zebo - // In respect of their 'negligence' which parents can say that they never did anything that could have ended badly? I certainly can't say that I never did anything. //
Neither can I, but I can say that my wife and I took reasonable precautions to protect our children.
If we were abroad, and eating dinner, they were with us, every night, and if they were in the room asleep, so were we, and our kids were a lot older than three when we first went to Europe.
I'm not saying I an a better parent that Mr and Mrs McCann, simply that the notion of leaving my children out of my sight, at night, in a foreign country, is one I would never dream of.