Should the McCanns search for Madeleine instead of wasting money on litigation?

[barrier]

Question for this weekend.

Should the McCanns be expending their time and energy searching for Madeleine instead of wasting money on futile law suits?

Your views please.

Interesting question,a poster on here says they have evidence that Madeleine was alive as recently as 2012, I believe,given this to be the case I'm sure that info was passed to the McCanns,surely heaven and earth would have been moved to confirm this and bring her home rather than bother the lawyers,just a thought you understand.

[barrier]

I was mostly agreeing with John's comment "People with information often come forward many years after an event and after those involved have moved away, ceased to be a threat or have even died.  It seems that the passage of time can be advantageous in certain circumstances."

Not so much about the digging bit.  - Which could also be true.

After that particular horse as bolted then,a confession maybe or advances in DNA profiling is what gets most cold case cases reviewed imo.VS mentioned the Lamplugh case concerning other convicts ,if nothing is found was it flawed info with some one with an axe to grind against Cannan,we'll know in the fullness of time I suppose.

[faithlilly]

According to Peter Hill once Kate and Gerry were made arguidos they were bound by the secrecy laws from defending themselves against the leaks from the Portuguese police ...

Snip
Mr Hill: That is a very, very good question.

In this particular case, as I explained to you, the Portuguese police were unable, because of the legal restrictions in Portugal, to make any official comment on the case.
What happened was that they resorted to leaking things to the Portuguese press.
We did our best to check up on these things but of course it was not very easy to do so.

We always put the stories to Mr and Mrs McCann's PR team but most of the time the people they had then, after the McCann's had been named as suspects, did not return our calls.

So this was a more difficult situation than any of us had ever encountered. Yes, there was a clamour for information and we did our best to provide it. Of course we do check as thoroughly as we can. Newspapers operate at very high speed and it is quite true that sometimes it is not possible to check things as thoroughly as you would like.
_______________________________________________________________________

 Q619  Chairman: You said in your apology: "We trust that the suspicion that has clouded their lives for many months will soon be lifted". You will acknowledge that the reason for that suspicion was in large part the activities of your newspaper and other newspapers?

  Mr Hill: No. We were part of that process but the principal reason for that suspicion has to be laid at the door of the Portuguese police.

They were the people who named Mr and Mrs McCann as the suspects and repeatedly questioned them for many, many hours and they were the people who leaked all the information about them.

Yes, we were reporting what happened. The alternative would have been for the British press not to report anything. Do you think that would have been a possibility, when the rest of the world was reporting on this case, for the British press to say nothing? It is not practical.
We are all talking here in hindsight and hindsight is a marvellous thing but the fact of the matter is that at the time these reports and these leaks were happening on a daily basis and that is the truth.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmcumeds/362/9042803.htm

Kate said in her book that at this time she phoned around family and friends basically giving them the red light to talk to the press. Even though she would have known that this was against the law.

[slartibartfast]

Kate said in her book that at this time she phoned around family and friends basically giving them the red light to talk to the press. Even though she would have known that this was against the law.

“For a good couple of hours we were on the phone, calling family and friends to make them aware of the situation and to give them the green light to voice their outrage and despair if they wanted to. Nobody needed a second invitation. They’d all been struggling to contain their concerns for a long time.
Justine arrived to help. While Gerry talked again to Bob Small, she was ringing selected newspaper editors in the UK. We knew only too well how we would be portrayed in Portugal that morning, and Justine wanted to give the British media a broad outline of what was really going on so that they wouldn’t resort to simply repeating whatever wild nonsense the Portuguese press decided to publish.“

[John]

But the information is very often flawed it seems.

That is the nature of the beast, there will always be time wasters and fraudsters who wish to take advantage of the situation and that extends to the very people employed to undertake the challenge as was seen with Halligen and Método 3.  In such a situation you have to take the bad with the good and weed out the chaff. One has to have hope that among all this there is one single piece of information which could join up all the dots.

[John]

Instead of squandering all those donated funds on crooked private investigators they should have set up an information nerve centre in Luz, something akin to what Jennie Murat did but on a larger and more permanent scale, in order to elicit information and coordinate any further civilian searches.  In doing so they would have demonstrated to the locals their genuine wish to find Madeleine and confront the police investigation head on.  In such a situation as this, it is imperative that you carry the locals with you instead of antagonising them.

[barrier]

That is the nature of the beast, there will always be time wasters and fraudsters who wish to take advantage of the situation and that extends to the very people employed to undertake the challenge as was seen with Halligen and Método 3.  In such a situation you have to take the bad with the good and weed out the chaff. One has to have hope that among all this there is one single piece of information which could join up all the dots.

We know from statements  by SY that they examined all the previous investigations and info gleemed from that they then undertook the digs in 2014 linking it to a burglary gone wrong,apart from that there doesn't appear to be anything else.

[Eleanor]

Kate said in her book that at this time she phoned around family and friends basically giving them the red light to talk to the press. Even though she would have known that this was against the law.

A Cite is requested.

[John]

I was mostly agreeing with John's comment "People with information often come forward many years after an event and after those involved have moved away, ceased to be a threat or have even died.  It seems that the passage of time can be advantageous in certain circumstances."

Not so much about the digging bit.  - Which could also be true.

Several police historic enquiries in the UK have come to the fore recently involving digging in moors, back gardens and forests.

[John]

Interesting question,a poster on here says they have evidence that Madeleine was alive as recently as 2012, I believe,given this to be the case I'm sure that info was passed to the McCanns,surely heaven and earth would have been moved to confirm this and bring her home rather than bother the lawyers,just a thought you understand.

I doubt it very much.

[Snowgirl]

I disagree jassi.  We all know that many people in Portugal view their police force with some trepidation given the past so in my view a civilian exercise might just get that little bit further. I certainly feel that every avenue should be explored in the search for Madeleine, something which has sadly been lacking in the last few years.

There is every possibility that someone somewhere knows more than they are letting on so appealing to their better nature might just achieve some success.  The other thing about a civilian initiative is that guarantees of anonymity can be given to informers for their protection against press intrusion.

IMO the police will never solve this case by knocking on doors and hauling people in for interviews. This case will only be solved if someone freely comes forward with credible information.

Surely if someone knew something they would have come forward when the reward was offered ?

[faithlilly]

A Cite is requested.

Slartibartfast has provided it.

[Eleanor]

Slartibartfast has provided it.

Yes.  Thank You.

[faithlilly]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/sep/17/mondaymediasection13

[Mr Gray]

Instead of squandering all those donated funds on crooked private investigators they should have set up an information nerve centre in Luz, something akin to what Jennie Murat did but on a larger and more permanent scale, in order to elicit information and coordinate any further civilian searches.  In doing so they would have demonstrated to the locals their genuine wish to find Madeleine and confront the police investigation head on.  In such a situation as this, it is imperative that you carry the locals with you instead of antagonising them.

There's plenty of money in the fund... I would offer £100,000
For information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for the abduction of Maddie.... And adverisebit throughout Portugal... If it was legal to do so