Am I the the only one…
…who feels a bit uneasy at rich people offering rewards for the return of that missing girl, Madeleine McCann?
Scottish tycoon offers money, Top Shop owner boss Richard Green weighs in, then Richard Branson adds his half a million or whatever. I really hope they find her alive and well but somehow, because the parents are educated and well spoken, their complete and utter negligence hardly merits a mention.
Will these people offer similar rewards every time a child goes missing?
May 12th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Get ta fuck twenty, The wee girl was asleep and the parents were around the corner and checked on her every half an hour.
she didnt just go wandering off, some sick fuck broke into their apartment and stole her.
Im sure with the benefit of hindsight they wouldnt do it again but they could do without lads like you slagging them off.
Fair play to the people who put up some cash to get this wee girl back.
How can you find that unnerving?
i think you are just writing this to get a reaction.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Well, I’d have thought a three year old and two other small children needed more supervision than being checked on every half an hour.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
‘The wee girl was asleep’ alone with her tiny twin brothers while her parents were off having food and drink somewhere else. Regardless of how horrible the crime is, and how sorry we feel for the parents. they are not above questions being asked of their conduct. Who knows if they did check on her every half hour? Maybe it was every hour? Maybe it wasn’t the first night she had been left on her own asleep, certainly the kidnappers/abductors were confident enough to go in and take her, that would suggest they knew she would be alone and for how long, no?
May 12th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
“Get ta fuck twenty, The wee girl was asleep and the parents were around the corner and checked on her every half an hour.”
Get to fuck youself. What sort of scumbag parents leave their small children in a hotel while they go off on the piss? What if she woke up and decided to stick her finger in the socket or burn the hotel down?
Would any decent parent even leave their kids alone to go visit a neighbour down the street? No fucking chance, so why do it in an inbred country like Portugal?
This fuckers are a warning to everyone else.
May 12th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Yeah – I am inclined to agree with Twenty, FMC and the Scuttery fella on this one. Imagine up and leaving the pub/restaraunt you’re at every half hour to check in on the kids… ? It just isn’t going to happen. Whilst I don’t think that the parents should be slated for it right now, I do think that they were at some fault for leaving the kids unattended like that. It’s bollocks really. I dont even leave my 10 year old nephew alone at night in my own house… then again, I do like in the centre of Skangerville.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
I don’t mind the reward thing, but I take your point about whether they’d offer it for every kidnapped child – probably not.
The parents were obviously completely wrong to leave their children alone like they did. I’m sure they’d do things differently if they could get their time back again, and that they’ll never forgive themselves. That’s why people are silent on this, we don’t want to point the finger during their agony, but these things have to be said so fair play to you, Twenty. I hope the child is found soon, safe and unhurt. THEN, I hope the parents are severely cautioned for their negligence. I also hope that it makes other parents cop on, because I’ve seen this carry on time and time again and you dare not say a word to the parents, they’d ate ‘ya!
May 12th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
You are right on everything you said, Twenty. I had identical thoughts earlier today.
1. When our kids were young we wouldn’t dream of leaving them alone in a house asleep – especially not abroad in a holiday place. You are right – just because they seem respectable and well spoken people it’s somehow acceptable behaviour. If itinerants did the same many would call them completely irresponsible. I’m full of sympathy for them at the same time – it doesn’t excuse what happened to their poor child.
2. The reward idea is a bad idea going forward. It encourages bounty kidnapping. The media attention and appeals by everyone including police is best. We must appeal to people’s humanity to identify and return the child. 99.9% of people would be happy to give information free to find the child.
May 12th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
i all know that a poor child is missing ,and some sick
fuck has her. bring back the rope for all sick cunts
that abduct or mess about with kids.
May 12th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Course not Twenty. Madeleine is pretty, god love her. When some dog comes along they won’t give a fuck. Sad but true.
May 13th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Couldn’t agree with you more, John.
May 13th, 2007 at 12:08 am
It’s all gone a bit hysterical about their negligence – yes, they made a stupid decision; but it isn’t totally black (bad negligent parents) and white, (everyone else who feels free to comment on what horrors of parents they are – like they have eyes in the back of their heads or have their kids tied to them).
Surely this is a grey area of a bad choice – which normally, thankfully, doesn’t have such awful consequences. It really bothers me to see the parents demonised like this, especially when a sick fuck broke into the apartment to steal the child – and could probably equally have done so when the parents were in bed. I mean the parents didn’t cast her into the arms of the kidnapper, give them a break. I’m not absolving them from all; just saying that I don’t think they deserve the judgements being made on them – and that it is inappropriate to do so right now. I read a comment earlier today about having a replacement child, which I thought was irresponsible and really really sick. Surely they are going through enough, without people coming up with their own theories on stuff like that.
Made me think of Brass Eye, in our reaction to the parents.
May 13th, 2007 at 12:38 am
I think the reaction the parents has been far less critical than it might have been.
Do you think whoever took that wee girl just took a chance that night or was it possible he’d been watching the family over a period of days so he knew how much of a window he’d have to take her?
And it goes back to what John said. Everyone has sympathy and hopes for the best but the bottom line is they left three babies, more or less, unsupervised. They wouldn’t even think of doing it at home, why do it on holidays?
May 13th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Lets face it people it doesnt matter if it happened in Ireland, Portugal, Canada or the UK if this couple had been black there would be no reward no press no nothing
Whats more these parents should be up on negligence charges and if they were anything but rich, educated white people they would have had the their other children taken from them by now.
These people are irresponsible shits who should be publically flagelated for their crap parenting, they deserve neither sympathy nor understanding. They deserve a kick to the crotch
And before you idiot apologists start in I am whiter than you are these people are an embarasment to the species
May 13th, 2007 at 3:49 am
“I think the reaction the parents has been far less critical than it might have been.”
What exactly do you want? The media to slaughter them? Do you not think these parents are chastising themselves over what happened every second of every day?
I don’t see the need to pile on more agony for the poor family. They made a mistake. It doesn’t make them evil people. The sick bastard who snatched the girl is evil.
And as for the muppet above who referred to the parents as “scumbags”, you sir are one pathetic waste of oxygen.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:33 am
What exactly do you want? The media to slaughter them?
Of course not. I’m not suggesting they do that at all. What I am saying though is that it is right to ask questions of them and they way they put their children at risk and that more questions would be asked and assumptions made if it was a couple from a council estate somewhere.
The reward business makes me very uneasy though. What makes this little girl more important than all the other children who go missing in the UK each year?
This story, sadly, is the perfect opportunity for Sky News to wring its hands, send round the clock reporters and garner ratings with another safe middle-class audience clutching their own kids safe to their bosoms.
It’s very similar to the way they jumped on the bandwagon – then stole the bandwagon – when those wee girls Holly and Jessica went missing, completey ignoring the fact there were other kids who had disappeared in that time period.
May 13th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Notwithstanding all of the commentry above, as a parent who has been on holiday abroad with my 4 & 5 year old boy and girl, I have to say what on earth were the parents thinking. I have difficulty leaving the children with an adult baby sitter and they are never, ever, ever left alone. God have mercy on the poor child and whatever torment she is being put through, she is the one that we should be thinking about. I hope to Christ that parents will take some heed from this case and be wary to the sick fucks in our society, and they are not some unknown element some fucker knows something and is keeping shtum, and if you think it won’t happen again, think again, these fuckers don’t give a shit about your happy family.
May 13th, 2007 at 10:26 am
“their complete and utter negligence hardly merits a mention.”
And if you dare to mention it, you must be some kind of a massive heartless cunt who eats babies for breakfast.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
The Sky coverage of this story is extremely worrying and appears completely over the top. The fact that people are using this as a publicity opportunity to offer a reward is frightening. Imagine how many children’s lives you could save with £2.5m
Twenty, assume you have never had the pleasure of minding kids 24×7. You simply can not watch them the whole time. The parents were close by and checked regularly. Would you also suggest parents don’t sleep so they can ensure nothing happens to their children during the night?
As someone pointed out they made a decision it was a bad one, they have to live with it for the rest of their life. I don’t think castigating them for this adds to the debate.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
What do you mean “you cannot watch them the whole time”? Then you shouldn’t have kids. A three year old and two two year olds have no business being alone and unsupervised at any time. Even if there were no kidnappers/perverts/Belgians in the world, they can still stick their fingers in a socket or fall off of something they shouldn’t have clambered up on or drink something caustic and poisonous or stab themselves in the eye with God knows what etc etc etc…
And particularly in a foreign country I find that level of unsupervision hard to imagine. You wouldn’t leave your fecking credit cards unattended abroad in that manner.
Even people who don’t have kids know this. In the States these people would have more than likely been charged with negligence. Yes it’s hard for them now and yes my heart goes out to them and even more so to their little girl, but they had better learn from this and mind the other two kids and the same goes for any other negligent parents out there.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
And as for parents not sleeping to ensure their childs safety, I would assume most parents at least sleep in the same building as their children,thus ensuring a higher level of safety then leaving them alone to fend for themselves as above.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Twenty, assume you have never had the pleasure of minding kids 24×7. You simply can not watch them the whole time. The parents were close by and checked regularly. Would you also suggest parents don’t sleep so they can ensure nothing happens to their children during the night?
Of course you can’t watch them all the time, that’s why you get a babysitter.
I would suggest that parents don’t go out to dinner and leave their children alone no matter how close by they are.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
A babysitter is at best going to sit in the living room and gossip on the phone, not sit in the bedroom with their eyes glued to them at all time. If someone really wanted to take the child than a babysitter would not have been an impediment.
Children are on their own when they run into the next supermarket aisle, or hide underneath a clothing rail or go into the hedges to get a missing ball.
Based on the reports the taking of the girl did not appear opportunistic but planned. If it wasn’t when the parents were out, then it would have happened when they were asleep.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Who can say that this incident wouldn’t have happened anyway, in slightly different circumstances, a few hours or days later?
I think because the little girl is cute, and the parents seem to be middle class, it makes a bigger story on Sky or whoever – and because we want there to be some “reason” behind this terrible thing (i.e. bad monster parents, instead of acknowledging that pretty random sick fucks exist), it is very easy to throw the blame around. So the hysteria begins, and the story repeats and repeats on Sky.
If all these blamemongers actually feel the outrage on behalf of neglected kids that they profess to: start volunteering for kids charities, start donating, foster a kid, stop buying products of companies that use kid sweatshops, volunteer for education programmes that try to improve the lot of kids that start with less chances in life.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Flirty – are you really suggesting that had the children been under adult supervision she would still have been taken? That’s insane.
It’s one thing children being on their own in the supermarket aisle or whatever but these kids weren’t even of the age where you let them out to play around the corner. Why the fuck would you leave them on their own in an apartment in a strange country?
Based on the reports the taking of the girl did not appear opportunistic but planned. If it wasn’t when the parents were out, then it would have happened when they were asleep.
No way would she have been taken when the whole family was together. That’s nuts.
The point about the abduction being planned is a good one though. Would it be unfair to suggest that the parents had been doing this every night so the kidnappers knew exactly how much time they had, where to place a look-out etc etc?
I don’t think so.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Twenty it maybe insane but it does happen. Children can and are taken irrespective of what lengths the parents go to. You simply can not watch them 24×7, people have to sleep, pee and generally do stuff.
We can go around in circles on this one so best to agree to disagree. I think the parents have enough guilt with out other people adding.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I don’t think it is insane to say that the little girl could’ve been taken if she was asleep, and a babysitter was in a living room – or that the same could happen if the parents were asleep. Less likely, yes; but not insane. That’s my problem with the hysterical condemnation: the parents, by their actions, made it slightly easier for something bad to happen – which could still have happened at another time, or to someone else in the complex. However, you would think by the public reaction that they sold their child into slavery. I still believe that the circumstances of how it all happened are quite grey, and that they primarily deserve sympathy, not stone throwing.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I agree with twenty’s and John of Dublin’s comments. The people offering the reward must have a very poor, incorrect view of human nature if they think that nobody’ll come forward without an incentive.
But then again I must insist that the millionaires and billionaires giving money of their own volition here would have no problem paying a fair share of taxes for say, universal childcare and healthcare for everyone….however un-telegenic, uneducated and lacking in publicity the potential kid’s parents are.
And I fully expect The Sun, The Mail, The Sindo, The IT, RTE, Sky News, etc to continually berate them, and their respect owners, if they don’t.
May 13th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I agree Twenty. What pisses me off more is the celebrities, like that cunt Beckham, making an appeal. It’s actually horrible for them to use it for publicity.
If someone knew something, why the fuck do they need some cunt of a footballer making a ply for them to give information!
May 13th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Flirty,
I don’t know where you find your babysitters but whenever someone trusts me to look after their children I think that I would be a pretty good impedement to anyone trying to steal a three year old kid. I know you can’t physically stare at a kid for 24 hours a day to make sure noone steals them but you can at least make sure that you or someone you trust is within shouting distance of them. Bringing up kids is hard work, but it’s not impossible to do right.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Who is the Bertie Ahern of which you speak? Did he play QB for the Colts in the 70’s?
May 13th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I cant believe peoples reactions in blaming the parents. You should be able to leave your kids asleep in a room without being physically present. You shouldnt have to worry about them being stolen. By expecting the worst and living a life where you expect terrible things to happen you, in a way, encourage it. If it becomes the norm to never never ever let your kids out of your sight, then in a twisted way, evil perverts start to think that if they catch someone off guard, they were asking for it. And people who criticise the parents, in the same way, take the focus off the paedophiles, and probably in their minds (the peadophiles), make them feel less guilt.
May 13th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Apart from leaving these kids alone for thirty minute periods during the course of a night, if the parents are to be believed, has anyone else noticed their lack of emotions while being interviewed on TV?
Their words and pleas just seem too sterile and robotic
May 13th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Whatever about their deficient parenting skills and the stupid risk they took leaving their babies alone, these people are clearly in hell right now. Hell. Criticising their presentation skills kinda misses the point.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Some people will do anything for free advertising…
May 14th, 2007 at 3:45 am
Ah, guys. Youz are ALL so judgemental. No parent puts its childer in danger deliberately. The negative blogs must be from non-parents. Easy to blog wnen you don’t have the little b(l)oggers….
May 14th, 2007 at 10:26 am
“And people who criticise the parents, in the same way, take the focus off the paedophiles, and probably in their minds (the peadophiles), make them feel less guilt.”
What makes you think a paedophile suffers guilt? I doubt that they do.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I hope this is not the case, but its starting to look very like the JonBenet Ramsey thing in the US
May 14th, 2007 at 10:50 am
You’d have thought nothing else was happening in the world. Something like 37 people had their bodies blown all over the shop in Iraq and probably over their parents and kids, but to look at Sky, you’d think that it would be wrong of us to actually think there were far more important things going on in the world.
1 – Iraq.
2 – Where did Celia spot those curtain ties?
May 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I agree about the money, it’s kind of like when Kylie Monogue got breast cancer- you’d think no other woman in the world got breast cancer before her, with the amount of press coverage and shock it generated. Women die from breast cancer every day, Kylie’s was not more important. It’s like a hierarchy, and it’s the same with this- my heart goes out to those parents, but think of the millions of kids that go missing every day, or worse, the millions of disadvantaged children who die, or are sold into the sex trade. It’s also like the Virginia Tech thing- that was awful but why, when that many (and more) people are killed in Iraq by American soldiers, does it not get as much attention? Why aren’t Americans out in the street having vigils for those people? Why don’t JK Rowling et al give money to missing children organisations in general?
As people have said, there are always going to be times when you turn your back on your kids even for a second. They shouldn’t have left them alone but the person/people who stole her would probably have found nother way to do it, since they were tracking her.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I wonder if they had had 100k in cash in a suitcase in their apartment would they have gone off for some food and gargle, left it behibd and checked back every half hour or so to make sure it wasn’t nicked. I know I wouldn’t.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
We were in Egypt on holiday a couple of years ago when our daughter was 9. Because of a mix-up at the hotel she spent the first 2 nights in a room next to ours (joined by a balcony). Her mum thought she’d be fine, no different from sleeping in different rooms at home really but I swear I didn’t sleep a minute those 2 nights. Talk about on edge. There is no bloody way on this planet that we would have left her and fucked of to the pub, no matter how often we intended to come back and check up.
You can’t protect them against all the wrongs in the world but you can make educated and reasonable decisions. It’s not about 24/7 supervision but using your judgement as a parent. They made a bad decision and i’m sure it will haunt them forever, if people want to blame and hate anybody, blame the sick fucker(s) that took her. Hanging is too good for anybody that preys on kids, but it would be a start.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
yea, it would have been a lot better if the mad fuck that stole the kid bludgeoned the parents to death or burnt them alive ala limerick in their bed and then stole the kid. I wouldn’t feel half as sorry for them then.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Yeah right. You think these are the sort of people that would do that?
Bollocks they are. They’re sneaks and cowards. They would avoid confrontation at all costs.
May 14th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I decided to write a blog on the subject myself. It’s an unfortunate side effect of respectful media coverage in this case that the improper supervising of young children on holiday abroad is coming across as loosely acceptable.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Instead of focusing on the parents irresponsiblilty and stupidity the spotlight should be on these dirty fucks who prey on and abduct kids. They should be castrated without anesthesia then put up against a wall and shot and I’m NOT joking, I would gladly pull the trigger.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Did you notice the way the heading in the piece on the front of the Irish Times yesterday said ‘Prayers said for return of missing British girl’? You wouldn’t see the word from one end of the year to the other in that liberal, inclusive rag, yet when a cutesy 4 year old girl goes missing, the word ‘prayer’ is suddenly printable.
Yes, I hope she will be found.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:46 am
How often do we see some weeping spouse or parent on TV appealing for “anyone who knows anything about this terrible crime” to come forward with the fuzz standing alongside nodding sagely? And then a while later the next thing we see is the same person being led out of the cop shop with a blanket over their head.
I reckon some of the law enforcement lads who retired quietly after the Revolução dos Cravos should be allowed to go over Mum and Dad’s statements with them for half an hour or so and then we will see who is making tearful appeals.
There I’ve said it.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
[...] us could imagine (it brings tears to my eyes just to think of something happening to my kids), but Twenty’s right (read the comments) – I have yet to hear any sort of statement on the parent’s behalf saying [...]
May 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
It’s horrific the way people are slating the parents. What is wrong with people? Why are people so self-righteous and smug when something horrendous happens to someone? You are ENTITLED not to have you’re tiny child stolen by some evil fucker for christ’s sake. My heart goes out to the McCanns. They are good people who made a mistake that they will never ever ever forgive themselves for. It’s typical that this would happen to people like them and not to all the negligent, feckless, and stupid parents out there.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
When I was little, growing up in a Dublin suburb, it was not unusual for 8 year olds to be allowed to take younger siblings in pushchairs for walks. But everyone knew everyone, so nothing went unnoticed, and a stranger would stick out. This nosy, gossipy village was one of the reasons I sallied forth to seek the anonymity of London. Now, though I wouldn’t want to be back in that insular society, I can see the benefits of nosy neighbourliness. I think the parents just relaxed, as one does on a decent holiday. Nobody ever expects anything bad to happen to them, and when it does it blows all our minds, cos there but for the grace of God……….
May 15th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Parent’s are human, and there is no doubt these parents have gone over and over this again and again wishing they had never gone out that night.
There is a lot of moral high ground here. How many of you as babies or children were left in your pram for a few minutes or more while your Mother or Father went into the shop to get the groceries, paper, cigarettes, medicine and stayed that little bit longer having a chat with a neighbour? Even now that is currently a day to day event for a lot of parents as buggies and prams cannot be taken into the newsagents or chemists.
In those few minutes it is far easier to snatch a child than what has happened to the McCanns. The apartment they were renting was broken into and then their child was stolen from her own bed.
Right now they are going through the horrors of wondering what could be happening to their little girl.
They are aware of what can happen as this has happened a number of times in the UK. It is not that long ago that a little girl was stolen from her own bed in her home while her parents sat in the living room watching TV, and raped just around the corner from her house.
The blanket TV coverage being given to this tragedy is both a blessing and a curse. But if I was the parent of a missing child, I would never want the TV stations to give up.
As for rewards being offered, I have reservations on that as it can throw up smokescreens that need to be checked out and take vital manpower away from detecting. Though I can understand if I was a parent of a missing child I would latch on to anything that allowed me to hope that my child could be found.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I agree with Twenty, this reward from celebs is kinda sick, and a new twist on the “celebs as Gods” tripe, which is flogged every day as fact by the media.
I’d guess the celebs are involved because they were asked by a newspaper or Sky News or someone, and if they refused, they’d be lambasted for “not caring”.
Still, I don’t feel sorry for rich people who use the media to become richer, so…
As for the parents of this unfortunate child, they made a big, big mistake, and they’ll never get over it. Personally, I dont think small children should be brought abroad, it’s too dangerous. Yeah, I know things can happen at home, but that’s life.
Abroad, a kid doesn’t even know it’s abroad, all a kid cares about is being with it’s parents, it could be Courtown, the kid is happy.
Parents these days are too selfish.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:32 am
They should have brought their Uncle Terry to mind the kids.
Too soon?
May 17th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I’m so glad someone has being bloggin bout this. I felt so guilty because I thought that the parents were fucking CRAZY to leave 3 young kids on their own!But everyone was saying ‘the poor parents blah blah blah’. So thank Christ for this post, I’m NOT evil. But yeah, what were they thinking leaving 3 young kids alone in an apartment? There was a babysitter available for €5 an hour so why didn’t they avail of this service? I wouldn’t leave my dogs alone unsupervised in my house never mind 3 small kids. Hopefully other parents will learn from this.
May 18th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I agree with Twenty. I think he’s written in a measured way and made his point sensitively.
There is no way we can undo what has been done. But we can influence the future. We can influence what parents do in future, and thereby make life safer for children. After all, children are not responsible for their welfare. Adults make mistakes. We need to do as much as we can to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated, that people learn from knowing both the consequences and the communal reaction to such behaviour.
We do the future no favours by withholding heartfelt reaction against such behaviour. Yes, the reaction is best expressed in a timely manner but I see a need for a clear message to go out to those who are in charge of children.
Sloppy thinking, like ‘it could have happened any time’ and ‘you can’t do anything to prevent this sort of thing’ and ‘this is the world we live in’ is plain sloppy, however well-meaning.
Anger is appropriate, I feel because children are defenseless, totally dependent on the judgement of adults. Adults need to be adult, not kids out for a good time, even when they are on holiday. They are on duty all the time.
I write this as a parent of three children, one of whom is 20 months. Yes, I have turned my back for a few seconds. I admit that. There was a time when my daughter could have run out under a car and got killed. I was not holding her hand, when I should have been. But that was careless of me. I have admonished myself and know that I do not deserve the right to be careless. I have a job to do,and don’t want anyone letting me off the hook if I screw up.
That’s how I think.
Thanks Twenty, for giving a lead on this.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:54 am
[...] Major has hit part of it talking here and here about how ‘wrong’ it can strike you that this family are getting so much money that [...]