Be Excellent To Each Other

A good party starter, this one.

Might as well have an uber-Maddy thread, rather than a specific one for every single different child that goes missing, presumed buggered to death.

Now. Does anyone else find that one school photo of Shannon Matthews, to be really, really quite troubling in a way the Maddy photos never were? I think it's because a school photo implies that someone has said 'Okay, now... SMILE.' and there's some quality to the photo (coloured obviously by the whole spectacle) that's making me think, 'Yes, I imagine she is often told to smile, when perhaps she doesn't want to.'

Mere speculation by me. It may simply be that I am reading far too much into what is a poor photo of a young, not amazingly beautiful girl. But, still, hm.

According to a bloke off the internet whose mate is working on the case, they've suspected a scam form day one and were only waiting for the evidence toprove it. The child grot on themongy looking chap's PC was just a happy bonus.

I don't think that woman is ever getting her kid back.

I think its pretty tragic that all media are going with the school-taken photo, because clearly her parents are such utter fuckbags that they've never bothered to take a picture of the poor kid at any other time. At least the McCanns have got deranged pictures of their hellchild from several angles.

Yes. Ironic really, her Stepdad's got loads of photos. Hm.

The only decent photos my parents have of me are my school photos. I hate being in photos and make every effort to avoid them.

Poor kid. Parents stage a sham kidnap to get money a la McCanns, AND she has to go through life looking like Jimmy Krankie.

It wasn't just a la McCanns, it was actually potentially *off* the McCanns, or at least off their in-some-quarters-also-considered-a-bit-dodgy Maddie search fund.

Anyway, sounds like the whole family has been arrested now and the mother charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect. And the portugese police are after getting the McCanns back.

Mad shit yo.

Hey, CUS, can you tone the topic title down a bit maybe? Just askin'

Curiosity, That made me laugh far too much, you fucker. I love it. But also, it's all very wrong. Hilariously.

Kalmar, I had been just wondering that myself, yes. It wasn't intended to be outrageous.

Some interesting theories in this weeks Popbitch newsletter.

"
On the day Shannon Matthews was found we were
told a leaked theory from the police we thought
was beyond the realms of possibility. Now it
looks weirdly more probable every day. The
theory was that Shannon's family had been
watching the coverage of the Maddie McCann
case and hatched a cunning plan to make
millions themselves. They'd hide Shannon -
stories about her wanting to run away would
make it plausible - and watch as celebrities
sent in huge donations to help find her. When
that didn't happen the less bright members of
the family came up with Plan B - call the
McCanns and ask for some of their cash.

FYI: Journalists attached to the case have been
gossiping that they think the Mum is addicted to crisps. And possibly heroin. "

Now now - Maddy never did anything to piss us off, only her parents.

Very much what Grim... just said. It's a pity that the McCanns thought of this scam first.

And are clearly brighter and better at lying, being doctors and that.

I think that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we should respect that.

I'm just sad that I'm already hearing people saying "It's disgusting that that woman and that sick bastard who she married have been scamming, with that poor daughter of hers*. It makes you realise what hell those McCanns must have been going through, poor things. Imagine how they must have been feeling, watching all this going on."

Yes. Now that we have caught the evil parents, the McCanns are logically the good ones, hoorah.

They're having a big meeting next week to see about going over ALL the McCann evidence again big stylee.

You can't deny that at least some of the maddie pics make her look like a soulless demon, with a slack face and dead, haunted eyes. I reckon, anyway.

The eyes of a killer, you might even say.

wow thats disturbing

It's a very serious-intentioned picture, which unfortunately got mistaken for some kind of tedious 'shock value' effort. It is disturbing isn't it? Alarmingly, its sibling rather resembles Meryl Streep. I still have the original, if you'd like to see that also. It makes ol Myra look quite timid.

What's the Puerto-Rican guy thing about? I missed that.

Aka "a child".

South Park reference.

Is it to do with that crazy American Bride who claimed she was kidnapped by some people with an Hispanic accent?

Also, because I haven't had a chance to use this yet

[Grim...edit] Fixed the link

Can't argue with the entertainment value of either of these stories can you. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Incidentally, here's the new European wide child abduction alert system.

Exactly.

"We can't use this one, she's crying. Or this one, she's got spunk all over her face. Or this one..." etc etc

Also, what's with that fringe?

Oh, come on guys She's a kid. She looks like she already had a crappy start to life, even before all of this horrible business, please don't mock her.

Mims, none of us are mocking Shannon one iota*, I promise you (from what is in this thread so far). However, her family...

* Well, except that she has got a rubbish fringe, but I mean...

It just seems 'a bit much'.

Anyway, I guess you are all grown men, do what you want, I just thought it a bit insensitive.

It's anger, Mims. It's not 'lol spunk'. It's "Hahaha... yes, actually, if there have been goings on, I would like to beat you senseless". In regards to her stepdad, if the various imaginings that can be imagined, may be even a bit true, in this particular instance.

Er, not to put words into MetalAngel's mouth here, sorry.

It's the sort of thing where your mouth runs away with you or you duff up a paediatrician.

OK, CUS, I guess it just the case makes me feel a bit upset. I just don't understand how those people could have done that to her, the whole story makes me angry and sad.

Me too. In a way that the McCann tale doesn't - not that I've ever wanted anything less than her somehow miraculously unharmed return. This is different. I'm really hoping that it turns out that everyone was just mishearing each other and everything's fine.

Well, we don't know that they've done anything more than keep her at her step-dad's uncle's house for a few weeks. There's been no suggestion that Shannon's otherwise been mistreated, and Radio 4 said the other day that the police had confirmed that the arrest of the step-dad for kiddy-pics (which could, remember, be of 16 year olds, who can legally pose for photos in other countries*) had nothing to do with any of the Matthews brood.


*They could here too, until the law got changed recently so that if you're over 16 but under 18, only your spouse can take nuddy photos of you. Odd, really, as this means you can have sex with a 16 year old but not photograph them.

From ahem, the Mail On Sunday.

You have to sift a bit, but... mm.

Currently reading that article but something leapt out immediately - "she has not been able to tell police how many brothers and sisters she has."

Neither can her mum.

Also -



Ah - so, Mr Bretton. Contraception was entirely her responsibility then, and as you both didn't use any, then that makes you a "victim". You stupid, stupid chav cunt.

These are the supposed facts which are troubling me:

• She was found inside the bed, with her step-father's uncle. The inner bit is split down the middle into two partitions that they were each lying in.
• She had supposedly been saying that she wanted to go and live with her Dad, before she 'disappeared'.
• She now supposedly is disoriented and confused, and thinks she had been at the seaside the whole time - or at least, she has supposedly said that she had been the seaside and visited a market there.
• There have been allegations of serious drug abuse thrown at her Mother.
• There has been child pornography found on her Step-Dad's computer.
• She may have been drugged.
• She claims she had been with her real Dad the whole time.

That last one is troubling me a lot, because of all the above things. Perhaps she had been told to say she had been with her Dad as some way to shift blame to him for her disappearance, and that's the only reason. I really hope so.

The chap may have actually taken her to the seaside, though, to be fair.


Why's that? Do you suspect her dad of some involvement too? That's quite some conspiracy knitting together there, if so.

True.


No, I don't. But I do wonder if she thinks she has been around her Dad recently, and if so where and doing what.

That's what I mean - do you think the dad's been abusing her then? It would be an unpleasant coincidence were it true.

I've no reason to think the Dad did anything. I worry... that she may have been sedated, abused and erm, confused. Told to believe new things. Perhaps she did go to the seaside. Perhaps that made it seem a bit better. I dunno, man, it just has my imagination running riot unpleasantly. If she was abused, I wonder if she thinks it was her Dad.

Might be an urban legend but The Sun published topless photos of Sam Fox on the day of her 16th birthday.

So the photos would have had to have been taken when she was still 15.

Burn the pedlo scum that's what I say!

Given that nobody's been charged with anything related to child abuse (other than step-dad and his kiddy-pron of nameless children), I'd like to hope not.

EDIT - @ CUS, obv.

There were thousands of images, lots of which were 'class 4', found on the PC. I read on the BBC's site. Level 5 being the highest. On Chris Langham's machine there were supposedly a 'few' that were considered as high as a class 4.

And as you say, I very much like to hope not. I really want to be able to chide myself for such horrible speculation.

Reading the article and looking at the ages of the two, I think this bloke was 16 and she was 19 at the time, so quite possibly she initiated it and he didn't really know a lot about contraception. I think he meant victim in the sense of someone she took advantage of and lied to, which is perfectly believable...

CUS - a lot of your speculation seems reasonable, there's definitely some nasty stuff been going on somewhere. It does make me wonder, and worry, what's going to happen to the other children.

Sorry, it pains me to continue to disagree with you on 100% of the (two) things we've conversed on so far, but any 16 year old who "doesn't know a lot about contraception" is too stupid to live. It's not like you have to resolve a quadratic equation to understand how people get pregnant. Whether or not she lied and said "yeah I'm on the pill", you'd have to be colossally stupid to not use a condom anyway - because, hey, it's not just babies, but STDs that you've got to worry about. Or is crotch rot fashionable these days?

And, frankly, I fail to believe that that was the case, anyway. He's just an ignorant cunt making hay with the fact the meeja will talk to him.

No, you have my meaning correct there - I don't set out to make fun of her plight. But I do worry what may have happened to her in the past.

This is pretty much word for word what I told my son when he got his g/f pregnant. I think they just see it as parents being over protective, there is an element of 'It'll never happen to me' at their age. Not sure I see that as valid reasoning in this day and age and with the education though. Or they do it to prove us wrong because we are old and don't know anything. I was never his age after all, born in my 30s I was...

Nah, no problem with disagreeing, it's one of the things I'm best at

You may well be right, but you might also be surprised how naive some 16 year olds are, and for that matter how horny. At 16, if an attractive, slightly older woman was coming on to you, would you REALLY have stopped if you didn't have protection? Without knowing if he's involved in his kids life, I'm not sure I could judge whether he's a cunt about it or not. I wouldn't like to judge anyone on how they acted when they were 16...

Edit - read Jasmine's post - I agree, but teenagers can be colossally stupid, it goes with the territory. My brother got his then girlfriend pregnant at a similar age, but last I heard he was very much part of his son's life, and a good father.

Hmm. There's a massive difference between using a condom and getting pregnant regardless (they're only 99% effective, after all - but that's good odds for most people. Especially teenagers, who'd have to be going some to beat the odds), and not using any contraception and taking a chance.

But I suppose in the latter case there's then a further difference between people who don't use contraception as a matter of course (i.e. the completely stupid people) and those who don't use it, say, once, because they're drunk and it's only a few days after the girl's period ended so hey, there's no real risk and besides it's a long walk to the nearest petrol station or corner store (the not so completely stupid but still pretty bloody stupid).

My wife and I only took risks when we'd decided we'd be happy to have kids in any event. Previous girlfriends used to habitually double up with the pill and the condom FFS. Suffice it to say, I know no-one who's gotten someone pregnant without wanting a child in advance (save for my parents and my younger brother but that's a whole other story and I don't know the beginning of it).

So - kids today. Bah.

*nods vigarously*

"She said she was on the pill." Good enough for him apparently...

Oh hells. Maybe we just need to introduce some form of mass sterilisation which is only reversible on passing a licensing test.