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]

The Sun says that they German police know how Maddie was killed, and come close to naming him:
www.thesun.co.uk/news/11782172/madeleine-mccann-dead-suspect-named-christian-b-germany/

I never understood how the parents avoided charges of neglect. What they did was wrong. What they and their and friends did, repeatedly, was wrong. But they have paid the ultimate price, and deserve closure. There is only one victim in this, and that is the little girl, the innocent victim. I hope this is solved, so her parents can properly grieve, and justice is served.

Yes they probably smoke and let their kids play violent computer games but then say 'oh the McCanns were such shit parents'

People go on about the sniffer dogs as though that proves something. As I understand it it’s really not an exact science and it does massively depend on the interpretation of the handler and the signals they off can lead the dogs behaviour too. Although there’s no denying that their ability to smell is very accurate. In the Netflix documentary I remember the dog guy saying that His dogs were the ‘only dogs in Britain at that time trained in this’, or something to that effect. I remember thinking that’s not a good thing, I’m not sure why he’s boasting about this. You can’t conclude anything from 2 dogs with one handler. I was listening to a podcast (someone knows something) about a missing child in Canada . They were using cadaver dogs as a last ditch attempt to find remains in a lake 30 years on, and they used about 4 different dogs, alone (as one dogs behaviour can trigger the other to react) and they sent them with several different handlers inc. people who knew nothing at all about the site before they concluded that they had all possibly signalled. From my understanding they really didn’t do this in the McCann case. I think it was a really massive mistake getting those dogs in there.

"I never understood how the parents avoided charges of neglect."

Perhaps because there is no punishment in the world that could come close to the torment they were already suffering? Perhaps because it's pretty bloody unlikely that they would ever leave the twins unwatched after what happened to Maddie?
Perhaps because the impact it would have on the twins?
Perhaps because their "crime" was committed in Portugal so not subject to UK law (I have no idea what the law is in Portugal but despite what the MN judge and jury brigade would have you believe there is not a single legal age in England that you can't leave you children alone below).

The stuff in the boots that the dogs smelled was easily explained because they had peri peri chicken which you just buy from the supermarket all the time and you get a whole cooked chicken and have it with salad. And then because they were staying in a villa after this happened you have to take all your bin bags down to these big bins that are on the road so they put all the rubbish bags in the boot and you drive them down to the lichou I think they're called. This was after Madeleine disappeared and there's no way with everybody constantly watching them they would be able to dispose of a body. There's no way with the timeline that any of this could have happened it's nonsense. How could you accidentally kill your child with everybody around you in these kind of apartments. The walls are paper thin and they were right next to the restaurant where everybody was.

I never understood how the parents avoided charges of neglect.

How punitive.

I suppose it was felt that the parents had already been punished enough by losing their child and were probably not likely to leave their twins without adequate supervision.

@SophieB100 are you suggesting the McCanns should have paid a fine, done community service or gone to jail?

The dog evidence isn't as reliable as people think.

I'll link the reddit threads I'm referencing, as they probably do a better job of explaining it. But anyway, another cadaver dog handler explained that any dog will give a false alert if it's forced to work over the same area over and over - which is exactly what happened.

www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/6qq47l/questions_about_madeleine_mccann_case/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_num_comments

I've taken this comment from the following thread, which sums it up pretty well "The handler says the test was "blind", but their hire car was the only one there which had "Find Maddie" posters in the windows. He lets the dog "test" and move on from the first cars it went to, without calling it back. When it gets to the McCann hire car, it finds nothing and tried to move on to the next one. The handler called it back to try again. When it finds nothing the second time and tried to move on, he called it back yet another time until it alerted."

www.reddit.com/r/MadeleineMccann/comments/bo2nak/cadaver_dogblood_dog/

[quote Cadent]@listsandbudgets

What the German police are saying does not fill anyone with much hope as to her fate, but in essence its still better tnat what I've been thinkig all this time

This is grossly insensitive given we don't know how she died. Nothing is 'better'. This man has a history of sexually abusing women and children.[/quote]
It's also grossly insensitive to assume she has died when we don't know. Nothing is proven.

Watching a summary of the timeline, I’m left open mouthed at the ineptitude if the Portuguese police.

No, I agree that the parents paid the ultimate price.
I do think it's wrong that they left three small children, repeatedly, night after night alone. As did their friends.
If you read my whole post, I said, they have suffered enough and paid the ultimate price.
But I will never, as a parent, think it was ok to do what they did.
And I won't apologise for that.
I'm not blaming them, I'm not excusing them either.
That's all.

My heart sinks reading that report in The Sun.
You would always live with that small glimmer of hope that you would one day find your child again, but they seem so sure they know she is dead. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have that hope dashed after so many years, and I say that as a mother who has lost a child. I feel so desperately sad for them both.

In response to a pp the Ben Needham case is not solved. And South Yorkshire police went to Kos a few years ago to chase up a lead - also paid for by the Home Office just like the MM case.

Although there are kids that go missing in the UK, there are only 3 British children to have gone missing abroad to my knowledge. The other is Katrice Lee.

I really hope the case is solved. The family need closure.

Today 20:28 knittingaddict

I think you have hit the nail n the head there SpokeTooSoon. If people tell themselves that they would never let their children be as vulnerable as the McCanns did then it can't happen to them. Makes them feel better.“

Or, perhaps, they’re not just telling themselves that, they just wouldn’t?

I would never have done the same thing because to me it would have been incredibly risky. Abduction wouldn’t necessarily have been forefront, rather children waking and left alone and distressed, a fire in the complex, a child somehow wandering out, sudden illness, we all know that illness in children can deteriorate rapidly. There are many scenarios that would, and did, prevent me from ever making the same decision.

Our youngest was 4 at the time. I thought then that the McCann’s judgement was awful, still do. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling the most gut wrenching sympathy for them and their family and hoping that this is the breakthrough that can finally lead them to some kind of peace. For Madeleine’s siblings, this must be so painful.

I think you will find that the Ben Needham case is as solved as it ever will be as the digger driver that accidentally killed him, concealed his body and kept schtum is now dead. That was my understanding of it.

If people tell themselves that they would never let their children be as vulnerable as the McCanns did then it can't happen to them.
Well, it won't happen to children who aren't left alone... 🤷🏻‍♀️
It doesn't make those children immune to other tragedies, of course, nobody is.

AnneElliott So was the man that confessed on his death bed to killing Ben not actually telling the truth - I’m confused?

Yes they probably smoke and let their kids play violent computer games but then say 'oh the McCanns were such shit parents'

Nope, don't do either of those things.

Obviously I can't protect my children completely, I can't say that nothing bad would ever happen to them, that they will never get abducted, or even that they will never get harmed because I made an error of judgement.

What I can say, with absolute 100% certainty, is that my children will never disappear whilst they had been left all alone in a holiday apartment while I was having dinner and drinks somewhere else way out of sight and earshot.

Like Sophie I have huge sympathy for the McCanns, but I will never ever think that what they did was ok.

Idon't think there was any death bed confession just his 'friends' gossiping after he had died. That's why it's uncertain .

Ivy Katy - it was not definitive. The 'confession' wasn't made to anyone who's prepared to speak about it. There are only 3rd hand accounts and of course no body has been found.

Like a pp said - coppers often 'know' what happened but have difficulty proving it. But without any physical evidence it cannot be confirmed what happened to him. I really hope his family get closure too.

I'm sorry @SophieB100 but you say in your post
I never understood how the parents avoided charges of neglect.
I find that very heartless and unkind, even more so as you then later say they have suffered enough and paid the ultimate price.

I don't agree for one moment with leaving their young kids unsupervised in that setting, I wouldn't have done that. I can also see that there would have been reasons for their decision and that those reasons are not a reflection on how much they love their dc. Parenting 3 toddlers, after suffering from infertility and working in very demanding jobs, suffering from sleep deprivation and being away on holiday in a foreign country with other families all with their own routines and ways of parenting and holidaying. I can see how someone would succumb to peer pressure or don't think rationally.

Anyway why are we still discussing this? Leaving young kids is not a good idea we can probably all agree on that. I thought the thread is about the new suspect, not the McCanns' parenting.

Only 600 or so posts since yesterday. It is now old news sadly, or people are afraid to comment on anything now for fear of being pounced upon.

The fact that the thread is still open says it all to me.

Hope it is solved soon, but I have my doubts about concrete evidence TBH. But let's wait and see.

This thread was meant to be about a new suspect and half if not three quarters of the posts are about some shit decision that was made 13 years ago. People need to move on. We all fucking agree the decision was shit but we just differ in the degree of compassion we feel regarding the shit decision.

Now stop derailing the thread!

Someone up thread mentioned Clement Freud, Kate McCann mentioned in her book that he invited them over to his apartment in Luz and she thought it was an odd thing to do at the time.

@Bridgedesigner

I'm sorry *@SophieB100* but you say in your post I never understood how the parents avoided charges of neglect. I find that very heartless and unkind, even more so as you then later say they have suffered enough and paid the ultimate price.

I don't agree for one moment with leaving their young kids unsupervised in that setting, I wouldn't have done that. I can also see that there would have been reasons for their decision and that those reasons are not a reflection on how much they love their dc. Parenting 3 toddlers, after suffering from infertility and working in very demanding jobs, suffering from sleep deprivation and being away on holiday in a foreign country with other families all with their own routines and ways of parenting and holidaying. I can see how someone would succumb to peer pressure or don't think rationally.

Anyway why are we still discussing this? Leaving young kids is not a good idea we can probably all agree on that. I thought the thread is about the new suspect, not the McCanns' parenting.

Oh come on, sleep deprived? So sleep deprived they couldn't reason that leaving three very young children alone in a room, unattended was very neglectful? If they were that sleep deprived then he shouldn't have damn well been performing surgery and she should have been treating patients.

She shouldn't have been treating patients.