4039 days ago
I have written before about the McCann parents. Losing a child must be an unimaginable horror but my sympathy was, even two weeks ago, greatly diminished by the way they had used funds raised to help in the search to silence their critics with legal threats and action and by their apparent love of being on TV and more. As of this week I am afraid that my sympathy almost disappeared.
The Crimewatch special of ten days ago claimed to have big new evidence. I am not sure that it did but I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt. Whatever my private views on the chances of finding Maddy alive those who loved her must be allowed to cling to hope.
However it has since emerged that the new evidence actually emerged five years ago thanks to a report compiled by ex MI5 officers paid for by the Mccann’s foundation funded by members of the public (actually it is a limited company which is odd in itself) But the report was also critical of the McCann parents and their friends and so foundation money was used to suppress it with the threat of legal action. Is that really what Maddy well-wishers would have wanted?
It has only now emerged, with the trail five years colder, because the Old Bill have forced it into the public domain. They have done this to justify the millions of quid of public money being spent on this new enquiry, something that has only taken place because of lobbying by Kate & Gerry.
So when Kate McCann blubbers on our TV screens asking for us to help use this NEW evidence I cannot say that I am blubbering with her.
The affaire McCann has become an unpleasant and costly circus. It is time to draw a line.
4058 days ago
To lose a child is ghastly. Instinctively you heart goes out to Kate & Gerry McCann as the world still wonders what has happened, or happened, to poor Madeleine (Maddy). But, should I feel guilty, for not feeling entirely sympathetic six years on?
I am not entirely clear why Kate McCann declined to answer a series of 48 questions posed to her by the Portuguese Old Bill which you can find listed here. Kate cannot keep but help foisting herself on our TV screens, rubbing shoulders with celebs, demanding our sympathy and assistance when she herself has refused to assist the Police with their enquiries. Now that she is clearly not a suspect perhaps she might answer all 48 today?
The McCann parents clearly divide opinion. My own sympathies (or rather lack of sympathies) are driven by the way that they have bullied and pressurised those who ask questions using Maddy as a shield. The clearest case in point is that funds from the Madeleine McCann Foundation (Leaving No Stone Unturned) were used to hire lawyers which stopped a member of the Portuguese Police publishing a book about the case. The book was apparently critical of the parents.
How did that censorship help find poor Maddy? It simply made the lives of Kate & Gerry easier. I am not sure that is what donors to the fund would have wanted their cash spent on.
As to last night’s Crimewatch…one man was ruled out, a few blonde men with no photofits were asked to come forward and we were offered a photofit of a new man ( although there were actually two photofits which looked totally different to me) who we are asked to identify. Is it a game changer? Almost certainly not but if we say that, Kate & Gerry go “poor Maddy” and we have to shut up.
There are hundreds of missing kids in Britain today. But the McCann parents have bullied the Met & the Politic ians into spending millions re-opening this one enquiry. Crimewatch appeared an effort to justify those millions.
I hope Maddy is found. I hope she is found alive. My head tells me that will not happen. If that is indeed the case how will then view this great circus? Or are we not allowed to ask that question?
