The parents of a stolen child must suffer horribly. I can imagine the desperation and fear of what's happened which the parents must go through. I've seen them on TV, sobbing and begging for their child to be returned. It's very upsetting.
Then the McCann couple appeared on my TV screen. Emotionless. Expressionless. Defensive. Reading from crib sheets. Referring to Madeleine as 'a child', not 'my child', not 'our child', not 'my daughter', not 'our daughter'. Lots of animated descriptions of slamming doors and whoosing curtains, along with actions. Not a word of how it felt to discover that empty bed. Never a tear.
I watched in disbelief. How controlled and cold. Clutching each other always. Why? No sign of breaking down when they spoke of her. No having to stop to gain control of emotion.
They didn't convince me then and they still haven't convinced me that their daughter was stolen. Madeleine is missing, yes, but we don't know how or why. Judging by the parents behaviour, their desperate desire to see what evidence there was against them, their unconvincing statements, I can't accept that they are innocent victims. They may not have harmed their daughter but they're hiding something in my opinion.
Consequently I reserve judgement. They may just be unemotional unfeeling people. They may be able to exert iron control over their feelings. They may have thought the shutters were forced. They may still be asking people to look for Tannerman because they can't be bothered to update their website (does that 'harm the search'? Yes, if people haven't seen Crimewatch).
