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Original poster

Madeleine McCann

1606 replies

morningpaper · 11/09/2007 20:49

Instead of starting lots of new posts about Madeleine, could I politely request that anyone who wants to post on the subject please post on this one thread? (N.B. Duplicate threads may be flamed hysterically.)

Please note that this thread is not to criticise Madeleine's parents or family, as this is not in the spirit of Mumsnet.

Please can I take the liberty to quote from this article:

"This is the real life of Kate and Gerry McCann, and it must now have become a place of agony beyond all understanding. Pity them, if you have any compassion at all, and demonstrate the minimum of grace: the ability to desist from judgment."

OP posts:
VeronicaMars · 26/09/2007 16:55

The parents being suspects takes the attention away from finding the child. The Portugese wanted the parents out and the quickest way to do that would be to name them as suspects.

LieselVentouse · 26/09/2007 17:00

the portugese police kept saying things like we will know truth in 7 days etc and then when they came up with nothing they blamed Gerry & Kate

totaleclipse · 26/09/2007 17:00

this is the girl in picture

Bundle · 26/09/2007 17:01

leisel, i think teh portuguese police's grasp of genetics was a bit flaky (they thought the dna would be a yes/no rather than a 15/20 which could mean either of her siblings eg)

and who said the mccanns had known about this photo not being madeleine for ages?

Bundle · 26/09/2007 17:02

oh and I see that british journalists tracked her down, not the police

lornaloo · 26/09/2007 17:03

It wasnt Kate and Gerry Im almost sure of that. That would not make sense at all. Unless theyre master criminals. I think its a good thing that they have finally hired private detectives, imo this should have been done from day 1. Maybe they will find something.

lornaloo · 26/09/2007 17:06

wierd

totaleclipse · 26/09/2007 17:08

Well donr to the journalist for tracking her down in less than 24 hours, bet hes gutted it was'nt her.

noddyholder · 26/09/2007 17:10

They have denied hiring detectives and have had the damage limitation team on teh case since May So they have always had people on board helping them but it is illegal to instruct your own investigation whilst a police one is going on so yesterday they said they hadn't ??? I have read loads about this case and the one thing |I have really noticed is that they don't really seem to have looked much but have spent a lot of time upping their public profile I just don't get it/

lornaloo · 26/09/2007 17:13

its not her. Had hopes up a bit there.

imaginaryfriend · 26/09/2007 17:29

I don't know why some posters are being so hard on the family. They had to leave Portugal when they became suspects because they had to protect their other two children and probably because they felt a strong need to be on home ground if the country in which they were staying was turning against them.

The Portugese police did a dreadful job at the start of this case and they, rather than the parents, have been bringing bits of useless evidence into the public domain from day one. All that stuff about the bloke who lived in a nearby villa etc. Them blaming the parents is just the last straw in a useless, pathetic job. If they'd collected forensic evidence within the first 24 hours who knows how this might have panned out.

For the parents this must be a living hell. The last thing they need is to be continually slandered and called names.

imaginaryfriend · 26/09/2007 17:29

I don't know why some posters are being so hard on the family. They had to leave Portugal when they became suspects because they had to protect their other two children and probably because they felt a strong need to be on home ground if the country in which they were staying was turning against them.

The Portugese police did a dreadful job at the start of this case and they, rather than the parents, have been bringing bits of useless evidence into the public domain from day one. All that stuff about the bloke who lived in a nearby villa etc. Them blaming the parents is just the last straw in a useless, pathetic job. If they'd collected forensic evidence within the first 24 hours who knows how this might have panned out.

For the parents this must be a living hell. The last thing they need is to be continually slandered and called names.

LaCerbiatta · 26/09/2007 17:30

Bundle, I think your grasp of genetics is also a bit flaky! I guess by 15/20 you mean 15 markers are informative out of the 20 they usually do. That does NOT mean a 15 in 20 chancves of it being a right match. The chanches are a lot, a lot higher. I believe in some places 15 markers would be considered conclusive. Also, a lab like the one in Birmingham would have discarded the possibility of it being the twins' straight away, they wouldn't even present that as a result if they weren't able to rule them out.

noddyholder · 26/09/2007 17:30

I don't think the portugese did do a terrible job They simply followed their own procedures

Blu · 26/09/2007 17:33

was it the Mccanns who gave the picture to the press?

Bundle · 26/09/2007 17:33

that wasn't what i said. the results - from what i've read - are not conclusively hers (i'm assuming they amplify the samples using pcr). nor can they rule out that there coudl have been cross contamination eg from her shoes/clothes placed in the car after she'd gone missing.

imaginaryfriend · 26/09/2007 17:34

Well I know I would feel their procedures were crap if it was my dd who'd gone missing.

noddyholder · 26/09/2007 17:43

It is not their fault she went missing though is it?They don't release info to the press directly as cases progress like the police here do.

princessmel · 26/09/2007 17:43

Oh its not her It does look like her though. And she is 5. I thought she looked too young to be Maddie but she's older.

noddyholder · 26/09/2007 17:46

The lab in Birmingham has yet to deliver all the results.

kookaburra · 26/09/2007 17:54

Was this supposed to bury the bad news about the forensic results - aparently due tomorrow - 27th? Remember Clarry is a New Labour Spin Doctor - burying (or attempting ot bury) bad news is their forte.

Bundle · 26/09/2007 17:55

clarry who?

NAB3 · 26/09/2007 17:58

Clarence Mitchell

Bundle · 26/09/2007 17:59
wannaBe · 26/09/2007 18:01

I think people are so down on the Portuguese police because they?re not giving blow-by-blow accounts of what is happening, and the media don?t like that. The media like, no expect, to be involved in these things, so when the police don?t dance to their tune they turn on them.

If Madeleine had gone missing in this country and still not been found I think the reaction to the police would have been vastly different.

I also think that if the family had been arrested in this country the media would have been much quicker to turn on them.

And I think that if the police think that Madeleine is dead they think so for a reason. Generally it?s not assumed someone is dead if there?s no body, and it would be a bit of an embarrassment if the police said she was dead and she turned up six months later, esp given the high profile of this case.

I agree with Noddy, I think there is an awful lot more to this case than we know, and I also find it strange that the parents have never travelled anywhere to follow up sightings but have spent time working on their own public profiles.

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