Kate says, in her book :
Gerry was seriously considering sneaking us into a car and driving us all across the border to Spain
This was on the evening they had both become Arguido and believed charges were likely
The full quote is:
The prospect of being separated from Sean and Amelie, holed up in jail, unable to prepare our defence properly was terrifying. Gerry was seriously considering sneaking us into a car and driving us all across the border to Spain. It would have been crazy. The whole world would have thought we were guilty, and maybe that was what the police were hoping we'd do.
Most people find it hard to comprehend how innocent people can confess to crimes they haven't committed. Gerry and I don't. Not now. The monumental psychological duress we were under can easily lead to bad, irrational decision-making. Thankfully we resisted the urge to flee. When we left Portugal. it would be with the blessing of the PJ and our head held high.
END QUOTE
partial quote:-
.........................Saturday 8 September........................we were notified by Liz Dow, the British consul in Lisbon that Luis Neves and Guilhermino Encaracao had declared us 'free' to leave the country whenever we wished.
End quote.
The McCanns had already decided (on 27th August) to leave before the date they were made arguidos and had made arrangements to come home on Monday 10th September. After being made arguidos and no doubt therefore with all hope gone that the PJ were searching for their daughter - and the real perpetrators, they decided to follow the advice of their lawyers and leave ASAP. So they left on the 9th instead of the 10th.
To claim they 'fled ' because they were made Arguidos is not strictly true - they were coming home anyway.
And who can blame them. I certainly don't. Who in their right mind would stay in a hostile foreign country where you'd just discovered the police were trying to pin a heinous crime on you which you didn't commit.