The
British police presented the photo fits
of the suspects as a result of the
investigation in London, but these were
found to have been made before the
authorities began work on the case and
(to have been made) by an external
entity. An official source admits they
could have been detectives.
The photo fits of the person suspected
of abducting Madeleine McCann, presented
by the British police last week, do not
hold any importance for the re-opening
of the investigation in Portugal.
Ionline found out that these images,
shown by the BBC as being the work of
the London investigators, were produced
by an external entity that Scotland Yard
refuses to identify. When confronted by
Ionline, the British confirmed that they
had not made the photo fits, stating
that it is not the origin of the images
that is important, but rather their
public release.
The images of the two men whom,
according to British investigators were
responsible for taking Maddie, were
produced in September 2008, after the
archiving of the case in Portugal and
three years before the initiation of
investigations in the UK – which only
took place in July 2011.
The UK follows the principle of
nationality and therefore considered
that it could take on the investigation
into Maddie’s disappearance, given that
those concerned were British nationals.
The investigation began with a request
from the Home Secretary and by the
British PM David Cameron, to the
Metropolitan Police in London, which
designated 40 officers to this case
alone.
A few days ago, on the BBC Crime Watch
programme, British police released the
results of the line of investigation
they had taken and released photo fits
of persons whom, it was said, are the
solution to this case. What they did not
say is that these images are five years
old and were not made by the
authorities.
“The two images released were made in
September 2008. It was not us who made
them”, the London Metropolitan Police
confirmed to Ionline. After various
attempts to determine who could have
been responsible for producing the
images, the authorities limited their
response to “they know who produced the
information prior to the beginning of
the investigation” in London, suggesting
that they had been made by private
detectives: “I think they were made by a
private investigator, however what it
important is to focus on the appeal and
not on the origin of the photo fits”, an
official source said.
These photo fits were hailed as being
one of the big results of an
investigation that has already cost more
than 5 million pounds (5,86 million
euros) to the British tax payer.
Meanwhile, on the Portuguese side,
officers from the Portimão PJ are
following up on a letter of request sent
by the UK, whilst another team, from
Porto, is following a different line of
investigation to that of the British –
the results of which were at the basis
of the re-opening of the investigation
relating to Maddie. “The team which has
been working on the case in Porto since
2011 has a different line of
investigation than the one being
followed by the British police. What I
can say is that the photo fits that have
been released do not have importance for
our work”, the deputy national director
of the PJ, Pedro do Carmo, clarified to
ionline. He also clarified that the
McCann couple are not implied in this
new investigation.
CASE AS SEEN BY OTHER POLICE FORCES.
After it was established that the lines
of investigation being pursued by the
Portuguese and British police present
many differences, ionline contacted
forensic police officers from other
countries in order to find out how the
case is seen abroad.
According to a Spanish police source,
the use of photo fits that have not been
produced by the authorities is not
usual: “Here in Spain that would never
happen”, says the officer, who preferred
to remain anonymous, adding that this is
not the only problem the Scotland Yard
investigation has. “This case draws the
attention of any investigator or
forensic science specialist because it
was ordered by the British Prime
Minister, another thing that would be
unthinkable in Spain. Over here, cases
are re-opened because the police
considers it to be justified, not
because of political pressure, he
stated.
From the side of the Atlantic, the
deputy director of the Brazilian
Identification Institute, Nadiel Dias da
Costa, explained that “ a photo fit is
only done when a witness sees someone
commit a crime.” However, this,
according to her, is not the case: “This
man was just seen carrying a child”.
As regards the lack of clarity in the
images, she does not feel this to cause
a problem. “Whilst the photo fits of the
British police seem distorted, this does
not man that they are bad, this can only
be affirmed if one day the person is
located and found to be very different
to the images”. Dias da Costa says
however, that “in Brazil and other
countries it is not common to make a
photo fit without being certain that the
person represented in the image is a
suspect”. It is the same case in Spain.
The authorities of both countries who
responded to ionline’s questions
provided the following guarantee: “There
are no cases where a police force from
another country has imposed its
conclusions on our investigations”.
For the Spanish specialist this means
that “the British did not trust in the
work done by the Portuguese”. As regards
the usefulness of the photo fits
released by the BBC, the deputy director
of the Brazilian Institute is more
positive than her Spanish colleague.
“Although a photo fit is only important
when done and released shortly after the
crime occurred, she recognises that it
is always an additional element that
could be helpful.” For the Spanish
investigator, these photo fits are “not
very concrete” and “lacking precision”:
“As an investigator, I think that their
only purpose is to justify the
investment that has been made in this
case. In practical terms, they have not
obtained any evidence that makes me
believe that the initial line of
investigation followed by the Portuguese
police – which viewed the parents as
being the key to the whole case – is not
the correct line.” |
