Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Hmm... I just cant see someone recording something 'important' in their diary - surely only the events of that night are really in question, and I can't see why anyone with a brain cell would have recorded an 'alternative' version in their diary - I would have thought it would make more sense to record the version that they are telling everyone since it would give them something to refer back to.

As I say, short of a signed confession in the diary, or the girl being beaten to death with it, I can't see what use it could be

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Lying to a diary would defeat the purpose of its existence in the first place. Its supposed to be a physical extension of the psyche.

And anyway, if the accusations are true, then Mrs McCann would be absolutely boiling over inside with all kinds of emotions, and would want to vent and let the truth out in some form, if only to keep the sanity.

I'm more intrigued to how they are directed to the diary. How did they know of it?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

yeah, but writing down a confession (of sorts) defeats the purpose of lying about it - it's shooting yourself in the foot much the same way as 'Well Mr Bond, since you are going to die, I will tell you where my secret self destruct button is'

What's wrong with drinking until you fall over? - works for me :)


yeah, seems a bit direct for a guess

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Maybe the diary makes mention of the fact that Gerry is profoundly in love with Pandora

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

If Kate McCann has the diary, and she wrote something that would help the case against her, wouldnt she change it, lose it, damage it?

---------- Post added at 12:20 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

*Buy a new one and re-write it?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

What if she turns around and says "Err what diary?"

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

A decision has been made not to use any of the fund money to pay for their defence costs.

http://dm.anm.co.uk/pages/live/artic...e_id=1811&ct=5

...but as one of the aims of the fund is to bring the perpetrators to justice, will it be used against them?

.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...167113,00.html

Good Article

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I heard this journalist on the radio at lunchtime, and I have to agree with his final paragraph -
"How will this story end? That's what makes it so grimly compelling: none of us knows. Until we do, basic justice demands that we presume the McCanns are wholly innocent. Common decency demands the same. For if they are eventually found guilty, there will be plenty of time for condemnation. But if they are innocent, to presume otherwise is to commit a second crime against people who have already suffered enough."

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Well if she does suddenly lose/alter the diary it'll look mighty suspicious and the prosecution will probably draw the same conclusion.......

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I am sure the story about the church being searched & the road works being dug up again were on the Daily Mail website, but they appear to have been deleted.

It has just been mentioned on BBC 1 o'clock news, that the church may be searched today.

I could only find this on the Daily Star website:-

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view...r-Maddie-body/

.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I think the papers are making a lot of this up as they go along. I happened across a copy of the Daily Mail from Saturday and it had a whole page devoted to questions the Portuguese police 'might' be asking the McCanns. :sleep:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Quoted for truth. This Press hysteria is achieving nothing, except perhaps for selling a few more papers. It certainly isn't significantly adding to anybody's understanding of the case.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

To quote from Se7en :

"This isn't going to have a happy ending"

I think it's now at the point where very few people think that she is alive so either we have a) parents that are guilty, and have covered it up - in which case it just shows how long people can sink, and short of their heads opening up and the devil himself popping out, I don't think people will be able to accept the outcome, or reasoning behind it or b) we have parents that are innocent, and someone else has got away with it, which again, isn't a great thought.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Well, The Daily Mail makes up most of it's stuff as it goes along depending on how angry they feel like making people.

But your right, The Mirror today said that the police do not think they have enough evidence to secure a conviction but other media outlets are suggesting that they do.

Every paper wants to appear to have just slightly more information than the others and if it sells 100,000 more papers they will take any source they got (especially the Mirror which isnt too keen on checking sources on their info)

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Until a body is found and all forensic evidence is presented in a court I'm not prepared to make any further judgments.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6991181.stm

Looks like they are going to get thier own tests done...

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

and so they should. although it's in my opinion inadmissible evidence as the car was not taken away and impounded when the police did their own tests.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

The police already have the diary, but they needed the authorisation to use it in trial.

"Although the diary, which Mrs McCann has kept updated since the four-year-old vanished on 3 May, is already in the police's hands, legal rules mean they need judicial authorisation to use it in any trial."

From the link posted earlier http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...e_id=1811&ct=5

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Well i for one, hope and pray that little Maddie is still alive somewhere.
Sometimes, hope and a little belief are all we have and we should hang on to that before we all know the the truth or the full picture.:)

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Well said Bud.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

ur mad if u link to any newspaper website stop buying a paper. If u do need news then listen to radio 4 in the morning at least they dont make it all up but sadley they do tend to create news for the rest of the day...

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

its harder to quote radio though

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Yeah, I'd like to think that she's alive and well, and being cared for, by however has her, but sadly, unless this is one hell of a frame by the police, any hope I had is steadily going..

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

a popular choice round here ;)

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

You missed this bit out.......:dozey:
"We stress that Gerry and Kate have not asked for these costs to be paid."

Full Statement

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

And if it isn't?

Innocent until proven guilty. Unless we (and the tabloids) believe this, the McCann's (and their children) will never be allowed to return to a "normal" life.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Would you leave your kids over at Michael Jacksons house for the night, if he was having a pyjama party? He was also 'innocent'. :erm:

---------- Post added at 10:00 ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 ----------

The only result that would allow the Parents to live a normal life from now on, is that if Maddy is found alive. The ideal situation would be Gerry and Katie is found guity by the porto police, then she is found.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I don't believe the the McCann's have a previous history of a series of widely publicised child abuse allegations, so you are (imho) comparing apples with jellyfish.;)

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

It means even though they could be found innocent, they will still be guilty by a good number of people. Just because a court might not be able to prove they were guilty, doesn't always mean that they are innocent. (Not saying the Mccanns are or aren't - just yet).

Hence the reason I added that the only way out for them, is that maddie is found alive.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

That sounds like "trial by tabloid". :erm:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view...ear-our-names/

Yes I know its from The Daily Star!

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

No, I think it's human nature.
Mud sticks - if someone is accused of a crime and is found innocent, people will still look and think 'well, they could have done it...' - how many men are still viewed as a 'rapist' by people after they have been fully cleared - like I say, mud sticks.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

The British press are being very gentle towards the McCanns, you should read the Portuguese newspapers!

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

In this case there is a good possibility that no charges will be brought and the case never heard in court. Therefore the "mud" will have been made entirely by the tabloids from snippets of fact, a great deal of speculation, and a pinch of fiction.

There is a real danger that the McCann family (all four of them) will be condemned by the public by this tabloid-created gossip, which is absolutely appalling. In my humble opinion.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Was it next to the story about Flintoff going to Hollywood to star in the next Flintstones movie? ;)

---------- Post added at 10:42 ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 ----------

I have to agree - I really hate this "if there is smoke, there must be fire" mentality; especially when the media are not only blowing on the tinder, they are supplying the tinder.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I think this is hardly all tabloid-created gossip. The PJs believe they have a case.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

The ideal situation would be for her parents to be found guilty of her murder then she is found alive? How is that ideal unless you want the Portuguese police to be shown as even more bungling, as if thats possible

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I am not sure the PJs have been bungling, They do things in a different way than we are use to. They have presented a 4,000-page dossier of evidence against the couple to Algarve-based public prosecutor.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

A few years back somebody I know was in portugal, he said that parents often left kids alone while they went out.

Also him and his bother-in-law (who owns a nightclub in portugal) where mugged one night, they went to the police, who basically didn't give a dam, He used his contacts and found out who done them over, and sorted them out himself.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I actually think its illegal for kids to be left alone in Portugal. That doesn't stop irresponsible parents doing it, like some parents do all over the world, including the UK.

As for the mugging, have you tried reporting a mugging in London. Or a house robbery. I think the most you get from the police is a crime reference number.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

TBH, I haven't really followed this too much, but the impression I get is a phrase involving straws, clutching and police .......

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

They have bungled it from day 1, their sluggish (to say the least) response to the report of her disappearance would have made it easy for her abductor to evade detection, they needed British police to point the finger at the parents and then bungled collecting the DNA, they have constantly leaked information to the press etc etc etc

Whilst I am pretty open minded about their guilt of innocence what I am certain of is that this investigation has been a bungled operation from start to finish, as for those 4000 pages, big deal didn't the Iraqi's present over half a million pages before the war, didn't change much then did it?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I have followed this case very closely and the impression I get is a phrase involving as sin, guilty and parents.... ;)

---------- Post added at 13:37 ---------- Previous post was at 13:27 ----------

We dont really know what the PJs have been up to because of the secrecy laws, they may have been on to the McCanns from minute one and just building up the case against them.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

The secrecy laws mean nothing when they are constantly drip feeding the Portuguese press information, who of course are then free to publish with any slant or angle they want

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

They are not allowed to publish with any slant or angle they want because they can be sued. As I believe the McCanns are doing against Tal & Qual.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

And trying to prove guilt without a body will be difficult especially due to the poor chain of custody on the evidence in this case - they are still driving this car - No?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Can't they? The press out there has gone to town for a couple of months on this and they have to face one court case! That's not bad odds under any circumstances and seeing as events have taken a turn, whose to say they'll even have to justify their reporting in court

---------- Post added at 14:20 ---------- Previous post was at 14:19 ----------

Oh yes the car, another example of their fine police work :rolleyes:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I think its stupid to attack people for claiming the McCanns are guilty before a proper trail but then to turn around and attack the police for at best being lazy and unprofessional and at worst for setting up the McCanns. It's the same process of deciding something before the facts are known.

We don't know if they are gulity or not or how professional the case against them is. IMO, They certainly seem quite odd but the police also seem to remarkibly professional. But we're not sure until the case is done...

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

So it's professional to leak information to the media and of course they didn't look out of their depth relying on British forensic teams to gather evidence? For the record I never called them lazy or corrupt

Oh yes they have been remarkably professional in this case involving a missing girl as well. Good job they were taken of this case before the interviews started imo

Portugal’s Ministerio Publico, the district attorney, confirmed last night that it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1913175.ece

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Kate McCann's Diary 'Is Leaked'
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...0,00.html?f=vg

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

If the contents of Kate McCann's diary have been leaked to the press by the police, then I think that is an absolute disgrace.

While I am no fan of the McCanns, leaking the contents of something as personal as a diary, is definately not on.

.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Must be a strong case if they have to leak info :erm:, especially "hard evidence" like - "The papers claim police saw the diary lying open in the villa the McCanns rented after Madeleine went missing. They say there was no diary entry on May 3 when the four-year-old disappeared."

Perhaps she didn't fill in the diary because she was running about like a headless chicken trying to find her missing child - most people who I know that keep diaries fill them in last thing at night, and she was perhaps a little busy then.

Wouldn't it have been even more suspicious if she had filled the diary in?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Wining and dining...

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Screaming and wailing. :dozey:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Leaks to the press happen her as much as anywhere else and hardly constitute a reliable way to judge competence or professionalism. Being perfectly honest if i were a member of the portugese police i think by now i would be leaking information as well. Just because some feel they are not upto the standard of the british police that seems to mean to some they can throw accusattions of "frame up's" and "unprofessional conduct". If and when the case is made publically against the mc'canns i am sure the methodology that they have used will be made clear and MAYBE when it is seen in context it might even have been the right way to do it.

Also same people that slate the portugese for leaking seem by and large to have no problem with the mc'canns spilling their guts through family and friends. This whole situation has become a mess but it is not all down to one party or the other, parties on all sides have turned this into what looks like a public farce. I am constantly amazed at how we brits love to go to other people's country's and then when it suits us accuse them of anything we like. Arrogance is not even a start for the attitude some have.

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:08 ----------

No they were wining and dining with friends which is why this happened in the first place.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Couple of BBC links from today
Diary - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6993407.stm
DNA Guru - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6992372.stm

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

With the fund now having the amount of money it does what detective agency's have been contacted to help locate maddie.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

McCanns Quizzed By Social Services
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...,00.html?f=dta

I have no wish to start the whole debate again but this bit made me spit out my coffee

---------- Post added at 18:41 ---------- Previous post was at 18:29 ----------

It would seem if I read this report correctly that Private Eyes are illegal in Portugal.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2324229.ece

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I am getting sick of the neverending line of family members releasing statements to the press, they are helping to fuel the flames. The McCanns and the Police are fighting a proxy war of words though the papers!

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Well, who can stop them? I wouldn't be able to stop members of my family talking, especially if they were reading rubbish about me in the newspapers.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

It's not like family members are a professional organisation, with guidelines and codes of conduct to adhere to either, the two different groups are hardly comparable imo

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I am pretty sure it's controlled. I do not think they just randomly make statements as they walk about their lifes. The statements are clearly thought out and happen everytime there has been a development. It's too professional and ordered.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I think your probably right, the lawyers surely give them a quick going over as well, as I said a couple of posts back though, they are private individuals, with no rules to follow

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

responsible parents! oh dear!

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Madeleine's parents consider new fund for legal battle
PR firms...? Why on earth do they need a PR firm? Do they expect to be on Parkinson and in Hello magazine a lot?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

It's just public relations isn't it, and their current relationship with the public isn't that healthy :erm: i suppose they're trying to minimise the publics wolf-like reactions by having proper advice on what to say or not to say, seeing as everything can get twisted to mean anything we want it to!

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

They are Doctors, they have certain standards, normal laywers aren't good enough, so fleece the public to pay for the best in the land. Still, people will be gullible enough to give to the greedy.

Maybe desperate measures, but probably I reckon it will soon backfire on them.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Its the private detective here again, and everyone in jumping on the bandwagon again concerning the diary, can you imagine, in the diary or laptop, do you think they are going to in either, when they killed her, how they killed her, where she is buried,what we are going to say, it is going to be scripted. so that it is word for word, total crap, this is not an edition of Murder She Wrote,

---------- Post added at 22:53 ---------- Previous post was at 22:48 ----------

Its the private detective here again, and everyone in jumping on the bandwagon again concerning the diary, can you imagine, in the diary or laptop, do you think they are going to in either, when they killed her, how they killed her, where she is buried,what we are going to say, it is going to be scripted. so that it is word for word, total crap, this is not an edition of Murder She Wrote, this is about a missing girl, which l still believe is alive, since this case developed, there has been TWO stories about missing children, that there parents, have been charged with MURDER, and then the children have been found 6/8 months later, one parent was on GMTV today. next we are going to find out that the McCanns have won the lottery, to pay the legal team, that is how stupid this whole farce is about, Maddie is still alive and l reckon she is in this country, and the abductors are laughing at what is happening.:o:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I don't think the Portuguese police are expecting to find a confession... however it will point to the parents' frame of mind. There are reports that the neighbours complained about the amount of noise from the screaming kids who couldn't sleep and were left home alone. I guess this is the sort of thing that the mother could have included in her diary entries... and possibly that she gave the children a little medication to help them sleep from time to time.

That information could prove useful to know.

ps - what's the deal with your double posts? I've seen it a couple of times.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Madeleine 'killed by sleeping tablets'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...e_id=1811&ct=5

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Also from that article

British forensic experts expressed severe doubts about the claim. They said the fluid was only a partial match to Madeleine's DNA and the sample was not strong enough to determine the presence of drugs

Looks like another non story then

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Maybe, but its all over the front pages of tomorrows British press.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Doesn't surprise me tbh, imo it's all getting rather tiresome, totally bored with all the innuendo, finger pointing, speculation, media tittle tattle, family/friends side of it and conspiracy theories, seems anyone with a bit of an imagination can get an article published on this and considering it's about a little girls abduction/death that is very cheap and distasteful

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2007/09/37.jpg

This photo strikes me as odd, they look to be far too happy?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Staged for media effect. So you feel for them, they are a loving innocent family.

Please give generously.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

As soon as i saw that pic i knew someone would say something like that.
I'm not defending them here, but to be fair, they can't look at the floor like they're about to have a breakdown 24/7, the media are hounding them every minute of the day they are bound to catch them smiling at some point or another, they have two other kids to think about and while those smiles will be fake they are no doubt for the benefit of the twins.
Bear in mind also that they risk having the twins taken away so i imagine they are trying not to bring the two babies into the feelings of sorrow, kids pick up on that.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

confident that they have got away with it maybe?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

:tu:

The owners of the tabloids must be rubbing their hands with delight - any story, no matter how unimportant or how untrue, is helping to sell newspapers. And the British public is supplying the money.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

"confident that they have got away with it maybe?"

I'm not sure anyone could be confident they'd got away with anything at this early stage in the legal proceedings.

---------- Post added at 08:04 ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 ----------

Well that smallish proportion of the British population who buy the tabloid papers may be but, given the trash most of these rags contain, many of these people clearly do so no matter what's inside. Maybe they just like the pictures... :confused:

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

ABC figures for the month of August 2007 -
The Sun - 2,933,654
The Daily Mail - 2,137,069
Daily Mirror - 1,436,436
Daily Express - 765,483
Daily Star - 674,450
Daily Record - 398,288

Total of 8,345,380 copies purchased, and it is estimated by the newspapers that at least two other people reads a purchased copy, gives you nearly 25 million readers of the tabloids - over 40% of the UK population is not a smallish proportion, imho.

People are asking why the McCanns need a PR firm - since they are being tried by the media, it may be useful to have a media professional advising them.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

That looks like a photo op to me :confused:

Seriously, they are getting PR firm and top class lawyers? They want to pay for it with another fighting fund?

This is not a PR battle, its a criminal case. Suspects appealing to the public for cash to get the best lawyers and a PR firm to make them look good? What on earth is this?

It's like something out of Brass Eye

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

They need a new PR company because the one thats represented them up to now have withdrawn. A few of the backers from their fund have also stopped supporting them. I think people that were once supportive are moving themselves away from the McGanns.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

If they are charged, does that mean the fund could be used against them?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Why do you always call them the McGanns? Is there something I'm missing?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Oooops sorry mate, that name has always stuck in my head for some reason and no one has corrected me to date.... I promise to say McCanns from now on.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Aghhh!!! They are suspects in a murder case or they are innocent victims of a horrible crime! Why on earth do they need publicity shots, a PR company and a fund to pay for their expensive lawyers :confused:

Are they going to record a album next?

What is wrong with this country? I mean AGHH. Why would be public feel the need to pay for their legal funds? Why do they need public relations? Guilt is not decided by a popular vote.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I take it they do not qualify for legal aid then...

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Legal aids wont pay for their lawyers I think.. they have really good ones.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I doubt it, even though she only works one day a week as a GP i'd take a risk saying she's on more money than i get in a week :D And he's a consultant cardiologist. It only goes by income doesn't it?
I thought i read somewhere that a wealthy british businessman had offered to pay all their legal costs.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Yep, I also did read that while there are some who are no longer financially backing the McCanns there are others that will continue to do so.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

There is an excellent editorial in The Sun today by Fergus Shanahan (Deputy Editor) entitled "Kate McCann's guilty of nothing more than sticking to her story" - I'd provide a link but can't find it on the website. Here is a quote*:

This article alone is worth the 20p cover price. Most of the rest of the paper can be used to start the barbeque.

*less that 10% quoted to avoid copyright infringement.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I stopped when I read 'decent mother'......Sorry.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

So you know her personally?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

No, but I do have the luxury to decide as and when I feel is the right time to reach my own conclusion. I'll base my thoughts (not that they mean anything anyway), when the case is closed and I'm satisfied myself.

Till then, if I say she's a great mother then it comes out that she did do the nasty then what? If I say she's nasty now and she's cleared of all, I'll still have what she did to start with, that is enough for me for the time being.

I haven't convicted her of any wrong doings, apart from the obvious.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

A lot of people seem to be taking the leap from "how stupid were they to leave their children unattended" (which I don't think they should have done) to "murdering child-killers", seemingly based on the "evidence" supplied by the newspapers, who often contradict each other (and themselves).

There is an interesting article linky, which contains a video from "The Onion" which is their viewpoint on how the media escalate and over-dramatise when insufficient evidence is available. It also contains some comments from Max Hastings, ex-editor of the Telegraph -
"I hang my head in shame at what my trade has made of the McCann story. Unless an outsider is caught and convicted of Madeleine's death, the reputations of the McCann family are irreparably damaged. Before charges or any trial, an irremovable stain of suspicion has been cast by police, and broadcast by the media."

What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

I think it was the first one taken out back and shot in the head, when society started to collapse

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Unfortunately for sex crimes and crimes involving children, there has never been any such thing. The emotiveness of the crime and desire for 'justice' mean people latch on to the first possibilities they can.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

Yes, but I think there is more to it than that. The media love to place someone on a pedestal (slowly, over several weeks) then bring them crashing down to earth (again, over several weeks, as if in slow-motion). Often the "victims" are politicians or celebrities, which is bad enough. But seeing a family treated in this way is disgusting.

Re: Toddler 'abducted' during holiday
 

The media is just appealing to the nasty instincts of the public though. Who love to hate. Although the media has been quite supportive of the McCanns in the UK...