Crimewatch - Madeleine McCann

[Churchill]

May I ask will these contributions include any more ducks?

You can ask what you wish, it's an open forum.

If you require simplistic analogies in future then I'll try and ensure they contain ducks or rabbits.

[d000hg]

Fire your bodyguard management person.

A bit late once your kid's been abducted.

[mudskipper]

You can ask what you wish, it's an open forum.

If you require simplistic analogies in future then I'll try and ensure they contain ducks or were-rabbits.

FTFY

[Churchill]

FTFY

Very good.

[TheBigD]

If she was abducted, and if they eventually catch the abducter, should he/she be given a more lenient sentence as he/she wasn't 100% to blame for the abduction. If you're aportioning some degree of blame on the parents, then your absolving the abductor of some of the blame as well.

[vetran]

If she was abducted, and if they eventually catch the abducter, should he/she be given a more lenient sentence as he/she wasn't 100% to blame for the abduction. If you're aportioning some degree of blame on the parents, then your absolving the abductor of some of the blame as well.

The crimes are separate. One is abduction the other is parental neglect.

If you crash into a BMW due to your dangerous driving does the BMW driver get a more lenient sentence for the 1Kg of heroin the Police find in his boot when they attend the accident?

[sasguru]

If she was abducted, and if they eventually catch the abducter, should he/she be given a more lenient sentence as he/she wasn't 100% to blame for the abduction. If you're aportioning some degree of blame on the parents, then your absolving the abductor of some of the blame as well.

The crimes are separate. One is abduction the other is parental neglect.

If you crash into a BMW due to your dangerous driving does the BMW driver get a more lenient sentence for the 1Kg of heroin the Police find in his boot when they attend the accident?

Feck me! Being corrected in logic by a village idiot. Wonders never cease.

[russell]

If she was abducted, and if they eventually catch the abducter, should he/she be given a more lenient sentence as he/she wasn't 100% to blame for the abduction. If you're aportioning some degree of blame on the parents, then your absolving the abductor of some of the blame as well.

No, they didn't do anything against the law and after watching the program I feel they just made a mistake that any parent could (given all the other parents were doing the same, they checked every 30 mins etc). When you hear soundbites like "They left the children alone and went for dinner and drinks", it masks the details and sounds much worse.

[TheBigD]

The crimes are separate. One is abduction the other is parental neglect.

If you crash into a BMW due to your dangerous driving does the BMW driver get a more lenient sentence for the 1Kg of heroin the Police find in his boot when they attend the accident?

I don't think it's a very good analogy. Using your logic, they should be accused of parental neglect, fine, but to say they are (partly) to blame for the abduction is wrong because it's a seperate crime.

The concensus of many here is that the McCanns are partly responsible for the abduction, because they left their child in an environment where she was vulnerable. Ergo, the abducter is partly not responsible because the child was already vulnerable.

My own opinion is that as a parent, you make hundreds of decisions everyday regarding the safety of your children. Some concious, some not. In this instance, they made the wrong choice. I'm sure they regret it and I'm sure the wish they could take it back. It doesn't mean they should be blamed in any way for the abduction of their child.

[vetran]

I'm sure they regret it and I'm sure the wish they could take it back. It doesn't mean they should be blamed in any way for the abduction of their child.

Precisely, the fact they left the child alone in my opinion illegally (https://www.gov.uk/law-on-leaving-your-child-home-alone) does not stop the abduction being as serious as any other and a legally unrelated crime.

If they had been complicit in the abduction it would have been different.

My analogy covered this, your dangerous driving did not you make you responsible for the BMW driver's drug possession or his crime any less serious.

Those that say well everyone else does it doesn't tend to impress the court as I understand it.