Amaral is not there to get close and make friends with suspects. The job of the police is to solve the case and bring those responsible to justice.
A common sense rule, however, says doubt their word, without this meaning that they are to be considered as suspects. The information they provide must be cross-checked against other witness statements, in order to evaluate their veracity and credibility. The public in general, deeply touched by the misfortune that has befallen the family - they can all easily imagine the anxiety and pain that a mother or a father must feel in such a situation - take their side right away. The investigator, however, cannot lose sight of his objectives. He has to devote all his efforts to the discovery of the truth in order to bring justice to the only true victim: the child.
One day, we were all together at the PJ in Portimão - inspectors and negotiators, members of Scotland Yard and the Leicestershire police - waiting for a contact to define the place and the conditions for the handing over of the money in Holland; when the tension was at its height and we were all holding our breath, Gerald McCann displayed a nonchalance that surprised all of the police officers present, including the English. The atmosphere got heavier as the waiting drew out, but McCann, relaxed, was reading trivia on the internet and discussing rugby and football with the English police, while licking a lollipop. On the telephone, he laughed with friends who called him. Perhaps this was nervousness; sometimes it's totally displaced, given what is at stake at the time. His attitude shocked. When, two days later the dutch police informed us that the individual had been arrested, that he was not holding any information and had lied from start to finish with the sole objective of extorting money from the couple, we were not surprised. (TOTL)
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And if you believe that you'll believe anything IMO. If you think Gerry was responsible for Madeleine's disappearance, do you honestly think that he would be so stupid as to behave in the manner Amaral describes at such a time?
Do you really think he would even be taking calls from his friends - let alone having a laugh with them whilst waiting for what could be a massively important phone call?
If he was the guilty person, then he would have to be completely mad to behave like that
in front of so many of the very police officers he wanted to convince that Madeleine had been abducted. Common sense please!
It's far more likely IMO that the UK officers tried to relieve the tension he must have been feeling as the time ticked by - by talking to
him about football. If it happened at all.
I suppose you also believe Amaral's description of how Kate behaved (the sofa incident) too where he talks as if he was there with her. Or his description of her 'inappropriate' behaviour when they were called back to the police station on 4th May - he wasn't there either.
The first time they laid eyes on oneanother was 11th December 2009 at court and as Kate says in her book about that occasion - ''It's extraordinary he could have said and written so many awful things about a person he had never met''
So I ask again - if it was perfectly normal procedure for the Lead investigator NOT to have any contact with the McCanns, then why did he go out of his way to hide that fact - both in his book and TV interviews? Even when he was given the opportunity to admit the true facts - he studiously avoided doing so.