General Chat

Please can we let this drop. Whatever happened to Madeleine her parents are having to live with this for the rest of their lives whether they are guilty of anything
or not. Just unwise to have left the children but many professional people do tend to employ home helpers, child minders ect. it is their way of life.

Not many days pass before there are cases in the press where men are downloading vile videos of babies and children being raped

Can you even begin to understand how her parents are feeling - bare in mind the foul things that are happening to children in todays society

Judge not Lest ye be Judged .

Agreed.

How many have left young children alone in the past? Cast your minds back to the 50s and 60s holiday camps, (us older ones) when it was not uncommon for babies to be left alone in a chalet with a towel on the door to alert camp staff that there was a child within. "Child crying in chalet six" was often heard during the entertainment. Doesn't make it right of course.

Yesterday, it became known that the Supreme Court in Lisbon ruled in favour of Gonçalo Amaral, in the long running lawsuit that was filed against him over his book "Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira".

This is the culmination of a costly, difficult process that caused a lot of pain and distress, not only to the persons directly involved, but also to many who refused to be silenced, both on the internet and 'offline'.

Nonetheless, it also brought out the very best in so many people who have shown their support, both morally and materially, over so many years. It has been tremendously encouraging and heartening, and it must unequivocally be stated that without you, it would simply not have been possible to walk this road towards Justice.

We await the publication of the Court's decision and will update you soon with relevant information.

In the meantime, there are simply no words that even remotely match the strength and the tenacity that you have dedicated to this process.

So a mere "Thank you" will have to do.


Projecto Justiça Gonçalo Amaral

Bob....what about leaving the baby in the pram outside the shop normal practice for so long....no way you could always see the pram from inside the shop.

Well I can say my children were never left unattended

Nor would I have ever taken them to Butlins

Was it the red coats at Butlins or was that somewhere else ?

My Nan had one of my cousins for the day once,took him shopping left him outside in his pram, did her shopping walked home talking to a friend, took her coat off....remembered my cousin....ran faster than she'd ever ran in her life...found him sound a sleep in his pram.......

Just shows things happen to everyone at some point in life.

Snr Amaral cannot 'let this drop' and neither can the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who care what happened to Madeleine McCann.

Neither can the kind souls who contributed to the 'fund -' they didn't expect the contributions were going to pay for expensive lawyers or dodgy private investigators. Reading their anguish as the deception unfolded was enough to reduce a stone to tears.

I used baby sitters - that means my children were left in the care of a responsible person. NOT left in a foreign country with a 3 year old totally responsible for 2 younger children with neither windows nor doors locked.

Somewhat different!

“Son, never trust a man who doesn’t drink because he’s probably a self-righteous sort, a man who thinks he knows right from wrong all the time. Some of them are good men, but in the name of goodness, they cause most of the suffering in the world. They’re the judges, the meddlers. And, son, never trust a man who drinks but refuses to get drunk. They’re usually afraid of something deep down inside, either that they’re a coward or a fool or mean and violent. You can’t trust a man who’s afraid of himself. But sometimes, son, you can trust a man who occasionally kneels before a toilet. The chances are that he is learning something about humility and his natural human foolishness, about how to survive himself. It’s damned hard for a man to take himself too seriously when he’s heaving his guts into a dirty toilet bowl.”
? James Crumley

My main issue is not with the fact they left the kids unattended, although I don't necessarily agree it was the right thing to do but rather with the manner in which the story broke and the strange attitude of the parents and their versions of what was supposed to have happened.

As I said, something somewhere just did not ring true.

I would have been happy to let it drop. But ...

Of course they shouldn't have left their children unattended. But I cannot understand the venom and hatred they have had to endure.

My son couldn't have been lured away in a shopping mall because he was either in his pushchair or on reins. Where was the hatred for Denise Bulger?

The McCanns didn't behave as people wanted them to. There was no weeping and wailing for the cameras and they have been constantly punished for this. It's sickening.

They were negligent as were many parents of lost or abducted children.

By not weeping and wailing in front of the cameras were they maybe showing they were "made of stronger stuff" the "good old stiff upper lip", a trait sadly lost in many where everyone suddenly needs to show more emotion than required.

Should people be punished for that rather than acting like they're on a down market chat show.?

Why should a man whos only crime is writing a book
Be persecuted by them and sued
When they themselves also wrote a book and they wrote theirs first

Why are their facts greater than his :-( :-(

If you had to report a serious crime would you expect the main investigating officer to then write a detailed book on it ? If you had to go to a doctor for a serious illness would you expect that doctor to write a book on it ? Do you expect your childs teacher to write detailed books about your childs educational problems ?
Professionals should not write books giving full details end of.........

Their facts are greater than his because they're theirs to give.

Well I am so glad James Heriot wrote about his working life
I think its ok to do so
I've read many books about Policemen
and how crime were solved or investigated

My special interest is Victorian Gas light murders
I am happy they wrote about their investigations

Many Teachers have wrote books on their lives
Little house on the Prairie was a very popular Book and TV show :-D

Just because they're popular doesn't mean they're accurate or factual.

James Herriot didn't go out of his way to make someone look bad; Victorian gaslight murders are hardly affecting anyone living; Teachers that may have written about their teaching lives have not given real names for negative situations or they'd be sued; Little house on the Prairie the TV show is full of historical mistakes.

Still entertaining and Popular

Nipper Reeds books a really good read
I am happy he wrote his book

There's a market for these books otherwise they would never be wrote

True crime stories are often told by the lead investigator of the case; someone with intimate knowledge of the true crime. Many times, with the help of an experienced writer, these police officers, detectives and investigators can give the reader insight into the crime, the investigation and prosecution of the offender

Hmmm...the prosecution of the offender and there's the crunch......

As for a market for these books...people used to line up to watch executions too.

If you were under investigation for a serious crime and upto that point the authorities had not managed to secure a case against you, would you want them to write a warts and all book on it ? What if they then decided to take you to court would you expect to get a fair trail, with a jury who were totally unbias ?

Anybody who wants to write a book about me go for it :-D

I am neither a Criminal or nor have I Neglected my family :-(