The huge media coverage is a double edged sword, on one hand it means that awareness is raised but on the other hand, it also means that predators get fame and are under more pressure to distance themselves from the victim by any means.

It also puts the police under a lot of pressure to arrest or charge someone and that can lead to mistakes being made.

It’s strange when you think about it, because you realize there are things you can replace and things that are irreplaceable. When I really think about it I realize that I can replace everything but people or special moments.

This has all the characteristics of another tragedy, but all anyone can do for now is wait and have hope!

over-reactions not required.

not from parents tempted to wrap their children in cotton wool, nor from the lynch-mob currently sharpening pitchforks.

fingers crossed.

I agree with kaesae.

When I really think about it I realize that I can replace everything but people or special moments.

When you really think about it?? It’s strange when you think about it???

Not in MENSA are you.

My little girl was four on tuesday..I feel sick everytime I think about poor April..why do these things still go on these days and what makes someone do such an evil thing?

🙁 news not looking good at all now – hes been arrested for murder..

Having littluns the same age as April I really can’t imagine what you’d do..

🙁

Somehow, it being in Mach has made it a little more “real” for me. I know where that house is, ridden past it many a time. I’ve drunk beer in the pubs mentioned, etc.

🙁

agree flashy, been there many times, somehow makes it harder

I don’t try and think what makes people act this way, I will never understand it
Looking at the photos of April really makes me sad

It sounds like the police aren’t expecting this to have a happy ending – grim stuff 🙁

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19843337%5D

Can’t even begin to think what the family must be experiencing 🙁

Hopefully the arrest for murder is a way of keeping him in for longer, if the time he could be held on the abduction charge was about to run out. Rather than a true reflection of what the police think has happened. Although it is looking increasingly likely. 🙁

Anyone able to watch Sky news, apparently Kay Burley is running around, finding people who know/are related to the family and telling them that the girl is probably dead so how does that make them feel. Sick beyond belief. 👿

Hopefully the arrest for murder is a way of keeping him in for longer, if the time he could be held on the abduction charge was about to run out. Rather than a true reflection of what the police think has happened. Although it is looking increasingly likely.

Anyone able to watch Sky news, apparently Kay Burley is running around, finding people who know/are related to the family and telling them that the girl is probably dead so how does that make them feel. Sick beyond belief.

she’s a f****** idiot to be fair

The dynamics of the search have now changed and due to the passage of time and the developments within the investigation, it is no longer appropriate for us to expect untrained members of the public to continue the search.

Says to me. They don’t want a member of the public to have to deal with finding a dead body; they’d also be concerned about preserving the scene.

Doesn’t look good.. 🙁

Anyone able to watch Sky news, apparently Kay Burley is running around, finding people who know/are related to the family and telling them that the girl is probably dead so how does that make them feel. Sick beyond belief.

I had Sky news on just after the press conference. I was disgusted at the way Kay Burley was telling people close to the family who hadn’t heard the police statement that she was murdered. What made it worse was when they were clearly distraught she was pressing them for comment. The most sickening kind of blinkered media leech.

“Hopefully the arrest for murder is a way of keeping him in for longer, if the time he could be held on the abduction charge was about to run out.”

PACE doesn’t work like that

“Hopefully the arrest for murder is a way of keeping him in for longer, if the time he could be held on the abduction charge was about to run out.”

PACE doesn’t work like that
Ah, I should have said IANAL. It was a hope rather than anything substantial.

The fact that the bloke was identified by name and his vehicle was shown on TV by the police 24 hours after April went missing suggested to me that this wasn’t ever going to end well.
Perhaps they know its him, but he’s refusing to talk full stop. They must have been VERY sure they got the right guy, otherwise thats his life over.

Out of interest and in no way trolling, but would you let a 5 year old play in the street at 19:00 in the evening unsupervised?
Apologies if the question is out of order or inappropriate (MODs feel free to delete)

we don’t know why they’ve charged him but its not looking positive is it?

Poor little kid, I can’t begin to imagine what I’d do if it happened to either of my little boys. I think I’d curl up and die to be honest 🙁

but would you let a 5 year old play in the street at 19:00 in the evening unsupervised?

No, I wouldn’t, but plenty would. It’s the McCanns all over again. The parents are in the wrong, but now’s not the time to get into that.

But when the kid is playing with a kid who’s Dad (allegedly etc.) picks her up; how messed up is that?

Just awful.

The parents are in the worng, but now’s not the time to get into that.

I feel this is key.

Maybe I’m being overly optimisstic, but what with there being way way way more to this story than we are being told (the guys relationship to the girl and/or the parents springs to mind firstly), I think/hope she’s still alive somewhere. I know that goes against all odds, but the alternative is too sad to prematurely resign oneself to.

My thoughts are with the family. Brings it closer to home having a 4 and 5 year old 🙁

Just awful.

This.

It would be trying not to imagine what her last hours were like that would haunt me if I were her parent if it turns out how it appears it’s going to.

There’ll be months of ‘what ifs?’ but she could just as easily been round the other kids house and been abducted if it was someone known to her.

Just seen the Sky News piece featuring Ms Burley. Sickening. Keeping the cameras running and asking cretinous questions was distasteful beyond words. Hugely insensitive.

It’s this sort of gutter-mongering journalism that compromises police investigations and rides rough shod over the victims families feelings.

To paraphrase Mr Bryant, she’s quite dim.

yossarian – Member

we don’t know why they’ve charged him but its not looking positive is it?

They’ve not charged him (as yet) – he’s been arrested for another offence.

Out of interest and in no way trolling, but would you let a 5 year old play in the street at 19:00 in the evening unsupervised?

In a place like Mach, on a quiet street, yeah I probably would provided they weren’t on their own.

In a place like Mach, on a quiet street, yeah I probably would provided they weren’t on their own.

Agreed.

As many of you guys and girls know, this area has some very remote and hostile terrain. There are minesscattered everywhere, tunnels, fast flowing rivers, big tides and currents. so many old buildings, forests which are extremely dense and in places inpenetrable. I assume the investigation is trying to learn of his whereabouts over the 24hours inbetween the little girl going missing and his arrest. This is awful, I have been on searches with mountain rescue in small areas and its really tricky even when using sea king helicopters thermal imaging etc etc.
I cant help but feel the frustration of the search members both professional and public with the vastness of area, and the task in hand. Sounds like limited information coming in too.

…fast flowing rivers…

I remember seeing how high the river was when the bloke was arrested.

Mach is very close to the estuary to the sea.

I can’t help wonder….

You know what one of my greatest regrets with my kids is that I can’t just let them out to play (despite a hige parade ground / green in front of my house) they’ll never experience the freedom I had when I was their age, and yet as we’re quickly discovering the early 70s I grew up weren’t the innocent times we thought they were..

I assume Burley wouldn’t mind being doorstepped should her child die horribly. In the name of journalism, of course. What a callous ****.

In a place like Mach, on a quiet street, yeah I probably would provided they weren’t on their own.

[quote]
Agreed. [/quote]

Absolutely, tbh i find the opinions of those above trying to lay blame at the parents door dispicable.

My old man was a policeman from the 60s through to the late 90s and said that in his experience the number of abducted/murdered kids hasn’t increased massively, it’s just we find out about more of them. Our perception of the danger is therefore skewed.

In any case, media intrusion to the family/friends/community is disgusting. Thoughts go to the family

A really awful story. Saddened by the media coverage too, was listening to the mothers sad sobbing plea on the radio the other day and could barely hear her over the din of camera shutters. Seemed like a real lack of respect by the media.

Every night i tuck my little girl into bed and she gives me a kiss and tells me that she loves me..I cant imagine what her parents are going through it realy sickens me..punishment needs to be changed for these types of offences because there is no deterent at the moment imo

punishment needs to be changed for these types of offences because there is no deterent at the moment imo

It has been proved that increasing the punishment does not act as a deterrant: If you are going to do something like this, you clearly are not thinking rationally, and therefore the consequences are irrelevant.

Sadly, a deterrent is unlikely work, you could make it a capital crime and it would still happen. It may reduce some peripheral activity but the person who carries out acts against children is, by their very nature, thinking outside the parameters of most people in society. They do need removing from society at the very least, children are the most precious things in the world and should be protected above all else.

I can only imaging the despair and fury that the parents must be feeling, I would find it very difficult to behave in a restrained manner if I were in their position.

They have just announced on the radio that the man in custody is being now being held for questioning re murder.

EDIT; What Mikey74 said^^^

It’s a terrible situation.

Kids should be and to play in the street yards from home, a parent can’t in my view be blamed for that.

The issue here is individuals who prey on the innocent , can’t for the life of me get my head around it at all.

The media circus is equally abhorrent.

I just hope they find the lass soon

The tide effects the river well past the main road bridge into Mach. This is an absolutely huge job to find her… I really hope they get some solid info soon!

Someones been busy on that Sky womans Wikipedia page;

“She also works part time as Death”

http://twitter.com/flashboy/status/254161957677047808/photo/1/large

although it’s been edited again, by the look of things.