|
|
|
|
The
moral of this story is that there is no
moral because the only one accused
sitting in the court's dock is the
former coordinator of the PJ of Portimão
by João Pedro Martins
The soap opera surrounding the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann is
turning this high-profile criminal
investigation into a gigantic fraud.
The operation put together by the
British police in the landscaped gardens
of Praia da Luz looked like a new
episode of black humour of the Monty
Python. Looking at the Scotland Yard
officers (the PJ in Her Majesty's
England) with pickaxes and shovels
digging in the attempt of finding traces
that could lead to Maddie McCann's
whereabouts could be confused with a
collective lesson of apprentices
learning how to plant potatoes. Any
Algarvian trowel pusher would look
better than those English gentlemen
dressed in Her Majesty's uniforms.
We learned that the British police are
no better than their Portuguese
counterparts. We were also able to learn
that the trained dogs who came from
England did not even manage to sniff out
a small bone in the gardens of Praia da
Luz and therefore are no better than the
canines in our PJ. We also learned that
over the past seven years of
transnational investigation rivers of
public money were spent without any
visible result.
Nothing was done so that paedophiles
would retrench their heinous and
criminal obsessions for defenceless
children. There is no international
policy articulated in fighting human
traffic, protecting the child victims of
being sold into the sex, labour and
adoption markets. No significant legal
changes were introduced to punish
negligent parents who leave their
children at home while they go out to
have fun with their friends or who
deliberately mistreat their offspring.
There is no regulatory body to prevent
the taxpayers' money of being spent on
pickaxes and shovels used in useless
excavations. There are no culprits, only
another child to add to the list of
thousands of who went missing.
The moral of this story is that there is
no moral because the only one accused
sitting in the court's dock is the
former coordinator of the Criminal
Investigation Department of the
Judiciary Police of Portimão. Gonçalo
Amaral had the unfortunate idea of
writing a book that defends the thesis
of the possible involvement of Kate and
Gerry McCann in the disappearance of the
child and in the concealment of her
cadaver. The editorial boldness of the
former inspector drove Maddie's parents
to ask for a lucrative big bucks
compensation of one million euros as
part of a lawsuit for alleged
defamation.
The solution of this case, which became
a Maddiemania exploited to the bone
marrow by the media and a permanent
headache for the inspectors, could give
voice to the millions of children that
are silenced every year. But the
probability of Maddie to show up or the
real culprits for her disappearance to
sit in the court's dock is so minimal as
is the hope that by Christmas we will
have a government with principled
politicians.
More children will continue to fall from
verandas, drown in pools or die
suffocated and locked in cars, due to
the negligence of busy parents. The
scent of the predator paedophiles will
continue to pursue young and fresh meat
until another family cries for the
disappearance of their children. While
there are those who pay, the mercenaries
who traffic humans will continue to have
a regular clientèle.
Until when will the silent pain of
abused children and the families who
have lost their offspring continue to
scream for justice to be done?
After all, how much is a child's life
worth?
in I Online, June 20, 2014 |
|
|
Comment
Joana Morais said... 4
Adding relevant article
Don’t lift hopes, say Madeleine police
Sean O’Neill Crime Editor
Published at 12:01AM, May 23 2014
The £6 million police investigation into
the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
might “draw a blank”, a senior Scotland
Yard officer said yesterday.
British and Portuguese police officers
are set to begin search operations in
the next few weeks in the Algarve resort
of Praia da Luz from where Madeleine
went missing in May 2007, days before
her fourth birthday.
Search operations are expected to begin
with the use of ground penetrating radar
before excavations in three locations in
the resort. Police are also expected to
try to interview a number of potential
suspects and witnesses.
The Metropolitan Police said there would
be a “substantial phase of activity”
that would see British police in the
resort led by Portuguese officers.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley of
the Met said that the highly visible
activity would not represent a
breakthrough but was “normal police
activity you would expect in any such
major investigation”.
He added: “Serious crime investigations
work through all credible possibilities
and therefore it should not be assumed
that this substantial upcoming phase of
work will immediately lead us to the
answers that will explain what has
happened.”
In Madeleine’s case, many of the basic
tasks of the investigation are being
carried out years after the crime. Mr
Rowley said: “We may go through every
line of inquiry and all of them draw a
blank.” The officer said that he
expected there would be more work to be
carried out once this phase of activity
was completed.
He added: “I want to be able to go back
to Kate and Gerry at some stage in the
future and tell them we’ve got to the
bottom of this, or second best is to say
we’ve turned over every stone and we
can’t get to an answer sometimes.”
Madeleine was on holiday with her
parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in the
Ocean Club complex when she disappeared
from the bedroom where she was sleeping
with her twin siblings. Her parents were
eating with friends at a nearby tapas
restaurant when she went missing from
the apartment.
In the renewed investigation, the Met
has requested help from the Portuguese
authorities to carry out specific tasks.
However, relationships between the
British and Portuguese authorities are
tense, leading to delays.
Mr Rowley renewed his appeal for the
media to exercise caution in reporting
police activity in Praia da Luz. He said
the Portuguese police might cease
cooperation if there was intrusive media
activity.
A key line of inquiry for Scotland Yard
is tracing a lone male who staged a
series of sex attacks on young British
girls in the Algarve. Detectives believe
that nine sexual assaults and three
“near misses” on British girls aged six
to 12 between 2004 and
2006 are linked. |
|
 |
|
