Madeleine McCann detectives identify ‘potential suspects’ but won’t tell us how many or why
MADELEINE McCann vanished six years ago. Another summer of sighting looms, all eagerly reported by newspapers looking for easy news in the shark-spotting season. The Evening Standard reports:
British police identify new leads in hunt for Madeleine McCann and urge Portuguese to act
Go on:
Scotland Yard has identified a number of potential suspects who may have abducted Madeleine McCann, the force’s top detective revealed today.
Can he be a little less vague?
Investigators carrying out a review of the case have drawn up a list of people who they say are “of interest” to the inquiry.
Can they name names? Hope so. Without names we have nothing to see. It;s just no-news news:
Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, the head of Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said there were a “good number” of individuals who should be questioned.
Why? Who? And who is DCS Campbell? Well, he works on the Met’s Madeleine McCann Review Team.
Today he urged the Portuguese authorities to investigate the new leads identified by the British review.
But why tell the media? Surely Portugal, the is country’s oldest ally needs no prompting in the media?
DCS Campbell, speaking on the eve of his retirement from the Met, said: “There are a lot of people of interest. There are people who could be properly explored further, if only to be eliminated.”
Eliminate! Eliminate!
He refused to give numbers but said there was “more than a handful” of names of “people of interest”.
Why refuse facts?
…Today DCS Campbell said the 30-strong review squad had done a “fantastic” job in identifying “further investigative and forensic opportunities.”
Good. Progress.
He said it was “perfectly probable” that information which could identify the suspect responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance was already within the Portuguese files.
Er…
He added: “We have to ask ourselves why are cases unsolved and, on many occasions, we find we passed the suspects by already and the suspect sits within our system.”
Sure. But what specifically has been found?
Detectives from the Yard’s team have travelled to Portugal around 10 times to liaise with the authorities there and gather evidence in an inquiry which has cost more than £2 million.
So far, Portugal’s attorney general has ruled out a new inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance but the comments from the senior Yard detective will raise hopes of a fresh investigation.
DCS Campbell said: “The Portuguese hopefully will pursue some of these investigative opportunities with our assistance. There is room for further work and collaboration to resolve the case.”
Isn’t good detective work about facts?
He re-iterated a claim that Madeleine could still be alive. He said: “You only have to look at the case in Cleveland, Ohio, and the European cases. Of course, there is a possibility she is alive, you cannot exclude it. But the key is to investigate the case and, alive or dead, we should be able to try and discern what happened.”
Yes. Try to find out what happened. In other words, the police should investigate. Hurrah for the expert copper.
He added: “The purpose of the review is to look at it with fresh eyes…there has been real benefit in doing it.”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 17th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
