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.

Really 2 threads needed here as people have very set views on this. I know I do and nothing will convince me otherwise and I think that seems to be everyone's stance.

Yes, the McCanns have successfully sued for libel.

They were actively and deliberately lied about by the press - both Portuguese and UK. There were no clumps of hair or DNA found in the car, they did not sedate their children. It could not have been Gerry carrying a child at 10pm, witnessed by the Smiths. They did not hide Madeleine's body in the car 3 weeks later and dispose of it in Spain, under the glare of the world's press, who were following their every move.

All this ^ has been reported in the press.

Their privacy was shamelessly violated during what must be every parent's worst nightmare. Kate's diary was printed by NOTW without her permission.

The Mccanns told all of their uk contacts that the shutters had been jemmied when they had not been tampered with and the only fingerprints on them belonged to Kate. Gotta wonder on what basis they spread that around...

janey - witness statements are treated in law as evidence.

There are witness statements of a sighting of a man carrying a child away that are being treated by SY as evidence of a possible abduction.

The witness statements of the McCanns, the friends and staff at the restaurant are evidence that she disappeared from the apartment. If she'd just wandered off, she would have been found, surely? Where can a 3yr old go at 10 o'clock at night without leaving a trace?

Hotburrito... And Kate McCann says in her book that the shutters were openable from the outside as well as inside, which kind of contradicts the 'jemmied open' statement

Janey, quite!

And gerry first said he entered by front door with key and then changed to through patio doors unlocked.The shutters? They weren't jemmied at all

You know what conspiracy theorists do? They pick at tiny details of a case, in such a way that it can be difficult to see the wood from the trees. That is what has ended up happening here.

Instead of the big picture - that people were on holiday, probably shouldn't have left children unattended in an apartment, but felt it was safe to do so, and the worst happened - they end up picking apart tiny aspects of the case - to find out what? Whether shutters were jemmied or opened, or whether the friends flew home 2 days later, or 2 weeks? None of it makes any difference to the overall story.

Do you honestly think if your child was missing you'd remember whether your holiday apartment shutters were jemmied open or just opened? The woman, by all accounts was absolutely hysterical and traumatised.

Yep Noddy, you'd think Gerry would know which door he used to check on the children, in his FIRST statement.

Sabrina - who exactly have the McCanns sued? I am genuinely interested in hearing the names.

I know they have retained Carter Ruck and certainly Mumsnet for one is very very twitchy about what is posted e.g. you have to talk about abduction, but to my knowledge, the only time that statement was tested in court Judge Tugendhat threw it out.

I disagree. I am pretty sure I would see if the shutters were jemmied or not.
And in mysterious cases like this, actually in most cases, it's the tiny little details that can help to solve it.

If you're genuinely interested, lavolcan - you can google it.

Oh here we go again. We must be conspiracy theorists just because we are pointing out huge inconsistencies. Clearly Sabrina, you can't cope with anything other than people totally bowing down to the untouchable mccanns.

To answer your question: if my child went missing, yes I would be distraught. But I'm pretty certain I wouldn't state that shutters had been jemmied open when in fact they were openable from outside and inside. That's a pretty massive statement to make, to claim they were broken open by force.

This is the kind of detail which many of us are taking issue with. Not because we think the mccanns are responsible for the disappearance, but because their obsession with trying to present themselves in the best light possible has skewed the investigation.

Sabrina you are verging on hysterical in their defence and it has no effect at all on what the majority of people think no one is going to suddenly see the light according to Sabrina we have had these threads before. Of course if your child was taken you would know what state the windows etc were in.

You can disagree with what you'd do, what you'd notice, Onesleep - but you can't generalise that to everyone's behaviour. People behave differently in given circumstances.

Whether the shutters were jemmied, or whether they could just be opened makes not one jot of difference to what may have actually happened that night. Kate McCann was notably distraught - even Amaral says so. There's so much conflicting information out there that I have no idea whether the shutters could be just rolled up, or whether they would have to be jemmied - but it makes not one jot of difference to what may or may not have happened that night.

Sorry, noddy, but as this thread is staying, can I not share my opinion. You all seem happy to do so.

I think I just trod all over the ghoul-fest going on here - and folk don't like it.

You can say anything you want it is not going to change how the majority of people ON THIS thread think.

Sabrina- KM states in her book written several years after the event that they realised the shutters opened from outside directly after MM was discovered to be gone. She states that they ran outside and tried them. This was before any interviews, or media involvement, or indeed before the police were called. It is Therefore odd, don't you think, that their version at the time was that the shutters had been jemmied?

It's natural that everyone has their own ideas; like so many cases the only people that know the truth are those that were there. I've read all the files and made my own opinions but speculating about them is pointless. One thing to consider though, "conspiracy theorists" raised the information about JS long before it all came to light, and many shouted them down...

Well - perhaps they need to stop reading the rubbish that's out there. For example, It's clear from this thread that many still think it could've been Gerry McCann that Martin Smith saw carrying the child at 10pm. It wasn't him- he was in the Tapas Restaurant.

janey - do you think the shutters were open when Kate returned to the room and found Madeleine missing?

Fuckaletta, what is JS, please?

Jimmy Saville, I would think.

Jimmy Savile...not really relevant here but worth thinking about.

I wasnt there Sabrina

What I do know is that the mccanns stated at the time that the shutters were jemmied yet KM in her book writes that they knew before they spoke to the media and before any interviews that the shutters could be opened from outside and inside