Gerry and Kate McCann Relish Limelight But Still Won’t Take Responsibility for Daughter’s Disappearance

April was a busy time for the Royal Couple. 

Preparations had been underway for months to deal with all the publicity that was sure to come. Facebook pages were established, marketing pieces created, a book written and carefully scripted interviews arranged, as publicists and advisors worked round-the-clock for the famous British duo. No detail was too small when planning such a momentous event, as the global media once again turned its focus on two of Great Britain’s most…interesting people.

Most amazing, all of this was accomplished despite the distractions caused by the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

May 3 marked the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of then-three year old Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from a resort in southern Portugal because her parents chose to leave her --- and her two younger twin siblings --- alone in an unlocked room while they ate and drank the night away with friends.

But when you’re Gerry and Kate McCann, you take a backseat to no one, and certainly no wedding is going to upstage your “anniversary.” And so, in typical McCann fashion, they put on another strong display of offense in the ongoing “search” --- not so much for their missing daughter, but for self-promoting headlines.

Who can blame them? Playing defense is no fun, doesn’t raise money nor generate publicity.  And best of all, blaming everyone but themselves for an eminently preventable tragedy allows the McCanns to ignore reality and skirt the truth about a poor little girl’s horrible fate.

*****

For the folks needing a refresher, you read it right.  The McCanns, both physicians from Rothley, Leicestershire, in England, left their three children --- with a COMBINED age of seven --- alone, night after night, in their ground-floor resort apartment.  Despite ample financial resources, they chose not to bring a nanny, and refused to utilize the resort’s babysitting services.

Instead, they deemed it safer for the children to go it on their own, entrusting Madeleine to get her siblings and herself to safety in the event of a fire --- hence the alleged reason for the unlocked door.  Hey, I’m all for self-reliance, but, she was three!

The story perpetuated by the McCanns is that Madeleine was kidnapped, despite virtually no evidence to support that claim.  But the tragic nature of a girl gone missing gained international attention, and the search was on.  Well, at least by the people who were actually out there looking for Madeleine.

Gerry and Kate took a different approach.  Rather than get bogged down in the grunt work of looking for their daughter in places she might actually be --- assuming for a minute that she was kidnapped --- the parents decided that becoming international globetrotting celebrities was a lot more fun. Putting blood, sweat and tears into finding a missing child is tough, but hanging out with celebs and dignitaries is, well, cool!

So they arranged a private audience with the Pope, traveled to the United States to meet with America’s top leaders, kept web diaries about Gerry’s daily jogs, and threw lavish affairs. Of course, if Madeleine really had been kidnapped, she wouldn’t be in America, at black-tie events or in the Vatican.

If only they had thought to turn the “Find Madeleine” campaign into a money-maker!  Oh wait, they did.  To the tune of millions. And the result?  To this day, many more questions than answers.

Despite being named suspects by the Portuguese police based on evidence that raised eyebrows --- inconsistencies in G and K’s stories; elite dogs, trained to identify death, providing positive responses in Madeleine’s room; reports of Madeleine’s blood found in the trunk of a car the McCanns’ rented 25 days AFTER she disappeared; more blood discovered behind a sofa in the apartment, to name just a few --- the case was eventually suspended without any arrest.  And for that, we can thank the British government that exerted enormous pressure on the Portuguese to exonerate their “upstanding” citizens.

With the complicity of the British media, everyone but the parents was blamed for Madeleine’s disappearance.  The Portuguese detectives bumbled the investigation, the resort’s security was too lax, leads weren’t followed up in a timely fashion. And as numerous publications discovered, anyone who dared question the McCanns’ role were slapped with libel lawsuits by England’s most powerful barristers. And don’t forget the lead Portuguese investigator who was legally banned from giving interviews and publishing his book courtesy of Team McCann (those rulings were subsequently overturned) and was sued for millions in “damages.”

Kate’s book on the affair, (in which she was possibly assisted by world-famous Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling) will be released this week.  In it, she blamed the resort restaurant for making a note in their reservation book that the McCanns wanted a table within sight of the room, since the children would be alone.

"(The reservation) book was by definition accessible to all staff and, albeit unintentionally, probably to guests and visitors, too…To my horror, I saw that, no doubt in all innocence, the receptionist had added that we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently."

Nice try, Kate.  But somehow, you forgot to mention the “horror” your daughter must have felt after being abandoned by her parents night after night, left alone in an unfamiliar environment in a foreign nation.  And you also conveniently left out the fact that you couldn’t see the apartment from your table anyway, due to the six foot wall obstructing the view.  Translation: the tapas were more important than your three children, two of whom, interestingly enough, weren’t “kidnapped.”

So we’re supposed to believe that a child kidnapper just happened to be dining at the resort’s restaurant that night, on the off-chance some British couple’s child-care arrangements (or lack thereof) would be recorded in the restaurant’s reservation book.  Which, by the way, is usually kept behind a desk, not in public view. 

Either that, or someone on the kitchen staff, waiting in the wings for one of the McCanns to return from allegedly “checking” on the children. Maybe that’s why the tapas were so late in being served!

Frankly, I’m surprised that Osama bin Laden snatching Madeleine wasn’t in the book as a potential theory.  Or that evil Voldemort from Harry Potter wasn’t somehow responsible.

Which brings us back to Rowling. 

After hundreds of articles stating that Rowling was helping Kate write the book, the family spokesman finally got around to stating that Rowling did not, in fact, have ANY role in the book.

As with most things McCann, the facts here are loose and the truth sketchy.  But as they say, “Any publicity is good publicity!”   And Team McCann rolls on, garnering headlines and raking in the dough.

*****

Perhaps most ironic is Kate’s stated reason for the book:

“My reason…is simple, to give an account of the truth.”

Funny, then, that Kate’s “truth” story would be so closely linked with a writer of fantasy fiction.

Rowling’s help or not, discovering the real story behind the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann will take more than wizards and magic.  Too bad we don’t have one of Harry Potter’s Remembralls, though, which fans will recall is the clear orb containing smoke that turns red when detecting that the user has forgotten something.

In Gerry and Kate McCann’s case, I’m betting the Remembrall would be glowing red-hot, since it seems they have forgotten the only thing that can help Maddie.

The real truth.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television commentator, and investigative
reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com His extensive collection of columns hammering the McCanns for their negligence can be found in his website’s archives.

Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries
and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including
The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick
Morris' recent bestseller "Catastrophe."

Freind, whose column appears regularly in Philadelphia Magazine and nationally in
Newsmax, also serves as a frequent guest commentator on talk radio and state/national/international television.  He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NOTE: FreindlyFireZone extends its deepest thanks and appreciation to Mercedes for this translation.  Mercedes website: http://mercedessigueaqui.blogspot.com/2010/02/madeleine-mccann-abandonada-por-gerry-y.html

Estar en los medios de comunicación está muy bien, especialmente cuando diriges tu propio bureau de noticias, como hago yo (www.FreindlyFireZone.com)

Recientemente volé en una avión de combate F-16, acelerando verticalmente de cero a 12.000 pies en menos de 10 segundos. Poco después de eso, también volé con la Fuerza Aérea americana Hurricane Hunters, volando directamente en el ojo de la bestia durante 12 horas.

He entrevistado a líderes mundiales, candidatos presidenciales y al propietario de un equipo ganador de Campeonato Mundial de Beisbol.

Y he disfrutado exponiendo a hipócritas y tipos malos en la política, negocios, deportes y sí, los medios de comunicación.

Aunque pensándolo bien, estoy en el negocio equivocado.

Tendría que haber sido un cardiólogo británico o médico de medicina general.

NOTE: FreindlyFireZone extends its deepest thanks and appreciation to Joana Morais, Portuguese Filmmaker and Blogger, who  worked so diligently to make this translation a reality.  Ms. Morais publishes the extremely well-researched site http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/  

Pertencer aos média é muito *cool*, especialmente quando somos nós que
gerimos o nosso próprio espaço de trabalho, como eu faço agora (
www.FreindlyFireZone.com)

Recentemente voei num jacto de caça F-16, acelerando verticalmente dos zero
aos 12,000 pés em menos de dez segundos. Pouco tempo depois, também voei com
a Força Aérea dos Estados Unidos ‘Caçadores de Furacões’ directamente para o
olho da besta durante 12 horas.

Já entrevistei líderes mundiais, candidatos à presidência, e o dono de uma
equipe de basebol ganhadora da World Series.

E já me deu muito gozo expor hipócritas e gajos sacanas da mundo da
politica, dos negócios, do desporto, e sim, também dos média.

Mas quanto mais penso acerca disto, mais acredito que estou na profissão
errada.

Eu devia mas é ter sido um cardiologista britânico ou um médico de clínica
geral.

A 3-year-old English girl, Madeleine McCann, was kidnapped from a resort in Portugal last week. The story has become an international one, with wealthy businessmen offering million-dollar rewards and soccer megastar David Beckham producing a television commercial to assist in the search.

There has been much criticism about this case, but not in the way you might think.

The British media is inflamed about the perceived lackadaisical search effort being conducted by the Portuguese authorities. To an extent, some of their criticism is valid, as illustrated by video footage of police sitting in their cars at a roadblock. They were waving cars through because it was raining, and apparently they felt it was more important to stay dry than to do their job. Hey -it's only a little girl's life at stake, not to mention a potentially horrendous PR blow to the travel industry in Portugal, something the former "poor man of Europe" certainly doesn't need.

The anger is so palpable that a London newspaper ran the headline "Clueless" regarding the investigation.

Right headline, wrong story.

Callous as it may seem at this time, the vast majority of criticism should be directed at Mr. and Mrs. McCann, because they are solely to blame for this tragedy. Blaming the police is not focusing on the problem at hand, in much the same way that New Jersey thinks it can prevent another "Fort Dix Six" situation by banning the type of guns the terrorists were using.

Fix The Problem!

This wasn't a situation where Madeleine was snatched at gunpoint out of their unsuspecting hands, or that they were carjacked. No, it's much simpler. The McCann's decided to go to dinner and leave their little girl back in the hotel room. But at least she wasn't alone - she had the company of her twin siblings.

They are 2 years old.

Perhaps the McCann's could be forgiven though because, after all, Madeleine turned a whopping four this week. Isn't that old enough to be a responsible caretaker?

What are these people thinking?

Their defense of such behavior is that they checked on the children every 30 minutes, a claim that is disputed by some of the resort staff. Even if true, does that make it OK to leave your children unattended, especially in a foreign country?

Beyond the threat of abduction, there are a million other reasons why parents should never leave their children alone. Since I vacationed with my young child in the same Algarve region as the McCanns, and most resorts are laid out in typical European fashion, let me give several examples.

First, floors are not carpeted. They are marble or tile. Since many children of that age are still adjusting to sleeping in a bed, there exists the distinct possibility of falling out of bed. A 3-foot drop to a stone floor is not a good feeling, and could be potentially life threatening to a child if not addressed immediately. Thirty minutes is a long time to wait if a child is writhing in pain, or worse, knocked unconscious.

Most resorts have rooms with a balcony, the doors of which are not exactly childproof. Since there are chairs and tables on the balcony, and children have a natural tendency to climb on things ... you get the picture.

The Algarve is an extremely popular destination, so many rooms have bunk beds, some ladders of which are not removable. If a 3-foot fall is bad, imagine the result if the height is doubled.

I wonder if it dawned on the parents that, since they were outside the room, the chain and bolt locks could not be engaged, leaving the regular door lock as the only form of protection between the children and the outside world. Newsflash: the "outside world" includes about ... oh, I don't know ... the entire resort staff, most with master keys that can enter the room at will.

If you want to go on vacation and enjoy a romantic dinner sans children, fine. Bring a baby sitter with you. (And for the record, I don't trust baby-sitting services in this or any country. Leaving your children with a total stranger is not only traumatic for the children and selfish on the part of the parents, it's an invitation to disaster.)

I don't care if such a custom is commonplace in Europe. I don't care if 99.9 percent of the time, everything works out fine. It's stupid, careless and criminal, and I hope after Madeleine is found, the parents are brought up on charges. They must be made an example of what happens when parents abdicate the responsibility of actually parenting. The McCann's are singlehandedly responsible for this situation, and they should not be let off the hook under the rationale that "they have already suffered enough."

Tell Madeleine about the odds. Tell her about "suffering".

Hope the paella was worth it, Mr. and Mrs. McCann.