LYDIA REID wrote:
Clare wrote:
Wow, I didn't realise that this was a "class" thing created by the "under-classes" who are simply jealous of the McCanns and are being mean to them when all they did was leave three children of under four alone in an unlocked apartment while they went out.

Personally I didn't call it along class lines. I just saw two very selfish, irresponsible parents whose daughter had actually questioned their behaviour herself on the morning of the very day they repeated the pattern and left her alone with her siblings, yet again! "Where were you when we were crying last night?"

Lydia, there has been knowledge of Portugal's role in international paedophile rings for some time. But even if that knowledge didn't exist it is surely the most basic rule of good child care not to go out and leave children alone. To excuse that horrifies me. I accept some newspapers crossed lines but ultimately the McCann's ARE responsible and I cannot find any sympathy for them. We aren't talking about a situation where they had to rush out urgently for some reason. They went out to dinner and by all accounts this seems to have been the regular pattern. They chose not to use the babysitting service available also. I think they were grossly negligent. I think most people do.

Well I really did not know about Portugal and members of my family went to Portugal the year before Maddie went missing and although like me they would not leave the children I think they would have had second thoughts about going just because careful as you are you cannot have your eyes on them every second. Ours were old enough (10 and 12) for instance to go to kids clubs.

I have a feeling we must agree to disagree on the blame issue. I also feel that even if I were to blame them absolutely they and Maddie have paid the ultimate price for anything they have done wrong.

They will spend their whole lives in torture unless they get her back.

If they got her back tomorrow their lives will never be the same again.

All they can do now is pray for forgiveness and do what they are doing now, spend their lives looking for her, just in case she is still alive.

If they have the same God that I know he will forgive if their request is genuine.

No Lydia, only one person paid the ultimate price and that was Maddie. Maddie was also entirely blameless.

Don't put their grief in the same category as her suffering because it doesn't even come close. She was the helpless wee girl. They were the parents who, it has already been stated, chose not to use a babysitting service and went out and left their three children alone and unprotected. And not just once either, it was the routine.

And if they truly want forgiveness then they are going to have to admit that their neglect of her and her siblings was to blame for what happened to her.

Whether one is aware of what goes on in a foreign country or not the very idea of leaving those children for them to go out to dinner in the evenings is disgraceful, reckless and utterly irresponsible. This is not an "Oh it could happen to anyone." situation. The vast majority of parents would not dream of doing what they did. I repeat, their daughter asked them that very morning, "Why did you not come when we were crying last night?" Out of the mouths of babes eh? Yet STILL they couldn't stay in that evening, or take their children with them. So if they're in torture Lydia its probably because they should be.