Anyone watching Madeleine McCann ten years on?

[spottysuperted]

They're framing it slightly differently now.. 😧 interesting from the bbc...

PortiaCastis rafals
I don't have an opinion either way. Nobody knows what happened and I doubt we'll find out.

I'd be more than happy for 'can't make accusations because that's liablous' and still allow people to discuss something that is in the news and question things.

What I'm not happy with is the rule "no speculating" with the subtext of 'but really you can as long as it's one view' when that view is equally speculative. The entire way the topic it's policed is just disingenuous.

Like I say, all we know is 'child was there. Child wasnt'. But as long as it's in the press and keeps being replayed I think people should be free to have a discussion about it if they wish to.

Im not sure I want to discuss another Mum's pain

I doubt it's worse than the pain of losing their daughter but I suspect it says a lot more about the people doing it than it does about them.

This ^

Im not sure I want to discuss another Mum's pain
Me neither. But I think those that want to as long as they aren't being awful should be free to do so.

Personally, people spending time speculating and trawling through info online doesn't sound like fun to me. Same with people making 9/11 conspiracy sites. But, as long as they aren't personally attacking and are debating information in the public domain I'm happy to leave them to it.
I'm just a bit funny about it when I get the feeling the option for discussion is limited.

"I just don't know how anybody can be blind to the heartbreak all over Kate's face."

I've always felt this. She is a broken woman, how can anyone not see this? I've heard her interviewed, I've watched footage of her - she is utterly broken.

For those who didn't take in the tv show - the dog evidence is inconclusive and unsubstantiated. The DNA is just not there - either in the apartment or the car. Cuddlecat was washed after 70 days. The window shutters could be opened for the outside - it was shown on the panorama programme - and Kate McCann's testimony was that she came back to find the curtains flapping because the window and shutter was open. That's why she thought it was an abduction.

The 48 questions, they had already answered - twice (at least) beforehand. They were given legal advice to answer 'no comment' when they were made arguidos.

There is an awful lot of false info out there, and I really feel for these parents.

carabos that is as true as it gets. Mark Twain lost 3 of his 4 children in his lifetime.

I always see Madeleine's case as illustrating the psychological Just World Hypothesis; that human nature makes us want to see the world as fair and just. When something horrific happens we blame the victims, because we can't possibly comprehend that sometimes the world just isn't fair and just. By not apportioning blame to Madeleine's parents we make ourselves feel vulnerable, because we acknowledge such horrific things could also happen to any of us.

Kate and Gerry have nothing but my absolute sympathy. How can we speculate about how we would behave in the aftermath, without being there ourselves?

Pommes excellent post.

I didn't watch the programme but agree with others when they say the McCanns look utterly broken. I completely agree the pain in their faces is clear and has not left them since the day she went missing. They know they made a silly judgment when they left the kids in the apartment but they were doing something hundreds of holiday makers did before them and their friends were also doing and all that normalises things for people "everyone else does it so it must be ok". I also think the fact that they made a silly silly judgement which ultimately led to their daughter going missing is why they cannot let this go. They are devastated she is gone but are also probably feeling an incredible consuming guilt that will not allow them to give up because they are trying desperately to right a wrong. I just feel so so sad for them.

Where I live in Ireland a young boy went missing on his way back to school after lunch and has never been found just disappeared without a trace. I was only about 7 at the time. For years after you could see the pain in his parents, they were deeply religious and turned to God but that pain never left and their faces remind me of the McCanns.

I agree they both look completely broken, and always have right from the start. It's so sad, I just wish there could be a conclusion to this. Someone out there knows what happened, I just hope they speak out sooner rather than later.

My parents always left us in hotel room while they went for dinner. There was a separate tea for all the kids earlier on, then adults only dinner. This would be 80s/90s and was completely normal. Later we also stayed in places with 'baby listening' though we didn't use it as that was after Maddie disappeared.
I think it's inverse snobbery that has led to the vilification of the McCann's and people would have been less harsh on them if they were not middle class parents

I've just watched and it is quite depressing as it's clear the trail has gone cold. It was quite a poor documentary because it didn't really explain why burglars would abduct a child. I was really surprised by the strength of ill feeling in Portugal, including from British expats.
My mum and dad would leave us in our hotel room and a local babysitter would periodically check on us. I wouldn't do that nowadays. Back at home, they would leave us when a neighbour had a party and people would take turns to check on us. Once, I woke up and was found at the door of another neighbour who wasn't at the party. God knows what could have happened. I suspect the McCanns were just doing what their parents had done with them. It's easy to judge but we've all learned from their harsh lesson.

The McCanns' story makes no sense. They left the front door unlocked - even though there was a busy road and a swimming pool nearby - "in case of a fire." If there had been a fire, what difference would it have made that the door was unlocked? We're talking about a three-year-old and two babies. Did they think Madeleine was going to swing one twin over each shoulder and carry them to safety? They're both doctors - they must have known that smoke inhalation kills small children within minutes. Even if they had been alerted to a fire as soon as it started, it's unlikely either of them would have made it back to the apartment in time to save any of their children, especially if they had been drinking and their reflexes were slower. Their story doesn't add up.

I was surprised the documentary didn't mention the paedophile rings which have been discovered in Portugal in recent times. The set up in that hotel with staff watching parents coming from tapas place and going and knowing exactly when they kids were on their own... would seem like a good line of enquiry. But doesn't seem like the Portuguese police wanted to consider anything of than the parents being involved, so lots of time and evidence lost.
pearl what they did was repeated by countless families at that time, not anything unusual at all

Their story doesn't add up. They made a bloody stupid decision and that's it. Their holiday companions were also doing the same which probably made them feel they were doing something reasonable. I was a bit shocked when I found out on the documentary that the apartment was on the ground floor and the bedroom overlooked the street. However I don't believe for a second that they did anything to their daughter, although initially I thought perhaps so. My mum (!) has always maintained that Maddie was snatched by paedophiles because she was such a gorgeous girl and therefore always worries sick about my dd when we go abroad (cos there's no bad people at home ). However no mention was made in the documentary of this possiblity. Surely there's a possibility of that?

BeingRippedOff "The set up in that hotel with staff watching parents coming from tapas place and going and knowing exactly when they kids were on their own... would seem like a good line of enquiry. But doesn't seem like the Portuguese police wanted to consider anything of than the parents being involved, so lots of time and evidence lost."

I agree with you, I have always thought it most likely that someone at the resort knew the DC were being left every night and would be able to communicate to others when the time was right to enter the apartment, as they could watch the parents' movements.

I think the Portuguese are reluctant to explore this line of enquiry because that would make Portugal and Luz in particular (and Mark Warner come to that) less attractive to family holiday makers. I think this explains the police refusal to consider the burglary possibility and also the level of animosity today to any attempts to ask questions or pursue inquiries in the town In an unsolved case, much better all round to shift the blame to the parents because the alternative is that the perpetrator is still out there tarnishing the holiday resort image. That is the real conspiracy in all of this.

Of course it is. Tourism = money. The investigation has been off from the start. It really is appalling. Poor Madeleine

That's why the Mcanns have been forced to conduct to own investigation because no one else was bothering to look for Madeleine. The truth is the Portuguese police didn't want to have to go making public paedophile rings and burglars operating in the area - they'd quite carefully been keeping that sort of thing under wraps to keep the tourists coming. Much better to create an enormous diversion by arresting the parents and hoping everyone would go for the "there's no smoke without fire" scenario which many people appear to have done.

"I just don't know how anybody can be blind to the heartbreak all over Kate's face."

Yes, me too. The pain is etched on her face

It struck me that the police were pissed off right from the get-go because the McCanns involved the British media. And everything then flowed from there. Also the tarnishing of the resort (which, by the way was not very nice, IMO)

I agree 100% with you Lillian. I find it strange how people get on board with anything else. The parents have put up with so much on top of not knowing what has happened to their child. Their lives must be hell.

I also think that their decision to leave the kids was, in hindsight ill-judged. People are less cautious when on holiday, and especially in a group. There's a diffusion of responsibility that happens. I really wonder if they'd have felt safe to do that (especially where their appt. was, right by the street) if they'd been travelling as a family of five. Everyone acts on group norms

I've seen it myself on camping trips - people letting their kids wander around unsupervised and no-one feeling able to voice concerns. One reason I don't like travel in groups

But by God they've paid.

boopsy

I disagree. He was lured into saying more than he wanted by the journalist. I think he wanted to say nothing, but he wasn't savvy enough to stick to his guns when the journalist persisted. So what came out was something that sounded half-arsed. It was a lesson in how not to react to journalists, IMO

.... also, accosting someone in their place of work, in their second language.