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.

@jasjas1973

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.

This

@understandmenow

*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.

I agree. Mark Warner had a listening service and I suspect the McCanns were lulled into a false sense of security by this and as there were so many of them in the group with kids they decided merely to replicate this system. It wouldn't have been about saving money as I have heard other people critisise but about a familiar face around a door being better than listened out for by a stranger.

I feel heartbroken for them and they have had years of torture and any day the concrete evidence will no doubt appear (assuming German police are better staffed and equipped than our own) and then the only tiny shred of comfort will be that the people that said they had a hand in Madeleines disappearance will be shut down, i.e., no comfort at all hardly. You can see the misery written on their faces. No money will sort that out.

I feel utterly sick and heartbrokenfor the parents of the thousands of children that go missing every year but don't have £11m spent on trying to find them.

I think that's a very valid point, but I don't blame the McCans for the disparity in attention paid to Madeleine and other missing children, she is of course their priority and it would be odd for them to say "oh stop talking about and looking for our daughter now, other families need a turn".

I find it extraordinary that people are still more angry about the McCanns leaving their children unattended for a short period than they are about the fact that a paedophile has apparently been allowed to carry on abducting, raping and murdering children for several years because of the ineptitude of the various police forces involved (particularly the Portuguese police, who even now are refusing to hand over vital evidence to the German police).

You people think it's more important to punish Madeline McCann's parents than to hunt down a man raping and murdering children? I hate to imagine what goes on in your tiny little minds, but it obviously isn't pretty.

Let’s remember this child has parents before you go down the conspiracy posts

Yeah, loving parents who left her and her siblings alone in an apartment night after night to drink with friends. Who then refused to answer police questions.

@LillianGish - do you honestly believe that well educated, middle class people like the McCanns and their friends should have been told not to leave their babies alone when they go out to drink wine and eat tapas? Really? What else do the Portuguese authorities need to tell us about parenting? To supervise our children when swimming? To remember to put sun cream on? To feed and water them?

Thread will go poof in 2 unless the negative comments about the family stop. Which is a shame because it's a case that raises far more questions than answers, and enjoys the paradox of being the most high profile, which the family understandably want, to being the one people are only allowed to talk about in a certain way.

If the allegations in the OP about the letters are true, then there's been a cock-up (again)

The OP however, is no different in her interest than the posters who leap on every thread screeching that the family have been through enough. So why any MM OP gets their arse handed to them by the grief hags purporting to know how the M's feel is beyond me.

Why shouldn't a thread be started about a topic in the news?

I feel utterly sick and heartbrokenfor the parents of the thousands of children that go missing every year

I highly doubt you do.

@RoyalCorgi - how, pray tell, do you suggest we go about hunting down this man? What resources do we, the Mumsnet collective, have that multiple police forces across Europe don't have? A parent's job is to keep their children safe and not expose them to unnecessary risks. We can't manage international manhunts for every paedophile, rapist and murderer, that's the police's job. All we can manage is to try our best to keep our children safe.

jasjas1973
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.
This

But you both managed to miss all the newspaper reports where they said they had thought it safe and now bitterly regretted it?

Its not worth responding to this level of twattiness really.

And yes, absolutely. If the Ms were a family on benefits in a caravan in Colwyn Bay they'd have been fed to the dogs years ago while any police investigation would have been a "waste of taxpayer's money".

But that's been said for over a decade and doesn't change the MM story.

Ultimately responsible- the monsters who take these children. Should debate be shut down? No.

Questions which should be publicly raised are, I think , to do with the media and how it chooses its telly and press worthy families. A 15 year old girl was murdered outside a nightclub in my hometown the week Milly Dowler went missing. I won't tell you her name because I don't even know it and I drove past the club when the soco team were there.

That's what's abhorrent in these cases. That some get the boat pushed out and others don't even get a paragraph.

these type of resorts were renowned for encouraging parents to leave the children whilst they dined at the restaurant.

Really, on what basis? A baby listening service? A babysitting service? The fact that it was a secure and gated resort where the general public couldn't just wander around? Did any if these apply at the resort in question? I find it hard to believe that parents would be actively encouraged to leave their young children/babies alone in their rooms with no security measures in place, even leaving danger of abduction aside. If that was the case then it was astonishingly lax, and parents would have been naively trusting in the extreme, if none of the above safeguards applied.

What else do the Portuguese authorities need to tell us about parenting? To supervise our children when swimming? To remember to put sun cream on? To feed and water them? Your examples are not remotely comparable. If the Portuguese had made it known there were known paedophiles operating in the area I doubt any visitors would even have been relaxed about playing with their children on the beach in case they were out of their sight for a second. Knowing that someone was breaking into holiday apartments you wouldn’t even leave your camera in there. I think someone at Mark Warner should have had a quiet word when they realised they were operating their own baby-listening service - I don’t want to alarm you, but there have been some break-ins, please don’t risk it. This was not a random event as it turned out - the McCanns did not know that.

I feel utterly sick and heartbrokenfor the parents of the thousands of children that go missing every year

I highly doubt you do

You know nothing about me. You're the one being judgement and nasty now. I'm just curious as to why people are so pro Kate and Gerry when they (presumably) don't know them. Their neglect led to the disappearance of their daughter. Those are the facts. As far as we know, they didn't make her disappear but they didn't prevent it either because they left their toddler and babies alone.

I'm just curious as to why people are so pro Kate and Gerry when they (presumably) don't know them

There could be some posters in this thread who DO know them.

think someone at Mark Warner should have had a quiet word when they realised they were operating their own baby-listening service - I don’t want to alarm you, but there have been some break-ins, please don’t risk it

Why is it up to staff at a holiday resort to check if parents are parenting responsibly?! You expect bar staff to notice that this group were operating their own listening service and advise them not to?!

Their neglect led to the disappearance of their daughter B* She was a much loved and cherished little girl. Her disappearance was not properly investigated because it suited the Portuguese authorities to try and protect the reputation of their holiday resort. It has taken years for these revelations about break-ins and attempted child abductions to be made public. In the meantime the same perpetrator has gone on to commit other crimes. the McCanns made an error of judgement because they were not allowed to be in possession of the full facts - even after Madeleine disappeared.

Ridiculous idea in this day and age to 'send a letter'. And it really is not up to the German polices a way to talk
to the parents except as witnesses. Until a person is arrested and convicted it is an ongoing investigation so they should not be involved.

Not sure why OP is getting the blame for even starting a discussion as if no others exist? No one had to post here.
Seems clear there's been some kind of fuck up with the letter. Scotland Yard should offer to sort it out and facilitate somehow. Don't see why the German police would tell a whole story about a letter they haven't actually sent. I do see why British police might decide they'd like to know what was in it.

You expect bar staff to notice that this group were operating their own listening service Apparently it was noted next to the block booking of the table. Mark Warner markets itself as family friendly holiday company. I think people booking a holiday with them (and no doubt paying a premium to do so) feel a certain degree of confidence when staying in one of their resorts (as opposed to in a random Airbnb or holiday home). I can see it wouldn’t be good for business if it were known that their resorts were not as safe as they were advertised, but I still think they could have let it be known - even in a veiled way - that there were security issues. I think if they had then the McCanns would have behaved differently.