Madeleine McCann

I have been to Pria de Luz the tapas restaurant is not in sight of the holiday apartment.

It is important to remember when the McCanns and their friends reported a child missing from their apartment, in the crucial first few hours of the case the Police had no idea the parents were absent.

This information came to light some hours after.

Madeleine had asked her mother the morning she went missing why she hadn’t come to her when she was crying in the night and still Kate McCann went out that evening and left her children.

When Kate McCann admitted this in a TV documentary I was stunned.

It is the saddest story, I know the McCanns would do anything to turn back time, I always hope this tragic story has made parents think twice about ever leaving their child.

Grammaretto

Where did that story come from that she'd cried for hours and a man had been in her room?
I have only seen it here today and I find it very hard to believe.

There are several documentaries quoting police sources and witness statements which mention it. A six-part one on Netflix, one on YouTube by an FBI statement analyst and others.

Grammaretto

Where did that story come from that she'd cried for hours and a man had been in her room?
I have only seen it here today and I find it very hard to believe.

Her own mother said it in one of the documentaries about the case. and it was also in her witness statement. She said Madeleine told her that both she and her little brother had been crying for their mum.

Allsorts

Have none of you had children that you put to bed and family and friends are there, with patio doors open you sit just outside on the patio, that is the distance I believe those parents were from their children, in sight. They made a mistake, they were good loving parents, how that guilt must have racked them, they were both doctors and helped people.. A paedophile targeted them, a random premeditated crime. I feel nothing but compassion, has no one never made a mistake?Holding your child's hand in a crowd and they wriggle free, Lost sight of one for an instant. I didn't leave mine, we were lucky if we got a week in a caravan in Wales, whilst there numerous families put their children to bed and sat outside chatting, not us we were as tired as the children after a day out.
They were probably the same distance away as the McCanns.

There are plans of the complex online. The parents were neither within sight nor sound of their accommodation.

The suspect CB has boasted that they will never find Madeleine and then, alledgedly, recounted why. The details are so horrific I cannot repeat them; the stuff of horror.
The bile against the parents suggests a middle-class prejudice, whereas children are constantly left unattended on camp and caravan sites, and if anything is to blame perhaps it is the British culture of putting kids to bed at 7 whereas Continentals have their children out at 10 at night. The Portuguese police would not understand this, hence all the silly tales about the parents.

The only thought that floated through my mind with the whole sad affair is the role of alcohol in all this.

Which of course, clouds judgement.

Where did that story come from that she'd cried for hours and a man had been in her room?
I have only seen it here today and I find it very hard to believe.

LizzieDrip

^always feeling safe because nothing had happened to cause anxiety before^

Mm? Even though, apparently, Madeline had previously ‘cried for hours’ and had said there was ‘someone in the room’ on the previous night?

Well exactly. Surely if you knew your child had been upset on a previous evening, you wouldn't leave them alone again?

It's all so terribly sad and I wonder if we will ever know what really happened that night.

I had some sympathy for the M'Cann's but not when I read some excepts from her book. Very odd comments from a mother. There is something not right about how they behaved at the time.

always feeling safe because nothing had happened to cause anxiety before

Mm? Even though, apparently, Madeline had previously ‘cried for hours’ and had said there was ‘someone in the room’ on the previous night?

It's easy now to say you wouldn't dream of leaving sleeping babies and children alone but who knows what that situation was like. The group of parents , taking it in turns to check, always feeling safe because nothing had happened to cause anxiety before.

In the 1970s when my 3 boys were born and we lived in a terraced house, neighbours would drop in for a chat and a drink leaving the baby monitor to babysit.

We also left prams outside shops, even a department store on one occasion when I was halfway up the street before remembering the baby!

We were so lucky. The McCanns were not.

Those parents made an horrendous error of judgement and will live forever with the guilt.
If they had been behind her disappearance, they would not have kept the publicity going, or spent all that time, money and effort in finding her.

JenniferEccles

An excellent assessment of the case Doodledog.
I share many of your concerns.

Me, too. I've always felt there's a strong smell of fish about the events as they are alleged to have happened.

foxie48

LizzieDrip I think you have raised a good point but hopefully 18 years on even those who would, no doubt, be very censorious, would have stopped blaming the unfortunate mother.

I wonder if that unfortunate mother would have had her two remaining children taken away from her? Would society deem she deserved to be ‘punished’ for her mistake?

I’m not suggesting, for one minute, that should have happened to the McCann’s. Their pain is unimaginable.

But I do think there would be a fair bit of ‘double standard’ regarding the behaviour of a middle class couple of doctors and that of a young single mum on benefits.

One person’s ‘mistake’ might be viewed as another person’s ’negligence’.

It’s all conjecture; who knows

mumofmadboys

I simply cannot believe anyone thinks the McCanns are involved in their daughters disappearance in some criminal or violent way. It is a monstrous thought. I feel a lot of compassion towards them. We have all been less than perfect parents at times.

I agree with this. I made mistakes bringing up my children, most parents have.

I feel uncomfortable about some of the insinuations being made in this thread. Whatever your thoughts on the parenting of the children at the time, let’s not forget that the McCanns have been to hell and back in all likelihood, and this latest investigation will, no doubt, rip open wounds again.

It seems to me that there’s a lot of guesswork and speculation being spouted, but the fact is, none of us were there, so none of us are in a position to say exactly what happened and exactly who was responsible.

The McCanns made a very bad decision that evening, one that I suspect many wouldn’t make, and will have to carry that with them to the grave. I think a degree of compassion wouldn’t go amiss.

Witzend

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.

Well said, Franski.

I should have added, which of us can honestly say we’ve not had heart-stopping moments - when, thank goodness, all was finally well?

I will never forget several panic-stricken minutes when my human-hurricane little blond grandson of 4 had apparently vanished in a large and very busy, crowded playground/water-play park, on a very hot day - when I was also watching Gdd 5.

I was frantically yelling his name for what seemed forever - until someone I didn’t know said, ‘Is that him, over there?
🙏🙏🙏

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.

Hear, Hear.

Franski, you took the words right out of my mouth.

I don't understand the cruelty of people who still persist in blaming the parents in this awful case.

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.

Well said, Franski.

Kandinsky I still feel sick when I think of a mistake I made 40 years ago which could have gone horribly wrong on a lovely sunny holiday. I hope had it gone wrong I would be forgiven by now although I would never have forgiven myself.

LizzieDrip I think you have raised a good point but hopefully 18 years on even those who would, no doubt, be very censorious, would have stopped blaming the unfortunate mother.

An excellent assessment of the case Doodledog.
I share many of your concerns.

LizzieDrip

Well exactly.

I think ( some) people seem to think leaving children alone at night is ok when they’re away. - as if nothing can possibly go wrong on a lovely sunny holiday.

That just doesn't bear thinking about LizzieDrip.

One big difference would be that the scene would have been sealed and our police would have been more professional and efficient.....one hopes.

I wonder how the events would have been perceived if it had been a young single mum, living in a council flat, who had left her three little children alone while she went drinking in the pub across the road? 🤔