of us are lucky enough that there aren't such terrible consequences. They have paid every day for their error of judgment and I'm sure they judge themselves more harshly than any of us have the right to.

I wouldn't trust the police there that's for sure.

I think they said they didn't organise a babysitter Keeper1 because they didn't like leaving the children with a stranger. They had been eating in the tapas bar every night at the same time which would have made the children easy prey if anyone were observing the parents' movements.

The children weren't drugged. Another lie that was bandied around by the McCann haters. People have been dreadful toward this couple-----as if they were perfect themselves !
Just because they were doctors and had worked for what they had, i.e. nice car and house, which were begrudged by many.

Then you get the usual comments " if they'd lived on a sink estate " etc etc. I was online when this happened and some of the posts were beyond shocking.

I never for one minute believed the parents had any part in her disappearance. Having followed the case through there were many suspects and I can remember the German chap who was also photo-fitted at the time with his friend, another German.

Why it's taken so long I don't know because this character could have been nailed years ago. Portuguese police didn't even bother closing the border off as soon as the crime had happened.
In fact the way the police conducted themselves was appalling in every way having blamed the parents in the first place so therefore giving time for the real criminal to scarper.

Smiless2012 I met a midwife who had stayed at the same place and she told me that they could not have had sight of the hotel. She was also disgusted that three small children were left unattended.

I am sure they will have suffered everyday over the choices they made but I admit to finding it difficult to understand why they didn’t arrange a babysitter.

I also believe that had they not been a professional couple but more like a couple found on a Jeremy Kyle programme I am certain they would have been vilified.

Whatever the truth is a poor little girl has suffered.

Thank you Chewbacca that was very helpful.

I hope with all of my heart that Maddie will be found safe and well. Her poor parents and what they have been through beggars belief. I will pray for the whole family.

I have made plenty of mistakes as a parent Chewbacca and have actually had a child die of a fatal illness and I definitely couldn’t do anything about that. And it didnt make me a different parent afterwards because I was already paranoid about leaving his sister when she was an only child when we were on holiday. I stand by what I said we all have choices

Here's some information that some may find interesting.

We holidayed there a few years ago. There are 2 complex run by the same company. The one where we stayed had a creche which was running at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, and was available for families at both.

We met a young couple staying where they had stayed, but were eating at our on site restaurant in the evenings, so they could put their little girl in the creche.

The apartment the McCann's stayed in was the last on a corner, on the road side. The restaurant they and their friends used was about 150 yards from the apartment, but there was not a clear line of vision from the restaurant to their apartment, due to the location of the reception building and also a wall about 7 or 8 feet between the reception and their apartment.

I distinctly remember when the tragic story first made the news, that the McCann's and their friends said the apartment was visible from where they were sitting outside the restaurant, so we were shocked when we went there and realised that was not the case.

I seem to remember that yes, the parents were checking on one another's children but the last one to check on Madeleine and her brothers, didn't go inside the apartment and saw the children, he opened the door and listened and hearing nothing to suggest there was a problem of any kind, assumed all was well.

I agree that who ever is responsible for this poor girl's disappearance is the villain but for me, the risk that was taken on several occasions is beyond my comprehension.

I think most of the vitriol towards the McCanns could be because they came over as rather aloof and, in Gerry’s case, quite arrogant. I feel people would have been much more sympathetic if they had appeared distraught on television, saying they’d never forgive themselves, they shouldn’t have left them, they were to blame etc, etc, but everyone’s reaction to tragedy is different.
I remember listening to George Galloway on the radio saying that he had a house near Praia de Luz, and it was a rather ‘ middle class’ area, so the McCanns and their friends would believe the children would be safe.
As far as I remember Kate McCann had been an anaesthetist, so it is very doubtful that she would have thought Calpol was a sedative. Maybe that’s where the ‘ sedated children’ story came from.

It was a terrible mistake and an unthinkable tragedy occurred so where is the compassion for this poor couple living with that knowledge. The unkindness of so many in this thread is shocking to me.
I was a worrier and I wouldn’t have done as the McCanns and their friends did but surely they have been ‘punished’ enough without all this vitriol aimed at them from so many holier than thou declaimers.
I just hope that the individual now suspected can be shown to be the murderer and at least the accusers will cease to contend that the parents harmed their own little daughter.

No it's not Okay to leave sleeping children in an apartment a few yards away from where you are eating, but it's not very very bad either and victims should not be criminalised.
The abductor is the villain, not the family.

I imagine leaving your children in a house asleep while working in a large garden could be a similar situation.

Actually Medised can cause drowsiness.

I can only feel compassion, not judgement for the McCann’s and I hope they have some resolution, as not knowing must be torture.
As an aside, calpol has no sedative properties.

there were several sets of parents in the group with the McCanns ,all work colleagues, Doctors in fact! they all left their children in bed and were at a table nearby with a parent of the group checking frequently on the children! A determined paedophile would've only needed a few seconds to steal any one of those children that were left! ....leave the McCanns alone.

I do wonder if they have ever left the twins alone Since that tragic night

I doubt there are many people who think what they did was right. Because it’s not right to leave three young children alone in a hotel room anywhere.
How can anyone argue that that is ok?
They made a mistake & they will be living with that for the rest of their lives. So abusing them online ( & by post apparently ) is just adding to their grief & regret. Why would anyone want to make them feel worse?