UK detective refused to head up Madeleine McCann probe because 'Scotland Yard would order him to prove Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignore other leads'
- Colin Sutton said he was warned by senior friend in the Met about case in 2010
- Friend said he would be told 'who to talk to and what to investigate', he claimed
- 'Narrow focus' would be to prove Kate, Gerry and Tapas Nine innocent, he said
- Spoke on Sky Documentary based on leaked Home Office report that revealed 'turbulent relationship' between McCanns and police in London and Portugal
A detective tipped to head up the
Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was
abducted and ignore other leads.
Colin
Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him
not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved
in 2010.
The source warned that he
would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent
and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims.
Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he said he was warned he would be
tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and
ignoring any alternatives theories
Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he
said: 'I did receive a call from a very senior met police officer who
knew me and said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to head investigation
on the basis that I wouldn’t be happy conducting an investigation being
told where I could go and where I couldn’t go, the things I could
investigate and the things I couldn’t.
Asked
to clarify what he meant, he added: 'The Scotland Yard investigation
was going to be very narrowly focused and that focus would be away from
any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the McCanns or the tapas
friends.'
The Tapas Nine refers to the
McCann parents and the seven friends they were out to dinner with when
Madeleine disappeared in 2007.
They were interviewed by Portuguese
Police, who have always worked on the basis that Madeleine was abducted
from her room, but Mr Sutton said other possibilities should be
entertained.
Speaking on Searching for
Maddie, which looks at the case ten years on from her disappearance, he
criticises the narrow focus of both Portuguese and British police.
He
added: 'If you are conducting a re-investigation you start at the very
beginning. Look at all the accounts all the evidence all the initial
statements and go through them and make sure they stack up and they
compare.'
The documentary revealed details from a
Home Office report on the case, ordered by then Labour minister Alan
Johnson before the 2010 election, seen by Sky News' Martin Brunt.
The
report shows that Gerry and Kate McCann's relationship with Portuguese
police after they closed the investigation into her disappearance.
The
Met took the unusual step of getting involved in the case in 2010 after
the report was compiled, and recommends police collaborate with private
investigators hired by the McCanns because of the 'unique nature of the
case'.
However, it
also reveals that much of the information gathered by investigators had
not been shared with police investigating the case so far.
Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4467832/Met-interested-proving-McCann-parents-innocent.html