Madeleine McCann

[morningpaper]

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."

When friends of mine have had severe personal or medical problems, in some cases they have had to move to smaller houses to reduce their costs. So I suppose some people may not like the idea of the McCanns using the money for mortgage etc as they do own a large home and could move down if they needed, like so many other people have to do.

But we have no proof of this, and I am sure that their accounts, like everything else in their lives, have been scrutinised.

I'm not sure that losing their house as well as their sister would help the twins.

Very good point, Rosella. The Fund has been upfront about the terms of the company. Anyone who donated before those terms were published did so not with a different stipulation but in the absence of any stipulation. "Helping to find Madeleine", quite reasonably, can take, and has taken many forms. I'm sure even the McCanns didn't have a comprehensive list of all that it might be spent on when they started.

Similarly, it would be better for Madeleine, were she to be found now, to be able to return to a home she had lived in before to a bedroom unchanged since she left it and full of toys she used to play with every day since a year is a long time for such a young child and remembering her former life could be difficult.

But, at the end of the day, apart from a couple of mortgage payments last year, all that there is to suggest that the Fund has personally benefited the McCanns is repeated speculation, rumour and innuendo. No evidence, whatsoever.

Important to remember that, I think.

The speculation could have been so easily avoided though, by setting the fund up as a proper charity, with all the additional safeguards that entails.

As it stands as a limited company with turnover below £6.5m, it will only need to file a balance sheet at company's house. Which will effectively be cash in bank £xm. It will need to give no details of income or expenditure.

There are of course many people who will assume that they chose to do it this way for nefarious reasons. How better to disguise how the money is used than registering as a limited company rather than as a charity!

did the parents go back to work at all? it seems to me that most of us would have had to- for our own livelyhood and mental wellbing not to mention having a job to go back to, whereas they are seen by us via media imagery as swanning off round the world for the bast part of the year. Not that i think for a moment that this is the case, rather just how they are protrayed.

IIRC, soapbox, they were not permitted to set it up as a charity because of its focus on a single person. I'm sure they would have preferred to do so since it would, in that case, not have been liable for tax.

chuggabopps, Gerry McCann has returned to work. He did so late-ish last year. Kate has, I think, given up her job as a part-time GP.

think they would have been criticised either way tbh. If they had set up as a charity then people would have wanted to know why one child warrants charity status, esp as her parents are well-off. The fact they have set up as a limited company means that they can spend the money on whatever they want and the accounts will never show it (although I imagine someone would be bound to leak it).

I personally think that it's wrong to pay your mortgage out of money given by the public to find your child, and that the find madeleine fund should be used to find all missing children, esp those whose parents don't have the connections that the Mccanns do.

I hope that people take a break from criticizing the McCanns tomorrow.

When you just lurk around the thread and post infrequently it is weird to read the thoughts.

If only all this 'slagging off' energy could be chanelled somehow into positive energy to try to find all missing children......then I suppose this heated debate wouldn't be happening.

Rosella - how I agree with your latest post.

Who gives a flying feck about money?? Money..its just bits of paper and metal coins. Money buys nothing. If you dont agree with how the money is being spent then dont donate. My son is an accountant and he assures me that they will have to have detailed paperwork for tax purposes.

OMG listen to me joining in with this gossip.

Im off to lurk and read...and then sigh.

They couldn't set the Fund up as a charity becuase it doesn't fulfil the criteria to be a charity.

Indeed NKF, and the reason it did not qualify for charitable status is that it was not help to be for public benefit.

They could have chosen to make it for the public benefit by ensuring that the monies received into the fund were used to search for Madeleine and other missing children. That then would have been held to have been for the public benefit.

But of course then, one of the stated aims of the fund could not have been to support the McCann family financially.

I have no particular views on the case - but I do think the way in which people were invited to contribute to the fund gave the impression that it was a charity and that it was not going to be used to fund the McCanns financially.

I contribute to the fund and always knew it could also support her family - why not? How else could they stay in Portugal for the time they did? And why do people keep referring to them as 'wealthy'? Gerry is well paid, that doesn't make them 'wealthy' - it means he earns an above the national average salary.

For the record though, since being declared suspects, the funds Board have categorically said that no money has or will been used to pay their mortgage or for anything else directly concerned with their personal expenses.

My heart goes out to them - and agree with many post from Happyprince, Shabster etc.

I just hope she is found and understand completely why they want to keep her profile high. In their shoes(god forbid) I would do the same.

It's been widely reported that two mortgage payments were made from the fund. I don't think anyone has denied that.

The initial donations were made, IMHO, by a public who wanted to help.

This wasn't a DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) appeal but the money flowed in anyway. With DEC appeals e.g. the tsunami, famines, the banks and the major charities get together and work out a way to channel the money into a central fund to benefit the recipients.

IIRC the McCanns had to find a way to accept donations. An account was set up, in (I guess) what was thought to be the best way at the time.

Many of the donations were probably made long before people really became aware of what the fund could be used for e.g. to help out her family financially if necessary.

In terms of the amount of money which has passed through the account, mortgage payments are small fry. (Two months, even on a 100% mortgage over 25 years - I think their house was quoted as being worth 600k. BBC mtg calc works a monthly repayment out at around £4,300)

I haven't read this thread because I'm sure it would just wind me up. I've also not ever posted on a MM thread before.

But I just want to say that I don't think any of us can imagine what kind of hell the McCann's have gone through this year and tomorrow will be a hideous day for them. I feel desperately, desperately sorry for them and wish them all the strength in the world to get through it.

Josh and Jamie - snap. I have never posted on a MM thread before, but having just briefly scanned a few pages I am disgusted with the judgemental attitude that people have. You can talk around the clock about how bad the parents are, and how perfect and superior you are as parents - but have some compassion fgs!

Before going to sleep tonight, cuddle your child extra close, and kiss them. And imagine how awful you would feel if that child was taken away from you, as a result of a mistake you made. And you know what, even you perfect, 'never set a foot wrong' parents out there have made a mistake at some point.

My heart breaks for that poor family, who have to find a way to live without their beautiful girl.

Shabster and everyone else who wants to see something positive in all of this-

Here's a way to channel some energy for the greater good. I know it would mean a lot to Kate and Gerry as well to have people support this.

Popstar - thank you so much - good out of bad.

One year today since Maddie went missing. Also on the 10th May it will be 16 years since my beloved son was killed by a reversing lorry. I know we all have our opinions but....we are all mums.

Thinking of the McCanns today and you on your (awful) anniversary shabster.

Popstar, I heard back from my MEP saying she had signed it. Well done for your efforts.

In the Times, a support group for Madeleine have suggested lighting a candle for her or switching on a porch light between 9.15 to 10pm tonight.

I have nothing to comment about what I 'think' has happened to dear Madeleine.
Truth is we don't know.

Today I will be thinking of the whole family and hoping that Madeleine will return home safely and that all questions will be answered.

Shabby,you know I think about you constantly.x.

So so sad knowing that the family were together this time last year then their whole world was ripped apart..i dot like to think about what that tiny little girl must be going through if she's still alive, but i also hope mroe than anything she will be re-united with her mummy and daddy..i really do hope she IS alive and that NO harm has come to her, i have an ideal she is with someone who couldnt have thier own children and not in the hands of a monster.
I'll be thinking of her tonight as ive done the last year..you cant help it when you have children of your own of same/similar age can you

I have watched the news tonight and need to say something on this thread. Kate looks so poorly, she looked like she was going to faint at the church service. I dont care what anyone puts on here, as I have said before, I am just lurking and reading.

My thoughts and love go out to the family of Madeline. There aren't any other appropriate words.

I've been thinking about the McCanns and Madeleine all day.

I'm now wary when we're out and about on holiday abroad with dd2. I've been told by quite a few people that she looks like Madeleine, dd2 is only 4 months younger.

We were on holiday in the south of france last year when some strange man walked up to dd2 and stared at her eyes, she was sat in between dh and I while we were having a picnic. This man put himself in between dh and dd2, then when he realised she wasn't Madeleine walked away without saying a word.