Wednesday 28 May 2008

MADELINE- WHY NO CO-OPERATION WITH THE PORTUGESE POLICE?



I am afraid I have reached the stage where I can no longer refrain from comment on the disappearance of this young child.


Just over 1 year on from the tragic event of Madeline's disappearance in Portugal, am I the only one who finds the reaction of her parents and their friends (The Tapas 7), to Portugese attempts to publicise the disappearance by staging a re-enactment, as slightly odd?


The re-enactment process by police is a regular feature in this country by our Police to re-create public interest in a crime and Crime Watch viewers will be very familiar with this device.


What astounds me is the failure of Madeline's parents and friends, who were all eating and drinking , away from the flat where vulnerable infants had been left unsupervised contrary to UK and European Law, to re-ignite public interest in the disappearance of Madeline by co-operating with the Portugese Police.


This is completely at odds with the parent's initial position of doing their utmost, and successfully so, to raise the profile of Madeline's disappearance to amazing levels. Funds poured in from generous benefactors for a campaign fund and a PR spokesman is now employed to comment.


Putting aside the blatant jingoistic comments about the Portugese Police, we need to remember
that Madeline's parents are still official suspects as far as the Portugese Authorities are concerned. Did their rapid return to the UK last year and does their present reluctance to assist , together with their 'friends', a Portugese Police re-enactment, have anything to do with their present status?


I would have thought that, given their initial successful publicity, that they would embrace any opportunity to re-kindle interest in their daughter's disappearance. As a parent, I find their present attitude odd.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have always thought that the whole think stank!

It also amazed me that the other two children in the same bedroom, were carried out still asleep(!) after the 'alarm'had been raised. Hoards of adults charging around and the youngsters don't wake up with all the shouting going on?

The whole thing just does not add up.

Anonymous said...

WHY DID THEY LEAVE THERE CHILDREN ALONE?????

when you go on a family hoilday thats what it means being a family

Also wasnt social services waiting at the airport when they arried back in the uk to take away their other children which happened a few years back when a young single mum went on hoilday alone leaving her child here. Nothing to do with the fact they are both professional people with good jobs????

And have they repaid the money they took from the fund set up to help find Maddie to pay their morgage?

I hope and pray Maddie is safe and well somewhere and being looked after

Anonymous said...

I found it odd that the parents' claim to be 'only a few yards away' in a bar is quite clearly disproved by the street map that shows they were at least 100 yards away. How could they believe checking every half hour would be satisfactory and then claim they were only out a short while eating and drinking? As a parent I always thought their attitude wrong as we never left our children even to pop next door. Maddie, it is claimed, was heard to ask why they hadn't come to see her the night before when she and one of the twins woke up and were crying. I have found it interesting how the press in the UK have gone quiet on this story when initially it was front page news until other facts came to light.

Anonymous said...

I think anon 23.24 raises a very interesting point.

The deep sleep point.

We just instinctively do not like the McCann couple. Similarly, instinctively, we do not like the parents of Stephen Lawrence.

And when some sort of spat was raised by Lord Coe about Linford Christie we found we instinctively did not like Lord Coe. yet we instinctively felt Linford would be telling it right.

I think most people's instincts feel doubt concerning the McCann couple. My instinct is that the doubt would be about something peripheral to Madeleine's disappearance. I am not saying they were swingers but, as an hypothetical example, that would represent a peripheral matter perhaps being concealed by all parties.

And that might impenge on the timeline and checks represented as fact to the Portuguese police inquiry.

Purely speculative and hypothetical.

The whole thing reminds me of the hypocrisy, for example, in Thanet about twenty or so years ago.

Rugger players kidnapped a barmaid and took her as a trophy on a pub crawl.

This was regarded by police as a jolly middle class jape.

If it had been a group of Newington lads who had done that then the police would have been describing a heinous crime.

As I understand it someone had a word with the rugger club first team when out on a subsequent binge in which it was suggested that it was overdue that behaviour was moderated. And the great heros of the pack, theretofore ringing the pub bell as if to start a bout against the their critic, all bottled out against just that one man. Neptunes Hall 1987 people.

He said "I hear me a choir boys now who wants to be first to go solo ?" And the response was silence.

Then he tweaked the nose of the previously most vociferous and told them to f-ck off and out they went quiet as little lambs.

I can just imagine the press rat pack if the McCanns had been benefits claimants from a council estate.

The hypocrisy stinks in the Madeleine case as much as it stank about the "Cheque book thugs" in Thanet in the 80s.

I pray for little Madeleine. God smile on her because her parents failed to do so.

Anonymous said...

Thought provoking posting; glad you're back from China.

Anonymous said...

There's a lot in what is being said here - and until Maddy is found, dead or alive, it can only be speculation.

Yes, it is strange how things have gone quiet but chances are the media have lost interest after all this time and will stay away from it until there is something new to say.

A skilful PR campaign kept the case in the public eye for a very long time but ultimately changed nothing. The little girl is still 'out there' somewhere.

If it's worth anything to anybody, I agree public reaction would have been very different had the parents not been middle class professional types. Mind you, Mrs Mc's scouse accent does put me off her, I'm afraid! Perhaps that's why she let her husband do all the talking for so long.

What would we give to be the person who finds Maddy safe and well by some deserted roadside one warm afternoon in Portugal and bring the whole saga to a happy end?

Bertie Biggles said...

15.21, your last paragraph says it all.