No TT this was the article I was thinking of http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-490254/McCanns-hiding-big-secret-police-chief-claims.html
McCanns 'are hiding a big secret', former police chief claims
Last updated at 14:34 28 October 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann are hiding a "big secret" about the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, according a former police chief claims.
John Stalker, who headed a famous inquiry into whether suspected IRA men were killed by RUC officers, is suspicious of their silence.
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Expert analysis: Former police chief John Stalker believes the McCanns are hiding a secret
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The former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police told the Sunday Express: ?My gut instinct is that some big secret is probably being covered up.
?I have watched the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case drag out for six months.
?One thing above all worries me: Why have the McCanns and the seven other members of their group ? the Tapas Nine ? remained so silent?
?Unlike other high-profile cases I have worked on, not one of them has been prepared to break ranks or really come out and support each other.
?After all this time and pressure, I cannot believe that nobody wants to speak.
?I have a real suspicion that we are not being told the whole truth. There is something else there, some issue that members of the party are embarrassed about?
John Stalker was apparently oblivious of the rules of judicial secrecy. Perhaps that isn't surprising as the PJ was leaking like a sieve, although he should have done a bit of homework before spouting.
What exactly should they have "broken ranks" about?
Kate and Gerry had support to help them handle the baying wolves of the press pack and to try to keep the media focused on the search; the T7 didn't. I find it totally understandable that the T7 did not want the media pack camped on their doorsteps, and anything they said would have been twisted in any case.
As witnesses, they weren't allowed to talk about the investigation and could have faced legal consequences if they did.
Matt and Dave Payne did reply to a journalist late June and look what happened there:
Madeleine Case - A Pact of Silence SOL
By Felicia Cabrita and Margarida Davim
30 June 2007http://www.mccannfiles.com/id117.htmlMathew Oldfield, one of the elements of the group, is back in England. He reacts with surprise upon the contact of Sol, but he does not avoid the conversation: "We drank. We were on holiday. So what?".
Matt's innocent reply was used to intimate that they were pissed as newts. Sometime around that time the myth that they had consumed 14 bottles of wine that evening was launched - and is still blithely repeated as fact by certain quarters.
When David Payne stated that there was an agreement that Kate and Gerry should deal with the press and refused to engage further, this was somehow made to sound as if they had some sinister secret to cover up.
"We have a pact. This is our matter only. It is nobody else's business", says David Payne, another element with the group.In reality, in context, he was being quizzed about Murat having been made arguido. If Murat had been charged (which he never was: he was never even arrested), if Dave had said anything more, it might have jeopardised a fair trial.