Hamish Head of Homicide
Sky News Studio:
A fresh review of the Madeleine
McCann case has identified more than 20 new suspects. Scotland Yard has been looking again at the
Portuguese Inquiry into the 3 year old's disappearance in Portugal back in 2007. It says it has uncovered several new leads.
Live to our crime correspondent
Martin Brunt who is in Praia da Luz in Portugal. Madeleine of course seen there…last seen
there 6 years ago.
So how promising Martin, are you
getting any indication of how promising these leads might be?
Martin Brunt:
It’s very difficult to say at this
stage, erm but it was unusual for Hamish
Campbell the Head of Homicide at Scotland Yard to say what he did a couple of
days ago and you know he clearly believes that there are perhaps a dozen potential suspects, but he wouldn’t go any
further than that, that should be spoken to.
But erm the issue is, as it has always been since the official Portuguese investigation was closed down after 15 months. Erm it’s a question of re-opening that, and to
what degree does the Portuguese authorities have an appetite to go and talk to
these people. Scotland Yard can’t do
it.
Some of them or most of them are
foreigners, non- British and they appear to be largely names that came up in
the original investigation but weren’t properly investigated or interviewed.
So, officially, the Portuguese authorities continue
to say they see no reason yet to re-open the investigation, although if you
talk to people here they say in the last few weeks they have seen police
officers with Scotland Yard officers going around talking to people and
re-interviewing those that they interviewed at the time. So something is being done but officially
the case is not re-opened yet.
Studio:
Not re-opened so obviously the ultimate
outcome would be to find Madeleine safe and well but what are the probabilities
that the police force that is still working on it here are working on?
Martin Brunt:
Well what has always been said is
that there is absolutely no evidence that Madeleine McCann came to any harm so
while that remains the case, I think people can understand why her family and
investigators will continue to believe there is every reason to continue to
search for her and every reason to suggest she might still be alive.
This is what former Scotland Yard
officer Jaqui Hames had to say about it:
Hames:
There is always going to be hope that
she may be alive somewhere, and the experience of what we heard about what happened
in Cleveland Ohio recently shows that no matter how many statistical
probabilities that she is dead or out there, there is always that wild card,
always that possibility that she may turn up alive somewhere.
l-azzeri-lies-in-the-sun.com
May 18th 2013