Crying shame to see McCanns judged with poison not pity

Published on Sunday 28 October 2007 01:19

SO, AT last, she wept. But the tears of a bereft mother did not impress the hard-hearted and nasty-minded, who had already condemned Kate McCann and her husband Gerry. For them, her breakdown on TV last week was too little, too late - and was it stage-managed?

The agony of parents - whatever their faults - whose four-year-old daughter has disappeared in the night, might have been expected to invoke sympathy and understanding. Instead, it has shown sections of the popular press and a depressingly large part of society at their most biased, repulsive and viciously vindictive. The initial cry of, "Find Maddie!" has become, "Find Maddie's mother and father guilty!" Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence until guilt is proved?

One sales-hungry tabloid, which has had the story on its front page every day for a week, screamed: '70% don't believe the McCanns'. Buried in the story was the questionable truth that these were the phone calls to a Spanish TV station after the harrowing interview in which Kate McCann broke down four times. How many called was not mentioned. How scientific. How stupidly irresponsible.

It is on the websites of these newspapers and in the letters columns that the rush to judgment plumbs new depths, with cruel comments like: "What's taken her so long to crack?" "So she isn't such a hard woman after all, she does have some emotion," "Was this late show of emotion a suggestion from her public relations man?" They even question the quality of her tears. There were not enough for some, who were ignorant of the fact that the cameras had to be stopped several times to allow her to dry her eyes. What next? Have them analysed to see if they are genuinely salty?

The witch-hunt is not only in the media. The 'what really happened to Maddie?' game has become a national pastime, the equivalent of a TV reality show. Every social gathering and every pub has become a jury room in which the conspiracy theories are debated and, increasingly, the McCanns are found guilty.

What counts against them is their coolness in the face of such a terrible tragedy, their highly professional publicity campaign, that they have been officially named as suspects under Portugal's bizarre legal system and, above all, that they left their children unattended on that fateful night.

It was understandable that in the early stages the parents should be regarded as suspects until eliminated. I confess that, within hours of the story breaking and with the cynicism bred from decades of reporting and observing human frailties, I advanced a possible theory: that some form of sedation might have been administered to ensure the children stayed asleep in their beds (I am told there is a 'Calpol culture' in some families); that, both being doctors, the McCanns would know about such things; that somehow it went wrong and Maddie succumbed; that the personal and professional consequences for the parents would then have led to panic... and so on.

Listeners were quite rightly appalled because a moment's thought about the aftermath - the disposal of a body, the complicated conspiracy and the sheer cold-bloodedness - makes it unthinkable.

The McCanns', especially Kate's, real offence has been in depriving the voyeurs of the distress, emotional appeals and hair-tearing grief they want in such cases. It is a crime she could appear so cool and collected, and he could be so measured in his responses under intense pressure.

The armchair and saloon bar judges do not ask themselves what they would do in such a nightmare. The easier option might be to go to pieces but that does not help bring Maddie back and it does not care for the other two children, who have been all but forgotten. It cannot be a fault to cling to hope, keep campaigning and keep Maddie's picture in everyone's mind.

To the less prejudiced eye, Kate McCann has looked increasingly like a desperate woman struggling to hold it together. No one could have thought that six months on there would not even be a glimmer of light, and anyone who has experienced loss knows it can take weeks or months for grief to hit.

The couple have been accused of hogging the limelight, yet that could be seen as an obvious move for desperate parents in a media-savvy age. Should they have refused the exposure when every story and broadcast might produce a reported sighting of Maddie? The strategy has backfired because, as many a politician has discovered, they made themselves public property. Media, who wanted exclusive interviews and inside information and did not accept they were gagged by law, turned against them and reported instead the leaks and smears from the Portuguese police. Small wonder that they recruited their own spokesman in ex-BBC man Clarence Mitchell, who has met allegations with facts but has been labelled 'spin doctor' with all the discredit that goes with the term.

The parents cannot escape criticism for leaving their children alone, for a night at a nearby tapas bar with their friends. Anyone who has been abroad with small children will find that hard to understand or condone, and the older generation will remember when it was an offence to leave children on their own, even in their own home.

The McCanns have been unable to admit they were neglectful, but they have paid an appalling price for their negligence. Until anything worse is proved, the only verdict can be that they are culpable but not guilty. The very least they deserve is our pity.