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Because I’ve definitely see it before.
I think it's more-accurate to say that I feel I've seen this on numerous occasions (public statements made about additional-additional-additional public Policing funding being found for this odd and interminable case).

And that's as distinct from publically-raised unofficial private investigative support funding.

This all only adds to the curious nature of what did (or did not) happen on that evening so long ago.
 
My opinion swings on this. I did believe that it would need all the tapas crowd to be covering and as such I didn't believe the McCanns were involved.

The cadaver dog evidence has been refuted and it seemed logical to dismiss it but I've recently read the exact methods used by dog team which actually seem excellent and designed to prevent false hits. So my suspicion swings again.

If it wasn't for poor little Azaria Chamberlain I would have a stronger opinion.
 
Because I’ve definitely see it before.

Over the years we've heard several announcements about another load of money being spent on this case, usually with the implication that this is the very last lot and then it's over.

Or perhaps that's just how the tabloids present it when working up into a story every scrap of McCann-related information they hear. The Mail or Express published photos of Portuguese detectives on a working lunch to imply that they sat around eating and drinking all day instead of investigating. There's nothing else to report.
 
The Mail or Express published photos of Portuguese detectives on a working lunch to imply that they sat around eating and drinking all day instead of investigating.
The last thing I watched on this showed the Portuguese police to be as professional and organised as any. It's poor indeed to portray them as anything else.
 
I've just opened my local paper to read that police have just had their last last last last ditch attempt at finding Claudia Lawrence. So I think it's more a reporting fault than an actuality to say that this is the last amount of money being spent on the case.

If there's more evidence, then of course they will find the funding to investigate it.
 
usually with the implication that this is the very last lot and then it's over.
is this true ?

the last linked article rather says : The new funding is for the six-month period until 31 March next year.
Detectives have been applying to the Home Office every six months for a grant to continue their work."
 
is this true ?

the last linked article rather says : The new funding is for the six-month period until 31 March next year.
Detectives have been applying to the Home Office every six months for a grant to continue their work."

Sounds about right! I was talking about how the tabloids present the case, not how it really is.
 
I'll admit though, while I used to be very interested in the McCann case it seems there's nothing new going on apart from fresh funding.

That's not to say that someone, somewhere doesn't know what went on, or that the police have no firm ideas. We're just not being told, if that's the case. That's partly because of Portuguese legal custom.

One day the truth might come out. Not holding my breath.
 
The last thing I watched on this showed the Portuguese police to be as professional and organised as any. It's poor indeed to portray them as anything else.

But while this is the likes of The Daily Mail we're talking about that's exactly how they'll always try to portray them. Not because they aren't professional. Purely because they aren't British. And god knows they'll go to town for trumping up anything they can if they can paint them as lazy EUROPEANS!!!

Because xenophobia fuels the British tabloids like nothing else.
 
I'll admit though, while I used to be very interested in the McCann case it seems there's nothing new going on apart from fresh funding.

That's not to say that someone, somewhere doesn't know what went on, or that the police have no firm ideas. We're just not being told, if that's the case. That's partly because of Portuguese legal custom.

One day the truth might come out. Not holding my breath.

That's basically how I feel about it at this stage. We're forever being told there are new leads or lines of enquiry. Not once are we ever even hinted towards what those are or to what they refer.

Nothing concrete ever arises.

The only thing we know for certain is that Kate and Gerry McCann abandoned their daughter, and left her unguarded in an unlocked hotel room, while they went off to have an evening without children.

Whether Madeline was kidnapped, murdered or something worse happened we may never know. But had her parents respected and adhered to the duty of care which they had over her this would never have happened.

I find it increasingly difficult to sympathise with two people who have escaped prosecution for neglecting their child, whilst profiting from books and public appearances.
 
That's not to say that someone, somewhere doesn't know what went on, or that the police have no firm ideas. We're just not being told, if that's the case. That's partly because of Portuguese legal custom.
There was a notorious murder of a girl who was a few years older than Madeleine was, which happened in the town where I used to live. Not just a disappearance, but an actual murder - the poor kid was found floating in the canal. A source I find irreproachable, and who was in a position to know, told me that the police knew full well who was responsible, but were unable to put a sufficiently sound case together to satisfy the CPS. And so the circus grinds on each year, with the ritual appeals for information around the anniversary of her death. They did door-to-door enquiries one year, and asked me if I knew anything. This despite me having moved into the area some 12 years after her murder. I thought better of repeating what I had heard from my source... My point being that the poor sods doing the door-knocking were presumably on work time.

Speaking of door-knocking, it only occurs to me now that the police also came battering on our door to ask me what I knew about Madeleine's death disappearance. My elder daughter would have been about the same age at the time, and also had long brown hair. Yeah, her and how many million other three-year-olds? Someone had spotted her riding next to me in the front seat of the van we had as we travelled to the airport, and made 5 from 2+2. My next-door-neighbour was able to tell the police that my daughter did exist, and that was the end of that. But by all accounts they were making a pretty good job of trying to get an answer from our house. I can't help feeling, with all due respect, that I might have dodged a slippery staircase that day.
 
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I've only recently become fully acquainted with this case, and that's largely through the exhaustive - and at times exhausting - videos of Rich D Hall, and a few others available on Youtube. While I don't believe Mr Hall is as objective and analytical as he purports to be, he does highlight so many inconsistencies and oddities I do struggle to accept the 'abduction' theory. My instincts lean towards Maximus Otter's summation of a few pages back, but that's only instinct. A couple of things that particularly tweak it are:-

The McCann's consistently detached behaviour. I don't read it as being compartmentalised or tamped down in order to cope, as surely even then there'd be subtle indicators; surely you can't entirely bury trauma that intense? To me they seem distant, remote, disconnected somehow, their tones emotionless, their expressions flat. In one interview I saw they were holding hands, but in a static, lifeless way that felt more like they were doing it for the sake of appearances, and not for genuine mutual comfort. On some unconscious level they feel off to me, but that's entirely subjective.

The way they refer to Madeleine. As noted by someone earlier - I regret I can't think who - they have a habit of talking about how they're feeling, and how they felt that dark evening, but never acknowledge their daughter's feelings. True, you have to take the questions and interviewer into account, but it still seems awry, I still struggle to believe it possible to wall off these things so completely. Adjacent to this is how they describe her: always her appearance, and always as being 'perfect', never, to my knowledge, her personality, which even at such a tender age she would have; basic likes and dislikes, moods, and so on. It's almost as if they couldn't ever see past her surface.

One last thought - lies have a serious tendency to snowball. Once a lie's been told, it has to be maintained, for the moment it's dropped could well be the moment it's found out. Many screwball comedies have been built around this very concept. Could you keep a lie going for more than a decade, in the public eye? A big enough one, with serious enough consequences should it be rumbled, and with the right help - like a powerful PR guru and a predictable press - yes.

My instinct is that Madeleine McCann died in the room, a tragic accident occasioned by serious neglect, and possibly earlier than the purported time of her disappearance. Most likely in desperation, her parents concocted an abduction scenario to cover themselves, a lie that snowballed, and is still snowballing, and may well continue to for some time to come. I stress, though, this is only supposition, one person's impressions.
 
Can we tell whether the funding is going into investigating the parents? or looking for the long-gone Madeleine? Is it possible the net is closing in?
 
Can we tell whether the funding is going into investigating the parents? or looking for the long-gone Madeleine? Is it possible the net is closing in?

At this stage I think it would be absolutely fair to explore the possibility that the McCanns could have been involved. If no other avenues are yielding any kind of results it would not be unfair to explore that avenue.
 
But while this is the likes of The Daily Mail we're talking about that's exactly how they'll always try to portray them. Not because they aren't professional. Purely because they aren't British. And god knows they'll go to town for trumping up anything they can if they can paint them as lazy EUROPEANS!!!

Because xenophobia fuels the British tabloids like nothing else.

There is much truth in that. But I think the tabloid coverage of this case has also had the side effect of pointing out in huge capitals to all and sundry that how the police handle crime is utterly dependant on the social status of the people involved. The consequences are incalculable.
 
There is much truth in that. But I think the tabloid coverage of this case has also had the side effect of pointing out in huge capitals to all and sundry that how the police handle crime is utterly dependant on the social status of the people involved. The consequences are incalculable.
Quite. Imagine if the parents had been trackie-wearing Mancunians?
 
There is much truth in that. But I think the tabloid coverage of this case has also had the side effect of pointing out in huge capitals to all and sundry that how the police handle crime is utterly dependant on the social status of the people involved. The consequences are incalculable.

Sadly true. It'd hard to imagine that if this had been a working class family on holiday (especially if one or more were currently receiving benefits) they would be treated very differently.
 
If any English detective treated the McCanns as suspects it would be the end of his/her career. They are incredibly well connected.
At the end of the BBC program (BBC One - Panorama, Madeleine McCann: 10 Years On) the Portuguese police inspector make his opinion quite clear I'd say. But you'll have to watch it for yourself.
 
Should I put this here or the deja vu section?
Madeleine McCann investigation receives more funding
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46196238

Does seem a bit deja-vu, doesn't it. I wonder at what point we taxpayers are justified in feeling just a little bit miffed that yet more money is doled out for the "investigation" when really, nothing seems to be actually happening, or likely to happen. Where is the justification for providing yet more money from a seemingly endless pot? (It's not like all other crimes are solved, is it).

Who I feel most sorry for, though, are the parents of other missing children who must, surely, wonder why this case, and this case alone, gets such special treatment. Yes of course it's sad that Madeleine is missing, but really what makes her any more special or important than any other missing child? Nothing, to my mind.
 
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EDIT to add:

Reading through the latest posts on here I'm reminded again of how many people (not just on here, but in general) still believe the 'official story' and as long as that's the case, nothing will ever move forward with this - and that's the problem.

I don't want to say too much and get the nice shiny board into trouble, but please, people, dig about into this case a bit more online. Just because somebody - or several somebodies - say that events happened a certain way, does that mean they definitely did? Ok, you might read a theory online and say to yourself "nah, that's rubbish, it can't have happened that way" - but what makes that person any less credible than the persons saying that it happened the 'official' way?

Just a thought.

:sherlock:
 
The recent four part BBC drama The Cry deals with a couple who accidentally get medications mixed up and poison their baby, they're both aware how she died so bury the child and claim she was abducted. The pivotal ending deals with exactly which parent gave the baby the meds, I can't think of a series like it being made before Madeline's disappearance although obviously The Cry is a work of fiction.
 
what a load of twaddle you guys ! exploring possibilities ... incalculable consequences ... incredibly well connected ...

somebody had too much sherry in the granola this morning
 
what a load of twaddle you guys ! exploring possibilities ... incalculable consequences ... incredibly well connected ...

somebody had too much sherry in the granola this morning

I'm curious - you've repeatedly posted sweeping dismissals like this, but I don't believe you've ever given a reason for your disdain. Care to elaborate? What do you think happened?
 
sweeping dismissals of what, the top-flight sleuthing going on here ?

i believe ive posted earlier in the thread
 
The recent four part BBC drama The Cry...
I didn't know of this - will have to give it a watch, thanks.

In response to Wandering Fox [edit for not understanding who it was aimed at]'s post - I'd start with reading Goncalo Amaral's book (the Portuguese detective) and then watch Rich Hall's videos. See what you think (both easily found on line)
 
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