Portuguese Police?

Question

I am sick of reading peoples comments about the Portuguese Police, treating them as if they are in some kind of third world country.
You (British) are not that advanced compared to Portugal, I admit you might have more experience in certain cases but that is only because Portugal did not have to deal with the kind of crime you have to deal with here. That doesn't mean that the most advanced technology we have is two way radios and email (this is actually a quote from someone that answered here)
I see all the Mcfans asking for evidence when someone says they think the parents are guilty, so I will ask the same.
Where is you evidence that the police didn't 'do their job properly at the begining'? I doubt I will be getting any answers to this.
I see people complaining that they did not respond quick enough. That is wrong, the police can't come until they have been called, and it was said over and over again that they were not called till after 22.40.

Then there was the complains about the borders not being shut.
This is complete nonsense, anyone who knows anything about Europe knows its virtually impossible to seal all roads
that lead to another country. There are hundreds of roads and most of them are not even manned.
All I can say is that anyone criticising them is purely due to lack of knowledge of how the Portuguese Police works.

Mr. Me care to explain your opinion?
Its easy to criticise and not having to explain it isn't it?

interesting, I don't see how my spelling is relevant to this question since I seem to have made myself understood. If you must know english is not my first language so I am not ashamed by the fact that I may mispell certain words.

Suzie
I was living in Portugal at the time that child disappeared.
What made me sick was the fact that the mother had the nerve to go on tv crying and pleading the so called abductor to return her little girl.
A few weeks later people started talking, neighbours reported Joana (the 8year old girl) was constatly abused by the mother and treated as a slave. This didn't come from one person, they were neighbours and teachers saying it. The social services had been looking onto it.
The police found her blood splattered all over their walls.
The mother later confessed to killing her daughter, cutting her body in pieces and storing it on a refrigerator at home for a week.
The body was never found because they buried it in different places.
The charges she made against the police were never proven and as far as I know she dropped them later.
The way people felt about her, I believe its more likely that she was beaten up by some of the prisioners rather than the police.

What reasons did the police have to torture her after she confessed?

Answer 1

The Home Secretary has come forward and commended the Portuguese Police for the handling of the McCann case. The truth is we don't know what evidence the Portuguese Police have so there is no use speculating but UK Officials do and in their "professional" opinion, since it was the UK who carried out the Forensics, there is apparently overwhelming DNA evidence which supports the Portuguese Police and their belief the McCann's "accidentally murdered" their child.

With regards contaminated crime scenes, please remember this was a "holiday" apartment and there will be a million people's finger prints all over it anyway. Those who had access to it on May 3rd will have been fingerprinted and eliminated as a contamination, this will include cleaners and anyone who came in contact with the McCann's during their holiday and of course their Condo. As for the hire car, the McCann's were given it back on purpose, the P Police got everything they needed from it and because they had the couple under constant surveillance at the time they were simply trying to lull them into a false sense of security by returning the car so they could continue in their investigation of them which incidently included UK officers. Unless people have forgotten UK Police went to Portugal to assist in the investigation of Madeline's disappearance.

Like I said the Portuguese Police have evidence we don't even know about yet, but whatever it is it is enough for the UK Home Office to advise this couple to get their affairs in order and get a lawyer, which is I believe the reason the Portuguese didn't arrest them before they got on the plane.They know they have enough evidence but they also know the McCann's have children.

If the Portuguese are guilty of anything it's the fact they didn't believe in the first instance a mother could kill her child, which is understandable given their culture. Portuguese people don't go anywhere without their children. They certainly don't lock them in rooms while they eat meals. They take their families with them, so do the Italians. Family is an "absolute" in these cultures, its everything to them, it's not carried like a burden like it is in British culture with Over 18 Bars and restaurants you have to call beforehand to check you can bring your children at all.

As for the Portuguese and their apparently soft line on paedophile rings, maybe that's because the Portuguese don't experience crime's against children as often as we Brits do. Remember the FBI about 5 years ago who were infiltrating Internet Child Pornography Rings from the US dug up hundreds of thousands of British subscribers to such sites and as a result dubbed Britian the "Sceptic Isle"

It is this same respect for family that has the Portuguese begging the McCann's to cop a plea for the sake of their twins. The Portuguese have been really decent to this couple. They're just baffled by the couples delusional behaviour, no wonder the Portuguese Police laughed when they saw this couple on TV with the Pope looking for a child the P Police knew they'd killed. It was incredulation we saw photographed during their infamous lunch hour, not apathy as published by the British Press and to be honest I've felt it myself watching this couple two adorning the media for months, giving interviews, attending rock festivals, visiting the Pope. Has anyone noticed Kate's even had her highlights done? She's also sporting a rather nice hair cut in more recent pictures I've seen of her.

The McCann's have been given a reprise by the Portuguese Police who clearly feel sorry for them. Letting them leave the country without any hassle to get their life in order and hopefully be persuaded by their own government to accept the charges and take the two year sentence was an act of sheer kindness. Obviously the last place the Portuguese Police want to put these two parents is in Prison and for the rest of their lives, but the McCanns are forcing their hand and still the Portuguese Police are urging them to do what's right for their remaining childen, but they just won't. They're not even going to charge Gerry because they believe it was an "accidental murder".

The Portuguese Police are being overly sympathetic and the McCann's, who have become a PR Machine in recent months, instead of focusing on the reality closing in on them and thinking of their twins, are creating another reality which makes them the victims and not their missing daughter.

What the McCann's are asking all of us to believe is THIS.

A man broke into their GROUNDFLOOR apartment carrying some sort of sedative in a syringe. I wonder what he did with it while he was crawling through the window? Maybe it was in a special protective pouch. He would have had to have been very careful with it anyway because if it gets air in it then Madeline will die of an embolism when he injects her. Of course he may have added the sedative when he got inside the Condo. This will take a good couple of minutes. Who's his look out while he's doing all this? Who's he got checking no one is coming to the apartment from the front of the Condo, which he can't see remember because he is in the back of the Condo breaking into it. How long would this take? How come he did not wake any of the other children or Madeline while carrying out a not so easy operation when you really sit down and think about the logistics of it? How was he able to adminster the drug to her while she slept without waking the other children or waking her for that matter? He would have had to have pierced her skin remember. He would also need light to get the right vein. You can't just stick the needle in anywhere. And how did he manouever a four year old and himself out of the window, she would have been a dead weight after being drugged. He wouldn't have been able to negotiate the window and the weight of the child. So how did he get back out of the window? Did he use the front door and if so how come no one saw him come out of it? In fact how come no one saw this man except one of McCann's drunk Doctor friends who reportedly saw a man with a child wrapped in a blanket around 8 O'Clock in the evening, but thought nothing of it. Although later she said she couldn't be certain of the time or in fact what the man looked like or even if he was carrying anything at all.

As for the blood in the apartment - when Kate McCann was questioned about it last week she was told it was blood of a body believed to be already dead and her response was "That's impossible" The Portuguese asked her why it was impossible and she refused to comment exercising her right to not answer any further questions. There were 40 of them.

Do you know why this is incriminating? It's because I suspect they haven't found blood and only someone who knew their daughter had died of an over dose of sedatives would know that there was no blood because that's the reason the Police believe Madeline died and why the twins didn't wake up. They had also been sedated. Kate McCann sedated her kids so she could have dinner with her husband and a terrible accident occurred as a result, but what happened after that is what is holding back this confession. The lie they told the world, the lie they told the Pope of all people and of course the lies they've been telling their families. How can they confess now?

Let me add something else. I'm a mother and I worship the ground my children walk on. If I believed the Portuguese Police were going to set me up for something I didn't do and there was a chance I might get life because of it, I'd take the plea even if I didn't do it because when it comes to my children I have no pride, only love and the idea of not seeing them for the rest of their lives when I could be home in two years... are you kidding? Screw being a hero. I'd rather be a mother and I'd sign anything. I wouldn't care what the world thought of me, but then again I wouldn't have travelled the world and left my remaining children who just lost their sister alone while I "campaigned" at rock concerts. Wouldn't you need to be with your kids more in the face of a lost child? Wouldn't you cling to those left behind and let the Police do their jobs? Who are these people?

Did you know they have hired the lawyer who represented General Pinochet to defend them?

When it comes down to it British people just can't get their head around the fact that two white middle class Doctors could be capable of a crime like this. Lets be clear though, the crime in question is "accidental murder". No one thinks the McCann's intentionally killed their child, I certainly don't, the Portuguese Police don't but they intentionally lied to the world about the abduction and in spite of everything at least the Portuguese Police have kept that much in perspective because the McCann's haven't. The Portuguese don't give a **** about the circus the McCann's created to cover up their crime, they only care about what happened to Madeline and where she is now.

When the McCann's are charged and the truth comes out you can be sure the British won't have any perspective. Our media and our culture will show no mercy. The Brits will be angrier at the cover up these people took part in than the manslaughter of their child. This is what the McCann's are really afraid and why they won't confess. They're not scared of the Portuguese, they're scared of the British. They'll be toast over here and they'd rather languish in a Portuguese jail than live through the hell our media would most certainly put them through if they stood up and told the truth.

Answer 2

Ignore them. These opinions are not representative of the majority of British people.
At the end of the day, those people who criticise the Portuguese Police need to recognise that the evidence used to name the Mccanns as formal suspects was provided or facilitated by the British police, and I do not see anyone criticising them...
BTW I'm British
People have said on this site that the Portuguese Police are corrupt which is a laugh given the degree of police brutality in this country. Any one remember the various deaths in custody, confessions beaten out of people creating miscarriages of justice. Some British people have a very short memory. Just ignore them! The British should also be fortunate this whole thing never happened in Mexico where the legal system is that you are guilty until proven innocent!

Answer 3

I'm an American that has been wondering the same thing. Europe is not a country and laws and customs are different in different countries; that certainly does not mean inferiority. To answer your question, the PT police are as good as any in old Europe and I suspect that eastern Europe has been outside the Soviet block long enough to have caught up (ie, theirs are the equal of any in the EU). Besides, they all co-operate.

Answer 4

I agree with you Laidan - well said. The way the British have talked about the Police in Portugual is disgusting. How dare anyone critisise the wonderful McCanns, everyone is in for a big shock soon.

Answer 5

Well done. i am very glad that someone from Portugal has stood up and spoken in support of your Police.
Well said. i hope they have enough evidence to convict these two child killers and silence their critics.
Please dont believe that most of the British people think the same. We are not all as daft, naive and Nationalistic as some of the Mcfans on here.

Answer 6

You are so correct. The McCanns first invited 17 people into the apartment and let them contaminate the evidence before calling the police and this is a fact. Actually one of the few facts we know.

Answer 7

Ok, I'm not a huge fan of the McCanns and I don't wish to bad-mouth the Portuguese police too much, but there is plenty of evidence to support they didn't do their jobs properly with the McCann case:

Only interviewing the McCanns once in four months (prior to last Thursday's interviews). They just seemed to leave them alone.

At a press conference on May 10th, only seven days after Maddie disappeared, Portuguese police announced that their search for the girl was being wound down. (One week of looking and that's it?)

Very little forensic testing done in the room - only looking for fingerprints on the windows and doors (it was the English police who found the blood, 3 months later).

McCann's apartment not sealed off correctly. Passers-by were allowed to go right up to the shutters of the window that Madeleine's parents say were forced.

Allowing the McCann's apartment to be available for other holiday makers soon after the disappearance, which could contaminate any available evidence (the room should have been sealed off and thoroughly tested).

No police appeals for help or information to Maddie's whereabouts. The McCanns had to set up the appeal themselves.

Setting up road blocks on major roads but not actually stopping many cars (instead seemed satisfied with waving them through, while smoking and having a laugh).
Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after she vanished, and officers didn't make extensive door-to-door inquiries.

Giving the "suspects" their car back after "finding blood in the back" (if true, means the car should be kept for more testing and as evidence).

Offering Kate McCann a reduced prison sentence if she confessed (clutching at straws instead of relying on evidence):
"The police don't want a pedophile murder here, so they are blaming us," Kate McCann reportedly told the Sunday Mirror. "The police said, 'Just lie.' ... If I confessed Madeleine had an accident, and that I panicked and hid the body in a bag for a month, and then got rid of it in a hire car, ... I'd get two or three years suspended sentence."

Declaring the McCanns as "prime suspects" then promptly allowing them to leave the country.

I'm sure the Portuguese have a quality police force but judging by the above, I can understand why many people make negative comments about them.
They seemed a little lax in their handling of the McCann case, and failed to do basic police procedures. I don't know whether it was because a foreign child went missing on their soil or whether they were worried about affecting the tourist industry, but they just seemed disinterested in the whole thing and had no urgency about them.
The English police got involved and found evidence that should have been found months before. I wonder, had it been a Portuguese child, if the police would have acted differently?

Anyway, I'm sure everybody in the Portuguese police force are breathing a sigh of relief now the McCanns are back in England, and the media frenzy can die down in Portugal.

Answer 8

I agree with you 100%. The people who side with the McCanns are the same people who leave their kids at home alone while they head to the pub. They can relate to the McCanns because they are as useless and incompeteant as the McCanns. Either that or they're pedofiles. It is because of that that they will look for any reason to exonerate them. Because these people are actually looking to exonerate themselves. The McCanns had NO business leaving those kids alone to go get drunk no matter what truths come out.

But what I want to know is why people think that some kidnapping pedophile went a huntin and happend upon a room full of unattended children. That is sooo far fecthed it boggels my mind that there are those that think it's true. What DOES make sense is that the McCanns got drunk, got mad that the kids trashed the room, and beat Maddie until she died. Then they tried to cover it up and blame it someone else. How else does blood get in your trunk? The police had no leads until the McCanns because the evidence leads them there. Period.

Answer 9

I'm British and I thought the portugese police have handled the case rather well. British people cant accept that the portugese hold back legal info for a reason and I think by with holding information they have not put maddie's life in jeopardy if she was abducted

Answer 10

I have from the beginning thought the case was poorly handled, though it has nothing to do with the McCann's being suspects. Actually it was 3 months ago, take a look if you like and click on the links to my question. The first 48 hours are crucial to a good solid start. I do however commend the Portuguese police for reaching out for help when I think they realised they needed guidance. With that being said, I am not from Britain. Clearly the police are allowed to learn from their mistakes, just as the McCann's are right? Have a good one, thanks for the question.

lol flame away... losers.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsFXnfILNDH0FHGhR2IzuIMhBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20070605005507AATIu61

suzie, take a read here's some links about that woman and her lover...errr I mean brother...

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=10046

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av12.7VTREDp4D3NLsEq5gAhBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20070909084852AAwlVM0&show=7#profile-info-uKtadL4xaa

http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/2007/07/truth-about-leonor-cipriano-mother-of.html

Answer 11

It seems the McFanns are clutching at straws. Attacking the PJ and claiming the McCanns are innocent despite the evidence. I detect a logical fallacy here.

ps: Interesting
If you are going to criticise someones spelling, you should at least spell everything right. It's Portuguese, not Portugese. Seems like you need that spell-checker after all you hypocrite (there's a spellcheck above the answer box remember).