A Therapist’s Words On Madeleine McCann In Belgium
KATLEEN Sampermans is sat at a table. She’s the “child therapist” who saw Madeleine McCann dining in a Belgian restaurant with two adults.
Ms Sampermans is “100 per cent sure” she saw Madeleine. But by the time she had spoken to the waitress and alerted police to her discovery, the trio had “fled”, says the Express.
Now she’s talking to the press. “I feel very guilty that I did not do more when I had the chance,” says she. “I was hesitating. The day after I felt so sick that I had to go to the doctor.”
She tells us: “The only thing that has been in my mind has been the parents of Madeleine. I would say to them that if they want to contact me I would be happy to speak to them.”
About what? How she saw their daughter alive and well and drinking a strawberry milkshake? Perhaps as a child therapist this Madeleine spotter could advise the McCanns on the best way to heal their twin children?
“I would also like to say to them I am so sorry that I did not take the girl and they find her.” So says the child psychologist.
Or as one Anorak writer notes, Sampermans may also be sorry that she did not just ask the child if her name was Madeleine. Dashing over to a table and snatching a child is an ill-advised move, even for an expert in child welfare.
She says the little girl was laughing one minute and then sad. This she tells us is “not normal”. “The parent’s behaviour was very strange. They both spoke to the child but never to each other.”
Strange? Perhaps they were just a typical dysfunctional family at a café, or a group so at ease they find no need for small talk?
“As time went by I became more and more sure it was Madeleine but I did not know what to do.”
The man waited by the car – “his eyes were darting around everywhere, scanning everyone on the terrace.” Was he worried? Was he wondering why this strange woman was staring at him?
Sampermans gathered herself. She called the police. She wrote down three digits of the car number plate in which Madeleine and her dining companions had “fled”. She told all to the Daily Express.
And the Express tell us…
Posted: 6th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (23) | TrackBack | Permalink
