[Osem]

I'm glad it's not only me who finds this whole thing disturbing. I'd still like to think the police had a sound reason to suspect something but unless they make their reasons public I think many people will judge their actions as harsh in the extreme, especially at such a tragic moment in this couple's lives.

As for the reporting, I have long thought something needs to be done about the 24hour rolling news media's, in particular, habit of latching onto scant detail and extrapolating it out of all proportion based on little more than hearsay and speculation. Perhaps if they had to spend an equal amount of airtime acknowledging their errors, they'd think a bit more carefully about how quickly they break news, how reliable their sources are and how much sensationalist speculation they engage in.

I recall in the immediate aftermath of 7/7 and the de Menezes shooting, reporters pestering the police on the scene for information. Obviously at that early stage it was clear than any information they had would be sketchy and quite possibly confused or inaccurate. Rather than acknowledging that fact and making allowances for it, the inaccuracies in what was said at the time by some of the spokesmen were later used against them in a trial by media campaign to try and show how inept or even deliberately misleading they'd been.

Anyway, as it stands, I feel extremely sorry for the parents of this little girl and think they have been appallingly treated. I hope very much they find the strength to deal with what's happened to them from somewhere.