Find Madeleine

(Please see UPDATE at end)

www.findmadeleine.com

I have, like everyone else I imagine, seen reports about the horrific abduction of a young girl whilst on holiday with her parents in sourthern Portugal. She was abducted from their holiday apartment whilst the parents were dining in a restaurant only fifty or so metres away. I'm not a parent of course, but I can readily empathise with how any parent would feel in similar circumstances - complete horror and being sick with worry about what fate may have befallen their child.

I understand a 2-minute video was shown this evening at a football match in Glasgow attended by a large number of Spanish football fans there to cheer on the Sevilla team. Seville (i.e. Sevilla) is not in fact very far from the Spanish border with Portugal, so I imagine this may be why it was thought worthwhile to show the video at this event. I hope some good might come of it.

The reason I have included the photograph of Madeleine above is because I had not fully appreciated until I saw the series of images in the video exactly what the distinctive feature about the iris of one of her eyes meant - the photograph shows very clearly what is involved. You can visit the findmadeleine.com website by clicking here, or by clicking on the photograph above.

UPDATE: (Wednesday 12SEP07 00.30) A lot has been happening over the past few months and the pace seems to have quickened considerably in the past week. The public prosecutor in Portugal is now reported to be about to pass a file to a judge who will decide what further action is now needed; the naming of both parents as 'suspects' has been covered extensively. If the parents are innocent their treatment over the past week, in particular, will come to be seen as monstrous. If the parents are guilty then it is they who will ultimately be seen as monsters. I have no partiuclar view either way, although the events of the past week have at times left me slack-jawed with astonishment for a variety of reasons. My general view is that we must leave it to the Portuguese judicial authorities and not pre-judge anything. On a more trivial note, the media coverage that I have seen of this case has been exhaustive and exhausting - endless broadcasting and newspaper reports 'hung' on the flimsiest of factual information. As a bystander I can make no useful comment on the substance of the case - what has happened to Madeleine McCann and who is responsible?