The Sunday Times made a right dogs dinner of this story. There is case to answer as to why e-fits created in 2007 of a suspect were never made available to the wider public until late last year.
Why were these e-fits withheld, by whom and on whose advice?
I think it's perfectly simple, John.
Martin Smith was approached by Brian Kennedy to produce an e-fit in January 2008, but refused.
It is plain common sense that all the time he thought he had seen Gerry he
would refuse.
It was surely only after the files were released in August 2008 following shelving of the first enquiry that Mr Smith realised he had been mistaken (to suppose the man was Gerry) and agreed to produce the e-fit.
The e-fits were in the hands of British and Portuguese police by 2009, yet
they chose the moment of the
crimewatch programme to release the efit.
You simply cannot produce an e-fit of a man carrying a child in close proximity to apartment 5a at just about the time Madeleine is known to have been abducted
other than in the context of a live enquiry.
The police understood that, and the McCanns would have been crucified for doing so, particularly when the police had chosen to wait until the launch of a fresh investigation.
Indeed, it's not even clear that the McCanns were in a position to release the efit before the police. Did they actually have it in their possession?