Madeleine McCann - No charge — no reason to give up hope

SINCE Madeleine McCann went missing from the Ocean Club resort in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz in the earliest days of May, the story has hardly left the front pages of Europe’s newspapers.

It represented every family’s worst nightmare. A child disappearing without a trace while in the care of its loving parents on a family holiday.

The McCanns’ plight led to an outpouring of huge public sympathy and support, the subtext being that it could have been any one of us. “There but for the grace of God go I,” was the prayer whispered by every parent who had enjoyed a similar holiday.

Yesterday’s suggestions of an even more sinister prospect must send shivers through anyone close to the case. The tens of thousands of people moved by the family’s ordeal will have their faith in humanity challenged. They might wonder if they have been naive. The tens of thousands genuinely moved by the prospect of a family so like their own devastated by a child’s abduction might feel that their sympathy was misplaced. Children with an interest in the case would have to reconsider who they can and cannot trust, making their all-too-short childhoods even shorter.

However, the reality remains otherwise. Despite all the conjecture, the startling leaks and innuendo no one has been charged with anything and even if someone is charged, it is just the first step on a long road towards a trial. Without a conviction we can all still hope that this saga will end if not happily at least not completely disastrously.