Madeleine McCann: Scotland Yard Opens "Formal Investigation"

reply to post by DrHammondStoat


No sorry, I just can't entertain the cast of thousands, cover up of unknown events/protagonists etc. Philip Edmonds, the man who left PdL early had his kids with him and they had to be returned to his ex-wife in Switzerland in order to get back to school and it was never properly verified that he did leave early, and that it wasn't just the end of his break. Why would a rich man choose to go to a Mark Warner complex, you could equally ask, why not...maybe he was just looking for a down-to-earth resort for his kids and that was what popped up in his google search. Maybe he picked that area of Portugal because he likes it, it is a beautiful place.

As for all of the stuff with the Symingtons etc, personally I think it is a load of BS and to be honest, being Scottish myself, I am getting a bit fed up with all of the conspiracy stuff relating to the so called "Scottish connection" So many people have been sitting on the McCann forums for so long, going over and over all of the same stuff, that there is a tendency to put 2 and 2 together and come up with 500.

And as I've always said, if this was a case involving high profile people with nefarious purposes, then we would never have heard of the McCanns at all...Do you honestly believe that all of these powerful people would just allow the McCanns to go on bleating and moaning to the media, criticising all and sundry, pointing the finger etc and not do anything about it? No, the McCann's would have been "disappeared" long ago if that was the case...Kate has imagined being wiped out in a motorway crash, or pushing a button and being gone...that could easily be arranged if the Mc's were holding a powerful person to ransom with information they had and it would simply be reported as "It all got too much for poor Kate and she committed suicide" and the coroner's verdict would support that. Let's face it, we're all supposed to believe that Dr David Kelly committed suicide, why not Kate McCann?

I still believe it is ultimately a very simple story, accident/concealment, a media circus unlike that seen since Diana and two police forces without the necessary evidence to secure a conviction (yet)

destination now
I still believe it is ultimately a very simple story, accident/concealment, a media circus unlike that seen since Diana and two police forces without the necessary evidence to secure a conviction (yet)

Do you think that Amaral was lying when he said he had been approached by a superior and told that sometimes cases are not solved and if this case were just archived, it would not be a problem? Amaral has said that he believed political influence was being brought to bear on the investigation right from its very beginning.

reply to post by ipsedixit


Oh yes, initially, as I mentioned previously, my personal belief is that our newly installed PM Gordon Brown, an unelected and disliked politician, was looking for a cause, much like his predecessor Blair's "Diana" moment, when he coined the phrase, "The People's Princess" after her death and as a result garnered much admiration from the public. However, it soon became very clear the McCann's were no saints, but rather than do a U-turn and admit a mistake (GB had personality flaws that would never allow him to admit he was wrong) he just buried the whole thing under the carpet, but he certainly did not give the Mc's any more help after that.

This combined with the signing of the Lisbon Treaty at the same time, are reasons for the political interference to just drop the case. Team McCann's PR had gone into overdrive in terms of rubbishing Portugal in the UK media and obviously it would be preferable if British citizens, Dr's no less were not charged with offences and jailed in the country, which could have led to some rather sour relations. Plus of course, the lack of a body and clear forensic evidence, meant that neglect charges would have realistically been the only option at that time...so ultimately, it was just not worth it.

But I don't think there were any covert political reasons or cover ups in the case being shelved, just a huge media storm, that could have serious implications for Portugal who do rely on tourism as an income (in fact you still get xenophobic comments in the press today about not going to Portugal as it is claimed it is a paedophile paradise...when it's nothing of the sort, the UK has more than 10 times the sex offenders than Portugal)

And have you seen the latest crock of sheet in the Daily Mail today...now they're back to gypsies! Notably though the line right at the end of the article says it all for me

Scotland Yard were unable to confirm reports of the two sites being investigated.

Source

Scotland Yard were unable to confirm reports of the two sites being investigated.

Source

The word unable in the quote from the Daily Mail is a little ambiguous, but be that as it may, I think that the press in the UK are giving the impression, overall, that British initiatives in re-investigating this case are going forward in some purposeful way. I believe that the Portuguese are not fully cooperating with the British in this investigation and have not given them carte blanche to investigate as they please in Portugal.

There are very good reasons for this. An investigation of the sort that Scotland Yard would like to do in Portugal would tie up considerable Portuguese police resources unless the British were to bring in a translator for every detective who couldn't speak Portuguese. I think that they, the Portuguese, are only willing to go so far in indulging the native political exigencies of their British counterparts in what is for them, the Portuguese, after all, considered to be a wild goose chase. The Portuguese authorities have constituents that they must please too.

I think, in reality, Scotland Yard cannot do an investigation in Portugal regardless of the legal niceties involved. Realistically, only a native Portuguese detective squad can investigate this case and the British know it. Yes the British can supply cadaver dogs and technical expertise but when you get down to interviewing shady characters from the Portuguese underworld or transient communities, it's just not Scotland Yard's turf. Pretending otherwise is itself a sort of cover-up.

reply to post by ipsedixit


Yet again, I think you are being misled by the MSM, I don't think there is any reason to believe that the Portuguese are unwilling to work with Scotland Yard and as far as investigating anything, of course SY cannot investigate in Portugal, they have no jurisdiction to do so. It is exactly the same when the ILOR were sent from Portugal to the Leicester police for the rogatory interviews of the tapas group. The Portuguese detectives came to the UK and liaised with the British police but had no jurisdiction to carry out the interviews themselves, that was done by Leicestershire police officers.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one, because quite frankly, I don't believe a word printed in the UK media about this case, and as I said previously, unless I see Andy Redwood, on camera, reading out a statement, I am going to assume that the rest is just speculation, spin and BS

reply to post by ObservingYou


Interesting behaviour from a human being you present.

Firstly... The people "sick and tired" of this particular case are thankfully a tiny minority. And always will be.
Secondly how many of those thousands go missing abroad???
Thirdly if you are sick of it, why comment, why not ignore the thread if you have such a lack of interest???

Do us all a favour and try not to clutter up threads with a diatribe of cynicism and just guide yourself to another topic.

With any hope the Kate & Gerry McCann are on the list of 37...
Their inconsistencies and complete lack of effort to help when the case first opened are highly dubious.
As is the lack of emotion they have shown quite often.

Gerry McCann smiling when asked if he had something to do with it in an interview will always ring bells in my honest opinion.
No matter how many times confronted with that question, smiling should never be a response to such a question of your own daughter.

I really don't think anyone wants the truth out on this case....................TBH

reply to post by stirling


I truly believe it will...I honestly don't think there is anything SO big that it can't.

Refer back to my previous comment regarding Dr David Kelly....his knowledge could have stopped war(s) could have saved billions of £/$ and so many lives...

But the agenda was to go ahead with all of the above and as such Dr David Kelly was sacrificed...

Therefore, if the Dr's McCann held similar (or anything close) to those secrets, it is almost certain that they would meet a similar fate...and lets face it, their "anger, despair, hurt, fury, anguish" at "losing their daughter" would provide the perfect scenario for suicide and/or other means of "disappearance"

I will state again that I believe the only thing that prevents this case nailing the perpetrators in court is a lack of physical, indisputable and totally watertight evidence that will secure convictions

I don't think the McCanns have 'dirt' on people , my inkling is that if they were investigated properly there might just be links that would lead to others who would do pretty much anything to cover up what they are involved in, they wouldn't achieve anything by killing anyone because the links would still be there.

Personally I think it's odd that the McCanns have had so much Pr and legal support donated to them and the Uk press at their feet never daring to print anything that questions their story.

reply to post by DrHammondStoat


So, what are they involved in? Seriously, what do you think they are involved in? Even paedophilia is no longer a taboo for the "higher echelons" it's all coming out in the wash now..Savile et al So I would be really interested to know exactly what this deep, dark secret could be.

Even all of the alleged "Comare" stuff amounts to nothing...nuclear particles are dangerous, so are many particles from a great many substances! We all know this and the people that live within the range of nuclear power stations are pretty much at the same risk as anyone exposed to pollution of any sort, so there really are not any "Big Secrets" to be hidden IMO

Nope, going to stand by my main belief, is that there is just not enough hard evidence to make a case (and yes, I am as curious and saddened, to know exactly what happened to that little chidl)

reply to post by DrHammondStoat

Personally I think it's odd that the McCanns have had so much Pr and legal support donated to them and the Uk press at their feet never daring to print anything that questions their story.

They have actually paid for all of that PR and legal support though, through very generously donated funds from the public, who obviously got caught up in the drama of the moment and the McCann's cleverly constructed image of their "stolen" child. Celebs and businessmen supported them as well because these people will support any cause that they think can bring them more publicity...oh look how caring I am, I had my photo taken holding up a photo of a missing child...they do it all of the time. Though notably, there are very few celebs etc coming out to support the McCanns now, apart from wee Lorraine Kelly on her daytime tv sofa.

As for the press not reporting anything negative, I believe there could be two reasons for this, firstly not printing anything that is libelous and facing the wrath of Carter Ruck and secondly, I do think the press know exactly what the score is with the McCann's, but printing negative accusatory stuff could jeopardise a future trial, because lets face it, the McCanns would be the first to claim that they wouldn't get a fair trial because of all of the negative reporting if that was the case.

I do think the tide is turning though, there are a number of press articles now allowing comments (many of which are negative) that they didn't before and of course the Sunday Times printed the rather explosive revelations that the McCanns themselves had suppressed sightings and efits (Martin Smith's sighting) as part of a report from their ex private detectives, which was said to be hyper-critical of the McCanns and their friends. After it was published in the Times, all of the other papers followed and printed it themselves, so the media doesn't always side with the McCanns.

And as for the recent rubbish about burglars, OC employees, gypsies etc it is just that...rubbish and the public know it.

ObservingYou
I'm sick and tired of hearing about McCann, thousands of children go missing every single year - can they not focus on one that not been dead for 5 bloody years!

as a yank from the states, I agree with you, the man-hours spent by the investigators, along with the money needed for this investigation, should be used for cases that might be solved, if the same amount of resources were used. I know the families of other missing children, who may have better evidence in their own cases, would love to have this type of attention and involvement by Scotland yard.

The parents need to be questioned for sure.

This case has not smelt right from day one. I do think that Madeline is dead. Just a gut feeling. Dead and at the bottom of the Med Sea. I do think the parents both know the truth of what happened. Will we ever know the truth? Maybe in 50 years time. Look at Ben Needham. He is missing. I don't think he will be found either. Thousands of children go missing every year. Some sold into slavery, some into pedo rings, others are murdered and buried in a hole somewhere, others wondered off and animals ate them, so no body. Some more outlandish theories say aliens abduct them and take them to Dulce Base to the chamber of horrors. Whatever the truth, I just feel this poor girl died and that no good outcome will come out of this whole case. I would be very happy to be proved wrong and that she is alive somewhere but I doubt it.

destination now
reply to post by DrHammondStoat

 

So, what are they involved in? Seriously, what do you think they are involved in? Even paedophilia is no longer a taboo for the "higher echelons" it's all coming out in the wash now..Savile et al So I would be really interested to know exactly what this deep, dark secret could be......

Yes I believe the disapearence of MM and the pussy footing around the case could be to do with paedophilia. It is still very much taboo. The Savile 'creepy pedo bogeyman' is definitely not a sign of it all coming out . The widespread, organised abuse of children in institutions is what is being distracted from by all the celeb gropers and Savile. If there was evidence that key players in our governments are or have been involved in this sick stuff and that security services or certain organisations use their involvement in this stuff to keep them in line - it would be huge!

I think we both agree however, that the parents are lying about what happened and that the 3 burglars angle is purely propaganda.

A spokesman for scotland yard has more or less confirmed that they were no plans for arrest but the 'tempo of the investigation is moving forward'.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who is overseeing the operation, said the Yard had sent a third international letter of request to Portuguese officials linked to their inquiries. He said: “Clearly the investigative tempo is moving forward as we are progressing the investigation and the work we are asking the Portuguese to undertake for us. We are carrying on our liaison at all levels.” Members of the inquiry team, including Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, were in Portugal again today on a “routine visit” to meet counterparts from Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria. ......................
..... Mr Hewitt said so far the Yard had not asked the Portugese authorities to interview or arrest any suspects.. Scotland Yard has played down speculation of imminent arrests in the case saying they are pursuing several lines of inquiry. Met officers have been to Portugal more than 20 times in the past 18 months.

www.standard.co.uk...