Not buying it !.McCann developments.Wendy Murphy

[izabsmiling]

Investigators are hoping that new information will help solve the mystery of what happened to Madeleine McCann.

The then- three-year-old British girl disappeared six years ago while vacationing with her family in Portugal.

Scotland Yard is planning to release a computerized sketch of a possible person of interest in the case.

Former prosecutor Wendy Murphy joined America’s News Headquarters to discuss the development.

"I’m not buying it. I think this is more PR than anything," Murphy said. "I think this is all related to a civil suit now underway in Portugal." 

The McCanns sued the former police chief for defamation because he wrote a tell-all book.

Alisyn pointed out that the McCanns claim the Portuguese police never took the case seriously

read full transcript http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2013/10/former-us-prosecutor-wendy-murphy-think.html

taken from http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/10/new-image-suspect-be-released-madeleine-mccann-case

(footage)

Wendy Murphy (former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor, now adjunct professor and trial and appellate attorney specializing in crime victims) 

[the_great_she_elephant]

---

@izabsmiling wrote:

what I have trouble with is the fact that people seem to be accepting a media report from some mysterious barrister ..who according to the media allegedly met a person who boasted of being introduced to the girl ..as fact .

I'm not in the legal profession ...though if I met someone who boasted of meeting a girl who is the subject of world wide attention .I would know that this person IS of interest to the police and could possibly be a suspect of something more than withholding information (if that is a crime ?) ....I'd be calling the police while I was at that party so that the Police can do the questioning ...

not  contacting them the next day as reported in the media about this supposed report. .When who knows where this person is to be found.

that all sounds like BS to me. 

---

Why on earth should you or anyone else    'have trouble' with it. None of us here has any real idea of what was said or done by anyone involved in the case and this persistant  playing at detectives and picking apart hearsay information gleaned from blogs and dubious news articles is beginning to sound a trifle obsessive. 

[izabsmiling]

sorry TSGE...I should just post

IF 

as you did .

Some of the media reports ..I find hard to give credit to  

[**meep**]

---

@polksaladallie wrote:

---

@icyfroth wrote:

---

Yeah but you'd think the kids were pretty safe after you'd put them to bed in a hotel room while you went to dine in same hotel restaurant!

I mean, it's a fairly controlled environment.

---

No, they would not be safe left in a hotel room, even if the restaurant was close.  But this restaurant was 50 metres way, that is a long way.  Quite unacceptable to leave them unattended, no matter how many times they were checked.

---

Is it even legal?

[azureline**]

apparently so, if you believe the reports. The parents were not charged.

[*pepe]

---

@catmad*2013 wrote:

---

@*pepe wrote:

the parents are not amazing, they left their children alone.

its all very well for them to point the finger at the police saying they didn't investigate properly - well they didn't parent properly.

there would have been nothing to investigate if they had been decent parents and not left their children alone.

i'm not convinced they had anything to do with the disappearance, but then i'm not convinced they didn't either.

---

I have left my children alone when sleeping... not gone far... we were camping and they were in the tent and I was at the fire... I checked on them every half hour or so... 

I have also stayed at hotels where I have left the kids alseep in the room to go to the office. 

People on holiday should be able to leave children blissfully sleeping in a locked room if they have not gone far.... unfortunalty you can't do that anymore. 

I do not think that they were bad parents for doing that. I think the bad thing was that the child was taken. 

But I totally get where you are coming from.. not everyone would think that leaving them alone is ok. 

---

people on holiday in a foriegn country surrounded by countless strangers should be more vigilant in protecting their children than ever

i bet the families who left their children unattended in their rooms had their jewellery locked in the hotel safe in case it disappeared from their rooms....

[**meep**]

LEAVING THEM ALONE ON HOLIDAY
You go out for dinner in a hotel complex on holiday abroad, leaving a child aged three and twins aged 18 months 50 yards away in a locked room with the shutters secured. You return to check on them every 30 minutes

LAWYER'S VERDICT
Professor Hamilton says:
If the parents have taken account of all the risks and decided that it is safe to leave their children, this would probably be reasonable.

If the children were awake or older and able to wander around or even open the door to an intruder, it wouldn't be advisable.

But asleep, with all doors and windows locked and adults constantly checking on them, it wouldn't be unreasonable.

However, you should check on them regularly and mustn't be lulled into a false sense of it being any safer in a quiet resort in Continental Europe than it is in a busy town or city in the UK.

While leaving children alone in this manner is not desirable, parents have to balance the demands of life and will probably have to consider such dilemmas regularly. There is no right or wrong answer, but I doubt Gerry and Kate McCann will ever forgive themselves.

A parent needs to ensure that children are safe if they are left alone. They also need to consider how well the children sleep. If they are likely to wake up, then it could be a frightening experience to find that their parents aren't there. Leaving them for a short while with the doors locked is acceptable; leaving them for several hours without that security is most definitely not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-453811/Is-EVER-safe-leave-child.html

[azureline**]

I am not going to say too much about the practice of leaving children at home alone.................the last time we discussed this here, someone took it to the UK boards and caused a riot....... I had recently returned from a trip over there and witnessed the practice firsthand!

I think it was elly but can't be sure.............

[***super_nova***]

If I went to a party and a man there would just in the course of normal conversation mention that he was "introduced" to Madeleine McCann, I would as soon as practicable gone to the hosts, and ask who this man is, and when I would found out as much info about him as possible, I would call police.  However, if it was 1am and I had couple of drinks, I might also wait till the morning. 

BUT, how unlikely is it that a total stranger would say something like that?  Unless, it is that sort of party where all the people present are into abusing kids one way or another - either actively or passively by watching videos of child porn.  Now, if that is the case, people do not tell each other exactly who they are, and asking for more info about another person present is also not a good idea.  Going to police would have been at enormous personal cost for this man, but he did, and has been arrested. 

[polksaladallie]

---

@***super_nova*** wrote:

If I went to a party and a man there would just in the course of normal conversation mention that he was "introduced" to Madeleine McCann, I would as soon as practicable gone to the hosts, and ask who this man is, and when I would found out as much info about him as possible, I would call police.  However, if it was 1am and I had couple of drinks, I might also wait till the morning. 

BUT, how unlikely is it that a total stranger would say something like that?  Unless, it is that sort of party where all the people present are into abusing kids one way or another - either actively or passively by watching videos of child porn.  Now, if that is the case, people do not tell each other exactly who they are, and asking for more info about another person present is also not a good idea.  Going to police would have been at enormous personal cost for this man, but he did, and has been arrested. 

---

That sounds very plausable, Supernova.  There are tens of thousands of paedophile rings throughout the world, they swap and trade stuff, and are very friendly.  It is very likely that some would get together socially.

[the_great_she_elephant]

---

***super_nova*** wrote:

If I went to a party and a man there would just in the course of normal conversation mention that he was "introduced" to Madeleine McCann, I would as soon as practicable gone to the hosts, and ask who this man is, and when I would found out as much info about him as possible, I would call police.  However, if it was 1am and I had couple of drinks, I might also wait till the morning. 

BUT, how unlikely is it that a total stranger would say something like that?  Unless, it is that sort of party where all the people present are into abusing kids one way or another - either actively or passively by watching videos of child porn.  Now, if that is the case, people do not tell each other exactly who they are, and asking for more info about another person present is also not a good idea.  Going to police would have been at enormous personal cost for this man, but he did, and has been arrested. 

---

Absolutely agree, Super Nova - I did wonder about the nature of that party and I believe there was a mention in the news article about the risk to the reputation of man (allegedly a barrister)  who reported it,  but I didn't think he was the one who was arrested.