I would not deny anyone the right to defend themselves on a charge of filicide.

The parents have certainly chosen a skilled lawyer who suceeded in getting General Pinochet released from arrest and extradition to Spain on a charge of murder, torture and kidnapping (even being awarded £350,000 legal costs) in 1998

However such lawyers do not come cheap and there is a "fund" of a million pounds that was collected by donations from sympathetic people on a crest of highly emotional publicity under the stated objective -                                                                     "To secure the safe return to her family of Madeleine McCann who was abducted in Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007;      
and
"To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine's family."
- IF Madeleine was found the remainder of the money was to be used to assist in other cases of abduction.

As this large "fund" is classed as a buisness (the form in which it was set up was not acceptable to be classed as a "charity") and the directors are personal friends or family of the McCanns it appears that it may be possible to use the money that well meaning donors thought would be used to assist in the search for Madeleine and other missing children to pay for the most expensive "celebrity" laywers.

I appreciate that anyone who was not in the UK during the engendered mass emotional reaction whipped up by the McCann publicity machine might not realize how great a "betrayal" the donors may feel if the money they thought was for charitable purposes is used in this way.