What she said is disputed. In the first case one assumes a fair number of the people who heard her, wouldn't necessarily be able to speak English, and those who did, (including the mother) were well stuck into the vino by then, so wouldn't constitute reliable witnesses?
That windows and shutters had been opened to aid sleep in a Southern Mediterranean country isn't unusual?
The teddy bear might have been taken away from her as punishment?
There's 'reasonable doubt' at every turn. If the parents had done the deed, I can't see how they'd keep a body in those temperatures without the aid of a deep freezer for 25 days before someone detected it with half Europes media on top of them?
Initially I was being flippant when I suggested that the decision to sue the paper might have been a contributory factor. All of a sudden I'm less than sure. The paper so far as I can establish is indeed the local rag called Tal & Qual. It's a weekly production with a circulation of just 27,000, and has a reputation for excitable sensationalism, without necessarily being well regarded for its proximity to police sources previously.
The McCanns had already wreaked havoc on the tourist season, and now a local employer, who might not be able to withstand a heavy damages suit, was under their direct threat, although the legal papers served named the Editor and Journalist. Some slightly damaging relationships between the local police and media might have come to light as a result of any hearing? but then again the media consensus seemed to be that Tal & Qual weren't particularly well connected. I know from my own experience that an informal relationship exists between a local authority and the local media (but that's no guarantee the same thing applies in Portugal of course). I don't see why at face value though the same mutual self interests shouldn't apply? One side wants to secure sympathetic coverage, the other side knows that the other is a good carousel of stories and thus makes one's job a lot easier, as such a slightly uneasy sense of co-operation where mutual interests are observed can develop.
The libel case now appears dead in the water. It strikes me as slightly odd that a week after filing a 6 page libel action against the local newspaper, they've been charged and effectively driven out of the resort by proxy. It would be equally odd though, to think that such a small newspaper, with the glare of the worlds media on them could precipitate such a police action, (unless there were close friendships or low level corruption involved?). Critically when the stories were first emerging and being published the police strenuously denied the McCanns were suspects. It's only when they filed the libel action though, that this position seems to have changed.
We'll know soon enough. The police might just go quiet now? If the objective was to rid the resort of the McCanns, then it will have worked. It's impossible to think they could return now unilaterally, as it will become increasingly apparent to them how resented they'd become, and the longer they stay in Rothley the less likely they'll be to want to return. Why would they? and to what end? the obvious thing to do would be to consolidate and come to terms with what's happened away from the Goldfish bowl they'd sucked themselves into. If I'd lost someone under these circumstances I think it would be only a little matter of time before I couldn't face the prospect of even contemplating getting back on a plane knowing I was flying back to the same resort, to see all those painfully places, whilst being acutely aware that not one person there wants to me to be around.
By imposing the arguido status on them, (sounds like a gunpowder plotter) they've also gone a long way towards gagging them, and preventing them from launching a campaign from the UK against the police. I'd be less than confident that the Portugese authorities really want to conduct a show trial that has all the possibilities of going badly wrong and becoming something of a national embarrassment if it ends up putting the police handling of the investigation in the dock. They'll have needed to engage in an old fashioned fit up to achieve a conviction, and with all the meaningful forensic analysis having been evaluated and logged in the UK it's going to be difficult to achieve.
