H_B

Why do these two things have to be related?

Bear in mind that although DB looks in his 40s, he is actually much younger

No, but they were aware which area they were searching and therefore could have gained this assent before setting off on their search. I believe the chances of finding a missing child decreases exponentially every 24 hours from the initial kidnap. In which case, this was the critical time period of any search. Funnily enough, a locked shed might just have been the kind of place worth having a nosy into.

Yes, that's British law too you know Which can be got round if you obtain the owner's consent, which surely they would only be too happy to do to expedite a missing child search.

They are involved in a tense battle with the Bob Woolmer lot for "Worst Investigation of the Year". A few days after the disappearance a BBC crew followed the local cops conducting searches of the local landscape. They walked past a small outhouse type building, and the reporter asked why they didn't search that. "Oh that's locked. We aren't allowed to search anything which is locked". Good thinking chaps.

And the parents. What is Gerry McCann doing of use in Washington?

Yep. I notice the usual suspects who defend the McCanns to the hilt have made no comment in the press about this latest pointless trip to America. Go home and do your job Gerry. But oh, you don't have to, as you have 750K in a fund you can delve into.

Watched Manhunter on ITV3 last night - it's on again tonight. If you haven't seen it, you really should. Brian Cox as Hannibal Leckter and Will Peterson are both excellent and the soundtrack is fantastic.

The Chancellor Manuscript - Robert Ludlum Was surprised to really enjoy this, as I read the first couple of chapters of one of his Bourne books and it was pish. This was excellently written though and involved a well written conspiracy around the end of J Edgar Hoover's reign at the FBI.

Unbelieveable.

You should really try and hide that sixth finger and put your banjo in a case when you are outside "The Kingdom". That should help you avoid such abuse!

Have you tried Nematodes. I believe they are the business...

Don't do it - the DVD is shit. I don't generally like King books, but quite enjoyed The Stand.

I know, but at least you have recognised it as such. That may be an attempt to con us into believing you can read though.

Was it written in crayon?

I saw another shocking example of bad parenting this morning... shameful stuff. Doc1.doc

Not what he did.

Yes.

Dunno. I only stayed for the first couple of hours out of curiosity (and to avoid going back to work) to see whether the lawyers were any good (they weren't).

It's a difficult one though, and comes back to my original point on the thread. My one trip to do jury duty (which I wasn't picked for) saw a wee old lady that looked like your granny brought into court looking terrified and frail. Turned out she had killed a motorcyclist through dangerous driving. First thought - "she is in her 70s - probably isn't a fast driver and just made an error of judgement and will probably have been haunted by that day ever since what's the point in punishing her further" What if she had been a 21 year old skinhead ned chewing gum and walking in grinning, with his finger up though. First thought - "enjoy jail f'ker" Same crime - different reactions. No doubt different sentences too.

The law itself should certainly not have any element of compassion in it. Sentencing however should, and does.

I'm no legal expert either, but negligence always seemed more common sense than legalistic to me. It's nearly impossible to define in statute. Would a "reasonable" parent in this situation have acted as they did, or not? Not being a parent, I wouldn't like to make a call on that. I do remember looking after a 5 year old niece in a restaurant once, who when I turned my back for a second to see to my nephew who was crying she somehow ended up at the top of a long flight of marble stairs about to take a header down them. I (just) caught her in time, but had she fallen would I have been responsible or negligent?

Legally it is Duty of care and all that... A good example was if I was watching you walk along a corridor from a window and noticed you were heading for a banana skin someone had left lying, would I be under any duty of care to warn you? No... If you were my daughter and you were heading for the banana skin, would I then be under any duty of care to warn you? Yep.

I'd have thought the thinking is you have more control/knowledge over the local environment and the people who are in it, than you do in Portugal. I can see both sides here to be honest - I wouldn't blame the parents too much. I just found the media treatment interesting.

Ah, ha! I knew there was someone out there who watched the Hallmark channel! I was thinking Madagascar.