THOSE PAEDOPHILE ACCUSATIONS

In response to John from previous blog:

Apologies John, I meant to add with regard to Yvonne Martin and the Gaspers. Whilst it is always possible there is a paedophile element to this case, I think it very unlikely.  There is no way these families living under police  scrutiny have kept that kind of secret for almost 10 years.  As discussed in the comments in the previous blog, these people will always live under a huge cloud of suspicion, not only from the general public, but even from their own friends and family. Whatever monstrous behaviour those focussing on the paedophile aspects suspect, simply isn't viable. Not when you apply reason and logic, which seems to be the part they haven't got to in their 'research'.  

As a survivor of a Catholic institution where abuse of every variety was available on tap, I feel pretty darned qualified to recognise abuse and to understand it. I have spent a lifetime trying to make sense of the evil that sets off abuse against the vulnerable.  How do you define abuse? Sexual always takes top spot, because it grabs headlines and provokes the most outrage.  However, those battered on a daily basis, degraded, humiliated and forced to submit to the will of authoritarians might beg to differ. Especially those toddlers who end up in the morgue and those teenagers who snap. 
 
Paedophiles do exist, but not in the way we are led to believe.  Sex parties in the suburbs involving parents passing their kids around are unheard of.  And the dangerous predators are not those socially inept hermits that hide away in bedsits, they are the ones who seek out opportunities where they have access to children. It is not the introverted misfits who pose the most danger, it is the sneaky, manipulative predators who worm their way into the mother's affections. Instead of worrying about Muslim jihadists talking dirty from an internet café in Bagdad, young mums should worry about the fella they picked up in the nightclub who still hasn't gone home.  

Upwardly mobile professionals like the Tapas, want the best for their children, as we all do, and they know better than most how not to raise their kids to be homicidal psychopaths.  Abused children do not thrive.  In fact, most do the opposite.  They become introverted, sullen and anti social.  They don't get shown off to friends and family.  Not only is the idea that these people were abusing their own kids abhorrent, it doesn't make any sense.  Even narcissists and megalomaniacs instinctively protect their own.  The tapas group may not be likeable, but they are parents like any other. Arguably, everything they have done has been to protect their children.    

To be fair the McCanns brought the 'P' word up first - as an explanation for Madeleine's disappearance, but there is a large group among the anti's who have latched onto the statements of Yvonne Martin and the Gaspers in order to spice the story up.  It can't just be an accident, it has to be something more, and they've had 10 years to think about it.  They have made so much of so little, they have even dragged in Cliff Richard and Clement Freud. When applying 2degrees of separation logic to their research, owning property in the Algarve implicates you, as does being Irish. 

Some have spent hours poring over the McCanns holiday snaps, seeking out little signs and secret paedo messages, every Madeleine micro expression scrutinized for evidence to back up their fantastical made up stories.  They are selling the 'P' element just as much as those trying to convince us our kids are in constant danger.  They see sexual innuendo everywhere, from a little girl dressing up to men bathing small children. Hands on childcare is what 'new' men do, they give their partners a break, get over it. 

 It seems as though those who suspect there was some of paedophile convention going on in PDL in May 2007, have made a proverbial mountain out of an unconvincing molehill.  In 10 years there has been absolutely nothing to support the Yvonne Martin and Gasper statements.  The painstaking analysis and conclusions of deranged online 'researchers' with magnifying glasses, vivid imaginations and way too much time, counts for zilch, and is actually quite funny, and also a bit creepy.
I find it incredible that anyone would think a group of attractive, very sociable, middle class professionals would have any interest whatsoever in having sex with children. Why on earth would they?  They are all confident, assertive adults vying for the alpha roles among a group of equals.  Their days were filled with running and competitive sports, and their evenings were dedicated to adult time.  Given Gerry's addiction to the tennis courts (that continued after Madeleine disappeared), its quite clear where his interests on that holiday lay, and it wasn't with the kids.  Kate drew the short straw on the 'new' man front. 

It is ridiculous to suggest that doctors spent their nights abusing toddlers then put those same toddlers into the care of professional nannies (who are presumably trained to look out for that sort of thing) the next morning.  Especially a little chatterbox like Madeleine.  Hot blooded adults are interested in other hot blooded adults, ones who will watch and applaud as they 'peacock'. As Kate said 'they were so into each other'.  And no, not in a swinging sense, like any parents of small children they were desperate for the buzz of adult company. 

The idea that our suburbs are filled with gangs of paedophiles who rape and abuse kids is nonsense.  I have led an up and down life and moved a lot, yet I have never encountered, in any environment, a single person who was that way inclined, let alone a group - has anyone?  It brings to mind the hysteria in the 1980's when the creepy, now deceased, Ray Wyre convinced the establishment that the UK was overrun with groups of Satan worshipping parents sexually abusing their kids. 
 
The 'Tapas' were a group of snobby professionals out to impress each other. They were also offloading their kids at every opportunity.  And I'm not even condemning them for that.  I remember as a single mum in my thirties, sitting indoors crying because I didn't have a babysitter and I couldn't go partying with my mates from work.  Being desperate for adult company is not a crime. 

The idea that PDL is some kind of haven for child predators is a myth created by a couple in a very awkward situation and by those who saw an opportunity to boost the missing child industry.  For those politicians eager to introduce ID cards, DNA databanks and stricter surveillance of the internet, the danger to children 'everywhere' was a godsend.  Even cherubic middle class toddlers could be stolen from their safe and secure bed and the public were demanding new laws and greater protection.  Sweet. The headlines might just as well have said 'Bogeyman DOES exist, read all about it'.

Those making the most lurid accusations against the McCanns and the Tapas group are not thinking about the well being of all the children involved.  The abduction story, the suspicion, the Court cases etc, etc, make it impossible for those kids to avoid the vast amount of information available on the web.  But detailed discussion of the sordid fantasies of deranged conspiraloons is unnecessarily cruel and deeply disturbing.  All those claiming to be thinking of Madeleine should stop and consider how their words affect her brother and sister. 

As to those who think believe PDL holds some sort of annual convention for those with a penchant for devious sex, I suggest they put the glass down and walk away slowly.