Dr Martin Roberts: Tennis on a clay court

By Dr Martin Roberts
13 September 2009

TENNIS ON A CLAY COURT
(not a firm surface - needs grassing up)

The warm up

Gerry McCann: "I'd like to read this statement on behalf of Kate, myself and our three children."

"...,the other action is about the damage that's caused to ourselves, our children and Madeleine, obviously."

So Madeleine's no longer their child then?

Proceed to serve

"It took us a long time to get the files translated so we knew exactly what was in them and by the time we'd... we had done that completely we were in to January and we... we did take advice and, to be honest, we were advised to, errr... issue proceedings at that point."

So the development of proceedings against Sr Amaral was largely, if not entirely contingent upon conclusion of a mammoth translation. And yet it appears all that was required was the thrust of the Judicial summary:

"We had hoped that everyone would have had the opportunity to see what was in the file and to see the Portuguese judiciary's verdict of what is in the file and they are very clear; there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead."

And later:

"I think the judiciary's summary of what has been done is very clear."

Which court are we playing on again?

(There seems to be rather a lot of balls lodged in the net).

Were the process files ever on trial? No. So the judiciary did not pass a verdict upon them, only an opinion (verdict in McCann parlance) of them. In fact it's a summary of contents isn't it, rather like Sr Amaral's book; a book which, as a source of information, is to be banned, in favour of people reading the files; files to which they may well not have access and which would, for speakers of languages other than Portuguese, require considerable translation that will doubtless introduce errors of all sorts.

Clearly it's not the book as a reflection of the process files which is causing the McCanns concern, but Sr Amaral's interpretation of the evidence accrued up until the time the case was shelved. The case has not been irrevocably closed. The McCanns were never formally accused. They have never, therefore, been declared innocent for want of evidence. They have not been charged. Hence nothing of this case has been tested in a court of law, only the court of public opinion.

Service return

The backhanded stroke here is that the Amaral 'thesis', by no means his uniquely but a shared conclusion arrived at on the part of the original investigating team, is inadmissible. So too is reference to his book. It follows that similar conclusions arrived at by others studying the process files in any official capacity, must be equally inadmissible. Put another way, the only admissible conclusion ever is one that the McCanns, former arguidos in relation to this case, deem to be so.

Except that the injunction does not cover baseline returns; references to Madeleine's death supported by information not in the process, not reflected by Sr Amaral's book, and not therefore similarly suppressible. Like Madeleine, it is 'out there'.

Time Fault

"Mr Amaral's central thesis has no evidence whatsoever to support it."

A lie pure and simple. There was a missing child, no evidence of abduction whatsoever, then an EVRD dog gave indications left, right, and centre, of a corpse having been in the immediate vicinity of the McCanns and no-one else.

"To claim, as he did, that Madeleine is dead and that we, her parents, were somehow involved in her disappearance has caused our family incredible distress and continues to do so."

To say nothing of the considerable distress caused to unwitting anitpodeans by totally unwarranted media intrusion into their lives; an intrusion provoked by the McCanns, and their investigators who were no more concerned properly to 'investigate' before their big media announcement than following it.

"Without doubt Madeleine will have suffered as a result of the negative effect this book and DVD will have had on the search for her."

Starting when? Today? Has it not already had a negative effect then?

David Crabtree: "David Crabtree, from Sky News. How much do you think this has damaged your campaign and is there anything you can tell us which suggests it has actually been damaged?"

GM: "I think there's a lot of people in Portugal who believe that there is evidence, errm... and further afield, that Madeleine is dead and if people believe that they won't search for her; and they may have information; and they may not come forward with that information; and we know for a fact that people have been told that... that Madeleine is dead; and there is no evidence to support that; and that is unforgivable."

In other words, David, the answer to your question is 'No.'

David Crabtree: "Has it slowed down the number of leads coming in, do you think?"

GM: "I believe so; Dave Edgar believes so; and if people believe that Madeleine's dead then why would they come forward with information?"

To be pedantic, David, one cannot 'slow down' a number, but we get your drift. Unfortunately you asked Gerry whether he 'thought' there had been this negative consequence and, predictably, he did. But while there's plenty of belief there's no certainty. Just as much belief was invested in tales of Australian yachts and Barcelona streetwalkers not long ago.

Second service

Following a supplementary question from David Crabtree we hear:

"We want to work with the Portuguese and we will continue to work with the Portuguese authorities to try and find Madeleine."

Since when? The Portuguese authorities are not currently looking for Madeleine (Gerry has previously complained about that), much less are they enjoying co-operation from the McCanns, which was conspicuous by its absence at the time it was required (48 unanswered questions and non-compliance with a request to return to Portugal as participants in a 'reconstruction', for instance). If they genuinely wanted the Portuguese to 'try and find Madeleine' they need only request that the case be re-opened. That must be on tomorrow's agenda - after first dealing with the much more important issue of ensuring Goncalo Amaral's book not be available for translation into English.

New balls please

GM: "I guarantee that if we are awarded damages they'll certainly be used, errm... to continue the search for Madeleine and we'll certainly look at other worthy causes, errr... within that."

So a 'disgraced Portuguese police chief' (according to the Sunday Express of 13 September) can find himself paying for McCann staff salaries, no doubt their Christmas bonuses, and probably the mortgage.