DOES KERRY NEEDHAM HAVE THE RIGHT TO FEEL JUST A TAD BITTER ? Her son Ben went missing 16 years ago from a?

Question

Greek Beach. He will be 18 later this month and a computer generated photo was realeased yesterday to show what he probably looks like now. Kerry is quoated as saying "We were too working class to get help like Maddie's family. Kate & Gerry, both Doctors are fortunate to have friends in high places. They are middle class people with important jobs and had a publicity machine behind them stright away. When Ben vanished there was just Me, my Mum and my Dad. I was 19. Just an ordinary girl from a council estate and people thought 'she will just go away and after a few months have another child and forget about it'

Sorry but YES, I do think she has the right to sound bitter. Class and social circumstances shouldn't enter into any tradgey. There shouldn't be 'Rules for One and Rules For Another' And come on, there were newspapers and media around 16 years ago so don't give me 'The world has moved on in regards of media coverage'

Answer 1

Yes there was news and media but the biggest difference was there was no Internet. Newspapers cover a story until there is nothing new to print, but this story has grown because of the power of the Internet. You may agree or disagree with comments on YA but the bottom line is, it keeps everything in the forefront.
I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who loses a child irrespective of the circumstances. I am a parent and I would hope any parent would feel like I do.

Answer 2

I saw her interview on TV yesterday. How awful for her to have lived with this for 16 years.
However, I also think that there was not the media coverage then that there is nowadays, and the internet was not used so widely.
I also wonder if she had launcehed a huge campaign and set up a fund then, as the Mccanns have now, would people have accused her of trying to scam people. She didn't, and probably her circumstances meant that she couldn't, but some are now of the opinion that she should or does feel bitter - so you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.
Ben didn't go missing from a beach, he was playing outside the front of the farmhouse alone.

Answer 3

The media has changed an incredible amount in sixteen years, the intensity of the media has increased and with the Internet now, the capability of spreading the word has meant in cases like Madeleine's a website was set up which was used not only to heighten peoples awareness but also raise money which allowed the other media forms(posters/leaflets/luggage tags etc) to be printed and circulated. So yes, in fact the media has affected this case and has highlighted how much the media can influence and push a campaign forward.
It is very sad that she was not helped more and class probably does come into it, but the circumstances are different and so is the way people now use the media to generate public interest and awareness.

Answer 4

I'd be interested to see a link where you got your quote from.

People who bring up the case about Ben forget that procedures have changed and new ones come into place in recent years.

Did you happen to notice how long between Holly and Jessica going missing it appeared on tv? It was a matter of one hour locally and a couple of hours nationally. Same for Sarah Payne. All working class families.

There is a national framework in place when a child goes missing police worth with the media immediately. If my child is it will be on the radio locally within 20 MINS.

These guidelines are new and Maddy is a new kind of case because this is the first time we have seen a global search for a missing child in recent years. Its a more media driven sociaty and easier to get information around the world in an istant.

Plus one more thing. I do not care more about this case because Maddys mum and dad are doctors. I do not see that she lives in a bigger house than my kids and feel more concerned because of the class of her parents.

Answer 5

I don't think Kerry Needham is bitter over the McCanns she is bitter over not getting the help that she needed at the time.
Yes and I think it has to do with class and who you no.

But look at what this case has done, in the papers to-day Gerry and Kate McCann backed a "TV channel" launched yesterday to trace some of the 150,000 UK. kids who go missing every year.
Pictures of children will be shown on screens at GP. surgeries, hospitals and shopping malls. The channel Missing Kids TV- was launched at New Scotland Yard.
Kevin Gosden 41, whose son Andrew, 14, vanished in Doncaster a month ago, said "We pray he sees it."so hopefully the "Rules for one and Rules for Another "has gone out of the window..

Answer 6

i agree with her being bitter,bless her but again its right tht all these stories come down to class...sadly....there has been so much financial suport for the mcganns and media support unfortunately with the needhams its just another innocent child tht has slipped through the net.... i can still not understand why maddys family have still been allowed to be main carers of the twins whilst being suspects,if this had been council estate then other children would have been put into at least temporary care etc.
so sadly it is one rule for the richer one for the poorer even if council families do work!

Answer 7

Yes, I do think she has the right to feel a tad bitter.

She must be wondering what she would have done with a cool £1m to help her find her son - she might just have been successful.

I think that the fact that she had to REQUEST the photo of how Ben would look now says a lot. She really hasn't had much help, and still isn't. Hopefully the Madeleine case will highlight her plight and the fact that 16 years down the line it is still raw.

Answer 8

I think that she has every right. Her son was just as important as Madeleine, and yet she didn't get financial backing. He was out of the papers very quickly, and I think class came into it. The media don't seem to consider anyone who isn't middle-class or above to be of any importance. She wasn't even a suspect in her child's disappearance, and it wasn't her neglect that caused her child to go missing, and yet she got treated worse by the media than the McCanns have been, even though they are under investigation. Money and social class talk, and it isn't fair, especially to that poor kid.

Answer 9

Great post Sue...

There are probably lots of people/families ofchildren that have disappeared that are a bit jealous/upset at the amount of media coverage this case has recieved... and rightly so.

Oncethe media get a hold of something like this ..they just won't let go... maybe mrs needham was not as 'camera friendly' as Kate either ...

shallow world we live in... it IS about who you know

dR Bad
No child is more special than any other..

Answer 10

I think we have all learned a lot from the Needham case. I certainly have never forgotten him. And if I was a desperate parent, I would do everything in my power to rectify the failings in another case.
Of course Kerry Needham has the right to be bitter. Someone stole her child. It would make me bitter. But I haven't come across a single article where she comes across as being bitter with the McCanns. I've only read sympathetic comments.