Hey - it's not my fault - amaral - don't believe a word I say

[Rachel Granada]

It wasn't his job to meet with or interview or even pass opinion about the Mccanns.

Hello amaraltheofficeboy and thanks for your input.  Perhaps I am getting a bit confused here... was he not the co-ordinator of the enquiry, I would expect him to at least have interviewed K + G McCann... but to be fair I am just going on how things would be in the UK.  Maybe things are different in the PT Police system and the head honcho, as it were, does not have any need to meet/interview the arguidos?

[amaraltheofficeboy]

co-ordinator of the enquiry

NOT an investigator

[Rachel Granada]

co-ordinator of the enquiry

NOT an investigator

ok thanks.  May I add to the debate my opinion that his cashing in with a book about this tragedy was an absolute disgrace.

[amaraltheofficeboy]

It wasn't his job to form opinion, analyse DNA or forensic results - that was for the esperts - not him. So much has been distracted because of his personal non expert opinion.

[gilet]

As the senior PJ officer on the team in whatever role I think it was only a matter of common decency that he should have at least introduced himself to the McCanns and spoken a few words with them (through a translator if necessary) about the loss of their child.

I cannot imagine any OIC in the UK neglecting to do that. It would be unthinkable in a missing child case which this was and is.

[amaraltheofficeboy]

Common decency OK - it was his choice.

[registrar]

co-ordinator of the enquiry

NOT an investigator

So he just arranged for staff quotas and signed off overtime?

Is that what you are implying?

He was at the HEART of the investigation from May until October that year - why else did he seem fit to meet with Robert Murat on at least one occasion I know of?

[amaraltheofficeboy]

But in reality "let me introduce you to the filing clerk" - good and polite - but doesn't help.

[gilet]

co-ordinator of the enquiry

NOT an investigator

ok thanks.  May I add to the debate my opinion that his cashing in with a book about this tragedy was an absolute disgrace.

I agree wholeheartedly with that.

To a certain extent I can understand successful police releasing books about crimes they have solved.

But this man released his book while a child was still missing after he had been dismissed from the case for his own lack of professionalism.

He had no qualms about damaging the search for Madeleine with his book. That makes his writing it totally disgraceful.

[amaraltheofficeboy]

So he met Murat - and that solved the case?

[gilet]

But in reality "let me introduce you to the filing clerk" - good and polite - but doesn't help.

I think your stressing of the "filing clerk role" is being stretched.

Whatever his role was, he was the senior Policia Judiciara officer directly involved in the case. As such decency should have ensured that he offered words of consolation to the family of the missing child the team he was co-ordinating was searching for.

Just my opinion but I think a valid one and a natural one.

[Rachel Granada]

As the senior PJ officer on the team in whatever role I think it was only a matter of common decency that he should have at least introduced himself to the McCanns and spoken a few words with them (through a translator if necessary) about the loss of their child.

I cannot imagine any OIC in the UK neglecting to do that. It would be unthinkable in a missing child case which this was and is.

This is what I am struggling to understand, gilet.  Again, to be fair, things may be run differently in PT. But I would think at least a senior Pj officer would at least have introduced himself to the family? That he has gone on to cash in on this tragedy by writing a book when he never even met K + G McCann just seems shocking to me.

[registrar]

So he met Murat - and that solved the case?

Irrelevant - the case has not been solved as you probably know

Amaral however was not just an 'office boy' - if you believe that - you don't have the most basic understanding of what went on in the Algarve that time

[amaraltheofficeboy]

I don't think that words of consolation from somebody who believed they were somehow involved would have been "comfort"

[amaraltheofficeboy]

well if he wasn't an office boy - what was he?