MSN Home  |  My MSN  |  Hotmail
Sign in to Windows Live ID Web Search:   
go to MSNGroups 
Free Forum Hosting
 
Important Announcement Important Announcement
The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
Madeleine McCannContains "mature" content, but not necessarily adult.[email protected] 
  
What's New
  
  WELCOME  
  LATEST NEWS  
  PJ FINAL REPORT  
  Member Messages  
  ►►SITE MENU◄◄  
  ►► MESSAGES �?/A>  
  All Messages  
  General  
  Messages For Maddie  
  Madeleine  
  Off Topic  
  Breaking News  
  Pet Memorials  
  MEMBER WELCOME  
  MEET THE MANAGER  
  ►►SUMMARIES◄◄  
  ►►�?MEDIA ◄◄�?/A>  
  NEWSPAPERS  
  Telegraph  
  Newspaper Thread  
  MAY Reports  
  JUNE Reports  
  SUN BOARD  
  TIMES BOARD  
  Daily Mail  
  MIRROR BOARD  
  GUARDIAN BOARD  
  Deleted EXPRESS  
  News Archives  
  News Articles  
  TV Program Links  
  Transcripts  
  TV News  
  Video Links  
  JOURNALISM  
  News Sniffer  
  ►INVESTIGATION�?/A>  
  Interviews  
  Suspicious  
  Re-enactment  
  Subliminal & Propaganda  
  Contrived Abduction  
  Facts  
  'Evidence'  
  Libel Threats  
  Lies  
  Quotes  
  Theories  
  Forged Photos?  
  McCann Travels  
  Timelines  
  FUND INFO  
  Fund  
  FUND INCOME / EXPENSES  
  Fund Compilation  
  FUNDRAISING  
  Fund 'Sources'  
  ►►►PEOPLE◄◄�?/A>  
  Kate McCann  
  Key People  
  Clarence Mitchel  
  Government  
  Brian Kennedy  
  Jon Corner  
  Metodo 3  
  Photofit  
  People MISC  
  Witnesses  
  Family  
  Unknown People  
  Esther McVey  
  Pol. Judiciaria  
  Tapas 7  
  Backers  
  ►►►► INFO◄◄�?/A>  
  Weather  
  The Law  
  Beachy  
  thentherewere4  
  Beachy Posts  
  AMBER ALERT  
  Information  
  M & E Children  
  Statistics  
  HUMAN BEHAVIOUR  
  Body Language  
  ►► CHAT ROOM�?/A>  
  Chat User Guide  
  ►► OPINIONS◄◄  
  Coldwater  
  HiDeHo  
  Jon Gaunt  
  Comments to Note  
  Gerry's Blog  
  Personal Attack  
  Misc Blogs  
  bb2002  
  Tabs poem  
  ►►WEBSITES◄◄  
  mccannfiles.com  
  Website Links  
  ►►PICTURES◄◄  
  Pictures  
  Manager Graphics  
  Pics fo Posting  
  Photo Curiosity  
  Backgrounds  
  ►►FORUMS◄◄  
  Digital Spy  
  Websleuths  
  THE 3 ARGUIDOS  
  3A Thread Lists  
  3A at Brussels Conference  
  3A Smiles  
  3A Ref. Threads  
  3A Distributions  
  3A Leaflets  
  MIRROR FORUM  
  M F Threads  
  Memorable Posts  
  Great Posts  
  Lost Pages  
  ►E-MAIL ADDYS�?/A>  
  ►►COMPUTER ◄◄  
  COMPUTER HELP  
  Computer Tips  
  HOW TO TIPS FOR 3A  
  3A How To Post  
  Avatars  
  ►►�?GAMES◄◄�?/A>  
  Brain Teasers  
  Time Wasters  
  Interesting Fact  
  Funnies  
  Points To Ponder  
  Nostalgia  
  Amateur Sleuth  
  For Skeptics  
  Estelle's Posts  
  Search  
  Priest  
  Remember Madeleine  
  Songs & Lyrics  
  'Source' Info  
  British Police  
  Sheree Dodds  
  PR & Spin  
  Trial  
  Your Web Page  
  3A Here To Stay  
  Documentaries  
  Diary  
  TEAM McCANN  
  Mgzne Interviews  
  TV INTERVIEWS  
  Robert Murat  
  Oprah  
  AMARAL'S BOOK  
  Fridge  
  McCanns History  
  McCann 'Defence'  
  Martin Brunt  
  Statements  
  Apologies  
  Investigate Fund  
  Statement Tables  
  MISC Web Pages  
  Millenium /Tapas  
  
  
  Tools  
 
Family : FAM Susan Healy criticism may 1 08
Choose another message board
 
     
Reply
 Message 1 of 1 in Discussion 
From: MSN Nicknametin-lizzy  (Original Message)Sent: 9/25/2008 12:35 PM

Where were you that night, Kate? What grandmother said after she was told that Madeleine had been snatched

Last updated at 00:52am on 01.05.08

 Add your view

Madeleine McCann's grandmother yesterday criticised her daughter's fateful decision to leave the youngster and her brother and sister alone in their bedroom.

'Why did they think it was OK to do this?' asked Susan Healy, 62.

She revealed that her first words to the couple in the frantic phone call informing her of Madeleine's disappearance were: 'Where were you?'

And she said she could understand public anger at the couple for going to dinner while their children slept unattended in an unlocked apartment more than 50 yards away.

Scroll down for more ...

Susan Healy and Madeleine

Missing a year: Madeleine McCann. Tragic questions: Kate's mother Susan Healy

She said she wanted to 'shake' Kate and her husband Gerry for the decision, which has now haunted them for a year and which could still be used by Portuguese police to support a charge of child negligence.

The grandmother revealed that Madeleine still appeared to Mrs McCann in 'visions'.

The family is marking the first anniversary of Madeleine's abduction, which takes place on Saturday, with a media offensive.

In a two-hour ITV documentary screened tonight Kate McCann, 40,breaks down as she tells how she has 'persecuted' herself for leaving the children alone.

The couple allowed cameras to follow them on a series of trips linked to their Find Madeleine campaign, and to film inside their house where the twins Sean and Amelie, now three, played happily.

They have also struck a year-long deal with the celebrity magazine Hello!, which has agreed to run a story every week in support of their campaign.

Mrs Healy, speaking to her local paper the Liverpool Echo, relived the moment that Mr McCann, 39, called her on May 3 and said he thought Madeleine had been abducted from her bed.

She said her first question was simply: 'Where were you?'

She said: 'I can read articles that say Kate and Gerry should never have left their children and I can accept that.

Scroll down for more ...

Kate McCann

Tortured tears: Kate McCann in the documentary. Her mother says she sees Madeleine in 'visions'

'You find yourself over and over again in your head thinking, “Why did they think it would be all right? Why did they think �?all of them �?it was OK to do this?"'

Mrs Healy and her husband Brian, 68, of Allerton, Liverpool, flew out to Praia da Luz the day after the phone call and said they found Mrs McCann 'absolutely wailing' with distress.

A year later, the GP wept again during filming for the TV documentary in which she and her consultant cardiologist husband speak about virtually every aspect of their daughter's disappearance, their emotional ordeal and their attempts to find her.

Why didn't you come when we were crying, mummy?

Mr McCann said the couple and their friends, the so-called Tapas Nine, considered eating with their children on the night of May 3.

They had devised their own system of putting the youngsters to bed, going to dinner at the tapas bar in the apartment complex and taking turns to check on the rooms.

But on the morning of May 3 Madeleine said she and baby brother Sean had been crying the night before, and asked her mother why she had not come to comfort them.

They talked about returning instead to the restaurant where they ate on the first night of their holiday, the Millennium, with their children, but decided it was too far away.

Mr McCann said: 'The worst thing is we kind of almost thought about not going.'

Scroll down for more ...

McCann mailboxes

Mailbox: How the McCanns have filed the flood of correspondence

Photographs of the scene have since revealed the McCanns had a direct view from the tapas bar to the unlocked patio doors which led to their two-bedroom flat, but could not see the children's bedroom window at the rear of the apartment.

Mrs McCann said: 'We were all going to go up to the Millennium again, that was with the kids, which is what we did the first night.

'It was just because the walk was so long and we didn't have a buggy and the kids were tired by that time.'

She added: 'If there'd even been one second where someone had said “Do you think it's going to be OK?�?it wouldn't have happened. 'There's absolutely no way if I'd had the slightest inkling that there was a risk involved there, that I'd have done it.'

The couple allowed cameras to follow them on a series of trips linked to their Find Madeleine campaign, and to film inside their house where the twins Sean and Amelie, now three, played happily.

Of the decision to leave the children in the apartment, Mrs McCann said: 'It seemed a fairly natural thing to do, it was so close. You could actually see the apartment and it didn't feel that different to dining out in the back garden.'

The McCanns initially said they believed an abductor had forced open the blinds on the rear bedroom window of their apartment, which faces the street.

But they have since said they think an intruder could have let himself in through the patio doors, which they kept unlocked in case of an emergency.

We have to live with the fact that we weren't there

The McCanns said they had tortured themselves for a year about leaving their children alone.

Mr McCann said: 'People will say that they've never done that and you know, who am I to argue? We have to live with the fact that we weren't directly there and if we were then possibly, probably it wouldn't have happened.

'The worst thing is that you can't change any of that and it doesn't help find her.'

Mrs McCann's leaked witness statement revealed Madeleine and Sean were crying in their bedroom on the night of May 2, and that Madeleine asked the next morning: 'Mummy, why didn't you come when Sean and me were crying?'

Mrs McCann said she now feared her children might have been disturbed that night by Madeleine's eventual abductor, and said she wished she had questioned her oldest daughter about what had happened.

Scroll down for more ...

Madeleine shrine

Shrine: The mantelpiece at the family home in Leicestershire

She said: 'I've persecuted myself over and over again about that statement because you think why didn't I just hold her and say “What do you mean? Do you mean you woke up?�?/P>

'But you don't think that (at the time). I mean it's easy saying that after what's happened.'

The panic, the praying. . .and the total devastation

In the minutes after Madeleine went missing, Mrs McCann and her friends instantly thought that the little girl would be smuggled across the Portuguese border.

'I can remember our friends shouting, “We need to close the borders�?and they were shouting “Morocco, Algiers�?' recalled Kate.

'I can remember all this going on �?and roadblocks, “we need roadblocks�?'

Mr McCann said he insisted his wife stay at the apartment in the hope that Madeleine would be found.

'I was mainly in the bedroom and I was just praying actually,' she said.

Her husband added: 'I was just ringing people and getting everyone to pray, and just felt so helpless.

It was absolute devastation and total, just total emotion really.'

His wife said: 'I knew what pyjamas she had on and I just thought she's going to be freezing.

'And it was just dark �?every minute seemed like an hour and obviously we were up all night and just waited for that first bit of light about six o'clock.'

When they accused us, it was like being in a horror movie

Madeleine's parents told of their shock and anger at being named as official suspects by the Portuguese police, and their fear that they would be separated from their twins.

Mr McCann said: 'You're in the middle of a horror movie really, a nightmare. Pressure such as I've never felt before. You're under attack in one way or another. The speculation takes you to the worst places and the worst place would have been being charged, potentially being put in jail, certainly being detained to face charges that could have taken years to materialise, being separated from Sean and Amelie.'

Mrs McCann said: 'As soon as I realised the story or theory was that Madeleine was dead and that we'd been involved somehow, it just hit home. They haven't been looking for Madeleine.'

Social services did visit the McCanns' home in Rothley, Leicestershire, and said they were satisfied with the couple's childcare arrangements.

Suddenly I became invincible, like a lioness for her cubs

Police told Mrs McCann she would serve a lighter jail sentence if she confessed to her involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

She told of her furious reaction, saying: 'I'd have fought to the death at that point. There was no way I was going to be railroaded into something.

'I felt almost invincible at that point. I just don't know what kicked in. I just thought my children deserve that, Madeleine deserves that. Someone has to be fighting for Madeleine.'

She said she felt like a 'lioness and her cubs' in her determination that she would not be separated from the twins.

Scroll down for more ...

Kate McCann

Kate speaks about the family's emotional ordeal on a special ITV documentary

But she revealed how she dreaded the prospect of having to search for Madeleine for another 40 years.

She said: 'We're never going to get to a day where you think, “OK, we've tried everything now. We're exhausted and we need to start living�?'

Mr McCann said: 'Your life is carrying on to an extent, in a quasi-real existence, a purgatory-type existence.'

Mrs McCann lashed out at the Portuguese police's smear campaign against the family.

She said she was furious that detectives had apparently leaked their witness statements on the day the couple made a high-profile campaign visit to the European Parliament.

The statements �?including the revelation that Madeleine had been crying the night before �?overshadowed the visit.

Mrs McCann said: 'The whole thing is to detract from what we're doing and I feel absolutely gutted. I think it's an absolute disgrace.'

Support, offers of help . . . and poisonous hate mail

Conspiracy theorists, psychics and supporters have inundated the McCanns with letters since Madeleine vanished.

The couple said the vast majority were supportive but that they have had to refer some hate mail to the police, including one death threat.

In the documentary they are shown opening letters and filing them into boxes, including files marked Nasty, Nutty, Psychic Visions and Dreams, Ideas and Well-wishers.

Mr McCann read one spiteful Christmas card to the camera, saying: 'Your brat is dead because of your drunken arrogance. Shame on you. I curse you and your family to suffer forever. Cursed Christmas.'

Is she tall? Is her hair long? And can she write her name?

Kate McCann broke down several times as she spoke about her missing daughter, saying: 'She's like a little buddy to me.'

She said: 'It doesn't feel like a year since I saw Madeleine. She's just so much, very much still there and she doesn't seem that far away.

'I see Madeleine's best friend from time to time. Can't help but wonder what would Madeleine be like, would she be that much taller, you know, is her hair as long as that? You know, and would she be writing her name too?

'You know she's there waiting for us. She deserves us to keep going.'

Madeleine's grandmother Mrs Healy said Mrs McCann is so traumatised by her daughter's disappearance that she sees the little girl in 'visions'.

She told Closer magazine: 'When Kate told me she was unable to sleep on a few occasions, I asked her if her twins had woken her as they sometimes get into her bed. But she told me: “Madeleine came�?

'She imagines Madeleine is there with her. My heart goes out to her. There are times when she's absolutely devastated and bereft.'

The McCanns are spearheading a campaign for a Europe-wide alert system for missing children. Mr McCann said: 'We feel a moral obligation that some sort of good has to come of this.'

The couple revealed they believe Madeleine is still alive because of what they've learned from world experts on missing children during their campaigning.

Mrs McCann said: 'I don't feel as if Madeleine is dead. I really feel she is out there and we will find her. The chances of her being alive are as good now, if not better, than they were after the first three days of her going missing.'


 

Reader views (18)

 Add your view | Show all

Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.

Here we go again,all you nasty people out there. If you can't think positive then don't comment, you upset people who really care about how children are cared for in this world. Goodness me give this couple a rest and let them carry on looking for their daughter.If I were in their shoes I would be doing the same as they are. Back off.

- Elle, Scotland

Face it Kate, Gerry and Clarence you've lost the PR war

Please, please do us all a favour and give up. If you want to really do something useful fly back to Portugal and answer the police questions...

- Adam, London

Forgive me but wouldn't at least one of them say she must have just wondered off, let's look for her?

Read the below statements...

In the minutes after Madeleine went missing, Mrs McCann and her friends instantly thought that the little girl would be smuggled across the Portuguese border.

'I can remember our friends shouting, “We need to close the borders�?and they were shouting “Morocco, Algiers�?' recalled Kate.

'I can remember all this going on �?and roadblocks, “we need roadblocks�?'

- Paul, Bromley



First  Previous  No Replies  Next  Last