Madeleine McCann investigation

[lyndie]

I saw today that possible excavations are to start in the resort where MM went missing.

Does anyone think the progress The Met have made is astonishing given the length of time that has elapsed? I can't help but wonder what progress could have been made if they had been involved at the start.

I really hope that somehow they can find out what happened and give her family some sort of closure. I know the ins and outs of what happened and her parents leaving her have been discussed at length on MN but from a crime point of view I would be very interested to see if the Portugese police had done enough or not.

I find it so shocking that there's a chance the thread might be deleted just for stating the conclusions of the official investigation

And I also find it shocking that, given the massively high profile of the case, the outcome of the Portuguese investigation isn't common knowledge in this country.

I know, I'm shocked too tbh

With regards to the McCanns dismissing the findings of the dogs and insisting that there was "no proof" that Madeleine had come to any harm - I'm sure I recall reading that there was is a type of neglect charge under Portuguese law, which only applies if a child is proven to have been harmed/injured.
I think it's possible that the McCann's lawyers had directed them to maintain this stance, to avoid such a charge.
Of course, I may well be wrong about this, someone more knowledgeable may be able to correct me.

I'm shocked too. I had no idea. I found a translation online.

Anything other than abduction implicates the parents

I'm still struggle to find out what the conclusion of the official PJ investigation actually was. I can find Amaral's theories, but not an official, publicly available PJ document.

Is there a summarising document in the PJ files, translated into English?

Yes, I suppose it does, doesn't it.

Sorry, that was in response to Noddy's comment re abduction

When Amaral was taken off the case another inspector took over. Amaral's conclusion was well known but when the case was shelved it was because of the insufficient forensics.But the inspector who took over was a witness in the libel trial re the book The truth of the lie and when he was asked if there was anything in the book that wasn't concluded in the police files he said that no the book was true to the investigation with nothing added

Here is a summary at the archiving
www.mccannfiles.com/id136.html#adi6

... how long before this thread gets pulled?

lavolcan it is not commentary on parenting which is why threads have been pulled previously it is just a sharing of facts as printed in Kate McCann's book and the portuguese files which the McCanns themselves have used in their own searches

I'm obviously trying to speed catchup with all the information out there.

So in the libel trial, the accusers sought an out of court settlement/wanted to negotiate with Amaral?

I didn't read anything of their reasoning for this and I hope Amaral holds his nerve.

I'm guessing it would be pretty catastrophic for them if Amaral wins.

I watched Amaral's documentary and thought he came across as measured, (fairly) balanced and plausible. However I'm not sure his conclusions were the right ones.

Is the libel trial still ongoing, then? That seems to have been taking a long time.

It has been adjourned. The attempted to settle with him but he refused. Now I think according to news papers they are awaiting the info re Madeleine being a ward of court in which case her parents can't sue on her behalf. So they can only sue for their other children and themselves

Why will the thread get pulled? I don't get it.

Dogs don't lie.

I think Amaral will hold his nerve - his life has been ruined, assets seized, divorced - so he really has nothing to lose now, and he has had so much thrown at him, I think he would have given up ages ago if he was going to

Why did the threads get pulled? I am tempted to say that we didn't sing from the right hymn sheet.

e.g. on a previous thread a year or two back I said that we didn't know what had happened; since none of us were there, all we could say was that Madeleine disappeared. Pretty innocuous, but no, my post was deleted for breaking the talk guidelines, although I couldn't for the life of me see which guideline it was breaking.

Can the dogs also explain how their supposed conclusions would actually have played in out in the circumstances known to have taken place?

Oh no hang on - no they can't. Why would that be?

Because as they are dogs they can't reason nor explain their reactions.....

I thought Amaral/the court had now received the information about the Ward of Court business, but is now studying what it means.

Perhaps they have but court time will have to be scheduled again once the papers have been submitted to the process - at the moment I haven't heard that that has happened

The dogs can't say anything except indicate blood/cadaver.

Wasn't there something like that in the Shannon Matthews' case, where the dogs indicated something? In that case though, the furniture had been bought 2nd/3rd hand from a junk shop, and presumably was from a deceased persons house clearance. Or am I completely remembering this? I don't know where the furniture came from in the McCann's holiday flat.