Madeleine Coverage

Nothing has been said yet that confirms anything, even ignoring the innocent-until-proved-guilty mantra.

We're not going to know anything until there is a trial. The Portugese police are not releasing information to the public (and I commend them for that), so anything currently being discussed is speculation.

Something is decidedly fishy about this case, but it does not necessarily follow therefore that the McCanns have anything to do with it.

My beef is with the British Press. I have no reason to be for or against the family in question.

Well the British press I agree, but as I say, the way the parents have been, since she went missing has had a lot of people suspicious, and that doesn't involve any evidence at all.

Naaah. It was the Duke of Edinburgh

It's more likely that they would say Diana was killed in a tragic accident for which no-one was to blame.

What?! Its been confirmed by the family spokeswoman that blood was found in the boot of the hire car they hired several weeks after she went 'missing'. I think you'll find something fishy is going on here.

The thing which made me a bit suspicious early on was their reaction to the "abduction". Within days, they were on television and were arguably fairly calm and collected, though looking a bit stressed. Now, compare that to the parents of Rhys Jones who, in the immediate aftermath of their son's death, were obviously very distraught. I know those cases are not identical, but I would have thought the McCanns would have been even more distraught given the disappearance of their daughter. The Jones' knew their son was dead; the McCanns don't know whether she's alive or dead. Obviously, without being in the situation myself I'll never fully understand, but I would assume not knowing would a lot worse. Or, is that not the case?

What if after all this slating of the Portugue police and system the British lab made a rather large mistake?

given the time it's taken for the results of these test to be released from the lab and the publicity surrounding the case i would suspect any findings would have been checked and double checked again.

of course the portuguese police could have 'misinterpreted' the evidence and that is something else entirely.

Personally I have always thought that if the McCanns are guilty of anything, it is placing Madeleine in a situation where she could have been taken (wouldn't it be child abandonment leaving her asleep in the villa while they went out?) But that is still some way from suggesting they might have actually killed her. And don't forget, no-one knows for sure that she IS dead.

Today's Daily Obsess , published before it was confirmed that Mrs McCann is now a suspect:

http://dailyexpress.co.uk/img/covers/257x330front/2007-09-07.gif

I note how it's making it sound like there's some kind of police conspiracy against the McCanns just in the headlines. The homepage is currently screaming "MADDY'S MUM FEARS SHE WILL BE CHARGED AFTER 'BLOOD FOUND'" with a picture of Mrs McCann looking upset.

This hypocritical, sensationalist and ego-centric Obsess opinion column infuriates me. I note that in the article, the writer implies that hundreds of messageboard comments were removed - presumably because they didn't match the paper's own opinion.

Well well well will be VERY funny to see how the press take a major u-turn on this. I can just see The Sun launching a reward to find the McCanns should they go walkabout...

Well, it seems that at least the Obsess is standing by Mr and Mrs McCann.

I assume that they'll be blaming it on Polish immigrants (to Portugal!?) or Prince Charles.