Feeling no sympathy whatsoever for the parents of Madeleine McCann will not be a way of making myself very popular, but hearing Kate McCann talking this week about how she thinks someone tried to abduct Madeleine the night BEFORE she was actually left alone to be taken from her bed, fills me with disgust rather than compassion.
As a woman, I put myself in the position of a mother and find it impossible to understand how this woman could leave a young child and two babies in their beds, in a hotel room in a foreign country, while she went out with friends, not once but repeatedly. Not only this, but she already had the suspicion that someone had been in the room and tried to take the children the previous night. How can one feel sorry for her? Kate told the press this week, on Madeliene’s eighth birthday, that on the morning the abduction happened Madeliene had asked why her mum and dad didn’t come straight to the children’s room when they were crying the night before. ’I never thought for one minute that there was something sinister’ is what she said, ‘I just worried, had she woken up and nobody had been there? But obviously, when we discovered she’d gone, it just seemed very likely to me that in fact, somebody had maybe tried the same thing the night before and had been disturbed, maybe when the children started screaming. There was something about it that just didn’t seem right.’
Meanwhile, Gerry McCann seems almost dismissive of their own responsibility for their children; ‘Who’s thinking about child abductions in a little sleepy out-of-season tourist resort? It never entered our minds. We felt very safe – it was a family resort.’
I’m not a parent yet myself, but I don’t know how anyone could feel like that, let alone say those words after their child had been kidnapped while they drank and ate a meal with friends. How can you ever be off-duty when it comes to your children?
It fills my stomach with an uneasiness to hear it. The whole world is expected to be moved to tears with compassion for this woman, this mother, because she’s lost her child, but where my sympathy lies is with a little girl who was left alone in a room, taken by a stranger, and then who knows what happened to her? The fact that that little girl was probably crying for her parents, frightened, and then has potentially been through the most unbearable ordeal subsequently, is a tragedy. When I see Kate McCann crying on the news, clutching Madeleine’s cuddly cat, I don’t feel moved; I feel revulsion.
And, of-course, these new interviews and statements are not merely in honour of Madeleine’s eighth birthday. The McCanns have a new book to promote. With the title Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, and with the words; ‘All proceeds donated to Madeleine’s fund’ (which presumably means the McCann’s bank account) on the front cover, the book is the latest publicity stunt in a long line. My less cynical self thinks that any mother in that position, myself included, would want to draw as much attention as possible to their missing daughter’s plight. However, I’m inclined to think that the attention the McCann’s solicit isn’t necessarily in Madeline’s interest alone.
Many online commentators and blogs have expressed the view that the book will do little to actually find Madeleine, and that the price has already been reduced by half by Waterstones and other major retailers. There are many sceptics willing to broach the feeling that all is not right with the McCanns, and I tend to agree with them. After the initial welling up of empathy for the family, and the concern for a missing girl, cracks began to appear in the apparently perfect tragedy; none less than the McCann’s hire car, where blood was found.
I haven’t been able to make my mind up about the McCann’s, and I don’t really want to until we have real information and evidence about what happened, because none of us really knows one way or the other, what happened to Madeleine. From the first day the news story broke,I’ve always felt concern for Maddie, but have never been able to overcome a certain uneasiness about the parents. Whenever I look at them, or read statements they’ve made, I can never make myself forget a nagging feeling that something isn’t right.
I think it started with what Kate apparently said when she ran down back down to the Tapas bar, after finding her daughter gone. I can’t track down the exact quote, but I remember clearly from the media at the time, what she cried out was; ‘They’ve taken her, they’ve taken her.’ Now, to me, this feels odd. Firstly, the use of ‘they’ implies that there is a specific person in her mind. Speaking speculatively, I would imagine that were I in that situation myself, I would be more inclined to say; ‘Someone’s taken her’, rather than ‘they.’ Who are ‘they’? It doesn’t feel right.
I’ve always held the view that they had something to do with it, which was made all the more plausible in 2007, when the McCanns first offered to take a polygraph test, or lie detector test, as a publicity exercise to prove their innocence, and then staunchly refused when the moment came. What would Jeremy Kyle say? If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.
Of-course, this is only my own opinion and gut feeling, but instincts often turn out to be right on the money. My only hope is that Madeleine is somewhere safe, and hasn’t been harmed. For a little girl to suffer would be horrific.
Never in a million years would I leave my Tinks unattended anywhere, let alone abroad. She means the world to us and I would protect her with my life, so would my partner. We would happily sacrifice nights out to ensure her safety.
I/we. like you, have very strong misgivings about the whole situation and agree 100% that something just is not right about all the outpourings that have come from the McCanns.
I/we feel no empathy or sympathy for these two crass parents. Our hearts ache for a little girl, who never deserved to be neglected by her parents, and neglect is exactly what it was and they should have been prosecuted for that if nothing else.
Brave post, but staunch supporters of the same opinions exist.
Thank you, it means a lot to know you agree. I was worried about a backlash about this article, and that people wouldn’t share my view, and would react angrily because of sympathy for the family, so I appreciate your support.
I agree with everything you said in your comment. At the very, very least, they are bad parents.
They are a revolting pair who change their story whenever it’s convenient to them. Want to throw up? Read page 129 of their book.
Scotland Yard and the Portuguse police are re-opening the investigation into Madeleine’s vanishing. I don’t think that’s good news for them. I think they like to wail and act hard done by. I don’t think they want to answer questions under oath and turn over records. It’s the same thing with the lie detector–when push comes to shove, they want to deflect.
Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. I agree with you, I think this new investigation could dig up some surprising truths. It will be very interesting to see how it pans out, and what happens.
I do not have any sympathy for the McCans what so EVER being a mum (of one child) now grown and has children of his own)
There was a so called incident according to the McCans the night before so WHY were the children left on their own? Why put them at risk If indeed that’s what happened.
I cannot begin to understand how they could do such a thing. I don’t know how they can call themselves parents and they are so cold and sinister looking, there is not a warm look about them at all. Children are the most precious gift a person could EVER have. I know i could never be without my son He has always come first and foremost in my life It IS time now to have another investigation and get the truth out as to what happened to poor Madeleine and they should start by talking to the McCans and this time get the story straight not leaving any inconsistency’s that makes them look so guilty changing the story over and over.
Hopefully new evidence will come to light, and the people responsible will be caught and punished
You said that perfectly! I agree with everything you said. You’re right about the cold look, I’ve always felt that. They’re somehow steely and robotic. I don’t want to pass judgement, because they might be innocent, but their neglect should still be accountable for, leaving their children.
Thank you very much for commenting, I appreciate the back-up.
Hello Vicky, a very pleasant article. The image you have of Madeleine in the pool as much as the McCanns have wished us to believe this was taken in PDL , this image was taken somehere eles .
I seem to be one of the few who do not believe neglect ever took place and I also believe Paulo Rebelo discovered this when he took over the case, it was one of the very few things he did say apart from the investigation was pointing STIll in the right direction.
Reading through the files of people who stayed in apt. 5a complaints about maids knocking and just waliking in before being asked. May 2nd maid walked in and noticed one cot in parents room and another cot in the room Maddie is claimed to have slept in. The maid noticed the two cots were messy and the bed underneath the window. The bed the MccCnns claim Maddie had been taken from was unused , just inside the door. /It was a lie Kate did not argue with Gerry but she tried to confuse the two days and more or less called the maid a liar…because it was very important to show Maddie was taken from the bed nearest the door, to pass the twins would have been too cramped.
Gerry was asked where there two cots in speretae rooms ? he denied this..we’ll he would wouldn’t here. David Payne made matters worse when he was asked about the cots in the McCanns room he said they had three. We have another witness statement from anaother maid who was there on the 28th and TWO cots were delivered to the McCanns.
Just wanted to say DITTO – we both feel the same and have a terrible feeling, that all they have told us so far, is Lies!
The body language of Loss and grief is universal, crossing all Nations and Creeds and likewise the body language of Lies and untruths is also universal.
The blunt refusal to answer any Police questions and then the inconsistencies when they DO!
It is truly hard to be convinced of someone’s innocence when everything they say and do ‘SCREAMS’ that they are lying and concealing something.
If the truth finally does come out – this case may yet be proved as one of the most despicable and SICK hoaxes of ALL TIME. To have fooled the whole World for so long and in such a manipulative and deliberate way – to cover up their involvement in some way – is a total Betrayal to Madeleine, their twins and Betrayal of everyone in the World.
I Hope and Pray we are all wrong but…………………
Thank you for your comment, I appreciate the back-up. I agree, I hope the feeling is wrong.
My problem with this situation is how it has been allowed to be seen as within the bounds of reasonable parenting, to leave young children alone in an unlocked apartment.
I have no idea if these parents are guilty of anything to do with their daughters disappearance and I’m not calling for them to be charged with neglect. But I think that those people who’s job it is be in charge of children’s welfare should make it plain that, it is not reasonable parenting to leave children at risk like this, not just from possible abduction, but from the risk of being able to leave unlocked premises, or harm themselves within the premises.
They should make it plain that it wrong for parents to put their needs above their children’s needs. Otherwise some parents who have no problem with leaving their children, will always use the Mccanns case as justification for them doing the same thing.
I’ve always felt that, in any other circumstances, those twins would have been taken away from the McCanns by Social Services. In cases of neglect, where children have been left alone, they are immediately removed from the family and either go to another relation, or into care. I don’t think the McCanns have been treated like everybody else. Because of the news coverage and out-pouring of sympathy from the entire nation, they have never been held to account for the actions, and never been made to accept responsibility for what they did. If it was anybody else, they would, at the very least, have had the twins taken away, and perhaps even criminal liability for the neglect. In my opinion, they’ve been given special treatment, and been allowed to get away with it. What’s the old saying, I always think of when I see Kate McCann’s crocodile tears?, ‘Get away with murder’.
No normal parent would leave toddlers unattended – not because they are worried about scary bogeymen, but because of the harm that such young children can cause themselves in next to no time.
Fire, electricity, water, medicines, cleaning fluids, appliances that heat up – a young child should never be allowed near any of these things unsupervised, which is why parents of toddlers need to be on-site with eyes in the backs of their heads 24/7!
That was the first thing that people picked up on when this story first made the news, yet the McCanns have never addressd this point, which is screamingly obvious to anyone who has ever had to care for a young child. Why were the McCann children no danger to themselves?
After four years of denying that she sedated her children, Kate McCann attempts to suggest in her book that the ‘abductor’ might have sedated her children. Righto.
Gerry McCann’s statement that he thought the apartment in a family resort was ‘safe’ – how can any child be safe from harm when they are left alone?
And that’s before we even get to the police files, the shutters, the conflicting timelines, the PR circus, the fund, the dodgy detectives, the extradition and libel lawyers etc.
Exactly! The reason I have always been suspicious is because it just doesn’t make sense, it all seems so strange. Aside from anything, WHY would you leave such young children alone, night after night? That in itself is abhorrent, before you even get into the in-depth issues, and apportioning of blame. I will certainly be very interested to find out what really happened, and am looking forward to some answers.
Thank you very much for the interesting comment, I really appreciate it.
On the Tuesday night before Maddie went missing on Thursday, a woman in another holiday apartment near the McCanns’ heard a child crying for an hour and 15 minutes. Gerry McCann says that was 2-year-old Amelie. He also says that Madeleine cried on the Wednesday. Yet despite this, Kate and Gerry McCann went out yet again on the Thursday night and left the children alone.
It is absolutely ridiculous, IMO, to say or imply that an abductor did a run-through of the crime on the Wednesday but left without taking a child. In the rare cases where strangers abduct children, they often watch the family first, yes. But gaining entrance to the apartment, staying there long enough to make the children cry for an hour and 15 minutes and then just walking away to return the following night? Please, don’t insult my intelligence.
I have been extremely suspicious of the McCanns ever since six UK media outlets reported that they called no fewer than 6 friends and family members on the night of May 3-4 to say the shutters had been “jemmied” or “smashed” when the investigation showed they had not. If you’ve never stayed in Spain or Portugal in an apartment with security shutters, ask someone who has. You cannot raise them from the outside without damaging them and/or producing a loud, grating noise of metal on metal. I do not believe the McCanns are telling the truth about what happened to Madeleine. I only hope that as a result of the upcoming “review” we find out what really happened.
Thank you so much for you comment, I really appreciate it. You raise some very interesting points there, there are a lot of pieces of the jigsaw that I’m not as familiar with, as I’m not as ardent a Maddie follower as so many of the people commenting seem to be, I don’t have as in-depth a knowledge as you obviously have, so it’s very interesting to learn new pieces of information.
Thank you for the input, it’s making this blog post very interesting.
good article,and you are not alone in thinking the parents are not what they seem
Thank you very much for the support!
What a pleasure to read this article after the nauseating coverage in some sections of the mainstream media recently. I can’t believe the bias that has been shown towards the McCanns with some columnists pushing the view that the publication of the book answers all the outstanding questions and that anyone who continues to doubt the McCanns is a mad conspiracy theorist with too much time on their hands. The questions are very far from being answered but I hope that it will not be too much longer before they are and that whoever is responsible is brought to justice.
Thank you so much for your comment, I’m so glad you enjoyed the article. I completely agree, let’s hope we get some answers.
Hi vikki excellent article your views conincide with mine, just one small point you say they left the three bairns in an hotel room – but it wasn’t an hotel it was a block of flats, they were in a downstairs corner flat with two sides touching a road.
Just after Madeleine wandered off one of the relatives was quoted in a newspaper that at home they had difficulty settling Madeleine down and she was always getting up and wandering off, so they had a chart and if she stayed in bed all night the next morning she rceived a star. Knowing this would you leave her in that lonely dark room with the door open so she could get up and wander out of the flat onto a busy street? no neither would I.
You dont have to be a Mum to have a natural empathy with children Its an adults place to look after all children.
Great article and comments here Vikki. I just hope that there really will be a full and fair appraisal of what is known. Thus far there has appeared to be so much ‘covering up’ and so many famous people prepared to close their eyes to all the changing stories and discrepancies. I think that there is much more behind this story than two negligent doctors. But that is only my opinion.
Google the Maddie case files
The actual translated Portugues police files can be read at:
http://www.mccannfiles.com/
and a great bilingual blogspot at:
http://unterdenteppichgekehrt.blogspot.com
A thought-provoking analysis in many ways. Personally, I have no clear idea whether the child was abducted or suffered at the hands of one or other parent. I am, however, without doubt that the poor creature is now longer with us. What troubles me is the social changes we are seeing where some sections of the community see it as permissible to leave children of very young age in unsupervised and insecure conditions whilst the parents go off to eat, drink and make merry with companions and give little more than passing thought to the welfare of their children. It is curious that in more family friendly countries such as Italy, Greece and France etc, parents either take their children with them when they go to eat and socialise. Naturally this means that they tend to eat earlier than otherwise but these are family occasions. The McCanns and friends do not appear to subscribe to this family philosophy, preferring to come close to abandonment of their children in pursuit of their own pleasure. They do not deserve to have children.
http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2011/06/paulo-rebelo-investigation.html
Vikki, there are some links here your readers may be interested in. The McCanns have made us all concentrate on Gonçalo Amaral when maybe we should have been looking at Paulo Rebelo and what he may have discovered.
http://shadplay.blogspot.com/
Kansas we have another McCann fake abduction just about to take off. Hoping Captain Steve Young can handle the media circus.
your time is coming McCanns, be scared……….be very very very scared….
behind the scenes you time is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha
sorry for you lose hi my name is eman im from kuwait i really love your kids they are beautiful im alwas ask why happe this and did u find the man ho d that
sorry for you lose hi my name is eman im from kuwait i really love your kids they are beautiful im alwas ask why happe this and did u find the man ho do that why he take Madeline McCann im sitll think bout why Madeline McCann not other one i see ever thing and brooking my hear maby happen for every one
i really miss Madeline McCann cute girl she is angle
Do you think you could actually research before writing?
Try looking up the spelling of MADELEINE!
Then you can start to read the police files and educate yourself rather than speculating and gossiping.
Shocking
joseph spelling doesnt really matter here really does it because it is the subject that is important & i think that this writer has been quite leniant in opinion. there are so many things that just do not add up with these ‘parents’. the first thing that got me suspicious was when it came to light that kate mccan washed her missing daughters teddy. it is something that as a mum you just wouldn’t do. she carried that teddy around in front of the cameras supposingly because it was maddys favourite teddy & it would have been infused with maddys essence & smell, every dirty mark would have just added to that fact only it didn’t because she washed all that away. it just became a prop & she may as well have gone & bought a new one. it just goes against the purpose of holding something that belongs to a loved one. then on top of that there is the none cooperation with police, refusing to take a lie detector, flying off to the states in the search for maddy & leaving their other children, the cadaver dogs picking up the smells of death in their car & apartment & on the parents possesions. writing a book (which until there is some sort of conviction should not have been allowed). at the very least they should have been charged with neglect for leaving the kids unattended & even if they were perfect parents surely they would naturally feel ashamed & blame themselves but they seemed to be completely void of these emotions. they disgust me in the way they have used maddy as a way to get money & press attention. as a mum i wouldn’t care about being a suspect if i had lost my son, i would accept the process & volunteer everything i could to clear my name so the police could go in the right direction but these parents have not done that!!
Nobody other than McCann’s know what really happened and for whatever reason they aren’t telling. For me the most shocking thing is their arrogance, which doesn’t look like its going away anytime soon. They messed up big time, left their children alone but rather than hold their hand up to it, show some humility, they have very cleverly manipulated every single aspect of this circus (with the help of a PR team). Any normal parent would have to be sedated to cope with their child being abducted. Now they are all powerful!! they can ban anyone speaking out against them (Pat Brown, Criminal Profiler – her book was banned from Amazon). You’ve lost your child? would you be arsed with anything ever in life again? If you were innocent would you give a rats ass about finger pointing? They both protest far too much! RIP little innocent girl (I doubt you are with us), the truth will come out one day, always does.
Under what circumstances is it sensible to leave 3 children under 3 alone?
I am sure there would have been babysitters available. This is neglect pure and simple. I have sympathy for Madeleine but none whatsoever for their parents. I am infuriated that they still get the oxygen of publicity as if they have done nothing wrong. Grrrrrrr!
I dont understand how the dogs smelt a corpse and then it was all hushed up and the police drop the enquiry and say they are not going to look any further into this. The mccanns should have been questioned even more to get to the truth, any other parents would have been, they have been let off lightly and I dont understand why. Poor Madeleine her parents neglected her and what happened to her I just hope she is still alive and well, and the people that took her, (if they did) are looking after her…..
I could have sympathy for the parents if they actually put their hands up and admit they did a stupid, selfish thing in leaving 3 toddlers alone – but they seem a lot more interested in shifting the blame onto other people. Also, so many children go missing all the time, the same attention and focus should be given to all of them, not only the children of wealthy parents. The real victim is that poor little girl, not her selfish parents. I can’t understand how they’ve escaped charges of negligence at the very least.
Finally, I have found someone with the same views as myself. I’m almost 16, and I remember the news about Madeleine when everything first kicked off. I have very little sympathy for the McCanns and yes, I understand that no one would ever wish it upon anyone that their child was “taken” from them, however, you cannot justify leaving a small child and two babies, alone, abroad, in a hotel room. The children can barely speak up for themselves, let alone know what to do if someone appears in your hotel room and before you know it, is carrying you out the door/window, whatever. When I see Kate McCann crying on the news, it sickens me how she can act all broken hearted. Again, I understand she has had her child stolen from her, but she claims she “cared” & “loved” & “cherished” Madeline. It seems that she cared, loved and cherished her so much that she couldn’t even be bothered to take her children to the restaurant, a place which I’m almost positive the staff would have catered for the children in they best way they could have, as it is unheard of in family resorts not to have High-Chairs etc. Then she will cry to the media and expect the public to sympathise. It doesn’t quite add up. I have so many questions I want to ask the Mccanns. I know for sure that when I was that age, my parents would have never left me or my brother alone in a hotel room. They made sacrifices, just like the McCanns should have done if they “cared” about their children as much as they exclaim they do to the media.
Also, if any of you know, I may have read or seen something saying that there were fullytrained nannys available at night at the hotel? can you confirm or…? Yet again, if the McCanns “cared” as much as they say, I’m pretty sure that two doctors could have easily paid the costs for the childcare.
In my opinion, I think that there is something wrong with the whole sympathy-seeking speeches and they’re not as innocent as many think they are. I, like most people hope that this little girl is safe and well, however, if she is found when she is older, if I was her, I wouldn’t keep in contact with the parents, as they are the ones to have caused her this misery in the first place. Anyone who is willing to leave their child alone, abroad, should have their parenting skills questioned.
I know I’m only 15 and have no idea what it’s like to be a parent etc, it’s just my opinion.