Investigation by leak

This is crazy:

Sources close to the case said the traces - understood to be blood - were being treated by Portuguese detectives as strong evidence that Madeleine died in the apartment before her body was placed in the car.

Police in the Algarve apparently now believe they have enough evidence to charge her parents, Kate and Gerry, with "accidentally" killing the four-year-old and hiding her body. A file on the case will today be sent to a prosecutor who could order the couple to return to Portugal to face charges this week.

These details should not be in the public domain. Maybe the parents are guilty of something, maybe not. But this is just throwing lumps of meat to the lynch mob. The police should investigate, and if there's a case against anyone then they should bring it, and that's when it should be reported. If an investigation is closed, then it should be open to reporting. But what's developing now is a pattern where to fill a news agenda accusations are levelled aginst innocent bystanders (if the parents are guilty of something here then Robert Murat is not, and vice versa), lives are raked over and destroyed, just so people sitting in front of the TV, chewing the cud, won't switch channel.

We need an extension of the sub judice rules to include the period of the investigation.