Whilst it was a drama based on the story, the recent adaption with Sheridan Smith had varied mentions of the difference in the police & media coverage. Although the media attention can be partly explained by the fact that Shannon Matthews was not as photogenic (or young) as Maddie and therefore wouldn't sell as many papers. The amount spent on the hunt for Maddie has, in my mind, been too much when compared to other missing children - they should all get the same treatment. Not sure Gordon Brown would have got involved about every missing child.

As for the circumstances surrounding the night, easy to criticise after the event. We once went to a holiday camp and used the baby monitoring service for about 10 minutes for my eldest. My wife was so uncomfortable doing this, we went back to the flat and never left him - or my daughter after she was born - alone like that again. But as I understand it that service wasn't available in Portugal, so I would never have left either of them alone. As previous comments have said, anything - even minor things - could have happened and become more serious because no parent was around.

“My experience of life is that it is not divided up into genres; it’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you’re lucky."

Perhaps Madeleine McCann never existed and the parents are just actors? It's just a good way of keeping everyone chatting about a conspiracy while the rest of society falls apart un-noticed?

And they are still spunking charidee money on legal challenges.

[Link]

I disengage, I turn the page.

^^ correct. and the irony on the 10th anniversary, is that they could have been promoting their own stuff to raise funds.

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (23 Mar 2017 9.10am)

I disengage, I turn the page.

Morning all,

Just caught up with this thread. I can only reiterate comments I made previously. At one point I had 3 children under the age of 3 and even leaving the room to go upstairs to the toilet or to hang out washing could leave me returning to all sorts of chaos. One such example was the older of the three thinking it was funny to open the front door and let his younger brother aged aged 2 into the street. So to go out and leave them all in an apartment which was UNLOCKED is absolute f***ing madness. No other word for it. Anyone who has ever had one kid let alone multiples know at that age they are prone to waking up in the night, wanting their parents or coming down with sickness and things like that at the drop of a hate seemingly with no warning. It's only a theory but it does make me wonder if they had been given medised or phenergan etc to 'ease' them into sleep and keep them that way.

Second point as others have made is the 'newsworthy' victim scenario. When I studied criminal law there is a whole area devoted to this very theory. It usually talks about rape and sexual assault victims but also applies to murder victims. The better looking the victim the more papers it sells. Blonde hair blue eyed victims are most appealing from that sense. Think back to Sally anne bowman. 18 year old, aspiring model, tall, slim, long blonde hair. Her photo was on the front of every paper for weeks and again during the murder trial of Mark Dixie because she sold papers. Compare that to a year later when 5 women were murdered in Ipswich. Many of them of a similar age. What was the difference. They were drug addicts and prostitutes. Therefore not deemed as newsworthy and not looked at in the same way sadly

When I was a young girl my Mother said to me.. You listen here kid you're CPFC

The McCanns refused to allow blood testing of the twins until several months after the 'abduction'. But how would Kate and Gerry McCann get hold of sedatives and know how long they'd take to leave the children's systems? Did they have any medical background at all?