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]

Surely if you have had difficulty conceiving, then the children you do manage to have will be even more precious to you?

Are you saying they lost their daughter because they didn't love her enough?

@MasakaBuzz you sound rather young and a bit dim.

Honestly who gives a fuck about who would or wouldn't leave their kids where and when

Surely anyone who cares about the welfare of children does

Social services probably do too!

Listening services-but a more secure site overall iyswim?

I think that was the mistake, wasn’t it? The MW in Praia didn’t have a listening service but the other families convinced the McCanns it would be fine because s they’d used a similar service elsewhere and they could just set up their own.
It always felt like one of those decisions that you wouldn’t necessarily come up with from scratch but is easier to fall into the trap of making if there’s a halfway step that’s worked out fine.

I really hope this finally brings them some answers.

Oh fgs not this again, clock is ticking, thread will be pulled.

Can't we keep it to more recent developments? I'm astounded they think they know the cause of death

It strikes me that if this bloke is guilty of murdering her, he could well get off because a jury could easily be like some of the types on here who are so obsessed with the circumstances that they have in fact lost site of what happened next.

I shouldn't think social services are interested in families doing their own listening service in a holiday resort.

I'm hoping we can move on from discussing what the McCanns did or didn't do that night, as it's pointless going over old ground. I'm more interested in how this suspect has come to light now. He's been in prison for a while so did police just stumble across him and think he looks guilty? Living in a van in the area, mobile phone call that night, burglaries, it's all painting a picture but what the hell was going on 13 years ago that police didn't notice him? It's not like they didn't have the money or the manpower.

On a more forensic note, it seems to me that the alleged perpetrator may have told someone in prison about this crime, and the cellmate snitched.

So the police might now know that he had a campervan, where he lived, and obviously his recent crimes, and are looking for someone who knew him PdL to corroborate it. Possibly a former partner/friend/neighbour or something like that.

Which suggests to me that forensic evidence is very scant or non existent. Hmm. I wonder if they have the van or the Jag, does anyone know?

Based on the information released and reported so far, it doesn't seem like they have any concrete evidence.

It has been reported that another criminal friend of the accused, claims to have stolen a video camera from the accused, where he saw footage of the rape of the US woman, he then disposed of the video camera.

I really do hope they have more evidence than just circumstantial, ie. he was in the area and is a known sex offender and paedophile.

I find it so sad that potentially this sad case has been solved and yet so many of you are handwringing over the parents' actions over a decade ago.

Where is your compassion or kindness?

Was he not on their radar at all or was he someone who never got followed up?

This guy is already facing a presumably lengthy prison sentence. Obviously a deeply disturbed individual. Perhaps he’s already ‘co operating’ with the police given the infamy this will give him.
In terms of early release, how do Portugal or Germany stand with prison sentences ( I’m assuming he’ll be extradited to Portugal if they can prove Madeline died there?)

@MorrisZapp

I shouldn't think social services are interested in families doing their own listening service in a holiday resort.

And yet they'd be concerned if you left 3 small children at home while you went out for tea over the road. It being a holiday resort is irrelevant!

@dayswithaY

I'm hoping we can move on from discussing what the McCanns did or didn't do that night, as it's pointless going over old ground. I'm more interested in how this suspect has come to light now. He's been in prison for a while so did police just stumble across him and think he looks guilty? Living in a van in the area, mobile phone call that night, burglaries, it's all painting a picture but what the hell was going on 13 years ago that police didn't notice him? It's not like they didn't have the money or the manpower.

Someone shopped him in. Originally the reports were saying he’d been talking about it on a chat room, but the latest updates say he was drunk and bragging to his mates about it in a pub back in 2017. Madeline came up on the TV as it was the 10 year anniversary and he made comment that he knew what had happened.

He’s been in prison before and gotten out. He’s served about a year of his sentence for the rape he was charged with and has seven years left.

It was also his mates who figured out he raped the American lady, as they found videos.

Why don't people read the news releases before posting?

It's all there. It's just weird discussing when people are saying it was a cell mate/ it's the same suspect from before/ why didn't they find him earlier. Why not read first and then comment.

I hope the publicity about this man and what might have happened will not prejudice any potential trial. They seem to have no concrete evidence yet only word of mouth, perhaps they have someone in mind they want to step forward and admit some involvement - otherwise why ask now? They would have charged him already if they had enough evidence.

Which suggests to me that forensic evidence is very scant or non existent. Hmm. I wonder if they have the van or the Jag, does anyone know?

They have checked one of the vehicles for DNA and found nothing, I don't know if they have both of them.

On a more forensic note, it seems to me that the alleged perpetrator may have told someone in prison about this crime, and the cellmate snitched.

This a from an article too- German police were told about his bar chat about Maddie with a friend in 2017 - but three years on have finally confirmed he is a suspect.

So it looks like he admitted/bragged about it and that person informed police. It seems that police have been interviewing neighbours and anyone who may have known him for 3 years.

I do hope that the truth will out, to provide some vestige of closure for the poor family. I honestly believe the parents were only guilty of idiocy, for which no one could blame them as much as they have surely blamed themselves. I base this on their behaviour. It did not remind me of the behaviour of parents whose child had just died. It seemed much closer to the desperate strained coping somehow of a parent of a terribly ill child in PICU, where the world is falling around their ears, but there is still a glimmer of hope.

He's been in prison for a while so did police just stumble across him and think he looks guilty?

He’s been in prison since December. In 2017 he told a man in a bar he “knew all about what happened to MM” after a 10 year appeal was shown on the bars tv. He also showed the man a video of him raping a woman. The man informed the police. Presumably it took some time to track him down and then have him convicted for that rape and his other crimes that that knew about. I’m guessing during that time other information came to light that indicated him in the disappearance of MM and that they’ve been investigating it since. They dont announce every suspect they investigate. They’re announcing it now because they have decided they have enough proof that he is a solid suspect.

I think it was the daily mail that said both vehicles- the VW and the jag have been seized by the German police.

I wonder if they have the van or the Jag, does anyone know?

Both vehicles have been seized by German police, apparently.

It all points to a lack of any good evidence. Circumstantial stuff, but as has already been said, there would have been loads of other people in the vicinity, making calls that night, some of whom were convicted paedophiles and some who had that predilection but not yet convicted. Apparently the area seemed to be quite a draw for those types.

Sounds as though they’ve been trying to build a picture for quite a while. Trouble is, a lot of the ‘acquaintances’ who the police are talking to are no doubt convicts, Ex cons, or other unsavoury types, there’ll be all sorts of grudges and god knows going on among them. To stand a chance of getting a definite outcome from this they really need forensics and unless a body is found that seems increasingly unlikely

But then again, I read that in the Mirror and nowhere else (regarding the seizing of the cars).

I think he was known about to UK police before that, smallstep, although not as a suspect.