Dr Martins Roberts: "Action stations" -09 June 2014 - the mccannfiles

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html
 
By Dr Martin Roberts
09 June 2014
 
 
ACTION STATIONS
 
Actions speak louder than words they say, and since the 'big dig' began in Praia da Luz very few of the latter have been exchanged between members of the investigating teams and the circling press pack waiting to be tossed a morsel or two. DCI Redwood is credited with having said 'Good morning' at least, but that's almost as far as it goes. So the world is left to ponder the significance of what might be glimpsed through a telephoto lens. Until now. Now we know that earthworks soon to be completed at 'the snail' are shortly to be followed by a similar examination of terrain somewhere nearer Lagos or, if the second site is actually to the west and not the east, toward Burgau. Right or left, it scarcely matters. That there is to be a second 'dig', and outside of town, is information aplenty.
 
Since the immediate objectives of Scotland Yard's forensic archaeology have not so far been publicly announced, onlookers of all persuasions have defaulted to the understandably obvious conclusion that the searches currently being undertaken were planned, in the expectation, or hope at least, of finding either the body of Madeleine McCann or else some artefact or other that would illuminate more clearly the nature of the crime committed against her. And with nothing explicitly forthcoming from the investigative team, it has also been reasonably assumed that the much discussed 'Smith sighting' constituted a background to this practical and highly visible endeavour. But even with attention directed at just the one site in the first instance, any hypothetical connection between discoveries, of whatever complexion, and the notional abduction of a minor from the nearby holiday complex, was always likely to be theoretically unstable.
 
Even the casual observer would quickly notice that a local burial per se cannot sensibly be attributed to an opportunist child abductor or, for that matter, to one whose plans were laid in advance. Given the anticipated exhumation of 'items of interest' in association with an eye witness sighting (of what might have been abduction in progress), the most obvious and impenetrable obstacle to their union is that a man was seen carrying a child, but not a shovel. Presumably therefore the hopes of DCI Redwood and his colleagues were all along pinned on discovering clues lying very near the surface, which, after an interval of seven years, would rule out a discernible body of any description. Either that or 'Smithman' had a confederate whom he could trust to dig a hole for him somewhere.
 
Interest in one or other plot of vacant land within Praia da Luz cannot therefore follow, even on common sense grounds, from any acceptance that the Smith sighting genuinely represented a criminal undertaking. Perhaps, therefore, something by way of specific information, from whichever quarter, has led Scotland Yard to focus their attention on the area they have so far been exploring. With the announcement of a second dig out of town however, comes a clearer understanding of what is, or is not, at the back of this latest initiative on the part of Operation Grange.
 
Others with considerably more experience of criminal types and behaviours than I have argued elsewhere that selection of local sites for retrospective ground searches conforms to the premise that anyone with an urgent need to dispose of a victim’s body is likely to do so within a reasonable distance of their own domicile, place of work, or other familiar locus with which they are particularly comfortable or associated. In the case of Madeleine McCann, even if one were to suggest the possibility that her assailant was a temporary resident within the Ocean Club resort, say, similar considerations would apply. In addition, the need to minimise the duration of any absence from base, so to speak, would further determine that victim disposal should take place within a comfortable walking distance, there and back. And that, in a nutshell, tells us exactly what DCI Redwood and company would rather not.
 
Acknowledgement that a second dig is to be located several kilometres to the east, west, north or south of the supposed crime scene indicates immediately that Scotland Yard are neither acting on a tip off nor entertaining the possibility of the parents' involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
 
The surmise that Myra Hindley and Ian Brady's victims were buried somewhere on Saddleworth moor did not itself kick-start a directed search (the moors represent a very large tract of land). Fortunately the police were in possession of indicative location photographs. Similarly, a hint to the effect that Madeleine McCann might be buried on wasteland in or near Praia da Luz is simply not specific enough to justify the targeted operation we see unfolding before us. Nevertheless, pursuant upon the hypothesis, however outlandish, that Madeleine was abducted dead or alive by one or more reasonably local Algarve residents, both 'the snail' (so called) and the locus of the forthcoming fieldwork very probably represent candidate disposal areas, being close to the residences/places of employment of certain supposedly shady characters, whom the Metropolitan Police would wish now to question in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (assuming of course that they themselves are still alive and haven't fallen under a bus or a tractor in the meantime).
 
If, therefore, Scotland Yard's spadework on this case should continue at a site some kilometres distant from the Ocean Club, it is more than a fair indication that those thought to have been responsible for Madeleine's exodus were not themselves resident there at the time (nobody knowingly carries a corpse for miles do they?) and that blame awaits whichever local(s) might best fit the bill. If so, the 'bill' will have a very tough time making the fit.
 
Burglars who steal nothing of value are either beyond stupid or on another mission altogether. Drug dealing vagabonds, even those in the Portuguese Algarve, are extremely unlikely to fund their habits by entering captives into mini-slave auctions (that scenario belongs only in a Liam Neeson movie) and the excavators of Scotland Yard are clearly not looking for 'live' evidence. It has however been mooted abroad that an intruder intent on theft might have been interrupted, panicked, and unintentionally killed a child witness to their lesser crime, taking the body for a hike immediately afterwards – one that is now conjectured to have taken a good deal of time and several kilometres to complete.
 
That proposal is absurd - less credible even than the idea that the 'Spring-heeled Jack' of Praia da Luz actually disturbed a sleeping Madeleine in the first instance. Gerry McCann failed to do so when he noisily opened the front door to his own apartment and before gazing down upon three children, who were all still asleep. They were just as unruffled by Matthew Oldfield's later intrusion by all accounts. Even if Gerry too had crept in through the back door after all, he still flushed the toilet, yet roused no one. Or perhaps Madeleine followed him toward the patio in silence and Gerry just did not see her behind the heavy drapes as he turned to slide the door shut. Then, in sheer frustration, Madeleine climbed upon the sofa on hearing her father's voice project from across the road – and fell to her doom, invisible to Oldfield and burglars alike and quite unable to witness anything or anyone thereafter.
 
The only realistic role that any underworld character could conceivably have played in Praia da Luz that Thursday night, May 3rd, would not have involved stealing, but receiving, from someone dressed more like a British tourist than a local itinerant, if all of the details of the Smith sighting are taken into account.
 
But they have not been, have they? Decapitated e-fits have been transplanted onto football club away strips/promotional wear (take your pick) as most likely worn by refuse collectors (who thoughtfully removed from 5A a corpse they could not find in the dark). Did someone else point the way then, or was it all another Tim Burton production? ("Can I please speak to the wardrobe department"?). "

I don't understand the last paragraph. Somebody please explain it to me.

Wintabells wrote:I don't understand the last paragraph. Somebody please explain it to me.

Hi Wintabells

I didn't understand the last paragraph and I said so a few minutes ago. However I deleted my post after I took another look at the paragraph and understood a small part of it. The part I understand is, that pictures of the e-fits, were transferred onto football strips, which I presume you'll understand.

What I don't understand is, the paragraph above the last paragraph.

The only realistic role that any underworld character could conceivably have played in Praia da Luz that Thursday night, May 3rd, would not have involved stealing, but receiving, from someone dressed more like a British tourist than a local itinerant, if all of the details of the Smith sighting are taken into account.

But they have not been, have they? Decapitated e-fits have been transplanted onto football club away strips/promotional wear (take your pick) as most likely worn by refuse collectors (who thoughtfully removed from 5A a corpse they could not find in the dark). Did someone else point the way then, or was it all another Tim Burton production? ("Can I please speak to the wardrobe department"?).



Hi Kathybelle

Ok, my understanding of the penultimate paragraph is that for the reasons explained earlier in the article, there is no way a drug dealer/burglar or any other kind of underworld character removed Madeleine from 5A... so if an underworld character was involved it could have been by receiving Madeleine from the person the Smith family saw (i.e. someone dressed like a British tourist) and then burying her somewhere. But as the Smith's sighting details (that a British-looking bloke was carrying a Madeleine-looking child towards the beach) haven't been taken into account, we're left with the last paragraph... i.e. that the public is still being led to believe that the person responsible for M's disappearance is bundleman/binman. I think that's what it means...

But what does this bit mean? Did someone else point the way then

My take is that S.Y mixed illogically Smith's e-fits and the T.shirt of the last suspect, the man who had a burgundy
T-shirt with the logo of a football team.
And may be, if such an abductor ever existed, it's the Mccann who told him where the child was to dispose of the body.

But I could be wrong.

Smith man passed on the body to a person with an efit off bundle man/binman/tractor man....weariing a burgundy promotional t shirt ....there was more than one 'abductor'



We all know who smith man was...who was the other man.

SY are choosing to ignore smith man as he looks like Gerry McCann so they are mingling efits together In the hope we are thick and smith man evolves into someone else they want to fit up.

Who knows, SY may find the t shirt in their new search.

kitti wrote:Smith man passed on the body to a person with an efit off bundle man/binman/tractor man....weariing a burgundy promotional t shirt ....there was more than one 'abductor'



We all know who smith man was...who was the other man.

Sergi Malinka lived along that street, where Smithman was seen. Rua 25 de Abril. Not saying anything, just making an observation.

Hmmmmm. Didn't know that.



What about the new site?

Thanks for the explanations of the last 2 para's. I read it last night and didn't understand and thought I'd come back in the morning when I've had a sleep to see if it was any clearer.
Sergi Malinka, eh. I didn't know that either.

Hmmmm.