Devildog

Ok, fair enough

Devildog

Not if she's one of the contestants and hasn't actually been abducted at all....

astraboy

agreed, the fact that no ransom note has been forthcoming, combined with the time she has been missing for means she is almost definitely been killed.
I seriously doubt any remains will be found, but personally I hope they are, if only to get that pair of self serving, pious attention ****** off my telly.
astraboy.

David Lock

It seems very difficult to actually find out the number of your kids, like Maddie, who genuinely go missing. The websites above, whilst telling a sad story, are largely teenagers and many are known to be have been taken out of the UK by a relative or they are kids who have simply left home.

The Maddie thing just reminds me of the Princess Diana hype. Of course both are/were pretty things in their own way which is smashing for the media.

I don't blame Maddie's parents one little bit for feeding the publicity but I would be pretty upset if I was a parent whose child had gone missing recently and possibly the best I could get would be a story in my local paper and a poster on a website.

But I confess to listening out for news to see if she has been found. But increasingly I half expect to hear that a child's body has been discovered. I hope fervently that I am wrong. dl

The Zohan

With Pete on this one (****, things you thought you would never, ever say)

KiwiGTI

Or she has been stolen to order, now living with a family in Eastern Europe/Russia, North Africa, the Middle or Far East etc - all of whom are totally oblivious to the hype.

Jerome

As jaytc2003 has highlighted, what makes this disappearance so special that it has generated such media coverage?

Shame all these resources aren't available for all child abductions/disappearances.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

A couple of points in response to my original post.

I do have young child which is why I feel the way I do. It makes me feel physically sick to think of this possibility.

It is interesting my wife won't talk about this - she is so angry that they left the kids alone that she has drawn a line under it.

I also am not in any way suggesting that the parents are culpable in a sinister way, rather by naivete or neglect. In Portugal as well as in the UK they are open to prosecution for what they did. The fact that many people do it is irrelevent.

The parents have post-rationalised this by saying they would feel just as guilty if she had been abducted when they were sleeping in the room next door.

As for the media orchestration - they have become very savvy at using the media, much more so than their extended family in my opinion. IMHO the extended family's use of the media has been more damaging than not.

The parents have been very calculating in using the media, they almost certainly have a media adviser as part of their 'team'. To suggest that many of the photographs and appearences have not been staged is very naive indeed.

My final point goes to this - they are now both reported as devout Catholics which generates a huge amount of empathy in the Catholic world (which is HUGE). Indeed so much so the leader of the Catholic church in the UK arranges an audience with the Pope.

This is strange to me as only a few days ago it was widely reported that the father had not been a practising Catholic up until the abduction. He only reaffirmed his faith after the event.

Of course this does not suit the current media story and so has been dropped.

I still look at the news and hope that she is found alive - that does not take away how my sympathy with the parents is still wearing thin.

Rannoch

bugsti

I totally agree with Rannoch.

The McCanns are attaining celebrity status (whether unwittingly or not).

One family member has even gained an audience with Gordon Brown - something that has so far been denied to Alec Salmond.

I'm not sure how meetings with politicians could ever help find the little girl.

Spoon

A friend of mine lost his cars keys yesterday. He has an audience with Ron Dennis this afternoon.

TelBoy

When you can remove the "almost" from the first statement, then and only then will your following statement be valid. I think "manipulative" is a harsh condemnation of their actions - i certainly don't blame them for trying to keep it in the limelight, however attention-seeking it appears to their detractors.

Shark Man

I've been somewhat cynical about the whole debacle since the first week. And as this is dragged out more and more with events like jetting off to see the pope whilst leaving the kids behind - Surely a mother would be emotionally distraught about having her one child taken away would never dream of letting the other two out of sight, dispite the chances of it happening again being very minimal?...obviously not in this case, she must have an excellent ability to detach her maternal emotions from her call of "duty" so to speak. Commedable or not, it doesn't look good from where I'm standing.

The media hasn't helped one bit, in thier more usual ways, vast amounts of reporters running around a resort trying to pull storys out of thin air, and making up bits to fill the gaps to give a shred of interest to make it newsworthy. FFS in one TV interview there was a photographer incessently taking picture of the McCann's *****... Was he trying to get an upskirt shot to sell to the Sport?

Also, I am yet to note any real indepth coverage of the the McCans background. Ok, maybe there isn't for privacy's sake (never stopped the media before). Or maybe because my attention to the case has vastly dwindled and I mentally switched off when I realise its yet another non-news report so I never noted it. Yes, shes missing, we get it...now show a picture of her, remind us of the details, give a contact number and move on to the next headline.

I, like Rannoch have noted the religious thing, again it maybe my narrow attention span, but I don't recall them being overtly catholic either. How many hail Marys do you get for leaving your children unattanded whilst wining and dining?

In any case, I fear there is alot more to this than what meets the eye. Possibly the McCanns themselves or a family member or freind related to them. I still hope that I am severely wrong, and that she was simply abducted by a needy wannabe mother who wants a child for themselves - but that is highly doubtful.

^Qwerty^

What about the two guys who claim to hardly know each other, yet exchanged mobile phone calls on the night she went missing?

And why does everyone assume she was taken, when in fact she might walked off in to the night?

Daft Lad

Because the window was physically forced open, was it not?

SiPie

BBC NEWS | UK | Pope meets parents of Madeleine

Taken from the above story today........

Bit odd to have mixed emotions

Surely there would be one overriding emotion of utter devastation and if mixed with anything, then it can only be guilt.

Not wanting to add to the 'lets analyse every scrap or comment made about this couple'....but it just doesn't sound right.

Shock or no shock....all still appears slightly off centre to me

TelBoy

The phonecall disparity is certainly confusing. What exasperated me was reading in the papers the other day that the Police still had to fully investigate this angle, and that was at least a week after it was first reported - i mean WTF? What are they actually doing? I'm sure we're only being fed the crumbs but it certainly doesn't have the feel of a competently handled operation.

TelBoy

SiPie you're reading your own agenda into this. Mixed emotions is a totally undertandable state of mind to be in, given the circumstances. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to leave the twins in Portugal while they chase this new line of hope.

Reality

The key suspects in this case a currently in Rome as far as I'm concerned.

PeteBrant

What new line of hope?

TelBoy

Who knows? They're on telly right now if you want to check out the perpetrators...

+Doc+

Jeez you must have a big brush for that sweeping statement :|

TelBoy

Er, more Catholics of this world being made aware of the situation by virtue of their leader taking time to discuss it. Not all countries have the media coverage we have here, believe it or not.

Reality

We'll see !

SiPie

Valid point Tel...

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

"He only reaffirmed his faith after the event."

This makes me chuckle.. "yeah, thanks god for letting bad people steal my kid, I believe in you now!"..

The wonderful rationality of religion....

Leslie

I really cannot find anything to disagree with in Rannoch's original post. I feel dreadfully sorry for that poor litle girl and hate to think of what may have happened to her. There really are the most evil people about and her fate may have been beyond compare.

The fault is not only at the feet of the kidnapper but well and truly also with the parents. I find it hard to believe that they were prepared to leave those children alone for several evenings in a row while they went off with their acquaintances. They say they had line of sight with one part of the apartment but obviously not with the point of entry. Apart from the risk of what happened, how about the danger of a fire?

They seem to be spending their time apologising now rather than the justification of their actions as they did earlier, but that can still not excuse them for this dreadful affair.

Bringing religion into this is totally fruitless and is also quite wrong!

Les

TelBoy

You can tell this is a predominantly male forum. Whils the overriding emotion is that they were very wrong to leave those kids, if we had more mothers on here who were prepared to tell the truth, you might get a more even picture of how not quite so unusual this behaviour is. Having said that, if it does make parents think a lot more carefully before doing anything similar again, then that also will be one good outcome from a very sorry tale.

The Zohan

Very true, maybe people should look beyond their dislike of the McCann parents and to the real issue, the girl and finding her!

An audience with the Pope, well this will get a huge amount of coverage and make a lot moe people aware of Maddie, is that a bad thing?

Apparently one of the Popes concerns is missing children, not just this one little girl but all missing children, perhaps his involvement may help Maddie and other kids as well.

This is not about religion is it FFS!

Oh and Abbey National have just produced 1000's of find Maddie posters, all the suppliers involved did the work of materials only and Abbey will put them up in branches and elsewhere. If anyone feel s that strongly about bandwagons and jumping on them then i suggest you Boycott those attention seeking meida ****** - Abbey National. Close you accounts and move, show 'em how you feel

r32

Why, you must be joking.
The child was reported as missing within 30 minutes of her being taken, so what did the two local police do? They went home to bed, no one turned up until 10.00 am the next morning. You dont have to be bright to figure that the time immediately after the abduction is the most important. It took three days to put local road blocks in place, and you ask why they messed up. They had suspects and wouldnt even talk to witnesses, most of them had to phone the UK police before any statement was taken. They only got involved when the British Consul turned up. Pants, absolute pants.

MattW

Tel I'm not sure I get you.

Would you allow me to compare what they did with me going directly across the road to the pub and checking home every 30 mins?