I get a little angry when people try to excuse the McCanns' behaviour by saying that everyone else does things like this. Most normal people don't.
It's not uncommon in my experience - different lives I guess.
I would think that almost all cases of child abduction by a stranger have some aspect where the parents wish they had acted differently, even if it is just leaving your son for fleeting moment while you get your order from the butcher's shop (Denise Bulger) or letting her go with her friend to buy some sweets after a family barbeque (Soham).
They "don't deserve the public sympathy" is not the same as "they deserved to have their child abducted"
I just don't see that saying (paraphrasing) "[i]they don't deserve any sympathy because they left their children alone[/i]" is that much different to saying they deserved it.
Both sound incredibly callous to me.
Hmmm, I'll tell you what, any lapses of taste on here are nothing compared to what's out there in internet land. I have no intention of kicking off any guilty/not guilty thing, but even a cursory look will reveal the extent to which the whole affair captured the imagination of a number of people.
Mobile phone records, accusations of paedophilia, it's all there conspiracy fans...
I remember commenting at the time about how the Mcanns use of the media was like riding a tiger....
I don't think the Mcann's did anything particularly unusual. I suspect that many parent's are absolutely terrified for their children's safety and so when they read of this case seek to identify fault on the Mcann's part in order to convince themselves that this horror could not happen to them.
The truth is that such events are very very rare it is exceedingly unlikely that any child brought up in a healthy way could be entirely protected from abduction.
I would suggest that rather than trying to demonise two obviously loving parents energy would be better spent in identifying the causes of offending and trying to locate the child. It is as likely that she is still alive as it is that she is dead. Were I in the Mcann's shoes I would not stop until I had an answer and if I needed brass I would certainly sell the story.
I do agree that the use of the Media was like ridding a tiger but unfortunately the Tabloids will spin any response even a dignified silence any way they want to sell a story and blame those close to the victim is always good copy.
