Madeleine McCann

[Polished]

Harry hindsight tells you that if Gerry and Kate hadn't trusted the babysitting service at the resort they should have taken say half hour shifts looking after the children so one parent was present with the children all the time. Even if nothing were to happen a child can wake up frightened in the night and need the reassuring presence of an adult. Having said that I didn't like the way they were relentlessly chastised, over the years, for having left the children and only checked on them half hourly. It somehow took on that ring of "nothing terrible is going to happen to my kids because we wouldn't do that". Actually there is a boy that this same man is being suspected of abducting from a beach in full view of others.

This was such a high profile case with so much money spent on it but I think it was justified. Unfortunately it was a case that was botched from the start and the proper investigation of this case might solve other missing child cases and mean this perpetrator won't be given the opportunity to offend again.

 

[Jambalaya]

Just take abduction out of the picture, there could have been a fire, one of the kids could have had a medical emergency, there are so many things that can go wrong.

Correction: I think she was four not three, still far too young but for accuracy sake...

I was curious, so I looked it up. She was abducted nine days before her fourth birthday.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Thank you @Jambalaya, the articles I was reading gave conflicting ages.

 

[Rhea]

Around £11.75 million (found a new figure), and that's just what the UK spent, and Britain wasn't the primary crime scene nor lead investigators, Portugal was, on one case seems...unfairly balanced. Children go missing every day, every damn day, and there are thousands and thousands of missing children. I'd much prefer those resources and funds be allocated and spread around. I'd be surprised if this one case and the sheer amount of resources and money put into it meant that other cases hadn't suffered and were also left unsolved.

I feel bad for any parent in a similar situation. I want money spent to help more people. I am glad that they have new suspect and hope the authorities have the proof to convict if he did it.

 

[Polished]

It does seem incredible that it took this amount of money from the UK to investigate this case, especially when this man (if he is in fact the perpetrator) was a known paedophile who was around at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. I'm not sure why he was originally investigated and cleared of involvement but he was. I've read that paedophiles are often notoriously difficult to catch and at least a strong "we'll track you down to the end of the earth" message has been sent out with this high profile case.