To think the Met spending £5 million on Maddie McCann is unfair on others who have missing children

[Ilovemyself]

I know how retched I would feel if I were in the McCanns position, and would want no expense to be spared in the hunt for answers.

But I can't help but think that this case has been so high profile that other cases must have funding cut or not even be followed up as the budget is limited.

I honestly don't know what the answer is, but it does seem this case has benefitted in ways others wouldn't.

I feel bad for thinking its unfair on others, but just can't help wondering how other victims of serious crime feel.

[MyDarlingClementine]

There are millions of other ways of cost cutting in this country,.

stopping looking for a lost child whose abduction was such a monumental and horrific cock up by Portuguese police, which was a disgrace beyond imagination, and must torture them everyday to think if only those police had been normal and proper their daughter may have been found....is disgusting.

They deserve a proper investigation that that they never ever had.

I will actually not go to portugal after that. They way they treated them afterwards was horrific.

Goood old MN, yeah lets save costs by making all women give birth with no drugs to save the NHS and stop looking for lost DC.

[MyDarlingClementine]

"mummy and daddy were doctors"
I see, so she should be punished should she because of who she was born too?

[Ilovemyself]

Mydarlingc. It's not wishing bad on anyone. That's absurd.

Why is it nonsensical. The police have a limited budget. The more they spend on one case the less they have to spend on others. Ok, it may not be on a child abduction case but it may be from something else like violent crime or domestic abuse. But it may be from that department so yes it may. It becomes emotive because a child is involved

[landofsoapandglory]

Clementine I went to Portugal the year she went missing. There were photos in every shop, restaurant etc. But I read Kate McCann's book and the police were totally inept. They let Madeline and the family down very, very badly. Who knows what the outcome might have been if they had acted swiftly and properly when she was first reported missing?

[Ilovemyself]

Mydarlingc. I never said that they should stop looking, but what if these leads come to nothing? Should they continue spending money? And if so shouldn't they do the same for any other case.

[pleiadianpony]

celementine i didn't say that. I said the media and possibly police would have managed it differently if she had a different social background.

Read the rest of the post. I love how you use the word punished do you watch the Jeremy Kyle show and read the daily mail?

[CloudsAndTrees]

It becomes emotive because a child is involved

Well, yeah. It does when that child is a fellow human being. Especially when there are still questions that could be answered.

[RedHelenB]

Land - the Portugese police were NOT inept - they could only go on what they were told that night. Forensic evidence had been trashed by so many people traipsing through the apartment. I do wonder why there was never a reconstruction done like there was for so many other cases. I still don't believe that the whole truth was told that night - it isn't even definite that she was taken from the apartment. I would be very surprised if these leads threw up anything new when so many leads have been reported & led to nothing . But like any other crime someone knows something & evntually the truth will out, although I don;t think this will be any time soon.

[bico]

Whenever I see these sort of threads I always think of Andrew Gosden

[landofsoapandglory]

Red I disagree. They didn't close or alert the borders, ports and airports for a start. IIRC they didn't even send a full search team until the morning to start searching the area surrounding the apartments.

[Pigsmummy]

Looking for Maddie has already found at least one missing child. I want everything to be done.

[JessicaBeatriceFletcher]

Sorry, but if you had any dealings with the Salvation Army you would know just how many children, teenagers, adults and pensioners go missing every year. And how little the police really do in the majority of cases. Sally Army and some charities do a helluva lot of good work in this field but they aren't investigators. Some of these have chosen to disappear. But not all. And the lower down the social class you are the less seems to be done about it. That includes by the media.

I know a senior Det Chief Insp (recently retired) and he has told me in no uncertain terms that far more money and police time is being spent on the McCann inquiry than ANY other missing child inquiry there has ever been that took place in this country, whether possible abduction or otherwise.

While we are none of us perfect, we've all made mistakes, and they no doubt torment themselves every day, I still find it hard not to think of the McCanns as neglectful parents. I wonder when the other children are older whether they will harbour any ill feeling? In the sense that "there but for the grace of God it could have been me and not my sister who was abducted because my parents left us alone in a foreign country"

[RedHelenB]

Closing airports etc isn't the first thing any country would do! If you have a missing child you first need to ascertain all the facts relating to the disappearance.

[McNewPants2013]

So what if these leads turns to nothing.

Should every crime lead not be followed because of cost.

[RedHelenB]

Did the alleged abductor take her passport with them then as you can't get on a flight or on a ferry without one!

[Ilovemyself]

Cloudsandtrees - I meant that if it was an adult over a child there is no way that they would still be searching on the scale they are. But they are still someone's child.

[crashdoll]

Regardless of if the McCann's are doctors or not and regardless of this case being classic "white middle class female syndrome", that child deserves justice.

[pleiadianpony]

pigsmummy That's great i didn't know that. So ' Maddie' has become the poster child for lost children?

If only more lost children were upper middle class then we might find them all.

Sorry to be cynical, i am just uncomfortable with the exploitative way the media behaves and the way the media has also been exploited, the bandwagons that get jumped on by the public.

I remember all the 'find maddie' posters and the pictures of her eyes, they were EVERYWHERE.

This whole case is strange and uncomfortable to me.

[RedHelenB]

You also need to bear in mind that stranger child abduction is very rare & the most obvious paths to follow would be along the lines of her wandering off ( the apartment was unlocked remember)

[Ilovemyself]

Jessicabeatricefletcher. Thank you for that. It is what I have been getting at all along. This one case seems to have caught the media attention more than others. And because of this it is still ongoing.

I still say that the mother of the girl missing in Egypt is no less worthy of having her daughter back or the police working on it than the McCanns.

As an aside I do believe that the McCanns were stupid to have left her alone but is it in the public interest to prosecute them for neglect? I don't think so - they are the ones living with this Day after day.

[Salmotrutta]

With respect to the Keith Bennett case - there have been many searches carried out on Saddleworth Moor.

It's a horrible, but true fact, that they may never find him because they would have to search an area of considerable size that has changed in topography over the decades. Moorland isn't static and the landscape changes in a dynamic way.

I'm old enough to remember (vaguely) the adults in the family talking about this - it must have been a horrendous task and many of the original police officers will be dead.

And don't forget that Hindley and Brady played games with the police and families regarding where those children were buried.

[Ilovemyself]

Salmotruter. I believe they have now said he may not even be at saddle worth as the picture attributed to his burial place is miles away. Sad that they would never give the location given that they had been found guilty of his murder.

[landofsoapandglory]

They should have alerted the ports and airports RedHelen, not to mention the landborder crossing point that Portugal shares with Spain!

[RedHelenB]

Why has a timeline never been issued though - in every other case I can think of it has and a reconstruction to jog peoples memories.

[Salmotrutta]

Yeah, Hindley was obviously too busy trying to convince the parole board she was "rehabilitated".

Evil witch.

At least Brady never tried that. He knew he was a psycopath.