People fail to realise the circumstances of why pressure was put on Leonor Cipriano. A young girl with a history of neglect was missing, her mother initially claimed she had been abducted then changed her mind claiming she had hit the girl, that she had hit her head off a wall and died of her injuries. The police were desperate to find this child in case she was still alive and the mother was refusing to cooperate. Little wonder she got a mild beating with a cardboard roll. I would have done the same in the circumstances, it might not be ethical but in those circumstances a speedy resolution was needed.
It's all very well people moralising after the event but they were not there or put in the unenviable position the police were put in. I cannot fault them.
Yes we've seen the photographs of the horrific injuries which this 'mild beating' caused. (I can't believe you wrote that Angelo).
IIRC Matthew Oldfield was reduced to crying and shouting during his first interview with the PJ. Apparently they were accusing him of handing Madeleine through the window to a third party. I presume this 'theory' was based on his being the last person in 5A before she disappeared. (Page 123 of Madeleine)
It would come as no surprise to me if the same tactics were employed in LC's case and the accusations as to what had happened to her daughter emanated from the PJ - not from LC. If they could reduce a grown man to a state of near hysteria with their interrogation tactics - what chance a vulnerable woman?
The police were told Joanna was missing and had done nothing about it - except to send the mother home telling her to come back the next day if she hadn't returned.
Appalling behaviour on the part of the police and something which I have no doubt they would not wish to dwell on.
AIMHO
