Jackie Bird: Time may loosen bonds of love, loyalty and silence

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/jackie-bird-madeleine-mccanns-crimewatch-2472659



Jackie Bird: Time may loosen bonds of love, loyalty and silence

JACKIE BIRD watched the Crimewatch appeal and believes that at some point someone with a connection to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will speak out.

By Jackie Bird
20 Oct 2013 09:43

JUST as technology has been used to predict what the passing of time might have done to the features of Madeleine McCann, I wonder what a computer-generated photograph of her parents would look like if she’d never been taken.

Six years of anguish were etched on the faces of Kate and Gerry when they appeared on Crimewatch. Kate McCann is a beautiful woman but she looks tortured.

Watching the reconstruction, I couldn’t quite get my head around the hope on which the programme was based – that a shift of minutes in the timeline of Madeleine’s disappearance could jog the memories of people so long ago.

But then it occurred to me – the police may be hoping for a miraculous recollection from a witness but they’re also after something I’ll call “the Chris Huhne effect”.

If you recall, Huhne’s wife Vicky Pryce accepted his speeding points many years before the court case that brought the couple infamy and jail.

Their descent from being a power-couple to pariahs of the London sophisticated set they inhabited was brutal, the bitter irony being that they’d brought it on themselves – or rather the incident was partly the very public wrath of a woman scorned.

When Vicky decided to shield her husband, they were a couple who were very much together. I’d suggest that on the global crime scale, illegally accepting speeding points isn’t a gross felony and that husbands and wives have protected each other from far worse. There have been numerous stories of women who suspected – rightly – that their lover had murdered an ex-partner and who hadn’t revealed their fears until their own relationship had broken down or their own safety was threatened.

And it’s not just the bonds of romantic love that protect. Family loyalty or friendships are also strong deterrents to coming clean about any suspicions or even revelations.

You may discover someone has done something wrong and decide to keep quiet but if that person ultimately does the dirty on you, does that information stay secret or become a potential weapon of retribution?

It’s highly unlikely that the person who took Madeleine from her bed acted alone.

It’s also unlikely that he did it without the knowledge of a single living soul. They may not have been involved in the actual crime but had their suspicions.

I believe police are hoping that basic human nature will help them solve the Madeleine McCann abduction.

There may be honour among thieves but I bet it’s tenuous. Likewise, if you once were the girlfriend or best friend of someone involved but no longer have anything invested in your relationship, an anonymous call to the police is easy to make.

The years since the loss of their daughter have taken their toll on the McCanns but you have to hope the passing of time could work in their favour. So long as the investigation retains its profile in Europe, the chance is that someone with a connection, however tenuous, will speak out.

Six years is a long time – relationships change and the ties that bind loosen, and so too might the silence that once came with them.

OOOOOCHYA!  (I have always liked Jackie Bird. Very sensible girl.)

Iris wrote:OOOOOCHYA!  (I have always liked Jackie Bird.  Very sensible girl.)

I think that's a very clever article, especially this little gem thrown in!

“the Chris Huhne effect”.

Yes, very good article (once you get past the 'Kate McCann is a beautiful woman ...' bit).

Even in uneventful lives, relationships can change over six years.
Any shift in relationships which occur after a tragic event could be nothing less than seismic.
Blame, guilt, jealousy, mistrust, stress ... all will take their toll, and some, not necessarily the main players, will either seek revenge or somehow find a way of setting themselves free from the daily torment.

Good article. This is something we have been saying for years about circumstances changing.

Gerry's Mother said in an interview a while ago that Kate had a temper and washeard screaming at Gerry, "It's me they are after, not you".