General Chat

i feel you have to have hope
hope that shes alive just like
ben needham
i hope that one day not too soon
they will be found

I do feel the Mccanns have been punished enough for leaving their children alone.

They are more than aware they were in the wrong for leaving them. they have been told this over and over again

What I dont understand is, where are peoples forgiveness towards the Mccanns for this simple but awful error the McCanns made ?

In Mallorca, We were having a drink, on the outside terrace by the stage, Dave went off to play a game of pool with kyle. Connie was playing behind the stage (there were more tables behind the stage where kids were playing)

I realised Id not seen connie for about 20 mins. The boys came back,, I looked behind the stage & she was gone. We checked the bar, the reception, the toilets, she was nowhere. I panicked, I ran through the hotel calling her name.
We found her down a few steps by the BBQ.
She got an ear bashing, but also a cuddle.
What Im trying to say is, We were having a good time and wasnt supervising her 100%, we thought she was safe behind the stage. we checked on her several times & one moment she was gone. If she was younger she could have followed the steps down to the car park and down to the beach, it was dark at the time.
The outcome could have been bad, it wasn't, thank god.

But in 2 weeks there were 2 other kids go missing, albeit temporary..
No one is perfect we all make mistakes.Sometimes we believe our kids are safe, it makes us naieve thinking that sometimes but were human.
No one believes it will happen to you.

Had one of those mistakes, or lapses caused the child to go missing as in Maddies case would we have been virtually stoned by people ?

From where I stand, I can see people repeating time and time again that the Mccanns are bad parents, its their fault that Maddie is missing...as if the couple dont know it !! And I'm sure they will regret it to their dying days.

People have been on their backs from day one, constantly berating them for their error
and rubbing their hands in glee as new theories against emerge from press sources, which in turn prompt more mud slinging against them.

It has been horrible watching and reading such spite thrown towards them.

Its ugly.& crude & makes me feel sick to be part of the human race sometimes


E x :o((

Similarly Rose - there is no irrefutable proof that she wasnt taken and was "done away with" by the parents.

I asked for compassion for two parents who's little girl is missing - is that too much to ask?

We most of us know about losing people - be it through bereavement, separation or whatever - and all deserve an element of compassion. So what's so different about these folk? their little one is missing, and there must be a huge hole in their life.

To say that compassion is not deserved in this case because they left her alone is a terribly cruel thing.

No matter what the rights and wrongs are in this case, any parent who's child is missing deserves compassion,.


Jacqui

Message to Kitty - the Rubbish Cook:

Re your statement: "The fact is children have been taken when just feet away from their parents......."

Try looking at this site and you will see it was not "a few feet".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6984836.stm#map

A passageway, a swimming pool and some trees between the apartment and the tapas restaurant. No way can it be described as a few feet................................. It is at least 100 metres.

Jacqui, you are absolutely right,
.......my reply was not disputing that .
it was just in response to a number of replies on this thread that 'seemed' to imply that it was a FACT that she had been 'taken'.

There is as far as I know no proof of that , as equally there is no proof that the parents, or the other suspect had anything to do with her disappearance.

Rosex

Thanks Bernard,,,,,,,,,,,I didn't say Maddie was a few feet away though.

too right Rose - there are far too many assumptions in this case I fear.

But.............a little compassion might take the heat out of things, dont you think?


Jacqui

bernard
im sorry i dont usually reply personally to someone but it dont matter does it love,
a few feet
a yard
an inch
the next room
across the way

who gave anyone the right to keep that little child away from her parents, or anyone to take any child away, its not theirs to take

if some one nicked your car youd be up in arms im sure, a women i work with had her ornamental snail nicked from her garden , she rang the police, and then shell say do you think these parents did it,

NOOOOOOOOOO i bleepin well dont actually,

oh god i got bit on me soap box there
sorry,
anyway
distance dont matter, that kid should ave been safe
however it could have been a fire that they could have been at risk from, but no some slimey creep crept up and took wot wasnt theiers

Bernard - l think l read or heard somewhere that that picture was'nt a true one as in its not the tapas bar in question, but that they could actually see the aprtment from where they were. Might be wrong tough!!

jude sarf wales

I have stated many times on here my feelings regarding the fact that Kate and Gerry left their children alone while they went out and enjoyed a meal with friends. I have also stated and will again that I care less about how Kate and Gerry are feeling and a hell of a lot more about what Maddie must be feeling, what she must have gone through. The fact that she knows she isn't with her Mummy and Daddy, she no longer plays with her friends, her cousins, she no longer sees her aunts and uncles and her grandparents.

I hope and pray that neither parents are responsible for the death accidental or otherwise of their daughter. None of my feelings as a parent can lead me to believe that two responsible adults such as Kate and Gerry are could be capable of this and then removing her body and launching a vigorous campaign pleading for the safe return of their daughter.

With regard to Jamie Bulger. As a fellow Liverpudlian, as someone who knows the Strand Shopping Centre where Jamie was abducted from and the layout of the area in relation to the shop Denise was in when Jamie wandered outside and was picked up by those two boys. A place of contact in the centre to get a tannoy announcement that a child is missing is over the other side of the Strand to the shope where Denise was. She turned her head long enough to give her order to the butcher and in that short period of time Jamie had wondered out. She came out of the shop when she discovered he was not beside her and had gone in a different direction looking for him. By the time she got over to where you can report children missing etc which as I said was the other side of the centre to where Denis was, the two boys had already made their escape. They had gone to the centre with the sole intention of abducting a child, they had rehearsed what they were going to do days before.

Unlike Kate and Gerry, Denise never made a concious decision to let her child out of her sight, his disappearance resulted from him wandering off when she turned her eye for a brief second. She wasn't off somewhere being entertained and leaving her child unattended.

We can speculate about what happend that night, whether Kate and Gerry have any involvement accidental or otherwise in Madeleine's disappearance/abduction. We have to wait for the answers if and whenever they come. The only thing that needs no speculation is the fact that those three very young children were left alone.

Lyn x

thank you Lyn for putting up such a clear description re Jamie Bulger case.......I feel the two cases are not to be considered as comparable. Circumstances/intent are very different.

I have 'lost' my son for all of 3 minutes on one occassion, turned round,turned back and he was gone! At a playground he (then aged 7) had run round the corner to have another play! Scared me silly! So I do understand that it can happen to any parent however watchful...........

Re the apparent 'view'of the apartment door, I have seen the aerial view early on in the investigation and also the ground view..........too far, in my opinion not a clear enough view due to the planting also, but that must be obvious surely, as no-one saw 'it' (whatever 'it' was ) happening.

rosex

There is no comparison between these scenarios.

The fact is the McCann's made a conscious decision to leave their children alone and unattended for several hours whilst they went out and partied with friends.

The other parents didn't.

l also feel very sorry for her parents and the rest of the family the fact they they don't have Maddie with them right now, the fact that they will be thinking of her and how she is feeling right now, worrying that their little girl could be being hurt or worse. l feel very much for them - they must be going through hell. l really wish l could wave a magic wound and have them all together again but l can't so lets leave it for now and wait before this gets out of hand. And of course l feel really sorry for Maddie not knowing what has happened to her, who by, why, where she is, if she is ok. is she hurting or worse etc etc


jude

Julie Ann - no one is denying that it is terrible that the little girl is missing and I agree, it does not matter if it was "a few feet" or a mile. What I object to is the British media making out that the McCanns have no blame. I personally don't think they murdered poor Maddy but to try and get people to believe that they are doting, caring, perfect parents (which the media have done), is just not true. They left 3 very young children alone in an unlocked room night after night while they were dining and drinking in a restaurant.
If they had been a couple from an inner city council house and they had left 3 children alone while they went to a bar across the road, the British press would have crucified them, the British police would have been waiting to interview them as they landed in the UK and social services would have taken the other two children into care. Because they are a middle-upper class family, with access to the media (through Kate McCann's childhood friend Esther McVey, the ex GMTV presenter), they are treated differently. It is a double standard.

Even doting, caring, parents make stupid / foolish or badly thought out judgements regarding their kids from time to time, but rarely does the event end in horror as this one has.

I do not think they are perfect parents, in fact no parent is perfect, neither is anyone else in the human race. Imperfection is something we are all blessed with....again I stress ALL.

Maybe the British media seem to be taking their side because of a wonderful gift called empathy.They like many of us see hurting parents who have lost their child.

Elaine - Well said:o))

Richard Branson - will you be putting money towards finding Rhys Jones killer? Or towards the search for Ruth Wilson, Daniel Entwistle, Elizabeth Chau, or Milly Dowler's murderer? You're obviously a very kind, generous, caring man. I hope after all this, the Mccann's aren't guilty, it'd be a complete liberty (I'm trying to be polite) that they'd kidded everyone who had supported them and given them money.

Any case where a child is missing is comparable....a child is missing, the parents didn't give permission for the child to be taken, thats comparable isn't it?

The only difference is the other parents know the outcome of what did happen to there child/ren the McCanns don't as yet.

Before we knew what happened to these other children were you condeming there parents too?

Wait and see how guilty the McCanns are before you publicy slate them.

The only body thats been found is Milly Dowlers! Daniel, Elizabeth, Ruth, and many more kids are still missing. Their parents probably thinking 'What have we done to deserve this?' Its important people are not fed false info that their bodies have been found, they are still missing.

Richard branson is donating money to the fund. He no doubt donates to loads of funds but not all get reported.

I think his act of kindness towards the McCanns shouldn't be criticized

It's selfish to ask him to donate to others on the basis that you dont agree about who hes donating to.,

I'm sure he has empathy towards all the differing cases mentioned. But it shouldn't be a case of "If they get it, others should as well"