Anyone watching Madeleine McCann ten years on?

[spottysuperted]

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

It's not xenophobic, just pointing out that amaral had made up his mind and didn't properly investigate other areas. He said that no forensic checks were made of either car. Doesn't that seem somewhat remiss of them?

Thank you, Namey

Beingrippedoff someone up thread asked why people read the police files. It's for that very reason that I did, the press/Mccann's portrayed the police as a force that had already made up their minds and were lacking/not following leads that didn't fit their theory. Due to secrecy laws and the fact that it wasn't true meant the police didn't counter those claims. Look at the actual files and don't fall for tabloid bull shit about the police in general or even Amaral in particular (not fond of him but he put Madeleine first and did make investigations on leads). If the press portrayed the British police the way they did the Portuguese, then people wouldn't fall for it, that's why the Portuguese don't. Clarence Mitchell doesn't even know where Portugal is let alone how it operates and he and the Mail/Sun/Telegraph etc put their ignorance on full display.

I'm basing what I'm saying on amaral's words! What he wrote about the case. He even thought calpol contained a sedative ffs. Very suspicious they had it with them etc. I take calpol with me on holiday, it's completely normal.

Some people don't mind the mortgage payments, others who are struggling to make their own or who are a lot less well off will feel differently
Wrong, i have three jobs and still struggle to pay my mortgage & i dont mind. Ime its usually the very well off that mind...

Well, you'll be in the group of people that don't mind then Rach. You can't speak for others in the same or worse position as you any more than I can.

Pamela Fenn heard crying for 1 hour 15 mins, she was quite precise. I always find her statement heartbreaking. She had absolutely no reason to lie or exaggerate. I personally think the McCanns checked a lot less frequently than they claimed. And I've never understood why they didn't use the evening/ night crèche. The kids were in crèche all day anyway. Why take them out of the crèche, put them in an unlocked room at night and leave them?

Also, as a passer by, in addition to Pamela Fenn, also heard distressed crying, it seems anyone near the apartment would have been alerted to the fact that young children were being left alone. Night after night.

I'm basing what I'm saying on amaral's words! What he wrote about the case. He even thought calpol contained a sedative ffs. Very suspicious they had it with them etc. I take calpol with me on holiday, it's completely normal.

To be fair, there are quite a few MNers who think calpol is the devil's brew and you're overdosing your kids on it if you get through more than one bottle a decade. He'd probably fit in beautifully on some of the threads on here.

I remember Calpol did used to make a variety called Calpol Night which did make children drowsy. It was available when my first was born just after MM went missing but it's since been withdrawn from sale.

I think the problem that a lot of people have with the McCanns is that they did not let themselves be manipulated by the media. They are educated, articulate people. They took the decision very early on to involve media as they believed that bombarding tv/press/internet was the best strategy for getting their daughter back. You can think what you like about that decision, but they were calling the shots. Media doesn't like that. They prefer a "victim" for their stories who does as they are told, stands in the right way, wears the right things, says the right things. Right from the start, the McCanns were in control and the media weren't terribly happy about it.

They cannot do anything without attracting criticism. They will forever be associated with their missing daughter. It's no wonder that Kate had to give up her job as a GP, and when Gerry went back to work after six months that was the wrong thing to do in the eyes of many too. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't and are criticised at every turn. They have kept their other children totally out of the limelight to try to shield them from teh media but they are going to come up against this too - in 10 years time it will be "how dare Sean/Amelia be out in the bar while Maddie is still missing".

And it's Madeleine. Not Maddie. The family never used the abbreviation. It's another media invention, just like "Jamie" Bulger who was always James to the family.

I agree
Damned if they do and damned if they don't and the keyboard warriors will always need somebody to throw mud at.

Beingrippedoff the police files are not equal to Amaral's book. He and others didn't know what calpol was. They thought it was a sedative. They were wrong obviously. But how does that discredit the whole invesrigation or implicate that the Polish police were also lacking?

Cultural differences in what's normal parenting here vs Portugal played a part in their interpretation of some of the things the Mccanns did on holiday.
It is not xenophobic to say this!

Really, what cultural differences? The only cultural difference mentioned was the leaving the children alone. They may have arrived on the night and thought, "they left their kids alone, how odd, must be a cultural difference" only it isn't and it wasn't, the police interviewed many British families that stayed in the apartment before the Mccann's and discovered that this wasn't actually a cultural difference at all. I said up thread that reading the accounts of other people made me realise how bizarre it was that the Mccann's and their friends left their children like they did. I can really see how the ball started rolling. If they'd had Diperona rather than Calpol then maybe Amaral wouldn't have been suspicious but that's not the main or only reason he suspected the abduction was faked. Not knowing what Calpol was outside the UK, is hardly a cultural difference.

Thread from 2008 when calpol night was still available
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/469710-struggling-to-get-by-without-calpol-night

But it was calpol, not calpol night. And the point is its pretty normal to take basic meds on holiday when you have little kids. Amaral found it suspicious. I don't and neither would most parents in the U.K.!
Kids clubs are also extensively used by U.K. Parents when on holiday, to this day. He also found that strange. The issue of leaving kids while parents go to eat has also been discussed extensively already. Lots of people did it, baby listening was widely available and used.
I can't be bothered going over all this again so feel free to contradict me as you are clearly determined to have the last word.

There are cultural differences between British and Portuguese. Deny this till you are blue in the face if it makes you feel superior

I would not comment on the McCann case but I note various comments about parents leaving their children unaccompanied. My sons are 34 and 28 and I can assure anyone that it has never been ok to leave little ones on their own. Not ten years ago, not 20 or 30 either. It has never been acceptable. I am sorry for their ongoing torment.

I was recently on holiday somewhere in Asia and almost all of the English parents left their kids in their holiday apartments whilst they went out to eat.

Not saying it's wrong, just saying it is not uncommon.

How laughable that the 'other'armchair dectives know the type of medicine the Mccanns took on holiday.

*detectives

chester just because you didn't do it doesn't mean it didn't happen. As detailed in many posts on this thread. I would never do it, but it doesn't mean pre Madeline it didn't happen.
My parents left us every night in hotel room in a family resort type of place for the parents only tea each night. Everyone who stayed there did it. It was considered normal even if you don't agree with it

I'm not saying there aren't cultural differences between two european countries. There are. Just not that one. Stayinh out late vs 7 o clock bed fot example. But what Amaral stated or thought and the police's position are not the same thing. I stated up thread that I found the statements from the other families that stayed in that particular apartment, in that particular location very consistent and painted a very different picture of what would be considered normal and make what the Mccann's did even more bizarre. In the context of that particular place, and at that time. Not hotels, not other locations. That one. I don't care really if it was wrong or right. It was odd and it's no wonder the police were suspicious.

Beingrippedoff It was considered normal even if you don't agree with it You are seeing only only one side of this too as others who have visited Luz, me included, have pointed out that this was not normal behaviour for many parents. It may have been normal for their group of friends or, even, normal in the Mark Warner holidays but it certainly was not the norm for most people there

Sorry, I guess what I am trying to say is that there is no real "normal". Every family will make their own decision

But the McCanns didn't use a listening service. There was a crèche available, they didn't use it. The apartment was on a main road, they were inside a complex.

It is not a cultural thing, it was never normal to leave 2 and 3 year old children on their own, with no listening service. And as has been established, at least two of those toddlers cried for prolonged periods, whole alone.