DIVERSIONARY TACTICS - MCCANNS WARNED IN SEPTEMBER

As the extract from the Telegraph article 26/9/07 below confirms a senior judge warned at that time their diversionary tactics in employing private investigators could see them charged with obstruction of justice.

They have gone a step further than that now by actively pursuing their own "suspect" in Portugal. It would serve them right if this also gets added to the list of charges they should face.

They have no right to behave in this way by pursuing a man who has clearly done nothing wrong.

It could be said that if this man actually exists, they are placing him at risk of serious harm, by suggesting he has kidnapped Madeleine - this is all the vigilante type need to hear to take the law into their own hands as the McCanns are clearly doing. Their behaviour as prime suspects in their daughter's death is outrageous. I urge the PJ to do more than simply criticise their conduct.

Viv x


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/25/nmaddy225.xml
Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs McCann were accused of employing “diversion tactics” by hiring private investigators to help find their daughter.
A senior judge warned that the move could see them charged with the obstruction of justice.
Under Portuguese law, it is illegal to carry out independent inquiries into a case while a police investigation is ongoing.
But it emerged this week that Mr and Mrs McCann have been in close contact with Control Risks Group – which specialises in kidnap, hostage and crisis management - since the end of May.
A source close to the couple’s legal team insisted the company was only working in an advisory role and not present on the ground in Portugal.
But Control Risks, and other independent private investigators, are thought to be focusing on Spain and Morocco.
Antonio Martins, president of the Association of Portuguese Judges, said private investigators were not legally recognised.
“It is still up to the state to carry out criminal investigation,” he told the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas.
“That kind of activity has no legal standing.
“Anything that results from private investigation has no substance.”
Mr Martines said these investigators and even the McCanns themselves could be accused of “obstruction of justice”.
Carlos Anjos, the head of Asfic, the Portuguese equivalent of the police federation, was equally damning.
“This can only be another diversion tactic from the McCanns,” he said.
“It’s another strategy by the couple, who today say one thing and tomorrow something completely different.
“Private detectives who intervene in criminal cases cannot exist.”
Today, reports of another sighting raised hopes that Madeleine was still alive.
A Spanish woman claimed she saw the four-year-old with a Muslim woman in the town of Zaio in the north of the country at the end of May.
She said she was sure it was the little girl when her hat blew up in the wind, clearly showing her face.