More leads in Maddie case or just a load of bumpkin?/littlemorsals

http://littlemorsals.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-leads-in-maddie-case-or-just-load.html

More leads in Maddie case or just a load of bumpkin?
Daily Mail's headlines: "Maddie investigators 'looking at eight important new leads' from tranche of Spanish evidence"

“Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are examining eight ‘important’ new leads, it was claimed yesterday.”

I’m glad they said ‘claimed’ because the truth of the matter is that Scotland Yard are not divulging their reason for visiting Metodo3 or why they removed documents from their premises. But then it does beg the question why the Daily Mail is filling their space with what can only be classed as hearsay.

“Spanish private investigators have handed over 30 boxes of documents which could yield a breakthrough.”

Yield a breakthrough? Perhaps not in the way they expect.

“On Tuesday, four British officers visited the Barcelona HQ of Metodo 3, the detective agency employed to look for Madeleine by her parents Kate and Gerry for six months after she vanished at the age of three in 2007.

The agency’s director, Francisco Marco, said there were ‘six, seven or eight very important leads’ within the files.”

Ah! Francisco “We’ll have Madeleine home by Christmas” Marco. For anyone who cannot remember this astonishing statement made by Francisco Marco, here’s the original Daily Mail article entitled “McCann’s Private Detectives: ‘We know who took Madeleine – and she’ll be home by Christmas.”
Was Madeleine home by Christmas? No. So obviously they didn’t know who had ‘taken’ her.

“But sources close to the British investigation played down the significance of the material yesterday.”

“It is the second time that Metropolitan Police detectives have flown to Spain as part of their review of her disappearance.

At last, an ounce of truth!

Last month they spent three days with the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard force as part of inquiries into whether she was abducted and smuggled across the border from Portugal.

Abducted and smuggled across the border no less! Says who? Wasn’t Scotland Yard because apparently they’re not saying anything about their investigation, so where did the Daily Mail get this gem from?

British detectives have also recently collected documents from the Portuguese police, Leicestershire police and the McCanns.

Have they really? I do hope that is true..

Yesterday Mr Marco said on Spanish TV: ‘We have provided [British police] with all the documents and information we have collated worldwide about Madeleine’s disappearance.’

He told The Ana Rosa Programme: ‘[The leads] were passed at the time to Portuguese police who ignored them because it was a very politicised issue.’

So why then didn’t Mr Marco pass these documents to Dave Edgar and his team (the current Private Investigators of the McCann couple)? More to the point, if there are leads to Madeleine’s whereabouts then why didn’t Dave Edgar collect the documents? How on earth can the McCann couple’s Private Investigators operate any kind of coordinated search for Madeleine if they can’t so much as ensure that they are in receipt of all available evidence?

Madeleine, of Rothley in Leicestershire, disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal in May 2007.

Her parents hired Metodo 3 to find her four months after she vanished.

The agency sent a team to Morocco to follow leads that she might have been smuggled out of Portugal.

And? Did they find anything in Morocco from those leads? Obviously not otherwise we would have heard about it surely? So why add this piece if not to try and bolster the already flagging reputation of Metodo3.

Mr Marco said he still believed that was ‘very possibly’ what happened to her but refused to give more details.

Yes, but in December 2007 he also said he knew who took Madeleine and would have her home by Christmas.

It seems that Mr Marco was desperate to get his side out on national Spanish TV. Perhaps there is another reason for Scotland Yard visiting Metodo3 and removing files? Is it possible they are investigating Metodo3?

The files taken by Scotland Yard include investigations the agency carried out into Raymond Hewlett, a convicted British paedophile who was in Portugal when Madeleine went missing and left for Morocco three weeks later.

Hewlett died of throat cancer aged 64 in Germany last year having refused to talk to detectives about Madeleine’s disappearance.

If all else fails, return to Mr Hewlett who is dead and unable to defend himself. The Daily Mail seems to forget that the ‘detectives’ he refused to talk with was none other than the McCann private investigators, and that Mr Hewlett had already been questioned by official police officers. As he wasn’t convicted, we can safely assume he was cleared of any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Prime Minister David Cameron asked the Met to examine Madeleine’s case in May. Operation Grange, led by Detective Chief Inspector John Redwood, will consider whether there are any grounds for the Portuguese police to re-open their original inquiry, which was shelved in 2008.

Here’s hoping!

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police refused to comment yesterday. The McCann family also declined to comment.

Absolutely and rightly so too...at least while the investigation is ongoing. So now we’ve gone full circle and still no closer to knowing why Scotland Yard visited Metodo3 or why they removed boxes of documentation.

Considering the word of Metodo3 can’t be taken seriously surely they shouldn’t be permitted any space to muddy the already murky waters. If the Daily Mail stuck to the facts it would save typing time and culminating in one paragraph:

Scotland Yard flew out to Spain on Tuesday where they removed boxes of documentation from the premises of Metodo3. Scotland Yard decline to comment.
Posted by Sasha at 15:15