PJ BLUNDERS!

Here are 15 Blunders, Please feel free to post more under this topic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1553322/the-15-key-blunders.html

The 15 key blunders
Four weeks after Madeleine went missing, the police investigation into her disappearance still appears to be suffering from the “basic errors” made in first few hours.

1 Police were at the scene quickly but officers played down suggestions that Madeleine had been abducted and believed she had just wandered off. The crime scene in and around the hotel was not taped off, ruining prospects of obtaining vital forensic evidence.

2 There was a lack of specialist fingertip searching in streets around the hotel meaning more opportunities to find forensic evidence were lost. A former senior British detective working for the media called the scene "the worst preserved" he had witnessed in his career.

3 Officers failed to make early house-to-house inquiries when potential witnesses were still likely to be in the resort. Only on the Saturday, more than 48 hours later, did they start searching some local apartments and a full list of guests was obtained on Sunday. Staff at Mark Warner's complex were only questioned 60 hours after Madeleine disappeared.

4 There are still people in the same apartment block as Mr and Mrs McCann who have never been questioned. Empty properties yards from where the child was taken have never been searched.

5 Police failed to inform Spanish border authorities of Madeleine's disappearance until the morning after she was taken - giving the abductor the chance to flee the country.

6 CCTV on the main road out of Praia da Luz, going towards Spain, was not checked by police.

7 Early witness descriptions created confusion. At one stage there were six different E-fit images being shown to local people.

8 On the morning of May 7, Gerry and Kate McCann issued a televised appeal direct to the abductor. Six hours later, a police chief said at a press conference: "We are not 100 per cent certain she was abducted."

9 Detectives could not issue information on the investigation due to strict Portuguese laws on "judicial secrecy". However the law includes two exceptions, both of which apply in the case of Madeleine.

10 It meant no direct appeal for help was made and police failed to give a clear description of Madeleine. There were no posters put up in the early days. It was left to Madeleine's parents to describe what she as wearing on the night she disappeared.

11 An appeal for a suspect was finally issued 22 days after Madeleine went missing, together with a description. However police made another blunder by issuing two different height descriptions - the result of a mistranslation.

12 On May 9 the search was scaled down \u2026 searches were not very visible, helicopter not used much.

13 There was a delay in calling in specialists. Two British child abduction experts were flown in a week later, mobile phone tracker technicians who helped in the Soham investigation came in last week.

14 Leaks have hampered the inquiry. On May 16, Portuguese newspapers reported that police were "on the trail" of a Russian friend of Robert Murat, the formal suspect in the case. He was only detained for questioning after he had been traced by journalists.

15 Madeleine's favourite toy could have been a crucial key in tracking her down. She took it to bed with her every night including the night she was taken. The abductor could have left some trace of DNA evidence on it, but police did not check and Mrs McCann has had the pink soft toy with her ever since. One specialist said scientists would have needed to examine it for at least several days. He said: "Now it's probably too late. It's an absolute glaring error."

It was initially speculated that police were investigating two dark-haired men and a blonde - might be the same trio captured on CCTV footage at a filling station on may 11th 2007, shortly after Madeleine disappeared.



The "lead" was later dismissed by a senior officer when he reported that detectives had "no suspects". But it was speculated, at the time, that police may have downplayed the evidence in order to avoid panicking their suspects while they kept them under surveillance.



The trio came back into the news on 20 November 2007, when newspapers named them as the possible trio seen by a witness, two days after Madeleine's disappearance, with a blonde girl matching Madeleine's description.



Date Events related to Robert Murat

On may 15th 2007,robert murat was made a suspect.

is the last link the reason why..................................why has he not been arrested they have the video footage from the garage

sian

Hi Rosie,

IMO, a blunder that I didn't think you would ever leave out would be the investigation being handed to your amigo, Goncalo Amaral (you're not going soft are you? )

On a more serious note, an absolute disgrace, more blunders than we are able to mention. What chance did the Mccanns ever have in having Madeleine found?

Helen, I posted that and ran, don't worry I would never have left him off! How could I miss? as Mandz would say.

Who drank all the beer?
Who drank all the beer?
Who drank all the beer?

Sian, that is interesting I can't remember reading that, see this just goes to show, how we miss things! have you got the link to the newspaper it was in, i would like to have a read of it.

If anyone remembers a blunder or comes across one, put it up here, it is good to have all their blunders under one roof!

Sian,

Your statement:

The trio came back into the news on 20 November 2007, when newspapers named them as the possible trio seen by a witness, two days after Madeleine's disappearance, with a blonde girl matching Madeleine's description.


The sighting being referred to, is it the sighting in Silves?

yes hun it sure is

Remember you discovered this when we were posting on the DX?

"Detectives could not issue information on the investigation due to strict Portuguese laws on "judicial secrecy". However the law includes two exceptions, both of which apply in the case of Madeleine."

So why did the PJ insist on secrecy? this is yet another twist in this sad tragic event. If the Pj had not insisted *UNNECESSARILY* that the secrecy laws applied to this case, then there may have been a better outcome.

These secrecy laws were unmistakably flouted by the PJ, it appeared then and still appears today that, the PJ adhere to their own secrecy laws as and when they see fit!

Just what is it that the PJ are so scared of coming out?

Rosie
Its Simple "the truth"
Portugal is going to be Blown Wide open .. Boom !!
I just Hope that they find Madeleine & All the Other Children First

God rosipops good thread.......

Thing is I think the blunders these guys have made could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on ..........PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Its not only the madeleine case they have made major blunders on its many other cases.

I wonder if they know what they are doing though?????...I don't think they are as dull as we think they are you know. Like sneaky vipers they slither around a crime scene like its some sort of playground for their corruptness and silly games. The only ones left to pick up the pieces after they have finished is the families and children caught up in their mess.

Personally i think they are deliberately making a mess of these cases and not making mistakes as such.

Interesting isnt it that the PJ invoke the secrecy law in the case of a suspected abduction,where it didnt need to be applied, and against the advice of other police agencies that have much more experience in dealing with child abductions.

Is it because the PJ were so inexperienced that they didnt even know that they were compromising the investigation (but I doubt that, remember the local copper who was astounded that the crime scene was not preserved) or was it deliberate, by someone (who??) who didnt want the world looking at what he/they were doing. Why would that be, I hear you ask. Maybe it is all about reputation, and taking advice or asking for help would mean this person is no longer 'the best' (as if), or possible some deeper corruption and cover up.

But it will all be out soon.

it sure will saying this why was our very own mr murat the clown allowed in the the unsealed off apartment anyway......im sure heres a crime just upom its own.

a man on sulvalance by police use him as a translator,lol worse to police who could already speek english.

it was not so serious,we could laugh at it make it into a comedy but its not funny. :bounce: if i were the maccanns id be :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: too from one wall to the other.

That is a really good point Amber. Why was Robert Murat (or anyone) allowed into that apartment? I feel it is almost as if this *Crime Scene* was compromised on purpose......why?

Diane,

You know my thoughts on this and you know how I think. Mod and Vee8 have said on another thread that things are going to get interesting over the coming months and I think they are correct, I think this too.

Anyone corrupt and making these blunders *purposefully* needs to be feeling afraid, very, very afraid!

This would definitely lead to a charge of perverting the course of an investigation, withholding evidence.

I have for a long while been unable to reconcile Goncalo Amaral with making so many errors by accident, no one can be that thick, surely? Especially not a detective who has been to university and holds a degree in law?

How does this stack up? How does a detective with years of experience, who holds a degree in law, make so many blunders, right from the word go in the investigation of Madeleine McCann?

This strikes me as odd and I would like the answer to this question. I have been waiting for a plausible explanation to this simple question for months and I am still waiting, but I am not forgetting!

The only reason that I cant think of why Murat would have been in the apartment is if the police were interviewing Kate and Gerry in the apartment, immediately after Madeleine was taken. Because they would have needed a translator then. But hang on, he was at home with Mummy. So that means he was in the apartment later on. Surely by the next day, police translator's should have been brought up from Lisbon. But hang on, that didnt happen, so Murat kept translating.

But still doesnt answer the question, why was he in the apartment later on. Surely the police had already got the info that they needed from the McCanns and the crime scene sealed. But hang on, the crime scene wasnt sealed.

good point Amber. I saw it yesterday but I have a bad cold and couldnt really appreciate it then. Well done.

Why was anyone allowed into that apartment? Even disregarding the catastrophic blunder that Gonc made initially, by the next day, even Lardy Boy must have twigged that this was not just a simple case of Madeleine wandering off, so even he should have shut down that apartment. But hey did he?

No he didn't on May 5th the cleaners were allowed entry to apartment 5a to CLEAN it and REMOVE and LAUNDER the bed clothes from the bed Madeleine was last sleeping on.

Madeleine case 'may never be solved', say police sources
Last updated at 19:56 14 November 2007


Comments (18) Add to My Stories
Fears were growing today that the mystery over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will never be solved unless dramatic new evidence is found.

The concerns emerged today in reports from Portugal suggesting that police are being prevented from re-interviewing Kate and Gerry McCann because there was not enough new material to justify questioning them again.

The news raises the prospect that the McCanns - who are official suspects and the main focus of the Portuguese investigation - will remain under a cloud of suspicion indefinitely.

Some sources suggest that despite rumours that the investigation is stalling, the current apparent lull in police activity does not mean that the case is crumbling.

Reports today from the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas claimed that Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses, the public prosecutor in charge of the case, said he will not authorise further interrogations without stronger evidence.

A source quoted by the newspaper said: "The new analysis of the evidence, carried out by the team that took charge of the case, has confirmed all the suspicions that exist but nothing more.

"If a body does not turn up or unless somebody comes forward with a credible lead we continue increasingly without any chance of closing the case."

Senior officers are reported to believe they will struggle to build a better case against Mr and Mrs McCann, who strongly deny that they had any involvement in their daughter's disappearance.

Madeleine - who was three when she disappeared - vanished from the family's holiday villa in Praia da Luz on 3 May.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, told reporters that the couple hoped to be cleared as soon as possible so that police could concentrate on searching for their daughter.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were named arguidos, or formal suspectsin the case in September after the results of forensic tests by British experts at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham were sent to Portugal.

Although there has been no official confirmation, these tests are understood to have found traces of Madeleine's blood in the McCanns' holiday apartment and deposits of her hair and body fluids in a hire car rented 25 days after she disappeared.

British sources have indicated that the tests - and subsequent analysis carried out by the forensic scientists - continue to point towards the McCanns' involvement and that nothing has been discovered to suggest the involvement of any other person.

That article is dated Nov 2007. And I want to highlight one small part of it.

Although there has been no official confirmation, these tests are understood to have found traces of Madeleine's blood in the McCanns' holiday apartment and deposits of her hair and body fluids in a hire car rented 25 days after she disappeared.

British sources have indicated that the tests - and subsequent analysis carried out by the forensic scientists - continue to point towards the McCanns' involvement and that nothing has been discovered to suggest the involvement of any other person.
amber

Now, months later the Courier de Manure is reporting that there is not and never was any DNA evidence that points towards the McCanns, or in fact even points to Madeleine being killed.

How is that the 'journalist' who wrote your article could have written such a thing, when there clearly wasnt true, and the journalist must have had no proof. Probably assured by someone close to the PJ that this was true. I think it was around this time that the FSS told the PJ that the forensics were inconclusive.

I believe that there is a huge PJ blunder that is about to surface in Portugal, it is either a blunder or someone has deliberately ignored a lead or hidden information that could have led to arrest and this could even turn out to be linked to Madeleine. Make no mistake if this happens (an I cant see a way that it wont) this is going to prove colossal without it being linked to Madeleine McCann, but if it is (and it could be) then this is going not only to be cataclysmic, it will be nuclear for Portugal and the PJ.

What have the PJ done in the last 14 months to actually look for Madeleine McCann?

A series of blunders by Portugese police could have allowed whoever kidnapped Maddy McCann to get away unhindered.
Sources close to the investigation have admitted that they had been too slow to react, giving the abductor up to 48 hours to escape.


A series of blunders by Portugese police could have allowed whoever kidnapped Maddy McCann to get away unhindered

What has emerged in Portugal is a picture of a confused, error-laden inquiry which is far below what would be expected if a youngster went missing in similar circumstances in this country.

Despite widespread hopes that the little girl is still alive after more than 72 hours away from her family, police do not have any specific information which confirms this.

Nor are they thought to have a name of a prime suspect.

As the desperate hunt continues, questions are being raised over the nature of the response and whether it has played into the abductor's hands.

In addition, the Mail can reveal that:
• Portuguese border control were not alerted until late on Friday morning - 15 hours after Madeleine went missing on Thursday. This will have given any abductor a lengthy window in which to make good their escape, via land or sea.


• It was not until Saturday that officers admitted that the girl could have been abducted -despite the fact that her tender years mean it is almost inconceivable that she could have wandered off alone for such a long time.


• Police did not start searching hundreds of apartments in the busy resort until Saturday -two days after the alert was raised.


• A full list of resort guests and members of staff at the Mark Warner holiday complex was only being compiled on Sunday and has still be handed over to detectives.

• The apartment from where Madeleine was taken has not been properly sealed off. Police lines have regularly been crossed by curious passers-by who have been able to touch the shutters forced open by her abductor.


• The police 'sketch' of the suspect has a blank where the face is supposed to be.
The deepening gloom is in sharp contrast to the apparent hope expressed on Saturday morning when the Judicial Police - the Portuguese equivalent of CID - appeared to suggest that they knew who Madeleine's kidnapper was and expressed hope that she was still alive.

Officers also hinted that they had a description - or sketch - of the suspect but refused to make it public.

But the Daily Mail has been told that this is simply a hastily compiled drawing based on the often contradictory accounts of no less than 30 witnesses.

One key 'suspect' is a man with thick dark, side-parted hair, wearing a black padded shirt or jacket and pale trousers.

One report claimed that he was based just a 'couple of miles' from the resort.

But other sources close to inquiry admit they have no real idea who he is and that the descriptions are of a 'number' of suspects.

Similarly, the police's expressed confidence that the toddler is still alive seems to be based simply on hope, and on the fact that no body has been found.

Police are working on three theories. One is that the suspect is a local paedophile. The other two possibilities are that she was taken either by a childless couple or by human traffickers.

If either of the latter theories is true, then the youngster is likely to be a long way from the resort.

In any event, it is more than likely that Madeleine was watched by her captor - or captors - as she played with her parents in the Algarve sunshine.

The family had been in Portugal for a full week before she vanished - giving any potential kidnapper ample time to prepare to snatch her.

At first the local rural police took little interest in witnesses' reports of suspicious characters seen nearby, because they initially believed Madeleine had simply wandered off.

They took hours to be convinced that an outside intruder had forced open the heavy shutters at the side of the flat.

Finally they accepted that these shutters had been left shut, and were impossible for a three-year-old to open.

On Sunday relatives of the missing toddler's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, expressed their concern.

Mr McCann's sister, Philomena McCann, said: "The police were doing very little after Madeleine vanished.

"Gerry and Kate were left on their own and Mark Warner staff had to organise the searches. The police did nothing for hours.

"They have just played this down from the minute he approached them."

When Madeleine's godmother and great aunt Nora Healy was asked about the Portuguese police operation, she raised her eyebrows and said: "Well, it upped a gear when the British ambassador arrived."

And Madeleine?s great uncle Brian Kennedy, who lives near to her family home and often baby sits for her and her twin siblings Sean and Amelie, two, said: "When Gerry first phoned me, he said the police weren?t acting fast enough.

He added, however: "But I know that once the seriousness of the case was established, the police have been very good."

By Saturday afternoon a chief inspector from Lisbon, belatedly summoned south to beef up the inquiry, was knocking on doors.

He and other officers used master keys to let themselves in when doors were not opened, then questioning occupants.

One British resident, shocked at the delays of the Portuguese response said: "I said 'We've been waiting for you - it's taken two days'. The inspector said 'I know' and rolled his eyes."

The resident added that he was then shown the sketch of the suspect - who the inspector said was believed to be from 'a couple of miles away' - but said there was simply a blank space for the face, with only the hair and clothing shown.

On Sunday afternoon the Daily Mail discovered Mark Warner staff were still completing a list of all those holidaying or working at the Ocean Club on Thursday night - and that it had still not been handed over to police.

And to this day there has never been any restriction on travelling on the few roads in and out of Praia da Luz, meaning it would have been easy for a paedophile to spirit Madeleine away. If the kidnapper was local and had restrained Madeleine in his own property, he had two full days before door to door enquiries began to make a plan.

Portuguese police are controlled by strict rules on prejudicing trials, which mean they rarely release information before court cases. But they claim they have an excellent record of solving cases.

In the Algarve, their search is complicated by miles of bushy scrub land, and hundreds of vacant holiday homes.

In a robust defence of his force's response. Guilhermino Encarnicao, director of the judicial police, said officers were on the scene on Thursday within five minutes of a 10.40pm call.

By midnight, he said, officers were conducting searches.

In all, 150 officers are now involved in searches over a radius of three miles, another 650 volunteers.

Mr Encarnicao added that the parents had not given conflicting statements, and said they were not suspects, although another source said the couple could technically face prosecution for leaving children unattended.

On Sunday, as officers worked into the night, all those involved in the case were clinging to the hope that the little girl was still alive.

But her disappearance has reawakened memories of a missing child inquiry which has never been solved.

In 1998, Rui Pedro Mendonca, who was 11 when he disappeared from the town of Lousada in northern Portugal.

There was a sighting of him about a month later at Disneyland in Paris with a middle-aged man, but he has never been found and may have been murdered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-453120/Wasted-days-hunt-Maddy.html

Madeleine was Missing 3 days when this was reported :( 436 Days to Date & these Important Questions have Still Not been Answered :x or explained ?
Thank God Kate & Gerry has the Support of Our Government & their Own Team of Investigators !
Portugal will be Long Gone Off the Map if They Dont Stop this Corruption :bom:

And shows what the McCann's were up against from the word go, anyone on the vile blog that says that the PJ did not make blunders can't be living on the same planet as the rest if us.

I have taken a number of the points in Janet's post and elaborated on them

A series of blunders by Portuguese police could have allowed whoever kidnapped Maddy McCann to get away unhindered.

How many other children have been abducted in Portugal that we do not know about?

What has emerged in Portugal is a picture of a confused, error-laden inquiry which is far below what would be expected if a youngster went missing in similar circumstances in this country.

I find it unforgivable that once it was known that these grossly incompetent errors had occurred, that instead of trying to amend them and get this investigation back on track, the PJ tried to blag their way out of It by blaming the parents, the British police, the British press.

As the desperate hunt continues, questions are being raised over the nature of the response and whether it has played into the abductor's hands.

It doesn't take rocket science to work out that this astonishing bungling allowed Madeleine's abductors to get clean away.

In addition, the Mail can reveal that:
• Portuguese border control were not alerted until late on Friday morning - 15 hours after Madeleine went missing on Thursday. This will have given any abductor a lengthy window in which to make good their escape, via land or sea.


• It was not until Saturday that officers admitted that the girl could have been abducted -despite the fact that her tender years mean it is almost inconceivable that she could have wandered off alone for such a long time.


• Police did not start searching hundreds of apartments in the busy resort until Saturday -two days after the alert was raised.

In some cases the flats in the MW complex were NEVER searched and remain unsearched to this very day 14 months later!


• A full list of resort guests and members of staff at the Mark Warner holiday complex was only being compiled on Sunday and has still be handed over to detectives.

All the people that were staying at the resort at this time not only should have been interviewed they should all have been asked to provide a DNA sample, but they haven't - again 14 months later these DNA sample's still have not been taken or the people interviewed.

• The apartment from where Madeleine was taken has not been properly sealed off. Police lines have regularly been crossed by curious passers-by who have been able to touch the shutters forced open by her abductor.

Not only this, these shutters weren't duster for finger prints until FIVE days later and then it was done by a technique that broke every rule in the book about gathering DNA and finger print evidence.


• The police 'sketch' of the suspect has a blank where the face is supposed to be.
The deepening gloom is in sharp contrast to the apparent hope expressed on Saturday morning when the Judicial Police - the Portuguese equivalent of CID - appeared to suggest that they knew who Madeleine's kidnapper was and expressed hope that she was still alive.

Officers also hinted that they had a description - or sketch - of the suspect but refused to make it public.

If the PJ had a suspect in mind, who was it? Were they ever interviewed? What made them suspect this person? What was the point of taking a photofit of a person wanted in connection with a child abduction and then NOT releasing it?

Also the police that did eventually get around to checking out some of the apartments, a policeman with Robert Murat in tow, mistook a photograph of Madeleine and asked if this was of this person's daughter!

One key 'suspect' is a man with thick dark, side-parted hair, wearing a black padded shirt or jacket and pale trousers.

This person fits the description of the hair given by Gail Cooper and by Jane Tanner, it also fits the hair description-of the other person that we have been discussing in our members only section!

Police are working on three theories. One is that the suspect is a local paedophile. The other two possibilities are that she was taken either by a childless couple or by human traffickers.

If either of the latter theories is true, then the youngster is likely to be a long way from the resort.

Thanks to the PJ FAILING to notify the borders and the ports!

In any event, it is more than likely that Madeleine was watched by her captor - or captors - as she played with her parents in the Algarve sunshine.

The family had been in Portugal for a full week before she vanished - giving any potential kidnapper ample time to prepare to snatch her.

At first the local rural police took little interest in witnesses' reports of suspicious characters seen nearby, because they initially believed Madeleine had simply wandered off.

The PJ actually have pictures of a man seen acting suspiciously watching Madeleine playing with Gerry in the resort playground. What have they done about this? Have they hunted this man down? have they examined the photo footage?

They took hours to be convinced that an outside intruder had forced open the heavy shutters at the side of the flat.

Finally they accepted that these shutters had been left shut, and were impossible for a three-year-old to open.

Impossible for a child to open, yet they were open and the PJ's response to that was to only dust them for prints five days after Madeleine went missing and then by a second rate technician, who broke every rule in the book on how to gather such evidence!

"Gerry and Kate were left on their own and Mark Warner staff had to organise the searches. The police did nothing for hours.
"They have just played this down from the minute he approached them."

This is absolutely unacceptable and unforgivable. To leave two desperate and panic ridden parents who could not speak the language to wander the resort looking for Madeleine and calling out for their daughter, is so cruel it is unbelievably callous and it beaks my heart just thinking of them forced into this position, they must have been absolutely desolate and terrified. What police force could just go home and leave these parents like this, even if they did think Madeleine had wandered off? there should be an inquiry held into the conduct of the investigating officer.

Portuguese police are controlled by strict rules on prejudicing trials, which mean they rarely release information before court cases. But they claim they have an excellent record of solving cases.

It has been revealed that the PJ did not have to use Portugal's archaic secrecy laws in this case, but they did anyway!

In the Algarve, their search is complicated by miles of bushy scrub land, and hundreds of vacant holiday homes.

In a robust defence of his force's response. Guilhermino Encarnicao, director of the judicial police, said officers were on the scene on Thursday within five minutes of a 10.40pm call.

By midnight, he said, officers were conducting searches.

In all, 150 officers are now involved in searches over a radius of three miles, another 650 volunteers.

Mr Encarnicao added that the parents had not given conflicting statements, and said they were not suspects, although another source said the couple could technically face prosecution for leaving children unattended.

On Sunday, as officers worked into the night, all those involved in the case were clinging to the hope that the little girl was still alive.

This turns out to be absolutely UNTRUE, Goncalo Amaral, the man *supposed* to be heading this investigation did not even attend the scene that night when the call first came in, he preferred to conduct such a potentially serious investigation over the telephone! WHY? was he on duty or off duty? If he was on duty why did he not attend? If he was off duty and had been drinking why did he not summon his Mercedes Benz and his driver paid for by the Portugues taxpayer to drive him to the scene! This is incredible!

we are supposed to believe that police worked so hard yet, initially the PJ left it to Mark Warner employees to organise the search for Madeleine! What is going on here?

But her disappearance has reawakened memories of a missing child inquiry which has never been solved.

In 1998, Rui Pedro Mendonca, who was 11 when he disappeared from the town of Lousada in northern Portugal.

There was a sighting of him about a month later at Disneyland in Paris with a middle-aged man, but he has never been found and may have been murdered.

This case also has similarities with the case if Joana Cipriano, who vanished 2 years before Madeleine, whose body has never been found and in this case too, the mother was accused of killing her child and the detective in charge was also Goncalo Amaral! There are other cases of vanished children that have never been found too. yet the PJ insist on blaming the parents.

The biggest PJ blunder was....AMARAL!
You don't need anymore.

To other guests in between the McCanns vacating and the British forensic team going in. Breathtaking incompetence.

And then following it up by saying that 'there was no sign of an abductor'! No, just masses of new fingerprints, footprints and DNA, all of which they simply could NOT have matched up .

tulip wrote:And then following it up by saying that 'there was no sign of an abductor'! No, just masses of new fingerprints, footprints and DNA, all of which they simply could NOT have matched up .

You know, this there's no evidence of an abductor line is one that winds me up like no other.

Have you studied the case of the Peter Voisey conviction, in the North of England a few years ago? The time was early evening. He walked into a house through an unlocked door, originally with intent to burgle. In the house were a woman, other members of the family and a little girl, two years older than Madeleine when she was abducted, soaking in a bath. Voisey walked into the bathroom, minutes after the little girl's mother had exited it, and decided to take the girl. He coaxed her out of the bath and into his car, drove her away to a country lane, raped her, then released her alive. There were no witnesses and nobody in the house heard anything that aroused their suspicions.

The only scene-of-crime evidence was a footprint on the bathroom floor -- and that because the floor was wet. Without that, there would have been no evidence. The footprint proved crucial in Voisey's conviction.

Reverting back to Praia da Luz, do you remember the bloody footprint in the apartment? As I recall, it was only ever ruled out as belonging to Kate or Gerry and hypothesised (but never proved) as possibly that of a PJ officer. The blood, apparently, could have been trampled in from outside. What if it was the footprint of Madeleine's abductor?

... and from this rubbish!

It's like saying nobody from the village saw Murat in PdL that night so he can't have been there. Utterly idiotic statements.