The fine line between sympathy and condemnation for the McCanns

The fine line between sympathy and condemnation for the McCanns

Published May 12, 2011
Politics and Culture 9 Comments



Feeling no sympathy whatsoever for the parents of Madeline McCann will not be a way of making myself very popular, but hearing Kate McCann talking this week about how she thinks someone tried to abduct Madeline the night BEFORE she was actually left alone to be taken from her bed, fills me with disgust rather than compassion.

As a woman, I put myself in the position of a mother and find it impossible to understand how this woman could leave a young child and two babies in their beds, in a hotel room in a foreign country, while she went out with friends, not once but repeatedly. Not only this, but she already had the suspicion that someone had been in the room and tried to take the children the previous night. How can one feel sorry for her? Kate told the press this week, on Madeline’s eighth birthday, that on the morning the abduction happened Madeline had asked why her mum and dad didn’t come straight to the children’s room when they were crying the night before. ’I never thought for one minute that there was something sinister’ is what she said, ‘I just worried, had she woken up and nobody had been there? But obviously, when we discovered she’d gone, it just seemed very likely to me that in fact, somebody had maybe tried the same thing the night before and had been disturbed, maybe when the children started screaming. There was something about it that just didn’t seem right.’

Meanwhile, Gerry McCann seems almost dismissive of their own responsibility for their children; ‘Who’s thinking about child abductions in a little sleepy out-of-season tourist resort? It never entered our minds. We felt very safe – it was a family resort.’

I’m not a parent yet myself, but I don’t know how anyone could feel like that, let alone say those words after their child had been kidnapped while they drank and ate a meal with friends. How can you ever be off-duty when it comes to your children?



It fills my stomach with an uneasiness to hear it. The whole world is expected to be moved to tears with compassion for this woman, this mother, because she’s lost her child, but where my sympathy lies is with a little girl who was left alone in a room, taken by a stranger, and then who knows what happened to her? The fact that that little girl was probably crying for her parents, frightened, and then has potentially been through the most unbearable ordeal subsequently, is a tragedy. When I see Kate McCann crying on the news, clutching Madeline’s cuddly cat, I don’t feel moved; I feel revulsion.

And, of-course, these new interviews and statements are not merely in honour of Madeline’s eighth birthday. The McCanns have a new book to promote. With the title Madeline: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, and with the words; ‘All proceeds donated to Madeline’s fund’ (which presumably means the McCann’s bank account) on the front cover, the book is the latest publicity stunt in a long line. My less cynical self thinks that any mother in that position, myself included, would want to draw as much attention as possible to their missing daughter’s plight. However, I’m inclined to think that the attention the McCann’s solicit isn’t necessarily in Madeline’s interest alone.



Many online commentators and blogs have expressed the view that the book will do little to actually find Madeline, and that the price has already been reduced by half by Waterstones and other major retailers. There are many sceptics willing to broach the feeling that all is not right with the McCanns, and I tend to agree with them. After the initial welling up of empathy for the family, and the concern for a missing girl, cracks began to appear in the apparently perfect tragedy; none less than the McCann’s hire car, where blood was found.

I haven’t been able to make my mind up about the McCann’s, and I don’t really want to until we have real information and evidence about what happened, because none of us really knows one way or the other, what happened to Madeline. From the first day the news story broke,I’ve always felt concern for Maddie, but have never been able to overcome a certain uneasiness about the parents. Whenever I look at them, or read statements they’ve made, I can never make myself forget a nagging feeling that something isn’t right.

I think it started with what Kate apparently said when she ran down back down to the Tapas bar, after finding her daughter gone. I can’t track down the exact quote, but I remember clearly from the media at the time, what she cried out was; ‘They’ve taken her, they’ve taken her.’ Now, to me, this feels odd. Firstly, the use of ‘they’ implies that there is a specific person in her mind. Speaking speculatively, I would imagine that were I in that situation myself, I would be more inclined to say; ‘Someone’s taken her’, rather than ‘they.’ Who are ‘they’? It doesn’t feel right.

I’ve always held the view that they had something to do with it, which was made all the more plausible in 2007, when the McCanns first offered to take a polygraph test, or lie detector test, as a publicity exercise to prove their innocence, and then staunchly refused when the moment came. What would Jeremy Kyle say? If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.

Of-course, this is only my own opinion and gut feeling, but instincts often turn out to be right on the money. My only hope is that Madeline is somewhere safe, and hasn’t been harmed. For a little girl to suffer would be horrific.

http://vikkilittlemore.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/the-fine-line-between-sympathy-and-condemnation-for-the-mccanns/

Good article.

There´s no point in going on about child neglect, leaving the children unattended etc- it probably didn´t happen!

I am sure most people find it incredible that the parents of Madeleine McCann could repeatedly leave their young children unattened in an open apartment in a foreign country. Nothing new there. What about the 60 minute checks that suddenly became 30 minute checks, they´re equally incredible, infact unbelieveable, you just wouldn´t do it; the children were only 3 and 18 months, again you just wouldn´t do it (what about the reported 75 minutes of unattened child crying on 2nd May, where were the 30 minute checks then). Furthermore, for all the members of their group to make the same parenting decision and to all feel comfortable in leaving their children unattended is another remote and unbelievable scenario.

If the above is beyond belief, then why would they "all" conconct such a story, it defy´s logic. Afterall the call from on high of abuse and child neglect would be enough to ruin most professional reputations and relationships. I don´t know the answer, however in the absence of any evidence to support the McCanns abduction story (which has now been down graded to that of a theory by their mouthpiece - can´t bring myself to say the mouthpieces´name) then the two scenario´s no longer sort of go hand in hand in supporting one another. Rather, it may be said that without any evidence of an abduction they become mutually exclusive.

So how do I reconcile the situation of no abduction and no checking. What did they do with their children? Did they repeatedly dine at the on site Tapas Restaurant? Who knows! Or is the checking/abduction all part of some sort of damage limitation exercise the creation of which is easier to live with than the harsh reality (whatever that might be - can´t begin to imagine). The answer lies in the reconstruction of the events of 2/3/4th May 07, get them all back, staff, holiday makers, the lot. I can see why the the McCanns et al steered clear of that one.

I..I say boy I can´t hear you, CAN´T HEAR YOU!

Would they be able to reconstruct something now that happened 4 years ago?

If such a reconstruction ever happens, I suppose the "I can´t remember, it was so long ago" response will be heard frequently. Although I can´t help think that Scotland Yard, which has a reputation to maintain; if they really are to "review" the case files then they too will arrive at a juxtaposition (similar to that of the PJ) because of the many discrepancies in the various witness statements. Perhaps such discrepancies could create the need for a reconstruction. I´ve got to believe that these guys in Scotland Yard will want to score goals and get to the bottom of things. But who know´s what will transpire, otherwise we´ll all have to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down...

I say boy... Fortunately I always carry a spare set of feathers!

Kate wouldn't be able to use the "I can't remember" excuse: she just pocketed quite a nice sum of money by remember the most gore details that will embarrass her children for ever.