Shameless EU

I can’t believe recent reports about the family of Shannon Mathews. If these reports are to be believed, poor Shannon was the victim of an evil plot between her mother and her stepfather’s uncle (would you believe it) to gain sympathy and money for the little girl’s supposed kidnapping. What kind of person can knowingly arrange the disappearance of her child and then go on national TV to appeal for her return? There were even requests made to the Madeleine McCann appeal fund for a cash donation to the cause. The case mirrors the recent episode of ‘Shameless’ shown on Channel 4 TV where anti hero, Frank Gallagher, arranged for his son to go missing in an attempt to obtain £500,000 to cover up his claim to have won a similar amount on the UK National Lottery.

I started writing this report as a guilt ridden UK national. How could we as a nation produce someone like the mother of Shannon, who purportedly colluded in the kidnapping of her own daughter and then tried to cash in on it?

Since starting this report, the case of Josef Fritzl has come into the news and I can recall the earlier cases of child sex abuse in Belgium. Mark Dutroux was convicted and sentenced to life (the maximum under Belgian law) for the kidnapping and murder of 4 young women. Before their deaths they were imprisoned and sexually abused for months. The kidnappings were in two pairs, the first were two 8 year olds who starved to death when Dutroux was imprisoned on unrelated charges. Then there is the case of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl kidnapped at the age of 10 and imprisoned as a sex slave for 8 years by Wolfgang Priklopil who threw himself under a train when Natascha managed to escape.

All this around the anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. What of this poor child who I feel is still alive and suffering abuse right now or at best being groomed for some salacious activities by a depraved maniac or secret ring of paedophiles. Is it possible she could be rescued even now? Her parents have been vilified (incorrectly in my opinion) and granted arguido status by the Portugese police. The McCanns may be guilty of a lot of things but arguidos they are not. Their despair is apparent and yes, they know they shouldn’t have left her with her twin siblings alone while they dined nearby with friends. We’ve all made mistakes, luckily few of us have suffered such consequences, but that doesn’t hide the fact that some evil person stole her from the holiday apartment. The opportunity shouldn’t have been available but it was and there’s no point in vilifying her parents, their grief is real and is only compounded by the knowledge of their own actions in this tragedy.

How many more unreported victims are there out there in the EU? This supposed haven of civilisation still harbours the most horrendous (as yet undiscovered) monsters. How long will it be before we read yet another macabre tale of murder and abuse? All around us, in the most innocent of surroundings there are monsters lurking, ready to kidnap and abuse our children and dispose of them in the most gruesome manner when they tire of them or their usefulness diminishes. The family butcher at the end of the road, the retired gentleman of polite disposition who you meet in the library, the wide eyed tourist, are they all potential suspects? Do you know someone who you suspect is abusing children? They must be interacting with the rest of society at some level. They need to buy petrol for their cars, food from supermarkets or even take their children to school?

What can be done to stop it? How can we identify them? If we could profile them how could we proceed without evidence, even with suspicious reports? Not easy questions but ones perhaps we could address and solve in the 21st century?

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