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Woman on phone (Naimh???)
?I'd like to see what kind of a Mickey Mouse search, you know, police
investigation was done by the Portugal, err, police?
Nicky Campbell
Well, I'll tell you what, let me stop you there. I'll come back to you
because, Mark Williams Thomas, you know stuff about, you know a lot
about that, don't you?
Mark Williams-Thomas
Good morning. Yes I do. Yes, I mean I think Gerry and Kate have come
out now talking for two reasons. One, to try and keep that profile there
and to talk about the effect it's had on them. And I think its
important to remember, of course, that as a parent you will never give
up the search for your child. Last year I met Patty Wetterling in the
US. Her son was abducted at the age of eleven, Jacob. He's still
missing. And Patty still goes through it constantly every single day.
And bringing it to the home shores, Ruth Wilson who went missing on the
27th of November, 95. I know Ruth's parents very, very well
and worked with them. And she's missing and she vanished at the age of
sixteen. No sight or anything at all, And these parents will never give
up. Every single phone call that they get, particularly around
anniversaries and Christmas they wait in anticipation that they will get
some news. So Gerry and Kate will never give up.
But obviously what they are asking for now is a re-investigation over
some of the elements of it. And if we go back to the initial stage
there was obviously an awful lot that was done, there was an awful lot
that wasn't done. But we mustn't forget that this is a Portuguese
investigation and however much influence the British have over Portugal
.it is ultimately their investigation. They've conducted what they
consider to be an investigation. There are no new leads or inquiries
that would require them to open the investigation. The one thing that
Gerry and Kate could do with all the Tapas would be to go back to the
Portuguese police and say we will co-operate 100% with a review in
relation to a reconstruction. And don't forget that reconstruction was
something that never took place and at the time I was certainly saying
that reconstruction would have been very valuable but they would all
have to co-operate.
NC
I'm sure I remember a reconstruction on television, watching it being
re-enacted.
MWT
Not with
Gerry and Kate
other than they went back with their own
investigators and did a kind of reconstruction. The Portuguese police
wanted to do a full reconstruction with all the Tapas and with everyone
back in their?, going through the process (????????)
NC
Well, where do you think Madeleine is now?
MWT
Well the sad reality is that when children go missing the main age group
for children to go missing is ten to 16. That's where the high numbers
are. But between the ages of 1 and 4, which is obviously what Madeleine
was at the time, within the period of 8 minutes and there are some
interesting statistics here, is 20% of children between the ages of 1
and 4 will be located within 8 minutes. 99% of those children will be
located within 196 minutes. So that shows you the sheer, the percentage
of children who will be recovered very quickly. And out of those 98% of
those children will be found within 1.2 kilometres of the location to
which they have gone missing.
Where do I think Madeleine is now? Well Madeleine was? I still believe
that Madeleine was abducted outside the
apartment.
She walked outside
the apartment and that's where she was abducted. Gerry and Kate have
got to keep hope that Madeleine isn't dead and until such time as they
have got some confirmation and direct intelligence that tells them that
she is dead they will always live on the hope that she will return. The
sad reality is that is probably very unlikely.
Naimh
Can I just say?
NC
Yeah Naimh(?????)
Naimh
?that your statistics were for Britain and I am sure they don't hold
true for Portugal. I'm sure the British Government could have applied
some pressure. I mean, you could have a special investigation where the
British police, I know if someone went missing here in England it would
be a completely different scenario. The child would be found in the
next 24 hours, 48 hours or whatever. You know, they need to have a
special department, I mean instead of wasting money on stop and search.
I was hearing on your radio that they did a hundred thousand stop and
searches and 99.9% were useless, you know. Instead of spending those
resources on frightening the community, you know, we should spend it on
situations where we can help parents where children, especially young
children, 1 -10, go missing, abroad, you know.
MWT
I think, I'll just pick up on that point. I think you are absolutely
right as far as knowledge as to how to investigate missing children has
improved incredibly. And I was at a conference yesterday, the national
Missing Persons Conference in Coventry and there is clearly an awful lot
is now being done, is being done co-ordinated using agencies as well as
the police service to help find missing children. And in Portugal they
are some way behind. I think from a policing point of view they are
probably five, maybe six years, maybe even more than that behind in the
way they deal with missing children and indeed some of their other
investigations. But I think now, if a child goes missing in the UK,
there is a incredible amount of resources that are pulled in and worked
on to be able to find that child very quickly and, of course, we have
experience of that.
NC
OK. Its 9.30 and I am grateful to Naimh(????) and also John in Dunbarton
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