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[colomom]

In Correio da Manhã today:

Investigation: Experts asked where Maddie was

English police irritated the McCanns

Madeleine McCann’s parents disagreed with the English police only a few days after the little girl’s disappearance. On the 14th of May, Kate Healy was shocked and frustrated with the English liaison officers. The motive for the disagreement appeared when the investigators asked Kate where her daughter was.

The policemen who came from the United Kingdom with the mission of providing support to the McCann family are professionals with specific training in abductions and sequestrations.

Their task would be to support the McCanns, to liaise with the Polícia Judiciária and to work with the other British agents that were installed in the Algarve. When they were in the Algarve, the investigation indicated the abduction theory as the most coherent.

According to the former coordinator of the process, Gonçalo Amaral, the officers who liaised with the family “didn’t last for more than a week in their functions”, after the disagreement with the family. The difficulty of communication between the couple and the investigators was nevertheless never officially communicated to the Polícia Judiciária.

The retreat from Portugal of the experts in sequestrations and abductions takes place two months before the same British authorities suggest the Judiciária to pay more attention to the theory of the child’s death on location, a possibility that until then was on a secondary plane of the investigation.

Forensics expert Mark Harrison, a national counselor for all the police agencies in the United Kingdom, on searches in homicide and missing person’s cases, is then sent to Portugal. It is Mark Harrison who recommends the use of dogs to detect cadaver odour.

Interpol followed over one hundred leads in Belgium

In Belgium, 107 persons state that they saw Maddie. Nevertheless, Interpol in Brussels revealed that they had no success in collecting indicia that lead to the child’s abductors. At the police station in Leicestershire, the area where the McCanns live, detective John Hughes also traced a disheartening result concerning the searches, in June last year. Meanwhile, the private detectives of Metodo 3 informed that they will sue the British papers that accuse them of being ‘maffiosi’. The Spanish now say that their participation in the searches was “reduced”.


Strong means

High technology – The English didn’t spare any efforts in the use of high technology to find Maddie.

Task Portugal – At the PJ in Portimão, the English built an investigation room named Task Portugal.

Abductor’s profile – Several English experts cooperated to trace the profile of a possible abductor.

Using the dogs – The English dogs had already participated in more than 200 operations.

Press

‘Mirror’ – The newspaper announces that the Portuguese police tried to carry out tapping in the McCanns’ villa, but the judge refused the request.

‘The Sun’ – Apparitions of little girls looking like Maddie happen in Belgium again.

 

[ThoughtFox]

Maddie Sighting in Belgian Bank

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24160726-5006003,00.html

Police Study More than 100 Leads

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=255447&in_page_id=34&in_a_source=

 

[colomom]

Sightings: Process includes 2550 pages about persons who say they saw the little girl

Policemen followed thousands of leads

The detectives that were hired by the McCanns search for the little English girl on Margarita Island, in Venezuela and in Brussels today. The PJ studied over 1500 locations

Reports appear at an almost daily rate in different parts of the world, where little girls that look like Maddie were seen. Today, the detectives that were hired by the McCanns investigate the possibility that the English girl is alive in Belgium or on Margarita Island, in Venezuela. The Polícia Judiciária has already studied over 1500 locations. The information fills 2550 pages, divided into 14 volumes, of the thirty thousand pages of the process. All the sightings that were narrated to the Portuguese authorities failed to reveal any indicium that Maddie is alive.

In Brussels, a bank security worker says he saw a little girl that looked like Madeleine a week ago, accompanied by a Muslim woman from North Africa. John Berckmans, a spokesman for the Belgium police, says the images from the bank’s video surveillance system are being observed, in order to establish the veracity of the allegations. This sighting appears after it was publicized that the Scotland Yard obtained an information “without evidence” that a Belgium paedophile network had placed an ‘order’ on the internet for a girl, three days before the disappearance. Nevertheless, the PJ also followed up on this lead, which ended up revealing no credibility.

In Venezuela, detectives follow another lead that was raised by British citizen Trevor Francis. On the 16th of May, he recognized Maddie in a restaurant, accompanied by two Spanish women. In the process, yet another recent sighting is reported. This time, in Portugal, by an Angolan citizen, who associates Maddie with a Dutch car.

The Portuguese police reveals that Maddie was seen on the same day in places that are over four thousand kilometers apart. The growth in the volume of sightings made it a priority to collect material to identify the DNA profile.

Video of orgies with children has no connection with the case

The British authorities informed the PJ about the existence of a video where a little girl that looked like Maddie was sexually abused in an orgy. The images were reportedly captured in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and would include the presence of Arab sheiks. The information was from Superintendent Stuart Prior and included that the video would be delivered in London in exchange for money. Although the girl in the video resembled Maddie, the video was immediately removed from the process because the recording had been made four months before the disappearance.

Press

‘Sunday Express’ – The newspaper places yet another efit of the possible suspect who abducted Maddie in Praia da Luz, on the front page.

‘Sunday Mirror’ – After Belgium, the newspapers detail a possible sighting in the Caribbean.


source: Correio da Manhã, 11.08.2008, paper edition

 

[colomom]

From 'letmeread' on 3A: http://the3arguidos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=21510

Here's a link to the article in Spanish, followed by a translation.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/caso/Madeleine/lupa/elpepisoc/20080810elpepisoc_2/Tess


The “Madeleine case” under the magnifying glass

Three suspects, 700 witnesses and a pile of contradictions in the police summary

MARIA R. SAHUQUILLO - Madrid - 10/08/2008


The inhabitants and tourists of Praia da Luz, a small town on the Portuguese Algarve, will remember the night of 3 May 2007 as one of most disquieting of their life. More than 20,000 pages, photographs, analyses and acknowledgements gathered during 15 months have not been able to clarify what happened. Neither has the interrogation by the police of more than 700 people shed light on what happened to little Madeleine McCann. Was she kidnapped by a paedophile network? Did she die accidentally and her body hidden? Did she leave the apartment on foot? Nothing is known of the British girl that disappeared from an apartment in that coastal town. ‘EL PAÍS’ reviews the summary of the case and analyzes the details that remain hidden.


Maddie McCann was seen for the last time by someone not of her family at 17.00 on that day. What happened between then and 22.00, when Kate, her mother, raised the alarm of her disappearance is a mystery. An enigma that begins with the contradictions that there are, according to the police, in the testimonies of her parents. They both maintain that they left to have dinner with friends at about 19.30. They tell that they left their three children sleeping. The twins Sean and Amelie (one and a half years old) laid down in their cradles, and Maddie in the bed. Kate said that she had left the girl covered. Gerry, the father, maintains that the girl was sleeping on top of the blankets clutching her favourite soft toy.


The McCanns, as on all the nights since their arrival on 28 April in Praia da Luz, met with Russel O'Brien and Jane Tanner, Mattew Olfield and Rachel Manpilly, and David Payne, his wife Fiona and her mother. (I have left the spelling of the names as they appear in the article) All left their children (altogether, eight children of less than four years old) sleeping in their apartments. They had reserved a table at Tapas, one of the restaurants in the tourist complex where they were staying. The group told the police that, “for the lack of someone to watch the children”, they devised a system of taking it in turns to verify that everything was well in the apartments.


Thus began the dance of chairs. At 21.00, Matthew Olfield went to see his daughter. He listened next to the rooms of the rest of the children and returned to the table. Between 5 and 10 minutes later, Gerry McCann did the same. He maintains that their children were sleeping. He explained to the investigators that the door from the lounge/ hall (the Spanish word can mean either) to the bedroom was half-open. “I thought that Madeleine had been up and returned to bed”, he said. He went to the bathroom and he left. He met a neighbour. They spoke for a while, and he returned to the restaurant.


What Gerry did not notice is that at 21.15 Jane Tanner went to see her children. Tanner maintains that she saw Gerry and his neighbour. But she saw something more: at about 10 meters, a man passed carrying a girl in his arms. The little girl was in pyjamas and barefoot. Nevertheless, according to her explanation to the police, the only thing that seemed strange to her was that the youngster was not covered.


At 21.30, Mattew Olfield did his round again. He went into the apartment of the McCanns. The twins were sleeping. But he did not look at Madeleine’s bed. Olfield told the police that the blind was raised. At 22.00, it was Kate’s turn. The door and the window of the room were open. Sean and Amelie were sleeping. Madeleine had disappeared.


“The version in which somebody from the group went to the apartments to verify that everything was well every 15 or 30 minutes falls to the ground”, say the police in the summary. According to their declarations, there was a moment at dinner in which two or three were not at the table. But none of the waiters remembers it. “The declarations of all result in incoherency, so it can easily be verified that they are lying”, maintain the investigators. But it has not been possible to prove/test this police theory.


Blind raised or lowered? Open or closed window? Kate and Gerry are not in agreement. The woman does not remember having opened the window through which, according to the police, the possible kidnapper could have entered. Nevertheless, the only prints that appear on it are hers. They could be from the previous day. The mother could have touched it the night before, when Gerry and Kate fought/quarrelled, and the woman slept in the children’s room.


And, who was the man whom Jane Tanner saw with a girl in his arms? The woman could not describe the individual. “Only after knowing the colours of the pyjamas, Jane concluded that the girl was Madeleine”, say the police. Besides her, three other people caught sight of the same individual in the vicinity of the Ocean Club. More than a week later, Tanner identified the man as Robert Murat, a British-Portuguese man 33 years old who lives with his mother near to the apartment of the McCanns. Murat helped the authorities and acted as a translator for the police. Tanner was not the first to mention suspicions regarding Murat. 8 May, an anonymous call to the police informed them that the kidnapper of the little girl was called Robert, he spoke fluent Portuguese and was helping the authorities. The caller warned that the same Robert “was encrypting” his electronic mail and frequented chats of “sexual content”.


A day after that disquieting call a British journalist commented on her suspicions regarding Murat. “He is too collaborative, curious (the Spanish word used here can mean inquisitive or strange) and close”, she said. The editor told the police she remembered a similar case in which the kidnapper had collaborated with the police.


The British-Portuguese man continued working for the police until 9 May, listening and translating more than a score of testimonies that could have been key to the investigation - the police said then that they did not dispense with Murat for the reason of not arousing his suspicions. In the end, he was declared arguido. In the declaration of Tanner, she guarantees that she had seen him helping in the search for Maddie on the night of 3 May, as do three others of the friends of the McCanns. Murat, however, maintains that he did not leave the house that night. Nobody else says they saw him.


If the mysterious man was not Murat, who was he? Three witnesses - the Irishman Martin Smith and his children Aoife and Peter - later identified him to the British authorities as Gerry McCann. But, how could the father of Madeleine absent himself from the dinner without the rest of the group realizing?


The police shuffled several hypotheses: the kidnapping of the girl, that she went out alone and was lost - these two first ideas began to lose force a few months later - or that she had died accidentally in the bosom of her own family, who had hidden the corpse. The office of the public prosecutor threw out this last theory. “Although it would be possible to be suspicious of the parents, still there would remain to prove how, where, when, by what means, with the help of whom and how they got rid of the body of the girl”, it was said.


None of the other theories could be proved. Hundreds of people called saying that they had seen the little girl. Belgium, Holland, Spain, Morocco, Indonesia, Mexico… Always the same description: a blonde youngster with a characteristic mark in one eye. The summary details hundreds of these possible Maddies. The police guarantee that all of them have been investigated.


In June 2007, the theory that Madeleine was “probably dead” began to gain force, and that she died in the apartment. The summary specifies a score of searches of beaches, ravines and open terrain near Praia da Luz. One of the more developed theories is that Maddie could have been thrown into the sea. Also, that the body could have been incinerated in a small animal crematorium, property of Hoos Evert Hendrik, a Dutchman that has spent years in Portugal. Everything is investigated. Nothing is concluded.


In September, the police centred on the theory that the little girl died because of a domestic accident or negligence. They considered whether the parents could have given her sleeping pills. That month, Kate and Gerry were declared arguidos. The police detail that they did not rule out the use of “pressure mechanisms” to obtain a confession. They subject the mother to an interrogation of 13 hours. The woman refuses to answer a series of questions -”Was Madeleine taking any medication? “,”What were her sleeping habits?“, ”Did you administer a sedative to the girl?“ - but she withstands the attacks.


Two weeks ago, ten months after that declaration, the Portuguese office of the public prosecutor decided to archive the case. No clue, no proof – not even the famous analyses of the DNA found because of the dogs, - none of the loose ends considered have served to reveal the whereabouts of the little girl. According to the public prosecutors, none of the police theories can be proven. The condition of arguido is therefore lifted from the three suspects (the parents and Murat). The case, nevertheless, is not closed. According to the Portuguese legislation, it can remain open until 2022. Any new clue could reopen it. The sightings of the little girl, with the characteristic brown mark in her blue eye, continue.

 

[colomom]

From 'Carmerina32' on 3A: http://www.the3arguidos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=21551

Translation of Article published in “El Mercurio” Santiago, Chile, Sunday August 10, 2008
Original article in Spanish can be found here: http://diario.elmercurio.cl/2008/08...cias/4de518ef-b51b-4af1-99e4-07c37868bd95.htm


Portuguese Gonzalo Amaral, ex chief inspector on the case, insists on his theory of 2007:

“There is strong evidence that Maddie is dead”

by Graciela Almendras

Traces of blood and of a body detected by dogs in the belongings, flat and car occupied by the couple were part of the proof collected during the period of time when Gonzalo Amaral was in charge of the search for Maddie.

Last October, one month after the McCanns were declared suspects, he was removed from the case – “without any explanation” he says – and two weeks ago he published the book “Maddie the truth of the lie”, wherein he considers it proved that the British girl died and that her parents are lying.

Who supports your theory that Gerry and Kate McCann are the guilty parties in Madeleine’s disappearance?
In September 2007, the investigation, Portuguese and British police, reached the conclusion that Maddie had died and that the parents were responsible and were involved in the crimes of hiding a body and simulating a kidnapping and potentially the crime of abandonment.

You have said that the child died when she fell from a sofa – why are you so sure of this?
First of all, there is strong evidence that Maddie is dead. When I left the case, the investigation was pointing at the sofa, due to the cadaver odour and blood tracked on the floor behind this piece of furniture.

Which are the clues that indicate that the McCanns simulated a kidnapping?
The thesis of the kidnapping was based upon two issues. The first, the testimony of Kate’s friend Jane Tanner, who said she saw a man carrying a child, while none of the other witnesses mentioned this fact.

However, one of the suspects was the man recognized by Tanner, Robert Murat.
I involved him because of his behaviour. Later, Tanner said she recognized him during that night. And also according to statements from other friends in the group holidaying at Praia da Luz.

The second issue …That Maddie’s mother is the only person who says that the window was open. When she calls to the other members of the group, she goes out leaving her twins, exposing them once again, to danger. Further proof is Kate’s finger prints that describe the movement when she opened the windows – we know that the window was cleaned the previous day -. However, Kate says she never opened the window. And most importantly, there were no signs of breaking in.

You have been under pressure from the McCann family lawyers.
I felt strong pressure from the British press. I think that nobody has ever seen such a tendentious campaign such as this one, with the sole purpose of denigrating the Portuguese police and myself.

After publishing the book, have you received any threats?
Before publishing it, I received some warnings. Afterwards, these became legal threats. In any case, I am not afraid, because this book presents only data and facts.

This week, the McCann’s accused the Judicial Police of having withheld crucial information at the time you were Director, regarding a witness who said she had seen Madeleine last June.
It appears that the McCann family is playing their part defending the thesis of a kidnapping. The Dutch police evaluated this evidence, which proved to be ridiculous. We are aiding the marketing of a kidnapping which, obviously, does not fit within a modern law system.

Do you believe that what happened that night was an accident?
When I left the investigation, all evidence was leading us in that direction.
End.

 

[colomom]

Investigation: McCann couple pays 212 thousand euros per month

Detectives become multimillionaires

Criticizing the Polícia Judiciária’s work, the McCann couple understands that “the obtained documents have potential that may not close the case”

An English newspaper has struck a deal with the McCann couple, as a reply to the defamatory news about the latter, to participate in the payment of the fees of the detective team that tries to find Maddie. The detectives collect 166 thousand pounds (212 thousand euros) per month to carry out the searches, according to the ‘Sunday Times’, which omits the name of the newspaper and of the investigator firm.

The new team of private detectives has a multimillionaire salary, compared to the amount that was paid to the Spanish at Método 3. The company, which is directed by Francisco Marco, publicized that they received 60 thousand euros for six months of work. The coverage of expenses against the presentation of receipts earned them an additional 108 thousand euros.

The work of the private investigators is carried out based on the investigation that was done by the Polícia Judiciária, until the process was archived. With the purpose of finding Maddie alive, these experts dedicate great attention to the depositions by persons who assert that they saw little girls looking like Maddie in different locations of the world. In the observation of leads, the detectives have valued the possible connection between the alleged abduction and a Belgian paedophile network, which three days before the disappearance “ordered through the internet” a girl with Maddie’s characteristics. Just like the British police, the Portuguese authorities did not value the lead. Even the Child Protection Centre in the United Kingdom comments the information with some reservation.

Criticizing the performance of the Polícia Judiciária, the McCanns defend that the publicity of the process has given the searches a new impulse. “The documents possess great potential and some may allow for the case not to be closed”, their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, sustains.

Strong means

Donation fund – With the purpose of paying for a private investigation, Maddie’s parents have created a fund for the public to give money, right after the English girl’s disappearance.

Empty fund – The McCanns’ spokesman stated in June that the fund was not drained, and that 630 thousand euros were then available.

Another two million – In July, the fund was reinforced with two million euros of donations.


Amaral’s book reaches Spain in September

The Spanish version of the book ‘Maddie, the Truth of the Lie’, written by the former coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, is going to be edited in Spain, on the 2nd or the 9th of September. The book launch coincides with two major interviews that Amaral is going to give to Spanish televisions: to Antena 3 (Sept 1) and to Telecinco (Sept 8). There are also contacts for the distribution in South America, including Brazil. 140 thousand copies have already been sold in Portugal. The author will not be attending the autograph session in Castro Marim today, because he will be at the funeral of Júlio Santos, a PJ coordinator.

source: Correio da Manhã, 12.08.2008, paper edition

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1283&page=3 #38

 

[ThoughtFox]

According to this Video on YouTube, the Belgian sighting has been debunked.The girl's father has come forward and said the girl was just out on a walk with her Nanny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixuQ4-IO1dU

Also Here:Sky News

The CCTV video of the woman and girl is at that link, but it isn't Maddie.

 

[colomom]

In Correio da Manhã (http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia....ontentid=22EE11F6-F77B-416B-8FCF-B084366C4C2E) this morning:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1283&page=16 #227

Extortion – PJ solved two attempts of fraud against the McCanns

Gerry laughed during the drama at the PJ

The PJ successfully solved the two attempts to extort money from the McCann couple in return for information about their missing daughter. But Maddie’s father’s laughs during the negotiations caused strangeness.

The ambience in the room was heavy, when on the 14th of June 2007, contact was established with a stranger in Holland, who seemed to shed a light on the darkness that the investigation was in, a month after the disappearance.

Against the nervousness of the Portuguese and the English policemen, Gerry McCann’s attitude surprised everyone in the room, the former coordinator of the process, Gonçalo Amaral, later recollected.

In a careless manner, Maddie’s father “made a contrast with the anxiety of the policemen and intrigued the investigators. Gerry “sucked on a lollipop in a relaxed manner while he read banalities on the internet and discussed rugby and football with an English policeman”, the former coordinator from the Polícia Judiciária wrote in the book’Truth of the Lie’.

The Dutch police would eventually discover that the Dutchman from Eindhoven, who used a cybercafé to demand two million euros per email, knew nothing about Maddie’s whereabouts.

In late June 2007, the McCann couple would suffer another extortion attempt, with the promise of information about their daughter, made by a couple in South Spain.

The intervention of the PJ with the Spanish authorities demonstrated that Italian Danilo Chemello and Portuguese Aurora Pereira Vaz, who claimed four million euros, didn’t know anything about Maddie McCann, either.

The coordination between the Judiciária and the police forces of Spain and Holland led to the detention of the individuals, who wanted to extort six million euros from the McCanns.

With the solving of both frauds, the Polícia Judiciária reinforced the thesis that the child had suffered a deadly accident in the Ocean Club holiday apartment.

Profession explains coldness

The coldness that Gerry McCann always demonstrated during the process of his daughter’s disappearance was noted both by the Portuguese and the British investigators. Gonçalo Amaral, the former operational coordinator of the investigations into the ‘Maddie case’ recalls that one of the English policemen used to say: “Don’t forget that he is a cardio surgeon and starts opening people up right after breakfast.” The ‘cold’ expressions of the McCanns also surprised the public opinion. But despite the fact that Maddie’s mother was never seen crying in public, the investigator stated that “Kate cried several times” for Maddie.

Ransom

Arrested in Holland – On the 4th of July 2007, the Dutch police arrested the 39-year-old man who tried to extort two million euros from the McCanns.

Detained in Spain – On the 28th of June 2007, the Spanish police arrested the Italian and the Portuguese who tried to deceive the McCann couple.

 

[colomom]

In Rádio Clube (http://radioclube.clix.pt/noticias/body.aspx?id=11334) this morning:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1283&page=16 #228

Kate McCann’s diary is considered as false

Policemen consider that Kate McCann’s diary was made on purpose to influence the investigation into Maddie’s disappearance.

Several police sources that are connected to the process told Rádio Clube that Kate’s diary does not look like an intimate portrait, as would be usual, and that it seems to have been made on purpose to be found by the authorities. The diary was not distributed to the journalists but Radio Clube had access to the writings of Kate McCann.

The text starts on the day that the English couple arrived in the Algarve, and lasts until early August. A diary that was given little importance by the Polícia Judiciária. Still, it is possible to read about support, irritations and other curiosities. Listen to the piece from journalist Augusto Freitas de Sousa who describes some statements from Kate’s diary.

The pressures that the former coordinator of the process, Gonçalo Amaral, has been referring to are described in Kate McCann’s diary. Madeleine’s mother wrote that she left British prime minister Gordon Brown a message, to call and to increase the political pressure.

Furthermore, 20 days after the disappearance, it can be read in the diary that Gordon Brown spoke to Gerry more than once. Kate mentions the PJ, the journalists and the political pressures, and numerous clues that failed to reveal as important for the process.

...................
note: the original article on Rádio Clube's website includes an audio report

 

[colomom]

http://radioclube.clix.pt/player/frame_player_7.asp?sound_id=7641

a radio news piece by Augusto Freitas de Sousa

summary of extracts from diary:

. Kate writes that one day before she disappeared, Madeleine asked why they were not there when she and her brother cried in their bedroom

. Kate mentions that the investigators from the PJ demonstrated no sympathy, smoked, and drove too fast

. concerning the media, Kate writes fondly about some journalists, like the Sun editor who was a darling, or the Sky News journalist who managed for the titles of some of the statements to be changed or omitted

. others, like the d**ned one from the Sunday Express who wrote that the parents could be the target of an inquiry into neglect

. June 17: Tony Blair’s wife called them

. June 18: because of the news that were made public, Gerry McCann called the British ambassador and requested for the events of the previous night to be taken of

. July 6: new foreign secretary called Gerry

. July 9: Gordon Brown calls Gerry again

. Kate often mentions Robert Murat, writes that just thinking about him makes her feel fury and hatred; she is certain that he is involved; she would like to kill him but she can’t

. mentions diverse activities, and clues that lead to nowhere

. Kate makes several references to the love that she felt for her daughter and says goodbye to her through the diary, almost every day

 

[colomom]

From the blog (http://paramimtantofaz.blogspot.com/) of Frederico Duarte Carvalho, a journalist and author:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1283&page=19 #281

Anatomy of a badly told story

“There is still so much to discover inside the process”, I was told a few days ago by the former coordinator of the PJ, Gonçalo Amaral, when together with João Vasco Almeida, I interviewed him for “Focus” – see the edition of tomorrow, the 13th. The author of the book “Maddie – Truth of the Lie” (140 thousand copies sold and foreseen translations for Spain and Germany) gave us what was the first interview after the case left the premises of the judicial secrecy. So, the former coordinator accepted to look to the computer where we had the DVD with the process open, and pointed his finger at the moment where the fatal contradiction of the witness statements by some of the main players in the night when the alert to the disappearance of the English girl in Praia da Luz was raised, is registered: “No member of the media has ever crossed those depositions”, Gonçalo Amaral said to us.

It is all in the first of the 17 volumes, which run to 4713 pages. It was the contradiction between the initial statement from Jane Tanner, a marketing manager, and the one from her companion, doctor Russell O’Brian, that raised the suspicions that the marketing manager might be lying when she said she had seen an alleged abductor carrying a child. This happened as early as the 4th of May, within the first hours after the disappearance.

Russell O’Brian, a doctor and Jane Tanner’s husband, worked directly with Madeleine’s father, Gerry McCann, for six months. They became fathers at approximately the same time, as Russell’s older daughter is just one month older than Madeleine. When the witness statements from Gerry, Jane and Russell were crossed, the PJ’s investigators realized that “the story was badly told”.

According to Gerry McCann’s witness statement, which was registered in the PJ’s offices at 11.15 a.m. on the 4th of May 2007, fourteen hours after the facts, it can be verified that Madeleine’s father left the ‘Tapas’ restaurant approximately half an hour after he arrived there. Before him, another member of the holiday group, Matthew Oldfield, had already checked the windows and confirmed that they were closed and that all the children in the group should be sleeping. When Matthew returned to the group, he communicated it to those who were present. At that same moment, Gerry got up and went for a new verification. That would have been at 9.05 p.m. Madeleine’s father entered the apartment with the key, went to his children’s room, verified that the twins were well, just like his older daughter. Gerry then went to the toilet, where he stated he remained for a few instants. He left and crossed paths with a British friend, Jez, whom he had met during the holidays and with whom he used to play tennis. The friend was walking his baby, as she was having difficulties to sleep. They both chatted for a bit until Gerry returned to the restaurant.

The witness statement from Jane Tanner, which was collected at 11.30 a.m. on Friday, the 4th of May, registers the fact that she left the restaurant at around 9.10 p.m, approximately five minutes after Gerry. Jane went to her apartment to check if everything was well with her daughters. At that moment, on her way to the apartment, she guarantees that she crossed with Gerry while he was talking with his tennis friend. She stressed to the PJ that she passed them both, knowing that Gerry had already been in his apartment to check on his children.

The contradiction appears when this statement is crossed with the one from her husband, Russell O’Brian. The latter only spoke to the PJ on the evening of the 4th of May, at 9.50 p.m., almost 24 hours after the facts. Russell confirmed that Gerry and Jane left almost simultaneously. But he stated that his wife must have returned first because she would have met Gerry talking with his tennis friend. This was where a very important doubt was born, to understand the key moment of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The questions assaulted the minds of the PJ’s investigators: Did Jane Tanner see Gerry talking with his friend when she was coming back from the apartment, like she suggested to her husband, or on her way up?

After all, if Gerry and Jane left almost simultaneously, with only five minutes between them then how was it possible for Gerry to check his children in the bedroom, to go to the toilet – where he stayed for a while -, to return to the restaurant and even stop to chat with his tennis friend within only five minutes, to a point where Jane guaranteed that, when she passed them both on her way to her apartment, Gerry was already on his way back? Is it possible that Gerry was chatting with Jez while he was still on his way to the apartment, after all? And how to explain the fact that neither Gerry nor his friend – who was later questioned in England – ever remember seeing Jane, despite the fact that she stated that when she passed them, they were all on the same sidewalk?

This whole contradiction is relevant to the case when one realizes that, according to the testimony from Jane Tanner – which is further sustained by a scheme that she drew concerning these movements -, she states that after passing Gerry and Jez by, while walking into the direction of her apartment, she saw, a few metres ahead, on the corner, an individual carrying a child. Never on her way back. It would be that testimony that would become the base that sustains the entire abduction theory that still remains in so many people’s minds. And the suspect was walking into the direction of Robert Murat’s villa. Therefore, it was Jane’s testimony that, despite the contradictions, came to sustain the entire abduction theory that pointed towards Robert Murat.

The first description that was made by this friend of the couple pointed towards a man aged between 35 and 40, slim, 1,70 m tall, very dark, thick hair that was short but long in the neck area. As she had only seen him from behind, she could not detail his face. But that didn’t prevent her from asserting, later on, that she had indeed seen Robert Murat.

Jane also said that she returned to the restaurant after checking on her children, and guaranteed to the PJ that Gerry was no longer on the street talking to his friend, because she found him at the ‘Tapas’ in the company of his wife, Kate. After 15 to 20 minutes, it was time for Jane’s husband, Russell O’Brian, to check on his daughters, accompanied by Matthew Oldfield. The latter passed through the McCanns’ apartment but failed to verify whether Madeleine was in bed or not, as he admits that he was only concerned about hearing any noises from the inside. Meanwhile, Russell stayed in his bedroom caring for his daughter, which is why Jane ate rapidly and went to relieve her husband from the bedroom. Russell returned to the restaurant and that was the moment when Kate got up to check on her three children’s sleep. It was 10 or 10.15 p.m., and Jane Tanner was in her apartment when she heard Kate McCann and another friend from the group, Fiona Payne, shouting that Madeleine had disappeared. From that moment on, it would be utter confusion, which led us into a situation that dragged on for months, and finally ended for now, with the case being archived without a corpse or an abductor appearing.

If anyone abducted or concealed Madeleine McCann’s cadaver, that was, until this moment, the perfect crime.

 

[colomom]

“I was close to finding Maddie”

The inspector of the McCann case demolishes the abduction theory: “The sightings are marketing”. He explains, for the first time, what remains to be done in order to find the body

Gonçalo Amaral has already sold 140 thousand copies of his book Maddie: The Truth about a Lie. The former coordinator of the investigation into the case that shocked the country explains his theory to Focus.

Focus – A newspaper reported that your book could be summed up as “murder, the dog wrote”, given the fact that it was the cadaver odour and the blood that were found that led you to sustain the theory that Madeleine McCann died. What do you actually know beyond the dogs?

Gonçalo Amaral – That comment only reveals the ignorance of the person who wrote it. The technique of residue collection using special dogs like these, CSIs, is usual in England, in the United States and it has already led to more than 200 condemnations. The laboratory where the samples [of blood, cadaver odour and DNA from Maddie] were analyzed has corroborated these experts’ work.

Focus – It has corroborated it, but it does not specify that they belong to Maddie McCann.

G.A. – They can only match that from Madeleine McCann, because the lab had the twins’ DNA and it was not a match. Those are 15 out of 19 markers that match.

Focus – What else sustains the theory?

G.A. – There is evidence from indicia, which is possible in this country, as long as the prosecutor possesses the conviction and the elements that indicate that, in court, there will be a condemnation. The Public Ministry has to value this evidence that was collected. This time, the Public Ministry considered that the indicia are not sufficient and archived the process.

Focus – And what are those indicia that you understand as sufficient?

G.A. – The atypical behaviour of the parents: The fact that the lady says that she had three children sleeping in one room, that she arrives and one is missing, the window is open, she mentions it’s a cold night, the shutter is up… and she goes away, leaving two children asleep, with a possible abductor around. I know that [the reports from the PJ and from the Public Ministry] didn’t give any relevance to the contradictions and didn’t expose the falsehoods and the false testimonies that exist there from all the persons who intervened. That, deep down, is the evidence that indicates that everyone is lying and those lies cannot be understood.

Focus – And who took the child from her bed?

G.A. – That is the question that we were investigating on the 2nd of October 2007, when I left. From that moment on, little investigation was carried out in that apartment. The parents should have come over for a reconstitution and they didn’t. That was necessary to understand what happened.

Focus – Which was…

G.A. – The death of the child in the apartment. The Public Ministry even mentions homicide. The abduction theory has been dismissed due to everything that has been made public.

Focus – How do you defend the “accidental” death?

G.A. – There is indicia behind the sofa [of the McCanns’ living room]. The sofa is under a window that looks onto the street, which is three or four metres high. It is normal behaviour, and justice deals with normal behaviour, that the parents would have moved the sofa away from the window, given the fact that they had small children and alone at home. The window was easy to open and the shutters were not functioning…

Focus – But why “accidental”?

G.A. - I don’t say it’s accidental. Up to that moment, we could only reach an accidental death, because we had not worked on the rest yet. We had yet to understand what had happened there. Cadaver odour and blood from the child appear next to the sofa. Death has presumably taken place there. There are no doubts that it is a death and that it took place on that spot. We are not going to say that the mother did this or that, that would really be speculating, the only hypothesis is the accidental death. In the continuation of the investigations is where we could go further or not.

Focus – You said that the mother can’t be accused of having done this or that… How far can you deduct?

G.A. – As far as we could deduct on the 2nd of October. I believe, and so did my colleagues in the investigation, that if we had continued into the same direction of the investigation, we might eventually have gone further. We might even have reached a point where we dismissed any suspicion concerning the parents. Investigations that only go half the way is what leaves things as they are now.

Focus – Are Madeleine McCanns’ parents responsible for their daughter’s death?

G.A. – No. There is a neglect in the guard [of the children]. There are no doubts that those children were not safe, because if they were, one of them wouldn’t have disappeared. Now, saying that “the responsibility of the death belongs to…” We had to understand, to collect data about what happened from there on. The reconstitution is essential. I did not understand, but I accepted the decision from a hierarchical team that I was part of, why the reconstitution was not done right away. The possibility of trying to make a new reconstitution was opened, but the arguidos had already left Portugal. A thing like this is only done with arguidos. The ideal is to have everyone, but even only with the couple, that were arguidos at that point in time, the reconstitution could have been carried out.

Focus – And with actors?

G.A. – No. It would be enough to tell them: ‘You say that you did this and that, then do it, where did you enter, were you having dinner, weren’t you having dinner, what did you order for dinner…? Where did you touch and where didn’t you?’ All of this. It was important for Kate and Gerry McCann to come over, but the Irish witnesses could also come…

Focus – Those who say that they saw Gerry McCann carrying a child, down the street, on the night of the disappearance.

G.A. – Yes, those who assert that they saw, with a certainty of seventy, eighty percent, Gerald McCann carrying a child, walking in the street, it was already nighttime.

Focus – You suggest that the little girl was frozen or conserved in the cold. How do you reach that?

G.A. – There is a bodily fluid, inside a car boot, above an “embaladeira” [n.t.: metallic piece of the car that reinforces the lower part of the doors], from a child that presumably died on the 3rd of May. The car was rented 20 days later and was even new. It had been rented two or three times. Taking into consideration the circumstances of the climate, the temperature, the decomposition of a body… A body, in order to leak a fluid in that manner, a body with more than a month of decomposition had to be preserved.

Focus – Did it have to be close by?

G.A. – And why?

Focus – It could have been taken to Lisbon, Oporto, Badajoz…

G.A. – That was what we were taking care of at that time. The body could have been moved, but nobody knows when the body was transported in the car. The car ran several kilometers [around 3000, according to the process]. And given the fact that it is not known when the body was transported, according to the analysis of the fluids, we have to attend to where the car went through. The McCann couple and their relatives. For example, the relatives later state that they transported garbage, a package with meat from the supermarket, but the dogs can tell those things apart very well.

Focus – There is a contradiction in the valuation of the dogs’ evidence.

G.A. – What happens is that the Public Ministry devalues it. In Portugal, we are all very skeptical towards this form of collecting indicia.

Focus – You state that you have not told everything that you know.

G.A. – And I haven’t.

Focus – Why?

G.A. – Because I am a jurist, too. Let’s see how the situation evolves.

Focus – And how can the situation evolve?

G.A. – The things that are missing are important in terms of the investigation, but they are ours… When it is said: these are your convictions… This is the understanding of a work team and even with the English police. And with documents. It’s this kind of thing, for any action that may be coming. I don’t believe, but who knows.

Focus – Does the English police agree, then, with that “understanding” about what you are saying?

G.A. – The work with the English police went very well. Then, certainly due to a mere coincidence, when the McCann couple leaves, all the English policemen leave as well…

Focus – You are convinced that someone made the process reach the hands of the English.

G.A. – I have that idea. I think that it even fits into that marketing campaign that is saying that the little girl is alive.

Focus – But don’t you admit you may have doubts if there is a sighting?

G.A. – How many sightings have there been? Thousands. It’s been a year. I stopped giving them a lot of importance on the day that the dogs confirmed the cadaver odour and the blood.

Focus – But you did start with the abduction hypothesis.

G.A. – If you look closely, right in my first document, the process mentions “abduction” followed by two question marks.

Focus – Then, you were thrown out…

G.A. - … that is a good expression…

Focus - … because of the reports that mention that you drink whiskey at lunch or because, in your work, you believe that there is a death?

G.A. – I don’t drink whiskey. I drink beer at lunch time, if they had written that, they would have been right. Before I left, a weekly magazine says: “That person does not last beyond October as the head of the investigation.” This happened a month or two before. And then I was given a speech like that one from the Attorney General: ‘Not all investigations can be successful, or the authors of the crimes are not always discovered…’ What may have hurt many people was my will to discover the material truth. And when I left, I was naturally closer to the truth. Two examples: Apart from our need to know who the friends of the McCann couple were, or if they knew anyone in Portugal, or who drove the car… if they eventually visited another apartment, if they used to meet someone, if they deposited someone… just for us to understand. Towards the end, I was informed that they had visited people at a villa in Praia da Luz. We went to check it out. Then, we were informed that the McCanns had visited an apartment block near the cemetery. And we were working on that, in order to confirm whether it was them or not. This was how we were trying to understand where the body was. And there are many persons who were not investigated, who were not in the process.

Focus - So are you going to let this entire case pass into the clear? Don’t you at least want to be sued by the McCanns over everything that you leave in the air…

G.A. – So we can have a chat…? (smiles)

Focus – Are you going to sue the McCanns?

G.A. – No, as far as I know the McCann couple has not been speaking, the one who has been speaking is their press advisor, mister Clarence Mitchell.


by João Vasco Almeida and Frederico Duarte Carvalho

in Focus, edition nr 461, 13.08.2008

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1289&page=2 #18

 

[colomom]

From Correio da Manha (http://www.correiodamanha.pt/notici...nnelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010):

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1283&page=23 #344

[Google translation]

August 14, 2008 - 00:30 am

Research: PJ knocked on more than 500 doors to learn about the English Girl
Only houses of McCann raised suspicions

Photo caption: Clothes collected in house Vista do Mar revealed cadaver odour

The authorities investigated more than half a thousand homes in order to explain the disappearance of Maddie. But only in two places, where lived the McCann couple, parents of British girl missing on May 3, 2007, were found evidence that the child might be dead.

In the early days after the disappearance, the GNR military officers and PJ visited in the area of Praia da Luz 443 dwellings, including an apartment rented by the couple McCann in the Ocean Club, where the girl disappeared. Nothing that might indicate the whereabouts of the child was found, revealed the PJ, which concluded that the apartment rented by McCann showed no signs of arrombamento(??).

From May 14, 2007, the PJ held a series of searches of houses that may have been used by Robert Murat (then suspected of kidnapping the girl), his girlfriend, Michaela Walczuch, her husband Luis Antonio, and Russian Sergey Malinka, but are not found traces of Maddie.

In August 2007, British dogs that can detect cadaver odour and biological traces were used in the Ocean Club apartments rented by McCann and friends, at the home of Robert Murat and housing 'Vista do Mar', inhabited, between July and September, by McCann. In the final findings were indications that Maddie would have died in the apartment of the parents in the Ocean Club. The smell of corpses was also observed in clothes of the girl and mother, taken from the house 'Vista do Mar', and the car hired after the disappearance.

PRESS

'The Sun'

The popular British newspaper reports that Antonio Migliardi, ice-cream vendor in Brussels, says he has seen Maddie in the streets of the Belgian capital.

Sky News

The Belgian girl, referred to as Maddie, was identified by his father, disclosed the spokesman of the Belgian police, Lieve Pellens.

João Saramago

 

[colomom]

A brief and rather fruitless look at the PT press this morning only came up with this bit, from Correio da Manhã (http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia....nnelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010):

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1289&page=11 #164

McCann couple: Detectives and spies have three months to obtain a solution

Agents without abduction leads

The detective team, which is being paid millionaire salaries, that was hired by the McCann couple to find Maddie has already pursued the authors of a possible abduction for three months, but until now failed to find any secure clues that lead to the English girl that disappeared in May last year.

The family’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, confirmed that a North-American detective agency “considered to be the best” was hired by the McCann couple to carry out a worldwide investigation, which took off 13 months after the disappearance. The spokesman added that three months of work have already been concluded. The result of the work of these former investigation agents from intelligence services like the FBI, the CIA and the MI5, will be known until the end of November.

The McCann couple will pay a total amount of 500 thousand pounds (approximately 629 thousand euros) for the work of this detective agency, whose name was not made public.

Clarence Mitchell clarified that “for security reasons, no information concerning the identity of the former FBI, CIA and MI5 agents that are involved can be advanced”. But he confirmed that “elements with military, police and espionage training exist”.

The spokesman considered that this team is better prepared to find Maddie, when compared to the Spanish detectives from Metodo 3, who possessed important contacts, but only in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

With their main operation bases installed in the United States and in the United Kingdom, the new detectives are prepared to start an investigation in any location in the world, at any moment. It was a lead that was followed by these agents that led the Belgian police to analyze the video surveillance system of the KBC bank, in Brussels, where a child was mistaken for Maddie.

Press

‘Daily Star’ – The new detective team that was hired by the McCann couple carries out searches in various parts of the world and reunites the best agents from various nationalities.

‘Daily Mail’ – The money to hire the detectives was taken from the ‘Find Madeleine’ fund, which was created by the parents after the disappearance, to receive donations.

 

[colomom]

Investigation: PJ followed the trail of 150 paedophiles

First suspect was in Iraq

The disappearance of Maddie on the 3rd of May 2007 led the Polícia Judiciária to hundreds of leads that were connected with paedophilia. The agents followed the footsteps of 150 paedophiles and authors of crimes of sexual nature, still failing to establish a connection between the disappearance of the child and any sexual predator.

The first suspect that was followed by the PJ right at the beginning of the investigation was a sexual abuser of children, of English nationality, who fled the United Kingdom, in 2005, with connections to a bar that is located 150 metres away from the bedroom where Maddie disappeared from. But the PJ managed to establish contact with his stepfather, who informed the investigators that the young man was in Iraq. The English authorities confirm this information and the lead was eventually abandoned.

At the beginning of the investigation, British newspaper ‘The Sun’ publicized the fact that the Algarve is a haven for British paedophiles, with 130 of them living in the region. Some were questioned by the PJ. There is also a British couple who raises suspicions concerning the relationship of David Payne (a friend of the McCanns) with children, but the British only deliver the information in October, and nothing is proved concerning a connection with the doctor.

During the same month, following operation ‘Predator’, the PJ’s experts observe the faces of hundreds of children in paedophile sites, looking for a lead.

Gerry explains disappearance with paedophilia

Only a few hours after Maddie disappeared from Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, her father, Gerry McCann, said during a phone conversation that the little English girl, then aged three, had been the victim of a sequestration by a paedophile network. Gerry’s words were later narrated to the Polícia Judiciária by another English citizen who was on holidays at the Ocean Club. This tourist listened to the phone call, without his presence being noticed by Gerry.

Protected data

English police refuses– The English police opted to keep the confidentiality of the list of paedophiles that are referenced in the process.

Private life preserved – The revelation of identities was considered to be an intrusion into private life. Nothing was proved concerning an involvement of the paedophiles that were heard.

New questioning – Some English newspapers yesterday reported the Public Ministry’s impediment to a new questioning of the McCanns.

Press

Sky News – Gerry McCann made a new appeal to authorities to deliver data that help to find his daughter.

The Sun – The newspapers remembers that the investigation concludes that it is most likely for Maddie to be dead.


source: Correio da Manhã, 16.08.2008

 

[colomom]

Investigation: Sean and Amelie learned to speak in Portugal

Twins without memory of a dramatic loss

Can the twins, Maddie’s siblings, remember how the English girl disappeared from the apartment in Praia da Luz, on the 3rd of May 2007? “No”, neuropsychologist Nelson Lima considers.

Sean and Amelie were two years old on that tragic evening when their sister disappeared. “At that age, a child is not able to retain any memory whatsoever”, the president of the Intelligence Institute, in Oporto, refers.

The creation of memory obeys the completion of three exercises by the brain, the neuropsychologist explained. The first one is observation; the second one is the registration of the facts, an ability that is not developed in a two-year-old child yet, and which is vital to carry out the third operation: remembrance.

“There are persons who state that they remember experiences that took place before the age of two”, but, according to Nelson Lima, “that is not possible. In truth, there is no memory of those events”.

“What exists is a different situation, which is called a virtual picture. In this case, the individual shapes an image of the story later on, and assumes that as real. It is not memory, it’s a construction that is built by imagination, based on witness accounts”, he added. A virtual reality that Sean or Amelie may have created and expressed in the meantime, because according to their father, Gerry, the twins started speaking in Portugal, after losing their sister.

Future memory

Recollections of Maddie – If she is alive, Maddie is now five years old, which means that she is able to remember.

Twins asleep – Testimonies reveal that, despite the turmoil that was created after the disappearance was discovered, the twins continued to sleep. They may therefore not have seen Maddie’s last moments in the bedroom.

Taken from the crèche – Maddie’s siblings frequented the Ocean Club’s crèche until July 2007, when the parents moved into a villa.

source: Correio da Manhã (http://www.correiodamanha.pt/notici...hannelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010), 17.08.2008

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1316&page=14 #196

 

[colomom]

Hours after the disappearance of the little English girl, the McCanns used the covers of children’s story books that belonged to their daughter, to write down details of the evening

Hours after Madeleine disappeared, the English girl’s parents tore the covers of two children’s books that the child enjoyed leafing through before going to sleep, to write down the details of the evening of the disappearance.

There, according to what can be verified by the pages that have been appended to the process, Madeleine’s parents noted the periodicity of the visits to the rooms where the various children slept and who within the group of English people had verified that nothing out of the ordinary was taking place.

The PJ appended those documents to the process on September 9 of last year, then referring that the same had been apprehended by the GNR on the night that the girl stopped being seen.

The importance of the book covers was related to the fact that the PJ considers that there was a manipulation of the testimonies – the depositions between the elements of the group were combined in a detailed manner. That was the motive why those pieces of evidence were gathered only after Gerry and Kate were made arguidos, at a time when they had already formally assumed that they were suspects.

To the authorities, it was then an important detail at that moment in the investigation, because it revealed the little girl’s parent’s concern in protecting themselves from possible responsibilities, overshadowing the preservation of objects that belonged to the child at a moment in time when she had only been missing for a few hours.

Which led the authorities to admit that there could have been a manipulation of testimonies.

Son of player confounded with child

English tourists confounded the son of Dino Drpic, a football player for Dynamo of Zagreb, with Madeleine McCann and tried to remove the child from his mother, according to the Croatian press. The case took place on the island of Krk, when the tourists confounded the little English girl with the son of Dino and Nives Drpic, aged two and a half. Upon seeing blonde Leone Drpic, a British child was convinced that it was Maddie and warned her parents. The parents, after taking a few photographs from a distance, came closer to the little boy and tried to take him. “There was a moment when she got hold of his arm, apparently believing that nobody was watching him [the boy]. As soon as I approached, she realized her mistake and apologized”, said Nives Drpic.

Details

Reconstitution – The reconstitution of the evening of the disappearance, which never took place because the English weren’t available to return to Portugal, was fundamental to understand all the steps that were made by the elements of the group that evening. The PJ intended to determine at exactly what time the little girl had gone missing.

Photo-fit – Jane Tanner asserted that she had seen a stranger at around 9 p.m., carrying a child. She admitted that it had been the abductor and explained that Gerry was very close to her when she saw him. A photo-fit was made, but the authorities always considered that her deposition was not credible.

Timeline – Maddie was last seen, by persons other than her parents and siblings, at around 5.30 p.m.

source: Correio da Manhã 18.08.2008, paper edition

 

[colomom]

Correio da Manha (http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia....hannelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010)

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1355&page=9 #124

19 Agosto 2008 - 00h30



PJ admitted that the children had been drugged

Kate's strange attitudes

A strange attitude by Kate, on the day of Madeleine's disappearance was pointed out by Fiona Payne, one of the members of the British group on holiday in P da L.

FP's witness statement says that Maddie's mother, during the first hours marked by despair and by a feeling close to frustration, several times approached the twins, holding her fingers close to their noses.

Sean and Amélie were asleep at this time, but Kate seemed to want to confirm that that her youngest children were alive, checking if they were breathing.

This behaviour, linked to the fact that Maddie's grandparents confirmed that the children took a sleeping draught to help them go to sleep - a common medication in the UK and often given to children - raised doubts amongst the investigators. But the fact was never taken further, in spite of of one of the theses defended by the first team responsible for the investigation that the disappearance was linked to an accident, which could have been directly linked to the medication given to the children.

Another fact confused the investigators. Kate and Gerry always said that Maddie, Sean and Amélie fell asleep at 19.30/20.00, which was the reason for their being capable of leaving them alone when they went to dine in the restaurant situated 100 metres away, from where they had no view of the apartments.

The version changed later whn Gerry was interrogated, as an arguido.

At that moment, the father told that Maddie had difficulties in falling asleep and that they had instigated a points system in order to tackle this. The girl would be rewarded when she managed to achieve certain parameters.

TESTS WERE NOT POSITIVE

Months after Maddie's disappearance and at the time Kate already felt that the investigation was turning against her, she suggested to the PJ that the twins should be subjected to tests, to see whether they had been drugged on the night of the disappearance.

The request was perceived as a strategy to confuse the investigation, given that the couple were both doctors, who would know that, at that moment it was no longer possible to detect any trace of substances that could have been ingested by the children. In the process it was verified that this thesis was never judged to be credible.

 

[colomom]

What Levy says to 24horas:


- The 24 pics exist
- He has already seen some of them
- The pics were taken by a tourist on vacations with his wife and another couple
- The pics were made between 20h10 and 22h15 at Tapas Bar
- The pics show in the background the MCs and the British friends on vacation with them
- In one of the images would be possible to see that Kate McCann changed clothes during dinner time
(24horas recalls that: the group’s version of events stated that K just left the table around 22h00 when she went to the apt and noticed Maddie’s disappearance; that when G was made arguido he stated not to have taken a camera and not to remember if anyone else did and also that he did not remember what K was wearing that day)
- The owner of the pics would have had already contacts with British newspapers in order to sell the publishing rights. However he puts a condition to it: the pics must be shown to the Portuguese police.
- The tourist has sent the pics to the British centre of protection of children that cooperated with the Portuguese authorities in collecting information on the case
- After the tourist made that contact an important law firm from the UK got in touch with him and offered 600,000euros for all of the pictures - “The lawyers wanted him not to talk about the content of the pics and not to send them to Portugal, for that reason the deal was not done”

(24horas recalls that during the process the investigators insistently tried to find images that portrayed the events of the 3rd of may. They were not successful)

On the small box above the piece can be read: “The British magazine The People has accused Duarte Levy of trying to sell them the pictures taken on the night Maddie disappeared for 50k, around 600,000euros and assuring them he had refused the deal and they warned the couple MC. In a statement to 24horas, Levy denies: “I’m not the owner of the pictures; I only helped several journalists that contacted me in Brussels”. In a statement to the magazine, CM, MC’s spokesperson, claimed that K and G “are angry and upset” and reminded that “they are no longer suspects”. Nevertheless he admits not knowing if K changed her clothes that night. “What if she did?”, asks Mitchell quoted by The People.”

http://www.24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2922&link=14

Copied from: http://the3arguidos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=21706&start=705 (vimark)

 

[colomom]

http://www.24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2922&link=14

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Tourist Holds Photographs that Prove that Kate Changed Clothing

French journalist-blogger who has written dozens of articles regarding the Maddie Case confirms that a set of 24 photographs exist. The photos were taken in the Tapas Bar restaurant, in Praia da Luz, the night that Madeleine McCann disappeared. According to Duarte Levy, the photographs were snapped by a tourist who holidayed with his wife and a couple. According to Duarte Levy ---who told 24Horas that he had seen some of the images—the colour photographs show the McCann couple and the Brits with whom they holidayed. The photographs were taken between 20h10 and 22h15, in the Tapas Bar. In one of the images, explains the journalist, it is possible to see that Kate McCann changed clothes during dinner. Remember that the group version of events tell us that Kate left the restaurant around 22h when Maddie disappeared. When he was made an arguido, Gerry McCann confirmed to the PJ that on the night in question, he did not take a camera with him. Nor does he remember what any member of the group did. He also said that he does not remember what clothing Kate used on the day Maddie disappeared. The owner of the photographs, adds Levy, had already contacted British journalists with the aim of selling the rights to publish the photos—with a condition—that the images be first shown to the Portuguese police.


600,000 Euros for the Images

In declarations to 24Horas, Duarte Levy indicated that the tourist sent the images to the British Centre For The Protection of Children (CEOP????) whom have collaborated with Portuguese authorities in the gathering of information regarding the Maddie Case. Shortly after, he was contracted by an important Legal Office in the U.K. who offered him 600,000 euros for the photographs. “The solicitors asked him not to speak about the contents in the images, nor did they want them sent to Portugal—for this reason, the negotiation was not made”, explained Duarte Levy. Throughout the judicial process, the responsible case investigators consistently sought images from the nigh of May 3rd. They were unsuccessful.

The photographic record of apartment 5A, made only a few hours after the disappearance of Maddie by a Judicial Police specialist, did not allow Gonçalo Amaral to collect details that could be decisive in resolving the case. “The photos, or video images, needed to fix, for history, that which each of the present group were wearing” This could have had a major relevance for the evolution of the investigation,” write Dr. Amaral in his book “The Truth of the Lie.”