Portuguese minister reveals: We didn’t charge Maddie’s parents out of compassion

[Miss Taken Identity]

To think they were once so convinced it was a paedophile gang................... &%+((£

It could have been a multi disciplinary project yes? no?
All of them prowling around...

[Benice]

If leaving your children asleep and making checks on them is a crime in PT -  then why weren't the other members of the group accused of  'abandonment? 

Their children went home safe and sound -  and so the 'compassion' argument would not apply.

[stephen25000]

If leaving your children asleep and making checks on them is a crime in PT -  then why weren't the other members of the group accused of  'abandonment? 

Their children went home safe and sound -  and so the 'compassion' argument would not apply.

All doing the same should have been arrested.

Abandonment. Pure and simple.

[Miss Taken Identity]

If leaving your children asleep and making checks on them is a crime in PT -  then why weren't the other members of the group accused of  'abandonment? 

Their children went home safe and sound -  and so the 'compassion' argument would not apply.

We don't know if they went home safe and sound have you asked those children?  are the twins happy they were left alone night after night?

Oh but it would, 'THEY' as a group should have been charged, they stuck together to create a time line didn't they? well a couple of timelines, and one came up with an abductor ,the other saw ... curtains whooshing. The missing child's parents were shown compassion BECAUSE the child was missing, and BECAUSE they thought this was a cultural thing...AND DON'T FORGET the political input and the media and the PR gurus. The PJ could have felt overwhelmed and undermined. Don't forget the venemous attacts by the family,about the PJ were instant!

[ShiningInLuz]

...

The revelations came from Rui Pereira, who was Portugal’s minister of internal affairs – the equivalent of the UK’s Home Secretary.

He told a Portuguese TV show it was an error not to make GP mum Kate, 48, and heart doctor dad Gerry, 47, suspects – or arguidos – for “abandonment”.

They left Madeleine, three, and her younger twin siblings in the apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz while they dined with pals in a nearby tapas bar on May 3, 2007.

Madeleine vanished that night and has not been seen since.

Mr Pereira told Portuguese channel CMTV: “The error was not constituting the parents as arguidos for the crime of abandonment.

"At the beginning there was an extraordinary and ridiculous theory that said the English have very peculiar cultural customs.

“And therefore it was natural for them to leave the two-year-old twin siblings and the other three-year-old child alone in a bedroom for the parents to go out a few hundred metres away to socialise with their friends.’’

Mr Pereira revealed a charge was given some thought at the time. But he claimed the Portuguese authorities had an inferiority complex regarding foreigners.

They believed the English “truly have very specific cultural customs and it was natural to dine and drink”. There was also “compassion” from the investigators towards the parents.

Former police inspector Moita Flores, below, previously told the same TV show he believed the couple would have been accused of abandonment if they had been Portuguese.

He said: “Have no doubts. If this had involved a Portuguese child our public ministry would have immediately set off measures which are in place to protect children.

“In our culture this kind of behaviour would have not been tolerated as reasonable. I am not even sure it is tolerated under Anglo-Saxon cultural values.’’

...

“A court would have to show they had wilfully neglected their daughter and they did not.’’

...

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/511619/Portuguese-minister-reveals-charge-Maddie-McCann-parents-compassion-abandonment-prosecutor

The core ideas in this report are nonsense.

The idea that Portuguese law alters according to the perceived cultural norms of foreigners is daft.  The idea that there is one law for the English and another for the Portuguese is ridiculous.  The archiving report makes no mention of such interpretations or deciding to let the McCanns off due to sympathy.  It concluded that there was no wilful neglect and therefore nothing to charge the McCanns with.

[Benice]

All doing the same should have been arrested.

Abandonment. Pure and simple.

There has to be an intention to abandon for arrests to be made.    According to the PT AG there was none.

Quote from Final Report:

 In the case of the files and facing the elements that were collected it is evident that none of the arguidos Gerald or Kate acted with intent.
unquote

[Miss Taken Identity]

There has to be an intention to abandon for arrests to be made.    According to the PT AG there was none.

Quote from Final Report:

 In the case of the files and facing the elements that were collected it is evident that none of the arguidos Gerald or Kate acted with intent.
unquote

This was in a report, so it wasn't mentioned,doesn't make it untrue, just that it wasn't mentioned. Also, the facts would have to be established in a court of LAW.
A court would establish if the parents were acting responsibly or not and as a child was 'abducted by paedophiles' There would be a strong argument to suggest the parents did indeed put their children in danger by
1. leaving them alone night after night
2 leaving a door unlocked!
3 not doing physical checks or having a ridgid timeline to do said checks.
4 having a child who has 'disappeared' is evidence!

In a court  OF LAW this would be blown right out of the water! AND Tapas team know all this! Why else would they refuse to fo back for a reconstruction?

[stephen25000]

The core ideas in this report are nonsense.

The idea that Portuguese law alters according to the perceived cultural norms of foreigners is daft.  The idea that there is one law for the English and another for the Portuguese is ridiculous.  The archiving report makes no mention of such interpretations or deciding to let the McCanns off due to sympathy.  It concluded that there was no wilful neglect and therefore nothing to charge the McCanns with.

and what of political pressure not to charge the mccanns ? 

[stephen25000]

There has to be an intention to abandon for arrests to be made.    According to the PT AG there was none.

Quote from Final Report:

 In the case of the files and facing the elements that were collected it is evident that none of the arguidos Gerald or Kate acted with intent.
unquote

They left their children several nights in a row in an unlocked apartment, which was locked during the day.

[mercury]

This was in a report, so it wasn't mentioned,doesn't make it untrue, just that it wasn't mentioned. Also, the facts would have to be established in a court of LAW.
A court would establish if the parents were acting responsibly or not and as a child was 'abducted by paedophiles' There would be a strong argument to suggest the parents did indeed put their children in danger by
1. leaving them alone night after night
2 leaving a door unlocked!
3 not doing physical checks or having a ridgid timeline to do said checks.
4 having a child who has 'disappeared' is evidence!

In a court  OF LAW this would be blown right out of the water! AND Tapas team know all this! Why else would they refuse to fo back for a reconstruction?

In a court of law the lot of them would be in shit creek at the very least, and you are right the prospect of a reconstruction sent shivers down their spines thats why they hid behind lawyers and the mccanns asked people to think about what they had already gone through and that it was a horrible idea to do a reconstruction...lots of potential stones unturned there

[ShiningInLuz]

This was in a report, so it wasn't mentioned,doesn't make it untrue, just that it wasn't mentioned. Also, the facts would have to be established in a court of LAW.
A court would establish if the parents were acting responsibly or not and as a child was 'abducted by paedophiles' There would be a strong argument to suggest the parents did indeed put their children in danger by
1. leaving them alone night after night
2 leaving a door unlocked!
3 not doing physical checks or having a ridgid timeline to do said checks.
4 having a child who has 'disappeared' is evidence!

In a court  OF LAW this would be blown right out of the water! AND Tapas team know all this! Why else would they refuse to fo back for a reconstruction?

Step 1.  Police decide if there is enough evidence to charge.  Here they decided there was not enough evidence to charge.  Step 2.  Someone above them (Attorney General?) who has nothing to do with the police, decides whether to accept this report or reject it.  It got accepted.

If the police decide a case cannot be made, and the bod who would be prosecuting agrees with this, there is no way it gets to court.

So speculation about what might or might not have happened in a court case is merely speculation.

The police could have written a different final report, but they didn't.  The bod deciding to accept or reject could have rejected, but the fact is it was accepted.

To say that 2 separate Portuguese entities were pressured to obtain this outcome goes into my folder of conspiracy theories. IMO of course.

[Mr Gray]

In a court of law the lot of them would be in shit creek at the very least, and you are right the prospect of a reconstruction sent shivers down their spines thats why they hid behind lawyers and the mccanns asked people to think about what they had already gone through and that it was a horrible idea to do a reconstruction...lots of potential stones unturned there

I think they did not want to return because they did not trust the PJ....they probably knew all about the cipriano case by then

[ShiningInLuz]

and what of political pressure not to charge the mccanns ?

I have no idea what happened at a diplomatic level, with few exceptions.

Once made arguidos, the diplomats appear to me to have backed off from the McCanns.  I don't see early support influencing the archiving process per se.

It could be that diplomatic pressure applied before the McCanns were made arguidos influenced Portuguese thoughts about what the goal was i.e. a very minor charge of neglect or abandonment, an interim charge of disposal of a body, or perhaps even something more serious.

I would need to read the McCann arguido interviews again to be sure.  But from memory, it did not look like the PJ was interested in abandonment/neglect.

[Mr Gray]

and what of political pressure not to charge the mccanns ?

what political pressure...you are quoting opinion as fact

[Miss Taken Identity]

Step 1.  Police decide if there is enough evidence to charge.  Here they decided there was not enough evidence to charge.  Step 2.  Someone above them (Attorney General?) who has nothing to do with the police, decides whether to accept this report or reject it.  It got accepted.

If the police decide a case cannot be made, and the bod who would be prosecuting agrees with this, there is no way it gets to court.

So speculation about what might or might not have happened in a court case is merely speculation.

The police could have written a different final report, but they didn't.  The bod deciding to accept or reject could have rejected, but the fact is it was accepted.

To say that 2 separate Portuguese entities were pressured to obtain this outcome goes into my folder of conspiracy theories. IMO of course.

We have already be told this is a report and not set in stone about innocence or guilt about abandonment, The reasons have already been given as to why this was not done by those who knew better on the ground. Their WAS enough evidence to have charged them with abandonment. The Tapas group were very much aware of this because in early statements we got this from Gerry "It was like sitting in your garden". I will suggest that the PJ were undermined and overwhelmed by the whole bloody circus the McCanns created in the beginning.

As far as speculation is concerned, it is a viable, and reasonable argument to suggest a court of LAW should be the place for deciding IF the tapas were guilty of abandonment or not.  Saying it in a report is not credible to establish this.