Madeleine, the media and the Met

Article "Madeleine, the media and the Met" in the Algarve Newswatch dated Tuesday June 18, 2013 can be found online.

http://algarvenewswatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/madeleine-media-and-met.html#comment-form



Reflections on current affairs in southern Portugal by journalist and author Len Port

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Madeleine, the media and the Met

Recent reports in the mainstream British press about London’s Metropolitan Police delving into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance raise more questions than they begin to answer.

Under a review codenamed Operation Grange, the Met has been examining material collected by the Portuguese police, UK law enforcement agencies and various private investigators.

A rash of stories around the sixth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance and what might have been her 10th birthday last month were based on yet more speculation and largely devoid of hard news content. But the appetite among British readers is such that anything about the McCanns is good for circulation figures.

Several papers reported the Met’s discovery of a number of “potential new leads” and “people of interest.”

The Sunday Express, for example, was able to reveal exclusively that “Scotland Yard detectives are trying to find a middle-aged couple said to have entered Madeleine McCann’s holiday apartment to comfort her because she was crying.”

According to The Mail on Sunday, “Police are said to be keen to trace six British cleaners who were working in Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished and who didn't appear in the Portuguese files. They are said to have used a white van and went from apartment to apartment offering their services, chiefly concentrating on expats.”



Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, was quoted as saying, “There are a lot of people who could be explored further, if only to be eliminated.”

To some unbiased observers, vague talk of “potential new leads” and “people of interest” did not seem very impressive considering that a team of 30 Scotland Yard detectives have been on the job for two years at a reported cost of £5 million.

Even so, The Daily Telegraph noted: “Det Chief Supt Campbell praised their progress and said they had done a ‘fantastic’ job.”

Now we learn that the Operation Grange review is to be upgraded to a full-scale investigation backed by more resources from the British Home Office. The new investigation will replace the Polícia Judiciária inquiry, which was officially closed in 2008.

Widely reported in the British press, the proposed UK inquiry has received little and only belated coverage in Portuguese newspapers.

Ever ready to get in a dig at how the Portuguese “bungled” it and are “STILL dragging heels,” the Daily Mail revealed it had “learned that behind the scenes a major diplomatic row is brewing because the Portuguese authorities are adamant they will not reopen the inquiry. Officials in Lisbon have told their British counterparts that under Portuguese laws, they can reopen the case only if there is new evidence.”

Indeed. So why is the Met launching an investigation apparently without any new evidence? So far it has said nothing directly on the subject. “Detectives remain in regular contact with Kate and Gerry McCann and are working closely with the Portuguese police in an attempt to make further progress,” is as far as the Met will go for now. An official statement is expected only “in the next few weeks.”

Confirmation of regular contact with Kate and Gerry McCann begs the question as to whether the Met is focusing solely on the theory that Madeleine was abducted?

Has the Met completely ruled out the more widely held theory in Portugal that something else probably happened to the little girl?

It would seem so from a report in the Sunday Mirror that claimed, “British police probing Madeleine McCann's disappearance now believe her kidnapper was staying in a holiday flat near the family.”

This is an example of how the British media in general seem to accept that Madeleine was abducted as if it were an established fact.

From the Portugal perspective, plenty of other questions come to mind, if only to put to rest lingering doubts about Kate and Gerry McCann and the Tapas Seven.

Will the Met confront the McCanns and their holidaying friends about inconsistencies and contradictions in their accounts to the PJ of what took place in Praia da Luz that fateful night?

Will it insist on a reconstruction of events, and an explanation of why such a reconstruction was denied to the PJ?

Will the Met team be permitted to conduct joint investigations and interviews on Portuguese soil, or will it delegate to the PJ?

“Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to fund an operation by the Metropolitan Police to continue the search for Madeleine McCann,” according to The Independent, but who will be funding any further work on the case by the PJ?

We may not get answers to such questions in the next few weeks, but let’s hope any new investigation finally solves the mystery and brings those responsible to justice before the seventh anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Posted by Len Port at 5:42 PM

How will MET prove that is was an abduction AND make the cadaver smell go away. 

Ouch. This will not go down well at Rothley Towers.

WHY would experienced hard nosed cops at SY BELIEVE, to the exclusion of ALL other theories put forward by people, the McCanns 'version' of events?
They admit to being the last ones to 'see' her, whether that would be GM looking at her in bed and thinking how lucky he was or JT who PROBABLY saw a child being carried, is still being questioned, and is according to McCanns the only 'EVIDENCE' of the 'crime'
They are the only ones that have ever said Madeleine WAS 'abducted' and it would seem this version of events is, as such, beyond contestation, to SY 'finest'
WHY would SY/Met 'believe' them, totally unconditionally?

Then we have KM saying:
1st May 2013.
ADAM BOULTON: "your feeling is what on what you know on, as to her disappearance, what happened do you think?"
KATE MCCANN: (verbatim) "well we still don't know, all we know she was y'know she was taken from us, erm"

SY (ANDY R) says a crime has been commited by a stranger 'as if the abduction......' (because they were TOLD that ONLY by the McCanns)
KM NOW says 'she dosen't KNOW'.......... yet SY do?

I think SY DO know and it's got nothing to do with a 'stranger'
____________________________________________________________
Jan 10, 2008 – “Yes, yes, I know,” Gerry says bitterly. “Kate killed her in a frenzy, Madeleine was sedated by us, she fell down the stairs........"

Now THAT would be an excellent starting point for the SY team to begin their new 'investigation' from!

How refreshing to read a balanced article

yes chrissie, and nice to her someone else publicly asking the questions asked here for some time.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/507450985946255/

Linked to OP.

Questions, questions, questions!

weissnicht  said,
 
"How will MET prove that is was an abduction AND make the cadaver smell go away."
 
Exactly. I agree. What about the cadaver smell??

I wonder if Len Port will feel the full weight of Carter Ruck. After all, his comments are "unhelpful and hurtful"! 10 out of 10 for voicing points which many people have been asking for 7 years now. It's about time that the british press starting some useful probing instead of constantly belting the Portuguese with whatever stick they can find at the time.

Thanks to Annabel for posting the article.

In reviewing how the British press report, Mr. Port says "This is an example of how the British media in general seem to accept that Madeleine was abducted AS IF IT WERE AN ESTABLISHED FACT."

How can the U.K. press fail to overlook the blood and cadaver scent?  Are these not the facts they should continue reporting?

interested wrote:Thanks to Annabel for posting the article.

In reviewing how the British press report, Mr. Port says "This is an example of how the British media in general seem to accept that Madeleine was abducted AS IF IT WERE AN ESTABLISHED FACT."

How can the U.K. press fail to overlook the blood and cadaver scent?  Are these not the facts they should continue reporting?

By reporting the facts with regard to the dogs, there is a certain insinuation with regard to the parents possible knowledge of what may or may not have happened to the little girl. They would report that the dogs indicated to belongings owned or used by the McCanns and only the McCanns. They alerted to no other dirty nappy or sea bass in the whole of PDL. There is an implication there. The press will not, as yet, print anything that might implicate what should not be implicated.

Perhaps with recent events and rumours about the Met taking over the case, the press are not printing at the Mets request - right to a fair trial and all that.

The press in the UK have been very quiet. Indeed looking at the pink ones twitter account, he has not tweeted in some time. Where is he I wonder?

mossman:

"The press in the UK have been very quiet. Indeed looking at the pink ones twitter account, he has not tweeted in some time. Where is he I wonder?"

Well i know where he isn't!

He isn't in PDL, Portugal, on his hands and knees, searching the lawless villages, where the McCann EX defectives insist Madeleine is!

Probably in exile, somewhere, praying the McCanns extradition lawyers will be doing their best, pro bono, of course, to stop his extradition to the UK, where SY detectives would like to question him on certain matters!

It's been about a month since Mitchell said, "Kate and Gerry continue to be pleased".

Could it be they are growing uncomfortable?  It's not like him to be silent even with the "operational matters".

I reckon he his getting his hair sorted out for the coming press conferences!!

fred wrote:I reckon he his getting his hair sorted out for the coming press conferences!!

I hope so Fred, my sides won't take it if he's got those dreadlocks again.