back to article McCanns join CEOP quango row

Theresa May is sticking to her plan to merge the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) into a larger law enforcement agency, despite further protests from Kate and Gerry McCann. The couple's intervention follows the resignation of CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble, who quit after the Home Secetary made it clear …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    If CEOP really cared about the welfare of children....

    ..they'd be recommending that the McCanns have their other children taken into care. What kind of parents leave kids in a hotel room in a foreign country to go for a few vinos down at the pool bar?

    The McCanns should keep their oars out. Better, in their position, to be thought to be stupid than to speak and remove all doubt.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Whoever downvoted this

      Should also have their children (if any) taken into care.

    2. Ivan Slavkov
      Grenade

      Thank you sir

      Someone said it. Finally. Applause.

      They would not have been there if they did not treat their children as pests that would have gotten in the way of a "romantic dinner for two".

      1. Dave Murray

        Finally?

        I've been saying it for years. (well since the incident in question anyway)

        1. Anomalous Cowturd
          Unhappy

          I tried saying it twice yesterday,

          and have always believed that they both should have been prosecuted here in the UK.

          For some reason, I couldn't get that sentiment past moderation.

          I have no idea why, as others have posted far more inflammatory comments here.

          1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

            Re: I tried saying it twice yesterday,

            Believe what you like, post what you like, it's not always going to get through. Refer to the comment guidelines. There's more than one moderator and we use our own discretion. It's not complicated. Sorry if you feel it's unfair on occasion. Wording is crucial and we are bound by UK libel law... and I'm not gonna lose my job over someone who thinks they're an expert making some wild accusation, so I'm careful, y'know?

            I am pleased it's Friday. Two whole days with one less worry.

          2. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

            Re: I tried saying it twice yesterday,

            Oh - I just read back over your previous comments and found that it was me that rejected them, and I stand by it, cos they were a bit dodgy, I'm afraid...

            1. Anomalous Cowturd
              Pint

              @ Sarah

              It just would have been helpful if I had known exactly which part you felt was a bit near the knuckle.

              I understand why you need to be careful about what is written.

              Have a good weekend! And a beer on me!

              1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

                Re: @ Sarah

                You figured it out on some level, didn't you? If you express an opinion, that's one thing, but making rash declarations of what should happen to people is another. See?

                Beer always good. The rest of you - I'm not getting into a discussion about this and if you try and post anything limit-testing, I will zap you till you can't sit down.

    3. NogginTheNog
      Thumb Down

      Glasshouses

      "What kind of parents leave kids in a hotel room in a foreign country to go for a few vinos down at the pool bar?"

      Human ones, who will regret that mistake for the rest of their (and likely Madeleine's) life.

      And here's me expecting compassion from on a Reg comments thread...

      1. Andrew the Invertebrate

        Compassion for whom?

        For the innocent child that disappeared? Yes

        For the neglegent parents, who've turned the disappearence in to a media circus with the associated world tour, t-shirts and books? Not so much

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        What?

        It's got bugger all to do with compassion and everything to do with responsibility.

        Directly or indirectly (if you believe their very filmsy abduction story), it's the McCanns that are responsible for what happened to their daughter - there were plenty of other options for them other than leaving three kids alone and unsupervised whilst they went out on the lash. And not for the first time that holiday.

  2. Neur0mancer
    FAIL

    Hmm

    "The search for our daughter Madeleine has been greatly enhanced by the work carried out by the team at CEOP."

    Yeah, but they haven't found her yet have they?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Well

      To be fair, they didn't look behind the sofa or the boot of their hire car properly - you know, where Martin Grime's cadaver dog and blood-hound both smelt stuff. Why look there when you can tour Europe and visit the Pope? ...

    2. Oliver Mayes

      They may not have found her

      But without Gamble it would have taken almost twice as long to have not found her.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Is it me being thick

      So, how exactly did a quango team enhance what was supposed to be _POLICE_ investigative work?

      In fact, what was the actual "enhancement" here? It would be nice if they elaborate with proper facts for once that can stand in court instead of the usual lobbying drivel and accusations.

    4. streaky
      Unhappy

      Madeline

      This case always reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1n9u4LTjtI

      Nuff said?

  3. Gordon 10
    WTF?

    CEOP not qualified to run their own affairs

    The mere fact that CEOP are choosing to manage whats effectively a re-org among public service bodies via Press releases in the Public domain pretty much says everything you need to know.

    CEOP should not become the mouthpiece for any one of their Management team - frankly thats Gambles attention-whore-ism spreading endemically throughout their Org.

    They need to be stamped on hard and reminded that they implement policies based on Stragegic direction from our elected representatives via Government.

  4. Enrico Vanni

    Hardly a resounding endorsement.....

    The McCanns are at best guilty of very poor judgment (and at worst, well, no need to repeat the allegations here). I can understand why they support Jim Gamble though as they are in the same mould - hyping a cause which trades on human emotion, and believing their own press.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Another downvote?

      Maybe I should buy shares in astroturf?

  5. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    I think others here have said enough about the McCanns

    I'll just add my $0.02 to point out that perhaps the very best thing that could happen to CEOP is losing Jim Gamble. That news is like hearing that all Daily Mail readers have had their right to vote revoked, as they are clearly not responsible adults.

    1. Ihre Papiere Bitte!!
      Unhappy

      Revoked Vote

      "hearing that all Daily Mail readers have had their right to vote revoked, as they are clearly not responsible adults."

      The crushing disappointment when I realised that this isn't actually true....

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'The search for our daughter Madeleine etc'.....

    So what's the latest update then? Still not found?

    I'll read (note, not buy) the Express at lunch to find out what the latest outrageous claims about her dissapearance.

  7. Richard Wharram
    Thumb Up

    Dysfunctional

    As Gordon 10 has noted, the fact that this is playing out like this is ample evidence that CEOP valued itself, its status, its 'stars' and its renta-quote associates much more highly than child protection and enforcement of the law. Pity nobody in the media has the balls to actually say this and say well done Ms May.

  8. Anonymous John

    What exactly has CEOP done lately?

    Apart from making a tremendous fuss about panic buttons on Facebook? Totally ignoring the fact that panic buttons are useless if a victim doesn't panic.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Aha, the *other* lot ...

    wondered how long it'd take them to crawl out of the woodwork

  10. Jim Carter

    Can't say as I'm surprised.

    Although you do tend to find idiots in groups, or clusterfucks, to coin a group term for them.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Not the kind of endorsement you want.

    Its interesting that the McCanns have re invented themselves in some kind of child protection advocacy role yet there skills when it comes to child protection are lamentable given they left a three year old and one year old twins in an unlocked apartment to go down the bar for dinner!

    In all there campaigns the one thing conspicous by its abscence is a campaign to use babysitters as an effective means of not losing your children!

    So the irony of the people who didnt protect there own children professing support for a man who claims to is not lost.

    1. Gordon861

      Babysitters

      Of course if the McCanns had been using a babysitter, the babysitter would have been prosecuted for neglect when the girl went missing.

      Why then, do we hold parents to a lower standard than the minimum wage hired help?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Actually

        If they had been using babysitters Maddy would probably not now be violated, murdered and buried in a small grave in some out of the way provincial village.

        1. Intractable Potsherd

          @Lee

          You seem to know a great deal about things - expect a visit from the police about .... now! Or, are you just putting your own ideas out as fact, maybe?

    2. Code Monkey

      True

      The lunatics have taken over the assylum. What's worse is the Daily Mail/Express reading mouth-breathers that make up this country can't see the problem with that.

  12. scoob101
    Badgers

    2 down 1 to go!

    The loss of Gamble and the absorption of CEOP into a bigger organisation is to be applauded. And I can`t believe its the tories that made that happen.

    Now if they could just ban the Mcanns from making further ill-conceived press releases, I`d be happy as larry.

  13. Anomalous Cowturd
    Unhappy

    Can't seem to get past elMod today, so I'll just try to say...

    The only way to make <b>sure</b> children are safe online is to monitor and / or restrict their use of the internet. If that is too much effort for you, you know who to blame... Child care starts at home. With the parents.

    In my opinion.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If only little Maddy had had a panic button

    And they'd left her logged into Facebook.

    The only thing I have to say about the McCanns would be illegal to publish under the Communications Act 2003.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    o shit

    a media circus? better dust off the where's wally^H^H^H^H^Hmadeleine placards.

  16. Ian Ferguson
    FAIL

    Greatly Enhanced?

    What, by plastering THE WRONG BLOODY COUNTRY with posters of her face?

  17. heyrick Silver badge

    This again?

    We all felt sorry. We all kept an eye on people with almost-cute young girls just in case...

    Then came the stories about not so much "where is Maddie", but rather "where were the parents", along with some seriously freakish allegations (which may or may not be true). We all started to feel a little bit sick.

    Then came the sniffer dogs, the digging up of the past. And yet more allegations. And we all started to feel a little bit used.

    It is a tragedy that most likely claimed the life of a young child. But, really, this couple should just go... away... and contemplate how to look after their remaining children instead of whoring themselves in the media limelight when the opportunity arises.

  18. blackworx
    Flame

    I've seen it all now

    Who coaxed them out of the woodwork? Wasn't Gamble was it? Aaargh these fuckwits make me so angry!

  19. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    SOCA is running the Interception Modernization Programme.

    No doubt the new super duper agency will use paedoterror (that's fear *of* paedophiles rather than terrorists with a side interest in children, as in "Can I have my 72 virgins under XX YO please" ) to widen their take (although how much further you can go than every packet of internet data in the UK is difficult to fathom) of data and continue the old discredited nu labor view of "A citizen is a criminal that has not committed there first crime, yet."

    But yes my view of CEOP was their core skill seemed to be in *telling* people what a *very* good job they were doing (and could we please have a lot more money and kit and a *lot* less oversight).

    Still a good start.

    Teresa May. Possibly the first non-mad Home Secretary (certainly the first non-mad woman Home Secretary) in recent UK history.

    1. Abolition

      CEOP's function

      Was to stop Scotland Yard and the FBI doing what would have been most sensible, and collecting the modems of the List 99 referrals. The entire point of CEOP was to give the impression of X ( competent strategic policing) whilst ensuring Y ( the FBI, RCMP, Interpol etc.) had to send the latest list of net-prowling British teachers to CEOP first. By the way, that is also one of the reasons Britain does not have a dozen teachers in the dock at the same time, CEOP breaks it all up into hard to see criminal case packages. For e.g. it was suspected that one school in Humberside had more teachers having sex with kids than teavhers who were giving the same activity a miss. It took years for the Brits to concede the school was little better than a brothel for children. However the same school was lighting up the internet with pervasive offending. Where was CEOP? Jim Gamble's job was to detect as little as possible. CEOP were not really a police agency. They were smoke and mirrors for a country where child protection was in meltdown.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Oh FFS!

    Now we just need the Chapman and Wells families from Soham to pitch in for the full set.

    Although in fairness they appear to be less generally publicity seeking than the SuperVictim(tm) A listers here.

  21. Lottie

    McCanns again?

    I'm happy for them, they've found another way to keep their faces in the limelight some more.

    How long before then next wildly different picture of another potential kidnapper comes to light and makes us all upset at poor maddie who's so much more <s>middle class and white</s>important than anyone else who has vanished.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A question not asked

    Why was Jim's resignation accepted so quickly.

    He might be held in high regard by child protection groups, but then why haven't they asked the question why didn't try and persuade him to stay.

    BTW most of the people who have commented on the McCann's tragedy should go away and re-read the story from the beginning, you have made a few factual errors worthy of the best lynch mobs.

    1. heyrick Silver badge
      FAIL

      Huh?

      Read the article the first time. Read it again just to be sure. Home secretary wants to merge the essentially useless "let's all have a PANIC! button" CEOP with another organisation. She refused the "independent quango" (isn't that another way of saying "bankroll us with no questions asked") so the guy in charge threw a hissy and quit. This prompted very saddened McCanns to crawl out from wherever and say "look, this isn't right - he's done such a wonderful job, he's almost found Maddy and everything!".

      We don't want to hear from the McCanns until somebody actually finds Maddy. Until then, your OTHER kids are your #1 priority, nothing else. We don't want to hear from the CEOP, the likes of Facebook have the right idea - if you feel threatened by something you see online, it's probably MORE effective to go find mummy than to click a button. This is, of course, assuming you realise the situation before it's too late. And that it isn't a well-liked family member/neighbour/teacher/priest that's dealing out the abuse. It is a complicated situation, was the CEOP resoundingly effective? What are their success stories? How have they affected the trend marker for crimes against young people?

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