Madeleine McCann

[johnmc]

Did the mccanns get hacked?

 

[SWP's back]

See? They can't win can they.

it's not about winning.

I know it isn't. And I am damn sure they don't either. However, we are talking about trial by a non elected jury here aren't we?

#No - we are talking about it on a forum. No one here would convict beyond all reasonable doubt from the evidence provided Mac. That is why they aren't facing trial. All the evidence was circumstantial (however compelling it may appear). That does not mean that some people shouldn't doubt their story or think they were involved.

 

[mackenzie]

I think the lie gets easier with time mate, quite the opposite.

The cadaver dog is very compelling.

Do you really believe that the parents would fight to keep their daughters story in the media if they were guilty? I'm sorry but it just beggars belief.

Absolutely I do yes. To think otherwise beggars belief if you ask me. If they were guilty they would do it for the exact reason on your post.

That's not to say they did do it, but it would be what someone may do if they did do it.

No, in the annals of crime it doesn't happen that way. The fact that you say it 'beggars belief' speaks volumes that you haven't studied stuff of a similar nature.
Name me some cases where we have seen this before.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

Did the mccanns get hacked?

Only Maddie apparently.

 

[mackenzie]

it's not about winning.

I know it isn't. And I am damn sure they don't either. However, we are talking about trial by a non elected jury here aren't we?

#No - we are talking about it on a forum. No one here would convict beyond all reasonable doubt from the evidence provided Mac. That is why they aren't facing trial. All the evidence was circumstantial (however compelling it may appear). That does not mean that some people shouldn't doubt their story or think they were involved.

Of course they shouldn't, not disputing that at all.

 

[SWP's back]

Kids are not property.

Pardon? I didn't say she was 'property'. What are you getting at?

It's just Damocles getting a bit giddy...just like he did in the 'kill the cheese' thread.

cheap shot

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

They don't.
Read the accounts of the Moors Murders. Winnie is still looking for her child.

Correction - she's looking for his body. She knows full well he is dead.

Well, according to you so do the mccanns.
See how that is a comparison though that makes sense? Albeit in a roundabout way? Each parent is looking for closure, they just have different shit to deal with.

No it doesn't make sense. That poor woman accepts her son is dead, had nothing to do with that death and just wants his body where she can see it.

I believe that the McCanns had a large part in their daughter's death (albeit not intentionally) and hid the body to protect themselves.

 

[SWP's back]

How come the McCanns have more publicity than any other family with a missing child?

Because they engineered it to find their daughter Bob.

And they are not unattractive, well spoken, middle class white people with a pretty daughter that the public empathised with.

 

[mackenzie]

Here's a press report on the hire car.


Even more clear from that report that they moved the body quickly the same night and hid it then, when attention was on the McCanns in Rome, someone else moved the body and disposed of it finally in that car.

Ok, so how long had maddie been dead by then? How 'tidy' would that have been? Anyway, I thought you reckoned Gerry threw the body in the ocean or something, if I recall your accounts about the irish witnesess.


And do you really think such a gruesome task could have been done without any of the participants cracking up by
Now? Seriously??

She'd been dead for nearly 4 weeks I guess. I'm only guessing that's what happened but even if the sniffer dogs did get it wrong (and there's a small chance they did) it doesn't change the outcome.

I am a little surprised that one of the group hasn't cracked but you have to remember they're all doctors and all of them would be absolutely ruined if the truth (as I see it) came out. Doctors are fairly amoral in my experience and will happily lie to protect a colleague.

Ok.

Trust me Colin when I say that my intuition is playing a mere 10 percent here: I honestly don't think they had anything to do with it.

It's based on reading about it over the years and making informed opinions plus how any parent would behave if they had.

They didn't do it.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Ok, so how long had maddie been dead by then? How 'tidy' would that have been? Anyway, I thought you reckoned Gerry threw the body in the ocean or something, if I recall your accounts about the irish witnesess.


And do you really think such a gruesome task could have been done without any of the participants cracking up by
Now? Seriously??

She'd been dead for nearly 4 weeks I guess. I'm only guessing that's what happened but even if the sniffer dogs did get it wrong (and there's a small chance they did) it doesn't change the outcome.

I am a little surprised that one of the group hasn't cracked but you have to remember they're all doctors and all of them would be absolutely ruined if the truth (as I see it) came out. Doctors are fairly amoral in my experience and will happily lie to protect a colleague.

Ok.

Trust me Colin when I say that my intuition is playing a mere 10 percent here: I honestly don't think they had anything to do with it.

It's based on reading about it over the years and making informed opinions plus how any parent would behave if they had.

They didn't do it.

Thst's your opinion but then you're a good-hearted soul and I'm a cynical bastard.

 

[blumoon]

firstly, whoever smelt it dealt it, so IT WAS THE DAWWWWWWWGS. motherfuckers who'd have thought it?

secondly, do explain about these factors? have you seen the dogs pick out their rental car in the car park??? imo that is evidence enough alone! just wish everything could be pieced together.

You mean the rental car that the police reckon the mccanns lugged the decomposing body (because that is what it would have been by then) of their child into?
Think about it.

Not sure what you mean by that. The evidence of the Irish family suggests they moved the body very quickly, possibly the same night.

Any links to that Irish couple story mate ?. It has me fascinated

 

[mackenzie]

Correction - she's looking for his body. She knows full well he is dead.

Well, according to you so do the mccanns.
See how that is a comparison though that makes sense? Albeit in a roundabout way? Each parent is looking for closure, they just have different shit to deal with.

No it doesn't make sense. That poor woman accepts her son is dead, had nothing to do with that death and just wants his body where she can see it.

I believe that the McCanns had a large part in their daughter's death (albeit not intentionally) and hid the body to protect themselves.

But it DOES make sense if you see the common goal between the two, and that's the yearning to discover the 'truth'

 

[SWP's back]

Do you really believe that the parents would fight to keep their daughters story in the media if they were guilty? I'm sorry but it just beggars belief.

Absolutely I do yes. To think otherwise beggars belief if you ask me. If they were guilty they would do it for the exact reason on your post.

That's not to say they did do it, but it would be what someone may do if they did do it.

No, in the annals of crime it doesn't happen that way. The fact that you say it 'beggars belief' speaks volumes that you haven't studied stuff of a similar nature.
Name me some cases where we have seen this before.

You know full well that would be impossible as to assume their guilt (yet they get away with it, by doing exactly as they have done) would mean that any similar cases would have ended the same way. With the potential killers never being found guilty.

 

[PSmyth07]

Found this online. Couple of good points, few shit ones.

1. The Implausibility of “Stranger” Abduction.

Statistics on alleged ‘stranger’ abduction from a person’s home show that a member of the ‘abducted’ child’s family is usually the perpetrator, and that the child usually dies. An overwhelming 99% of all claimed ‘abductions’ from a home turn out to be intra-family murder. There have been two high profile cases in the last few weeks - ‘Baby Grace’, found battered and decomposing in a plastic box on sand dunes near Galveston, and the ‘dead baby in the attic’. Both were claimed abductions - and both were hoaxes.

The Children’s Commissioner in the U.K. said: “We are concerned that a version of Megan’s Law could detract from the fact that children are actually most at risk from people known to them”.

2. Refusal to Answer the Policia Judiciaria’s Questions.

The McCanns did not answer the P.J.’s questions – it is reported that there were forty such unanswered questions. These are the not actions of innocent parents, who would do all they could to assist the police in every way possible.

3. Ignoring Advice not to Highlight Madeleine’s Eye Defect.

The parents ignored the clearest possible P.J. advice not to highlight Madeleine’s eye defect, the coloboma (an iris defect). If Madeleine were still alive, this would have put Madeleine at much greater risk of death. The parents’ conduct suggests they knew she was already dead. They deliberately ignored sound advice not to make Madeleine so recognisable that the abductors (if she was abducted) would have to kill her. All the publicity posters emphasising the coloboma, the announcement of all the sightings, and claims of being “right on the kidnappers” trail…all these actions put Madeleine at greater risk.

[From Charlotte: Perhaps it should also be noted that Gerry McCann, when questioned about his reasoning for announcing Madeleine’s eye defect, responded: "the plan was risky but "in terms of marketing, it was a good ploy"]

4. The Impossibility of the Abduction Happening as Claimed.

The sheer impossibility of the abduction – so many intractable questions: e.g., why did the abductor wait for thirty-five minutes after the McCanns sauntered down to the Tapas bar? Was the abductor/predator hiding behind the door as Gerry McCann checked the children? (That’s what he claims). Did the abductor/predator really walk in through open patio doors, and why then did he climb out through the window and shutters with Madeleine under his arm? And so on…

5. The Changing Stories of What the Abductor Looked Like.

Jane Tanner’s often changed story of what the abductor looked like: initially “His head was egg-shaped, he had some short hair, and was carrying a bundle, maybe a blanket”, then, a full three weeks later - and to make sure that the P.J. issued a description - “I definitely saw him carrying a girl in pink pyjamas”. Then, after SIX months, we are given an artist’s impression of the abductor and we are now told: “Head not egg-shaped, hair long, sleek, black and shiny, abductor was not ‘white’ but ‘swarthy and Mediterranean’” etc.

6. The Parents’ Absolute Insistence that Abduction was the Only Explanation for Madeleine’s Disappearance.

The parents’ immediate and insistent cry of abduction - excluding all other possibilities.

7. Claiming the Abductor was the Man Allegedly Seen by Jane Tanner.

Gerry McCann proceeded, after three weeks, to issue a description of the abductor based SOLELY on Jane Tanner’s dubious sighting - against P.J. advice and only after Gordon Brown had intervened by phoning the P.J.

8. The Tapas 9 Pact of Silence.

The “Pact or Conspiracy of Silence” - the notorious agreement between them all to keep silent about the events of that night.

9 Changes to the Story.

Changes to the story, as for example:

Day 1: “Shutters jemmied open, windows open, patio doors locked, abductor must have forced his way in”.

Days 2 and 3: P.J. and Mark Warners say: “No way shutters and window were forced from outside”.

Several days later: McCanns - “Oh, we left the patio doors open, so abductor must have walked in through the patio doors and then opened the shutters and climbed out of the window with Madeleine”.

10. The Hiring of Dubious Private Investigators.

Hiring a dubious British private investigation agency and a dubious Spanish ‘detective agency’ (Metodo 3) at cost of several hundred thousand pounds, all for no obvious benefit or results.

11. The Hiring of Britain’s Top Extradition Lawyer.

The McCanns rushed to hire the U.K.’s top extradition lawyer – one Michael Caplan Q.C. (who represented General Pinochet) - at the very moment they became formal suspects.

12. Publicly Agreeing to Take a Lie Detector Test - And Then Refusing.

After initial boasting of their willingness to take the test, the McCanns refused to do so.

13. Strange and Irrational Excuses for “Blood, DNA, and the Smell of Death”.

The extraordinary excuses offered by the McCanns in response to the forensic findings of blood, DNA, and cadaverine smell included these six examples:

(a) I took Cuddle Cat to work - that’s why the smell of death is on Cuddle Cat.

(b) I dealt with 6 corpses in the last fortnight at work, that’s why the smell of death is on my clothes

c) We’ll get on to lawyers in Ireland/America who say these cadaver dogs’ evidence is useless.

(d) The DNA was the children’s dirty nappies in the boot.

(e) The ‘smell of death’ was rotting meat that Gerry was taking to the dump.

(f) The blood in the flat (found underneath the tiles in the children’s bedroom) might have been from Madeleine grazing her leg when she boarded the plane, or perhaps a nosebleed.

14. Not Staying Protectively Close to the Twins after Madeleine’s Disappearance.

The parents left their twins at the creche within days of Madeleine disappearing and spent as much time as possible visiting the Pope, the White House, and “campaigning” - no parents whose child had truly been ‘abducted by a stranger’ would let those twins out of their sight; they would cling to the precious two they had left.

15. [AMENDED BY TONY BENNETT ON 25 JULY 2008]

Refusing to carry out a drugs test on the twins for five months despite the McCanns' claim that they 'could have been drugged by the abductor'.

The McCanns, both doctors, claimed that the twins “could have been drugged by the abductor” - which they said would explain why they apparently didn't wake up when hey say Madeleien was 'snatched'. The McCanns then waited for five months before engaging an agency to carry out “independent” tests. The results of these tests have never been publicly disclosed and it is not known for what drugs the agency tested.

16. Only Answering Press Questions with At Least Two Hours Advance Notice.

The McCanns stipulated that for all interviews, the press had to present all questions to them at least two hours in advance of the interview, and that they would only answer those questions, and no others.

17. The McCanns Attempt to Explain that the “Abductor” Drugged the Children.

The McCanns explained away the fact that the twins didn’t wake up, amidst all the shouting when the alarm was raised about Madeleine, by hinting that the twins must have been drugged by the abductor. The McCanns came up with this theory while being filmed by close family friend Jon Corner in August, and after leaks from the Portuguese police suggested that the children had been sedated.

18. The Startling Failure of the McCanns’ Friends to Search for Madeleine the Night She Disappeared.

According to a number of reports which have never been contradicted, while hundreds of people, including staff of Mark Warners and many local people, searched the area around the Ocean Club apartments for hours after Madeleine went missing, not one of the McCanns’ friends, known as the ‘Tapas 9’, bothered to do so. They all went to bed. That is as clear an indication as you could get that they knew it would be pointless searching for Madeleine. It is entirely consistent with them knowing that Madeleine was already dead.

19. The McCanns’ Failure to Talk to Jane Tanner for Two Whole Days About Her Sighting of the “Alleged” Abductor.

According to many reports, and confirmed in an article by David Smith, in ‘The Times’ of late December 2007, the McCanns did not bother to talk to Jane Tanner for two whole days about what she claimed to have seen at 9.15pm that night - namely a person walking off with a child looking like Madeleine. This is despite the McCanns’ absolute insistence that an abduction had taken place. According to David Smith’s article, which included an exclusive and extended interview with Gerry McCann, he and Jane Tanner did not speak to each other because they were ‘too busy’. If there really had been an abduction, the McCanns and Jane Tanner would have spoken to each other about what she saw without a moment’s delay.

20. Apprehension about Phone Calls being Monitored.

The McCanns expressed anxiety about their phone calls and e-mails being intercepted. What innocent parent would worry about that?

21. Concealing Records of their Mobile Phone Calls.

The McCanns refused to supply their mobile phone accounts to the P.J.

 

[SWP's back]

Found this online. Couple of good points, few shit ones.

1. The Implausibility of “Stranger” Abduction.

Statistics on alleged ‘stranger’ abduction from a person’s home show that a member of the ‘abducted’ child’s family is usually the perpetrator, and that the child usually dies. An overwhelming 99% of all claimed ‘abductions’ from a home turn out to be intra-family murder. There have been two high profile cases in the last few weeks - ‘Baby Grace’, found battered and decomposing in a plastic box on sand dunes near Galveston, and the ‘dead baby in the attic’. Both were claimed abductions - and both were hoaxes.

The Children’s Commissioner in the U.K. said: “We are concerned that a version of Megan’s Law could detract from the fact that children are actually most at risk from people known to them”.

2. Refusal to Answer the Policia Judiciaria’s Questions.

The McCanns did not answer the P.J.’s questions – it is reported that there were forty such unanswered questions. These are the not actions of innocent parents, who would do all they could to assist the police in every way possible.

3. Ignoring Advice not to Highlight Madeleine’s Eye Defect.

The parents ignored the clearest possible P.J. advice not to highlight Madeleine’s eye defect, the coloboma (an iris defect). If Madeleine were still alive, this would have put Madeleine at much greater risk of death. The parents’ conduct suggests they knew she was already dead. They deliberately ignored sound advice not to make Madeleine so recognisable that the abductors (if she was abducted) would have to kill her. All the publicity posters emphasising the coloboma, the announcement of all the sightings, and claims of being “right on the kidnappers” trail…all these actions put Madeleine at greater risk.

[From Charlotte: Perhaps it should also be noted that Gerry McCann, when questioned about his reasoning for announcing Madeleine’s eye defect, responded: "the plan was risky but "in terms of marketing, it was a good ploy"]

4. The Impossibility of the Abduction Happening as Claimed.

The sheer impossibility of the abduction – so many intractable questions: e.g., why did the abductor wait for thirty-five minutes after the McCanns sauntered down to the Tapas bar? Was the abductor/predator hiding behind the door as Gerry McCann checked the children? (That’s what he claims). Did the abductor/predator really walk in through open patio doors, and why then did he climb out through the window and shutters with Madeleine under his arm? And so on…

5. The Changing Stories of What the Abductor Looked Like.

Jane Tanner’s often changed story of what the abductor looked like: initially “His head was egg-shaped, he had some short hair, and was carrying a bundle, maybe a blanket”, then, a full three weeks later - and to make sure that the P.J. issued a description - “I definitely saw him carrying a girl in pink pyjamas”. Then, after SIX months, we are given an artist’s impression of the abductor and we are now told: “Head not egg-shaped, hair long, sleek, black and shiny, abductor was not ‘white’ but ‘swarthy and Mediterranean’” etc.

6. The Parents’ Absolute Insistence that Abduction was the Only Explanation for Madeleine’s Disappearance.

The parents’ immediate and insistent cry of abduction - excluding all other possibilities.

7. Claiming the Abductor was the Man Allegedly Seen by Jane Tanner.

Gerry McCann proceeded, after three weeks, to issue a description of the abductor based SOLELY on Jane Tanner’s dubious sighting - against P.J. advice and only after Gordon Brown had intervened by phoning the P.J.

8. The Tapas 9 Pact of Silence.

The “Pact or Conspiracy of Silence” - the notorious agreement between them all to keep silent about the events of that night.

9 Changes to the Story.

Changes to the story, as for example:

Day 1: “Shutters jemmied open, windows open, patio doors locked, abductor must have forced his way in”.

Days 2 and 3: P.J. and Mark Warners say: “No way shutters and window were forced from outside”.

Several days later: McCanns - “Oh, we left the patio doors open, so abductor must have walked in through the patio doors and then opened the shutters and climbed out of the window with Madeleine”.

10. The Hiring of Dubious Private Investigators.

Hiring a dubious British private investigation agency and a dubious Spanish ‘detective agency’ (Metodo 3) at cost of several hundred thousand pounds, all for no obvious benefit or results.

11. The Hiring of Britain’s Top Extradition Lawyer.

The McCanns rushed to hire the U.K.’s top extradition lawyer – one Michael Caplan Q.C. (who represented General Pinochet) - at the very moment they became formal suspects.

12. Publicly Agreeing to Take a Lie Detector Test - And Then Refusing.

After initial boasting of their willingness to take the test, the McCanns refused to do so.

13. Strange and Irrational Excuses for “Blood, DNA, and the Smell of Death”.

The extraordinary excuses offered by the McCanns in response to the forensic findings of blood, DNA, and cadaverine smell included these six examples:

(a) I took Cuddle Cat to work - that’s why the smell of death is on Cuddle Cat.

(b) I dealt with 6 corpses in the last fortnight at work, that’s why the smell of death is on my clothes

c) We’ll get on to lawyers in Ireland/America who say these cadaver dogs’ evidence is useless.

(d) The DNA was the children’s dirty nappies in the boot.

(e) The ‘smell of death’ was rotting meat that Gerry was taking to the dump.

(f) The blood in the flat (found underneath the tiles in the children’s bedroom) might have been from Madeleine grazing her leg when she boarded the plane, or perhaps a nosebleed.

14. Not Staying Protectively Close to the Twins after Madeleine’s Disappearance.

The parents left their twins at the creche within days of Madeleine disappearing and spent as much time as possible visiting the Pope, the White House, and “campaigning” - no parents whose child had truly been ‘abducted by a stranger’ would let those twins out of their sight; they would cling to the precious two they had left.

15. [AMENDED BY TONY BENNETT ON 25 JULY 2008]

Refusing to carry out a drugs test on the twins for five months despite the McCanns' claim that they 'could have been drugged by the abductor'.

The McCanns, both doctors, claimed that the twins “could have been drugged by the abductor” - which they said would explain why they apparently didn't wake up when hey say Madeleien was 'snatched'. The McCanns then waited for five months before engaging an agency to carry out “independent” tests. The results of these tests have never been publicly disclosed and it is not known for what drugs the agency tested.

16. Only Answering Press Questions with At Least Two Hours Advance Notice.

The McCanns stipulated that for all interviews, the press had to present all questions to them at least two hours in advance of the interview, and that they would only answer those questions, and no others.

17. The McCanns Attempt to Explain that the “Abductor” Drugged the Children.

The McCanns explained away the fact that the twins didn’t wake up, amidst all the shouting when the alarm was raised about Madeleine, by hinting that the twins must have been drugged by the abductor. The McCanns came up with this theory while being filmed by close family friend Jon Corner in August, and after leaks from the Portuguese police suggested that the children had been sedated.

18. The Startling Failure of the McCanns’ Friends to Search for Madeleine the Night She Disappeared.

According to a number of reports which have never been contradicted, while hundreds of people, including staff of Mark Warners and many local people, searched the area around the Ocean Club apartments for hours after Madeleine went missing, not one of the McCanns’ friends, known as the ‘Tapas 9’, bothered to do so. They all went to bed. That is as clear an indication as you could get that they knew it would be pointless searching for Madeleine. It is entirely consistent with them knowing that Madeleine was already dead.

19. The McCanns’ Failure to Talk to Jane Tanner for Two Whole Days About Her Sighting of the “Alleged” Abductor.

According to many reports, and confirmed in an article by David Smith, in ‘The Times’ of late December 2007, the McCanns did not bother to talk to Jane Tanner for two whole days about what she claimed to have seen at 9.15pm that night - namely a person walking off with a child looking like Madeleine. This is despite the McCanns’ absolute insistence that an abduction had taken place. According to David Smith’s article, which included an exclusive and extended interview with Gerry McCann, he and Jane Tanner did not speak to each other because they were ‘too busy’. If there really had been an abduction, the McCanns and Jane Tanner would have spoken to each other about what she saw without a moment’s delay.

20. Apprehension about Phone Calls being Monitored.

The McCanns expressed anxiety about their phone calls and e-mails being intercepted. What innocent parent would worry about that?

21. Concealing Records of their Mobile Phone Calls.

The McCanns refused to supply their mobile phone accounts to the P.J.

Certainly not consistent with the actions of the innocent.

 

[mackenzie]

You mean the rental car that the police reckon the mccanns lugged the decomposing body (because that is what it would have been by then) of their child into?
Think about it.

Not sure what you mean by that. The evidence of the Irish family suggests they moved the body very quickly, possibly the same night.

Any links to that Irish couple story mate ?. It has me fascinated

I think that post was a little bit incongruous to be fair :-)

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

You mean the rental car that the police reckon the mccanns lugged the decomposing body (because that is what it would have been by then) of their child into?
Think about it.

Not sure what you mean by that. The evidence of the Irish family suggests they moved the body very quickly, possibly the same night.

Any links to that Irish couple story mate ?. It has me fascinated

Here's one source: http://www.mccannfiles.com/id162.html

Here's the summary:

Just before 10:00pm on the night of 03 May 2007, the Smith family from Ireland pass a man carrying a child in his arms. The man averts his eyes from them to signal that he does not wish to speak.

Four months later, during which time the McCanns never sought to exploit this potentially crucial sighting, the Smith family are watching TV. They see the McCanns return to the UK and observe Gerry leave the plane and walk across the tarmac with Sean in his arms.

The father, Martin Smith, is shocked. He recognises the walking style and the way the child is being held against the shoulder. It is exactly like the man he saw on the streets of Praia da Luz, four months earlier.

 

[blumoon]

Not sure what you mean by that. The evidence of the Irish family suggests they moved the body very quickly, possibly the same night.

Any links to that Irish couple story mate ?. It has me fascinated

I think that post was a little bit incongruous to be fair :-)

Sorry it's grand I found it Shaz :-)

 

[mackenzie]

Absolutely I do yes. To think otherwise beggars belief if you ask me. If they were guilty they would do it for the exact reason on your post.

That's not to say they did do it, but it would be what someone may do if they did do it.

No, in the annals of crime it doesn't happen that way. The fact that you say it 'beggars belief' speaks volumes that you haven't studied stuff of a similar nature.
Name me some cases where we have seen this before.

You know full well that would be impossible as to assume their guilt (yet they get away with it, by doing exactly as they have done) would mean that any similar cases would have ended the same way. With the potential killers never being found guilty.

Ok. So tell me some similar cases then. I'm getting at the high profile actions of the parents here.
Not interested in any outcome of similar actions.

 

[another generation]

Ooh! Watched the set of videos. Just confirmed my gut feeling that some big porky pies have been told. I never followed the details of the case, but remember my gut feeling of 'not totally innocent' when I saw their body language on the TV. Tell one lie, and it turns into a series of lies that just grow and grow. In the end, there's no way you can admit the truth, because the condemnation will be a thousand times worse than had you admitted the initial wrongdoing. In the McCanns' case, there's also a shed load of money involved, that various benefactors have donated.

Out of interest, are the McCanns both practising doctors?