Only in America Blog: Madeleine McCann Was Not Abducted

[Lyall]

Ask yourself this:  has the perpetrator(s) been caught?
If not what possible reasons could the Portuguese police have for dismissing any link between these various cases and the Madeleine McCann disappearance, given that we already know they are no longer treating the McCanns as suspects?

They presumably have seen the actual witness statements from these incidents, and therefore know vastly more about them and alleged perpetrators than we do.

But I only asked are they, and you said why wouldn't they. Do we know if they are?

[Alfred R Jones]

They presumably have seen the actual witness statements from these incidents, and therefore know vastly more about them and alleged perpetrators than we do.

I'm sorry but as they have not arrested or charged a perpetrator in either these cases nor the disappearance of Madeleine McCann I don't follow your logic at all.

[Lyall]

I'm sorry but as they have not arrested or charged a perpetrator in either these cases nor the disappearance of Madeleine McCann I don't follow your logic at all.

They may think they're actually isolated incidents.

[pathfinder73]

Ask yourself this:  has the perpetrator(s) been caught?
If not what possible reasons could the Portuguese police have for dismissing any link between these various cases and the Madeleine McCann disappearance, given that we already know they are no longer treating the McCanns as suspects?

They're spending 10 million and a result and closure to this case is expected. To cover all possibilities means no exceptions or limitations or how can you cover all possibilities  Everyone's a possible suspect. Time to face the truth.

[Montclair]

Parents of sexually assaulted children had already contacted the UK police as a result of Madeleine's disappearance  - long before Crimewatch.

Some of their 'experiences' are described in Kate's book.

What I would like to know is why these people never reported these cases to the police at the time of these alleged incidents. They seem to only have remembered them or considered them important just after Madeleine's disappearance and others after the Crimewatch appeal. You would have thought they would have gone to the police at the time. So, excuse me, I take these stories with a mountain of salt.

[Alfred R Jones]

They may think they're actually isolated incidents.

What would lead them to think that then?  What would absolutely rule out the possibility that any one of them was linked to Madeleine's disappearance?

[Alfred R Jones]

What I would like to know is why these people never reported these cases to the police at the time of these alleged incidents. They seem to only have remembered them or considered them important just after Madeleine's disappearance and others after the Crimewatch appeal. You would have thought they would have gone to the police at the time. So, excuse me, I take these stories with a mountain of salt.

Several of them WERE reported at the time else how did the British Consul know about them back in 2007?

[Carana]

They presumably have seen the actual witness statements from these incidents, and therefore know vastly more about them and alleged perpetrators than we do.

But I only asked are they, and you said why wouldn't they. Do we know if they are?

There's no way of knowing how far the PJ attempted to investigate these incidents at the time. It does appear that they found some DNA at one of the crime scenes (unless that was a media misinterpretation of whatever was actually said). If so, then at least one case got that far, but it's still not clear whether it is potentially relevant or not.

Without a specific suspect, the investigations would have been dropped after eight months anyway. Meanwhile, there are families who still have no closure and, until the Madeleine investigation was reopened, didn't have a hope in hell of getting their own cases reviewed.

There's no way of knowing either whether there is any connection to Madeleiene's case or not, whether the same perp assaulted all of the others, or even whether children of other nationalities were also assaulted.

Hopefully, that's what the police are trying to discover.

[Lyall]

What would lead them to think that then?  What would absolutely rule out the possibility that any one of them was linked to Madeleine's disappearance?

They've seen the actual statements about these incidents (presumably), not just the Met's interpretation of those incidents.

[Mr Gray]

They've seen the actual statements about these incidents (presumably), not just the Met's interpretation of those incidents.

more likely that the pj had already decided the parents guilt and were not interested in any other line of enquiry

[Lyall]

There's no way of knowing how far the PJ attempted to investigate these incidents at the time. It does appear that they found some DNA at one of the crime scenes (unless that was a media misinterpretation of whatever was actually said). If so, then at least one case got that far, but it's still not clear whether it is potentially relevant or not.

Without a specific suspect, the investigations would have been dropped after eight months anyway. Meanwhile, there are families who still have no closure and, until the Madeleine investigation was reopened, didn't have a hope in hell of getting their own cases reviewed.

There's no way of knowing either whether there is any connection to Madeleiene's case or not, whether the same perp assaulted all of the others, or even whether children of other nationalities were also assaulted.

Hopefully, that's what the police are trying to discover.

That all makes sense. I hope davel is also reading it

[Mr Gray]

That all makes sense. I hope davel is also reading it

you might want to read it again

[Alfred R Jones]

They've seen the actual statements about these incidents (presumably), not just the Met's interpretation of those incidents.

I'm sorry but you're still not making much sense.  How could these statements categorically rule out the possibility of the crimes being linked or relevant to the Madeleine McCann case?

[Alfred R Jones]

That all makes sense. I hope davel is also reading it

How come it makes sense when Carana writes it but moments ago you were arguing that the PJ had likely ruled out these cases being linked cos they'd read the statements?!

[Brietta]

Yes, but you do know that only a fraction of police activity is recorded in black and white don't you. They will have discussed, thought about and considered every possible scenario in the hours, days and weeks after the disappearance. If there's one thing that unites policemen in every country it's their desperation, panic and furious activity when a child goes missing, most of which won't ever be recorded. Your relentlessly denigrating narrative about the Portuguese police is the weakest area of your support for Madeleine's parents.

There is no evidence that ... "They will have discussed, thought about and considered every possible scenario in the hours, days and weeks after the disappearance. If there's one thing that unites policemen in every country it's their desperation, panic and furious activity when a child goes missing, most of which won't ever be recorded."
 
There is plenty of evidence to the contrary ... Dr Amaral explains in his book why he thought Madeleine McCann's parents were complicit in her disappearance ... and Ricardo Paiva has stated publicly that no other avenues other than that theory were investigated.

The ordinary foot soldiers who did a splendid job ... can only go as far as their leadership directs them ... and it is beyond time for the ineptitude of that leadership to be recognised for what it was and is.

My "relentlessly denigrating narrative" regarding the Amaral investigation is exactly what it is with nothing added and only those failures we do not yet know about omitted. 

There is nothing in my "relentlessly denigrating narrative" which cannot be backed up.
It is all a matter of record and only the degree to which it harmed the search for Madeleine McCann is open to argument, not the fact that the investigation was fatally flwed from the word go. 

** snip from an interview with Stephen Moore; Former FBI Special Agent, Retired.

MOORE: A crime scene in an investigation.

The crime scene is perishable.

The investigation is consumer.

It consumes time, it consumes evidence.

The farther you get from the actual crime, the less chance you have.

If anybody can do it, New Scotland Yard can do it.

I believe it has been so badly botched by the Portuguese. They can't even start with anything that they have. They have to rebuild it from the foundation.

CUOMO: What was so wrong?

MOORE: They did a classic mistake. They decided on a conclusion very early on plus you add to that the basic forensic mistakes.

You add just basic police mistakes.

It's like the Amanda Knox case in Italy.

They screwed it up from the beginning. Now, really, it has to be restarted. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1310/14/nday.04.html