Citation

"Grâce à la liberté dans les communications, des groupes d’hommes de même nature pourront se réunir et fonder des communautés. Les nations seront dépassées" - Friedrich Nietzsche (Fragments posthumes XIII-883)

10 - AVR 28 - Interview exclusive (GMTV)


Interview MC exclusive
28.04.2010 - Lorraine Kelly (GMTV)
transcrit par Sasha

Où tout commence comme une conversation futile et où néanmoins les MC accusent le gouvernement britannique d'abandon de leur fille alors que la recherche entre dans sa troisième année.


Lorraine Kelly : They join me now, three years. I can’t believe it’s been three years. It’s extraordinary isn’t it? 
Kate MC : I know, it’s incredible really; it just doesn’t feel like three years to me. Sure.
Gerald MC : Mmmm. Last year in particular has gone particularly quickly.

LK : I know...I just wondered if you in anyway can have any sort of normal life three years on. Can you...does it...it...it must always, it’s just always there isn’t it, all in the forefront of your mind.
KMC : I mean it is always there and obviously Madeleine’s in our life every day, but we do have, you know, periods of normality, in fact I’d say we just .. it’s just change and that’s a different kind of normality now, I mean we still have...Gerry obviously works full time erm you know, we still have to do the cooking and washing, we’ve got Sean and Amelie and we have lots of time with them, we go on trips, they go swimming

LK : So you do...you’re able to do this normal family things, you know, you have gone back to work as as you said, but there ...there’s almost this thing ...sometimes do you feel almost guilty about enjoying yourselves sometimes, you know, or laughing or having fun with the twins ... you ...is..is..do you sometimes feel like that? 
KMC : Yeah definitely, I think erm, sometimes you can be having a really good time, and... suddenly you realise it’s actually tinged and it will suddenly stop yer and you know, we had a lovely day last week and erm...you know it was really sunny and we can smell the grass and it’s been cut and I thought, oh it’s really nice and then it just kinda...kinda ...gets yer know...Madeleine’s still not here.

LK : (talking to GMC) And you’ve gone back to work, was that difficult for you? Did you sense people’s awkwardness around you or did that dissipate quite quickly?
GMC : Ye...er...it was a little bit awkward at the beginning but at that time I think...I found it much easier when I’m mentally active when I’m doing things, both from a campaign point of view and work wise as well, erm...and...it was actually difficult when we were arguido and wasn’t so much happening, er..it’s...you felt you almost had your hands tied behind your back somewhat, so it was definitely the right decision for me to go back I went back part-time and then erm, built up and filled time and to be honest most people were just really glad to see me and most of the patients initially have been quite reserved or just left messages with er the staff. But it was awkward in those early months when I went back and I was doing ward rounds and quite often here would be Madeleine on the front page of the newspapers or ourselves and various other things erm, so that was a little bit awkward but generally it’s not been a problem.

LK : Because sometimes people don’t really know what to say to you, you know, there’s that, that sensible {?} they’re not quite sure ... you know, they want to say how sorry they are or they’re thinking of you but they don’t quite know how to broach the subject, it’s quite difficult it’s...
KMC : I think it is difficult, I think it, you know, it depends on the person really, erm, some people feel comfortable coming and asking yer how it’s going, other people are just kinda tap you on the arm and say thinking of you and other people feel they shouldn’t invade your privacy bu...

LK : Does it help when people....
KMC : It does. I ..I mean, I’ve said all along really, actually makes me feel better when people acknowledge Madeleine essentially ermm...
LK : Yeah, that’s true
GMC : I think it’s very important as well that er a lot of times people want to skip around it, don’t know to mention it or not and of course we live with this everyday of our life and it’s a huge part of it and er...and...and that even applies to friends and people as well who you know, you haven’t seen for a while erm, and also we spent so much of our our time outside particularly when the kids are in bed actually thinking about ways how we can improve the search and keep it going.

LK : Mmm...Because that’s really what this is all about and the search has to keep going on – What sort of stage is the investigation at or what sort of stage is the campaign at right now?
GMC : From an investigation point of view erm, I think it’s fairly important to say that from law enforcement they’re not doing anything actively and haven’t been for a long time and that’s incredibly frustrating so we’ve had our small team working away in the background and erm, in terms of new leads I think we’ve put out most of the important information that we had this time last year, we had a very good response and most of those leads have been worked probably er as much as we can with Dave and his team. So at this point what we’re really trying to do is to get the government to review everything and it’s very difficult because a lot of information held in, in with British police there’s a lot in Portugal, it’s not all in one file whereas other information we’ve got we’re happy to make available but there hasn’t been a comprehensive review, there hasn’t been anything about which lines of enquiry er...(unintelligible)... for the investigation and that’s just something we feel is fundamental and should happen and it’s not right that an innocent , you know, vulnerable British citizen is, is essentially given up on, and I don’t think it’s right that as parents that we have to drive the search – Of course we will but yer know, not everyone has had the same resources and support that we’ve had to be able to do that and I think it’s pretty cruel.

LK : Very frustrating, for, for both of you and another aspect of it is the kind of criticism that you’ve come in for as well, erm, there’s been a lot of that and that must be very, very difficult to deal with, I mean you’ve got a lot at the start about the fact that you, you left the kids and you’d gone off and had a meal and all of that had happened and then you know, even to this day you know, there are people who are convinced are convinced that you had something to do with it, how on earth do you deal with that?
KMC : I think, I mean I think it’s changed erm, certainly we don’t get the same level of criticism that we did and even then, to be fair, it was the minority really I think most people even if, you know, they don’t agree with, with, you know, what we did then they wouldn’t feel it right or fair to add to our suffering erm

LK : Because it does doesn’t it, it does add to your suffering...
KMC : Absolutely and particularly in the early weeks and months, you know, I wasn’t expecting it because all I can see, you know, our daughter’s been taken and she’s been subjected to something terrifying and that’s the most important thing so for people to start you know, shouting as us when really we needed to keep the focus on Madeleine ...
LK : Of course, absolutely
KMC : But having said that I mean I think there’s just a small minority now and you know there’s a certain group out there who, this is their job really, is to pick on a vulnerable family and I’m sure after us they’ll move onto another family and...
GMC : That’s very interesting I think anyone who’s in the public eye for whatever reason gets criticised and early on when we were campaigning er you know, you would say Oh my goodness we’re getting criticised for doing this and doing that and you start to let that influence what you’re doing but then you realise you get criticised for whatever you do from some quarter
LK : Yes
GM: and what you need to do is make decisions for the right reason and do it with the best intention and really stick to yer guns, take advice but ultimately we make our own decisions but I think probably more than anything I’d say is, you know, after ... if we could turn back the clock and change what happened obviously we wouldn’t have done it, we can’t and what I would say is you know, people have got to put themselves into your positions. What would you do if it was your daughter? Afterwards what would you do? 
La suite est un peu confuse parce que LK ne cesse de parler par-dessus GMC :
LK : You’d move heaven and earth (GMC : Yeah so that’s what...) and you’d do everything you possibly could, everything you possible could (GMC : that’s what we’re trying to do ) just what you’re doing of course (GMC : as much as possible) yeah
GMC :...and er, er, trying to er think of ....just constantly ways where we could improve things or, or get additional things done.

LK : You did this pack (holds up a holiday pack of Madeleine) that is specifically aimed at people going on holiday anywhere, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be Portugal it can be absolutely anywhere and in the pack there’s posters people can put up, there’s a stickers, there’s bookmarks, there’s all of this so again this is about you being pro active and you try to do as much as you can. They can get this on your website can’t they?
GMC : yeah
KMC : yeah

LK : Yeah, so they can get a hold of that and hopefully that’s again just going to keep everything in the public eye, that’s what you want to do, keep her name there
GM: It comes...er...a lot of what we’ve done is er, taking advice from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington and it’s very much about keeping her image out there, that’s really important Madeleine so there’s an age progression photograph there which was released last year, just other things, car stickers and it’s simple things, who knows who will end up seeing her er, but if you don’t have her image out there then it’s less likely.

LK : Yooouuu...er...like I say, is very, very, very, very, difficult for both of you, it’s been absolutely horrendous...you’ve, you’ve stayed at home haven’t you Kate, you’ve stayed at home looking after the twins. How much do the twins know? How much are they aware of because they’re five now
KMC : Er, they know quite a lot, we’ve kind of...it’s changed a little bit initially for them they’d say where’s Madeleine, Madeleine’s lost...erm...then as they got older and started to ask more questions then obviously the picture’s unfolded a little bit for them and basically, I think it was last year wasn’t it (glances at GMC) erm, Amalie said to me you know, has Madeleine run away mummy? And erm, she kept asking me in a public place (LK: Awww) so it was a bit tricky at first, and she said: because it’s not nice to run away. And that, that really upset me because I thought because I didn’t want her to think that Madeleine’s at fault here, so probably (glances at GMC) about the third time she asked me, when we were at home rather than in a supermarket, erm, we just explained really that someone had taken Madeleine but we tried to obviously make them understand it in as gentler way as possible so... (LK: you don’t want to frighten them do you, you don’t want to make them scared) ...so it was a little bit like you know, stealing really, (LK: right) so we said, just because you really want something or you really like something, if it belongs to somebody else you shouldn’t take it, so that’s how they understand it, so that they know somebody’s taken her and they actually, they know it’s wrong you know.

LK : Can you still, do you still have a, I mean three years is a long time, you’ve still got her image in your head, can you still hear her?
KMC : Yeah, I mean obviously the image we have of is, you know, the Madeleine that we knew, so Madeleine at four days...you know...four years minus nine days, erm (glances at GMC) and I can still hear her voice and obviously we have video film (LK: of course) of her and you know, every so many months we sit down and we’ll watch that really and ...

LK : Oh that must be...en...(unintelligible)... someone’s comfort thing and (unintelligible) very, very difficult to do that.
GMC : Sean and Amalie like watching the stuff of us and they’ve watched old video’s of us and they’ve put it all together now you know...the temporal sequence of events and they know about, they went to Portugal, they went to bed and Madeleine was taken and just to expand a bit on what Kate says they know, they believe that, you know, it, it was a man that took her and it’s a naughty man and we need to try and find him so it’s part of what they say that mummy’s working er to help find Madeleine
KMC : Er Sean said to us his little friend in school, she said, she said: Kate you a doctor? And Sean just came in and said: mummy was a doctor but her doc..er...job now is to find Madeleine, you know, kind of, erm, he was just straight, and er, so they understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and they understand that we’ve got a lot of support, you know, they’ll constantly spot things like a car sticker or a luggage tag or a wristband and they’ll point it out and you know, say look they’re helping mum too ....so...

LK : Are you convinced she’s still out there somewhere?
KMC : Certainly, in my heart I feel she’s out there and there’s, there’s...I mean I know there’s nothing to say that she isn’t and so we have to carry on working and thinking like that, I mean logically, you know, I mean, I can’t say, none of us can say for definite other than the people involved, but erm, I know we can’t give up because there’s no evidence to say she’s not so.....

LK : That’s what I was going to say to you. Do you think there’ll ever be a time when you say enough is enough, we’ve done all we can, there’s no more we can do.
KMC : We can’t. I mean if they haven’t found Madeleine, if we don’t know what’s happened, you haven’t done enough, I mean there’s obviously more that can be done and it might just be time, you know, it might just be, you know, there could be a group of people out there who are sitting with this on their conscien...you know ... with this on their conscience and every time Madeleine is mentioned or every time there’s an image, again it’s just pricking their conscience and it might just be, you know, as I say, a question of time until they come forward, the situation might change and they may then feel comfortable to come forward so...just keep going...
GMC : As hard as it is there are lots of examples, particularly from the States, of children who have been abducted at a younger age and kept for a long time. I think the key thing is you (shouldn’t that be ‘we’?) don’t know who’s taken her and what the motive is and until we find that person, it’s very hard but, you’ve just gotta keep going and keep working away but more importantly we need to have a proper review of all the information, that’s how we’ll move the investigation forward and at the end of the day, the person that’s taken Madeleine is still out there they’re er, a potential danger to other children so they need to be brought to justice.
KMC : We do this, you know, in medicine, you know, if there’s a case you don’t seem to be getting a diagnoses someone will come in and review it, they’ll go back to square one, they’ll go through all the information or the data or the results that you’ve got and work through it and that’s when you find out what else needs to be done and it will help point you in the right direction so ...

LK : And its...will be her birthday soon. What will you do that day?
KMC : I was just explaining to someone before, her birthday is actually a much more difficult day for us than, you know, the 3rd of May. The 3rd of May really is just, it’s another day without Madeleine erm but the 12th is obviously a day when we should be celebrating Madeleine, celebrating with Madeleine erm, I mean, last year we had a little tea party, we had close family and Madeleine’s friends round, erm and I guess we’ll probably do something similar. It’s a little bit different this year because Sean and Amalie are in school but after school we can have a little tea party or something

LK : Thank you both for coming in and talking to us. Erm, like, you know, like everyone else I just hope for a happy ending one day. Thank you very much indeed and we’ll be thinking of you. Thank you so much. 

Philippe Geluck - Le Chat