Daily Mirror

Scapegoats for the Portuguese plods

7/05/2008

For once the Portuguese police behaved swiftly and correctly when they arrested a British couple who arrived at a holiday hotel deemed so drunk they were incapable of looking after their three children.

Then, with their usual crass insensitivity, Portugal's plods added: "This might have been not one Maddie but three."

Further investigation reveals parents Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin's journey began at 4am. They were dog tired, hot and thirsty. Stupidly they knocked back beer in the hot sun and collapsed at the hotel.

"They are very ashamed," says a friend.

And so they should be. What they should not be are convenient scapegoats for the Portuguese police who, a year on, have failed to turn up even a sliver of evidence on the fate of Madeleine McCann.

Article linked in index