Madeleine - a confusing tale
With the global publicity over missing Madeleine McCann it is easy to overlook the actual events which led to the discovery that she was not in the family apartment, where she had been left asleep with her twin sisters - all them the result of IVF treatment.
Sunday Telegraph 7/5/07
"There was confusion yesterday over early reports that there had been a break-in at the McCanns' two-bedroom, ground-floor apartment at Ocean Club, a resort run by the Mark Warner travel company.
Trish Cameron, Mr McCann's sister, said on Friday that she received a telephone call from her brother, who was "hysterical and crying his eyes out".
She said: "They had put the kids to bed at 7pm and checked on them every half-hour as they had dinner nearby with the rest of the party. Gerry said the window was open, the shutters broken and the door, which had been locked, was hanging open."
But Robin Crossland, the administrator of the resort said he had been present when the McCanns were first interviewed by police soon after Maddy vanished. "They clearly said that they had left the French windows unlocked as they were using them to access the apartment to check on the children throughout their meal," he said."
Daily Mail 6/5/07
"In a robust defence of his force's response. Guilhermino Encarnicao, director of the judicial police, said officers were on the scene on Thursday within five minutes of a 10.40pm call."
Abduction ?
Now the received wisdom in every report is that Madeleine has been "abducted" for which - if there is any evidence - the police have not disclosed the reasons for pursuing "suspects".
Of course if the child woke and went (as many children do in the night) go looking for their mum, she may have wandered off and been lost, hid herself, ended up inthe sea - and despite the lengthy search simply remains undiscvered.
Increasingly it seems that under UK and US law (and many other countries) leaving children in such circumstances would count as "reckless endagerment" or "negligence" - it is impossible to believe from conversations we have had that if Madeleine had been lost under these circumstances in the UK, the Social Services would be taking a very close , detailed and active interest.
Pic was taken by Lord Patel in May 1968 when he spent some time working on the Flora of Portugal and just before a he caught the bus from Lisbon to Paris to be in time for Les Evenements de Mai. It is of a small chapel near Priaia da Roche. For the techies it was a Kodachrome slide taken with a Voigtlander Vito I with built in semi -automatic exposure through the viewfinder
UPDATE 28/5/07 7.30pm
One mystery solved is why a small and inexperienced web design company in Ullapool , Infohost set up the "official" Madeleine site.
"Madeleine's Aunt, Phil McCann, is a teacher in Ullapool and she contacted us and asked if we could do a website for Madeleine.
We were more than happy to oblige. We had a basic site up and running on the internet within a day. "
Sky News Online Inside The Website Engine Room - By Calum MacRae / Wednesday May 23, 2007
6 comments:
# The elements which the Prosecution have to establish in court before there can be a conviction for gross negligence manslaughter are as follows;-
1. A duty of care towards the deceased.
2. Breach of that duty of care.
3. Did the breach cause the death of the victim-[causation].
4. Can the breach be characterised as gross negligence and therefore a crime?
Of course, there is the jurisdiction issue (and perhaps the issue of pseudo-class, ie exploitables rather than exploiters in UK's Stasi-state).
The situation invites a comparison with this case.
Doubt the Mcanns will ever be charged with negligence now that they're international celebrities.
Curious how the UK Press treated their negligence as a taboo subject. Unusual behaviour on their part ...
There is something profoundly strange about this story and its treatment which I suspect people will be puzzling over for a long time
But that's not why I'm commenting...
An autofocus Voigtlander? 1968? I have no doubt that Lord Patel is an early adopter and way ahead of the curve on most things but surely back then the only viable form of autofocus was getting someone else to focus the camera for you?
The mccann statements are getting a bit odd
"Whether we were in the bedroom next door we would still feel as guilty."
As it would be unlikely to have happened in such a case, they'd probably feel a lot worse
He said the restaurant had a direct line of sight to the apartment and was "not dissimilar to having dinner in your garden".
Well, looking at
Rare picture of resort here, they must have a fucking big landscaped garden or extraordinary eyesight, and its a steep hike to do every 30 minutes when out enjoying spanish grub
How pope nazinger is going to help,despite the church's profound interest in the little ones, I'm not sure.
Anyone care to guess the combined salaries of the McCann's? I have a pal who is a consultant - salary ca GBP 140k. So, the McCann's are pulling in, say, GBP 200 - 250k per annum. Anyone care to confirm, or otherwise?
Anyway, the point is, ... where's the nanny?
Why are these NHS fat-cats so tight that they aren't prepared to fork out some cash for a nanny; especially if they went on holiday to get lashed with their mates?
One more thing ... it is not unknown for medics to organise conferences in pleasant sunspots. Nothing wrong with that you may say, but when it's paid for by the NHS and only about ten people attend (who are mates from college), and it consists of presenting a paper in the most informal surroundings (the bar or pool), it's a bit off. Anyone know if this was a working holiday?
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