Madeleine McCann: the questionable timeline and the arrested man who wasn’t
MADELEINE McCANN: the timeline questions.
Today’s front pages:
The news:
Daily Mirror: “Madeleine McCann: British man is arrested in the hunt for missing girl”
Suspect held in a swoop by Greater Manchester Police after the Sunday Mirror revealed that a man bragged about seeing Madeleine alive just weeks ago
Not quite. A man said he heard a man says he’d seen the child. Because the man who went to the police was a barrister the Mirror saw it was news.
THE dramatic arrest of a Brit in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has been described as “potentially highly significant”.
Described by whom? And arrested for what?
A source close to the couple said: “The arrest only happened as a result of a claim that Madeleine may still be alive.”
Arrested for what reason?
It is understood that the Manchester officers who made the arrest also seized computers from a private address and sent them for forensic examination.
But what was the man’s alleged crime? Bragging?
A family source confirmed last night: “This is high up on the credibility scale. The barrister did the right thing by going to police. His information has gone into the Operation Grange system and I know they are working on it. The fact that he was prepared to risk his reputation by making the statement does suggest that it is credible. There are tip-offs and sightings all the time and many of them can be ruled out immediately as either complete fantasy or because there is no credibility to the source. This one is more credible because of the nature of the man who brought it to the authorities’ attention.”
He’s credible because he’s a barrister. So. If you are a road builder or unemployed, your story is less credible? And we don’t know the man’s name, so why is his reputation at stake?
The barrister, who agreed to speak to us but who we are not naming at his request, refused to comment further on the arrest. He explained: “I cannot risk compromising the investigation or the search for Madeleine. If she is alive but now disappears again, I would never be able to forgive myself.”
But a separate source close to the arrest said: “A guy at the party told the barrister he had been introduced to Madeleine on the island in the summer. The barrister took that to mean that she was with another adult at the time but doesn’t know who it was or anything about them.”
It is unclear whether the barrister was able to give officers the name of the man he spoke to at the party.
Police have not released any details about the man they have arrested.
But why was he arrested? Because he knows about Maddie, as the story claims. No. Deep into the story, the Mirror tells its readers:
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said in a statement: “A man was arrested in September on suspicion of possession of drugs and conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children. He has been bailed pending further inquiries. An investigation is ongoing into this matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Nothing to do with the child, then. Scotland Yard have now confirmed the Mirror’s scoop as total balls.
Sky News: “Madeleine McCann Timeline Of Events ‘Wrong'”
British detectives working on the Madeleine McCann investigation have revealed that key details in the timeline that led to her disappearance were wrong.
The revised details will be documented in a new Crimewatch appeal on the case to be broadcast on Monday.
Speaking ahead of the BBC programme, senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “The timeline we have now established has given new significance to sightings and movements of people in and around Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Our work to date has significantly changed the timeline and the accepted version of events that has been in the public domain to date.
“It has allowed us to work with Crimewatch to build the most detailed reconstruction as yet, and highlight very specific appeal points.
“I hope that when the public see our investigative strands drawn together within the overall context of that appeal, it will bring in new information that moves our investigation forward.”
That is interesting. How was the timeline first established?
“Primarily what we sought to do from the beginning is try and draw everything back to zero if you like. Try and take everything back to the beginning and re-analyse and reassess everything, accepting nothing.”
Sounds sensible. Accept nothing as fact until you can establish it.
“The careful and critical analysis of the timeline has been absolutely key. Primarily, we’re focused on the area between 8.30pm and 10pm. We know at 8.30 that was the time Mr and Mrs McCann went down to the tapas area for their dinner and we know that around at 10pm that was when Mrs McCann found that Madeleine was missing.”
Well, yes.
The BBC says one truth might not be the truth:
Madeleine McCann: Crimewatch to show ‘fresh version of events’
According to mum Kate’s book, at least two checks were carried out on Maddie and her younger twin siblings.
One was by her husband Gerry and the other by a friend called Matt Oldfield.
Former GP Kate then found her eldest daughter missing around 10pm. And it is hoped that the Met Police’s work on the timeline will “place more significance on events that night”.
NEW pictures of a number of men who may be connected to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be released tomorrow by Scotland Yard.
Detectives urgently want to speak to the men — seen in and around the Algarve holiday resort from which Madeleine vanished in 2007 — after identifying “significant changes” to the timeline of events that has been accepted to date.
E-Fits of the possible suspects will be shown on BBC1’s Crimewatch and in other European countries as part of the “most complex and detailed” public appeal yet in the case.
Tomorrow’s programme will feature a 25-minute reconstruction, in which a girl bearing a close resemblance to Madeleine will act out the movements of the three-year-old before she disappeared from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz.
Telegraph:
Crimewatch presenter Kirsty Young will speak to the McCanns live in the studio during the programme, while presenter Matthew Amroliwala has been to Praia da Luz to explore the new focus of the police investigation.
The Crimewatch reconstructions features a scene of Madeleine being “abducted” – see stills below:
Such are the facts.
Posted: 13th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
