MCCANNS TO SUE PORTUGUESE NEWSPAPER

MADELEINE MCCANN'S PARENTS TO SUE PORTUGUESE NEWSPAPER
Friday, August 31, 2007
AP

LISBON, Portugal — The parents of a British girl who disappeared in southern Portugal nearly four months ago said Friday they are suing a Portuguese newspaper over an article alleging police believe they accidentally killed the toddler.

Kate and Gerry McCann said they were "deeply hurt" by the front page report last month in the weekly Tal & Qual, which claimed that police were certain they accidentally killed their 4-year-old daughter, Madeleine, by giving her an overdose of sedatives.

"This statement is without truth or evidence," the McCanns said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

Police have said publicly that the McCanns are not suspects in the case.

Madeleine vanished May 3 from an apartment where she was sleeping with her 2-year-old twin siblings in Praia da Luz, a town on Portugal's southern Algarve resort coast. Her parents were having dinner in the hotel's restaurant with vacationing friends and said they checked on their children at regular intervals.

The McCanns have remained in the Algarve since the disappearance, running an Internet campaign to find their daughter and visiting several countries where she may have been taken by an abductor. They have indicated they may soon return to Britain, where they work.

"The McCanns feel the (newspaper) allegations are very serious and damaging to their professional and personal reputations," the statement said.

They have instructed lawyers to sue Tal & Qual's editor and a reporter for defamation. The case would be heard in Porto, in northern Portugal, where the paper is based.

Nobody at the newspaper was immediately available for comment.

The McCanns currently have no plans to attend any court proceedings, a spokeswoman said. Cases can take years to come to trial in Portugal.


Well, it's about time. The type of allegations made against the McCanns are not only hurtful to them personally, but casts a bad light over an already corrupt investigation. This past week the attack on the McCanns continued unabashed. Allegations that they drugged their children. Allegations that a syringe was found in the apartment. Allegations. Allegations. Allegations. A new allegation per day. Yet none backed up by the PJ. And none backed up by evidence. Remember that thing called evidence? Some seem to have forgotten it. Let's remember that unidentified DNA was found in the apartment and to date that has not been clarified.

Corruption vs Incompetency

Is the investigation corrupt or incompetent?
With the amount of money and training it takes to get an officer from the training phase to the street, those with sub-par skills are quickly weeded out. Aptitude tests, tactics, leadership, and a variety of other specialized test are designed to determine if a potential recruit has the GUSTO needed to make the grade.

I believe it is safe to assume that the police in Portugal are as well trained as any other. That they have the necessary funding and equipment to do the job. Where they did not possess the skills or equipment, Britain and other LE were called in. Very little was left to chance. That leaves us with corruption. Between the police force and the media the McCann were up against a stacked deck from day one. All that was missing were the psychics. They quickly filled the vacuum and had everyone running in circles.

As I said on 5.31.2007 in post titled - Madeleine McCann investigation is over, I knew at the time that this was not going to turn out the way most of us had hoped.

How did I know?

First of all, I'm not an Investigator, nor am I a Former Law Enforcement Officer. I do have common sense and that was what was lacking from the get-go in the Madeleine McCann Investigation.

The Portuguese Police leave me with the impression they never wanted to solve the case. But why? Who really knows. Could be to protect tourism in Praia da Luz, could be they just don't care, could be they think the McCanns are to blame and they should figure this out on their own. We may never know the real underlying reason. We could guess all day and never arrive at the real reason. There was a certain lack of empathy here and a lack of empathy is the EVIL we all try so hard to combat.

Pedophiles want the parents blamed and the search for the child abandoned. And it worked. The police and their accomplices in the Portuguese media pulled the rug out from under this investigation, turned the support for the McCanns into a feeding frenzy where some mentally deficient individuals actually called for the twins to be removed from their care. As if the McCanns were not suffering enough.

It was a farce from the very beginning. Sorry to say that those that needed the information the most were unable to see the writing on the wall.

Looking in is certainly easier than looking out.

I hope by some stroke of luck Madeleine is found. The way things are going it will take all the luck in the World.