The truth won't mend the pain

I SOMETIMES wonder if The Truth is all it's cracked up to be. I wonder if there are times when NOT knowing is better than knowing.

Because now we think we know Madeleine McCann didn't die, as police suspected, in her holiday apartment. Neither was she taken by an opportunist killer. Nor did she wander off into the sea.

However, what we now think may have happened is worse than all of those scenarios because it looks certain this angel-faced little girl was snatched to order by a vile paedophile ring and delivered to people who hunt down pretty children to degrade. Maybe even kill.

And how much better do we all feel for knowing that? What kind of images are going through your mind at this minute as to the fate of this little mite?

HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you agree with Carole?

If Kate and Gerry McCann thought it was torture NOT knowing what happened to their sweet, innocent girl, what agony must they be living through now knowing she could have been- maybe still is-a sex toy for a bunch of perverts so depraved that they get their kicks from abusing and killing terrified children.

For months, Kate and Gerry have fought to have the files on the investigation to find Maddie made public. Understandably they wanted the cruelty, stupidity and ineptitude of the Portuguese police exposed. I suspect they also wanted THEIR names and reputations restored. Perhaps they even believed that if Maddie was catapulted back on our front pages it would pump new energy into the increasingly lacklustre hunt for her.

But it hasn't done that. What the information inside those files has done is confirm our worst fears, the grotesque inevitability that this innocent's fate was probably neither quick or painless.

Horror

And if I can't bear to think about what might have happened to her after she was "delivered" to those perverts I can't imagine how Kate and Gerry can close their eyes at night without the horror of it exploding inside their heads.

At least when there was still ignorance and hope we believed it would only be a matter of time before Maddie was delivered back into the arms of her family. Even on the black days the only shred of comfort was knowing that if she had been taken by a family who wanted a child of their own, at least she'd be loved and cared for.

Most naively of all, we believed that if she was already dead-THAT was the worst thing that could have happened to her.

Well, now we know it isn't. Now we know that what might have happened to her while she was alive could have been worse.

Did Kate and Gerry really want to know that? Will having The Truth writ large help them move on with their lives? Will they ever be able to accept she might never come home?

Because while there's an odd kind of comfort in listening to stories from those well-meaning people in Holland and Belgium who believe they saw and talked to Maddie, it actually makes the whole thing more excruciating knowing that Portuguese police let this little girl slip through their fingers while she was so close and while she was still the Maddie her Mum and Dad knew.

Where's the comfort for Kate and Gerry knowing while they were running around Praia De Luz, Maddie was alive and talking to strangers just a few hours away from them.

The McCanns have always said they needed to get at the truth of what happened to their daughter.

But what has that "Truth" delivered. Not peace, not comfort, not a conclusion.

I never really understood what the phrase "Fate Worse Than Death" actually meant.

Now I think I might.

And, tragically, the only Truth Kate and Gerry have got from the opening of these files is that now they do too.

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REGAL RIGHT TO KNOW

BUCKINGHAM Palace has reported a newspaper to the Press Complaints Commission for invasion of privacy after it published a story claiming Prince Philip had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The story was wrong but why is it an invasion of privacy to say that the Queen's husband may have cancer?

It absolutely IS in the public interest to know whether the Queen's husband has a terminal illness.

And doesn't the fact the Government (courtesy of you and I) stump up £7.9m a year for the Queen and £359,000 for Prince Philip, give us some right to information about them?

The Windsors aren't and never can be deemed a private family. They are the least private family in the land.

What they do and who they are is largely financed by the public purse - money that comes from you and me.

And if we're helping to fund their lavish lifestyle I think the least we can expect is to know a bit about them. Prince Philip has led a charmed life. There's much the Press could have written about him over the years-but hasn't.

However, I think the nation IS entitled to know about his health if only because it may affect the monarch and her ability to do her job.

Which absolutely IS in the public interest.

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COURT IS KATATONIC

KERRY Katona's Mother Sue-a former drug addicted alcoholic-is a benefit cheat.

She has admitted collecting income support and council tax rebates despite the fact she had a whopping £46,000 in the bank.

In a previous court hearing (one of the few she bothered to turn up to) she was warned she could go to prison. However, idiot magistrates in Runcorn allowed her to walk free with only a conditional discharge-which means she got away scot-free. Have these fools not heard about the Government's £150m, No Ifs, No Buts campaign? And if they have why blatantly ignore its directives (eg, to dole out tough sentences to benefit cheats). It's high time those people entrusted to dispense justice were punished themselves if they do it badly, wrongly or not at all.

Surely, if we expect a criminal to take responsibility for his crime we must also expect the people whose job it is to stop them to take responsibility when they (purposely) mess up?

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PUT A WIG ON IT GAIL

THERE'S no question Gail Porter has been brave in the way she has faced and handled alopecia. Moreover, the fact she's been so up front about the whole thing has done much to restore the confidence of other sufferers.

However, Gail says it's her refusal to wear a wig that's responsible for her lack of TV work. "I'm a 37-year-old single mother with no hair- it's just not going to happen," she says.

So why doesn't she wear a wig? I wear a ton of make up when I do TV. So does everyone else. We have to, otherwise viewers would run for the hills. Women wear hair extensions, some men wear toupees. Everyone wears clothes that look good on screen. All these things are just tools for the job to make us easy on the eye for people watching.

So why, if Gail wants TV work, doesn't she just wear a wig? Baldness isn't what she's about, it's something that happened to her. She's not betraying herself or other people with the condition if she tries to hide it now and again.

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TOP MARX FOR POSH

POOR Victoria Beckham must be in a tailspin today having learned that she is descended from a very close pal of Karl Marx.

Can't you just hear that little brain of hers rattling around in her head asking "Karl Marx? Karl Marx? Now which shoe designer is he and is he good for freebies?"

* IT'S a preposterous notion that women burn off 12,000 calories in a year by going shopping.

I can burn that many in a good afternoon at TK Maxx!