And I find Amaral very, very unprofessional. He is doing everything in his power to shift the blame on the McCanns, any time anyone mentions anything to do with Portugal having a potential suspect for kidnap, pedophile rings etc. He immediately shuts it down but the house Christian B was staying in was never even searched even though the Portugal police were tipped off it was where Christian kept all his "treasures" from burglaries and with a known sexual assault past with adults and children, one would think that would be top priority. But even still, they haven't checked the wells? Amaral is saving his own back, because he knows they've handled the case tit (McCanns being uncooperative aside). I think they also know if this Christian is convicted, it will be HUGE and will therefore be a massive blow to PDL tourist economy.
He is very unprofessional. For him, it has to be the McCanns or his whole reputation/ career is tarnished. He can’t be open to the abduction explanation because to do so, would be to admit how badly they messed it up.
i wish I could say Amaral was an anomaly in law enforcement but he isnt. While I can’t speak for Portuguese law encofrcement, in the U.K. at least, certain police in charge of divisions guard their little corner verociously like a little fiefdom.
It makes it incredibly difficult to work collaboratively at a national level because so much (usually Male) ego is involved.
Amaral’s whole demeanour reminds me of a man with a fragile ego, who has been in charge of his territory and zealously guards this (probably making it a nightmare when British police went over to Portugal). His priority was to be right and to be vindicated in the eyes of the world. I don’t even hold it against him, the majority of police forces would look at the parents as suspects, the likelihood of abduction being so slim. It’s his inability to admit he was too close minded, too soon. Every reasonable line of enquiry must be followed in a criminal investigation; he failed to do this.
His book would be shocking to anyone who has worked in law enforcement. Not only is it the very height of unprofessionalism, but it could potentially impede investigations into the case.
for him I don’t think it was ever about finding Maddie, it was about his own ego.
interestingly, in a court statement released following appeals of his book;
"It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case.
"In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.
"The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.
"There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling.
"It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence."
)
(obvs, purely speculating there!)
