Maddie McCann

[balladmaker]

What was so special about tonight's programme that would change my mind?

Raw emotion of a mother and father who have lost their daughter.  It is clear that the fact they left her alone and defenseless is tearing them apart inside.  The account which Kate McCann gave in tonight's show, of when she returned to the apartment to find that Madeleine was missing, and how the curtains blew in from the window as she walked into the room, it seemed like a very genuine account to me.

As for the locals in the resort who shouted abuse at Gerry McCann on his return, and those who defaced the large bill board of Madeliene McCann, they are sick in the head.

[ardmhachaabu]

Pints, they revealed themselves more intimately than ever before, or so I thought anyway.  They allowed the cameras into their home with their twins and the twins talking about their sister...

If you are going to say that could be staged, then, yes it could but... I still believe the McCanns.

[Rav67]

Cutting Edge documentary on C4 tonight at 9pm should be worth watching folks.

Gut wrenching stuff.


Interesting to note the hostility shown to Gerry Mc Cann from the locals in Portugal when he returns to Praia da Luz. Their economy has been badly affected by the Maddy story. How / why do they blame Gerry Mc Cann ??

Spent a couple of nights in th Algarve last summer and was chatting to a lot of locals in a bar one of the nights, the subject of the McCanns came up and they all believed they had killed her or arranged her abduction.  They said most people there thought they had something to do with it.

Personally I don't think for a second that not one, but two people who were well thought of could have kept up such a charade in the public eye and not cracked and not had any concrete evidence raised against them given the searches and the huge police investigation which followed.  They just couldn't have gotten away with it. 

[Smokin Joe]

The thing that gets me about the abduction is the selfishness of the adults.

Apparently there were 9 of them at the Tapas that night.  How difficult would it have been for one of them to take turns night about to sit in and mind all the children, that is even if they were insistnent on going out every night of their holiday?

[orangeman]

The thing that gets me about the abduction is the selfishness of the adults.

Apparently there were 9 of them at the Tapas that night.  How difficult would it have been for one of them to take turns night about to sit in and mind all the children, that is even if they were insistnent on going out every night of their holiday?

We've all done something silly and irresponsible - the Mc Canns paid a high price. So let's not condemn them.

[SidelineKick]

Orangeman dropping your trousers in the middle of a bar is silly, forgetting to lock your back door when you leave the house is irresponsible.  But leaving your 5 year old daughter alone in an apartment is far beyond this.  I don't think they have anuthing directly to do with her disappearance but I cannot comprehend their actions that night. Selfishness.  How many times had they done that before I wonder.

[DennistheMenace]

It is a common practice amongst adults going on holidays to leave their children in bed asleep whilst they go to the bar and 'check on them' once in a while.

[Maiden1]

One of the first things I thought on this case was how the f&*k could you be so stupid to go out for a meal and leave your 3 children alone and leave the patio door open so that you wouldn't have to walk round the house but I know a girl who is a final year medical student you apparently is a genius, top of her class and all that but she has a very innocent view of the world.  She is from the south with a fairly strong accent but she would think nothing of taking a short cut home through the shankill road, get lost and stop and ask people for directions without realising she is in serious danger.  I sometimes think there may be some sort of inverse relationship between academic intelligence and common sense.

[The GAA]

Very difficult show to watch last night. The unspoken guilt that is eating them is evident in everything they do and say - rightly so.

I don't believe for a second they were in any way connected to Madeleine's disappearance. the fact that they were guilty of wilful neglect with the highest of price paid doesn't detract for a second for me from the reality that there's a little girl gone and there's a possibility that she's out there somewhere. i donated to the find maddie fund this morning. if keeping those 2 detectives on the case a day longer prolongs the chancesof her being found then it a worthy cause in my book.

[SidelineKick]

It is a common practice amongst adults going on holidays to leave their children in bed asleep whilst they go to the bar and 'check on them' once in a while.

Parent yourself Dennis?

[DennistheMenace]

It is a common practice amongst adults going on holidays to leave their children in bed asleep whilst they go to the bar and 'check on them' once in a while.

Parent yourself Dennis?

No but I was a child once.

[longrunsthefox]

It is a common practice amongst adults going on holidays to leave their children in bed asleep whilst they go to the bar and 'check on them' once in a while.

Parent yourself Dennis?

No but I was a child once.

...so was I!... well... a cub

[Norf Tyrone]

It is a common practice amongst adults going on holidays to leave their children in bed asleep whilst they go to the bar and 'check on them' once in a while.

Parent yourself Dennis?

No but I was a child once.

And you parents left you alone, while they went to the bar?

I am sorry, but as a parent even pre the Madeline events the concept of doing this horrifies me.

[DennistheMenace]

Only the naive will think this doesn't/didn't happen on a regular basis across many resorts across the world, it did and it does.

[Norf Tyrone]

Only the naive will think this doesn't/didn't happen on a regular basis across many resorts across the world, it did and it does.

Maybe it does... but I've never seen it.