The parents of a missing child don't matter.

[Eleanor]

Any post containing an insult will be deleted in it's entirety.

[stephen25000]

Would some sceptics be so violently against the McCanns if they were a poor family from a council estate?

Where they live is of no interest to me as it has no bearing on the case.

I don't care where people come form.

Leaving children as they did is unacceptable.

[G-Unit]

You know that is how you felt.  You know that is how you acted.  Did you do that in private and in public put on the stiff upper lip so that no casual observer would have had any idea of the inner turmoil you were going through?

With due respect ... in your loss ... I doubt if you faced the barrage of cameras and analysis of your behaviour and every move that Madeleine McCann's family did.

I grieved as privately as I could, Brietta, because I don't like public shows of emotion. What I discovered was that you can't always control it. All it takes is for someone to say something innocently and the emotions escape with no warning. You can regain control, but you can't help losing it. I truly find it impossible to understand how this couple could discuss the case and never show signs of losing control, unless they were drugged to the eyeballs. Some of my family had to resort to such help at times just to carry on, but the emotion still escaped.

[Anna]

Strong emotion can't be controlled, it breaks out when you least expect it to . A word, a thought and you're gone. So quickly no control is possible. I don't base my opinion just on the parents behaviour before the cameras either. There are many 'pointers' as Sadie says which suggest to me that things are not as they should be. You can fool all  the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time as Abraham Lincoln put it. Thank you for your analysis of my stance. I can now add arrogance to untruthfulness, unintelligence and stupidity to my list of attributes. For caring and empathetic people some of you can sure dish out the insults.

Some of us do not fit in with that assumption, G. I would rather remove myself from the company of others before I cry, or embarrass myself, but that is how I am.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but is this what you are saying.. You would be more likely to believe their account of what happened, if they were blubbering in full public view, even now after 8 years?

[Brietta]

     WELL SAID BENICE

The BBC PANORAMA programme clarified so many of the calumnies directed at the McCanns at the time which were put around at the time in some sort of propaganda war and which have become the litany and common currency of the 'doubters'.
People who have neglected to assimilate all that has transpired in Madeleine McCann's case ... in particular the FSS final report and the AG's report ... to cling onto the misinformation deliberately put about from the early days are in my opinion deceiving themselves.

I think in this way they can justify hounding and questioning the parents of that particular missing child because it satisfies an inner need of some kind. They are convinced they have the 'information' ... they just haven't yet worked out exactly why it is so flawed.


RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC ONE
DATE: 19:11:07

JOHN McCANN: They were getting advice.
If you're too tearful you're gonna have the emotional impact but you're not going to get the message over.

And yes what comes out of their mouths sounds measured, controlled, and.. you know, a nice tempo.

They don't speak like that normally.
That is a false situation, okay, and they had to work damned hard to get to that place.

Because the number of tears before that were shed before they went out there, because I saw that. I was backstage there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm

[stephen25000]

The BBC PANORAMA programme clarified so many of the calumnies directed at the McCanns at the time which were put around at the time in some sort of propaganda war and which have become the litany and common currency of the 'doubters'.
People who have neglected to assimilate all that has transpired in Madeleine McCann's case ... in particular the FSS final report and the AG's report ... to cling onto the misinformation deliberately put about from the early days are in my opinion deceiving themselves.

I think in this way they can justify hounding and questioning the parents of that particular missing child because it satisfies an inner need of some kind. They are convinced they have the 'information' ... they just haven't yet worked out exactly why it is so flawed.


RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC ONE
DATE: 19:11:07

JOHN McCANN: They were getting advice.
If you're too tearful you're gonna have the emotional impact but you're not going to get the message over.

And yes what comes out of their mouths sounds measured, controlled, and.. you know, a nice tempo.

They don't speak like that normally.
That is a false situation, okay, and they had to work damned hard to get to that place.

Because the number of tears before that were shed before they went out there, because I saw that. I was backstage there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm

The BBC program merely reflected the mccann message.

At what point did it deal with all possible scenarios into the disappearance of Madeleine ?

[G-Unit]

I have highlighted the most salient point you have made above.  It seems some people think they can judge people's behaviour from short video clips much better than those who are experiencing that behaviour first hand and for long periods.  You're right - it's supreme arrogance to assume you know better than experts with first hand knowledge but hasn't that been the case throughout?

How true. The McCanns were convinced they knew better than the Portuguese Police. They thought their Private Investigators were more able to solve the case than the Portuguese Police. They thought they should be given all the evidence collected by the UK and Portuguese Police so they could carry out their own investigation. They thought is was acceptable to re-interview witnesses and harass them. They thought they could demonstrate the unreliability of the dogs. They thought they could control the media.

[Anna]

I don't care where people come form.

Leaving children as they did is unacceptable.

So tell us what you think should be done about it now, Stephen.

[Mr Gray]

How true. The McCanns were convinced they knew better than the Portuguese Police. They thought their Private Investigators were more able to solve the case than the Portuguese Police. They thought they should be given all the evidence collected by the UK and Portuguese Police so they could carry out their own investigation. They thought is was acceptable to re-interview witnesses and harass them. They thought they could demonstrate the unreliability of the dogs. They thought they could control the media.

I think the McCanns were absolutely right.....it is not unusual to question professional judgement...people...particularly intelligent people do it all the time. no one on here was criticising Ashya Kings parents for thinking they knew more than the doctors...everything you bring up is easily countered

[carlymichelle]

How true. The McCanns were convinced they knew better than the Portuguese Police. They thought their Private Investigators were more able to solve the case than the Portuguese Police. They thought they should be given all the evidence collected by the UK and Portuguese Police so they could carry out their own investigation. They thought is was acceptable to re-interview witnesses and harass them. They thought they could demonstrate the unreliability of the dogs. They thought they could control the media.

the mcanns and supporters have also harrased   liabled and slandered a pollice officer for 8 years are they any better?

[Benice]

Strong emotion can't be controlled, it breaks out when you least expect it to . A word, a thought and you're gone. So quickly no control is possible. I don't base my opinion just on the parents behaviour before the cameras either. There are many 'pointers' as Sadie says which suggest to me that things are not as they should be. You can fool all  the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time as Abraham Lincoln put it. Thank you for your analysis of my stance. I can now add arrogance to untruthfulness, unintelligence and stupidity to my list of attributes. For caring and empathetic people some of you can sure dish out the insults.

There you go again posting your opinions as if they were facts.   I speak from personal experience when I say that strong emotions can be controlled.  I was devastated when my husband died.    He and my grandson who was 4 at  the time adored one-another.  Everytime I saw my grandson I was reminded of what he had lost (a wonderful grandfather) as well as what I had lost.  I was so sad for him - but I managed to never cry in front of him. 

I didn't cry in front of my kids either when they came to visit me.   They were upset enough without me adding to their distress by sending them home worrying about me -  as well as coping with the loss of their beloved dad.

As soon as I was on my own again - it was a different story.

That is how I behaved, but I would not be so arrogant as to tell people who handled things differently that  unless they behaved like me - there was something wrong and unnatural about them.

There are no right or wrong ways to deal with grief.   You don't seem to understand that.

[G-Unit]

Some of us do not fit in with that assumption, G. I would rather remove myself from the company of others before I cry, or embarrass myself, but that is how I am.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but is this what you are saying.. You would be more likely to believe their account of what happened, if they were blubbering in full public view, even now after 8 years?

Just like you, Anna, I have never broken down in public in my life. Then, a few years ago, I learned that sometimes you can't control it because it catches you unawares. I was mortified because that upset others too, but it was beyond my control. I don't expect 'blubbering' now or at the beginning of the saga. In the beginning I would have expected loss of control, even if only a momentary crumble such as i experienced. I didn't see it.

[Brietta]

I grieved as privately as I could, Brietta, because I don't like public shows of emotion. What I discovered was that you can't always control it. All it takes is for someone to say something innocently and the emotions escape with no warning. You can regain control, but you can't help losing it. I truly find it impossible to understand how this couple could discuss the case and never show signs of losing control, unless they were drugged to the eyeballs. Some of my family had to resort to such help at times just to carry on, but the emotion still escaped.

I have NEVER cried in public whatever the circumstances.  Members of my family did not show deep emotion in public and that is my upbringing.  That does not mean that I do not feel things deeply but in traumatic circumstances my instinct and my practice is to stay in control.

I do not criticise people who show their feelings.  I empathise.  I do not criticise those who don't.  I empathise.
Everyone has different coping mechanisms and I try not to judge others by what I think I would do ... I think that is the mistake which is made when Madeleine's parents are judged and found wanting.

[Anna]

Just like you, Anna, I have never broken down in public in my life. Then, a few years ago, I learned that sometimes you can't control it because it catches you unawares. I was mortified because that upset others too, but it was beyond my control. I don't expect 'blubbering' now or at the beginning of the saga. In the beginning I would have expected loss of control, even if only a momentary crumble such as i experienced. I didn't see it.

They obviously have a different way of showing grief, shock or crumbling as you call it.
Anger and loss of control, is what they appear too have experienced by the look of it.
Gerry was on his knees howling like an animal and Kate was hitting out at anything, to the point of leaving herself bruised.
And who was she blaming.......Herself. "We let her down Gerry" or words to that effect.

[stephen25000]

So tell us what you think should be done about it now, Stephen.

It's too late.

The horse has bolted.

The mccanns or anyone else won't be prosecuted.

There is a need though for clear unequivocal laws , as regards leaving children unattended.