Has the world gone mad?
“She did it,” a friend of mine living in Surrey just told me on the phone. “Kate McCann is guilty. You should take that Madeleine thing off your blog. No one around here believes she is innocent.”
Kate McCann has been hurled into a Kafkaesque nightmare. First her beloved daughter disappears. Now she is a suspect in that disappearance. If my friend is right she has been cynically clutching that bunny since May 3rd. She has duped us all. She is a better actress than Kiera Knightley (a lot better). And my faith in human nature will be forever dented.
I just don’t believe it. I know much has been made of the fact that they’re a nice middle-class family and that’s why we never suspected them, but middle-class or not, these are parents who clearly love their children. Kate and Gerry McCann look and come across as decent, hard-working, kind, intelligent individuals. Not child murderers.
So now Kate has been questioned for 11 hours and there is more of the same to come. Not only has she lost her daughter, she has lost her freedom. She must be going through total hell. Maybe even her husband suspects her now. What is all this doing to their relationship?
Purely on a practical level it is inconceivable that Kate McCann went to the apartment, murdered Madeleine, disposed of the body and was still back at the Tapas bar five minutes later raising the alarm. On an emotional and human level it is even more impossible. I think it’s more likely that a bungling police force is looking for a scapegoat. And the fact that they have gone public with their strange suspicions is outrageous.
I can’t believe this already tragic tale is now even more horrific for the people involved, whatever the outcome of this latest twist.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007
07 Sep 2007 helena
I was stunned to hear the parents were being named as suspects. I too just don’t believe it! I do not know the interrogation procedures in Portugal; however, I sincerely hope that the McCanns have retained excellent representation. My heart breaks even more for the entire family.
Lets hope that the police in Portugal knows what they are doing. They must have a very good reason for acting the way they do. My husband has said from day one that there is something strange about the whole case. Time will tell.
A number of years ago in Australia a young mother named Lindy Chamberlain claimed her child was taken by a dingo near Ayres Rock. The police subsequently found blood in the boot of her car and Lindy was found guilty of murder. There was no body. Everyone, and I mean everyone, thought Lindy was guilty. We all wanted to know the answer to the mystery.
Further investigation a number of years later proved Lindy to be innocent. The scientific evidence was incorrect. She not only lost her baby, she lost her husband and effectively her life as she spent years in jail.
I just hope Kate McCann does not suffer the same fate as Mrs Chamberlain.
I am not sure your friend in Surrey said the exact words you attribut to him but I do think it would be prudent to remove your ‘help find Madelaine’ link since it is not in dispute that this campaign was started by people who are now officially suspects in her alleged killing. Whether you choose to believe it or not.
This is a test
Dear Helena.
As most of us, I’m emotionally upset by this case.
This morning I watched Sky News for an hour and saw great uncles, aunties, family friends and anybody who happened to be standing near a journalist tell us how ludicrous this situation was. And it may be ludicrous, only time will tell.
But how do these people claim to know so much more than the Portuguese police?
Today, the British press continue to accuse the Portuguese police and authorities of being incompetent, leisurely and inferior. Following the Sky broadcast, I read about the case in the German, French, Swiss and Spanish dailies. None contained any such accusation.
I desperately hope that Madeleine is found alive and that the family will be acquitted,
If only the British press would stop this racist slander and report facts, not gossip, hearsay and ignorant supposition.
G
What could emerge from this case is that Inspector Clouseau, long suspected of being Belgian, may turn out to be Portuguese…
Why would Kate and Gerry McCann so adamantly stay in Portugal for months on end dedicating their life to finding what happened to their daughter if she did it and hid the body? She would have given a “good effort” and then left. The Portuguese police have bungled this from the start and are looking either for a scapegoat or a way to deflect the attention. As a lawyer, I know how interrogation techniques or bungling from incompetent authorities can result in unjustified prosecution. The fact that the authorities were trying to get her to plead guilty and they would only give her a year or two shows how weak their evidence is. If it were so solid, there would be no such plea deal offered!
Jacqueline, your post echoed my thoughts exactly - why would the McCanns stay in Portugal for months on end if guilty?
How tragic that the family is now bombarded with even further pain.
I am amazed that you assert so positively that the McCanns are innocent when you are not privy to the evidence that the Portuguese Police have collected. The BBC has reported that one piece of evidence is that Madeline’s blood was found in the car hired by the McCanns a number of days after the poor little girl’s disappearance. This appears to have been collected by British Forensic Scientists. If true this is a piece of highly incriminating evidence and will undoubtedly justify a trial. The guilt or innocence of the McCanns should be determined on evidence not on assumptions. Until we are aware of the evidence (as opposed to media reports of the evidence), any judgment one way or the other is remarkably foolish. I also find it remarkable that persons are commenting on the actions of the Portugeuse Police when it is quite apparent they know nothing of the criminal justice system in Portugal.
I also am a lawyer as is JB above. I have worked within the British Criminal Justice System for many years. I and my more sensible colleagues have always thought it is better to analyse all the available evidence before coming to a rash conclusion.
The problem is, that at the moment, this is all conjecture. No one apart from the Portugese police is in posession of all the evidence.
Everything in the papers is just a waste of printing ink as WE JUST DON’T KNOW what evidence they have.
I wait to read something definite before I make any judgement on anybody.
I have always found it weird that the parents themselves weren’t interrogated. Whether we choose to ignore it or not, most child killings happen by someone they know, someone close to them.
Having three children under 3 is very very hard work, regardless of class or colour. Suggesting that because you love someone you can’t kill it, accidental or not, may go against your heart but unfortunately statistics suggest otherwise.
I’m not saying this happened with the McCann’s. But having perfect skin and teeth doesn’t make you perfect parents.
How can the Portuguese, or anyone else for that matter, believe that the Mc Canns are among the cleverest criminals of all time and among the most stupid. The police claim they were on the scene 10 minutes after the call went out. How could the Mc Canns hide the body, keep it concealed for twenty five days and while being surrounded by friends, relatives,the media, the police and local people, hire a car and dispose of the child without being seen? Yet at the same time leave traces of the crime, reportedly blood, in the hire car? The notion is ludicrous.
Have the family not suffered enough without this sort of stupidity?
I find it quite worrying that people can think someone is guilty or innocent without any access to the facts. Branson’s donation to the McCanns legal fees is as bad as the red top papers calling the Portugese police to dig up Robert Murat’s garden. No other position other than neutrality is appropriate for this case. What will Branson do if these people are proved guilty?
The huge publicity has created interest that may not have been so apparent if it had been a big news day or if Madeleine had not been a pretty, blonde, white girl who had doctors for parents, who, including me, knows?
Where though are the reams of newsprint castigating the drunken and drugged grandmother whose negligance with a dangerous dog caused the death of her grandaughter?
Where are those who call for justice in Portugal when that poor, poor family is still mourning the unsolved shooting of their eleven year old son?
We all take chances with our children, every day - allowing an eleven year old the freedom to walk a short distance home, arranging babysitting with a grandparent, leaving sleeping children for a time…my sitting room is further away from my childrens’ bedrooms than the corner shop is from my friend’s living room, which of us would be more at fault if something happened one of our sleeping children?
Branson is one of many feeling a collective guilt.