Read The Opinion Of Ex Flying Squad Commander John O'Connor

Victims of the cops
Says JOHN O'CONNOR
Ex-Flying Squad Commander

DECENT people following the mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann wept at the anguish of parents Kate and Gerry and prayed for an end to their suffering.

They conducted themselves with such dignity and composure in public and did everything in their power to keep the case alive.

It is a tribute to their resourcefulness that this was a major story for more than a year — worldwide. Little Madeleine must be the best known child on this planet.

But the response of the Portuguese police was to make them arguidos and conduct a vicious sniping campaign by leaking apocryphal stories to the Portuguese media.

The tragedy of this investigation is that the police were woefully slow off the mark and wasted valuable time and resources in trying to find the answers within the family.

How completely wrong they were.

It was painfully obvious from day one that Madeleine had been taken by an intruder and probably by someone who had been watching the McCanns and their friends.

The Portuguese Policia Judiciaria should hang their heads in shame and the decent Portuguese citizens should press their government to hold an Public Inquiry into this sad and very sorry mess.

Ex PJ detective Goncalo Amaral, should be investigated for his role in the glaring catastrophic errors in this case, for failing Madeleine and for putting her parents through unnecessary pain and suffering.

How could this have happened? How could the Portuguese government allow this buffoonery to continue for almost 15 months?

How could the PJ allow these parents to suffer for all this time when they knew fully well they were innocent?

While they were doing this and they knew the McCann's were innocent, not only did they allow them to suffer at a time when they must have been in utter despair 1) The PJ were knowingly not looking for Madeleine 2) They actually threw every possible obstacle and impediment into the path of these parents to "PREVENT" them from searching for their daughter! 3) With lies, smears, innuendo, leaks and bizarre killing theories.

The questions have to be asked; "Why was this allowed to happen?" "Who allowed this to continue?" "Who actually made the decision to allow this to continue?"

I just cannot believe that people who are supposed to be highly educated, some with law degrees, could just stumble from making one catastrophic error to the next, this to me is just inconceivable, I cannot believe this actually happened, the odds of this happening must have been as great as me winning the lottery!

What in the name of of all that is good went on there in Praia Da Luz in May 2007?

If Portugal thinks they can sweep this under the carpet and that this will soon fade into a distant memory, then they do no understand the psyche of the British people, we will never accept the events that led up to this day and we will not stop asking why and we will never, ever give up on Madeleine.
Personally, until I know exactly what happened in Praia da Luz and until I have seen an Independent Public Inquiry into this farce of an investigation, I would not judge Portugal as a fit place for any child in my family, or for any other family. I can't make the minds of others, but I certainly would not even think of visiting Portugal, not only would I fear for my family, I would fear being accused of doing something I hadn't.

I can promise you Hell will freeze over before I consider a holiday there.

Rosie

I confess I had to check the dictionary for the word ' apocryphal' and to me that one word sums up the PJ's investigation. I use the word 'investigation' lightly! (In case anyone else is wondering the definition includes the terms doubtful authenticity, and invented.)

You are right it does sum them up, why use three words when you can use one?

(well in my case why use one word when I can use 12?)