Maddy - Missing Kid in Portugal

been reading the rags recently and a lot has been made of the little girl kidnapped while on holiday with her family in the Algarve. this little girl is only 3 years old.

it turns out that the middle class parents decided to leave the girl in the appartment room while they went out for a meal and somebody tampered with the shutters and abducted her. you may wonder why i have included the fact the parents are "middle class". i have done so to highlight how socially exclusive the nations media are (in my eyes of course). if this were a single working class mum on holiday with her child and then left her in the room in identical circumstances the media outcry would be huge. there would be cries of "worst mum ever" and "put the kid in care" etc etc. now i do not have kids and far be it from me to preach about parenting but surely any parent recognises that leaving a 3 year old unattended in a room is a bad move regardless of the possibility of somebody breaking in and kidnapping your daughter. of course they love her and are in a world of pain and i wouldnt wish that on anybody but in my opinion they did not do their utmost to protect their child which is the most important part of being a parent.

is this view pretty harsh on the parents? am i alone in thinking this?

Discuss..........

Fu*king spot on Steely. Since this story broke days ago all i was thinking about was how poorly the parents had acted by leaving this 3 year old girl all alone in an unknown environment yet all the blame currently is being layed down at the door of the Portuguese police force(although they do deserve a deal of it for the joke that they call 'border checks) . Obviously i feel so sorry for them as the pain and anguish they must be experiencing right now must be terrible and i wish them the best.
Honestly though to do you personally hold hope for her still being alive?

I think your prediction of events in the fictional scenario of the mother being of a different class is a bit presumptuous. You dont really know what the media would say, you are jsut guessing.

My guess (equally as valid or not) is the media would extend the mother the same courtesy as they have this family and not lay blame with the parents while they are going thru this horrible nightmare.

There will be plenty of time for the self righteous to get stuck into the parents once the girl is found (hopefully alive and well).

the layout in the papaers of where they were to where the kids were suggest more than 40yds!
i think there parenting is a disgrace IMO they are meant to be in a profession that would acknowledge there duty to children,If they were just average Joe who is on the Doll those kids would be taken away from them but they are in Doctor positions and they seem to be some what ammune to the working class laws!lol
Although i wouldnt wish this on any parent and i do feel for them they should have never left kids under the age of at least 10 on there own!these kids are 2-3!madness
it has also been suggested that because Portugal doesnt have any section in there police for Paedophiles that ex pats who indulge in this sick act regularly flee to Portugal!
IMO they will never see her again-which is sad.
I just still cant believe any parent could leave kids as young as that on there own!

it is slightly presumptious i agree. however that is only from previous experience of differing cases over the years that are treating in very different ways by the media. maybe it is just the british media but i really do think the parents should take some responsibility as harsh as it may seem.

i would be very suprised if she is found alive which is the worst part of it all. the only plus to come of it is that it will make parents everywhere a lot more vigilant as they should be

no ..i totally agree with everything you have said Steely . The first thing that entered my head when this news came out was `why did they leave their child alone in the apartment` . It does not matter that they were only 50 yards away in a restaurent or that they checked back every 30 mins ..they still left her alone ..a 3 yr old child damn it ! .Now in hindsight they have already admitted they wished they had not left her alone but had said `it was hard to get some time alone ` Well i really do hope and pray there is a happy ending to this story or they will be punishing themselves for the rest of their lives over that decision .

thats what parentings like there is no time for yourself money nothing!
if they have a problem then they should have never had a family!

Why the [beep!] are people blaming the parents? There is some sick [beep!] out there who broke into a locked room and took a little girl, surely he should be to blame????

This could easily have been someones house back in the UK, someone breaks in through a locked window and steals the kid. Would you then say the parents shouldnt have left the kid alone in their bedroom?


They said this guy had been stalking them and the girl for several days before hand. Who here with kids could say that someone stalking them every moment of the day couldnt find a minutes opportunity to snatch one of them? Wasnt there a ase in the UK a while back where a girl was stolen out of the bath at her home? Were those parents suitably negligent aswell in your righteous eyes to have the rest of their kids taken away from them?

Lay the blame with the perpetrator, not the parents.

I hadnt seen your psot when i made my last reply. Yes it is a british thing because the class system is a British construct, doesnt really exist in most countries around the world.

the mother was in the house in the case you mentioned. i am not solely blaming the parents anyway. i am saying they need to shoulder part of the responsibilty. of course the sicko who took them is in the wrong but so are the parents. the parents left the kid in an apartment alone in a foreign country. they didnt leave her in her room while they sat downstairs. your logic is skewed.

they do not actually know that somebody is stalking them. that is not a fact. and if that was the case surely the LAST thing you would do is leave your child alone? it defies belief that you see no wrong in what they did

Well sometimes some of your opinions defy belief too Steely, I think the parents were maybe a bit naive to leave their children unattended but they should shoulder no blame for what happened. Is the sickos fault entirely.

MY points regarding the other cases etc is this could happen to anyone, if someone is stalking your children without your knowledge that anything is wrong they will find an opportunity to snatch them.

no offence intended Jonno but if i were in Kiwi land on Holiday there is no way i would let my child go off alone or stay at home alone!
Thats not just in NZ that anywhere if we are on holiday we are there together not seperatley!
if we are in the uk my kids under 10 come with us if over 10 they can stay as long as they are with someone and are forbidden to answer the door to anyone friend or not!they are not allowed mates over unless either me or my wife are there!
I just dont believe what they did in Portugal was good parenting infact pretty shambolic to allow 2year olds and a 3year old alone on ther own!
i have rage!

if the parents took on their role as parents properly this would have been avoided. their actions directly led to the opportunity of the scumbag to take their daughter. they know it as well as i do. why take the kids on holiday if they are going to leave them in a room? was a grandparent of somebody not available to take them for a week to give them the "time alone" they wanted? it is bad parenting in the extreme and they are sadly paying the price for that.

if the girl had fallen over, hit her head and died would you be saying the same thing? leaving a child on her own in an appartment is utterly shocking and is asking for trouble

So when you take your children to the park have you ever taken your eyes off them even for ten seconds? Have you ever let them play in the yard while you are inside? Have you let them sleep in a room in a different part of the house to where you are sleeping?

If someone is stalking your children, any of these situations could be the chance they need.

These parents were not negligent, they were just desperately unlucky. Id be willing to bet that there were other parents that same night in that same resort that did the same, are they too unfit parents?

Leaving your kids in a room you can visually see and checking on them every thirty minutes while is the parents choice is one I think millions of parents wouldnt think twice about. You cant account for the sick [beep!] that live in this world of ours.

Anyway, these parents will beat themselves up over this till the day they die. Nothing the authorities or anyone else could do will punish them more than knowing a stranger has their three year old girl.

Then again, im not a parent so I cant compehend the full gravity of the siutaion and what id do in a similar one.

[quote="Big Jono"]

So when you take your children to the park have you ever taken your eyes off them even for ten seconds? Have you ever let them play in the yard while you are inside? Have you let them sleep in a room in a different part of the house to where you are sleeping?

If someone is stalking your children, any of these situations could be the chance they need.

These parents were not negligent, they were just desperately unlucky. Id be willing to bet that there were other parents that same night in that same resort that did the same, are they too unfit parents?

Leaving your kids in a room you can visually see and checking on them every thirty minutes while is the parents choice is one I think millions of parents wouldnt think twice about. You cant account for the sick [beep!] that live in this world of ours.
quote]

I think we all agree that there is some sicko out there who has devestated a family but at the same time i disagree with what you say when you have kids jonno you'll realise how precious they are and you will never be able to put yourself first over them!
these kids are toddlers the eldest probably only learnt to walk at the age of two!
which is a year-she cant depend on herself she cant tie her own shoes nothing!
she wouldnt be able to ring a police man let alone distinguish one form average joe!
My kids are older now but at the age when there vunerable no god damn way untill a child has learnt what is right from wrong and the ways of life then you cant assume that they will get on with it!

ok ...if the parents had been in the apartment and had not left Maddy alone in her bedroom , would the kidnapper have still attempted to snatch her ...probably not .
Therefore i dont agree the parents are not entirely blameless , sure the sicko committed the crime but that child was only 3 yrs old ...3 yrs old !!! and was in a room on a foreign country totally alone ..if she woke who could she turn to ....no one because mummy and daddy were trying to have some quality time alone 50 yards away .. Sorry i am just angry with them for leaving her alone and because with each day gone the chances of her being still alive grow weaker ...or she will disapear without a trace like Ben Needham 16 years ago .

Please , please i hope they get another chance to look after their daughter because they know they are partly to blame ...that is what is probably eating away at them right now .

the parents didnt do any of those things. they went to a restaurant and left them in an appartment alone. that is so much worse than any of those things. they simply abandoned them for some peace and quiet. it is terribly unlucky the nonce struck but even if there was no nonce it is still a dreadful decision by those parents

*Applause for the first post*

Agreed. If they had been a working class young family, they'd have been absolutely slaughtered for this. I mean, who goes out and leaves kids in their hotel room in a foreign country alone?! I won't say they deserve what they get but some ammount of blame has to be laid at their feet and I'm pretty sure they are overcome with guilt at this moment.

Good to see our Ron putting out TV appeals, what a guy

and it is even worse if the following is true also...

Madeleine is believed to have been taken from her bed last Thursday evening while her parents were eating at a nearby restaurant.

They had been regularly checking on her and their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, before she went missing.


does that mean they also left their other two children alone in the apartment ..who were only 2 yrs old ...?

I saw the John Terry appeal with Ferraria who said nothing!lol