Sun: Update. Portuguese Police say no to new Maddie probe

THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann suffered a huge blow last night when slack Portuguese cops REFUSED to reopen the case.

The decision flies in the face of British evidence that she could be still alive.

Kate and Gerry McCann had been given fresh hope by a Met review of the investigation.

Yesterday a source close to them said: “They were hoping the Portuguese would see sense and agree. But it seems not.

“There is a little girl missing — that is all that should matter. They feel the best hope of finding Madeleine lies in the case being reopened.”




The snub came after Met Commander Simon Foy revealed 195 new leads and called for the Portuguese to reopen the case. He declared: “On the evidence there is a possibility that she is alive.”

But yesterday two top legal chiefs in Portugal incredibly said there was NO reason for it to be looked at again.

Their attorney general Pinto Monteiro scoffed: “The case will only be reopened if there are credible new facts.

“Hypotheses are not enough. There have been a thousand sightings which have turned out to be false.”



And Pedro do Carmo, assistant national director of the justice department, added: “There are no reasons to justify the reopening of the case.”



Madeleine, who would now be nearly nine, vanished from a holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

The year-long Met review was launched after Kate and Gerry penned an open letter to PM David Cameron in The Sun begging him to help them.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Scotland Yard revealed their review had found 195 new leads — and unveiled a new image of how Madeleine would look now.

But there are now fears the leads will never be followed up — although Mr Cameron is believed to still be trying to get the Portuguese government to reopen the case.



A source said: “The truth is that the British police can only make recommendations.”

The Home Office issued a carefully-worded statement after the refusal. It said: “We have asked the Metropolitan Police to review the case and they are working with the Portuguese police.”

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry think there is good justification in reopening the case. They remain hopeful.”


myView


By ALAN JOHNSON, Former Home Secretary

I AM not surprised there is some resentment in Portugal. But we have to use all diplomatic channels now — including the Home Secretary ringing her opposite number.

The Portuguese police must put all that behind them and concentrate on one thing, and that is a little English girl who went missing.

I’m sure the Portuguese have the compassion and understanding to put away their enmities so we can pursue these leads together.

What is the Portuguese Judiciary afraid of?

crazytony wrote:What is the Portuguese Judiciary afraid of?

You want I should draw you a picture? Or you got at least 2 days free while I outline the whole thing? LL

Lamplighter wrote:

crazytony wrote:What is the Portuguese Judiciary afraid of?

You want I should draw you a picture? Or you got at least 2 days free while I outline the whole thing? LL

OH, a picture please, LL.

crazytony wrote:

Lamplighter wrote:

crazytony wrote:What is the Portuguese Judiciary afraid of?

You want I should draw you a picture? Or you got at least 2 days free while I outline the whole thing? LL

OH, a picture please, LL.

You would! Typical - I am a lousy artist. Let your vivid imagination run riot .... LL

It does rather give the lie to The McCanns being able to get The Case Reopened. The McCanns never could, and no amount of letters or stamps from them will make a scrap of difference, despite what The Nasties keep on screeching.

I don't know if any of these new leads constitute New Evidence, but the main problem is that Scotland Yard can't go into Portugal and start questioning possible witnesses. What else they can do remains for them to decide.
Although why Portugal should wish to be seen to harbour a Child Abductor is a bit beyond me.

I'm with Tony on this. What are they afraid of?

Are they afraid that they (Gonc's crew) will have been shown to have bungled the case so badly that any chance to find Madeleine has long passed?

lily wrote:I'm with Tony on this. What are they afraid of?

Are they afraid that they (Gonc's crew) will have been shown to have bungled the case so badly that any chance to find Madeleine has long passed?

IMO, Lily, there is something a lot more sinister behind this refusal, than just bungling the case

Does Cristoavo have a file on the Pinto Monteiro, and Co. do you think?

You would think any decent AG, would do all possible to find Madeleine and Portugals missing children, but no they would rather sit back and watch innocent folks beat up and stitched up for crimes they didn't commit.

But there's no corruption anywhwere in Portugal, Is there??? s

Maggs, there is something rotten there. That's for sure.

This was posted elsewhere, and it's very timely:

hotrod says:
"The canard that the Ciprianos didn't report Joana missing for two days stems from the (hitherto) standard Portuguese practice of not commencing an investigation until two days after a child is reported missing."

------
"Completly untrue. The child was reported missing by a neighbour on the night she went missing when she became concerned that the mother was not going to bother reporting it to the policeman that was on duty in the town. When asked why she hadn't reported her child missing, she said she had no credit on her phone!!!"

-----------
You have evidence for that?

Meanwhile, here's something I saved from way back, though unfortunately the link no longer works.

http://katiesmith.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/275/

When 11 year old Rui Pedro went missing in Portugal in 1998 all signs pointed to Rui being the victim of an abduction; But when his mother went to the police she was astounded by their attitude.

"I went to the Police Headquarters asking for help, because everything was telling us that Rui Pedro was kidnapped and I was told that the Police couldn't do anything. They told me that I would have to ask the judicial district judge to get in touch with the local authorities so we could find out what type of crime this was and only the judge could consider this a kidnapping and only in this case they could interfere. I explained what had happened and implored them to come and act as soon as possible, because on the following day it could be too late"

All organisations dealing with child abductions agree that the first 48 hours are crucial. That small window of opportunity can make the difference as to whether a child is found alive or not. This is why the Amber Alert in the USA has been adopted successfully in countries like France; it works.
The parent of a missing child in Portugal, however, enters a Twilight Zone where they need to convince the authorities that their child has been abducted. They need to spend those vital hours of that crucial window convincing a local judge that the crime is one of abduction and therefore worthy of police time. Why? Who in god's name does that serve? It doesn't help the parents or the missing child....it does help the abductor.
The police should always assume the worst case scenario when a child goes missing and investigate it as a possible abduction, till the facts show otherwise. The onus should be on the police not the parents and bureaucracy should never enter the picture.

Inspite of the judge giving permission for Rui Pedro's parent's phone to be tapped after they received calls asking for a ransom the police refused to accept he had been kidnapped and refused to follow up on the calls;
And every time we asked them if they had followed any clue, they would ask us how could they have done it, if they even hadn't heard these people, nothing could be done in order to know who was calling, as we answered that there are ways to do it, they told us that it was only in the movies.

The response of the police in this case should make every right minded person angry; angry for Rui Pedro, and angry for his parents. Nationality, race and creed become meaningless when a child goes missing, this is not an attack on Portugal. This is about a group of children who were let down badly by a system that makes no rational sense, on any planet.

The police refused to believe that Rui Pedro had been kidnapped until the gates of Hades opened for a second or two to show depravity on an uminagined scale;

Horrific images of Rui Pedro being sexually abused were reportedly uncovered during an international police operation that cracked a global paedophile network. More than 200 paedophiles in 13 countries had exchanged more than 750,000 images of children through a private internet club called Wonderland.
Analysis showed that 1,236 children had been subjected to abuse that officers described as "unimaginable". Some were babies, raped by their abusers. Others were sexually abused live, to order, on line. Officers described weeping as they catalogued the pictures and being haunted for years afterwards.
The Portuguese boy's mother, Filomena Teixera, flew to Switzerland to view the pictures and was apparently able to identify her son. But he has never been found. The trail has gone cold and investigators fear that may have been murdered to cover up the abuse. Now the disappearance of Madeleine has brought those agonising memories flooding back.

Rui Pedro deserved better than this, as did his parents. His case highlights a pattern in Portugal of dealing with missing children, a pattern that became painfully apparent with the abduction of Madeleine Mccann.

It's wasted on those thicko forkers on Amazon, but does rather cut to the heart of things.....

Maggs wrote:Joana Cipriano disappeared at approximately 20:30 hours on the evening her village was hosting its annual Sao Miguel festival, and was promptly reported missing to the regional GNR policing authorities by her Mother, Leonor Cipriano via their local shopkeeper, Mrs Alfelia.

I suppose it is too much to hope that, one day, these gullible, malign fools who have swallowed down whole every word of propaganda churned out by the likes of Morais, will realise that -

THEY ARE NOT 'TRUTHSEEKERS' - THEY ARE THE BEST FRIENDS A CHILD ABDUCTOR COULD WISH FOR

What is Pinto Monteiro afraid of? What is Pedro do Carmo afraid of?

Perhaps they are afraid that more corruption or incompetence will be exposed again?

justify the salary you earn each month, with the re-opening of the Madeleine McCann case.

because, that´s why you are being paid, that´s why taxpayers money is being used to pay salaries of Pinto Monteiro, Pedro do Carmo, the same about PJ.

Drug trafficking can look easy to 'solve', Pedro. There is so much money in it, that dealers and traffickers sometimes let dirty cops arrest minor members of their gangs and sieze drugs from them.

It looks as if the police are doing a good job, seizing those drugs and getting criminals off the street.

In fact, the cops involved are as dirty as the drug traffickers; the small fry goes to jail, the trafficking goes on as before, the police involved get a payoff, the public think something is being done about drugs so the police get a pay rise.

I tell you this Pinto Monteiro, Pedro do Carmo, PJ, if you people thinks that this will go away, you people are completely wrong. The more you people say no to the case being re-opened, the more we insist, this I assure you.

You´re right bb1.

It's dirty, it's corrupt, and it's the oldest trick in the book, Pedro. It's something that blights police forces world-wide and Portugal won't be any different, unfortunately.

The only thing that stops it is police officers getting very long jail sentences when they are caught.

Yes bb1, I agree with you.