I think it is very significant that no one ever came forward to eliminate themselves from being the man seen by either the Smiths or JT. No one innocently walking the streets of PdL on night of 3rd May carrying a child could fail to appreciate the significance of their actions and I would struggle to think of a legitimate reason why such a person would prefer not to tell the police about it.
Well, GA's theory seems to be that JT was lying (for a reason which I've still not understood) and that the entire Irish family were convinced that it was Gerry (which seems to have grown arms and legs from being an honest doubt on the part of MS and his wife upon seeing Gerry, newly arguidofied, descending the plane steps, to a certainty by the entire family).
But why wouldn't an innocent person step forward?
All kinds of possibilities.
The person:
- may have left the next day or soon after and didn't realise that there was any mistaken identity issue. JT's bundleman didn't appear in the press for some time. And the papers were then full of RM - he could have thought that the PJ had got the right person.
- wasn't sure of the reported time, height, road... whatever.
- was there illegally and didn't want the hassle.
- could (at least in JT's sighting) have been a butch-looking woman, assumed to be a man. Fairly unlikely, I would have thought, but not impossible.