Portugal covering up pedophilles targetting Brit kids - Boycott?

[bkgirl]

Channel 4 news has informed us that 9 young children were abused in the area where Madelaine mc Cann went missing between 2004 - 2010.They were british children, on hols and the portuguese police have concealed this info. Their parents came forward to Scotland Yard and gave them the info independently.
The Yard has outstanding requests for info for up to 6 months and to say the portuguese are dragging their heels is putting it mildly.
Seriously, we need so sort of sanction/embargo/boycott to FORCE the portuguese authorities to realise our children are not sacrificial. Can their embassador be called and admonished? Come on, what can we DO?

Unbelievable indeed that these attacks are only coming to light now, considering that Kate McCann had a long piece about them in her book, published three years ago.

LaVolcan, I honestly can't tell if you were being ironic there since clearly it had come out years ago in order to be in the book.

The incidents had previously been discounted by Portuguese investigators because they were spread over a wide geographical area and there had been no apparent attempts at abduction.

So there were other incidents that were not the same at all and not even in the same place. That's helpful to know right?

Also isn't this just the latest theory by UK police including the 'it must have been those burglars because of course we all know burglars steal kids if they don't find money or an expensive TV'

On the plus side this is probably doing well for the ratings of UK TV entertainment shows.

Well done British police detectives. Yes because they are so clever they couldn't find a body hidden in the attic of the victims own home.

Not to mention that they still haven't found the CCTV tapes they mislaid on the day they murdered Jean Charles de Menezes

backonly those cases are totally different OPs point is that because the Portugese police purposefully did not release this information children were put at risk. I don't want to go into whether they should or should have left their children that night but I'm assuming if they have known a it the other attacks they 100% would not have left them only in the apartment so by concealing this information the police put further children at risk

Wishfulmakeupping they didn't conceal the information. They just don't list all unrelated crimes spread over many years over a whole country. It would be ridiculous if they did. It's been public knowledge for at least 3 years anyway so our police didn't just cleverly discover it. Even if by some amazing coincidence there was a connection it doesn't help anyway since we don't know who committed the other crimes.

People are trying to make it sound like a known gang were targeting the apartment around Madelaine's and that the Portuguese police were lying to cover it up. That just isn't true.

It's no better than those claiming that the US government is covering up that the planes that hit the Towers were faked.

if they have known about the other attacks they 100% would not have left them only in the apartment

Do we warn tourists visiting London that a child was murdered a few years back in Birmingham?

Additionally our police are being painted as careful, thorough, professionals helping out the ignorant Portuguese who (being foreign) don't know how to conduct an investigation.

Anyone can sit in an office after the fact and come up with theories. "it must have been the burglars" was a serious one for a time.

BackOnlyBriefly: I didn't know myself whether I was being ironic or not, but on reflection I suppose I was. I fail to see why someone assaulting 7-10 year olds, between 2004-6, knowledge which has been in the public domain for three years, is considered to be either a breakthrough or particularly relevant.

I am also puzzled at the fact that this person is or was only assaulting British girls. So he wakes a blond girl up, and she starts crying out in German or Dutch, and he says, 'Oops sorry, I only interfere with English/Welsh/Scottish girls.' I don't think that's very likely.

I don't doubt that there are paedophiles on the Algarve, as there are in the UK/Rest of the World. However, isn't it the case that most abuse is committed by people known to the child?.

I think it's a non-story, but I am puzzled as to why the tabloids have latched onto it, when there are real news stories happening right now - the Crimea, the missing plane, our Budget, to name three.

La Volcan I didn't read the book.
I didn't like the idea of the book.
I don't kniw why.

The Algarve is a holiday area of Portugal. If there is somebody targetting children, is able to get into holiday apartments/ villas and has attacked on a number of occasions surely the public should be warned.

The mccanns are going to release 'non info' every few months purely to keep it in the news. That's the main reason they keep releasing details of these 'non' new leads. It's obvious really. No other child in the UK has every gone missing in such circumstances as Madeleine (except Ben all those years ago). In every other case of a missing child, they have either run away or have been abducted by family members (so whilst missing, they are known to be at least with someone).

If you have similar opinions of Portugal you may be interested to know gran canaria has one of the largest paedophile numbers for such a small area and several kids have gone missing there.

(According to national missing persons websites).

Ben didn't go missing in quite the same circumstances though - as far as I remember he was playing outside the house during the daytime, and it was the house that his family were living in.

I forget, there was a little girl in a BFPO place in Germany also. Again, she disappeared during the daytime, from a supermarket, I recall. But somehow, that hardly made the news at all, and that was about 30 years ago now.

Bkgirl. Hot countries have accommodation with air con. Not everyone has windows wide open for Wiley bandits to enter through.

I know why the media are acting out this charade. That's how they increase profits. I suppose our police are going along with it for the sake of the careers of senior officers. They have to think of what looks good on TV as much as politicians do. Also they have a lot of stuff they'd like you to forget about.

If people feel inclined to believe it because it's written down then they should remember Robert Murat.

.. and for the media, the picture of a sweet little toddler sells papers. After Princess Di died, they were a bit short of a sure fire person to generate sales.

I remember reading an article in 2007, after her abduction, about the fact that Madeline McCann was due to start school that September and the school had obviously saved her place there, hoping she would be found.

It's just occurred to me that those children will be starting secondary this year and they are still no nearer to finding out what happened to her. Terribly sad.

Coraltoes is absolutely correct.

As is BKgirl (and I am sorry for what you went through).

Child abuse is disgusting, anywhere.
The complicity of adults and the failure to bring to justice those who need bringing to justice, is, imo, just as sickening and should be punished as well.

I have lived in the algarve for 11 years, so was here when Madeleine disappeared and I can tell you that the PT police have done their utmost to solve this case, however they were thwarted by the mccanns' friends refusing to return to do a reconstruction. Also, it was uk police who suggested the cadaver dogs were brought in, and that the parents should be looked at - so no pt police conspiracy. I won't waste my time explaining exactly what happened here in the spring/summer of 2007, or how child-orientated the Portuguese are, but it would be interesting to see what the reaction would be to a European family on holiday in the uk, who reported a child missing after leaving them alone every evening, then refused to co-operate with the uk police and returned to their home country

Boycott Portugal if you like, the hysteria is almost amusing, if it weren't such a serious subject, but educate yourselves a little first, don't take tabloid rubbish as gospel, and do a bit of your own research

Agree

I have been on holiday to Portugal and felt as safe there as I do anywhere else. There are criminals, paedophiles, murderers in every country. There is no evidence that the Portugese police did not do their job properly. In my view, there is not reason why this paedophile should be connected with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - he visited a wide geographical area and targeted much older children. And why would he only target British children?

he didn't abduct anyone either and the cases took place up to 2010 and the one they are on about died in 2009

And there is no proof that Madeleine was abducted, so 'missing' or 'disappeared' is a much more accurate description, until any further information is known

Scotland Yard seem to be moving away from the abduction theory now anyway according to the Guardian reports yesterday and today.

Yes, they were interesting - I do wonder why it's taken them so long

I think they are using a process of elimination

I fully agree with you costa, re Portugal, although I have only visited.

But be careful, or your posting will be deemed to fall foul of the guidelines. I have had postings pulled for saying that 'missing' or 'disappeared' is more accurate than 'abducted'. In fact, I think the whole thread went phut.

I really don't see why using a factually accurate description should fall foul of mumsnet guidelines ?