OMG, Kate McCann is expected to be formally declared as a SUSPECT???!!!

[haychee]

I was watching the news last night re Kate McCanns requestioning by the Portuguese Police. I have updated on the events this morning and it appears she will be declared as a SUSPECT today. Im shocked about this, what do you all think? Surely she didnt have anything to do with it?

"so was the man who checked on the kids questioned maybe he could have done something to her and it got out of hand."

think it's one thing to speculate about people who are actually suspected of being involved, speculating about people who aren't because the prospect of the suspected is too much to bear is another..

Desi implied she has specific knowledge of cases where people have been freed due to miscarriages of justice but are actually guilty: 'in some cases'.

Yet hasn't actually managed to come up with any particular case when asked. Just slinging mud without any foundation.

In fact, no-one tried for a crime in England and Wales is EVER found 'innocent', merely 'not guilty'. So I don't see why victims of miscarriages of justice should be singled out as particularly suspicious. Why not point the finger at everyone who has ever had the misfortune to be accused of any crime?

Our legal system rests on this rather quaint assumption that you are innocent until proved guilty. It's for the prosecution to prove the case, not the defendant to prove a negative. If the prosecution do that by taking short-cuts, then it seems gratutiously cruel to start taking pot-shots at people who have eventually been freed.

if my 5 year old dd wakes up she always comes to me for a cuddle before going back to bed, i cant imagine how frightened a little girl would be to wake up and realise she was alone

so if Gerry walked into the apartment, noticed the door was open but didn't check, then he wasn't actually "checking" on the children was he? just going for a walk to the apartment and back... Madeleine could have followed them out of that apartment and into the swimming pool and no-one would have known until Kate Mccann checked at 10.

wannabe - i have suspected from day one the parents were involved i was not trying to acuse someone else because i think the parents are innocent. maybe i wrote it wrong what i meant was he has not been mentioned on anything ive seen and was wondering what others thought

McEdam, I'm certainly not citing any cases because I don't know any more than anybody else. But statistically it must be likely that in some cases a person is acquitted or has a conviction overturned to to police misbehaviour, when the person was guilty all along? It's no more unlikely than a person being convicted of a crime that they did not commit, after all - and that happens, too.

I don't think Desi implied anything, she mearly put the word 'some' in italics meaning to highlight some as opposed to all.

The following are reasons a conviction may be deemed a miscarriage of justice....

Causes of miscarriages of justice include:

confirmation bias on the part of investigators
withholding or destruction of evidence by police or prosecution
fabrication of evidence
editing of evidence
poor identification
overestimation/underestimation of the evidential value of expert testimony
contaminated evidence
faulty forensic tests
false confessions due to police pressure or psychological weakness
misdirection by a judge during trial
perjured evidence by the real guilty party or their accomplices
perjured evidence by the supposed victim or their accomplices
perjured evidence by police officers or their accomplices
perjured evidence of confession given by jailhouse informants
errors of due process and errors of impunity
failure or incompetence of the defense

So Desi is right - any of the above could happen, the conviction is unsafe and therefore the accused/convicted wins freedom based on a miscarriage (blunder) of justice . In some cases.

Hi from Portugal. No one knows what to think about it here. We have been with the McCann all this time, and absolutely shocked about the latest news. It hurts our best feelings imagining parents can be implicated in it in the worst way.

i just think there are too many unexplainable events, gaps in times, checks but not being 'checked on'. people seen carrying a child but not mentioned, lets hope that whatever the outcome we find out soon then we can all be releived(if thats the appropraite word)goodnight

I keep promising to keep off Maddie threads.

but.

I am staggered by tonight's news... so is the rest of Portugal... they have even changed the tv programming schedules here tonight to discuss, speculate..and also make the odd valid point in relation to the case.

Either the PJ are making a MONUMENTAL mistake, or they are brilliant.

I hope it's the first.

I never believed she was abducted, not by a stranger anyway.

I never believed she was alive, and I certainly never bought into the frenzy over paedophile rings snatching children to order. Yes of course these people exist but there would have been so many easier ways to snatch a child that the whole idea of choosing one child and following the parents in order to pounce on that child always seemed ludicress to me.

but I always suspected he was involved rather than her.

what are they saying in portugal dolally?

i found the trip he did to the edinburgh festival very odd. seemed like totally the wrong place for him to be.

How could she come eyeball to eyeball with the pope though, if there were any truth in these allegations?

I don't know. After all the coverage and the 'developments' over the last four months I'm more confused than ever.

I just hope the mystery is solved so we can all move on.

In Portugal the feeling is mostly of disbelief. Most of people do not believe Kate has anything to do with it.

The BBC News has been updated:

Portuguese police believe the mother of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann accidentally killed her daughter, a family spokesman has said.
It is understood she refused to "cut a deal" of two years in prison in exchange for a confession.

do they think gerry knows about it and is covering for her or that he knows nothing (seems doubtful)

sounds to me like the family are guilty of sensationalizing now. after all, Kate Mccann hasn't actually be charged yet has she?

McEdam - I don't think you could say with any reasonable certainty that Sian Jenkins was innocent. I think he probably did it, but the evidence presented at his retrial introduced an element of doubt. Technically a miscarriage of justice, but he still probably did it.

i was going to bed but eating now. maybe they actually think gerry did it and they are hoping that by accusing her he might confess. that would make more sense of the story

well, I guess if he knew and was covering it could explain his behavior? taking control/travelling around/doing all the talking to reporters etc. Often kate appeared more in the background while gerry took control of the situation. The speculators could say that he was taking control so she didn't let anything slip? or alternatively he may just be a better organizer/spokes person/communicator/whatever.

Kate has been charged and Gerry is expected to be charged to in the next hours. But police does not talk about it and emotions deny the parents could be envolved.

My first bit of speculation

If the olice have got it right, I'm wondering if maybe things happened in a panic and through grief (accidental) and the McCanns, especially Kate has somehow blocked it out and he has just been protecting her

She is obviously griefstricken and to me looks so dazed. Could she have had some kind of breakdown? (after not before)

Pure speculation of course, but as the media is reporting accidental death and not murder or manslaughter, it makes me wonder

has kate been charged