"Killing Time" by Dr Martin Roberts 14/06/14

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
13 June 2014

KILLING TIME



FROM SKY News correspondent Tom Parmenter, with a ringside seat at the oracle, Praia da Luz, we first heard that Scotland Yard had 'refused to reveal what intelligence led them to the search areas or to give any updates on their progress.'

The progressive geophysical distribution of the different dig sites itself indicated that 'intelligence' was not the trigger for the excavations' taking place at all.

We have since been told that:

'This is the police moving through their investigation, almost perhaps going through a list, ticking them off as they go through. What that list is based on...the intelligence that they have gathered over the course of the past year, or so, looking again into this disappearance of Madeleine McCann'.

What that list is based on...God only knows.

However, now that said activity has been officially wound up, for the time being at least, we have an official explanation for it at least:

"The decision to search the 'horse shoe' shaped piece of waste ground to the west of Praia da Luz and other sites was as a specific result of the UK’s investigation work to date".

So not based upon 'intelligence' per se, as an anonymous local resident clearly guessed and wryly observed (in red paint).

We have also been treated to another deluge of numbers, no doubt for the joint purposes of reassurance and statistical comparison (see: All The Premier's Men – McCannfiles, 29.4.2014). Most significantly however we are told in conclusion that:

"There is still a substantial amount of work yet to be completed in the coming weeks and months, which again should be viewed as no more than normal operational activity in a case of this size and complexity. This recent work is part of ensuring that all lines of enquiry are progressed in a systematic manner and covers just the one hypothesis that she was killed and buried locally".

Jolly good. Operational standards were apparently observed in carrying out the tasks in question, so everyone could go home happy, and those with unwavering faith in the system could be satisfied that 'part one' was accomplished satisfactorily and in complete accordance with expectations (as if the crime were committed in the UK).

Unfortunately the 'Met' have just dropped a stitch, and now there is every chance that, three years and a few million drinking vouchers later, Operation Grange will soon assume the same status as Operation Market Garden – a heroic failure (something the British are lamentably better at than football).

'How is it possible to be so pessimistic?' you ask.

Well let's examine the announcement that all this digging, the exact purpose of which was kept a closely guarded secret at the outset, covered 'just the one hypothesis', that Madeleine McCann 'was killed and buried locally'.

With no specific purpose, only optimistic expectation, the gamble was clearly that Madeleine's remains, or something of significant relevance to her disappearance, would be discovered, either of which outcomes could be used in support of the 'one hypothesis' in question. Otherwise what, exactly, does Scotland Yard base its hypothesis on? The McCanns have been quick to publish (via their spokesperson, which makes it all the more solid) a 'sigh of relief' statement on learning that the BEF is returning home:

"We are very pleased that significant activity has taken place in Praia da Luz over the last 10 days with police officers and support teams from the UK working closely with the Policia Judiciaria and the Guarda Nacional Republicana.

"We are further encouraged that despite the intensive searches, no trace of Madeleine has been found and this reinforces our belief that she could still be alive".

We are further encouraged that despite the intensive searches, no trace of Madeleine has been found.

You bet!

What parent in the world could possibly be 'encouraged' to learn that no trace of their missing child had been found? (Oh, hang on. There is one couple...).

(Does anyone remember reading a similarly gushing 'official statement' along the lines of, "We are very pleased that significant activity is to take place in Praia da Luz over the coming days with police officers and support teams from the UK working closely with the Policia Judiciaria and the Guarda Nacional Republicana"? I think I missed it.)

And that, dear reader, is where the absurdity of Operation Grange 'doing exactly what it says on the remit tin' is revealed, the McCann reaction to the expedition's failure being the 'shadow' that, although shy in terms of dimensionality, reflects the reality of the situation nevertheless.

With the revelatory discovery of 'Tannerman', Jane Tanner was exonerated and abduction became feasible at least. It took the McCanns a little while to figure out that Rip Van Tannerman's coming forward after six years was about as likely as Madeleine herself doing so but, following a modest hiatus, they soon reverted to plan A, confident that there would be no repercussions from 'The Yard'. Their insecurity over the more recent evidential escapade will have stemmed not from their knowing the intentions of the investigators, but from their not knowing what might have been deposited in or around Praia da Luz by others on their behalf, whether explicitly sanctioned or otherwise (it only takes one loose canon). But now they have been given the 'all clear' from 'the Yard' once more and it's 'business as usual' thank you very much.

That is not the crux of the matter however.

Despite DCI Redwood's apparent enthusiasm, the McCanns, and, it must be said, a great many others, couldn't quite bring themselves to accept 'Tannerman' into evidence, so to speak. All the while he might prove somewhat reluctant, shall we say, to answer a court subpoena, one could reasonably proceed on the basis of less than absolute confidence in this 'evidence' that Jane Tanner was genuinely mistaken. Now too, and no doubt to the Yard's chagrin, there is (you've guessed it) 'no evidence that Madeleine has come to any harm'.

This is not to say that DCI Redwood and co. are deliberately setting out to do the McCanns a favour, but the inevitable result of their misguided approach to the whole puzzle is exactly that.

With no evidence to speak of in support of this one hypothesis (that Madeleine was killed and buried locally) Operation Grange have now saddled themselves with some unwanted luggage, in that they have now to continue 'ensuring that all lines of enquiry are progressed in a systematic manner' and in relation to other hypotheses, however implausible.

All lines of enquiry. Which must surely include the possibility that Madeleine was killed locally but buried at a more distant location, or removed (kicking and screaming?) some distance, then killed and buried. How are they going to test that one – excavate the whole of Portugal? (there is a veritable raft of complications attaching to any idea that Madeleine was extracted from apartment 5A then buried near or far – enough to warrant a separate discussion). Perhaps she was not killed at all, but sold to some passing Sheikh to feature in a video production (like the one entertained by Leicester Police, even though it existed before Madeleine's supposed abduction). There is no evidence that Madeleine has come to harm remember.

In adopting the strategy they have, the Metropolitan Police have opened up two very serious areas of concern. First, with their hopes dashed and nothing now to evidence the fact that Madeleine McCann is dead, on what did they base their supposition of her death in the first place? Second 'all lines of enquiry' being opened up once more, exactly how many of them can Operation Grange exhaust before DCI Redwood, and no doubt various of his more experienced 'Maddie' team members, retires?

As to the first of these questions, there is of course one very obvious answer, but this being 'multiple-choice' it is extremely unlikely that the Grange strategists would want to go there, any more than did Jim Gamble during his recent interview (The JVS Show phone-in on BBC Three Counties Radio, 15 May). Ironically, yet predictably, their failure to uncover confirmatory evidence for their own act of faith has dropped them straight into the bucket they were instructed to avoid at the outset. The bottom line is that Operation Grange, having ploughed the soil, is now between a rock and a hard place, irrespective of whatever activity they might have planned for the future.

At this stage it looks very much as if the operation is destined to conclude, before the year is out and Redwood retired, that Madeleine McCann is simply 'missing, whereabouts unknown' (and don't you dare accuse us of a 'whitewash', because all of the investigative procedures were followed to the letter and 'best practice' observed in accordance with standards as laid down – we have the statistics to prove it).