Martin Smith produced the efit after the end of January 2008. In his statement to the Irish Gardia police, at that date, he said he had been approached by Brian Kennedy to produce an efit, but had refused.
It is clear that at some point later, he changed his mind and decided, after all, to produce an efit (because he realised he had been mistaken to suppose he had seen Gerry).
When isn't exactly clear, but it would have been pretty much at the point that the first, joint, enquiry was winding down.
Very obviously, as the Smiths might well have witnessed Madeleine's abduction, that efit could only be released in the context of a live and on-going enquiry, and the Met (clearly in possession of the efits well before their release) chose the moment of the Crimewatch programme to release them ....
We can do better that surely?
The case was not archived until July 2008. Oakley were given elbow (allegedly) in August 2008.
It's reasonable to assume that
if Mr Smith changed his mind while the kosher investigation remained live he would have advised the PJ one way or another and it would be recorded somewhere. So
if he changed his mind it likely would have between the archiving and Oakley being given the elbow.
If Mr & Mrs Smith worked on efits for Oakley it was between the archiving of the kosher investigation and the termination of Oakley's contract. At that time according to press reports it was becoming very messy between Brian Kennedy/Oakley and "The Fund".
