[J.C.]

Originally posted by spacebandit

he is not alone, I think his actions are brought about from questions many people want to know the answers to...and a good number of people here have asked them.

Basically if a working class / council estate / low income couple with three young children left them alone and went to the pub for a few hours, then called into the chippy on the way home then found out one of thie children missing what would happen ?

Firstly social services would be all over them like a bad rash despite their "anguish" social services would be claiming the saftey of the other children is paramount, chances are the other children would be taken from them and they would have to go to court to get supervised visitation - then if they are innocent of any suspicion it usually takes around two years to get custody back via a court.

Those of us old enough to have seen similar cases reported on the news in the past can easily identify the pattern, but not in this case.

In the McCanns case - even the simplest questions are not being asked, the commonest statistic about child murder is ignored and they get a free ride from the British media that the above mentioned low income couple would not get because they would be too busy cricifying them for leaving the children alone, but it would seem that a professional couple able to afford holidays abroad get the kid gloves treatment from the authorities, unlike poor old low income family who would long ago have been branded child murderewrs by the self same media currently falling over themselves to curry favour with the McCanns. They have to do that to guarantee a place in the bidding war for the story that will follow

As for the fund, it is not a "few thousand" - it is now on its way to its second MILLION, it is not a registered charity and has just admitted that it pays mortgages and salaries from a fund set up to find the child, publicise the case and publicise other such cases.

Its a cash cow, without the checks and balances under British law enforced upon a charity.

Theres money in them thar shallow graves

In respect of the fund , I was referring to the amounts that the Mcanns had received personally for the two or three mortgage payments etc, which surely is only a few thousand.
Some of the remainder is being used to track down their daughter through detective agencies and publicity etc which is only a bad thing in the eyes of those who don’t consider a person or persons innocent until proven guilty.

I completely agree about the fact that they probably did break UK law by leaving the children alone, I merely think that it is premature to push the Mcanns into a courtroom at this moment in time, whilst there is still a live search in progress for their missing child.

In the case of low income or high income families leaving their children unattended in the UK, I believe social services would rightly be all over them like a rash in both instances. The difference here is not because they are a middle or high income family but surely more about the fact that it occurred in another country where the police, perhaps foolishly, stated early on that they did not blame the parents for leaving the children alone, and the sad fact that a girl has possibly been abducted.

It would not surprise me if social services have raised the relevant issues with the parents already but haven’t taken legal action themselves as yet because they may feel that the parents (rich or poor) are under enough pressure at this moment and will await the outcome of the police investigation as indeed, I think we all should.