Vocal Voices

Why? Why are the police spending so much time, manpower and money on a case six-and-a-half-years old when no new evidence has been presented? Why is one case being given so much priority over so many others? And why is the BBC pushing the case to the front of its reporting, and it has done over the weekend and today following a 'softening up' over the previous week?

The BBC has a huge influence over the news agenda in the UK and others have had to follow its lead whether they wanted to or not.

I am, of course, talking about Maddie McCann.

This evening the BBC is to air a Crimewatch special about the case. It will feature e-fits of a 'person' the police want to contact. He is not too tall and not too short, not too fat and not too thin, and white. Anyone who has seen these e-fits will wonder if it's the same man. If this is the quality of the latest investigation, which appears to be a badly disguesd attack on the Portugues police on behalf of the McCann's, then it is worthless.

The McCanns had their day in the media following Maddie's disappearance, and at Leveson. I understand and sympathise with their desire to 'know', but surely enough is enough?

I have always hoped that Maddie is alive, safe and loved, but I also think that after so much time if she reappears it will be by a fluke like the release of the abducted American women or the Josef Fritzl family.

It is so high profile because she was a cute little girl with "nice" middle class parents.

Had she been a 3 year old, ethnic minority boy with parents who were on the dole, I am sure we would have heard very little about it.

New evidence is supposed to be a man carrying a child late at night. I don't really call that new evidence - I call it probably some dad taking his child home from a restaurant after a night out in a holiday resort.

I don't think the case should ever be closed until she is found, dead or alive, but it should definitely not have so much manpower used on it. Maybe the police and BBC could use their manpower to the child that went missing today, or yesterday or last week - of which I am sure there are some.

Just two words - media circus.

It's not just Madeline McCann though is it?
There is also the Jimmy Savile / Operation Yewtree thing going on, plus the 99 different Hillsborough disaster inquiries. God only knows how many police officers etc are tied up with all this.
I said when Madeline McCann went missing that they'd still be talking about it in 20 years. Debi is right, if it had been Joe Soap's daughter from Sunderland it would have been forgotten about by now.
I know that's harsh, but imo it's true.

And if it had been your child? As for only acting because she is white! The shocking case of the innocent black lad who was murdered still goes on year after year.Stephen Lawrence! Were Maddy my child I would have fought to the ends of the earth to solve what happened to her.. And incidentally how many of you will admit leaving ones children tucked up in bed when on holiday and popping down to the hotel bar for a drink. Yes the constant coverage and publicity can be aggravating however as a mother I would want answers

I have already owned up to leaving my daughter in a locked hotel room in Spain but in a different era. As for Maddie I thought it was Cameron who set things going again now.

Yes we both did pederito, checking from time to time they were ok. At least some action is being taken, too many cases of youngsters being kidnapped found years later as seen in the case in the USA, the Austrian girl kept a slave, and others. I cannot imagine anything worse than losing a child, but to lose one this way puts parents in trauma for life. We have God knows how many Romanian children and youngsters along with other nationalities in this country who have been abducted from their home land and forces into slavery,begging, and abuse. Just imagine how you would feel if this were your child.
Yes the McCanns have got on people's wick however if doing so has forced the police into action, let us hope it proves to be worthwhile.

My ire is not with the McCanns. They made one mistake and will suffer for it for the rest of their lives; and it is understandable for them to want to know what happened to Maddie.

My ire is with the media, especially the BBC, for constantly regurgitating old news as new news based on the flimsiest snippet of information. Cromwell mentions Operation Yewtree. Yesterday it was announced that the police have widened their investigation to take in more hospitals. That was the news: nothing more. Yet the BBC took the opportunity to inform us, over again, about its internal investigations re Savile, the number of victims - where and when, and when and why he was Knighted. We get the same treatment with the McCanns, Stephen Lawrence, Hillsborough, Plebgate...........

If I was a cynic I would be tempted to believe that the media had an agenda. That those within it had decided the rights and wrongs or guilt and innocence of a case and were using their position to put pressure on the authorities to come up with the "right" result. Yesterday's Crimewatch was one such manifestation of that process.

i reckon the police are making these claims to justify a few jaunts to sunnier climes

One and I hope last word on this subject is that if it was a professional snatch to order you would think they would have waited till the McCanns were asleep in the next room before taking her when they would have had a longer lead time before the Hue and Cry.