One enduring myth.

[Alfie]

The rumours were begun by Kate McCann due to her observation of the twins' unresponsiveness.

The rumours that the McCanns drugged their children in order to go and get drunk were not started by Kate McCann, get your facts right.

[The Singularity]

I've just been to look Calpol up myself on the site Netmums - it appears that Calpol is not a sleep agent but gives the impression it is only because it removes symptoms that stop a child from reshut upl sleep

Net Mums Link on Calpol as Sedative

[ferryman]

The rumours were begun by Kate McCann due to her observation of the twins' unresponsiveness.

Wrong!

Kate didn't 'begin' any rumour.

She just reacted as  a mother does, and countless others piled on accounts of her reactions, to create their own reactions and their own myths.

[G-Unit]

The rumours that the McCanns drugged their children in order to go and get drunk were not started by Kate McCann, get your facts right.

What I meant was that she was the person who first raised the possibility of drugged children.

[Alfie]

One enduring myth?

The honourable gentleman can't count.

I wanted to highlight this one because in the recent Karen Danzcuk / Jodie Marsh led hatefest I saw numerous comments about how the McCanns were despicable for not only leaving their kids unattended but also for drugging them too.  It seems to have become established fact and goes pretty much unchallenged on social media and comments pages.  In 50 years time, when we are all dead and the case is written about or discussed will this so-called fact become an established part of the narrative I wonder?

[ferryman]

What I meant was that she was the person who first raised the possibility of drugged children.

Yes!

Kate and/or Gerry raised with a Leicester Police liaison officer whether the PJ had any reason to suppose sedation might have been used in the abduction.

[ferryman]

I wanted to highlight this one because in the recent Karen Danzcuk / Jodie Marsh led hatefest I saw numerous comments about how the McCanns were despicable for not only leaving their kids unattended but also for drugging them too.  It seems to have become established fact and goes pretty much unchallenged on social media and comments pages.  In 50 years time, when we are all dead and the case is written about or discussed will this so-called fact become an established part of the narrative I wonder?

I understand that, Alfie.

Credit for the original quip goes to Denis Skinner, responding to John Major in the Commons, who said there was a 'b........' in the cabinet.

[stephen25000]

Whether the McCann's used drugs or not, remains unknown.

Witnesses do not always tell the truth.

The use of Calpol with children is common place.

I've never heard of an adult using it, as a painkiller.

[John]

One other element which could support the idea that the children were drugged is that Madeleine would have been unlikely to have gone quietly if she was abducted.  A cloth soaked in some sort of anaesthetizing fluid for a few seconds over a child's mouth and nose is all that was needed. I hasten to add I don't hold with that particular scenario.

The myth could well be borne out of the knowledge that Kate was a qualified anaesthetist so was extremely well versed in the practise.   She also would have had access to drugs which we mere mortals wouldn't.

Let's be clear however, I don't believe for a moment she abused that knowledge.

[slartibartfast]

I've seen an interview recently where Mr and Mrs McCann were asked directly whether they used any medication to subdue the children and they categorically denied it.

The basis of this rumour I think stemmed from the twins being "unresponsive" when being woken up to what was essentially the middle of the night to them.

I believe forum carried a false narrative that Mr McCann had medical books by his bedside, along with books on how to commit the perfect murder and a bible open at a certain page which clearly indicated Kate had done something bad. In fact the amount of reading material they took on holiday according to some people was so enormous and varied, it is any wonder they managed to get out and do anything but read. Let alone get through customs with the alleged reading material they had.

I find it very hard to believe that Madeleine's parents would use medication to make their children sleep at night.To do so would selfish and very ruthless

Do you accept that many parents used calpol to assist their children to sleep?

[The Singularity]

Do you accept that many parents used calpol to assist their children to sleep?

Very much so, have a look at the link I posted to the Net Mums site

[John]

Do you accept that many parents used calpol to assist their children to sleep?

Most definitely we do, bloody brilliant stuff.   

[Brietta]

Kate, indeed, had a Bible with a marked passage in it that referring to the death of a child, given to Kate by a friend who had, herself, marked the passage in response to a tragedy in her own family.

Gerry took a book with him on the holiday that was a fiction murder story, light, popular reading and in the best-seller fiction list at the time.

Gerry was in possession of 'top secret' CEOP manuals, freely available to download from the internet.

And much else besides ....

The video which was posted on the internet under LEVY copyright, also lingered on medication which belonged to Madeleine's grandfather.
In an example of flagrant invasion of his privacy.

The issue made of innocuous items in the McCann's bedroom, including Kate's photographs of Madeleine, is an illustration of the worth of the case being built against them by the police.

I find the whole intrusive episode epitomises ineptitude and is an example of the quality of the 'evidence' for the case being built against the McCanns.  All of it wrong or ill informed and unable to withstand proper scrutiny.

[The Singularity]

Gerry was in possession of 'top secret' CEOP manuals, freely available to download from the internet.

I remember that, I think that was included to suggest high level cover up by the Masons or the Nazis, it was one of the two

[Mr Gray]

Most definitely we do, bloody brilliant stuff.   

You are easily fooled John
It has no sedative properties
Pain killer yes
Sedative no