Madeleine McCann - police close in on suspects - thread for apologies

This point is important, because actually it has worked the other way for a number of reasons - they were seen as 'cold'; they have working class/regional accents and so despite their jobs were not seen as 'middle class'; they were British and therefore fair game for the lies coming from Portuguese detectives who had reasons (which we don't fully know yet - see the extensive online material on the links between paedophile rings and senior police officers in Portugal for possible clues) to lie and wanted to smear them. It didn't help that the authorities in Portugal have seemed to constantly want to pin the blame on them, rather than face the unpleasant reality that Portugal may not be the blissfully safe family holiday location that their tourist industry PR machine wants it to be.

So in fact, no, the media were not their friends - and for the first, crucial weeks and months of the case, the British tabloids swallowed some of the Portuguese line on the case wholesale and uncritically. The McCanns have been pushing against a mountain of misinformation ever since.

You do make a fair point here - it didn't all go their way at all, but their (apparent) priority was finding their little girl, and as the original question was

Original post by little_tom

This story gets so much media attention. Not sure why its more important than the other hundreds of kids that go missing every year?

and the McCanns see keeping it in the media as the key to finding her, actually they have used the media to their advantage. Now, it wasn't with as much finesse as Max Clifford might have managed, but if we assume that their sole aim was finding Madeleine rather than self glorification, actually they have used it to their advantage, because even the stories about them possibly having killed her kept it in the media, and therefore in the public consciousness.

Reply 81

Scott.

2

There's not a chance that they'll find her,or the person(s) who "abducted" her. Especially after the amount of time that has passed, plus the huge amount of media coverage, could easily make the abductor(s) paranoid enough to kill her pretty quickly after taking her.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 82

Old_Simon

12

I have had a theory of the crime in my head for ages. If you sit and distill all the known facts one quite obvious possibility arises in a hypothetical way. I obviously am not going to discuss that theory in any way because the case is sub judice.

Reply 83

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Origami Bullets

Madeleine McCann + child stealing gypsies = Daily Mail's wet dream

I wouldn't believe a thing until it's gone through the courts.

It's worth mentioning by the way that the articles in the press about this are citing a 'camp' of 'travellers' and 'local fishermen', not gypsies as such. Of course, the former is often used as code for the latter, but they aren't the same thing.

Reply 84

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Scott.

There's not a chance that they'll find her,or the person(s) who "abducted" her. Especially after the amount of time that has passed, plus the huge amount of media coverage, could easily make the abductor(s) paranoid enough to kill her pretty quickly after taking her.

Posted from TSR Mobile

These things are always down to the quality and determination of the investigation, plus some luck. Many old cases get successfully solved. This one can be too.

Reply 85

Klix88

17

Original post by Old_Simon

the case is sub judice.

No it isn't. "Sub judice" means that there's a court case in process.

If it was an offence to publicly theorise about the McCann case, then every paper - and a lot of contributors to this thread - would be breaking the law.

Reply 86

Old_Simon

12

Original post by Klix88

No it isn't. "Sub judice" means that there's a court case in process.

If it was an offence to publicly theorise about the McCann case, then every paper - and a lot of contributors to this thread - would be breaking the law.