[Niamh.]

Police are ready to arrest and interview suspects over girl's disappearance in Portugal, says parents' spokesman

British police are reportedly preparing the ground to make the first arrests in their investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

A spokesman for Madeleine's parents told the Daily Mirror that police were ready to arrest and interview "key suspects". Scotland Yard confirmed that it had sent an international letter of request to the Portuguese authorities but would not elaborate on its contents.

However, the Mirror said officers were preparing to fly to the Algarve on Sunday night to speak to three burglars who carried out raids in the Portuguese resort where Madeleine, then three years old, vanished on 3 May 2007.

The Metropolitan police launched its own investigation into her disappearance in July last year and in October, when new developments in the case were put to air on the BBC Crimewatch programme, officers said they were seeking to track down the people behind a series of burglaries around the Ocean Club complex, mainly in the early months of 2007. There was also an incident almost exactly a year before the abduction when children in a ground-floor apartment saw an intruder break in through a patio door and stare into a travel cot, stealing nothing.

Earlier this month, the Mail reported that analysis of mobile phone data suggested that a burglary gang was operating very near to where Madeleine vanished and made an unusually high number of calls to each other in the hours after she was reported missing.

The spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann said: "The letter is a significant development. It is necessary for British police to request the Portuguese authorities allow them to operate on their turf.

"It means they have the intention of arresting and interviewing X, Y or Z. We don't know who they have their sights on but it's likely it is the burglars."

He said Madeleine's parents did not want to get their hopes up but "realised it could be a significant new lead". He also said it was not a formality that the Portuguese authorities would co-operate.

Portuguese police, who once falsely treated the parents as suspects, reopened their investigation in October last year, more than three years after it was shelved. Their investigation is running in parallel with the Scotland Yard inquiry but the Met police commissioner has called for the two forces to join together as one team.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...rests-portugal

[Nedusa]

Madeleine McCann.................The News Story that keeps on giving !!!!!

[arista]

"We don't know who they have their sights on but it's likely it is the burglars"


A By Product Headline

No Finding that Dead girl

[Me. I Am Salman]

nothing's gonna come of it as always ;/

[Kate!]

they need to look again at Gerry and Kate McCann, something stinks and always has done. Burglars my arse.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Salman!

nothing's gonna come of it as always ;/

Yeah probably not

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by *Kate*

they need to look again at Gerry and Kate McCann, something stinks and always has done. Burglars my arse.

mmm it would be a stretch to think burglars would decide to steal a child as well

[Nedusa]

Just to put this story in context, the Police say over 275,000 people are reported missing each year in the UK. Most of those eventually return or are traced but around 15,000 to 20,000 people are not found and that number includes a fair proportion of children and young people.

Just something to bear in mind whilst reading the latest press reports regarding this one case involving this one missing child !!!!!

[Kazanne]

Burglars is a cover for something nearer to home I think!

[Jezzy]

From the Mirror today:

"Madeleine McCann: Lawyer says 'Kate and Gerry McCann guilty of neglect for leaving her - and they weren't charged'

Gareth Morgan made the shocking claim while acting for a drink-driving mum who left her five-year-old son, who has Asperger syndrome, home alone at night

Yesterday a friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, both 45, blasted the comparison as “insensitive and plain wrong”.

The mum, 44, was caught after she crashed into a car at traffic lights. When the police went to her home they found the “extremely vulnerable” boy there.

The woman, who cannot be named, admitted neglect and was spared jail. But Mr Morgan pleaded for her freedom on the basis that Kate and Gerry McCann were never prosecuted for leaving daughter Madeleine alone in their holiday flat.

He told magistrates in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales: “The parents of Madeleine McCann were guilty of child neglect for leaving their little girl much longer than my client. They were never prosecuted.

"The mother in this case is ashamed and remorseful at putting her young child at risk in the way she did.”

The McCanns left three-year-old Madeleine in their apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz while they dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar in May 2007.


Last night a close pal of the couple, of Rothley, Leics, said: “The comments are insensitive and plain wrong. Kate and Gerry will be furious. The circumstances are totally different and not comparable.

“If Kate and Gerry were guilty of child neglect, and they were absolutely not, they would have been dealt with. As it is, there are two police inquiries in two different countries trying to find out what happened to Madeleine, and comments made by a lawyer in an unrelated case is offensive, outrageous and inaccurate."

How are they NOT comparable? And Kate / Kaz, I am totally with you. How did the burglars get in? The evidence shows that a layer of dirt on the windowsill of the window apparently "jemmied open" was completely undisturbed. Can't be that then. Did the McCanns leave the front door unlocked as well as leaving their children home alone? And they don't think they are guilty of neglect?

I'm afraid they are guilty of something much more sinister. The burglars are a nice convenient red herring.

Not to mention it's easy to identify Gerry McCann from the suppressed photofits released in October...

[Niamh.]

Yeah, they're absolutely comparable imo aswell Jezzy. Didn't they admit to leaving the patio door unlocked though, i think they did

[Jezzy]

Come to mention it Niamh, that does ring a bell...only serves to make it worse, as they didn't even bother to ensure the children were secure.

And if you were going to snatch a child, which would you take? A kicking screaming toddler or a sleepy baby?

[Niamh.]

Yeah, not sure what reason they gave for leaving that door unlocked either, it's not as if the two babies in cots could get out in an emergency or anything

[Jezzy]

Mind you, I guess a toddler might be sleepy too if the children *were* sedated to make sure they wouldn't wake up and wander off while their parents were out having a few drinks...maybe even sleepy enough to fall, hit their heads and die.

[Kate!]

there are a heck of a lot of unanswered questions with this case, and all my instincts tell me (and have done since it happened) that Kate and Gerry McCann are involved right up to their eyeballs.

[Marsh.]

I think on the Crime Watch show they mentioned something about leaving it unlocked in case there was a fire.

Bit of an odd decision to make when you're leaving very young children on their own anyway.

[Jezzy]

Originally Posted by *Kate*

there are a heck of a lot of unanswered questions with this case, and all my instincts tell me (and have done since it happened) that Kate and Gerry McCann are involved right up to their eyeballs.

Agree 100%.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by 08marsh

I think on the Crime Watch show they mentioned something about leaving it unlocked in case there was a fire.

Bit of an odd decision to make when you're leaving very young children on their own anyway.

Well yeah exactly, I mean how would the two babies in cots get out of their cots in the first place to get to the door? And 2 and 3 year olds are more likely to search for their parents in the apartment rather than try to get out the front door

[Jezzy]

Originally Posted by 08marsh

I think on the Crime Watch show they mentioned something about leaving it unlocked in case there was a fire.

Bit of an odd decision to make when you're leaving very young children on their own anyway.

Totally. As Niamh said, the babies wouldn't be able to get out anyway.

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by *Kate*

there are a heck of a lot of unanswered questions with this case, and all my instincts tell me (and have done since it happened) that Kate and Gerry McCann are involved right up to their eyeballs.

That is a ridiculous and unfounded allegation - for it to be true you would have to have 2 psychopathic people married to each other and that is beyond far fetched

[Jezzy]

Originally Posted by Catweazel

That is a ridiculous and unfounded allegation - for it to be true you would have to have 2 psychopathic people married to each other and that is beyond far fetched

Or two completely self-interested people who thought nothing could touch their wonderful lives, and when it did, didn't want anything to besmirch their reputations...

[Kate!]

Originally Posted by Catweazel

That is a ridiculous and unfounded allegation - for it to be true you would have to have 2 psychopathic people married to each other and that is beyond far fetched

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr. (ok they weren't wed but were couples).

I rest my case.

[Jezzy]

Originally Posted by *Kate*

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr. (ok they weren't wed but were couples).

I rest my case.

Don't forget Fred and Rose West :P

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by *Kate*

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr. (ok they weren't wed but were couples).

I rest my case.

Hardly comparable - look at their backgrounds and the fact they were not married and did not have exemplary employment records. Both examples were caught relatively easily due to their stupidity and condition.

( I was kind of hoping for Bonnie and Clyde)

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by Jezzy

Don't forget Fred and Rose West :P

again see my post above