Tuesday, September 11, 2007

McCanns - further questions

The McCanns seem to be surprised that they have been re-questionned and made suspects. I too am surprised - that this did not happen sooner. I would have thought that almost the first thing to happen in an investigation involving the disappearance of a minor would be to arrest, question and then charge or the release the adults who had last seen her alive. But then, nothing in this case seems to be done in the order that one would expect or answer the questions one would expect to have been answered.

The fact that it happened this way round, does I suppose make it into a bit more of an issue. The Portugese police suggested for months that they were not considered 'suspects', when it is now evident that this was not necessarily the case. I sincerely hope that whoever is making the decisions now regarding them as 'suspects' and whether or not to charge them has enough credible evidence to make the alternative consequences worthwhile. For surely any case involving parents as possible suspects in the disappearance/potential death of a minor will involve social services, and, in this case, as both parents are registered medical practitioners, of investigation by the GMC. It may not be a case of the McCanns not wishing to return to work - they may not be allowed to until the decision has been reached whether to charge them or remove them from 'suspect' status.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find myself totally unable to go along with your hard line attitude to these parents. There was a great column in the Guardian yesterday that explained the predicament of the general public very well. As human beings we have to believe that they had nothing to do with it as they have convinced the world of their grief in the past few weeks - even the Pope. We now have to believe that they are being cruelly set up, otherwise our faith in humanity is destroyed. However, due to recent developments, we have to entertain the possibility that they may be the most horrific murderers of the last few years, and we have been utterly deceived. The point of the article was as follows:
We no longer know how to react - we have to hold two contradictory thoughts in our minds at the same time: the McCanns have now either suffered the cruellest fate imaginable - not only to have innocently lost their beloved daughter but also to have been publicly accused of a wicked crime - or they are guilty of the most elaborate and heinous confidence trick in history, deceitfully winning the trust and sympathy of the world. One of these statements is true and both are shocking and terrible.

I am longing for you to stop viewing this case as a lawyer and to start seeing it as a human being, with a heart - and I hope to God that our humanity is not let down.

Rachel said...

I think that you missed the point of my comment anonymous.

My attitude to the parents at first (back in May) was hardline; I felt that if they had not left the child alone then there would have been little chance of her disappearing unnoticed. I also felt that there was something odd in their lack of apology and their envoking the world (or British) press to the extent that they did.

I think you are right, that in some ways I have been viewing this as a lawyer. I do not find this surprising as it is what I do and how I think; given that it is also a legal case, I do not think that it is inappropriate. I do have a heart and do view things from a human perspective as well, but these thoughts are mere speculation and something which I did not want to entertain on this blog without facts to substantiate my speculation. There are enough people doing this already. I simply wanted to discuss some facts and raise some questions.

The comment I made here was merely that I hoped that whoever decided to not make them a suspect to start with and has now changed their mind has enough credible evidence to support their stance and to make the consequences of such a decision worthwhile. I do not think that is a hard line attitude.

I do not see how "our faith in humanity" can be destroyed by either of the unpleasant senarios before us. I do not also see how it is the "cruellest fate imaginable" to "innocently lose a beloved daughter and be publicly accused of a wicked crime". It is a horrid situation, yes, but I can think of far worse things which could have happened. They have also, I do not think, been publically accused of anything. There is speculation.