Not sure what point you're trying to make Carana. Even if there was a media frenzy in 2004/2005, and evidence of this has yet to be posted, are you saying the judge's were swayed by that frenzy ?
There was indeed a media frenzy (though possibly not quite to the extent of the Madeleine case). They were nearly lynched when taken to court to be charged.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=3030.0There was very little balanced reporting on the case - even during the trial, you'd be hard put to find a mention of the numerous testimonies that were neutral to positive about Leonor.
I don't know whether the judges were swayed or not.
When you have a judge saying that a rule of common experience is that children seen walking towards home do get back home, therefore it is considered proven that she did, and the fact that the entire court case, cramming in 40+ witness testimonies in just 3 days, based on the flimsiest of evidence, makes me wonder...
They may well have been and possibly also by the "experts" giving evidence. It seems quite complex, however, possibly in part due to the nature of the legal system. There doesn't appear to be any cross-examination (or at least not of the robust kind that many of us would expect). It simply wouldn't even have gone to trial in the UK.
There were no defence expert witnesses; the defence counsel doesn't even seem to have organised an independent psychiatric evaluation. There was a series of "we policemen, experts" statements on the forensics, none of which were challenged. Some of the so-called damning evidence was just plain silly, but was accepted as proven, because there was no counter expertise by the defence. The Algarve PJ didn't have a clue about forensics in 2007, so I really doubt that they were any more enlightened several years previously.
The defence lawyers assumed that the case would be thrown out due to a lack of evidence... but they hadn't counted on the judge ruling that the "reconstruction" was admissible.
Joćo had signed on the dotted line... so that was it. He couldn't then stand up to say he was coerced into it as the lawyers had already advised them not to take the stand (presumably to avoid their prior "confessions" from being read in court).
Leandro stated in an interview back in 2006 that he and others had been beaten; he also said that Joćo was acting strangely on the day of the reconstruction. His mother also said that the Faro lot were rough. There is no doubt that Leonor was battered in PJ custody.
I find it entirely possible that Joćo had been beaten or threatened into making that video.
Joćo Cipriano agreed to give his first interview, a written interview wherein he proclaimed his innocence. "I did nothing to my niece, Joana Guerreiro. I am innocent. I was threatened with knives to make that video that was shown in court. But it is all lies. The PJ came almost every day to the Olhćo prison where I was held to ask me where Joana was. And I, afraid of beatings, kept saying she was here or there, but it was a lie (...)"http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2969.msg106091#msg106091