Madeleine McCann: German prisoner identified as suspect - #21

[mrjitty]

Do we know who initiated this interview? It may simply have been the BBC pestering him for an update. If he'd fobbed them off with 'no comment', & that got reported, we'd probably all be speculating on why his reply was different this time!

He appears to be accepting focussed interviews with individual media properties. This is where I am struggling to understand his strategy a bit.

It makes sense that he has to do some domestic media in Germany, because he has to manage the reputation of his office.

Doing foreign english media would tend to suggest his media targets are located in the UK. But then why do Australian and Portuguese media?

And why not do structured media pushes with key properties at once instead of individual sit downs? Structured releases enable him to get a consistent message out - in multiple channels.

I would guess he is just accepting interview requests as they come in, which tends to suggest to me that he doesn't have a proper strategy beyond his initial drop. Now the agenda is shaped by the media who contact him - so its more a reactive strategy. And the fact that it is reactive, tends to suggest media is not a key part of what he is doing as opposed to in the summer.

Strange.

 

[Denis R Tandib]

Yes, I wonder if it's safe to release my grip on this chair now? Been bracing myself for FF's revelation since September!

Interesting point though about the lawyer's knowledge. Does make you wonder what CB has told him by now.

I still think the defence strategy fell apart after the release of those two photos by Spiegel. Either the woman in the photo or the nighttime picture IMO indicate some of the info HCW has.

I think that HCW being an opportunistic glory seeker is nonsense. After a two-year careful investigation, proven by the info HCW has released and his public conviction, I think we can be sure he has the goods. Time will tell.

 

[mrjitty]

I still think the defence strategy fell apart after the release of those two photos by Spiegel. Either the woman in the photo or the nighttime picture IMO indicate some of the info HCW has.

To be fair, the defence haven't needed to do anything. The heat went out of the case largely.

I think that HCW being an opportunistic glory seeker is nonsense. After a two-year careful investigation, proven by the info HCW has released and his public conviction, I think we can be sure he has the goods. Time will tell.

I don't want to be misinterpreted re HCW - I am sure he has high conviction.

What I mean is, few bureaucrats have the experience of fronting national media, let alone international media. When you walk into a case like this one, the global media spotlight is on you and suddenly you have your 15 minutes of fame. Some handle it perfectly. For example the Grace Millane case which was very difficult for the NZ lead detective given the UK media storm.

Others understandably make mistakes, especially if they don't have the right, experienced media assistance.

One thing that can happen is you get "gassed" by the limelight. This certainly happened the first time around when multiple actors including PJ drove a media circus that achieved nothing accept to deluge PJ with false leads.

I hope HCW is not being drawn into a commentary on the case itself - similar to how a football manager ends up fielding questions about his own decisions - that is all.

 

[mrjitty]

Do we know who initiated this interview? It may simply have been the BBC pestering him for an update. If he'd fobbed them off with 'no comment', & that got reported, we'd probably all be speculating on why his reply was different this time!

It would be usual to just put out a prepared statement. There is no need to do a sit down.

Of course without any "new news" or a juicy comment, it would be unlikely that the Beeb would run it.

 

[mrjitty]

I agree.

That's not how he comes across to me either.

Despite everything (and I do go very back and forth on him, as you know, and his very peculiar and unsettling tabloid-friendly methodology), he does still come across as someone who passionately believes in and is guided by what he believes he knows and has in his corner.

I just hope we finally get to learn what this evidence is!

 

[Dlk79]

Agreed it's not CT.
And it is not JJ because she saw a pair of men but we are IMO looking for a witness who saw one man.
Therefore IMO probably it is JW (female). From her description come the sketches of a very angular acned face.

I'm not sure. I know what you mean, JJ saw a pair of men. But the Sun article is clearly trying to keep their witness's identity a secret here. And if they quoted her as saying "that's one of the men I saw", it would be immediately obvious who their secret witness was.

And we do know that JJ and her sister did report their account to police shortly after MM's disappearance-

"Although the two sisters contacted Portuguese police within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, their evidence was ignored for six months. The women met police three times within 24 hours, tried to find out who the strangers were themselves and made several follow-up phone calls to the authorities."
British witnesses: 'We saw two blond men on balcony next to Madeleine apartment' | Daily Mail Online

Regarding JW, I can’t really post a link here to her sighting account as her identity has never been officially revealed publicly. But if you search, you can find some details about what she saw and reported. And within this detail, the suggestion is that she contacted her own police force to report the sighting when she returned home to the UK. So again, that would not really fit with the Sun's comment of their witness reporting it 'within hours'. Whereas that identical phrase is used to describe JJ in the Mail article, and could even be where the Sun has copied it from. Further down the Mail article, there is another quote calling them "credible witnesses", which is also identical to how the Sun article describes their witness.

I'm not 100% either way, but I'm edging more towards it being JJ (or her sister) at the moment.

 

[Trivento]

I'm not sure. I know what you mean, JJ saw a pair of men. But the Sun article is clearly trying to keep their witness's identity a secret here. And if they quoted her as saying "that's one of the men I saw", it would be immediately obvious who their secret witness was.

And we do know that JJ and her sister did report their account to police shortly after MM's disappearance-

"Although the two sisters contacted Portuguese police within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, their evidence was ignored for six months. The women met police three times within 24 hours, tried to find out who the strangers were themselves and made several follow-up phone calls to the authorities."
British witnesses: 'We saw two blond men on balcony next to Madeleine apartment' | Daily Mail Online

Regarding JW, I can’t really post a link here to her sighting account as her identity has never been officially revealed publicly. But if you search, you can find some details about what she saw and reported. And within this detail, the suggestion is that she contacted her own police force to report the sighting when she returned home to the UK. So again, that would not really fit with the Sun's comment of their witness reporting it 'within hours'. Whereas that identical phrase is used to describe JJ in the Mail article, and could even be where the Sun has copied it from. Further down the Mail article, there is another quote calling them "credible witnesses", which is also identical to how the Sun article describes their witness.

I'm not 100% either way, but I'm edging more towards it being JJ (or her sister) at the moment.

Think I would probably put my money more towards JJ also ..she is more likely to have spoken to press seeing as was happy enough to appear on NF.

 

[Zuleika]

I'm still wondering if she was in the borderline between life and death when he took her. He may have assumed she was still alive when she was actually dying or dead.

CB as I said before has two hats, the meticulous burglar/House breaker and the impulsive sexual offender. This certainly clouds the issue of his likely behaviour and state of mind that night, in MOO.

I wonder ,if he was examined by a psychiatrist , what the diagnosis would be bearing in mind what you say above? Meticulous doesn’t go hand in hand with impulsive normally does it?

 

[redplanet]

I'm not sure. I know what you mean, JJ saw a pair of men. But the Sun article is clearly trying to keep their witness's identity a secret here. And if they quoted her as saying "that's one of the men I saw", it would be immediately obvious who their secret witness was.

And we do know that JJ and her sister did report their account to police shortly after MM's disappearance-

"Although the two sisters contacted Portuguese police within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, their evidence was ignored for six months. The women met police three times within 24 hours, tried to find out who the strangers were themselves and made several follow-up phone calls to the authorities."
British witnesses: 'We saw two blond men on balcony next to Madeleine apartment' | Daily Mail Online

Regarding JW, I can’t really post a link here to her sighting account as her identity has never been officially revealed publicly. But if you search, you can find some details about what she saw and reported. And within this detail, the suggestion is that she contacted her own police force to report the sighting when she returned home to the UK. So again, that would not really fit with the Sun's comment of their witness reporting it 'within hours'. Whereas that identical phrase is used to describe JJ in the Mail article, and could even be where the Sun has copied it from. Further down the Mail article, there is another quote calling them "credible witnesses", which is also identical to how the Sun article describes their witness.

I'm not 100% either way, but I'm edging more towards it being JJ (or her sister) at the moment.

There is the added difficulty that in some articles the journalists themselves may be confusing one witness with another.

 

[Denis R Tandib]

To be fair, the defence haven't needed to do anything. The heat went out of the case largely.



I don't want to be misinterpreted re HCW - I am sure he has high conviction.

What I mean is, few bureaucrats have the experience of fronting national media, let alone international media. When you walk into a case like this one, the global media spotlight is on you and suddenly you have your 15 minutes of fame. Some handle it perfectly. For example the Grace Millane case which was very difficult for the NZ lead detective given the UK media storm.

Others understandably make mistakes, especially if they don't have the right, experienced media assistance.

One thing that can happen is you get "gassed" by the limelight. This certainly happened the first time around when multiple actors including PJ drove a media circus that achieved nothing accept to deluge PJ with false leads.

I hope HCW is not being drawn into a commentary on the case itself - similar to how a football manager ends up fielding questions about his own decisions - that is all.

To be completely fair, FF was in the press weekly making sensational comments. Since the release of those photos, he has made no comment other than those related to CB’s treatment after yoghurtgate - nothing in connection to MM at all.

I can’t see much relevance to the Grace Millane case at all. NZ LE were clearly on to the perpetrator very quickly and they had lots of physical evidence and a good understanding the perp and victim from social media. While I agree NZ LE did a good job their task is incomparable to that of HCW. Please consider how NZ LE would be handling matters if CB were a Kiwi - I doubt the investigation would be as advanced as it is under the BKA. We wouldn’t have much media engagement because NZ LE likely wouldn’t have had anything to report in the first place.

IMO, everything we have seen from HCW shows that a diligent investigation has taken place over several years. He has consistently given the same messages to media outlets and those outlets have the largest coverage in the countries they serve. Again, IMO, he is keeping the story in the public eye in the places he hopes he can get more information from to support what is already a very strong case.

To me, to suggest that HCW has been seduced by the limelight or is losing focus on the key objective of the case is inconsistent with the investigation that has taken place and his communication through the media.

 

[mrjitty]

There is the added difficulty that in some articles the journalists themselves may be confusing one witness with another.

There is a good chance stuff in the sun/mail is simply invented.

I recall (though i now forget the specific detail) that an article in 2014 had a source known only as "Brighton mum" who was raging about police failing to quiz a convicted pedophile in the area. Then the same article ran later but now the source of the quote was KM.

So basically the same story was retreaded as a new story. I doubt the original source (if there was one) was ever reliable in the first place.

 

[mrjitty]

I can’t see much relevance to the Grace Millane case at all. NZ LE were clearly on to the perpetrator very quickly and they had lots of physical evidence and a good understanding the perp and victim from social media. While I agree NZ LE did a good job their task is incomparable to that of HCW. Please consider how NZ LE would be handling matters if CB were a Kiwi - I doubt the investigation would be as advanced as it is under the BKA. We wouldn’t have much media engagement because NZ LE likely wouldn’t have had anything to report in the first place.

I was speaking only of how well they handled intense media pressure - including given that the suspect could not be named.

Why do you think NZ police would not be able to rival German police for case clearances? We typically have very high quality work.

We have no way to know what progress BKA have made over what is now a multiyear investigation.

 

[axelcruze]

Maybe we should stop pushing the focus from CB to HCW....

FF's lack of media-presence makes me curious. Like from 100 to 0.

Ca
The interesting thing in german law is, that the suspect is allowed to lie all the time until he or she has been sentenced, without having to fear any inconveniences or a harder punishment.

The solicitor isn't allowed to do that. Once he has knowledge, he is not allowed to lie about the known truth. So it is better for him, to say nothing at all.

Just a thought.

I'm not sure. I know what you mean, JJ saw a pair of men. But the Sun article is clearly trying to keep their witness's identity a secret here. And if they quoted her as saying "that's one of the men I saw", it would be immediately obvious who their secret witness was.

And we do know that JJ and her sister did report their account to police shortly after MM's disappearance-

"Although the two sisters contacted Portuguese police within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, their evidence was ignored for six months. The women met police three times within 24 hours, tried to find out who the strangers were themselves and made several follow-up phone calls to the authorities."
British witnesses: 'We saw two blond men on balcony next to Madeleine apartment' | Daily Mail Online

Regarding JW, I can’t really post a link here to her sighting account as her identity has never been officially revealed publicly. But if you search, you can find some details about what she saw and reported. And within this detail, the suggestion is that she contacted her own police force to report the sighting when she returned home to the UK. So again, that would not really fit with the Sun's comment of their witness reporting it 'within hours'. Whereas that identical phrase is used to describe JJ in the Mail article, and could even be where the Sun has copied it from. Further down the Mail article, there is another quote calling them "credible witnesses", which is also identical to how the Sun article describes their witness.

I'm not 100% either way, but I'm edging more towards it being JJ (or her sister) at the moment.

In the Carol T statement, she reported on 29th April that she looked down from Apt above 5a and seen a young man leaving past the gate and closing it slowly not to make a noise - man was around 6ft 25-30 slim with short neat blonde hair Scandinavian looking and with big blue eyes dressed casual clothing, clean shaven, not overly tanned or burnt - this description would fit with pics of CB from his recent Malaga trip. This seems likely imo that this was CB was doing a trial run to work out a strategy. It's almost a perfect description of him given in 07 before we knew of a CB. Maybe checking times and noises he would need to beware of. Also Is it possible someone waited at that gate as lookout while someone snatched mm.

 

[Zuleika]

Frankly I’m amazed that CT noticed his “ big blue eyes” when she didn’t say he looked up at her .

 

[SuperdadV8]

To be completely fair, FF was in the press weekly making sensational comments. Since the release of those photos, he has made no comment other than those related to CB’s treatment after yoghurtgate - nothing in connection to MM at all.

I can’t see much relevance to the Grace Millane case at all. NZ LE were clearly on to the perpetrator very quickly and they had lots of physical evidence and a good understanding the perp and victim from social media. While I agree NZ LE did a good job their task is incomparable to that of HCW. Please consider how NZ LE would be handling matters if CB were a Kiwi - I doubt the investigation would be as advanced as it is under the BKA. We wouldn’t have much media engagement because NZ LE likely wouldn’t have had anything to report in the first place.

IMO, everything we have seen from HCW shows that a diligent investigation has taken place over several years. He has consistently given the same messages to media outlets and those outlets have the largest coverage in the countries they serve. Again, IMO, he is keeping the story in the public eye in the places he hopes he can get more information from to support what is already a very strong case.

To me, to suggest that HCW has been seduced by the limelight or is losing focus on the key objective of the case is inconsistent with the investigation that has taken place and his communication through the media.

"Yoghurtgate"

I love that so much. Thank you very much for this!

 

[redplanet]

In the Carol T statement, she reported on 29th April that she looked down from Apt above 5a and seen a young man leaving past the gate and closing it slowly not to make a noise - man was around 6ft 25-30 slim with short neat blonde hair Scandinavian looking and with big blue eyes dressed casual clothing, clean shaven, not overly tanned or burnt - this description would fit with pics of CB from his recent Malaga trip. This seems likely imo that this was CB was doing a trial run to work out a strategy. It's almost a perfect description of him given in 07 before we knew of a CB. Maybe checking times and noises he would need to beware of. Also Is it possible someone waited at that gate as lookout while someone snatched mm.

The CT sighting of gate-man was on Thu 03 May. The british police had mistakenly thought it was on Sun 29 Apr, and she corrected them.

 

[redplanet]

In the Carol T statement, she reported on 29th April that she looked down from Apt above 5a and seen a young man leaving past the gate and closing it slowly not to make a noise - man was around 6ft 25-30 slim with short neat blonde hair Scandinavian looking and with big blue eyes dressed casual clothing, clean shaven, not overly tanned or burnt - this description would fit with pics of CB from his recent Malaga trip. This seems likely imo that this was CB was doing a trial run to work out a strategy. It's almost a perfect description of him given in 07 before we knew of a CB. Maybe checking times and noises he would need to beware of. Also Is it possible someone waited at that gate as lookout while someone snatched mm.

CT statement says "he had big eyes" and does not specify a color. P.J. POLICE FILES: CAROL TRANMER MRS FENN'S NIECE STATEMENT

 

[Anxala]

I just hope we finally get to learn what this evidence is!

Maybe when he next pops in for a read and sees how poorly our investigation is going compared to his, he'll take pity on us and give us a tantalising clue...

 

[axelcruze]

CT statement says "he had big eyes" and does not specify a color. P.J. POLICE FILES: CAROL TRANMER MRS FENN'S NIECE STATEMENT

Ah ok, I was going from memory of CT statement, lazy reading I guess. Several people have mentioned the big eyes, but as the sighting was on 3rd May, this seems fairly ominous imo, unless it is a OC staff. One of the difficulties 13 yrs on is he looks different now, decade Extra of drink, drugs and running from the law has caught up....

 

[peanutJelly]

In the Carol T statement, she reported on 29th April that she looked down from Apt above 5a and seen a young man leaving past the gate and closing it slowly not to make a noise - man was around 6ft 25-30 slim with short neat blonde hair Scandinavian looking and with big blue eyes dressed casual clothing, clean shaven, not overly tanned or burnt - this description would fit with pics of CB from his recent Malaga trip. This seems likely imo that this was CB was doing a trial run to work out a strategy. It's almost a perfect description of him given in 07 before we knew of a CB. Maybe checking times and noises he would need to beware of. Also Is it possible someone waited at that gate as lookout while someone snatched mm.

Based on this I’m thinking in through the front bedroom window, out through the back patio doors. Makes sense as you are in the street checking coast is clear to break in, then with the elevated view at the back easier to avoid any tapas checks. Out the sliding patio doors is easiest exit carrying a child. Also fits in with initial sniffer dogs if vehicle parked at the back by the lamp post. With CBs experience this really wouldn’t take long at all