Madeleine McCann
Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007I wasn’t going to write about this. I just wasn’t because it doesn’t bear thinking about, but in the last few days the whole thing has become insane, and you know what’s really pissing me off? All the self-righteous experts over here, nudging and winking, passing judgement on the McCanns, with absolutely no information whatever to go on. Not that ignorance ever stopped a lynch-mob.
How do I know they have no information? Because the Portuguese police seem to have no information either. What’s going on over there in Portugal? I can’t figure it out. Do you know what’s going on, and if so, would you mind telling me?
What are the police saying? That Kate McCann killed the little girl?
Oh right. So they were out at dinner, when suddenly Gerry McCann, slaps his forehead. Shit! I forgot to murder the child before we went out.
Don’t worry, Love, soothes Kate. I’ll nip back to the apartment now and do her in while you’re finishing your dinner.
I feel such a fool, says Gerry.
Don’t worry about it, chuckles Kate. I’ll be back in a jiffy.
What?
Scenario One: The child was abducted. This has not been ruled out.
Scenario Two: The child was accidentally killed in the apartment. OK. Why would they even try to hide it? Why would they go through this charade of having dinner with their friends?
Scenario Three: The child was murdered. by the McCanns.That makes no sense at all to me. Parents take their three children on a family holiday to a popular Algarve resort, but change their mind and murder one of them.
The cameras of the entire world have been pointed at these people since the child went missing. I find it very hard to believe that anyone could so thoroughly dispose of a body in such a short time that the following gigantic search failed to find it.
The latest innuendo concerns an allegation that traces of blood were found in a car the McCanns hired twenty five days after the little girl disappeared. Oh well there you have it then. They’re guilty!
Eh, no. Not quite.
First, we don’t know how the samples were collected, or how the chain of evidence was protected. We also don’t know whether the parents’ clothing was already contaminated with blood from some innocuous nosebleed or the like. And finally, Portimao is not a big place. It is not beyond the bounds of coincidence that the McCanns might have hired a car previously used by an abductor. It would be an appalling irony if this turned out to be true, but it’s far from impossible.
However, this is straying dangerously close to rigorous thinking and, of course, logic is the last thing that scandal-mongers and finger-pointers want, because it spoils their fun.
I don’t know if the McCanns killed their child. I hope they didn’t but I don’t know yet. Just like the self-righteous finger-pointers don’t know while they beat their breasts and tut-tut at the McCanns for being bad parents.
It must be great to be perfect.
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PS It would be worth visiting this site, where Bock has been fighting the good fight.:P45
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The Pope Pays the Price for Hearing McCanns’ Confession
Portuguese Police, Arguidos and the McCanns
Portuguese Police Get Sense at Last
McCanns Not Suspects, Say Portuguese Police
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September 7th, 2007
Sounds like the Jonbenét case all over again. On a different note (not to sound callous but) how many people have gone missing around the world since Maddy, that we haven’t heard of–or is only the cute little white girls we care about? (Rhetorical question. Ans:yes).
September 7th, 2007
Spot on, Bock. There’s no circus like a media circus and the subject matter rarely matters. The McCanns have only gotten a break when Posh Spice gets a new hair do.
September 7th, 2007
Speaking as someone who is basically perfect yes, it is pretty nice. Can’t comment on this McCann thing though.
September 8th, 2007
Oh it’s tiresome all right, Bock. There’s a whole slew of ‘I always knew there was something funny about them…’ doing the rounds, even though it’s perfectly bloody normal to question the parents. I”m going to reserve any finger-pointing until there is something to point at.
Now, I must attend to my hangover. Good day to you.
September 8th, 2007
Bock, check what the Portuguese websites are saying: 1) Portuguese police are forbidden by local law to talk about an ongoing investigation; this pisses off the media, who has turned against the police, blaming them for obeying the local law… 2) The McCanns are blamed for leaving three kids under 4 unattended while they go out to dinner; they could wake up and cry, get out of bed and do all kinds of things that could get themselves injured without being cared for by an adult; 3) Could the parents have killed Madeleine? Yes, and tragic as it seems, there have been many other terrible cases in the recent past. A woman in the US launched a nation-wide search for her missing child a couple of years ago, and three days later confessed to having killed her (just an example); 4) the speculations in Portugal are: a) the McCanns planned to forge an abduction with an accomplice, they drugged their kids so the acomplice would kidnap Maddy while they had dinner, but something went wrong and Maddy got killed, the whole media hype is a cover-up; b) the McCanns drugged their kids so they wouldn’t wake up while they were out dining, but Maddy died by accident and the whole media hype is a cover-up. So far, nobody knows what happened, so let’s not point fingers at the McCanns, but let’s also not point fingers at the Portuguese police… Pointing fingers at the police in L.A. got O.J. cleared of a murder, which now everybody believes he actually committed…
September 8th, 2007
I’m with Nando on the Portuguese police. I reckon they are doing their job, perhaps the only problem is the time it’s taken for them to do certain things - ie, is the chain of evidence intact in every respect.
If the Irish and British police kept their traps shut and processed cases in a similar manner I believe we’d be happier with them. I recall your reaction to the O’Reilly conviction. I agreed with you on that.
September 8th, 2007
Darwin: that thought crossed my mind too. There’s a touch of the World Vision mindset about it all. Adopt a child, forget about the bigger problem.
Cap’n P: Precisely! Media bullshit.
badgerdaddy : I must get advice from you on being perfect. We could compare our perfections. Or perfect our comparisons.
fatmammycat : Squinting windows, I tell you!
nando1301: I’m not ctriticising the police. I’m having a go at the people here who haven’t a clue what’s going on but still feel entitled to blame the McCanns.
Conan: Like I said, I’m not saying anything about the police, although if the most recent assertions are true - that they offered Kate McCann a deal - I’d be worried.
September 8th, 2007
Bock as always its refreshing to read someone with comonsence.
September 9th, 2007
Before you think that you can trust the Portuguese police read what they did to another woman who reported her child missing. Same guys are associated with this case:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1913175.ece
September 9th, 2007
Bock,
I’d agree with the last poster in that there could be a far more sinister aspect to this latest development. There has been another case of a disappearing child with detectives being charged with serious crimes in regard to the investigation and the way it was handled and also with beating a confession from the mother amongst other things, a bit too a lá donegal for my liking.
Have we considered a chance that someone in the legal system may be involved in an abduction? Similar to questions raised by you before in relation to Dalkey. Could something else be taking place here?
Anyway to be honest who knows exactly what is going on, firing muck in all directions is becoming a media habit, take the poor misfortune whose reputation is in tatters after being the first suspect.
September 9th, 2007
I can’t be bothered reg’ing on p45 to fight the fight, but I do agree 100% with you.
Another reason I think it’s likely they’re innocent:
They’re not stupid people. If they *had* killed the kid, there’s no way in hell they’d have concentrated that much media attention on the case for so long.
September 9th, 2007
I have many thoughts on this but I’ll try to keep it short and not say everything I’m thinking:
An item to throw into the mix: there have been *suggestions* that the McCanns were sedating the children and that maybe Madeleine died accidentally from this. *If* that had happened, they would probably both be struck off, as doctors. This could — in theory — be a cause for a cover-up, if people panicked.
Don’t forget that the child was not seen publicly from 2.29pm on the day of the night she allegedly disappeared. So, there were hours available between that and dinner, if some accident or other occurred, not necessarily with sedation.
I wish the McCanns no harm. None of us has enough info regarding the forensic evidence the Portuguese police say they have. But I understand that there are quite a number of British detectives working closely with them. And out of respect for Portuguese law, they are saying nothing. I happen to think that the xenophobic reaction in the UK to the police in Portugal has been nothing short of disgusting.
The McCanns’ media spokesperson has her own PR business, and apparently after her arrival the campaign got a little too “slick” for some people. [Of course some UK media would prefer to follow this story than handle more difficult topics, like the deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan while the opium crop there continues to multiply and provide most of the world’s heroin.]
“… the initially well-meaning, but now ill-advisedly slick publicity campaign being masterminded by failed Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate and party activist Justine McGuinness — a freelance PR who recently had to be dissuaded from arranging a photocall for Kate McCann at a Portuguese orphanage.”
source
Maybe their media campaign got out of hand, or even out of their control.
September 9th, 2007
Shit. Short???
September 9th, 2007
MacDara: Thanks. I try to stay drunk as much as possible.
Tskwarek: Interesting link. Thank you for that.
Zucchini: Another interesting angle. However, my complaint is about the rush to judgement. Thwe McCanns might be responsible. I don’t know, but neither does anyone else.
Alastair: Yeah. But the media campaign seems to be a major factor in people’s antipathy towards them.
Nora: As I said, we don’t know who did what. I wish people wouldn’t be so quick to point fingers without knowing anything about the facts.
September 9th, 2007
Family now back in Britain and requesting privacy.
I must inhabit a different planet - they have driven a concerted publicity campaign for months and now want it turned off, just like that, in Britain of all places?
September 9th, 2007
Well, I suppose they could never have imagined how badly the publicity would backfire on them.
September 9th, 2007
Maybe, but then on the planet I inhabit I don’t recall ever thinking it a good idea that children - of that age, or a good deal older - be left alone for any length of time in separate premises.
In other words, in the absence of someone found culpable for the disappearance of their child, thay had to expect the focus to shift back on them for they are - at least - culpable for the circumstances which allowed person or persons unknown to make off with their daughter. Maybe they’re not that bright?
If the Portoguese police are working with a time framework in which there is no third party verification of the child’s presence after (approx) 2.30pm then they have to question the parents’ account.
September 9th, 2007
Agreed. I would never leave a child unattended. For fucksake, I have a teenager who feels oppressed because of the scrutiny he’s under. But I don’t think anyone suggests that the McCanns are blameless in the whole thing. Their idea of child-minding borders on the insane. However, that doesn’t make the self-righteous finger-pointing any less nauseating, in my opinion.
September 9th, 2007
tbh.. I would never ever leave a child unnattended in an apartment on holiday to go out to a restraunt. Who cares if its on the other side of the road?! I dont blame them for abducting her whilst eating im just saying they should take some responsibility.
September 9th, 2007
The porto police are trying to say the McCanns drugged the child so she woundnt wake up while they were dining. Read it in a paper somewhere looking for it now.
September 10th, 2007
Ciaraa: Nobody is saying the McCanns are blameless. They fucked up in a big way.
Turf: Yes. I heard that. The Portuguese police are saying a lot of things off the record, much like our own police do.
September 10th, 2007
I respond to bock at P45, where he posted on the same topic using the same pseudenom.
Read the last comment at
September 10th, 2007
“In the vast majority of cases, harm done to children comes from the hands of parents, carers and people within the family.
Also the last people who report seeing someone alive are well worth looking at.
The McCanns fall into both categories here and will have always been near the top of the list of suspects.”
That’s a former British detective. It makes sense to me. There is no evidence whatsoever of abduction.
As for leaks from the Portuguese police: I’ve read that they *have* leaked information in the past few weeks, quite deliberately, in order to put pressure on the parents. And that they have been keeping them under constant surveillance during that time. I’ve also read that there were British (police) body language experts in the room next door when the McCanns were questioned.
Now, if you were watching a fictional crime investigation on TV, you’d find all that non-pass-remarkable? Well, I would.
Sky News took on this story almost like a crusade on behalf of the McCanns. They haven’t reported it as a “news story” in any objective fashion.
Given what’s going on around the globe, it suits the Murdochs of this world to distract the public with this “human interest” story and not cover, e.g. the protests against Bush and APEC in Sydney.
I’m not finger-pointing. I’m trying to stand back and look at this as a case of a missing child. *One of many*. I wonder how many sanctimonious Sky News reporters could give us the name of one child who was found dead and mutilated under the dead bodies of his/her parents in Iraq in the past few weeks.
Parents who had *not* left the child alone.
September 11th, 2007
I will be actually disgusted if the parents did murder her. That would be sick.
Ive herd that their Hire Car has Madelines blood in the back seat in The Sun. Fishy or what?! Im a newspaper enthusiast :D
September 11th, 2007
asdasd: Eh, what?
Nora: I haven’t criticised the police too much. All I’ve complained about is when people jump to conclusions too early, based on too little evidence. The McCanns might well be guilty: I’ve said this all along, but right now, the evidence isn’t in the public domain, and I wish people would try to be a little bit less certain of their guilt.
Ciaraa: The Sun? Oh well, I can’t argue with that.
September 11th, 2007
But look at it this way - why are the parents not charged with child abuse and why do they still have custody of their children - they should be charged with child endangerment and neglect!!!!!
September 11th, 2007
There’s a petition online asking:
“that Leicestershire Social Services fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to 3 year old Madeleine McCann and her younger siblings being left unattended”
Over 17,400 sigs so far.
And investigations are under way to ensure that donations made to the Find Madeleine Fund (on their blog) don’t go to fund a defence team.
I must say, even though I was one of the ’suspicious ones’, I’m shocked.
September 12th, 2007
lol. well i read other papers it even had it on bbc news and sky news even though it wasnt REALLY blood and it wasnt reallyy 100% match it was 88% what are the police trying to do?
September 12th, 2007
it was also on Fox news i think..
September 12th, 2007
UK in USA: What country should they be charged in? Are we not all guilty sometimes of being less than perfect parents?
Nora: What a load of shite. Why don’t they charge the thousands of skobies who let their young children wander around the streets all night?
Ciaraa: I haven’t heard anything about that part of it yet.
September 15th, 2007
PORTUGUESE POLICE LOOKS AT THE
POSSIBILITY THAT MADELEINE McCANN BODY
WAS INCINERATED (14H47, September 14,
2007)
http://gazetadigital.blogspot.com/
DUARTE LEVY, in Rothley
http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/
PAULO REIS, in Lisbon
http://gazetadigital.blogspot.com/
Paulo Reis
Email: pjcv.reis@gmail.com
(00351) 913 400 250 (sms messages only)
http://gazetadigital.blogspot.com
News in English, Portuguese and Chinese
February 15th, 2008
this child was never abducted. why dont the mcaqnns take a lie detedter test.
February 15th, 2008
Stalin: You have no idea what happened to the child.