Pick any sentence from Kate's book.

[stephen25000]

Hahaha

No forensic evidence?  Not even of all the people who crowded in there and unhappily opened and touchede things.

I wonder why there was no forensic evidence of these people either ?

Hahhaha

Blame the McCanns and their associates.

You see without forensic corroboration , no chance of proving abduction.

We also know that if a suspect has arguido status, they don'T have to answer questions.

[G-Unit]

Firstly it may have escaped your notice that the McCanns had to endure months of media coverage questioning their version of events in their own country.  Secondly, one party has clearly been wronged, and therefore one party is clearly going to be justifiably outraged.  The only thing we differ on is which party has been wronged.

The UK media behaved disgracefully full stop, and were punished by the McCanns, their friends and Murat.

Kate McCann wasn't expecting the media to question Amaral;

It was utterly frustrating that there didn’t seem to be anybody in Portugal prepared to stand up against this man. Surely there were intelligent and knowledgeable people in positions of authority who could see through these offensive allegations. Why were they all staying quiet? Was it because it wasn’t their problem? Were they scared
to speak out? Perhaps Amaral had tapped into some kind of national subconscious desire for this to
all just go away.
[Madeleine]

It never seems to occur to her that intelligent knowledgeable Portuguese people might not believe her and her husband. No, there has to be another reason!

[Alfie]

The UK media behaved disgracefully full stop, and were punished by the McCanns, their friends and Murat.

Kate McCann wasn't expecting the media to question Amaral;

It was utterly frustrating that there didn’t seem to be anybody in Portugal prepared to stand up against this man. Surely there were intelligent and knowledgeable people in positions of authority who could see through these offensive allegations. Why were they all staying quiet? Was it because it wasn’t their problem? Were they scared
to speak out? Perhaps Amaral had tapped into some kind of national subconscious desire for this to
all just go away.
[Madeleine]

It never seems to occur to her that intelligent knowledgeable Portuguese people might not believe her and her husband. No, there has to be another reason!

I don't think it's unreasonable for her to think that at least one intelligent, knowledgeable Portuguese person in authority might be able to see through the allegations against them, or was that hoping for too much do you think?  Was their alleged guilt so very obvious to the entire Portuguese nation that not one single Portuguese person ever said to themselves "hmm...maybe they didn't do it and maybe the police are wrong, or worse trying to stitch them up...?" Is that a completely inconceivable scenario in your view, and one that Kate should have known better than to hope for?

[ShiningInLuz]

I don't think it's unreasonable for her to think that at least one intelligent, knowledgeable Portuguese person in authority might be able to see through the allegations against them, or was that hoping for too much do you think?  Was their alleged guilt so very obvious to the entire Portuguese nation that not one single Portuguese person ever said to themselves "hmm...maybe they didn't do it and maybe the police are wrong, or worse trying to stitch them up...?" Is that a completely inconceivable scenario in your view, and one that Kate should have known better than to hope for?

I am not quite sure if you are talking about people inside the investigation or people outside the investigation.

Nor am I sure if you are talking about a time when the investigation was active in Portugal, or whether you mean when it had been archived.

Paulo Rebelo, what little of him I have dug up, seems to have worked within the legal framework, and his team provided an archiving report that certainly does not 'stitch the McCanns up', so I find that phrase to be without merit and in very poor taste.

Why anyone in Portugal, other than officers who had sat in on the case or had been part of command hierarchy, would have had an accurate picture of what was going on, before the investigation was archived, is beyond me.  Amaral's watch was leaking, despite supposed judicial silence.  Team McCann had a PR spokesman on board, despite supposed judicial silence.

Whether there were significant leaks from the Portuguese side during Rebelo's watch, I do not know.  If anyone can fill me on what if anything leaked during that period, please enlighten me.

This move us to post-archive and post book launch.

The archival report was now available to UK and Portuguese media, so the question is, did any media outlet make a big deal of it?  On either side?

I have seen a number of Amaral interviews from this phase.  I do not collate or index such interviews, so please don't ask me for cites.  I have yet to see one in which Amaral was not challenged on his theory, with the interviewer obviously trying to extract further details for the delectation of the audience.   I have seen more than one where some other talking head would agree that Amaral's theory was not unreasonable.  I suspect, but cannot prove, that a number of the more preposterous claims, such as the freezer one, have this source as their origin.

And here is the interesting point.  Team McCann, complete with UK PR person Clarence, chose the UK media as the battleground.  They went after a peanut sized organisation in Portugal, but none of the big boys.  And when the restrictions of judicial secrecy had been lifted (and arguido status) they chose not to deploy any talking head in Portugal.

So who did not stand up to Amaral?  Answer, in the first instance, Team McCann.  Then they tried to blame the Portuguese for not doing what they could have and should have done themselves.

[Robittybob1]

@ Shining - you said "So who did not stand up to Amaral?  Answer, in the first instance, Team McCann.  Then they tried to blame the Portuguese for not doing what they could have and should have done themselves."  Wouldn't that have just have made the situation worse? 

[Alfie]

I am not quite sure if you are talking about people inside the investigation or people outside the investigation.

Nor am I sure if you are talking about a time when the investigation was active in Portugal, or whether you mean when it had been archived.

Paulo Rebelo, what little of him I have dug up, seems to have worked within the legal framework, and his team provided an archiving report that certainly does not 'stitch the McCanns up', so I find that phrase to be without merit and in very poor taste.

Why anyone in Portugal, other than officers who had sat in on the case or had been part of command hierarchy, would have had an accurate picture of what was going on, before the investigation was archived, is beyond me.  Amaral's watch was leaking, despite supposed judicial silence.  Team McCann had a PR spokesman on board, despite supposed judicial silence.

Whether there were significant leaks from the Portuguese side during Rebelo's watch, I do not know.  If anyone can fill me on what if anything leaked during that period, please enlighten me.

This move us to post-archive and post book launch.

The archival report was now available to UK and Portuguese media, so the question is, did any media outlet make a big deal of it?  On either side?

I have seen a number of Amaral interviews from this phase.  I do not collate or index such interviews, so please don't ask me for cites.  I have yet to see one in which Amaral was not challenged on his theory, with the interviewer obviously trying to extract further details for the delectation of the audience.   I have seen more than one where some other talking head would agree that Amaral's theory was not unreasonable.  I suspect, but cannot prove, that a number of the more preposterous claims, such as the freezer one, have this source as their origin.

And here is the interesting point.  Team McCann, complete with UK PR person Clarence, chose the UK media as the battleground.  They went after a peanut sized organisation in Portugal, but none of the big boys.  And when the restrictions of judicial secrecy had been lifted (and arguido status) they chose not to deploy any talking head in Portugal.

So who did not stand up to Amaral?  Answer, in the first instance, Team McCann.  Then they tried to blame the Portuguese for not doing what they could have and should have done themselves.

I think you need to read back and understand the exchange between myself and G-Unit, before making knee-jerk remarks such as the one I have highlighted above.  I was not accusing the police of stitching up the McCanns but suggesting that it might possibly have crossed the mind of an intelligent and knowledgeable Portuguese person that Team Amaral had attempted to do that earlier in the investigation.  This conversation is nothing to do with Rebelo and is all about Kate's feelings at the time Amaral was appearing in the media trying to convince the world that they dunnit.  I know you feel you have to defend Portugal's honour at every opportunity especially if it's me that you think is besmirching your beloved adopted country, but in this instance you are mistaken.

[ShiningInLuz]

@ Shining - you said "So who did not stand up to Amaral?  Answer, in the first instance, Team McCann.  Then they tried to blame the Portuguese for not doing what they could have and should have done themselves."  Wouldn't that have just have made the situation worse?

They were armed with the archiving report.  The archiving report does not accuse them of any crime and further, clears them of negligence with respect to the parental supervision methods, under Portuguese law.

The only criticism they were potentially subject to was the T9 deciding not to do a reconstruction.  However, expecting the McCanns as arguidos to go back and do a reconstruction without the T7 falls into the category of ludicrous nonsense.

With the archiving report the McCanns held the ace.  Everything they needed to ridicule Amaral's theory.  Did they ever play their ace?  It would appear not.

[Robittybob1]

They were armed with the archiving report.  The archiving report does not accuse them of any crime and further, clears them of negligence with respect to the parental supervision methods, under Portuguese law.

The only criticism they were potentially subject to was the T9 deciding not to do a reconstruction.  However, expecting the McCanns as arguidos to go back and do a reconstruction without the T7 falls into the category of ludicrous nonsense.

With the archiving report the McCanns held the ace.  Everything they needed to ridicule Amaral's theory.  Did they ever play their ace?  It would appear not.

Thanks. I think you are right on this one.  I was surprised how favourable the Archiving Report was.  Really to the point where those described as anti-McCanns don't want to accept it.  They still back Goncalo Amaral, yet the official report says something quite different.  With the polarization that has occurred it isn't easy to get everyone on one side again.  The McCanns would not have a method to sort that out.

[G-Unit]

I don't think it's unreasonable for her to think that at least one intelligent, knowledgeable Portuguese person in authority might be able to see through the allegations against them, or was that hoping for too much do you think?  Was their alleged guilt so very obvious to the entire Portuguese nation that not one single Portuguese person ever said to themselves "hmm...maybe they didn't do it and maybe the police are wrong, or worse trying to stitch them up...?" Is that a completely inconceivable scenario in your view, and one that Kate should have known better than to hope for?

I find her assumption that intelligent Portuguese people would naturally agree with her and should speak out on her behalf quite arrogant actually. Why the heck should they?

[Alfie]

This is what happens when you take a couple of sentences out of context, people forget the context in which they were written.  The quote G-Unit used describes Kate's feelings at the exact time that Amaral was conducting his publicity trail for his (as it was then) new book, the despair she felt at the time of the launch, the bafflement that there did not seem anyone in Portugal prepared to seriously challenge Amaral's version of events.  Of course, as Kate goes on to explain, they did consider legal action against Amaral,"but we had concerns about the time and effort this would involve.  We did not want to be diverted from our own investigation just as we had put the restrictions of the case behind us and we feared that any resolution through the Portuguese courts would take too long.  For the moment we hoped the fuss would die down and Amaral would let up".

Kate never said or expected (as SIL has claimed) that the Portuguese should have defended the McCanns - she simply asked herself why there was NO ONE AT ALL in Portugal standing up to Amaral's allegations.   This was even prior to the receipt of the Archiving Report, so once again SIL's post above is unfair and plain wrong IMO.

[Alfie]

I find her assumption that intelligent Portuguese people would naturally agree with her and should speak out on her behalf quite arrogant actually. Why the heck should they?

Because she was innocent and telling the truth?  Are you completely incapable of seeing things from another's point of view?  You are innocent and have committed no crime, yet everyone believes the guy who is publicly accusing you despite his lack of evidence - are you not going to wonder why no one with half a brain-cell can see what is going on, or is prepared to question his version of events or is prepared to speak up for you? 

[G-Unit]

Because she was innocent and telling the truth?  Are you completely incapable of seeing things from another's point of view?  You are innocent and have committed no crime, yet everyone believes the guy who is publicly accusing you despite his lack of evidence - are you not going to wonder why no one with half a brain-cell can see what is going on, or is prepared to question his version of events or is prepared to speak up for you?

I have bolded the text upon which the rest of your argument relies. As the crime is unknown, no-one knows who's innocent.

[Brietta]

I find her assumption that intelligent Portuguese people would naturally agree with her and should speak out on her behalf quite arrogant actually. Why the heck should they?

With reference to what Shining has posted re the archiving report which cleared the McCanns of involvement in their daughter's disappearance ...

One presumes that law abiding literate people are capable of taking on board the relevance of the decision taken by their own 'law lords' after reviewing all the evidence available to them. 

To coin a phrase ... why the heck should it be the responsibility of the parents of a missing child to educate the Portuguese in finer points of the law of their own land?

[Alfie]

I have bolded the text upon which the rest of your argument relies. As the crime is unknown, no-one knows who's innocent.

Kate is writing her views from the point of view of an innocent person.  in that context therefore her sentiment is perfectly understandable as I have already explained , though you claim to find it arrogant.  That exposes your biased attitude to the woman, and no understanding of how someone in that position (and let's take Kate out of this for a moment and substitute any innocent person wrongly accused) might feel bewildered that no one was sticking up for them in the face of an accusatory and public attack from another.

[stephen25000]

Kate is writing her views from the point of view of an innocent person.  in that context therefore her sentiment is perfectly understandable as I have already explained , though you claim to find it arrogant.  That exposes your biased attitude to the woman, and no understanding of how someone in that position (and let's take Kate out of this for a moment and substitute any innocent person wrongly accused) might feel bewildered that no one was sticking up for them in the face of an accusatory and public attack from another.

You do not know who is innocent or otherwise in  this case.

She wrote a book, some claim with assistance.

As to it's contents, it is biased in her favour.

Whether it reflects what really happened is another matter entirely.

The only clear facts are that the Mccanns left their children 5 nights in a row, whilst they went out to socialize, and on the 5 th night Madeleine disappeared.


She once claimed outside a Portuguese Court to a local journalist, to the effect, that she was there and knew what happened to Madeleine.

She wasn't there Alf, WAS SHE.