Madeleine’s Law

Never leave young children on their own

We do not know for certain what really happened to Madeleine McCann. Many believe she was abducted. Others, like the Portuguese senior detective who investigated the case for the first five months, think something else may have happened.

A. Madeleine was left on her own with her younger brother and sister

But whatever actually did happen, what we know for certain is that Madeleine was left on her own, six nights in a row, with her two younger twins aged barely two, in a dark holiday apartment, whilst her parents - two Doctors, Dr Gerald McCann and Dr Kate McCann - were out dining with their 7 holiday friends. The restaurant where they were eating was 120 yards away from where their children were left, about a minute-and-a-half’s walk away. The McCanns insisted this was ‘like being in your back garden’. They claimed that they were checking on the children every half-hour.

Dr Kate McCann in an interview with Lori Campbell published in the Sunday Independent on 5 August 2007 said: “Maybe it was because it was family-friendly, because it felt so safe. That week we had left them alone while we had dinner”.

B. The McCanns’ spokesmen said that British people put their kids to bed early so ‘they can have something of the evening to themselves’

Months later, the McCanns’ chief public relations spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, who was formerly the Head of the Labour government’s public relations operation, the notorious ‘Media Monitoring Unit’, claimed it was a British cultural habit to leave children on their own in the evening. His exact words, uttered on the Irish TV station RTE, were: “There is a cultural difference between Britain and Portugal. It is a British approach to get your children washed, bathed and in bed early in the evening, if you can, so you can have something of the evening to yourself. That’s the British way of doing things. It doesn't mean it's wrong. It doesn't mean it's right”. Many British parents strongly objected to the way the McCanns’ spokesman had portrayed British parents.

C. The McCanns said that leaving their children alone with ½-hour checking was ‘well within the bounds of responsible parenting’

A striking aspect of these circumstances is that the McCanns claimed, weeks later, that a Social Services official had told them that their leaving their children on their own, and checking them every half hour, was ‘well within the bounds of responsible parenting’. The fill quote from the lips of Dr Gerald McCann was: “We have been advised that legally our behaviour was well within the bounds of responsible parenting and subsequently been assured that no action will be taken”. Not surprisingly, we have never been informed of the identity of the official who gave this advice. In fact, we doubt if anyone working in a child welfare agency could ever have said that.

D. Child welfare agencies say ‘never leave young children on their own’

Perhaps the best-known agency on child welfare in Britain is the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

They have a couple of case studies on their website. In Case Study 1, a mother says:  “It's hard for me to get the baby to sleep. She nodded off just as I was leaving to pick up my son from nursery. I couldn't face waking her up, and didn't think she could come to any harm in just 15mins”. The NSPCC replies: “It's never O.K. to leave a baby alone, not even for a few minutes. What if the baby had woken up just as her parent had left? For a baby, 15 minutes is a long time to feel abandoned and left to cry alone. The risks are dangerous too. What is the baby was sick or there was a fire?”

In Case Study 2, another mother states: “A friend comes in to look after my son while I'm at work, but she has to leave to get to work herself in the afternoon. He's only on his own for about an hour till I get back. He's quite sensible for a three-year-old, and nothing has happened so far. It's all I can do until a nursery place comes up”. The NSPCC replies: “It is difficult to juggle work and children, especially given the shortage of nursery places and the high cost of child care. But young children should never be left alone, not even for a short time. An hour without you or another caring adult can be very lonely and distressing. And there are many serious safety risks to a curious, exploring child”.

Many Social Services Departments have advice on the subject of leaving young children on their own. The East Sussex Social Services website, for example, publishes this advice:

Babysitting and leaving children at home on their own:  “There is no set age where it is OK to leave children home alone. Everything will depend on whether the child is mature enough to be left, and knows how to cope in case of an emergency. The NSPCC advise that most children under 13 are not mature enough to cope in an emergency, and should not be left alone for more than a very short while. You should never leave babies or young children alone in the home, whether they are asleep or awake, not even for a few minutes”.

The McCanns claim that leaving three young children on their own, 120 yards away, checking them every half-hour, is ‘well within the bounds of responsible parenting’.   The NSPCC and all other child welfare organisations strongly disagree. Their message, in one sentence, is: “Never leave young children on their own”.

E. Why we need a ‘Madeleine’s Law’

And that message: “Never leave young children on their own”, is one that we think should be one of Madeleine’s legacies to us all, whatever happened to her. We suggest that this sentence, “Never leave young children on their own”, is one that should become known as ‘Madeleine’s Law’.

The idea of a ‘Madeleine’s Law’, then, is in tribute to Madeleine’s memory. It results from our thinking about what lessons could be learnt from the mystery of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.  We know from the McCanns’ own words that they made a conscious decision to leave their three young children for six nights in a row on their own, whilst they and their adult friends were out having a good time eating and drinking.

Furthermore, the McCanns openly admitted in a statement to Portuguese police that Madeleine had spoken to them on the very morning she was reported missing, Thursday 3 May 2007. The McCanns have admitted that Madeleine said to them: “Why didn’t you come when me and Sean were crying last night?”. Yet the McCanns then went out that same evening, leaving Madeleine and her young brother and sister on their own, exposed to all manner of risks. Her Doctor parents, whose responsibilities as Doctors include monitoring the welfare of children, thought they could safely leave their children alone for extended periods of time.

The Madeleine Foundation says, simply, that Madeleine should be remembered as a victim of parents prepared to leave three very young children on their own. If Madeleine was abducted, she could not have been if her parents had been prepared to pay an extra few pounds a night for the baby-sitting service operated by the Mark Warners holiday resort where they were staying.

In memory of Madeleine, therefore, we have adopted the slogan: “Madeleine’s Law: Never leave young children on their own”, in order that Madeleine’s disappearance may serve some positive purpose.

In early 2008, soon after we were formed, we proposed that, in tribute to her, it should be made a new criminal offence to leave children aged under 12 on their own, without reasonable excuse. Such a law exists in other countries and works well.

F. The petition calling for a change in the law to prevent people leaving young children on their own

Our Secretary, Tony Bennett, created a petition on the Prime Minister’s website calling on the Prime Minister to pass a new law making it a criminal offence to leave children under 12 on their own, without reasonable excuse. It ran from 9 February 2008 to 8 February 2009 and attracted 740 signatures, well above the 500 needed at the time to trigger a formal response from the Prime Minister.

This was the Prime Minister’s response:

“Government does not bring up children - parents do, and it is parents who are best placed to decide when their child or children may be left alone.  Parents should consider not just the age of their children but wider issues of development, resilience and maturity.

“There is no statute that sets out a minimum age below which a child may be left alone. If anyone has concerns about the welfare of a child who is left alone, irrespective of their age, they should follow the standard procedures set out in Working Together to Safeguarding Children for making a referral to either the Local Authority children’s social care services or the police. These statutory agencies will then follow their normal processes for assessing whether the child is a child in need or at risk of suffering harm and deciding what action should be taken to safeguard the child’s welfare”.

It was a most disappointing response. But we shall continue to campaign on this issue.

There is evidence, sadly, that more and more young children are being left on their own to suit their parents’ convenience. It is clear to us that the existing law is not clear or tough enough.

G. Recent cases

Recent cases in the U.K. have included succcessful prosecutions in the U.K. for:

• leaving a child alone in a car for half-an-hour (London case), and
• leaving a nine-year-old child on his own while the parents went out drinking for the night (Norfolk case).

In 2005, Kelly Ann Rogerson received a six-month jail sentence, suspended for one year, after taking a two-week holiday in Turkey and leaving her three children with a teenage ‘babysitter’ (County Durham case).

http://www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk/

[Madeleine Foundation - Madeleine’s Law Page - filed by Tony Bennett 6 February 2010]