Madeleine McCann - new suspect

[KatherineJaneway]

A 43-year-old German prisoner who travelled around Portugal in a camper van is now the focus of Scotland Yard's investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52914016]

Look the parents made a bad judgement call. They made a mistake. I'm sure they are eaten up with guilt about that. That doesn't mean that they killed their child or that they should have to suffer the extreme nastiness that comes up every time their names are mentioned. There is only one criminal here.

Maybe their parents did what their own parents had done. It was more acceptable to leave your children in hotel rooms a few decades ago. We did it a few times. Booked a hotel and had a grown up meal in the restaurant. Thankfully nothing terrible happened.

The one time that we arrived at the hotel and found ourselves staying in a complex of rooms outside of the main building, we didn't go for a nice meal. We went to the Little Chef down the road with the children. That was our level of "risk".

I know that the ones who seem invested in the parents guilt won't change their minds whatever anyone says.

@ Caelano on the BBC news link it states that he is just one of 600 potential suspects who were considered at the time.

And those are just the ones they will have known about. There would be plenty who hadn’t yet committed their first offence by then. Iyswim, possibly even some who have but have never been caught.

It all seems far too vague. They have a telephone number which they want to trace, so no idea who it belongs to, the car changed ownership but they don’t have details of the new owner, In fact it appears they actually have very little to go on.

And exactly re people who have confessed to crimes they didn’t commit. Sometimes they do it as some kind of bargaining tactic if e.g. they’re due for release or to be sentenced, if they ask for other crimes to be taken into account.

As already discussed, at the time it was not uncommon to leave children alone in hotel rooms which is precisely why companies offered listening services (including UK companies like Butlins and Centre Parcs who were offering such a service as recently as 2017). You can't judge someone for the standards of time and, regardless of whether you disagree with them mealving the children alone, what happened was not justice for a parenting misstep. They did not deserve to have their child taken. They are not to blame. The person to blame is the one who took the child.

Do you also go around telling rape victims that they deserved it? Or do you leave the blame with the perpetrator where it belongs because anything else is spiteful and victim blaming?

Today 11:31 Mrsemcgregor

‘Evidence beyond DNA may exist. He may have kept something from Madeleine, or taken photos/videos of her. It’s horrible to think about, but it does happen.’

Re: the above post: I would think it’s highly likely, given that he’s in prison for sex crimes, that his properties, possession, computers have already been thoroughly searched over the years.

I’d love to be proved wrong but I can’t see how, unless this suspect chooses to speak, there can be a conclusive outcome after all this time.

@Caelano how do you know that there is no DNA etc?

I find it weird that after so many years and so much money and the best of the police forces from several countries and private investigations and massive public awareness and sympathy they only found this guy now.

Do you also go around telling rape victims that they deserved it? Or do you leave the blame with the perpetrator where it belongs because anything else is spiteful and victim blaming?

BankofNook I was thinking about rape as an example when I wrote my post. I think it is a fair comparison.

@AlternativePerspective exactly. He was one of 600 suspects at the time.
And as you say, there were multiple known paedophiles in the area, but there would have been others not yet convicted...

The police may have a gut feeling that this is the person Involved. That’s a hell of a far cry from actual certainty. And even further from a conviction.

You think the police just have a gut feeling? Really?

No better than the mn gut feeling then.

Caelano I would agree had the MM disappearance happened more recently, but 13 yrs ago is a long time. There is the possibility that evidence exists in a place he spent time between his arrest for the crimes he is in prison for now. If he dropped off the radar and they are trying to track down whoever’s phone number they have. It’s possible that person holds physical evidence? Crimes are more likely solved when a completely open mind is kept.

how do you know that there is no DNA etc? if there is why has that only come to light now?

unless the police have some kind of witness statement they haven’t disclosed, everything here appears to be circumstantial. They know the car changed hands, they know the telephone call happened, but they don’t know who the people on the other end of those transactions were?

It’s possible that the German police have something they’ve not said, given they’ve said this is a murder investigation, but if they do then they haven’t told the Met either as they’re still saying it’s a missing person investigation.

There have been a few cases where murderers etc have been questioned in the initial stages, due to the car they drive or something, only to be released before being caught years later. I want to say the Green River Killer or Ted Bundy? I actually find this suspect being part of the 600 as more of a reason to believe there might be something in this.

I have also just read (Daily Mail sadly so God knows if it is true) that he was only jailed last year for a rape he committed in Praia upon a tourist in 2005. He showed a video of the rape to a friend who then reported him

If this is true, it does not seem any great stretch to think a man who kept a trophy video from a crimes committed in 2005 would keep a similar trophy from 2007

I think the other persons number was published to push them to come forward... not just for others to come forward. They want a girlfriend to crack. “Your loyalties may have changed”.

This. I’ve seen a report that said he lived with a girlfriend in Praia de luz for a while. They have a damn good idea who the phone number belonged. And the person who said the don’t know who the new owner of the car was, whatever gives you that idea? No where does it say that.

I really think this is the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for.

Well, regardless of whether he was involved or not, he is clearly a despicable bastard anyway.

I truly hope this brings some answers for the family but unfortunately I think it’s very unlikely.

@AlternativePerspective

Well, regardless of whether he was involved or not, he is clearly a despicable bastard anyway.

I don't think that the time between MM going missing and this man being caught is anything unusually either, he's a drifter, relatively young, and if all rapists, child abusers and murderers were caught within weeks and months of their first offence, crime levels would plummet

Was the link to this German man written about before ?
I believe it was.

From the BBC news story:

“ The day after Madeleine vanished in 2007, the suspect transferred the Jaguar to someone else's name.”
If the police knew who that someone else was they would presumably have questioned them. But they have said only that they believe other people would have been involved hence why they are issuing pleas for potential associates to talk to them.

The information being released via the media is probably a fraction of what the police forces involved actually know. Yet here we have the MN detectives queuing up to rubbish any suggestions that there may soon be a conclusion to this case and the fate of a stolen three year old can be explained.
A few people seem desperate to prove that there is nothing to this. It’s weird. Almost as if people are willing there to be no resolution or conclusion to this case. Weird. And a bit sick to be honest. I think most normal, empathic human beings will be hoping for closure for Madeleines family.

The Maddie podcast last year was very illuminating on this case, I'm not hopeful about this suspect based on something said in the podcast

Apparently the man referenced on that podcast was a different man altogether. This current suspect hasn't been mentioned anywhere before

@ Thisismytimetoshine why
A poster has said upthread that no information should have been released unless he was charged. Clearly there is often a thought of innocent until proven guilty in these kinds of cases, but this man has a conviction record for the most hideous crimes already, so even if he’s innocent of this disappearance, he’s no victim.

Unlike Robert Murat who was vilified by the press and had never committed any crime.

It mentioned a pattern as well as a possible suspect at that time, this announcement fits well with the pattern.
I hope the parents get closure but I'm not confident