OPINION: The McCanns have been punished for their biggest mistake - there's nothing to be gained by reminding them of it

We all make mistakes - but some are much, much bigger than others

ByTom Evans

• 22:36, 27 APR 2017
  

Think of the biggest mistake you’ve ever made.

The sort of thing that keeps you awake when your subconscious has decided to remind the rest of your brain who’s boss.

You might have got away with it, save for a cringeworthy memory. Or it might have cost you your job, or caused a fight or a crash, or spoiled a relationship, or got you arrested.

For an unlucky few, their biggest mistake was their final one. For others, it has consequences that last for ever.

Now imagine the whole world knows about your biggest mistake and its awful consequences, and gleefully reminds you of it every day.
And imagine that, for a lot of these people, your mistake isn’t enough and they feel the need to accuse you of something even worse.
Kate and Gerry McCann made the biggest mistake of their lives nearly 10 years ago.

This is not a “there but for the grace” confessional. I would not, could not, have made the McCanns’ mistake – assuming their kids would be fine while they went out for dinner.

But they did. And after getting away with it a few times, they were punished in the harshest way.

From then on, they were fair game, public property, doomed to have their mistake analysed and explained and criticised over and over again, by people they’d never met and never would.

Their biggest mistake had resulted in the loss of their little girl, and instead of sympathy for their loss and their shame, they became pariahs.

I don’t care if they went jogging or played tennis, or whatever they did to keep themselves sane. I don’t care if the internet thinks they looked like grieving parents “should”. Thankfully, few of us know how we’d react in that situation.

Others go further, of course, and pretend they know more about the case than the police who have been investigating it. They accuse the McCanns of the most serious of crimes, and then dream up theories to explain why they have not been charged with anything, despite being investigated as suspects for 10 months.

We have two choices. We can grab the popcorn and watch the decade-long disaster movie play out, hoping for the most exciting possible ending.

Or we can write off the keyboard warriors as cranks and ghouls, and keep our fingers crossed for a miracle for Madeleine.

We have those choices, because it’s not us. It’s not our lives; she’s not our daughter.

It wasn’t our biggest mistake.

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ByTom Evans

• 22:36, 27 APR 2017
  

Now imagine the whole world knows about your biggest mistake and its awful consequences, and gleefully reminds you of it every day.
And imagine that, for a lot of these people, your mistake isn’t enough and they feel the need to accuse you of something even worse.
Kate and Gerry McCann made the biggest mistake of their lives nearly 10 years ago.

by Aníbal Ferreira
22nd Jan 2010.

Imagine you had been a police officer for 30 years and that you were investigating the disappearance of a little English girl named Maddie McCann.

Imagine that all the police officers, including you, concluded that the little girl had died and that the parents were suspects of being involved in concealing the body.

Imagine that the little girl’s parents were made official suspects and that the English press started to call you “bungling cop”, “amateur”, “corrupted”, “inept”, “incompetent” and “failure”.

Imagine that the English press started to announce on a daily basis that you had “manufactured the case”, “made stuff up”, “”ditched vital evidence”, “hampered the investigation”, that you were “biased”, “cruel” and “lying”.

Imagine that for month after month, the English press called you “fat”, “drunk”, “torturer”, “stupid”, “imbecile” and “infamous”, repeating 418 times that you were a “disgraced” man and that the mother of your children was a “prostitute”.

Imagine that the police’s political directory did not defend you and that, quite to the contrary, it took the case investigation away from you, allowing for the English press to print the headline “Sacked!” and to renew all previous attacks with increased violence.

Imagine that the Public Ministry declared that the process would wait for the production of better evidence and that said statement was understood in England as an “acquittal” of the little girl’s parents, prompting even more attacks from the press against the “bungling cop”, “amateur” and “corrupt”, who “manufactured the case”, “made stuff up” and “ditched vital evidence”.

Have you imagined all of this? Well, then answer this question: IF YOU COULD WRITE A BOOK TO DEFEND YOUR REPUTATION, WOULD YOU WRITE IT?

Now imagine that the book was taken off the market because it damaged the little girl’s parents’ reputation. Imagine

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The police told the McCanns specifically NOT to involved the media. They ignored and this is their consequence. If they wanted all media speculation to stop it could. And quite to the contrary of anyone being 'gleeful', I'd say the public have had just about enough of it and really, really, really want the McCanns to go away.
Imagine you lost one child but had two more alive and well. Would you put it in the past and spend your life dedicated to them, or would you insist on having your face permanently in the paper with nonsense stories (Gerry having saved that guy's life on stage when he wasn't even there springs to mind, can't remember the guy's name now).

Their repeated mistake cost their daughter far more than it has cost them.    

Most people do not go on to make huge amounts of money from their mistakes, but not only have they done so Maddie's father has also gone on to be described as a leading Cardiologist and has become a Professor no less.
That does not seem as though he has become a pariah in the medical profession and lets not forget this father of Maddie received a standing ovation from the police despite making such a huge mistake it cost his daughter dearly.

This "writer" of the article may not care whether they played tennis and ran whatever but many do and they are as entitled as he is to give their opinions especially as their mistakes have cost the taxpayers in both countries huge amounts of money.

PS we read recently in the papers that the parents would fight tooth and nail if they were ever charged with neglect and faced with jail, but they were happy to see Tony Bennett face a jail sentence.

Brenda paid a terrible price for being hounded yet we see no mention of this in the article.

Are these "writers" for real?


My advice to this "writer" is SHUT UP which is exactly what he wants people who are pro Maddie to do.

Ridiculous article.

Well Tom Evans of the Liverpool Echo, imagine Émile Zola had kept his mouth shut and let the French establishment and a complicit press scapegoat Dreyfus. The poor man would  have died on Devil's Island a ruined man and far from his family.

Imagine two British sniffer dogs alerted to blood and death scent in the McCanns apartment, Kate's clothes, cuddlecat, and the car they hired three weeks later and to NO OTHER PLACES OR ITEMS belonging to anyone else.

Imagine the Portuguese Supreme Court ruled that the McCanns had NOT been cleared by the investigation (involvement of the disappearance of Maddie/concealing her corpse/staging an abduction/perverting the course of justice) and that (in my OPINION as a 'keyboard warrior/crank/ghoul') they haven't been punished enough?

Imagine what punishment that lot would carry Tom Evans, if the UK government hadn't interfered with the Portuguese investigation.

Imagine what has happened to three-year-old Madeleine Beth McCann at the hands of her own parents, Tom Evans.

Imagine the truths that would be told in pursuit of justice for Maddie if the Tapas7 and the Gaspars weren't restricted by gagging orders, and journalists weren't threatened by Carter-Ruck.

Imagine what a great journalist you could be, Tom Evans, if you could comprehend why we're all here questioning and reminding the McCanns of what they've done.

Imagine you're a journalist and you don't grasp the difference between making a mistake and committing a crime.

Many people have left children alone, and when they are found out they usually face the consequences of the law. As far as I am aware, stating that you've made a mistake is not a defence to any crime.

Imagine being a journalist and you are ignorant of the facts in your public published rant.
There is no evidence that an abduction took place, there is no evidence that anyone broke in and ran off with Madeleine; there is however, evidence that a corpse was kept in the apartment. So while you may call us ghouls, I would say to you Tom, you are a denier of evidence.

Tom is paid to be a journalist, Tom writes complite sh*t*... don't be like Tom, research your subject before you write opinions.

"For an unlucky few, their biggest mistake was their final one. For others, it has consequences that last for ever.

Now imagine the whole world knows about your biggest mistake and its awful consequences, and gleefully reminds you of it every day.
And imagine that, for a lot of these people, your mistake isn’t enough and they feel the need to accuse you of something even worse.
Kate and Gerry McCann made the biggest mistake of their lives nearly 10 years ago.
.............
But they did. And after getting away with it a few times, they were punished in the harshest way.''


  No they were not punished by their mistake, a 3 year old girl was and is very likely dead.


  How does he know leaving their kids alone was their biggest mistake? ..... he accuses keyboard warriors of thinking they know it all!


   A parents biggest mistake may be hitting a child, allowing that chid to climb and slip on a hard floor unattended, allowing abusers access to that child, being abusers themselves.


   This is not about the 'McCann's mistake' it's about the harm that came to a 3 year old girl!   


 people don't want to 'gleefully' accuse the McCanns, they just think a 3 year old girl deserves better.

A mistake is forgetting the one item you​ really​ needed​ when​ going shopping 

A mistake is putting​  odd socks on 

A mistake is writing the​ wrong date on a form 

A mistake​ is turning right instead of left .

The McCanns did not make​ a mistake​ , they along​ with their friends allegedly left​ their children on their own in the apartment for​ not 1 but 5 nights .

That​ is not a mistake , that​ is a deliberate , thought​ out​ choice​ , Crèche, babysitting , eat in , leave​ them alone . A descision , Made allegedly by all​ of​ them 

Was it also  a mistake , to phone​ home saying shutters were jemmied 
Was it also a mistake to wait till it was light to search 
Was it also a mistake to​ promote the eye defect 
Was it​ also a mistake to say​ No comment​ 48times 
Was it also a mistake​ to call one officer a " f.....g tosser" and wish " fear and pain " on another​ 

If I am to be a key board warrior , crank or ghoul fair enough​ , but don't forget​ Madeleine in all of this She is​ the victim , NOT​ her parents​ !

sandancer wrote:A mistake is forgetting the one item you​ really​ needed​ when​ going shopping 

A mistake is putting​  odd socks on 

A mistake is writing the​ wrong date on a form 

A mistake​ is turning right instead of left .

The McCanns did not make​ a mistake​ , they along​ with their friends allegedly left​ their children on their own in the apartment for​ not 1 but 5 nights .

To me, a mistake in parenting is what Michael Jackson did when he accidentally held his baby over a balcony for a couple of seconds. There was uproar about that, and calls for him to be prosecuted. 

The McCanns, we are led to believe, did something far, far worse, but we are expected to have sympathy for them, and believe that they have suffered enough.

It's all about Kate and Gerry as the victims, nothing about a poor little girl who was the real, true victim. Nothing about a poor, lovely, frightened little girl who deserved way, way better from her supposedly loving parents.

Oddly the Liverpool Echo didn’t take the same stance when fighting a long campaign of justice for the victims of Hillsborough. It fought a righteous campaign of justice for victims. No sympathy for those haunted by mistakes, just a plain and simple unwavering expose of a cover up.

Gerry and Kate have arrogantly told us repeatedly that they had not made a mistake. "We've been assured what we did was within the bounds of responsible (respectable) parenting". "It was a collective decision" (in other words we aren't the only ones) "The person to blame is whoever went into that room and took a little girl from her bed". "We were providing our own listening service" (read for that if you blame us you must blame M.W. which offers this at other resorts) "It was like dining in your back garden wile the kids are upstairs in your bed". The McCanns never accepted their role in her disappearance until a public backlash forced them to change tack. Now it's "We made a mistake feel sorry for us".

A mistake is doing something once and then realizing and not repeating it. Leaving 3 babies alone while you and your friends go out to dinner every night is not a mistake it is a criminal offence, one they have not been punished for, yet!!!