Could an intruder have opened the shutter and climbed in the window?

[John]

Lifted And it falls back down doesn't it.

It does indeed.  What any intruder has to do is raise the shutter with one hand, slide open the window with the other and then reach in and pull the strap.  Hey presto...shutter is up.

A locked window renders the entire exercise impossible.

[VIXTE]

It does indeed.  What any intruder has to do is raise the shutter with one hand, slide open the window with the other and then reach in and pull the strap.  Hey presto...shutter is up.

A locked window renders the entire exercise impossible.

Indeed. You pull it up, hold it.. open the window.. then catch the strap on the wall to secure the shutter and open it properly and you are in and the window stays open

[Apostate]

No abductor used the window - there was no need the doors were unlocked. This is just something Team M cling to in order to try to make the couple look less negligent.

[colombosstogey]

What struck me was that the open window/shutter was only mentioned in relation to the third option  ( involvement of the parents  ) .  It was suggested that they were opened from the inside as a way of  'staging'  a crime

The experts offered no explanation for the open window/shutter in either of the two remaining theories  (  woke and wandered/ abduction )   because it played no part in the hypothesis they formulated in both scnarios

I am in agreement with the experts on this matter

The shutter.

I lived in Cyprus we had a small villa with shutters exactly the same. They were for security reasons and to keep the room cool or get some fresh air as they could be lifted by the internal mechanism.

When in the shut position there was no way you could open them from the outside.

When we would open them fully they made a real racket.

LIFTING a shutter at night the sound would resound as it does at night.

I totally discount the shutters were broken/open/etc, not by an abductor anyway.

ALSO lets just say for arguements sake the shutters were up when the McCanns went out. Perhaps an abductor could have got in the window, but then would have probably fallen over bouncing OFF the bed, and hitting the twins in their travel cots. The bed under the window would have carried some trace of outside intruder. Stuff sticks on the bottom of your shoes.

[pegasus]

It does indeed.  What any intruder has to do is raise the shutter with one hand, slide open the window with the other and then reach in and pull the strap.  Hey presto...shutter is up.
A locked window renders the entire exercise impossible.

I have worked out how a burglar would apply this method. At the first target apartment from outside he lifts the shutter about 100mm, tries to slide the window, if it is locked it won't slide, so he gently lowers the shutter back down, and moves on.
Tries a second apartment, maybe same thing, lifts shutter a little, window locked. Moves on.
Third apartment, lifts shutter about 100mm, finds window does slide, reaches inside to fully open shutter using strap, and its bye bye to any jewellery passposts money the holiday makers have left in apartment.
All based on the statistics, that a percentage of holidaymakers, thinking the shutters provide complete security, don't press the lock button on the sliding window.
BTW I have read elsewhere a description by someone who tested this method succesfully on similar sliding window with external shutter.

[AnneGuedes]

All based on the statistics, that a percentage of holidaymakers, thinking the shutters provide complete security, don't press the lock button on the sliding window.

When you close the window completely, it's automatically locked. You have to press a button to unlock and slide it.
This might be why there are fingerprints of Mrs McCann on the window frame. She tried to slide it without pushing the button to unlock it.

[pegasus]

I was assuming that the kids bedroom window in the PJ photos has 2 black buttons? One above the other. And so I was assuming the lower button is to unlock and the top button is to lock. Maybe I am wrong about this. I must look again at the PJ photos, and at Mr Flores window examination video

[Lyall]

I was assuming that the kids bedroom window in the PJ photos has 2 black buttons? One above the other. And so I was assuming the lower button is to unlock and the top button is to lock. Maybe I am wrong about this. I must look again at the PJ photos, and at Mr Flores window examination video

Yes, looks like it.

[pegasus]

One of the the ideas on Crimewatch was: attempted petty burglary, so I am now watching a video of Moita Flores demonstrating how the window operates. There are two buttons. I think the upper is the lock button and the lower is the unlock button. When he presses one button in, automatically the other button pops out.

[AnneGuedes]

One of the the ideas on Crimewatch was: attempted petty burglary, so I am now watching a video of Moita Flores demonstrating how the window operates. There are two buttons. I think the upper is the lock button and the lower is the unlock button. When he presses one button in, automatically the other button pops out.

When you completely close the window, the button pops out, like on the picture above. To slide the window, you first have to push that button.

[faithlilly]

When you completely close the window, the button pops out, like on the picture above. To slide the window, you first have to push that button.

So if the window is fully closed it locks automatically. Therefore Gerry couldn't have possibly assumed it had been 'forced' from the outside, could he ?

[pathfinder73]

GA: It is our conviction, and from the indicia that were collected during those initial months, that it would be materially impossible for this window to be the means of entry or exit, particularly since there are no traces of a break-in. What we have instead are vestiges of a simulation inside - namely a simulation where the window is opened. There are fingerprints of Kate McCann opening the window towards her left hand-side, whereas she says the window has always been closed, with the shutters always down and therefore all these... There are no footprints or anything similar. Undeniably, this window, as I have said before, is a window 'facing the world' and it is where the solution of the case lies.

HC: As the investigators put it, no one enters through a door and then exits through a window!

GA: It is a fact and if you watch closely, the door it is less exposed than the window. It would be much more spectacular to exit through the window rather than the door, which is rather more hidden, more receded than the window. Therefore, this door would be a more obvious way to exit.

Gerald McCann himself goes as far as to say that when he came to see his daughter at about 9pm, that he does not enter through here [sliding doors]; even though he was in a hurry to reach the bathroom. Yet he chooses to walk the longest path [round gesture with extended arm], to open the door [main entrance] with the key. There is a report from Control Risks, the first private detective agency which was brought to the case [by the McCanns] in the very first days, where they state, after speaking with Gerald McCann and other witnesses in that group [Tapas 9], that the key that Mr Gerald McCann alleges to have used had in fact been left in the kitchen, on the kitchen's counter. Right away, the lies started. Moreover, in order to have an abductor he would have had to enter through here [sliding doors]. Apart from the fact that there are no traces of a break-in, there aren't any fingerprints, he could have used gloves for example, in any case the entry would have to be done through here. There are no signs of a forced entry anywhere; not in the door nor in the window. There is a simulation, as if someone wishes to make others believe that the bedroom window was the passage point of the child, which, in our firm belief, could not have taken place.

[Wonderfulspam]

GA: It is our conviction, and from the indicia that were collected during those initial months, that it would be materially impossible for this window to be the means of entry or exit, particularly since there are no traces of a break-in. What we have instead are vestiges of a simulation inside - namely a simulation where the window is opened. There are fingerprints of Kate McCann opening the window towards her left hand-side, whereas she says the window has always been closed, with the shutters always down and therefore all these... There are no footprints or anything similar. Undeniably, this window, as I have said before, is a window 'facing the world' and it is where the solution of the case lies.

HC: As the investigators put it, no one enters through a door and then exits through a window!

GA: It is a fact and if you watch closely, the door it is less exposed than the window. It would be much more spectacular to exit through the window rather than the door, which is rather more hidden, more receded than the window. Therefore, this door would be a more obvious way to exit.

Gerald McCann himself goes as far as to say that when he came to see his daughter at about 9pm, that he does not enter through here [sliding doors]; even though he was in a hurry to reach the bathroom. Yet he chooses to walk the longest path [round gesture with extended arm], to open the door [main entrance] with the key. There is a report from Control Risks, the first private detective agency which was brought to the case [by the McCanns] in the very first days, where they state, after speaking with Gerald McCann and other witnesses in that group [Tapas 9], that the key that Mr Gerald McCann alleges to have used had in fact been left in the kitchen, on the kitchen's counter. Right away, the lies started. Moreover, in order to have an abductor he would have had to enter through here [sliding doors]. Apart from the fact that there are no traces of a break-in, there aren't any fingerprints, he could have used gloves for example, in any case the entry would have to be done through here. There are no signs of a forced entry anywhere; not in the door nor in the window. There is a simulation, as if someone wishes to make others believe that the bedroom window was the passage point of the child, which, in our firm belief, could not have taken place.

Moita Flores.

http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2765.0

MF says it is more likely that the child died. And he adds it is impossible that someone passed through the window with a child. He says the abduction theory then doesn't make sense. He observes that there are many possibilities, it's perfectly admissible for instance that the child went out to search for her parents. If the child died, it could have been outside of the flat or in the flat. But, he says, the disappearance never could have happened through the window, he insists that it is essential to understand that it is technically, humanly, impossible. The witness concludes affirming that all the hypotheses are possible, except for the abduction “through that window”.

[AnneGuedes]

So if the window is fully closed it locks automatically. Therefore Gerry couldn't have possible assumed it had been 'forced' from the outside, could he ?

As Icabodcrane said, this window was the Columbo's mistake.

[AnneGuedes]

Moita Flores.

http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2765.0

MF says it is more likely that the child died. And he adds it is impossible that someone passed through the window with a child. He says the abduction theory then doesn't make sense. He observes that there are many possibilities, it's perfectly admissible for instance that the child went out to search for her parents. If the child died, it could have been outside of the flat or in the flat. But, he says, the disappearance never could have happened through the window, he insists that it is essential to understand that it is technically, humanly, impossible. The witness concludes affirming that all the hypotheses are possible, except for the abduction “through that window”.

The window was the only tangible sign of abduction because no child of that age would have gone out this way. In itself it explained perfectly Mrs McCann's certitude that Madeleine had been taken.
The forced window was then the best ploy to convince the planet that an exceptional abduction had occurred.
But the police verified that nobody had passed through that window and nobody actually saw it open.
A red herring ? Certainly !