'The statements of 9 sensible and honourable people point in the direction of an abduction.'
Pull the other one.
You do not know any of them told the truth, partially or fully .
There is nothing found that can prove abduction or burglary.
FACT.
There are many independent witnesses who are on record as observing behaviour round about 5a at relevant times which gave them cause for concern not only in retrospect but at the time.
If you do not give proper weight to witnesses statements to collate those which may be of value and eliminate those which have checked out, you will get nowhere in the case of a missing child.
You will certainly ensure that any hard evidence will be irretreviably lost.
The phone pings seem to have given the Met something to get their teeth into; pity concentration on the calls of Madeleine’s parents and their friends seems to have distracted the original investigation from the line of investigation now followed by the Met which had the potential of finding out what happened to Madeleine at the time.
How the perp/s must have chortled at ineptitude on ineptitude in the conduct of the investigation.