News that Scotland Yard detectives and their counterparts in Portugal are once again at loggerheads came on the same day this week that a British TV channel screened a new programme on what it called “the most famous missing person on earth”.
The Madeleine investigation, seven years on, is still making headlines. But scratching beneath the surface, the reality is that very little is happening.
Stories filling the papers for weeks suggesting British expats are now in the eye of Operation Grange investigators – indeed, as we went to press, UK’s ITV news reported that Robert Murat was due to be re-interviewed – have, for the time being at least, come up against a brick wall.
Grange’s long-announced “imminent trip to Portugal” has had to be postponed, say newspapers – and is now unlikely to go ahead before the New Year.
According to the Daily Mail, a “source close to the case” explains the problem centres on “the interview status of some of those set to be questioned”.
“Arguidos or suspects have to have a lawyer present and are not obliged to tell the truth,” said the source. “Witnesses have to tell the truth.”
The delay has been described as “bound to strain the already-tense relationship that exists between British and Portuguese detectives, who hold radically different views on what happened to Madeleine McCann”.
