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Someone somewhere in Portugal publicised that Calpol can be used to drug children which led to a pretty hair raising experience in that country for at least one British couple and their child.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/maddie-mccann-police-took-our-baby-because-we-gave-her-calpol-belfast-couples-portugal-holiday-hell-30375896.html
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Perhaps it behoves British parents, particularly those travelling with toddlers, to study very carefully the cultural differences in foreign countries prior to going there to enable them to decide if they wish to put their children at risk of being taken into the care systems there or as in the case of the Belfast couple, having medical procedures carried out on them without consent.
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Please don't trash a nation in the attempt to score a point (which you are not managing to do anyway) few other Nationals would even think to do that.
Please let me explain how this incident was reported in Portugal. I remember seeing the reports of the hotel staff.
The couple had been drinking. They had an argument in their hotel room. The male stormed off, carrying the child with him.
The female got on the phone to hotel reception. She screamed that her child had been abducted, and insisted that the police were called immediately.
Hotel reception called the police, who duly turned up at reception. (Please don't ask when the call was placed, how long it took to respond, or whether the locality was blocked off to prevent the abductor from getting away. I don't know the answer.)
Again according to hotel staff, it is reported that the male had gone to the bar for further drinks, balanced with the child in one hand and a drink in the other. It seems the male made it back to the room before the police arrived, because he was there when they started to investigate the abduction.
The scene described was that, on a first floor hotel room, the couple were back arguing again, having left a young child outside on its own on the balcony of the flat.
In the course of investigating the incident, the police found Calpol, which is illegal in Portugal.
They took the child to hospital for tests. The mother got very upset at this. The partner was not with her. He had returned to the bar, for more drink.
The version I saw in the Irish press made the couple's room on the first floor, while the police had claimed the child had been thrown off the 8th floor. There was no mention of a beating at the hospital, merely that all the man's money had been stolen by the police while they searched the hotel room.
So there you have it.
Please feel free to pick your version. Either, the Algarve is still a hell hole, with corrupt cops and horrendous laws, a place surely to be avoided. Or, two drunken Irish parents who should have been looking after the child better, and who have been refining their tale since that incident.
I have a clear opinion of this incident, but I shall keep it to myself.
I definitely would not use this tale to attempt to exonerate or to denigrate the McCanns.
