Madeleine McCann: Roderick MacDonald, No Suspects And DCI Nicola Wall
Madeleine McCann: a look at reporting on the missing child in the news:
Get Hampshire reports: “Convicted Aldershot paedophile questioned over Madeleine McCann disappearance”
Roderick MacDonald, 77, was questioned by police in his prison cell as British officers try to uncover vital clues about who snatched Madeleine, aged three at the time of her disappearance, in 2007. MacDonald, said to have been in the Algarve when she vanished, was questioned about his alleged connection to a child sex gang operating in Portugal and linked to her disappearance.
How linked?
It is believed he was pressed on what he knew about a spate of burglaries which occurred in the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine’s family were staying when she went missing. British detectives think the burglaries – believed to be carried out by a lone intruder between 2004 and 2010 – could be the key to finally solving what happened to her.
Think. Believe. Could.
The latest development comes as it was confirmed 11 people – four of whom are thought to be British – due to be quizzed over Madeleine’s disappearance next week will be asked to attend a police station as witnesses, not as suspects.
And MacDonald?
MacDonald was arrested in Malta in October having been subject of an international arrest warrant since 2012. MacDonald was due to be extradited to the UK after he was remanded in custody in Malta. But when detectives there searched his flat, in the quiet village of Sannat, they uncovered a stash of child pornography and sentenced him to 16 months in prison.
But that “link”?
A close friend of MacDonald’s, who had no idea about his sordid past, said: “He was always talking about how he was in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing. He would brag about how he sailed a yacht into Praia da Luz but we never thought anything of it. We had no idea how evil this man was before he was arrested. Now it seems completely sinister. No wonder the police were so keen to quiz him.”
MacDonald, nee Roderick William Robinson, is a pathetic man who preys on chidlren. But what link to Madeleine McCann?
The Express eyes other targets:
TWO men who bear striking resemblances to people seen around the holiday apartment from where Madeleine McCann vanished will be the focus of Scotland Yard investigations in Portugal this week.
And:
The men, one British and one Portuguese, are expected to face questioning in Faro on the Algarve along with nine other witnesses.
Portuguese officers will conduct the interviews with British officers present.
Separate witnesses saw the men near the apartment in Praia da Luz shortly before Madeleine, three, was abducted on May 3 2007.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood flies to Faro tomorrow in the hope that he can achieve a breakthrough in the days before he retires.
He is being joined on the trip by from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command Unit.
She is taking over command of Operation Grange, the Yard’s investigation into the case, on December 22.
The Express later notes:
Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall, an experienced murder squad officer…
Elsewhere, the Indy profiles the season’s best reads “for children”:
Still on the subject of child disappearance is Emma Haughton’s Now You See Me …(Usborne, £6.99) which is inspired by a true story. Danny, 13, has disappeared. The novel bravely explores how it feels for those who are left when they simply don’t know what happened. You’d be hard put not to think of Madeleine McCann’s parents…
Such are the facts…
Posted: 7th, December 2014 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
