Post by Admin on Dec 30, 2013 14:54:28 GMT
Ex-Met Police chief Peter Kirkham says questions will be asked as to why the relevance of the information was not recognised earlier
Ruled out: Original prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann appeal
Scotland Yard have now concluded that the key sighting of a suspect carrying a child at around 9.15pm was, in fact, a sighting of an innocent dad. This has changed the entire timeline of the incident and has opened up crucial new lines of enquiry. Questions will be asked as to why the relevance of the information was not recognised earlier.
While there may have been an oversight by Leicestershire Police, there are two things we should remember. They did not have access to all the material collected during the investigation and full responsibility for the case remained with the Portuguese at that time. In their liaison role, they may have simply forwarded the questionnaires to Portuguese police without analysing them themselves.
Even if they did consider the content, they may not have realised the relevance without access to all of the material. The information should have been recognised as of great relevance by the Portuguese police. I would have expected any person saying they were innocently carrying a child at around the relevant time and place to be investigated and cross-referenced with other witness accounts. That said, in a high-profile investigation, so much information floods in that it is all too easy for a crucial item to get lost. At that time, the main focus of the investigation centred on the interpretation of the DNA evidence which had been recently made available. This may have led to other potential lines of enquiry being overlooked.
No matter what the explanation, the fact that this “new” witness was in the system all along illustrates why case reviews are so important. A review of all material, by new pairs of eyes and with the benefit of hindsight, almost always identifies something which has been overlooked. In this case, it appears to have changed the basic understanding of what may have happened on Thursday, May 3, 2007.
Ruled out: Original prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann appeal
Scotland Yard have now concluded that the key sighting of a suspect carrying a child at around 9.15pm was, in fact, a sighting of an innocent dad. This has changed the entire timeline of the incident and has opened up crucial new lines of enquiry. Questions will be asked as to why the relevance of the information was not recognised earlier.
While there may have been an oversight by Leicestershire Police, there are two things we should remember. They did not have access to all the material collected during the investigation and full responsibility for the case remained with the Portuguese at that time. In their liaison role, they may have simply forwarded the questionnaires to Portuguese police without analysing them themselves.
Even if they did consider the content, they may not have realised the relevance without access to all of the material. The information should have been recognised as of great relevance by the Portuguese police. I would have expected any person saying they were innocently carrying a child at around the relevant time and place to be investigated and cross-referenced with other witness accounts. That said, in a high-profile investigation, so much information floods in that it is all too easy for a crucial item to get lost. At that time, the main focus of the investigation centred on the interpretation of the DNA evidence which had been recently made available. This may have led to other potential lines of enquiry being overlooked.
No matter what the explanation, the fact that this “new” witness was in the system all along illustrates why case reviews are so important. A review of all material, by new pairs of eyes and with the benefit of hindsight, almost always identifies something which has been overlooked. In this case, it appears to have changed the basic understanding of what may have happened on Thursday, May 3, 2007.
