Madeleine McCann

Bukkie

It was and still isn't normal to leave young children home alone and go out for the night. I have no sympathy for the McCanns just heartbreak for Madeleine. It still staggers me that they were not prosecuted for child neglect and were allowed to keep the twins. A single mum from a council estate would have been treated less favourably.

Absolutely! But a single mum from a council estate might have been less likely to abandon her child than this entitled lot were!

Not long ago earlier this year there was the mum of four who popped out to go shopping and the kids house was burned down. It was discussed on here. She is now in prison. She wasn’t out drinking and having fun with her mates.

Actually, I feel it is time the McCanns faced up to the fact that it is very, very unlikely that their daughter is still alive.

By now, she is old enough to have got in touch if she is somewhere and doubts that the people or person she regards as parents actually are her parents.

The man who is now being investigated for the second, if not the third time, has one, perhaps more, previous convictions for molesting little boys, which I would have thought makes him a very odd suspect in this case.

Nor, does it necessarily have to have been a pervet who kidnapped Madeleine.

It icould have been either someone who was unable to have a child and desperate to have one, or someone stealing a child to supply a childless rich couple with a little girl. If this is the case, the child could have been brainwashed into thinking that these people are her parents, by surely by now, she like the rest of the world will have heard of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

I said at the time, that I could easily, if I were a criminal have got a little girl out of Portugal, into Spain and from there to France, simply by dying the child's and my own hair black, and walking camino de Santiago, saying we had started in Fàtima in Portugal and were going to Compostela and from there home to whichever country sounded realistic.

And if the McCanns have murdered their own child, why on earth would they do so when on holiday? Surely, it would have been far easier for them to do so at home, and claim the child had wandered off somewhere?

I do wonder if the high profile nature of this case is a class thing.

It’s almost as if this had been a single mum from a council estate people’s judgement would have been along the lines of … ‘well, what can you expect; feckless; negligent etc’.

But, middle class doctors … oh no, this sort of thing doesn’t happen to ‘nice’ respectable people like them.

Even politicians have become involved with the case. Maybe it held up a mirror to some ‘entitled’ middle / upper class behaviour.

Sadly, the McCanns paid the highest price possible for their evening out … the life of their daughter. Truly tragic, and I’m sure they will forever regret their decision

I have never thought for a moment that the parents were involved in the child's disappearance . I have always thought that the child was kidnapped for nefarious purposes and probably quickly killed because her identifying eye-marking would have made her too hot to handle.
When you think about it the McCanns were really , really unlucky.Others in the holiday party were doing the same thing but the McCann's apartment was exposed being on the end of the block.
I wish that her fate could have been uncovered only to ease what must have been a torturous 18 years for the parents.
I am very surprised by the German Police who more or less said that they had conclusive evidence that this Breuckner person did it but not a single charge has been brought. Epic fail by them I'm afraid.
I was glad that the McCanns were given a fair crack of the whip with a UK Police investigation to correct the incompetent Portugese police investigation. I think however that funding for the search by the British taxpayer should have been stopped years ago. It surely displaces investigations into other missing persons and children who matter no less.

It’s well known - white, pretty, girls/ young women ( and extra bonus if they’re middle class ) almost always get more press attention than any other type of missing person / murder victim.
It’s just the way it is.
People are more interested in them it seems.

I also think it is possible that the child wandered out and met with an accident ( this happened to Ben Needham in Greece?,).
I don't remember the detail of the McCann case but I thought there were all sorts of arguments about why this couldn't have happened - gates to the outside/street locked and too difficult for a toddler to open etc. That is why I think the foul play argument more probable.

On the " child neglect" argument I don't feel vindictive about this.
People make mistakes and misjudgements and accidents and tragedies happen.
My beloved late mother was one of the sweetest people on the planet. She adored us children and was an excellent loving mother. One day however my toddler baby sister got lost in a department store having accidentally been separated from Mum when she turned away for a moment.
No harm , no foul ? There was no tragedy; we were just lucky and the whingeing little nuisance was discovered at Customer Care.
Also I was given immense freedom as a child. I was allowed to play out literally all day with my friends and their families and our dogs.
If one of us had been kidnapped or murdered , would my parents have been neglectful ? Or were they letting us grow up and develop self-confidence and autonomy and all the other things you need to manage life ??
I feel sorry for the McCanns.
To anyone who thinks they should be punished , what possible punishment can you imagine that is worse than the guilt and distress they must feel and have felt all these years.

AuntieE

Actually, I feel it is time the McCanns faced up to the fact that it is very, very unlikely that their daughter is still alive.

By now, she is old enough to have got in touch if she is somewhere and doubts that the people or person she regards as parents actually are her parents.

The man who is now being investigated for the second, if not the third time, has one, perhaps more, previous convictions for molesting little boys, which I would have thought makes him a very odd suspect in this case.

Nor, does it necessarily have to have been a pervet who kidnapped Madeleine.

It icould have been either someone who was unable to have a child and desperate to have one, or someone stealing a child to supply a childless rich couple with a little girl. If this is the case, the child could have been brainwashed into thinking that these people are her parents, by surely by now, she like the rest of the world will have heard of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

I said at the time, that I could easily, if I were a criminal have got a little girl out of Portugal, into Spain and from there to France, simply by dying the child's and my own hair black, and walking camino de Santiago, saying we had started in Fàtima in Portugal and were going to Compostela and from there home to whichever country sounded realistic.

And if the McCanns have murdered their own child, why on earth would they do so when on holiday? Surely, it would have been far easier for them to do so at home, and claim the child had wandered off somewhere?

He was imprisoned for raping an elderly woman so I think everyone was fair game to him .

So many theories , we may never know what happened to that precious little girl or to other children that have gone missing. Easy to throw blame on the parents, but haven't we all made mistakes !?

What I found strange is when Kate McCann found her daughter missing, she screamed ‘They’ve taken her’.

If I go to a hotel room and find my daughter missing, I will scream ‘Oh my God, she has wandered off somewhere’.

The fact she said that put the idea of abduction right at the very beginning of the investigation.

If the dogs could smell the odour of blood and body in their apartment and their hired car, it could well have been an accident in the apartment that night.

Another thing I found strange is the funding McCann received from the British police amounting to £13.2 million which is a colossal amount of money.

I have not been able to fathom the negligent actions of her parents from the get go. Leaving three young kids alone like that and salt now they’ve had to pay for it all these years. I feel awful for the poor girl in question and whatever it is she had to endure but my sympathy for her parents is limited in asking how on earth you could leave your kids unattended like that.

Am I alone in wondering about this? no Doodledog I've always thought that things didn't add up.

Like another poster has said on this thread, we've been there and you can't see the apartment from the restaurant because the view's blocked by the reception building.

Grammaretto

Whatever is said about the lack of judgement or common sense shown by the parents - and please remember there were 2 parents, don't keep saying "Kate this and Kate that". They paid the ultimate price.
Poor, poor souls.

That child was the poor, poor soul, don’t you think?

There was an almost tragedy in NZ a couple of years ago when a toddler walked out of the family tent and into the sea while the parents slept.

The first they knew of what happened was when a fisherman returned her almost lifeless body which he thought was a doll, and she was given life saving treatment on the beach.

Apart from being abducted, there could have been an accident, kids do wake up! Or a fire!

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/06/new-zealand-fisherman-pulls-drowning-toddler-from-ocean?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The parents should not have left them on their own. They could afford good babysitters. I took my children everywhere with me and if I couldn’t then I paid someone I knew to look after them.
I think they have been through enough though and I do feel sorry for them.

Franski

Please let this thread not be a new retrashing of the McCanns. This family have been through enough hell. They loved their little girl more than any of us who didnt even know her. I can put up my hands and say I made many mistakes in bringing up mine. Partly through naivety and a lot through carelessness. There but got the grace of God... I can only feel compassion for this family. The only person deserving of disdain and condemnation is the one who stole her from her bed on a happy family holiday.

This.

The online Daily Mirror has reported that human remains and clothing have been found where the German police were searching .

No one in their right mind are saying they should have left their children, no doubt they loved them. They have to live with that, but they are not bad people and they have been through hell. You shouldn't judge unless you're perfect. I can see how lynch mobs start.

Smileless2012

The online Daily Mirror has reported that human remains and clothing have been found where the German police were searching .

Let's hope that this is relevant and a conclusion to the case.
Fingers crossed.

My older granddaughter is about the same age as Madeleine, when she was taken I asked DD if she ever left her children like this, she said that she didn't but knew plenty of people who did.

I also find it amazing that anybody can believe the vile conspiracy theories about the parents, I'm sure that they have suffered every day since Madeleines disappearance.

dragonfly46

I find it very upsetting that people are still believing the conspiracy theories about the McCann’s. They are local to me and I have followed the case closely.
Yes they were wrong to leave the children in the chalets and maybe Madeleine did go looking for them although I believe she told them that the night before a man had been in the room, but I don’t believe for a minute that they had anything to do with her disappearance.
They have suffered enough.

I agree with you and think the conspiracy theories about this couple are terrible.
Their mistake and the friends with them too, was in leaving all the children alone while they went out to dine.Not that you would expect abduction, but sickness or fear if they woke and wanted their parents.I never left my children on holiday on their own at any tine of day and I don’t believe many others do either.We’re not talking about Butlins in the 1950’s are we.
I think the police handled things very poorly there but the only evil was by the man/men who took her.