I'm still open to the possibility that AP wasn't involved - its a small possibility admittedly. I know that it looks bad circumstantially and with all the searches focussed on and around his flat it looks bad for him - but as that was the last place Karen was known to be, then those places would have to be thoroughly searched, just like the houses of missing people are always searched first.
It is not impossible that a predator just happened to be in the park or around that area at 4.00am. Highly unlikely, but statistically not impossible.
I think what makes this so confusing is the fact she went out with friends, left her coat with friend and told them she was going to the toilet ....... then inexplicably left the nightclub with this man (do we know where and when they first met, was it that night?) Then didn't text her friends to let them know where she was going. That screams suspicious to me - but the police say that cctv implies she willingly left the club with this man, so removes the idea she was forcibly taken away. Although that could have come later.
The lack of contact with the friends between leaving the club and apparently leaving AP's flat at 4.00am makes me think that she wasn't in a position to use her phone, as surely you would let your mates know where you are, so they don't worry and spent time searching for you - but that theory lacks some weight when it appears that she chose to leave the club without informing her friends, if what the police have said is correct. Although they may be trying to lull AP into a false sense of security, letting him think they are on his side and believe his story when they suspect otherwise.
However, I agree with others that if she thought she was just going to get something with him, then she would have looked fine on cctv when she left. She would have left willingly - its after that, that the situation could have changed. That's why I find the lack of contact with friends very telling.
Have the friends spoken in public yet? Have they said if Karen was spending a lot of time with this man in the club? Did they go searching for her when the club closed, or was it usual for her to go off on her own like that?
I think the most worrying thing is the location of the handbag. IF she had been attacked on her way home, it seems odd that her bag just happened to be dumped in the opposite direction to where she was going - placing it (and perhaps her) nearer the flat she disappeared from, that the route home.