New hope in Maddy inquiry as CPS lawyers travel to Portugal

[Mrs. B]

New hope in Maddy inquiry as CPS lawyers travel to Portugal

Government lawyers have travelled to Portugal to meet police and prosecution officials to discuss new leads in the Madeleine McCann inquiry.

The trip is the first time that lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service have visited Portugal in connection with Scotland Yard’s £5 million review of the case.

Home Secretary Theresa May is now expected to  announce a full-scale Yard investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in May 2007.

London’s chief crown prosecutor Alison Saunders and her deputy Jenny Hopkins flew to Portugal in April to meet counterparts to discuss leads identified in the Met’s review.

Last month the Standard revealed that detectives had identified a list of potential suspects. Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who supervised the review, said there were a “good number” of people who should be questioned as well as “further forensic opportunities”.

The list is thought to number around 20, including Britons. The potential suspects are thought to include a handful of known child-sex offenders who are believed to have been in the Algarve when Madeleine disappeared.

The visit by senior CPS lawyers underlines the belief among senior detectives that the case could be solved.

Portuguese police led the search for Madeleine after she went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz while her parents dined nearby.

The investigation was shelved in 2008 but the Yard launched a Home Office-funded review in 2011 after David Cameron intervened at the request of Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. The review team examined hundreds of thousands of documents from the Portuguese investigation and enquiries by a private detective agency employed by Madeleine’s family and identified 195 potential leads.

A full Yard investigation would allow police to interview suspects in Britain though they would seek the assistance of the Portuguese to carry out any enquiries there.

A CPS spokesman said: “We continue to work with the police on this case.”

A Home Office spokesman said it had agreed to “provide the Metropolitan Police with the resources they need”.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/new-hope-in-maddy-inquiry-as-cps-lawyers-travel-to-portugal-8668335.html

[Eleanor]

What to say?  Portugal cannot go on ignoring the cock up.  Can they?

[Mrs. B]

First time I've heard anything about the CPS lawyers getting in on the action, perhaps someone could remind us again at what stage CPS start moving in?

[Carana]

London’s chief crown prosecutor Alison Saunders and her deputy Jenny Hopkins flew to Portugal in April to meet counterparts to discuss leads identified in the Met’s review.

Sounds hopeful.

[Eleanor]

Good heavens,  Women?  How can this be?  But then there is a woman in charge of The PJ Investigation. 
Mayhap Portugal has decided that misogynistic Portuguese PJ Officers are not the best people to investigate Child Abduction, and that women of any kind are better at this.

[ferryman]

Good heavens,  Women?  How can this be?  But then there is a woman in charge of The PJ Investigation. 
Mayhap Portugal has decided that misogynistic Portuguese PJ Officers are not the best people to investigate Child Abduction, and that women of any kind are better at this.

The Madeleine investigation goes to the

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WOMEN!!!

(And a much better fist they are likely to make of it than the men) ....

[ferryman]

Or the dogs ...

[xtina]

First time I've heard anything about the CPS lawyers getting in on the action, perhaps someone could remind us again at what stage CPS start moving in?

I may be wrong, but I`m sure the CPS is purely there to decide whether a case is worth persuing - they will be deciding whether there is enough evidence to bring charges against a person or persons suggested.

[Eleanor]

Actually, you don't have to female  to know that the investigation was a cock up. But you might have to be female to admit that it was.
I am enormously heartened to know that women are now very much involved.

[DCI]

Actually, you don't have to female  to know that the investigation was a cock up. But you might have to be female to admit that it was.
I am enormously heartened to know that women are now very much involved.

 

[icabodcrane]

I may be wrong, but I`m sure the CPS is purely there to decide whether a case is worth persuing - they will be deciding whether there is enough evidence to bring charges against a person or persons suggested.

I was under that impression too xtina

I thought the Crown Prosecution Service only became involved once charges were imminent, and a decision had to be made whether the case against the accused was strong enough for the charges to be brought

[DCI]

Home Secretary Theresa May is now expected to  announce a full-scale Yard investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in May 2007.

The visit by senior CPS lawyers underlines the belief among senior detectives that the case could be solved.

Don't think she would announce any of this without some sort of evidence!

[Carana]

What's this about?

I'm not sexist.

Men can be just as good as women.

[south of the river]

People on other sites getting very excited  - that this means the McCann's are about to be arrested and the CPS are in Portugal just clearing things with the PJ

This is the case  that keeps on giving  !!!

[DCI]

People on other sites getting very excited  - that this means the McCann's are about to be arrested and the CPS are in Portugal just clearing things with the PJ

This is the case  that keeps on giving  !!!

A lot of dreaming and wishful thinking going on, there then, south of the river.

I wonder if Amaral will be questioned? Now that I'd love to see!