To think the McCanns are being almost tortured by the media and the police?

[ArriettyJones]

See screengrab.

I said several days ago (on a thread here) that the letter was probably sent c/o Scotland Yard (and I wasn’t the only one to think so). If I can work that out why can’t the collective brains of German and U.K. detective teams PLUS dozens of European media outlets figure it out?

Why couldn’t Scotland Yard find a missing letter about a high profile, serious crime in their own building FGS?

How long has the delay been? Four or five days? This is cruel.

They need a new liaison officer now and the police need to pull themselves together.

As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t care if they had all the financial gain in the world. It wouldn’t go any way towards making things any better for them.

I know this isn't the point, but why on earth would you put that sort of stuff in a letter? Utterly devastating news and they think it doesn't need to be delivered face to face.

Their life is, to me, the worst life I could ever imagine. Their daughter going missing with no resolution for 13y is bad enough but to be publicly blamed at worst & judged at best by many is unimaginable.

They are likely to have gone through much worse in 13 years than prison would ever do Jkslays

XDown - what you have said about the Home Office instructing the police to investigate this case one way is completely false.

The Home Office commissioned the police to investigate this case (it's outside their justification) but do not tell the police how or what to investigate. No Chief Constable would allow the Home Office to tell them what to do in this way - they are operationally independent.

The Op Grange team has always stated they keep an open mind about all possible outcomes. Until they have evidence then they won't make a pronouncement on what they think has happened.

And agree with Terrapin - ridiculous to think the police team still working on this go to Portugal for holidays.

Have a google and see if you can find pap shots of the police team in bars or enjoying themselves off duty (all the media try to get shots of that). You won't find any. The police aren't stupid and know the media love 'lazy cops' stories.

Everything we brits do is bumbling. The germans should have delivered the letter in person. Relying on SY to deliver it and then leaving it N length of time before briefing the press is a crap way to handle things.

I feel so sorry Kate and Gerry McCann. Torture is the right word and YANBU op.

It's horrible. People took against them because of their composure. They have kept things together incredibly well.
It must be so hard fir the younger siblings

If we read in the newspaper tomorrow that a little girl had gone missing from a high rise flat in Birmingham after the teenage mother left her three toddlers alone in the unlocked flat while she went to a neighbour's flat to drink cider with her friends, she would be public enemy number one and her other children would have been removed from her in a wink. Because the McCanns are a 'nice' family they've avoided this. I'm afraid I struggle with them. No doubt they are going through absolute hell every single day, I'm amazed their marriage has survived to be honest, it's obviously very strong. But I can't help but feel that they let their children down. I can't imagine the limbo they live in every day. Hoping for good news but deep down knowing it probably won't be. I hope they do find out what happened to her and that they can find peace one day.

Her disappearance triggered a change in attitudes to leaving your children alone.

No it didn't! There was much criticism and disquiet at the time that such young children would have been left out of the sight and hearing of their parents. Trusting that children can be left safely alone e.g. in prams outside shops, hasn't been a thing culturally for many decades in the uk.

Not having a go - human beings make risk assessments all the time, and only occasionally do they end in disaster, thankfully.

@Jkslays Find myself in total agreement! which is a surprise!

Never forget a 3yo was taken and and whatever the McCanns are going through over this latest debacle, it is nothing compared to what that poor child suffered.

They left a toddler and 2 babies alone whilst they went and had drinks with their friends.

@Toptotoeunicolour

I know this isn't the point, but why on earth would you put that sort of stuff in a letter? Utterly devastating news and they think it doesn't need to be delivered face to face.

I assumed it was COVID related-reasons but, as you ( and @XDownwiththissortofthingX ) say, that’s not really a good enough reason and surely they could have arranged a fave to face meeting, with British support. Any other method does indeed seem very cold and unfeeling, given the content.

Never forget a 3yo was taken and and whatever the McCanns are going through over this latest debacle, it is nothing compared to what that poor child suffered.They left a toddler and 2 babies alone whilst they went and had drinks with their friends

Exactly this

@Mummyoflittledragon

They suffered enough for the stupidity of leaving their children alone the day Madeleine disappeared without a trace. A large minority of people did similar at the time; this is a subject, which has been done to death. Her disappearance triggered a change in attitudes to leaving your children alone. I struggle reading just how lacking in fundamental empathy some people are for this couple, who have been tortured for more years than my 11 yo has been alive.

Well said. Most of us lucky enough not to even be able to imagine it.

I do feel sorry for her parents too and her brother and sister , I think she is almost certainly dead and they are never going to find out the exact circumstances . But hopefully the German police have enough information for them to have some closure .
I don't think the British police close an unsolved case and possibly they will want to do their own investigation .

This thread will go poof very soon ....

It's often said that continuing to talk about the rights and wrongs of the parents is bad and that it's been ''done to death'' ect. However,

a) it's 13 years - enough time for a whole generation to have grown up and found out and be talking about it for the first time. Sometimes looking at it as new parents themselves.

b) i agree that there's a good chance that at some time in 13 years this ongoing dialogue has caused at least one person to think twice about leaving their own child. Not necessarily in the same circs. on holiday, just something as simple as misguidedly thinking it's ok to 'pop' to x y z leaving a very young child alone because you're 'only' a few meters down the road ect.

A large minority of people did similar at the time; this is a subject, which has been done to death. Her disappearance triggered a change in attitudes to leaving your children alone

They weren't children though were they? two baby twins and toddler, if Maddie had been left alone with her two 11 yo siblings i might have a little more sympathy.
I found myself a single parent with an 11 month in 1999, leaving babies alone in hotel rooms (or anywhere else for that matter) wasn't done in any social circle i knew.

But they do deserve to be treated fairly and at first glance, the german and uk police aren't doing this.

Never forget a 3yo was taken and and whatever the McCanns are going through over this latest debacle, it is nothing compared to what that poor child suffered.They left a toddler and 2 babies alone whilst they went and had drinks with their friends

I think the point is they have suffered unimaginably for their own mistake, and don’t need to be criticised endlessly for that mistake as they are already suffering torments for it.

We can only pray for poor MM.

There are some deeply unpleasant people still proffering their empathy-free judgements on this poor family.

What sort of person still want to criticise them after all this time? Do you think you’re contributing something original? Don’t you think they suffer more than anyone of us could imagine on a daily, hourly basis? Why do some posters take pleasure in kicking people when they’re down? I can only assume they live blameless lives and it makes their halos shine a little brighter to condemn others in this way.

The McCann’s do not need to know that you “struggle” with what they did. They struggle with it every morning when they open their eyes and remember their baby is still missing and they have to live another day not knowing where she is and with the media constantly devising new and cruel fantasies of what tragedy may have befallen her.

That is their punishment. Enough for you?

*Her disappearance triggered a change in attitudes to leaving your children alone.

No it didn't! There was much criticism and disquiet at the time that such young children would have been left out of the sight and hearing of their parents. Trusting that children can be left safely alone e.g. in prams outside shops, hasn't been a thing culturally for many decades in the uk.
*
Yes it did, these type of resorts were renowned for encouraging parents to leave the children whilst they dined at the restaurant.

If people didn't start threads telling us all how sorry they feel for the McCanns, other posters wouldn't come on with a counter POV.

Having read their book and coming to the conclusion that they both think they did nothing wrong, i will reserve my sympathy for MM.

Leave the McCanns alone. If Portuguese police had been upfront from the start about the break-ins and attempted child abductions and previous sex attacks on the Algarve the McCanns and their party wouldn’t have dreamed of leaving their children in an unlocked apartment. They had booked a Mark Warner holiday in the belief that they were staying in a safe, family holiday environment. If Mark Warner had issued even the most veiled warning to clients - don’t leave anything valuable in your rooms, there have been a few break-ins - they almost certainly wouldn’t have done it. Instead the Portuguese attitude throughout was - don’t say anything that might put families off coming here. That’s why they started the ridiculous charade of trying to blame the McCanns - in the hope it would be swept under the carpet and the Algarve would continue to look like crime-free holiday spot. If they had investigated properly from the start then this suspect might have been picked up sooner and not gone on to commit the other horrendous crimes he is convicted/suspected of. Yes the McCanns made an error of judgement, but they did so without being allowed to be in possession of the full facts. I imagine that is what “tortures” them.