The Suspects: It's all about them - never their daughter

Kate and Gerry McCann, officially named as being suspects in the killing of their daughter Madeleine, who along with her younger siblings were left unattended every night of what the McCanns have described as a "family holiday," are pulling out all the stops as they cry, "We're fighting for our lives".

Interesting statement when you think about it. The McCanns claim their daughter has been abducted and is still alive. When you consider the potentially horrifying scenario such a belief conjures up, most parents would not consider their own lives to be a priority.

In fact most parents would willingly give up their lives for their children - but oh no, not the McCanns. They couldn't even give up their regular night out at a tapas bar.

However dramatic their cry may seem, they are not fighting for their lives - they are merely fighting to save their reputation and in a worst case scenario, the possibility of a relatively short prison sentence - which in any case would be much delayed due normal legal process.

In order to save the things they value most in life, they have searched for help from all over the world - far more so than they ever searched for their daughter.

Experts have been falling over themselves to discredit the value of DNA evidence. Even the "father of DNA" Alec Jeffreys, has offered his help - although I can not recall any mention of him stepping forward to help Belgian authorities when they carried out DNA tests following a suspected sighting of Madeleine. Jeffreys takes the view that DNA matches alone could not establish guilt, and that all of Madeleine's genetic characters would be found in at least one family member.

On a side note, in 2002, in a speech in Leicester, Jeffreys proposed a national DNA database from the entire population held by a specially created body, saying it would only ever record those parts of a DNA profile that identify an individual.

Incidentally, why are the McCanns quick to point out they are willing to travel to Portugal if needed, but never once left the comfort of their villa to travel to Belgium, Malta or Morocco following reported sightings?

Maybe it is just me, but I would have liked to have seen the McCanns devote as much as energy trying to find the daughter they betrayed and allegedly believe is in the hands of abductors, as they have protecting their own sorry hides.

Why did they not call on the help of experts specialising in finding missing children? It didn't take them too long to find a QC specialising in international law when it affected them personally? Why did they reject offers of high level media help in a country that the UN spotlighted as a major gateway for child trafficking?

They were able to search out European politicians and heads of child protection agencies with consummate ease as part of a global but badly thought out image management exercise, but looked nowhere for practical, specialised help.

We heard much about their calls for a European Register of child sex offenders, though that has gone quiet recently. Considering the professions involved in such issues, maybe they realised such a register may have been confused for an address book - especially if they had started in cities close to their heart.

While I think about it. I am constantly hearing about support from family and friends. I recall very few friends, neighbours, colleagues or even former colleagues, coming forward to publicly speak in defence of the McCanns. Perhaps they were so devoted to their families that they rarely had time for friends outside of the Tapas Nine and a host of media advisors now claiming to be close family friends.

I am sure the McCanns would like a quick resolution to this case - if it drags on too much longer it will be time to book their next holiday and we wouldn't want anything to interrupt their lifestyle would we?
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PS: To "Anon" quoted below. My apology for trying to distance myself from my long established blog format by interspersing my blogs with posts about Madeleine.

"You are already trying to distance yourself from Madeleine by interspersing your blogs about her with other blogs, that are designed to transfer the interest of the Madeleine ghouls to the rest of your site."