Maddy, nieuwe verhoren van de Tapas 7.

quote:

Op dinsdag 1 april 2008 17:15 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

http://www.iht.com/articl(...)gal-Missing-Girl.php

Als de McCanns de zaak mogen inzien dan zou je zeggen dat de politie in GB dat ook zou mogen, er is tenslotte een deel van het onderzoek door hen uitgevoerd en de verhoren worden ook door hen afgenomen, zou dit betekenen dat er ook een statement komt van de PJ over de details van deze zaak? Dat hoop ik wel.

quote:

McCanns: Secrecy of Justice up to August If there was no understanding of when the period began to count in September, the secrecy of justice would be lifted in April, but having this agreement the secrecy in the process will only end in August. “In declarations, to the CM, Rogério Alves, lawyer of the McCanns, contradicts the news circulating yesterday in the UK press, according to which the process of the inquiry to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Praia da Luz, in the 3rd of May of last year, would be available for consultation after the 14th of April.

“It is out of question", said also to the CM a source close to the investigation. According to several English newspapers, quoting an interview of Rogério Alves to the news agency Associated Press [you can read his interview and see the differences in the UK tabloids for yourself], the former bar of the Order of the Lawyers, would have informed his clients that they might try the consultation to the process from the 14th of April. “What I speak with my clients I do not speak in public ", said to the CM Rogério Alves, explaining that "the secrecy will only be lifted in August".

In the count down for the investigations to the friends who were on vacation with the McCanns in the Praia da Luz, predicted to begin day 8 of this month, in Leicester and in the presence of elements of the PJ , Rogério Alves also said to the CM: "I was not notified of anything, neither were my clients." Kate and Gerry, who are preparing a documentary to be exhibited on the 30th of April, about an alert system for missing children, might not be, for the moment, questioned by the police. Source: Correio da Manhã

Maybe, and knowing for a fact that Team McCann spin has previously 'modified' what people say, like Mr. Alípio Ribeiro comments, and others, Mr. Rogério Alves should take the advice given to Hugo Chávez by His Majesty Juan Carlos, the King of Spain: ¿Por qué no te callas? [Why don't you Shut Up?] (dat zei de koning van Spanje idd tegen de Venezolaanse president Hugo Chávez: "Hou je waffel eens dicht." telegraaf.nl)

Yesterday, once again spinning, Clarence Mitchell had this to say:

Clarence Mitchell, the couple’s spokesman, welcomed the lawyer’s comments and called for the arguido status to be lifted. Mr Mitchell said: “We would hope that the police will do the decent and proper thing and open up the files."

“I would go further than that, and say once they have completed the interviews with the friends, they should go back to Portugal and assess the evidence and eliminate Kate and Gerry and allow everyone once again to concentrate on the search for Madeleine.”

"Kate and Gerry and their friends have long expected this visit by Portuguese police officers." "It comes as no surprise to them at all that some reports in the Portuguese papers in the last few days have been speculating about the arrival date."

" I am not in a position to confirm any dates or give any details about the re-interviewing of the friends and all matters will have to go to Leicestershire police to be dealt with." "However, Kate and Gerry and their friends welcome the police interviews. The friends are more than happy to co-operate fully, as are Kate and Gerry, although in this case Kate and Gerry will not be re-interviewed."

"This has not been requested but Kate and Gerry would have agreed to answer any questions had they police wished to put anything to them. "There were some reports from Portugal last week that police were not going the question Kate and Gerry because they thought they would not co-operate. This is utterly ridiculous and completely baseless."

"Kate and Gerry and their friends see this as an important chance to help the police." " We hope that the police will realise that there is no evidence to link Kate and Gerry with Madeleine's disappearance in any way and that they will be rapidly eliminated from the inquiry and the arguido status, which was imposed too hastily as the head of the Portuguese admitted, will be lifted as soon as possible"

Source: The UK Tabloids, Sky News aka the McCann's Media.

quote:

Looking at the most recent news – the fact that the Tapas Group had access to the content of the rogatory letters and part of the police files about the investigation of Madeleine’s disappearance – I must say that this shouldn’t be a surprise, for those who have been following this case.

On January 2008, Clarence Mitchell revealed that “British police and child protection officers do not suspect Madeleine McCann's parents of involvement in her disappearance”. And he was clear about the source of this information, when he said: “I have also had briefings privately from the police and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre that also gave me complete reassurance that the authorities, in this country certainly, are treating this as a case of rare stranger abduction, as they call it."

At the end of November 2007, the seven friends that were having diner at the Tapas restaurant, with Gerry and Kate McCann, met for the first time after the events at Praia da Luz. It was an emotional meeting, as the British Press referred, two weeks after the meeting took place, at a hotel in Rothley. But it wasn’t only the group of friends that were present. Some of the advisers of the McCann family were there, also.

It’s good to remember that on January 2008, the Foreign Secretary confirmed that he “has communicated with the McCann family on a number of occasions. However any further details relating to this have been withheld under Section 36 (2) (c) of the FOIA - information which, if disclosed, would or would be likely to, prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. Section 36 is a qualified exemption and therefore a public interest test to determine whether or not the information should be released had to be applied.”

Another strange detail has emerged, on October 2007, on an interview of Alex Woolfall, the Media management crisis expert that was at Praia da Luz 48 hours after Madeleine vanished. He told “The Times” that “he heard no suggestion in the early days that the girl had been snatched. ‘Certainly I did not hear any discussion that this could be a paedophile or an aggravated robbery. All the time I was around it was whether she could have wandered off and had an accident or somebody had actually taken her in, perhaps not with ill-intent.”

But Kate McCann was clear – and in total contradiction – about this subject, in several interviews to British newspapers: 'There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind she'd been taken”, Kate McCann told "The Independent", on August 5th, referring to the moment when she went inside the apartment and realized that Madeleine wasn’t there.

Now, let’s wait and see what course events will take. But going back to the beginning of this case, allow me to quote Piers Morgan, former editor of “News of The World” and “Daily Mirror”: "Nobody I know says they would ever have left three kids aged under four on their own to go out with their mates at night on holiday. NOBODY."

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Op donderdag 3 april 2008 13:02 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Dat hebben ze vast al gezien idd, nu nog zorgen dat ze het legaal en officieel mogen gebruiken, die zijn echt wel op de hoogte van alle ins en outs.

Murat was imho op het verkeerde moment op de verkeerde plek, hij is immers helemaal door de mangel gehaald, zijn spullen zijn onderzocht en hij heeft alles netjes terug gekregen, bovendien heeft hij toestemming gekregen om zijn kind te bezoeken, dat krijg je niet als er ook maar de schijn van schuld bestaat in Portugal, waarom denk je dat de McCanns anders met grote spoed en heel plotseling zijn vertrokken uit Portugal terwijl ze eerst nog hadden gezegd dat ze zouden blijven totdat Maddy terug was gevonden, die voelden de bui al hangen.

quote:

British police ready to question 'Tapas Seven' over Madeleine disappearance British police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are to interview more than 30 people who could help to prove that her parents were not involved in her abduction.

The interviews will begin next Tuesday with the first of the seven British friends who were on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine was reported missing in Portugal. A different couple will be interviewed each day in the presence of Portuguese detectives at the headquarters of Leicestershire Police.

The officers will concentrate on alleged inconsistencies in the timelines of events on May 3. None of the witnesses will be made arguidos (official suspects under Portuguese law) and detectives will not seize evidence or search homes. Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, have offered to be reinterviewed but will not be questioned. British officers will then begin interviews with more than two dozen other people who were at the Ocean Club resort in Praia Da Luz on May 3 last year or who were later connected to the case.

The witnesses include other holidaymakers, nannies at the Ocean Club, people who claim to have seen Madeleine being abducted, the psychologist who comforted Kate McCann and the McCanns' official spokesmen, Clarence Mitchell and Justine McGuinness. The list of people to be interviewed has been provided by Kate and Gerry McCann as part of their rights as arguidos to demand that police speak to people who could prove their innocence.

Paulo Rebelo, the chief investigator in the Polícia Judiciária investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, will fly to Britain with two other detectives on Monday. They will stay until Friday to watch the interviews with the so-called “Tapas Seven” who were at a restaurant on the Ocean Club with Mr and Mrs McCann when Madeleine went missing.

Jane Tanner, 36, claimed she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' apartment at about 9.15pm - when another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man. Her partner, Dr Russell O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the group for up to 45 minutes in the period that Madeleine was taken from her bed.

Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37, a hospital consultant from London, and his wife Rachel, 36, a recruitment consultant, were also at the tapas restaurant. David Payne, 41, a cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine. His wife, Fiona, 34, and her mother, Diane Webster, will also be interviewed.

The McCanns' Portuguese lawyers have requested the police case against them be made made public on the eight-month anniversary of the day they were made official suspects. However, detectives can request a three-month extension, as granted in the case of the other official suspect, Robert Murat, in January.

Because of the change in Portuguese law, the court could rule that the eight-month limit actually started in September last year. And the evidence could remain sealed indefinitely if police rule that the case is a major crime, such as international child trafficking.

Mr Murat, 34, has recently returned to Britain to see his five-year-old daughter, Sofia, for the first time since he was made an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Mr Murat, who lives with his mother in a villa about 100 yards from the McCanns' holiday apartment, has strenuously denied any involvement. Police last month returned computers and clothing they had seized during the search of his home in an indication that they no longer believed he was a suspect.

quote:

Op donderdag 3 april 2008 14:36 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Als ik de ex van Murat was dan was ik ook niet naar Portugal gekomen, al die pers en detectives die daar rondspoken, het meisje had dan waarschijnlijk alleen maar persfotografen gezien, lijkt me niet echt handig, wel goed dat ze dat niet hebben gedaan, sneu voor haar vader dat ze elkaar bijna een jaar niet irl hebben gezien, lijkt me echt zwaar.

Heb jij ook het gevoel dat bijna iedereen in GB hun adem inhoudt totdat er nieuws komt over de verhoren? Nieuwe feiten en statements is volgens mij waar iedereen op zit te wachten, speculeren is gevaarlijk geworden, alhoewel ik een beetje het gevoel heb dat die claims een vooropgezet plan waren, het Maddyfund was bijna leeg en het zou me niet verbazen dat dmv de contacten die Gerry heeft met de pers via Clarrie er een soort opzetje is gemaakt om daar wat aan te doen.
Wat natuurlijk echt een klap is in het gezicht van de persvrijheid. Yep, allemaal de bek gesnoerd, lijkt potdomme het voormalige Oostblok wel! Het opzetje is wat mij betreft gemaakt door Clarence Mitchell tijdens die LSE-lezing. Ook toen was de bodem van het Madeleine-fonds zichtbaar. Ik hoop het nog mee te maken wát er allemaal aan de hand is want ergens klopt er iets niet, dat alle journo's één kant op kijken, en zo ook de McCanns&Co, naar de andere kant. Nog nooit vertoond.

Wat betreft je andere post, bla, spin, en geruchten, niets nieuws, alleen 'stating the obvious'.

Edit: niets tegen jou persoonlijk, enkel tegen dit "nieuws" Nee, dat weet ik wel hoor!

quote:

McCanns could return to Portugal for anniversary of missing daughter Madeleine Kate and Gerry McCann are poised for a dramatic return to Portugal to mark the first anniversary of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance. The couple are prepared to defy their lawyers and risk arrest in an attempt to revive the search for the four-year-old.

The McCanns, who deny any involvement in her disappearance, were named official suspects – or arguidos – by Portuguese police in September, prompting them to leave Praia da Luz, the resort where Madeleine disappeared, and return to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

On Monday, Portuguese detectives will fly into the UK to re-interview the friends – but not the McCanns – at police headquarters in Leicestershire. The outcome will determine whether the couple, both doctors, return to the Algarve.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today: 'Kate and Gerry are currently deciding whether to return to Portugal. It is being discussed 'Going to Portugal would send out the strongest possible message that Madeleine could still be alive and the search for her should continue. The family feel the focus should be on finding Madeleine.

'Next week's interviews will help in gauging the police attitude. In an ideal world they would not be arguidos and their lawyers have always warned them not to return while they have that status. But they want to be in Praia da Luz for the first anniversary,' he said.

quote:

The key to a Mystery

Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, who had already published ‘A Estrela de Joana’, a bestseller about the case of Joana Cipriano Guerreiro – an investigation in which Mr Cristóvão had been directly involved, as one of the Policia Judiciaria inspectors that helped break the case – recently published a book about the case of Madeleine McCann, titled ‘A Estrela de Madeleine’ or ‘The Star of Madeleine’.

This novel, where fact and fiction are deliberately intertwined, as the author states in the foreword, invites us to reflect upon the various possible theories behind the disappearance of Madeleine. It does reach a conclusion of some sort, while leaving an open door into other solutions. The exploration of several theories is done almost exhaustively, presenting arguments in favour and against several possibilities.

All of this thinking is carried out using the two main characters as ‘vehicles’. Francisco Meireles, a young PJ inspector, and his chief, João Tavares, are fictional characters that we follow through several months of an investigation that is yet to be concluded. The narrative begins on the evening of May 3, 2007, and ends at an undefined point in time, with both colleagues looking out into the deep blue ocean, in Praia da Luz. Throughout the novel, a few real-life persons enter the action – Gonçalo Amaral, Guilhermino Encarnação and Luis Neves, the Policia Judiciaria ‘triad’ that was at the core of the investigation until October, as well as the McCann couple.

For most of us, who have followed the twists and turns of this case attentively, the ‘Star of Madeleine’ does not add any new information. It uses some fictional solutions as a stand-in for what we perceive as the real developments of the investigation. It also becomes obvious that the author is not ready to completely discard Mr Murat from the case, suggesting that there was some prior form of acquaintance between him and the McCanns. This was one of the angles that I personally found most intriguing in the novel, although it is confirmed that absolutely no trace of the missing child’s presence was ever found in or around Casa Liliana.

What does stand out very clearly from this book, is that the author wanted to make a strong defense of the Policia Judiciaria, of its work, and of Portugal and the Portuguese people in general. The book is dedicated to the men and women that serve the PJ, oftentimes with great personal sacrifice, and Mr Cristovão does not hide his sorrow over the non-existent defense that the higher instances of the Policia Judiciaria, and of the Portuguese State made of their judicial police, when confronted with the humiliating and offensive remarks that were published by a significant part of the British press.

In my personal opinion, this is not a masterpiece of literary expertise, but then again, it was never supposed to be. While being an easy read, at little more than 150 pages that are managed on the fly, with a narrative that is fluent and rarely comes to a slow, the most interesting aspect is precisely the ability that the author has to convey the rationale, the train of thought that policemen follow to reach one or another conclusion.

Mr Cristóvão reinforces the notion that professional investigators do not fixate their eyes on one solution, but rather consider several options and work their way through them, eliminating one thread after another, until they remain with one or more lines of investigation that are credible. He states rather clearly that, in the case at hand, it was not the investigators that actively chose to consider the McCanns as suspects and then looked for the evidence to match the theory, but that the evidence pointed the investigators into that direction.

As a matter of fact, if there is some criticism directed at the PJ’s work in this case, it is precisely that the investigators were too slow to respond to their own instincts: that they set their usual way of working aside, to concentrate on one theory – the abduction theory – that was being imposed on them from the outside in. According to this book, there are no doubts left as to the fact that there was active interference from external agents, in this investigation.

After spending many weeks trying to pursue the abduction theory, hitting one dead end after another, there is a turning point in the investigation, with the appearance of Daniel Krugel, a South-African former investigator, followed by the intervention of British sniffer dogs Eddie and Keela. The rest, as it is usually said, is history.

The ‘Star of Madeleine’ is harsh on the McCann couple. While the author does not spend a lot of sentences on Kate and Gerry McCann, the few that are actually dedicated to them, are unsympathetic to say the least. Mrs McCann is portrayed as a cold, tough person, and Mr McCann is pictured as a man who chooses to protect his wife, his remaining children and his way of life, when he is confronted with the deadly result of a domestic accident, rather than taking what the author considers to be the appropriate action.

Towards the end of the book, there is a rather poignant ‘Thank you’ chapter dedicated to Madeleine. The author thanks her for bringing people together over a common cause, and for reminding us of so many other missing children that had slowly but surely slipped into oblivion for the general public.

This is a book that, if nothing else, is clearly written from the heart of a man who cares deeply about children, about his former colleagues at the Policia Judiciaria, and about his home country. It is obviously pro-Portugal, a fact that Mr Cristóvão never makes an effort to hide. It is also obviously pro-Madeleine. Whether it is anti-McCann, is another matter entirely – it is certainly against trying to manipulate public opinion, against trying to interfere with a criminal investigation, and against trying to derail the due course of justice.

Finally, João Tavares leaves his young colleague – and the reader – with a challenge. He mentions a key, a sequence of four numbers that would enable him to win the ‘game’ of Praia da Luz. If you can make anything of the numbers 5, 2, 3 and 1, then you, too, might crack the case of a lifetime.

………………………….

Some snippets from ‘The Star of Madeleine’:

[What the detectives observe when they arrive at Apartment 5A on the night that Madeleine disappeared:] The furniture is impeccably aligned against the walls, as if someone had tried to make as much room as possible, in the centre of the living room. In the bedroom, the bed where the child was sleeping is on the opposite side of the window. Under the window, there is another bed that had not been in use. Whomever entered through the window, would have left foot marks on the bed, which in that position resembled a trap. But that had not happened.

Throughout the entire scene, the twins slept undisturbed. They were eventually carried away into another apartment, and never woke up.

……….

In the meantime, the inspector had been at the Tapas Bar; he had been sitting at the table where the group had also been, and he had talked to the waiters. They had told him that the group usually drank significant amounts of alcohol. On the night that Madeleine disappeared, they had consumed twelve bottles of wine, and some appetizers.

The investigators have gathered informal statements, and they start to compare them. They soon realise that something is wrong. The couple's friends stated that they got up several times to check on the children, while the waiters from the Tapas bar say they did not get up that often at all. But even within the group of friends, there are contradictions.

Two English people, one of them Jane Tanner, say that they saw a man carrying a child that could be the missing infant. The description given by Jane is very vague and carries a factor of doubt, as Gerry and a friend whom he was talking to, standing on the same location as Jane when she passed, saw nobody. The friend confirmed this.

……….

On the last day of July, the intuition of the investigators and the results from Krugel find two powerful allies that confirmed the scenario that had begun to form: the death of Madeleine McCann, on the evening of May 3.

Eddie's handler opens the door to apartment 5A, and lets the dog in, to walk freely as usual. The dog sniffs around, followed by his handler, the policemen, experts from the scientific police, and a video technician, who registers the procedure on tape. At a given moment, in the living room, Eddie signals the presence of a cadaver to his handler. According to the laws of forensics, it's a cadaver that has been in that condition for at least two hours.

On the next day, it is Keela who is put into action. After several minutes sniffing around the house, she detains herself next to a sofa in the living room. The investigators move the sofa aside, and Keela shows them two tiny spots of dry blood: one on the floor, the other one on the wall. The material is collected, and a decision is made, against the opinion of Francisco, and João Tavares. The samples are sent into a lab in Birmingham.

On the next day, early in the morning, Eddie is called back to service, to investigate the surroundings of the apartment. The dog stops here and there, marking a path that is referenced by apartment 5A and the beach of Luz. Without knowing, Eddie has just confirmed Krugel's findings.

……….

These two canines, without knowing it, were at the core of a volcano, when in three separate moments, they "accused" Madeleine's parents of, at least, not saying the whole truth about what happened to their daughter.

First, when they were given plenty of time and space to sniff through Robert Murat's house and all of his belongings, and did not discover anything that could minimally incriminate him.

Second, when they detected the odour of death on the key of the car that they used, which was rented more than twenty days after the little girl went missing. In the same car where they found traces of blood and hair under the spare tire.

Third, when, already in the new house where the couple was staying, Eddie once again smelled the characteristic odour of death on a pair of jeans and on a blouse that belong to Kate. The soft toy that the mother carried with her every time they went out, also presented a smell of death that was detected by the same dog. What the heck do we have here, then? - he thought, intrigued. - Did the parents stage this entire circus to hide the truth?

……….

Francisco continues:

- We went to dinner that evening, leaving our children who had been asleep since 7.30. An hour later, we were sitting at the table, with our friends who had equally left their children asleep in their bedrooms. We left the door unlocked, in case there might be an emergency. At some point, shortly after 9 p.m., the father went to the apartment and did not see his daughter where she had been sleeping, but he thought that she might be in the parents’ bedroom. He did not check if that was the case. Their friend Russell also went to check on his children, but he returned only an hour later, at the time when Kate, the mother, went into apartment 5A and did not find her daughter. Hence the despair… The child had been abducted by some stranger who had entered the bedroom and had taken her. This is it, chief!

João Tavares replies:

- Let’s see: according to the neighbour upstairs, mother and daughter had been yelling at each other. It seems that the child was hyperactive. The parents, despite the fact that they are doctors with three small children, did not bring any medication, not even a single tablet for a headache… or at least we didn’t see any. There were babysitters on offer for free, but they were dismissed that evening, for whatever reason. Among the group of friends, there are checks to suit every taste, according to their statements: every 15 minutes, every half hour, etc. Some only check on their own, others check on all the children, others only listen at the door… In the case of the twins, they didn’t even need to bother, they simply could not wake up, even in the midst of the turmoil that was generated that night. The caring mother told the neighbour upstairs that the police had been called when the alarm was raised, but she was lying. The first people that called the GNR were the employees of the Ocean Club. The same neighbour said she never saw the mother in a panic, which would be normal for a mother under the circumstances… As far as I know, nobody ever said that the lady was lying! The father, who was a lot more worried about gathering support in England, made one phone call after another, which were more political than anything else. And why was the child’s father wandering around, in the early hours of the morning, asking for the way to the church, when he had passed it so many times, on the way to the beach? And why did the English friends immediately send out the marketing and public relations heavyweight experts? Hum? And… if there were that many checks, when was the break that allowed the abductor to enter the apartment? And then there is the mother, saying that someone entered through the children’s bedroom windows, but the GNR people said that the shutters had never been forced… And then there are the doggies, that never missed a case over 200 times, and now supposedly have got it all wrong?

……….

You know, Madeleine, many of those people who work as policemen, did everything they could to solve the mystery of your disappearance, and to bring you back to the coziness of your bed. Then they continued, never stopping, to do everything they could to clarify what had happened to you. Hundreds of men and women dedicated themselves to trying to understand what had been your destiny. They never looked at their meager salaries or at their non-existent overtime payments. They gave up time with their families and with their “Madeleines” to search for you, to try to understand what might have happened to you.

If you’d ask them today if they would do it all over again, whether there was a microscopic chance of returning you into your bed or not, I assure you that all of them would respond to the calling again, and get back to work. Come rain or sunshine, against whomever they might have to go, they would do it all over again.

Just for the fact that you are a child, innocent, small and helpless, they would go into all the deserts of Morocco to search for you. They would lift the world’s carpet to see if you where underneath it.

These people are not always perfect in everything they do, but I can guarantee you one thing: they are committed, they are stubborn, and they also don’t like losing one bit, especially when children like you are at stake. That is when they dedicate themselves even more to the services that other men assign them to. Not only because of the justice of men, but essentially because of the justice that your name deserves. They did everything they could so you could laugh at the end. So you were not gone in vain. You certainly aren’t.

quote:

Finally, João Tavares leaves his young colleague – and the reader – with a challenge. He mentions a key, a sequence of four numbers that would enable him to win the ‘game’ of Praia da Luz. If you can make anything of the numbers 5, 2, 3 and 1, then you, too, might crack the case of a lifetime.

quote:

Miliband brings McCann to the European Parliament
Kate and Gerry McCann, arguidos in the investigation with the disappearance of their Madeleine daughter, will be next Thursday in the European Parliament in Brussels, or they will take part in a meeting in connection with the creation of a European alarm system to announce the disappearance of children.

According to a source within the permanent representation of the United Kingdom at the European Parliament, it is the cabinet of David Miliband, Foreign Minister, whom the participation of McCann would have intervened in order to allow

In spite of the importance of the subject, several members of Parliament already expressed their surprise with the participation of the couple, considering their statute of suspects in an investigation which is always in hand vis-a-vis the justice of one of the Member States.

The meeting coincides with the adjournment of a declaration written in connection with the European co-operation in the searchs for missing children. At the origin of the meeting have finds the British Glenys Kinnock, Edouard McMillan-Scott, Struan Stevenson and Diana Wallis. After the meeting, Gerry and Kate McCann, give a press conference with several British members of Parliament.

quote:

Op zaterdag 5 april 2008 11:36 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
>knip<

Dit kan imho 2 kanten op gaan, of ze hebben zich zo ingegraven dat de zaak openblijft en ze arguido af zijn binnenkort of ze hebben juist door al dat gespin in het nieuws er voor gezorgd dat ze dat nooit kunnen maken en ze zijn inderdaad de komende 20 jaar arguido.

Hoe dan ook, er is blijkbaar geen sluitend bewijs voor de schuld/onschuld van de ouders, de bewijzen in dat app zijn grondig om zeep geholpen door die kudde 'helpers' die door de kamer is gebanjerd, de pers is monddood gemaakt, de PJ zo tegengewerkt dat het me verbaasd dat er nog actie ondernomen wordt, volgens mij is de enige oplossing het vinden van, waarschijnlijk, het lijkje van Maddy. Dan weten ze iig wat haar is overkomen en kunnen ze vandaaruit verder rechercheren.

quote:

McCanns and their attendance
I’ve taken a backseat lately with regard the McCann case because it has been purely spin with no real news. I have a feeling that repeating words on a daily basis is only helping to perpetuate the thorny bush of ‘they say I say.’

However – the news with regard the McCanns being present at the Europe-wide alert system for cases of child abduction has really flummoxed me to the point that I feel something should be said.

Putting things into perspective: The McCanns are ‘parents’ who have (by their own admission) left their children alone while they socialised with friends, they are suspects in Madeleine’s disappearance and have nothing whatsoever to substantiate their claims that Madeleine had been abducted, yet they are attending a debate with regard child abduction? Where is the sense in that?

What can the McCanns add to this debate? Do not leave your children unattended while you socialise? Please remember to get a babysitter to watch over your children? That’s common sense with most parents and does not exactly correspond with the ‘Amber Alert’.

But perhaps rather than asking the above questions people should be questioning why the European Parliament has allowed the McCanns to be present.

Wider agenda perhaps?

To round off - According to BBC News : “The couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said they were happy to use Madeleine's disappearance to boost any moves which would improve the recovery rate of missing children in the 27 EU countries.”

That statement is as questionable as Gerry McCann’s reply when the risk assessment was mentioned about Madeleine’s eye defect: “We thought it was possible this could hurt her. Her abductor might do something to her eye. But in marketing terms it was a good ploy.”

Not exactly the words a person would expect from a protective parent of their apparent missing child.

quote:

Op zaterdag 5 april 2008 16:43 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
<knip>
[..]

Mrs. Jones,

Me And Mrs Jones /Billy Paul

, Me and Mrs. Jones, we've got a thing going one.....

That thing is: spin, 15 minutes of fame and a headline or 2, ik hoor het Clarrie gewoon al zingen.

quote:

"They will be interviewed as witnesses and are free to leave at any time, said a spokeswoman for Leicestershire Constabulary. No lawyers will be present. There had been speculation that diaries and Madeleine's Cuddle Cat toy could be seized by Portuguese officers, but it is understood that no property will be searched or seized. The Portuguese officers are expected to land at East Midlands Airport from Faro at 12.20pm on Monday. They will be met by British officers and are expected to avoid the public arrivals lounge by being escorted out through a private exit once they have cleared customs. The Portuguese officers are staying at a hotel in Leicester city centre.

quote:

"The process of interviewing key witnesses will last several weeks but the Portuguese detectives will return home from interviewing the Tapas Seven at the end of the week. Madeleine's parents Kate, 40, and her husband, 39-year-old Gerry, remain arguidos - formal suspects - in the case. The McCanns will not be in Leicestershire for the duration of the visit by Mr Rebelo and his team. On Wednesday, they travel to Brussels to lobby for better co-ordination between European countries when a child goes missing."

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Madeleine: in Praia da Luz, there's not even a traffic cop
The 'missing' posters are mostly torn down. The hotels are preparing for the first of the season's tourists. Police are still talking to witnesses, but there is growing acceptance that Madeleine McCann's disappearance will never be explained

The good news for the reception desk at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz is that they have every prospect of a full house for late April and early May. It is particularly welcome this year, as tourist numbers have been down because of the pound weakening against the euro and Easter falling early.

The downside is that many of their guests are likely to arrive not with bathing costumes, tennis rackets and sun cream, but with laptops, microphones and television cameras. And their focus will be on the one flat in the Mark Warner holiday complex that has lain empty for 11 months: Apartment 5-A, where Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of 3 May, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday.

The media's first-anniversary invasion has not yet begun in earnest. Last week only a trickle of British newspaper reporters, the odd photographer and a team from al-Jazeera television were in evidence. There was no sign of the Polícia Judiciária, Portugal's equivalent of the CID, nor even an ordinary traffic cop, outside the flat where Madeleine was last seen. Only a flimsy silver chain barring entry to the back garden entrance recalls the tragedy, the agonising efforts to find Madeleine that became a worldwide campaign and the deepening mystery surrounding the case after her parents, Kate and Gerry, were interrogated and declared arguidos, or formal suspects, by the Portuguese authorities last August.

The posters of Madeleine that filled every shop window in the weeks after her disappearance are gone. Just one faded image of her is still on display - on the bulletin board outside the church, where the local Catholic and Anglican communities hold an ecumenical service every Friday to highlight the case of Madeleine and of other missing children around the world.

Poignantly, a poster recently pinned up at the entrance of the Baptista supermarket, a few dozen yards downhill from the flat where Madeleine last hugged her mother goodnight, pleads in Portuguese: 'Não te esqueças de mim.' Don't forget about me.

In recent weeks, to the alarm of Madeleine's parents back home in the Leicestershire village of Rothley, that had seemed a real possibility. In Portugal the active search for their missing daughter by the police and hundreds of local residents on the oceanfront, in gardens, olive groves and scrubland has long since ended.

The police, and the Spanish-based Metodo 3 detective agency hired by the McCanns, are still responding to 'sightings' or claims of fresh evidence of what has happened to her, but these have become less and less frequent. A recent claim by a taxi driver on the eastern end of the Algarve coast, near the Spanish border, that he had driven Madeleine and four adults to a nearby hotel on the night of her disappearance appears to have come to nothing. So, too, has a freelance search by a Madeira-based lawyer of a lake down a twisting potholed lane outside the Algarve's old Moorish capital, Silves.

The police investigation, and the often lurid local newspaper headlines accompanying it, have gone quiet. Last October a new officer was put in charge. The official spokesman for the investigation has been replaced by two Lisbon-based officials who were politely replying last week to all press inquiries by saying: 'Sorry. It is our policy that we cannot comment at all on the case.'

In fact, there are now signs of new movement in the investigation - and every prospect that, starting in the next few days and building towards the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, her case will again be front-page news in Portugal, Britain and around the world.

Early this week a team of Portuguese police is due to travel to Britain to re-interview witnesses from the so-called 'Tapas Nine' - the seven friends who, along with the McCanns, were dining at a poolside tapas restaurant 50 yards from Apartment 5-A on the night Madeleine disappeared. Particularly in the light of a comment by Portugal's Justice Minister, Alberto Costa, two months ago that the investigation was nearing its conclusion, the mission is likely to prove critical in determining in what direction, and at what pace, the next stage of the largest police probe in Portugal's history is now taken.

The only other person named as a suspect in the case would already seem to be out of the frame, to the cautious relief of his distraught family, veteran pillars of Praia da Luz's expatriate British community. Robert Murat, 33, was on a week's visit from Britain to his mother Jenny's home, yards from Apartment 5-A, when Madeleine disappeared. But he cancelled his return flight, stayed on in Praia da Luz, and was informally helping the investigators as a translator when a British Sunday newspaper journalist told the police she thought he was acting suspiciously.

They brought him in for questioning and - largely, Portuguese polices sources have said, on the strength of British crime profilers - formally made him an arguido in mid-May. They secured a routine three-month extension to his suspect status last January, but in recent weeks have returned a computer, his clothing and other property removed from the home that Murat shares with his mother.

The McCanns, too, are drawing some hope from the Portuguese police team's visit to Britain. Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said yesterday that while the couple had made clear their readiness to speak to the investigators, or even to return to Portugal if required, 'there has been no request to talk to them'. He also revealed that, contrary to media speculation in recent months, the visiting investigators have conveyed no plans to conduct any searches in Britain, to take possession of Kate's personal diary, or of Cuddle Cat - Madeleine's favourite toy - which Kate constantly clasped by her side during the weeks after her disappearance.

But an unprecedentedly detailed account of the days and weeks after Madeleine's disappearance from a well-placed Portuguese police source suggests that - after numerous fruitless twists and turns in the investigation, and in the absence of either a 'body or a confession' - the police focus is on the accounts of the McCanns and their friends of precisely what happened to Madeleine on the night she vanished.

The source has not suggested there is evidence that Madeleine's parents were involved in the disappearance, or the possible death, of their child - a suggestion that Kate and Gerry have passionately denied, pressing home the point last month in securing a half-million-pound settlement from the Express newspaper group over stories suggesting they were implicated. Indeed, amid the rash of reports last September suggesting there was DNA proof linking Madeleine's parents to her death, the same police source emphasised that the DNA samples had proved to be degraded, incomplete, possibly contaminated and inconclusive. But the source has said that, almost from the outset, particularly amid growing Portuguese police scepticism that Murat had any connection with Madeleine's disappearance, the 'key' to the investigation had been in unravelling what the Polícia Judiciária felt were 'difficulties and contradictions' in the accounts given by the McCanns and their friends in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

Part of the police concern, he said, involved details of Kate and Gerry's initial statements - whether the back window and shutters in the flat had been open or closed, for instance, and whether Gerry had entered from the front door or the back and exactly when the parents or their friends had checked to make sure Madeleine and her then two-year-old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, were safe and well.

Equally crucial to somehow resolving the case, he said, were the accounts of the 'Tapas Nine' - and particularly Jane Tanner, who earlier this year went public in a BBC Panorama documentary with her account of having seen a man carrying a child in pink pyjamas like Madeleine's outside the McCanns' flat at 9.15pm.

'Jane at first made no mention of the pyjamas,' the source insisted. He said that this detail and a number of others about the man apparently carrying a child emerged only later in her statements to the police. He said the initial statements by the McCanns and each of their friends had 'never fit together' and that the police were particularly sceptical when, after the group had had time to talk a few days later, an 'agreed time-line' seemed to emerge.

Mitchell said yesterday that, far from opposing the latest move by the Portuguese police to press their concerns over the 'Tapas Nine' testimony, the McCanns, Tanner and their other friends eagerly welcomed the opportunity, in the hope of finally bringing the legal process to an end and focusing 'on what really matters - Madeleine'. Some of the friends, he said, had even considered going back to Portugal to try to speed an end to the investigation.

Mitchell said he was not surprised by the inconsistencies in the initial accounts. 'You had nine people in a bar without watches on, without mobile phones, and absolute panic set in when they realised what had happened. They were running around and then several hours later they were forced to sit down and recount their movements in exact detail and they were at sixes and sevens... We would say that, if the police had a perfect time line across nine people, that would be a damn sight more suspicious than the fractured, illogical composite statements they might have got.'

And although Mitchell was not in Praia da Luz in the days after Madeleine disappeared, he said his personal contacts since then with Tanner and the other friends had convinced him there was 'nothing furtive or suspicious' about the time-line provided to the police. 'Everything I've seen and heard on a private, human level tells me that this is an innocent group of people who have got caught up in this awful situation and they're doing their best to try and help their friends on a decency level.'

Luis Maia, a leading Portuguese television journalist who co-authored the first of what are now five books on Madeleine in Portugal, said yesterday his gut feeling was that - barring an unexpected breakthrough, or a formal police request to re-interview Kate or Gerry - the investigation was finally nearing an inevitable end, with the mystery of the missing girl no closer to resolution.

For the parents, the next few days and weeks are likely to be difficult, with the approach of the anniversary of the disappearance of a daughter nearing her fifth birthday - especially in Rothley, in the home Kate had said she could not bear to live in again without having Madeleine back.

'Some days, for both Kate and Gerry, are better than others,' Mitchell said. 'But they still believe she is quite possibly alive. There has been no evidence to the contrary.

'And every day that goes by without her being found makes them think that she must be somewhere, very well hidden, and that someone must have her.'

How life changed for those caught in the public glare of a heart-rending case
The parents

As the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance draws closer, her parents are back home in the Leicestershire village of Rothley. Gerry has returned to full-time work as a cardiologist, on call, with regular NHS hours. Kate, a GP, has decided not to go back to work at a local surgery until the fate of her daughter is resolved. She takes Sean and Amelie to nursery school every day and is in frequent phone or email contact with 'Find Madeleine' campaign organisers, charities, the family's lawyers and police.

'There are good days and bad days,' says the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell, but they take hope from the belief that, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, their daughter is still alive.

Meanwhile, they have thrown themselves into urging Britain and the rest of Europe to improve co-ordination in dealing with missing children and to adopt an American-style 'amber light' alert system to speed up attempts to find them.

That will be the core message of a British television documentary in which they plan to take part on the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance. 'They feel that if, God forbid, Madeleine is not found, that will be a fitting legacy for her,' says Mitchell.

The McCanns' first spokesman

Within hours of the news of Madeleine's disappearance, Alex Woolfall of the London-based PR agency Bell Pottinger was asked by Mark Warner to fly to Praia da Luz as part of a 'crisis' team to help her traumatised parents deal with the media.

'People forget there was quite a lot of hope at the time and we figured that if we got photos out someone would call up and say: "Yes, I've just spotted her."'

Woolfall says he feels the way the media behaved was 'unique and extraordinary - and I put that down to the fact that so many of the journalists out there were doing the story as parents first, and journalists second. It was: there, but for the grace of God, go we.'

With the approach of the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, he says, he has inevitably found himself reflecting on her parents' agony. 'This year a very good friend of mine has had a baby, and I've watched him grow over the last 12 months. And he's become an individual rather than a baby now.

'And I just cannot imagine what it would be like to have a child and bring up a child and then to have that child taken from you. I just feel deeply, deeply sad for Kate and Gerry. I don't think anyone can really imagine what is like to go out on holiday with three children and to come back with two.'

Robert Murat

'A year in hell' is how friends of Murat describe the experience of the Briton, raised in Portugal, who had been helping the police with translations for the case and suddenly found himself declared a formal suspect barely a week after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

In the intervening months, he, his mother and other relatives in Praia da Luz and the nearby beach village of Brugão have had to come to terms with police questioning. Murat's mother Jenny, 72, says that she, her son and others in the family have tried to stay positive and have kept a daily diary of their ordeal in an effort to help them to cope.

Now, with the police having returned Robert's possessions and agreed to his going to England, she says they are holding out hope that he may soon be released from arguido status. 'When all is said and done,' she said, 'that is still what matters - the fate of this poor little girl.'

The private investigators

Metodo 3 is a Barcelona-based agency that built its reputation on corporate fraud investigations before the McCanns engaged it on a six-month contract last year to follow up reported sightings of the missing girl throughout Europe and in Morocco.

But with its managing director, Francisco Marco Fernández, making increasingly upbeat remarks about the prospects for a breakthrough on finding Madeleine - most controversially, a statement late last year that 'God willing, we hope she will be home by Christmas' - the agency has now agreed that all comments should go through the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell.

Metodo 3 remains on a monthly retainer of £8,000, Mitchell says. 'The agency are very good on the ground. They're very passionate and committed to the search for Madeleine.' In fact, he told The Observer, the family's hope is that the Portuguese police will ultimately close their investigation and pass on all the relevant papers to Metodo 3 to reinvigorate the search.

The family friend

Jane Tanner has been haunted by the thought that she could have prevented Madeleine's disappearance. Tanner, 38, was among the seven friends with the McCann parents at the restaurant on the night in question. She had gone back to check on her own children and is certain she saw a man carrying a pyjama-clad child nearby.

Generally, Tanner has avoided making public remarks but, in a recent BBC Panorama, she said: It's important that people know what I saw, because I believe Madeleine was abducted.'

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MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann police due to arrive in UK”

The Portuguese police are coming.

Portuguese police are due to arrive in Britain today to observe as the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann are interviewed about the night Madeleine went missing.

And Kate and Gerry McCann?

The McCanns will not be in Leicestershire for the duration of the visit by Mr Rebelo and his team. On Wednesday, they travel to Brussels to lobby MEPs for better co-ordination between European countries when a child goes missing.

They will return to Leicestershire on Thursday evening before the Portuguese officers fly home.

THE SUN: “‘Tapas seven’ face police quiz”

Not the Tapas Nine.

The “Tapas Seven” – who were having dinner with Kate and Gerry McCann when Maddie four, vanished – will be interviewed as witnesses by officers from Leicestershire Constabulary.

Portuguese detectives, led by investigation chief Paulo Rebelo, arrive in Britain today and will stay a week.

A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Constabulary said: “Leicestershire Constabulary will be co-ordinating the execution of the request for mutual legal assistance made by the Portuguese authorities. The Portuguese authorities have asked that the contents of the request and the way it is being executed be kept confidential so as not to prejudice their ongoing investigation.”

DAILY MAIL: “Portuguese detectives set to quiz ‘Tapas Seven’ in London about Madeleine ’s disappearance”

Mr Mitchell said it was “pure coincidence” that the McCanns were leaving Britain during the week of the police interviews.

He said: “To say this is a smokescreen is utter rubbish. It is pure co-incidence that police interviews are being conducted at the same time the European Parliament is sitting, and Kate and Gerry are tabling a motion.”

Madeleine McCann: More questions and no answer

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06/04/08 McCanns Case: 60 witnesses will be interrogated by Police Up to 60 witnesses will be questioned by police in Britain over Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

A series of intensive interviews will start this week after a three-man team of senior Portuguese detectives fly into Leicestershire tomorrow. The trio, led by Paulo Rebelo, the chief investigator in the case, will begin by supervising the quizzing of key witness Jane Tanner.

Ms Tanner, 36, claimed she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns’ holiday apartment in the Algarve at about 9.15pm. Yet another witness says he was outside the flat in Praia da Luz at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man. [Jeremy Wilkins, married with Bridget O'Donnel]

After Ms Tanner’s interview, British police, supervised by the Portuguese, will spend three days speaking to remaining members of the Tapas Seven who were dining with Madeleine’s parents when she vanished.

No lawyers will be present and friends of the group stressed they are meeting the police voluntarily. They have been warned to expect lengthy bouts of questioning. The group were all dining with Kate and Gerry McCann on the night their daughter vanished on May 3 last year in Praia da Luz.

Ms Tanner’s partner Dr Russell O’Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the group tending to his sick daughter in the period when Madeleine was snatched. Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37, a hospital consultant from London, and his wife Rachel, 36, a recruitment consultant, were also at the tapas restaurant. David Payne, 41, a cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the final person, apart from the McCann family, to see Madeleine. His wife, Fiona, 34, and her mother, Diane Webster, will also be questioned by police in Leicester.

Then officers will switch their attention to three separate bands of witnesses who have been singled out by Gerry and Kate McCann as vital.

As arguidos, or official suspects, the couple have the right to demand that certain individuals be seen by police if they are believed to hold relevant information. Despite plans for the Portuguese investigators to return home on Friday, British police will mount a full-scale operation in which more than 50 more witnesses will be interviewed. These will include other guests who were staying at the resort, Ocean Club apartments staff and holidaymakers staying nearby.

Relatives of the McCanns who visited the Algarve in the weeks after she went missing are understood to be on the list, as are their current spokesman Clarence Mitchell and his predecessor Justine McGuiness. [So, apparently Clarence is not going to Brussels after all.]

Two sisters who were puzzled by a blond pair of men in their 30s acting strangely at the resort hours before Madeleine went missing are on the interview list. Jayne Jensen, 54, and Annie Wiltshire, 58, said one of the men standing outside the patio doors started to walk down a flight of steps. [Wasn't that Murat they tried to frame?]

But when he was seen by divorced mum-of-two Annie, from Maidstone, he retraced his steps and began talking to his friend. Yesterday the McCanns made an emotional plea to Portuguese detectives to clear them in time for the one year anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance.

Madeleine’s parents, both 39, hope the unprecedented move to question their friends in Britain will mark an end to their seven-month ordeal as suspects. [40 years old not 39] The couple are desperate to return to Praia da Luz to mark the tragic date with a renewed appeal for information which could unlock the mystery surrounding what happened. [???]

Clarence Mitchell confirmed that Kate and Gerry want detectives to lift their arguido status and reveal any evidence they hold. [Excuse me, who the hell are they to demand the PJ to lift their arguido status??]

He said they will not return to the Algarve while they are still suspects. [First they wouldn't leave, they would cooperate with the PJ, then they left, didn't cooperate with the PJ, then they would come back to Portugal inspite of their lawyers advices, now they won't come back...] He said: “Kate and Gerry want to return to Praia da Luz to reinvigorate our campaign to find Madeleine.” [...reinvigorate our campaign for the fund, Mr. Mitchell...??]

Source: Express (The article you are looking for does not exist. It may have been deleted.)

quote:

"Gerry and Kate McCann have been asked to return to Portugal to take part in a large-scale re-enactment of the hours surrounding Madeleine's disappearance.

The McCanns' lawyers have met the Portuguese police authorities who requested that they return to the resort of Praia da Luz where their daughter disappeared almost a year ago. Today they were locked in negotiations about what the re-enactment should contain and what purpose it would serve.

While the couple are willing to help keep the case in the public eye, they are concerned about going back to Praia da Luz while their status as official suspects remains, and are seeking assurances that any re-construction is used to generate new leads in the hunt for their missing daughter.

Friends of the couple said that Mrs McCann may be too traumatised to take part. One said: "There has been no apparent thought given to her emotional position in taking part in such a re-enactment."

A family source said the McCanns had not ruled out taking part and the issue was under discussion. He said: "There are loads of questions still to be addressed such as whether the twins, Sean and Amelie, will be required and what the actual re-enactment will be used for.

"No-one knows whether it will be done behind closed doors or whether it will be a Crimewatch-style reconstruction used to try and generate new leads. All these types of things need to be ironed out before a decision is made." Any reconstruction would be an unusual move for the Portuguese police as it is not a tactic normally used in investigations.

The BBC show Crimewatch approached the Portuguese authorities shortly after Madeleine, 4, disappeared last May, but were turned down and told it was not normal practise. A couple of possible dates have been discussed, the earliest so far being in mid-May. It won't take place in or around the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance on May 3.

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Jane and Russell "grilled" by the PJ: Witnesses with bad memory 24horas

Jane Tanner did not even manage to repeat the description of the man she claimed to have seen with a child in the arms in that fateful night

Text by Carlos Tomas, in Leicester
(Thanks to Joana Morais for translation)

Jane Tanner, one of the main witnesses in the process of Maddie's disappearance, yesterday again, gave a different account from the previous ones. Questioned by the PJ team that was sent to England, Jane did not manage to explain how, when and where she saw the supposed kidnapper - the same that, in November, she described in a very detailed way for the making of a sketched portrait of the suspect. Yesterday, Tanner could not even tell if she went to check on her own children in the bedroom at the Ocean Club. The sentence "I do not remember", ended up being her most frequent answer. "She entered very calm and even smiled. When she went out she was trembling and her face was very red. She did not speak with anyone", described to 24horas a source at the headquarters from the Leicester police.

We were able to establish that Tanner was confronted with the fact that, in her first statement, back in May, she said nothing relevant, later said that she saw a man carrying, which seemed to her, a child in his arms and, in November, she described the alleged kidnapper. The answer was: “I do not remember it well anymore” .The investigators even asked Jane to give again the description of the person, but the witness gave different indications from those that were used to make the drawing that ran throughout the world.

Also heard yesterday was Russell O'Brien, Jane's husband, who says he had gone to see the children at the same time that Maddie disappeared. He said, back in May, that the children had vomited, but the management of the resort Ocean Club assured that, on that night, nobody asked for any change of bed sheets. Questioned, Russell could not explain the discrepancy.

Today there will be cross-examinations to David and Fiona Payne, who organized the holidays of the group in the Praia da Luz.

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09/04/08
116000, the single EU hotline number for missing children is NOT a McCann Idea

The TRUTH

116000, the single EU hotline number for missing children

IP/07/188
Brussels, 15 February 2007

The Commission has adopted today the Decision reserving the 116000 telephone number in all Member States as a hotline for reporting missing children. Other common Europe-wide telephone services of social value starting with 116 may soon be reserved following this Decision.
"I am delighted that today the first major step towards a single EU hotline number for missing children has been taken," said EU Telecom Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I urge Member States to act now to make this a reality, so that Europe's parents will soon know that they are able to call this number and get immediate help."

The first number to be reserved Europe-wide is 116000. All other numbers beginning with 116 are also reserved for social services in Europe and this Decision is binding on Member States. These freephone numbers and the services they provide will benefit citizens by helping those in difficulty, or by contributing to their well-being or safety. Meer, zie de gegeven links.

quote:

The Judiciary Police wants to have in Portugal, in the next month, Kate and Gerry McCann, the British couple whose three-year-old daughter disappeared from Praia da Luz, Algarve. The objective of the Portuguese investigators is to try, with a re-enactment of the night on the 3rd of May in the location of the crime, to understand the various contradictions of the statements given by the last persons who saw Maddie alive. In this group, there are seven friends who were accompanying the McCanns in the dinner of the Tapas Bar, when the alarm of the disappearance of the girl was given.

Clarence Mitchell, the press adviser of the family, confirmed yesterday the PJ’s request, but did not reveal dates, or details of the re-enactment. He was not clear on the possibility of the McCanns returning, leaving in the 'air the hypothesis' that the couple would accept willingly the diligence if they stopped being arguidos.

Other of the wishes of the McCanns to agree to the participation in the reconstitution would be that the same is subjected to a TV broadcast. Something that is unthinkable in the light of the legal Portuguese system, where the process is kept under the secrecy of Justice. Police sources said to the CM that the shelving of the suspicions against the parents of the child are not predictable before the end of the inquiry. Gerry, Kate or other of the English friends who spent holidays in Luz are not obliged to return, unless, if there are strong signs of the practice of a crime, which would lead to international warrants to be issued.

IMPORTANT WITNESSES

The day of yesterday was important for the PJ. They cross-examined again Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien, the couple that had the biggest contradictions in the statements given in the last months. The PJ was intending to know exactly where Jane affirmed to have seen Maddie's kidnapper and how she managed to describe him after several months, although she did not do it on the days that followed the girl’s disappearance. Another doubt was how it was possible for her to see a man carrying a child in front of the apartment exactly at the same hour while Gerry was standing just a few meters away. And why Maddie’s father and a friend that were talking in that place did not see the same stranger with the girl.

As for Russell, the objective is to explain his goings to the bedroom where his daughters were sleeping, during the dinner. The Englishman was the one who stayed away longer from the table of the restaurant. He said what one of the daughters had vomited while she was sleeping, but there was no request to change dirty bed sheets.

SPECTACLE AT THE POLICE DOOR

The police display yesterday was enormous, during the whole morning and afternoon, near the installations of the police of Leicester. Dozens of photographers concentrated near the gates and tried to register the entries of the main protagonists: three elements of the PJ (Paulo Rebelo on the right, in the photo from above, accompanied by his team of inspectors) and the couple Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien.

HIGH SECURITY ON THE POLICE STATION

The headquarters of the Leicester Police - where the interrogations took place - is surrounded by great measures of security. Nobody goes through the gate without obtaining a prior authorization.

MADDIE'S MOTHER AT HOME

Kate McCann came yesterday at the door of house. Only to close the door, furious, while noticing the presence of Portuguese journalists. Her friend wrote down the license plate of the car of the CM and phoned to the spokesman of the couple, Clarence Mitchell.

TEAM WITH AGITATED DAY

The three elements of the Judiciary Police which will, until next Friday, accompany the interrogations to the friends of the McCanns went out early from the Ramada Hotel, where they are staying. Before 09h00 a car of the Leicester police stopped at the Hotel's main entry and took the investigators even to headquarters. They entered in the headquarters in great speed and followed up to a building which was not possible for the journalists to see. There, they accompanied the investigations, which were made by the local police. They could not ask questions directly to the witnesses, but they where allowed to make suggestions.

The rogatory letter was sufficiently to authorize new questions and even to request new diligences. What can still be done till next Friday

'UNTOUCHABLE' IMAGE OF KATE E GERRY

The neighbourhood is peaceful. Equal to others which fill the small city of Rothley, where several practically equal dwellings stand out. In the street that gives access to the house - the McCanns House is the last one of the village and can be distinguished by the toys that are kept near one of the windows – there are almost no signs of life.

Two cars are at the door and Kate and Gerry prepared their trip to Brussels, set for tomorrow, with the couple travelling in a flight expected to be in the end of the afternoon and with a departure of an airport of London.

A little time has passed since the lunch hour when, the door opens and Kate comes to the entry. She says goodbye to a friend but the presence of the journalists of the CM hastens the farewell. Kate closes the door, remains hidden and Englishman that had gone out from the house stops in front of the car rented by the CM. Ostensibly, taking the number of the license plate and, by phone, he informs Clarence Mitchell, the adviser of the McCanns, that there are journalists at the door of the couple - a break of the compromise taken by the generality of the journalists, who accepted rules imposed by the McCanns and guided visits of the couple for photographic sessions. The CM does not accept compromises of this type.

When the incident ended - with the exit of the journalists of the CM-, the city seems to have forgotten Maddie.

DETAILS

HOTEL CHANGES RULES
The stay of the team of the Judiciary Police of Portimão in the Ramada Hotel, in Leicester, altered the internal rules of that unity. The bar, which was usually open not for guests until 01h00, now closes at 23h00.

PACIFIC FAMILIARITY
Portuguese journalists and police are put up in the same hotel, in the centre of the city of Leicester. The familiarity between all is appeasing, but the silence is maintained. Paulo Rebelo the PJ‘s coordinator and responsible for the department of Portimão, goes on repeating to the journalists that he does not give any statements.

CHANGE OF COURSE
At the same hour in that several of journalists were concentrated at the door of the police of Leicester to register the arrival of Jane Tanner and Russell O’Brien, to be questioned, Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman of the McCann, was calling the reporters for a press conference at 20 kilometres of distance. The dash was general.

50 WITNESSES
The lawyers of the couple McCann presented a list to the police of more than 50 persons, besides the group of friends that spent holidays with them in Praia da Luz, to be heard in England. They are close persons of the couple, defence witnesses.

FRIENDS WITHOUT LAWYERS
As they are cross-examined in the capacity of witnesses, all the friends of the McCanns have no use for the lawyers' presence.

CRUCIAL WITNESSES
The most important evidences are those of Jane and Russell, the first ones being heard because they assume total priority for the Judiciary Police.

EMPTY MEMORIAL
In Rothley, the memorial to the dead in the world wars, where were the most varied objects put in memory of the child, has nothing now.

SILENCE RULES
In the commercial establishments nobody wants to talk about the child, keeping some distance of the motives of a disappearance that ran throughout the World. Source: Correio da Manhã

quote:

Portuguese Police in UK, MEP, and denials

Well, it has been a busy week in the McCann camp with the Portuguese police arriving in UK on Monday, interviewing Jane Tanner and Russell O’Brien on Tuesday for a gruelling 10 hours and apparently interviewed Fiona and David Payne from Leicester yesterday.

And while all this is going on the McCann couple have flitted off to to Brussels to give a presentation to MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels with regard the Amber Alert System which (the McCanns say) “such a system could have helped find their daughter Madeleine in the crucial hours after she went missing.”

Of course, that’s a silly statement to make considering Madeleine was apparently found missing from the McCanns Praia da Luz apartment nearly an hour after Gerry McCann purports to have checked her at 9:15pm, the fact that the only witness was Jane Tanner who cannot decide whether or not the faceless ‘abductor’ was carrying a bundle wrapped in a blanket or a child wearing pyjamas with a pinky hue. Not to mention the fact that there was no car and therefore no number plates to report. If Madeleine was abducted then just how the Amber Alert would have worked in the case of Madeleine McCann is beyond me.

But, with that bit of useless news aside – The McCanns appear to be (after spinning their vows of returning to Portugal for the ‘anniversary’ of Madeleine’s disappearance) backing down from the offer of the Portuguese police to return to Portugal to reconstruct the night of May 3rd. Remember these apparent ‘brave’ statements?

quote:

* Happy to return to Portugal Telegraph - December 6 2007
* The McCanns will go back even if arrested says friend Liverpool Daily Post Sept 2007
* We will go to Portugal to mark anniversary Daily Mail April 4th 2008

Really? So why are the McCanns and Team McCann already compiling their excuses for a refusal? Evening Standard
"A friend of the couple said: "Kate is upset. There's been no sense of concern for her feelings or the anguish it will cause her. "On an emotional level she is not sure she can go through with it." Sky News
We will take lie detector test – Sept 2007 Channel 4 News en de Daily Mail.
In other words, they lied. Says it all really.

quote:

RTP Video report from Sandra Felgueiras Video link here

09 - 04 - 2008
Sandra Felqueiras

(Note: A short segment of this video is in English)

In Portuguese, Sandra says that the McCanns heard on the way to Brussels that their Portuguese lawyers have accepted that they will return to Praia da Luz on 15-16 May. She adds that the PJ are saying that they know nothing but she says that already yesterday it was obvious there was a disagreement.

The video then proceeds with a short interview with Clarence Mitchell, presumably filmed yesterday to highlight signs of the disagreement. Sandra says to Clarence Mitchell that Rogério Alves, one of the McCanns Portuguese lawyers, has said he wants the McCanns to return to Praia da Luz but Mr Mitchell denies any decisions have yet been made.

She says that the PJ don't really expect them there, and they know very well that they will stay arguido until the end of the enquiry.

Sandra Felgueiras from RTP (Portuguese report), 09 April 2008
RTP Video report from Sandra Felgueiras Video link here

09 - 04 - 2008
Sandra Felqueiras

Part translation from the video:

"Silence is the key to the success of this mission of the PJ on UK soil, so the coordinator of the Madeleine case has already assured us that the testimonies given by the seven friends of the McCanns to Leicestershire police will be maintained in secret.

"RTP knows that the reconstitution of the events involving the group, in the hours preceding the disappearance of Madeleine, only makes sense if by the end of this week contradictions persist. But for the PJ it is inconceivable that the McCanns feel that it is possible to negotiate with the Portuguese legal system."

"A source connected to the investigation informed us that the McCanns know very well that their arguido status will not be removed until the trial. Since neither the McCanns nor their friends can be forced to return to PDL, most probably, this diligence will never take place. Also, PJ assumes that they would never accept the conditions imposed by Kate and Gerry McCann." Bron

quote:

Kate McCann admitted they left their daughter Madeleine alone and crying in their holiday apartment on the night before she disappeared, it has been reported.

The accusations stem from leaked statements apparently given by the couple to police in the immediate aftermath of the incident in May last year.

Portuguese police - who are believed to be infuriated by the McCanns' political influence and by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's interest in the case - apparently leaked the statements to coincide with the couple's visit to the European Parliament.

quote:

Excerpts from the statements were broadcast by the Spanish station Telecinco, including a section of Mrs McCann's statement in which she allegedly said Madeleine was left crying in the family's holiday apartment on the night before she vanished.

She was reported to have told police that Madeleine remonstrated with her over breakfast the next day, asking why her mother had not come to her room to comfort her. In the statement, Mrs McCann, 40, and her husband allegedly agreed they should be more vigilant.

quote:

Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, refused to confirm if the leaked statements were genuine. He said: "I am not going to confirm or deny the content of any statements Gerry and Kate have made. "But we are extremely concerned such material, if it is authentic, has apparently been leaked."

quote:

Madeleine McCann asked her mother just hours before her disappearance: "Why didn't you come when we were crying last night?", it was revealed today.

The three-year-old's stark question emerged amid leaked passages from police interviews given by Kate and Gerry McCann directly after their daughter's disappearance in Praia da Luz, Portugal last May. The couple, who were in Brussels today to launch a bid for a Europe-wide missing child alert system, were angered by the timing of the leak and were convinced it was a "blatant" attempt to smear them.

They called for the Portuguese Justice Ministry to launch an internal investigation into the revelations which would be a serious breach of the country's strict judicial secrecy laws. One furious friend said: "The minute that you talk about Madeleine crying is the minute that the vultures will pile in, that's why this has been leaked."

Madeleine, who disappeared just days before her fourth birthday, went missing from the McCanns' holiday apartment on the night of May 3 while the couple were eating tapas with friends nearby. In her first interview with Portuguese detectives, Mrs McCann spoke about a conversation she had with Madeleine just that morning.

"While we were having breakfast, Madeleine said: 'Mum, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?'," she told police. She added: "Gerry and I talked about it for several minutes and decided to watch over the children more carefully at night."

Friends of the McCanns said tonight that the couple had been "puzzled" by Madeleine's remark at the time as she had not apparently been crying when they called in for regular 20-minute checks from the restaurant across the pool where they dined each night during their holiday. They said that one of the McCanns' friends Rachael Oldfield, had been in the adjoining flat - on the other side of Madeleine's wall - all evening and had not heard any crying.

The couple also insist Madeleine was not speaking angrily and they did not take it as a reproach. Her reference to "we" is understood to have referred to Madeleine and her younger brother Sean. Friends said they now believe the comment could even be a clue that an intruder was in the flat on the night of May 2 and briefly disturbed Madeleine and Sean before fleeing.

The Policia Judiciaria interviews were leaked through journalist Nacho Abad, of Spanish television programme Ana Rosa Quintana. The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry have been utterly honest and utterly open with the police and all of their statements from the moment that Madeleine was taken.

"The very fact that the comment from Madeleine is now in the public domain is entirely because they themselves told the police about it at the time. "It is more than curious that this comment, taken in isolation and out of context, that has been in the police file for some 11 months, should now emerge on the very day that they are in Brussels trying to improve children's welfare and child safety.

"They would be more than interested to know if the Portuguese justice ministry will now demand an internal review of the police investigation to get to the bottom of how this material emerged in the way it has, on the day it has. "Kate and Gerry have been subjected to leaks and smears from day one and I'm afraid this has all the hallmarks of yet another poor attempt to influence the headlines on the very day that they are seeking to achieve some good in Europe."

quote:

8th September 2007
Mrs Fenn also told detectives two days before Madeleine disappeared that the youngster had kept neighbours awake desperately screaming for her father until nearly midnight. She heard the youngster shouting “Dad” from 10.30pm until 11.45pm and added she was shocked such a young child had been left apparently alone for so long late at night. http://www.dailystar.co.u(...)-blood-found-in-car/

14th September 2007
Did you ever lose your temper with the children?
Pamela Fenn, 81, who lives in the flat above, is reported to have heard Madeleine crying for her 'daddy' and sounds of 'violence'. Mrs Fenn has since denied she told police any such thing. But Mrs McCann will be asked whether she ever lost her temper with the children. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=481705&in_page_id=1811

August 18,2007
Ook over de vermeende inbraken en de huilende Madeleine.
http://www.express.co.uk/(...)was-never-questioned

August 23,2007
Widow Mrs Fenn told police that two nights before Madeleine went missing she heard a little girl in the apartment crying for over an hour. She said the toddler, who is believed to have been Madeleine, was crying “Daddy, daddy” constantly between 10.30 and 11.45pm. The crying had stopped when the parents returned to the apartment. On the night Madeleine disappeared, Mrs Fenn also heard a child crying, but it was when Kate returned from a nearby restaurant to check on her daughter that she was first aware something was wrong. A source close to Mrs Fenn said: “She often sits on the balcony at night and heard a commotion downstairs. http://express.lineone.ne(...)-let-Madeleine-down-

13th September 2007
Pamela Fenn, 81, lives above the apartment where Madeleine disappeared and is reported to have told police she heard Madeleine screaming below. But yesterday she broke her silence to say it was "absolute rubbish" she had made any such claims to police. Mrs Fenn said: "I didn't even know that family was in there." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=481485&in_page_id=1770

12th September 2007
Pamela Fenn, who was in an apartment above the family on May 3 - the night Madeleine disappeared - is quoted as saying she believed Mrs McCann sometimes became violent and "out of control" in the room below. She claimed that "the little girl's screams calling for her daddy were very audible". http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=481168&in_page_id=181

quote:

Tapas Seven demanded private jet and 5-star hotels to return to Portugal for Madeleine questioning, Portuguese police claim

Last updated at 13:29pm on 11th April 2008


Portuguese police trying to stage a reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann disappeared claim to have hit a stumbling block.

The "Tapas Seven" - the friends dining with Gerry and Kate McCann last May - have allegedly refused to travel to the country unless extravagant demands, such as private jet travel and five-star hotel accommodation, are met.

Judicial sources in Portugal told the newspaper 24 horas that the families had demanded the ultra-expensive flights to the Algarve for them and their children as a condition of returning.

Friends of Kate and Gerry McCann (clockwise from top left): Fiona Payne, Jane Tanner, Russell O'Brien and Rachael Oldfield

One said: "Requests for cooperation were sent to various people living outside of Portugal, namely the McCanns, the seven friends they were having tapas with the night Madeleine disappeared, the two spokespeople they had, a friend Gerry McCann was playing tennis with and another friend, Jeremy Wilkins.

"We've already received several responses. No one's said 'no'.

"But the demands they make to return are impossible to entertain.

"One of the couples demanded a private jet to travel with their children to the Algarve. Another demanded they be put up in a five-star hotel.

"The demands they all made demonstrate a clear strategy by lawyers. The only thing missing from the list was a request that we send them to the moon on skates."

quote:

"Mr Mitchell spoke out as chief investigator Paulo Rebelo was returning to the Algarve for a crunch meeting with the private prosecutor who holds the future of the McCanns in his hands.

Mr Rebelo was due to give Portimao public prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes a detailed run-down of his three-day trip to Britain to sit in on fresh interviews with the couple's holiday friends.

The meeting is expected to be crucial in determining whether Madeleine's parents remain official police suspects."The meeting is expected to be crucial in determining whether Madeleine's parents remain official police suspects. An investigating judge is expected to life a secrecy order on the case on May 15 unless prosecutors ask for a three-month extension. The McCanns could then demand they are either charged or cleared." Evening Standard

quote:

'Why I believe the McCanns' team were behind the leaking of police statements (This article is presented as a personal viewpoint on the current furore surrounding the leaking of police statements to Telecinco)

"At the moment there is nothing to say regarding the case. We are working well. The rest is a soap opera." Alipio Ribeiro to Expresso on 17 November 2007

When considering where the 'leak' to Spanish programme Telecinco came from we must first look at the advantages and disadvantages of such a leak to the McCanns.

Advantages

Opportunity to smear the PJ by blaming them for the leak – with the bonus that the PJ are unable and unwilling to respond,

Opportunity to make a statement direct to the PJ, about the events of May 3rd - through the media - which had been denied them when they were not called for interview,

Revenge for missed opportunity to milk such interviews for PR effect,

Opportunity to reaffirm their timeline for May 3rd,

Opportunity to reaffirm that Madeleine was still alive on the morning of May 3rd,

An opportunity to account for the cries of Madeleine that were heard by Mrs Pamela Fenn, as well as…

The chance to show that they reacted as responsible parents, when it was said that "Gerry and I spoke for a couple of minutes and agreed to keep a closer watch over the children."

The opportunity to distract and divert attention away from the ongoing interviews of the Tapas Group,

The chance to order an internal review of the PJ and contribute to further distractions and consuming of PJ time and resources,

Substance to any possible claim they would not get a fair trial due to the adverse publicity.

The chance to use the "smear" as a reason to refuse to return to Portugal to participate in a reconstruction.

Disadvantages

Adverse newspaper headlines and public opinion,

Distraction from the McCanns trip to Brussels to champion the Amber Alert System

As you see, the advantages of such a leak to the McCanns massively outweigh the two disadvantages, neither of which have any bearing on the actual case against the McCanns.

There is no doubt that during the early days of the investigation leaks found their way into the public domain from certain ‘sources’. This was stopped completely when Paulo Rebelo took charge of the investigation on 08 October 2007. Since then there have been no leaks.

So, the question must be asked, why, after 6 months of running a water tight ship, against waves of abuse and derision from the McCanns, their supporters and certain elements of the UK press, should the PJ see any possible advantage to leaking such information now? The answer is simple. None. The very idea is, to quote Clarence Mitchell, ludicrous.

The PJ have steadfastly gathered their case against the McCanns and the British government has aided the process, eventually, by agreeing to the rogatory letter and further interviewing of the Tapas Group and other witnesses. The process is continuing with the full blessing of all those who have access to whatever evidence is held and who know the case.

To believe that they would throw that all in the air for the sake of one days newspaper headlines is completely ridiculous. This is not a soap opera. This is the investigation into the disappearance and probable death of a 3-year old girl.

So, what advantage is there in getting the McCanns timeline into the public domain and before the PJ’s watching eyes?

Well, it has to be said, there was very little in this leak that wasn’t already in the public domain courtesy of David James Smith’s article in The Times of 17 December 2007. That article showed such fine detail that it could have only come from the McCanns themselves – in effect, leaking their own timeline.

Consider this section of the article:

Gerry paused over Madeleine, who – a typical doctor’s observation, this – was lying almost in “the recovery position” with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner, had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head, and Gerry thought how gorgeous, how lovely-looking she was and how lucky he was. Putting the door back to five degrees, he went to the loo and left to return to the restaurant. That, of course, was the last time he would see his daughter.

This is a virtual word for word copy of what we are now told is Gerry’s original police statement.

So, if this is 'old news', what can we say is new in the leak to Telecinco?

Four things:

1) That Madeleine complained about being left to cry on the previous night and that she addressed this issue over breakfast with Kate and Gerry,

2) Gerry opened the shutters further and that this was easy to do (explaining the presence of any fingerprints that may have been found),

3) That work was done on the shutters in the main bedroom which were broken, and

4) That Jane Tanner believed the man she saw walking away from the McCanns' apartment was the child’s father

I believe that this 'revelation' about Madeleine crying has been very carefully considered. We know that Mrs Pamela Fenn has made a police statement saying that she heard crying from the apartment on a previous night and that this needs to be addressed and explained by the McCanns.

(Note: The common myth that Mrs Fenn subsequently retracted her statement and said she heard no crying is false. What she actually said was that she heard no crying on the night Madeleine was reported missing – she did not deny hearing crying previously).

So, it is clear, the McCanns need to let the PJ know their explanation for this reported crying. They can’t do it in a police interview because they haven’t been called. Their only option? A leak to the media.

Maybe this was one of the questions they were allegedly unable to answer previously and they have now, after nearly a year, remembered.

If the McCanns have felt the need to leak this information now, would this not also imply that this information is crucial to the investigation? Why do they feel compelled to provide cover for screaming on a previous night?

Madeleine, so far as we are led to believe by the McCanns, did not go missing on a previous night, so this would appear to be purely circumstantial evidence. Unless there is a motive for this information being provided.

Combined with details of the 'grown up' breakfast chat with Madeleine, could this be interpreted as an attempt by the McCanns to convince the PJ that Madeleine was still alive on the morning of May 3rd?

We also hear, in this leak, further information about the state of the bedroom window:

"When I went to see Maddie I realised that she was not there, I looked in all the apartment, I returned to the children's room and at that time I saw the curtains move leaving visible to me that the blind was opened up. I went to the window and opened the curtains to see if she had climbed out there but I did not see any trace of her. I do not know whether or not I closed the window at the time," says Maddie's mother. "In shock I ran to Tapas Bar and shouted to Gerry: 'Maddie is not here, someone has taken her'."

In that instant all started rushing to look for the little girl. "When Kate came running and said, 'Maddie is not here, somebody has taken her', I thought that it could not be. I rushed to the apartment by the same path as always. I looked everywhere, I went back to the kids' room and started to think what could have happened. To my surprise I realised that one could lift the blinds without effort and almost no noise. When I went in I saw that Maddie's bed was almost untouched. The corner of the sheets was a little turned [back], the pillow, the pink cuddly toy and the piece of her blanket were almost in the same place that I last saw it."

So, one can assume from this that the curtains were drawn when Kate entered the bedroom.

Are we to believe an abductor clambered out of the bedroom window with Madeleine in his arms and then leant back through the window to pull the curtains together?

Surely unbelievable but consistent with the McCanns original story that the abductor gained entry by forcing the shutters on the windows and left by the front door, which they originally reported to friends and relatives as being left open. The 'abductor' may well have closed the curtains behind him in that scenario to hide what he was doing.

However, this explanation is found wanting when considered with the lack of evidence of a break-in and Clarence Mitchell’s confirmation on RTE’S Prime Time that "There was no evidence of a break-in".

But what of Gerry’s statement that he "realised that one could lift the blinds without effort and almost no noise." Could this be another later 'add-on' after realising that the blinds/shutters are impossible to open from the outside and that there could be fingerprints on it?

Also Gerry mentions he rushed to the apartment by 'the same path as always'. Yet it has been previously stated that this was the first night they had left the patio doors unlocked. On previous nights it has been claimed they entered by the front door, but fearing that the sound of the key in the lock would wake the sleeping children they decided that night to enter through the patio doors.

But such fine detail and knowledge of the events will be lost on casual newspaper readers who may simply have no desire or time to read further into the case than the information presented before them. So the PR damage on such fine detail is nil.

And what of the statement attributed in this leak to Jane Tanner? Does this reveal that these are not actually the original statements but later enhanced versions?

The Sun reports, in its coverage of the leak, that Jane Tanner told Portuguese police in her original statement she thought a man she spotted carrying a child moments after Madeleine disappeared, was the youngster's father.

Yet, how can this be when the original description issued by the police, and reiterated by Gerry McCann in a press statement, over two weeks later, was that the man was "carrying a child or an object that could have been taken as a child". How could there be ambiguity when Tanner had, we are led to believe through this leak, not only identified the 'object' as a child but also the carrier as the childs father?

Indeed, Martin Brunt has reported that when Jane Tanner first spoke to police she said "I'm not sure if he was carrying anything." So, is this evidence that these 'original' leaked statements, which have conveniently just appeared, are not quite as original as they seem? And who would benefit most from this?

So, what can we say about the disadvantages of such a leak as this to the McCanns?

Well, very little actually. True, for one day, a few newspaper headlines will superficially look bad for the McCanns but Clarence Mitchell has already been hard at work dismissing the reports as a 'blatant smear" by the PJ. Tomorrow will be a different set of headlines and today's papers will be lining the beds of rabbits and hamsters tomorrow.

Did the headlines the Express Group ran over a sustained period affect people’s perceptions of the case? Personally, I doubt it. Because the very next day a contrary headline would be run and people are now so anaesthetised by 'shocking' newspaper headlines in this case that they are going to shrug them off as folly until a charge is made or the case is dropped. Headlines in papers simply reinforce already held beliefs or they wash off people's backs.

That the headlines took away attention from the McCanns championing of the Amber Alert System in Brussels was really neither here nor there. The cause may well be a noble one and if it recovers one child it will have been worth it. But for the McCanns it is an expendable side issue. Something that could be comfortably sacrificed for the opportunity to sacrifice the PJ in the media.

It is also interesting to note that beyond the 'paper selling' headlines, the UK press are still using the leak to belittle and undermine public perception of the work of the PJ. The PJ have worked diligently, conscientiously and patiently in the face of continued abuse.

Clarence Mitchell has grasped this opportunity to slam the PJ for leaking these statements. And a 'friend' has grasped the opportunity to brand anyone who dares to question the McCanns as 'vultures'.

And the PJ?

Alipio Ribeiro, when interviewed by El Pais in October 2007, said this about the continued criticism of the PJ through the McCanns spokespersons:

"Yes, but they talked with the family and the press, not with the police. And it must be understood that the British press also works in this way. They made unfair remarks but we cannot react to this on a daily basis and play ping pong, the PJ against the British press. We are not interested in this game: We have a different tradition to theirs, one of less communication and the judicial secrecy that restricts us."

To suggest that the PJ are behind this leak is an insult to all the hard work and diligence they have displayed over the long months of the inquiry.

Only one group of people benefits from this leak and its fallout: The McCanns. Albeit on a superficial and short term level.

Those of us passionately concerned about securing truth and justice for Madeleine - as opposed to those whose only concern appears to be clearing the McCanns of their arguido status - should actually be heartened by the events of yesterday and today.

For it shows that the McCanns and their team have only the battlegrounds of PR and spin on which to fight.

Justice for Madeleine will not be served by a newspaper headline or a man in a pink shirt.

It will be served in law.

And that process continues...

quote:

Op zaterdag 12 april 2008 16:42 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
<knip>

Natuurlijk, om je heen gaan schoppen en preventief in de aanval, echt ouders van een vermist meisje, mensen die er alles aan willen doen om hun dochter weer gezond en wel in de armen te sluiten, niets te verbergen hebben en volledig meewerken met de PJ om de zaak op te lossen.
Vraag 1: Waarom weet de Portugese politie nog niet het hele verhaal van de aanloop naar de constatering van de vermissing?
Vraag 2: Hoe kan het dat de ouders, die nog steeds verdachten zijn, zoveel noten op hun zang hebben en steeds maar weer de behoefte voelen hun eigen kont schoon te praten ipv zich druk te maken over hun kind dat nu al bijna een jaar weg is?
Vraag 3: Wat is de rol van CM in deze zaak, maw welk belang heeft hij bij dit hele gedoe?

[ afbeelding ]
^{Not forgotten: Madeleine McCann}

quote:

Registration of FindMadeleine.com domain name extended by another 2 years to 10 May 2010, 11 April 2008
Original registration: WhoIs

Domain Name: findmadeleine.com

Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com

Expiration Date: 2008-05-10
Creation Date: 2007-05-10
Last Update Date: 2007-05-15

New details, updated 17 March 2007:

Domain Name: findmadeleine.com

Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com

Expiration Date: 2010-05-10
Creation Date: 2007-05-10
Last Update Date: 2008-03-17 Bron

quote:

“The lobby surrounding the McCann is frightening” (Full story from "El Mundo", November 11, 2007) “My client must keep secret what he can do help the search for the truth and this is not due to the law secrecy in Portugal. That is is quite revealing of the strange circumstances around this case”, says the lawyer of one of the two McCann friends that were at Tapas Bar, on the night of May 3, and decided to have a close cooperation with Police, as “El Mundo” published, last Tuesday. “He is not afraid of the McCann but the economic and political lobby that exists, around that couple, frightens any person.”

“Police was called only after the group analysed the problems they could face for having left the children alone and until now, my client had no chance to talk for himself”, the London-based lawyer said. Since September, he represents one of the two friends of the McCann that contacted police and asked for an opportunity to be requestioned, in order to correct some details and discrepancies of the statements made by the group of nine persons that were on holidays at Ocean Club. “What my client wants is to get the truth out – meaning, he is not there to accuse or to clear anyone, that's a police job. He just wants to help police to know the truth about what happened before, during and after that diner, on May 3.”

Asked to comment the denial from Clarence Mitchell, the McCann spokesman who claimed he has been in touch with all the seven McCann friends and all of them told they gave no instructions to their lawyers to contact police and be requestioned, the British lawyer said: “When you look at all the pressure that has been put up over him and others, it's natural that my client would not tell Clarence Mitchell he decided to have his own legal representation and a more close cooperation with police.”

A strong critic of the Media frenzy about Madeleine's disappearance, the lawyer of this member of Tapas group considers that the case is “much more serious” than most people thinks: “I don't want to accuse anyone, but there are people close to the McCann that is not really helping them. However, my client intention is to bring the truth out, in this sad story, no matter who gets hurt.”

The support the McCann had from the Government is another aspect the lawyer criticises: “I understand that our Government had the legal obligation to help the McCann. What I don't understand is that they received such a help that goes further and over anything that would be normal, for a case like this. But, since the the first hours, it was clear that Madeleine's case was not just a normal police case. My client had no support, at all, from the British authorities – only through the McCann couple.”

Questioned about the British Government involvement and political connections related with the case, the London-based lawyer said: “It's not my job to explain why and how politicians had intervened in this case, but I'm afraid that those interventions have been prejudicial not only to my client, but also to the search for the truth.” Joana Morais

quote:

Portugal's top policeman has told friends of Kate and Gerry McCann of his regret that witness statements by the couple were leaked to the media.

One excerpt suggested that on the morning of her disappearance, Madeleine said: "Mummy, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?" The couple were furious and have accused the Portuguese police of attempting to slur them as they approach the anniversary of their daughter's disappearance on May 3.

Heartbroken: The McCanns are outraged by the latest leaks from the Portuguese police, which were timed to derail their trip to the European Parliament in Brussels this week he leak to a Spanish television station overshadowed the McCanns' visit on Thursday to Brussels where they called for a European rapid alert system for abducted children.

But it was revealed yesterday that Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the Policia Judiciaria, had interrupted interviews in Leicestershire with the "Tapas Seven" to tell the McCanns' friends of his own anger at the leak. Mr Ribeiro returned a day early to Portugal on Friday after several days interrogating the friends who were on holiday with the McCanns in Praia da Luz last year.

A source said: "The matter came up in the interviews with Kate and Gerry's friends and Ribeiro was embarrassed by it. "The leaks came as he was out of the country and he was angry about it. He also referred to it when speaking with Leicestershire police."

One of the McCanns' friends, Jane Tanner, who claimed to have seen a man carrying Madeleine away on the night of the child's disappearance, endured ten hours of questioning by Leicestershire police. Yesterday she spoke out against claims in Portuguese newspapers that she and her friends had demanded a private plane to take them back to Praia da Luz for a reconstruction requested by the Portuguese authorities.

"If it wasn't such a serious matter, some of the things that are being said about us would be laughable," she said. "The authorities should be out there looking for Madeleine rather than being distracted by any of these ridiculous and made-up stories about us."

Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Robert Murat will remain a formal suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for at least a further three months. The 34-year-old had hoped that the decision by the Portuguese police to allow him to travel to visit his daughter in Britain two weeks ago was a sign that the "arguido" status was soon to be lifted.

However, Mr Murat has been informed that his suspect status will be extended until August when the McCanns' similar arguido status will also be considered. It also appears that the McCanns are not planning to return to Portugal for the reconstruction. They do not believe there would be any purpose to it unless filmed as part of a Crimewatch-style programme but that has been ruled out by the authorities.

* Note: In this article, the Daily Mail has incorrectly identified Alipio Ribeiro as being the Portuguese officer involved. Although he is the national director of the PJ, this should read Paulo Rebelo who was the officer in attendance at the Tapas Group interviews. This is either poorly researched journalism or it reveals that the source for this story has a weak knowledge of the case. It is worth noting that there are no direct quotes in this article from any PJ officers. Bron

quote:

British media face record payout as family of 'arguido' demand public apology and damages

Mark Townsend and Ned Temko The Observer, Sunday April 13 2008
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday April 13 2008 on p3 of the News section.
It was last updated at 00:06 on April 13 2008.

A British expatriate who was named as a formal suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is launching one of the largest libel claims in the history of the British media.

Robert Murat lists 11 newspapers and one TV station in his demand for damages, which litigation lawyers believe could lead to a record cumulative payout of more than £2m. It is the largest number of separate libel claims made by one person against the British media on the same issue.

Murat, 34, who lived close to the Praia da Luz apartment in Portugal where Madeleine went missing, was made an arguido, or formal suspect, after a British tabloid reporter voiced her concerns to Portuguese police shortly after the child disappeared. The Sunday Mirror journalist claimed that Murat's behaviour was reminiscent of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Almost a year after Madeleine's disappearance, the Murat family are now seeking a formal public apology and undisclosed damages from the British media in light of what one relative yesterday described as 'unfair stains on the name of a man against whom there is not a shred of evidence'. They are understood to be particularly aggrieved at sections of the British press which repeated a range of 'outlandish' and frequently lurid allegations that appeared in the Portuguese press after he was named an arguido.

A statement from a London-based firm of solicitors, Simons Muirhead and Burton, confirmed it was 'representing Robert Murat in respect of a number of libel actions against Sky, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star, the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard, the Metro, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, the News of the World, the Sun and the Scotsman'. Simons Muirhead and Burton, which specialises in media litigation, would not comment further on the case. Media lawyer and litigation expert Caroline Kean of media law specialists Wiggin said that if Murat successfully argued that the articles inferred that he was involved in the abduction or murder of Madeleine then his claims could result in a record payout. 'You could expect at least £200,000 per paper, per claim, and that would clear £2m,' she said.

quote:

Sources close to Murat said a number of graphic and damaging claims made in the British press were never substantiated and in at least one case - the allegation that there were pornographic images on his computer - have led to a media correction in Portugal. His family are also upset about a number of other reports by the British papers or on TV - including what they say was an utterly untrue suggestion that Murat has a glass eye and had removed it 'as a party trick' while at school.

Although Murat, 34, remains an arguido, police recently returned a computer, clothing and other items taken by police from the Murat home, where he lives with his mother Jennifer less than 100 metres from the apartment where Madeleine disappeared.

In addition, Portuguese police have approved an extended trip to England to visit his three-year-old daughter - raising the Murat family's hopes that his arguido status will soon be ended. Murat has always vehemently denied any involvement with the disappearance of Madeleine with some believing he is merely a maligned scapegoat in a bungled investigation.

It is not surprising that the media is now facing a huge damages claim, as it was British journalists who first suggested Murat might be involved in Madeleine's disappearance. Sunday Mirror reporter Lori Campbell wrote an article headlined 'Why I shopped Maddy suspect' in which she claimed: 'There was an evasiveness and unease about Murat that left me feeling extremely uncomfortable.' Murat, a self-employed property developer, told her that he was assisting the police and had offered his services as a translator.

On 14 May 2007, Murat was questioned by Portuguese police and became the first person to be declared an official suspect. On the same day Campbell told Sky News: 'It was just very reminiscent of the Soham murders, that was my first thought. He was hanging around, asking us questions and maybe trying to find out what we knew.'

The following day police seized laptops and other material. For almost four months Murat remained the only arguido. Then in a dramatic development in early September Portuguese police named Madeleine's parents - Kate and Gerry - as arguidos, a move that sparked a slew of allegations against the couple. Last month Express Newspapers issued front-page apologies to Madeleine's parents and paid £550,000 to the Find Madeleine campaign. The McCanns have refused to rule out libel action against other publications. Bron

quote:

THE most significant witness in the hunt for Maddie McCann has withdrawn her statement according to Portuguese newspaper reports.

Jane Tanner, 37, who had said she saw the man who took Maddie on the night of her disappearance has withdrawn her statement, 24 Horas claims. She has told Portuguese authorities she can no longer be sure the man she saw was carrying Madeleine.

According the the respected newspaper 'Jane Tanner saw a man but cannot say with precision what he was carrying'. Jane, one of the so-called Tapas Nine, had given detectives a detailed description of a man she saw, close to the ground floor corner apartment where the McCanns were staying on the night of her disappearance. She told them he was carrying a child wearing pink pyjamas -- the same thing Maddie was wearing that night.

Based on her account, the McCanns produced an artist's impression of the man, in the hope that it might jog the memory of other holidaymakers. The information was also used by police and private detectives employed by the McCann's in the search for Maddie.

The leaked story will be a massive blow to Kate and Gerry McCann as they try to renew the search for their daughter nearly a year after her disappearance. The pair were already considering pulling out of plans to return to Portugal to help police reconstruct the events around their daughter Madeleine's disappearance amid a furious row over leaked interviews.

The McCanns believe transcripts of statements they gave to detectives in the hours after their daughter went missing on May 3 last year were deliberately slipped to the media by the Portuguese authorities. The excerpts include the disclosure that Madeleine and her brother Sean apparently woke up crying the night before the three-year-old's disappearance, but her parents did not hear her as they were in a nearby restaurant.

The interviews disclosed that Madeleine asked Kate, 39, at breakfast on May 3: "Mummy, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?" The couple are demanding a full internal investigation from the Portuguese Ministry of Justice into whether the detail was deliberately passed to a Spanish journalist to "smear" them on the day they launched a campaign in Brussels for a new Europe-wide child alert system.

Their local MP Stephen Dorrell has pledged to raise the matter with the Foreign Office and it is understood the McCanns' Portuguese lawyers will be protesting to the relevant authorities there. Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell called for the Portuguese government to "get a grip" of the leaks.

It emerged yesterday that Paulo Rebelo, the detective leading the case, has already flown back to Portugal from the UK - a day earlier than expected. Mr Mitchell said he hoped this meant Mr Rebelo had gone back "to crack some skulls".
His team of Portuguese police has been in the UK all week sitting in on interviews with the McCanns' friends who were dining with them at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Bron + 24 Horas

quote:

Op zondag 13 april 2008 15:05 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

>knip<

Dat registreren komt imho bij de McCanns weg, die willen weten wie er commentaar heeft en als mensen die niet geregistreerd staan delen van commentaren copieren en verder verspreiden (zoals wij doen. ) hebben ze daar geen controle op.

Het is inderdaad naar om te zien hoe de Tapas 7 onder controle staan, Jane heeft nu toe moeten geven dat ze niet zeker weet dat ze iemand met Maddy heeft zien lopen, hopelijk hebben de anderen ook geen blad voor de mond gehouden tijdens de verhoren en hebben ze meer duidelijkheid kunnen scheppen.
Echt misselijkmakend dat die zo onder druk worden gezet om maar vooral niet tegen de McCanns te doen.
Zoals het nu lijkt heeft team McCann dingen gelekt die niet zo schadelijk zijn en is de pers daar bovenop gedoken, als er nu nog meer, wel schadelijke, info lekt kunnen ze roepen dat het onderzoek niet eerlijk verloopt, heel slim van CM, hopelijk vinden ze degene die heeft gelekt (ik denk ook dat metodo3 er een vinger in de pap heeft) , dan kan de PJ zeggen dat het niet uit zijn politieapparaat is gelekt, dan hebben de McConns geen poot om op te staan.

quote:

Note:
1) This report is completely without foundation and based on the two words 'expected' and 'likely' and the unquoted words of an unnamed source.

2) The headline places 'found no new evidence' in parenthesis, to imply the words are a direct quote. Yet those words are not a direct quote - they have been written by the Mail themselves based on the words of this unnamed source who may, or may not, have actually said them.

3) This is a sensational claim - why would the source wish to remain anonymous? The only explanation is that they do not wish their name to be identified with something that has no basis in fact.

4) Yet again, the Mail, and their unnamed source, are unable to differentiate between Paulo Rebelo and Alipio Ribeiro.

5) Jane Tanner is quoted as follows: "If it wasn't such a serious matter, some of the things that are being said about us would be laughable," she said. "The authorities should be out there looking for Madeleine rather than being distracted by any of these ridiculous and made-up stories about us."

- The quote is presented in this article as a direct response to claims that the Tapas Seven wanted a private jet and 5-star hotels to return to Portugal for a reconstruction.

Yet, in the article that follows, in The People, it suggests the quote is a direct response to the recent police interviews and is used in that article to counter claims that Jane Tanner has changed her statement!

The article in the Sunday Mirror, further below by Lori Campbell, uses the quote ambiguously - mentioning both the claims that the Tapas Seven requested jets and 5-star hotels, as well as the claims that the police interviews yielded nothing new - and chooses not to directly link the quote to either but, in doing so, implies the quote is provided in support of the articles headline.

Interestingly, the words used in this quote, attributed to Ms Tanner, mirror very closely the statement made by Clarence Mitchell when he took over as full-time spokesman for the McCanns.

quote:

Op zondag 13 april 2008 20:42 schreef roooosje het volgende:
Waar zou ze toch zijn .

quote:

Op maandag 14 april 2008 18:36 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

http://news.sky.com/skyne(...)312853,00.html?f=rss

Oeh, hebben ze hier meegelezen?

Hij ontkent dus dat het bij de PJ vandaan komt.

quote:

Madeleine McCann case": Clarification on false contents of a news piece 2008/04/14

At the end of last week, the Spanish television station Telecinco broadcast a news piece that reported that they had enjoyed exclusive access to alleged statements from the McCann couple to the "investigators" into the disappearance of the underage child, Madeleine.

Based on this news piece, the spokesman of this couple, Clarence Mitchell, expressed publicly, to several media, the certainty that the Policia Judiciaria had been responsible for its publication.

The Policia Judiciaria clarifies that it is entirely false that the contents of the news piece reproduces matter that is part of the inquiry, which is under judicial secrecy.

On the other hand, the Policia Judiciaria cannot fail to lament the baseless intervention of the spokesman, especially at a moment when significant diligences to the investigation were being carried out.

April 14, 2008 The National Directory

quote:

Murat goes to the PJ's re-enactment 24horas
The Englishman did not impose any conditions to enter in the PJ's re-enactment

The first suspect of Maddie's disappearance wants to participate in the 'movie' of the re-enactment of the 3rd of Maay in Praia da Luz

Without fears and willing to help. This is the state of mind of Robert Murat, the Englishman that was constituted as the first arguido in the scope of the process connected with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on the 3rd of May of 2007, of an apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve. Like him, Sergey Malinka, a computer expert, was notified to participate, on the 15th and 16th of May, in a reconstruction of the alleged events that took place the day on which Maddie disappeared.

Malinka, so far, has not answered, but Murat has already told the authorities that he has no problem in helping and, contrary to Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of the child, and unlike the seven friends with whom they had dinner with in the Tapas Bar, on that fateful day, he did not impose any conditions to participate in the re-enactment.

Murat stays at home on the day of the re-enactment

"He was always at home with the mother. He just has to do the same that he did in that day and in many others that followed that day: to keep his mother company. The arguido status, which has damaged immensely his personal and professional life should have been lifted a long time ago, since it does not make any sense", revealed a source close to the arguido, however a judicial source assured that his status will remain up to until the time when an accusation is or is not done, which will only happen in the middle of July of 2008.

Meantime, Robert Murat, yesterday revealed that he is going to ask for compensation for slander to several British media organisations. The arguido wants to prosecute 11 British newspapers and the television channel Sky News for slander in a process that could lead to a cumulative payout of more than two million pounds (2,5 million euros). 34-year-old Robert Murat, lives with his mother in the Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, nearly a hundred metres away from the apartment from where Maddie disappeared.

It was an English journalist of the "Sunday Mirror", Lori Campbell, who pointed the attentions of the police towards Murat, as soon as she thought that he had a suspect behavior. In an article entitled "Murat fear: Why I told cops", the journalist explains: "There was an evasiveness and unease about Murat that left me feeling extremely uncomfortable". Robert Murat, for a long time was the only suspect in the investigation, and he was object to great attention by the press, which investigated his whole life and past. The arguido always insisted in his innocence, having affirmed that they made him "a scapegoat".

In a statement, the London-based firm of solicitors, Simons Muirhead and Burton, confirmed they were 'representing Robert Murat in respect of a number of libel actions against Sky, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star, the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard, the Metro, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, the News of the World, the Sun and the Scotsman'.

Facts

REMEMBER. To establish a record is the objective of Murat and of his lawyer, Francisco Pagarete. According to Caroline Kean, a media law expert, quoted by the newspaper "The Observer", Murat might receive "at least 200 thousand pounds (nearly 250 thousand euros) for each newspaper and for complaint, which would exceed two million pounds". The current record for a complaint for slander is of 1.5 million pounds (nearly 1.8 million euros), in 1989, according to the same newspaper.

MEETING. The Judiciary Police team which traveled last week to England, that was led by Paulo Rebelo, coordinator of criminal investigation of the PJ, will have today in the morning, a meeting with the Public Prosecutor Luís Verão and criminal instruction judge Pedro Frias, as well as with the assistant director of the Judiciary Police and the very person in charge of the Directorship of Faro, Guilhermino Encarnação. The objective is to assess and evaluate the cross-examinations done to seven persons with whom the McCanns had dinner with in the Tapas Bar, on the 3rd of May 2007. Bron

quote:

Clarence Mitchell maintains criticism of the PJ - Lusa
From Lusa this evening:
Madeleine: McCann spokesman maintains criticism of the PJ about alleged information leak (vertaling Joana Morais)

London, April 14 (Lusa) - The spokesman for Madeleine McCann's parents has today reiterated the conviction that excerpts of statements that were under judicial secrecy have been made public, defying the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) to explain the alleged information leak. Clarence Mitchell told Lusa agency that the contents of the statements that were made public last week by Spanish tv channel Telecinco is "sufficiently" recognized by Kate McCann, although the PJ denied its truthfulness today.

"We do not dispute the truthfulness of the statements", he underlined, adding that they correspond to information that was given between May and Jube 2007, before they were made arguidos in the process, which happened in September.

In these statements, Kate reportedly told the PJ that Madeleine complained about her parents not attending to her and her siblings, when they cried on one of the evenings prior to the disappearance, on the 3rd of May, from a tourist apartment in Praia da Luz, near Lagos, in the Algarve.

"Why didn't you come when we were crying last night?", Madeleine reportedly said to her parents - according to Telecinco - referring to herself and to one of her siblings, then two years old, this in spite of the fact that the parents denied hearing any crying.

The PJ has issued a note today, alleging that it "is entirely false" that the contents of the news piece from Spanish television Telecinco about the Maddie case "reproduces material that is part of the inquiry and under judicial secrecy".It further accuses the family's spokesman of attributing that leak to agents from the PJ, denouncing his "baseless intervention (...) especially at a moment when significant diligences for the investigation were being carried out".

Without wanting to "enter a discussion" with the PJ, Mitchell refers, still, that "the police note does not offer any explanations about how the material from the process that lies in the police's hands for 11 months and is covered by judicial secrecy, could be made public".

"I do not withdraw anything that I said", he underlined, reiterating his appeal for the investigation to continue. "What is necessary is that everyone unites in the search for Madeleine", he said.

quote:

The spokesman of the parents of Madeleine McCann "is a liar and Machiavellian". Who says this is the president of the Association of Staff of Criminal Investigation (ASFIC). Carlos Anjos accuses Clarence Mitchell of having a well-defined strategy. "He wants to discredit the Criminal Police(PJ) by making up excuses in order to avoid the return of the couple to Portugal to participate in the reconstruction of the night of the crime. He lied to his teeth," he says.

This was the reaction of Carlos Anjos after yesterday's response of the PJ concerning the informations given by the Spanish channel "Telecinco" that announced having access to the depositions of Kate and Gerry. "It is completely untrue that the content of the news reproduces material that is in secrecy of justice", said the PJ in a release, issued after a meeting in Lisbon between Alípio Ribeiro and Paulo Rebelo, coordinator of the judicial police of Portimão and responsible for the investigation of the disappearance of Madeleine.

After the news, advanced on Thursday as being an "exclusive" of the Spanish channel, Mitchell gave several interviews to British televisions. He insulted the PJ and blamed the Portuguese inspectors of what he called a "grotesque breach of secrecy." He accused them of initiating a "dishonest manoeuvre to discredit the family."

On that same day, Kate and Gerry were in Brussels to present an European project to help to find missing children. Meanwhile, in Leicestershire, England, Paulo Rebelo's team were attending the interrogations scheduled in the rogatory letter.

To disrupt the enquiry

The PJ says they "deplore the intervention of the spokesman, particularly at a time when significant steps were made in the research." The president of ASFIC goes further. "Finally it is known where the truth is. While the PJ fulfilled their duty to investigate what happened to the child, the spokesman of the parents was manipulating the public opinion," he accuses.

For Carlos Anjos, "who mounted the scheme was Mr Clarence Mitchell. He needed to find an excuse to avoid the participation of the couple in the reconstruction, saying now that he does not trust the PJ." The ASFIC is available to give legal support to the researchers who feel targeted by the statements of Mitchell and want to move forward with a criminal complaint.

* Wikipedia: Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. Bron

quote:

There is another possibility. I am quite sure that when the McCanns were named arguidos and retained attorneys, their lawyers would have wanted to know exactly what they had told the police during previous questioning. But at that point, under the rules of secrecy, the PJ would not have given them the statements.

I think their lawyers would have asked them, as well as their friends in the tapas 7, to sit down before memory faded further and recreate, as nearly as they could recall, their previous questioning by the PJ - both questions asked and answers given. All the members of the tapas 7 would surely have a copy of their own statements and possibly those of others, as I don't think the lawyers could stop them exchanging them; the attorneys and Clarence Mitchell likely would have a copy, and it opens up a world of people working with Team McCann who might have been involved in the copying, photocopying, etc. and could have had access.

The PJ seem quite sure that the statements released did not come from their files. Large portions of the allegedly leaked statements were posted on Telecinco's web site. My guess is that the PJ compared them, found they are not identical to what they have, and inferred that they must have been created at some other time.

quote:

Op dinsdag 15 april 2008 22:01 schreef remlof het volgende:
De politie had toch DNA van Maddy in een auto van de McCanns gevonden, die ze na haar verdwijning hadden gehuurd? Is alweer een tijdje geleden, maar hoe is dat afgelopen?

quote:

'Blood was definitely Maddie's' Blood found in a car hired by her parents weeks after she disappeared definitely came from the British girl, it was reported yesterday. The Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha cited police sources as saying new tests on blood found in the hire car conclusively showed it was Madeleine's. "The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria. The blood found in the McCanns' car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat," the paper said. Bron

quote:

The inspectors that are investigating Maddie's case held a meeting yesterday with the Public Prosecutor to analyse the trip to England. Clarence Mitchell, McCann's spokesman and Método 3 might have passed informations to the Spanish press.

The PJ and the Public Prosecutor have been bombarded with what the judicial authorities consider to be "counter information" in Madeleine McCann's case. In declarations to the 24 Horas, Pinto Monteiro, General Public Attorney, admitted that yesterday he did not yet have any additional information to the process because the Prosecutor of Évora, Luís Bilro Verão had not yet send anything.

There is no report

"When there are relevant things concerning that process a detailed report with the facts is made. Till today (yesterday) nothing was received from the responsible of the case namely the Prosecutor Luís Verão that I appointed to direct the enquiry", said Pinto Monteiro.

Guilhermino Encarnação maxim responsible for the PJ of Faro, says the same: "Everything is running well, the interrogations made in England were very satisfactory. We are not vulnerable to any type of pressure, it does not matter from where it cames. The investigations will have their results no matter who will be hurt".

McCann and Método 3 under suspicion

In the last days the PJ investigations on this case received criticism from everybody. Beginning with the spokesman of the couple, Clarence Mitchell, to the Spanish television channel Telecinco and the President of the Portuguese Bar Association, all have attacked the course of the investigations. The authorities in Portugal believe that the fake informations were released by the McCanns or by the agency hired by them, Método 3.

Marinho Pinto, president of the Bar Association said to EFE agency that the Criminal Police "arrived to a dead end in the investigations and is unable to acknowledge that fact".

quote:

Op woensdag 16 april 2008 11:42 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Hmm, zou dit niet kunnen zijn voor het geval dat er toch een veroordeling volgt?
Als Kate idd zo labiel is, en er zijn vast 'deskundigen' die dat willen verklaren in court, dan hebben ze alvast een ontoerekeningsvatbaarheid wegens psychische problemen voorbereid, mocht het zo zijn dat er toch onverhoopt bewijs komt bovendrijven dan kan ze verklaren dat ze het zich niet meer kan herinneren en niet meer weet wat er is gebeurt en waar Maddy is gebleven......
Die gedachtenkronkels op dat forum konden nog wel eens waar zijn.
Ik denk dus dat ze niet geframed wordt maar als laatste redmiddel wordt ingezet.

Die 'lekken' zijn echt wel heel goed overwogen door team McCann gedaan hoor, daar twijfel ik echt niet meer aan.
Heel goed dat de PJ van zich af bijt en ertegenin komt.

quote:

Maddie "died by misadventure"
Convinced that it can regain Madeleine McCann, the visionary Chilean Isabel Cristina Avila reaffirmed today in Santiago that the child never left Portugal, adding that Maddie died by accident without the intervention of third parties.

According to the fortune teller, known for having cooperated with the police of Chile in the search for missing persons, the place where the body is located has not been searched with the thoroughness required, "they have sought but not quite meticulously," says Isabel Avila.

This is not the first time that the visionary talk about the case of Madeleine, in October 2007 it had already handed over to the Portuguese Ambassador to Chile a sketch of the place or the police should seek the body.

Since the demise of Madeleine Beth McCann, May 3, 2007, the Judicial Police received several hundred letters, emails and phone calls from persons claiming to be able to find the girl. Despite all the checks, most of the time far from the eyes of the media, no track has yet been found Maddie. Bron

quote:

Here's the problem. Kate gave a statement to the PJ, that was written and translated and signed by her. She was not given a copy of the statement. Witnesses don't receive a copy of their statements. Then she repeated the same story to someone else but with a slightly different wording. The PJ can compare her written statement with the leak and realize that they are different, so now they are absolutely sure that they can prove ( if necessary) that the leaked text and the statement were not produced at the same time. So now PJ can play their move. The public statement in the PJ website has no precedent, and is very very very official. Carlos Anjos spokesman of the Police Association knows that, so he can afford calling Clarence Mitchel a “ lying bxxxxxd “ and I bet he enjoyed it. It's not common practice to someone in an official role call liar to somebody else, so Carlos Anjos must be pretty damn sure that they can prove in a court of law that the leak didn't came from them, hence the threat to sue Clarence Unfortunately the PJ can't put the original statement in the public domain. The timing of the leak was also crucial, as to avoid any embarrassment to the McCann's while they were in Brussels facing the MEP's and journalists.

quote:

Controversy: Kate's statement to detectives

The declarations of Kate McCann remembering a conversation with her daughter Maddie, on the day in which she disappeared, on the fact that in the previous night Kate left the girl crying in the bedroom are not in the official process secured by the Judiciary Police, established the CM. They were reproduced by the Spanish TV channel Telecinco, the journalist Nacho Abad says to have proofs that they are true - but in fact, they are accounts given by Kate to private detectives.

The process continues in secrecy of justice, but, 'on the day that the process is opened to the public, it will be easy to prove that those declarations are not there ', said a source close to the investigations. Therefore, this leak of information could never have appeared from inside the Judiciary Police.

'On the day in which this situation is clarified accurately ', Clarence Mitchell will be the target of a process for the damages caused against the image of the elements of the Department of Criminal Investigation of Portimão, after they had been 'unfairly accused' by the McCann’s spokesman of passing informations that are part of the process to the Media.

Besides, the British police also know that Kate's declarations, about her difficult relationship with the daughter, are not in the process. When the Spanish TV channel reproduced them a PJ’s team was in Leicester, in the period in which the McCann’s friends were heard, and the English authorities confirmed to be Kate's account to the private investigators. It is a company that worked for the couple before the Metódo3 agency and, in the end, they printed a report where these sentences are in. According to our sources, only three parts kept copies of these documents: the company, the McCanns and the British authorities.

The problems with the international press do not end here, yesterday, it was the Telegraph turn to advance 'declarations' from Guilhermino Encarnação, where after a meeting with the Public Prosecutor, he would have said that ‘The investigation will bring its results, whoever they hurt', a source close to the responsible of the Faro's PJ guarantees to the CM that none of this is true.

DETAILS

ASFIC SUPPORTS PROCESS

Contacted by the 'CM', the president of the Criminal Investigation Officers' Union, Carlos Anjos, guarantees to be available for the whole legal support that the investigators of Portimão need if they understand to sue the McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell, McCann, for damages against the image of the department.

RE-ENACTMENT

Carlos Anjos believes that the controversy created around Kate's declarations, with accusations to the PJ for the eventual leak of information which damages the couple credibility, 'is nothing more than a stratagem in order that they do not have to collaborate with the Portuguese justice'. In question there is a re-enactment of the crime, requested by the PJ but that, according to the couple’s spokesman, will only happen if they stop being arguidos. Source: Correio da Manhã

quote:

The Sun: THE flat from which Maddie McCann vanished is to be let again, it was claimed last night. Owner Ruth McCann, no relation to Maddie’s parents Gerry, 39, and Kate, 40, plans to charge £1,600 a month for the apartment in Praia da Luz, a Portuguese newspaper said. It has been searched and examined by forensic teams since Maddie disappeared last May 3.

quote:

The Mirror: Ruth McCann - who is no relation - is said to be asking £19,500 a year from tourists for the Ocean Club property in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The two bedroom flat has been empty since August. A local paper claimed it will not be available until June because police need it for a reconstruction. Ruth McCann refused to comment.

quote:

The two-bedroom apartment the family rented in Praia da Luz went on the market for £75,000 last week. A British couple offered the asking price within days and they have already completed the deal, according to Portuguese newspapers. The Sun said the market rate for similar properties was £150,000.

quote:

De vriendin van Murat gaat vermoedelijk ook schadevergoeding vragen: "His girlfriend, Michaela Walczuk, similarly traduced and similarly, now, represented by Max Clifford, may well be next."

Buurvouw van de McCanns Mrs. Fenn, die Madeleine urenlang heeft horen huilen heeft het zwaar gehad: "She was hounded for months and months, and for the first few months she couldn't park her car and could barely leave the house," says Ian Fenn when asked about his mother, Pamela, who is in her 80s and lives in the apartment above the one from which Madeleine was taken. "She doesn't know anything, and she won't tell you anything, and I ask you, please, not to knock on her door." Nee, ze weet inderdaad niets, ze heeft alleen maar gehoord...en soms is dat voldoende als getuigenverklaring.

Men praat er nauwelijks meer over en posters van Madeleine zijn er haast niet meer, op een enkele winkel na: "Manuel Silva, owner of an electrical store in the area, says he will keep his posters up until she is found - "I have grandchildren who live here" - but he is almost alone. Why does he think the other businesses removed theirs? "I don't know. That is their concern." at do people in the town now think about what happened that night? "Nobody talks about this. Nobody talks about it now." What changed? "I'm not inclined to say."

De plaatselijke Landlady van een pub Nancy Thompson zegt: "I do think the PJ will find the truth of this," says Thompson. "In the old days, before the revolution, when you had to have a licence for a lighter, the PJ was everywhere and people were always: 'don't say that'. That was Portugal. That was their regime. It's only 1974. And they are still a bit afraid and secretive." She says she cannot understand how anyone could get away with abduction. "They are so nosy, people in Portugal, and especially in this village. You can't go for a p*** in this town without somebody watching. That night I was back and forwards between my two bars all night. You notice these things, we have nothing else to do in this place, and I never saw a man carrying a child in a blanket."

En de lokale priester Hubbard zegt o.a: ""You see the tour buses driving past the house, the tour guides are now using it as a tourist attraction," says Hubbard, drily. "I don't think Praia da Luz has suffered a grievous blow because of an evil that was perpetrated in our midst."

En opvallend genoeg: "The seven friends with whom the couple were holidaying continued to be interviewed this week by officers from Leicestershire police, observed by Portuguese officers, the purpose of these further interviews unclear."

En tenslotte over het Portugese onderzoeksteam: "Olegario Sousa, who initially acted as spokesman for the police, dramatically quit the role in September in protest at continued leaks."

Dat is volgens excop Beachy een leugen: "It also repeats the old canard that Olegario Sousa quit in displeasure over the leaks, when he denied that virtually the instant it came out. He said he was returning to his regular post in Lisbon because the PJ would not be holding any more press conferences once the file was turned over to the public prosecutor's office - and guess what, they haven't, have they? If he had stayed in Portimao, he would have had nothing to do these past 8 months, as he was not actually part of the investigative team." Bron

quote:

“MCCANNS FACE NEW CHARGE
EXCLUSIVE SCANDAL OF PLAN TO CHARGE MADDIE MUM ‘KEYSTONE COP’ FURY” (in cursief is commentaar van Anarak)

A shock new plan to charge Kate McCann over daughter Maddie’s kidnap was last night condemned as “spiteful and shameful”. British legal experts branded bungling Portuguese detectives “Keystone Cops” for considering neglect charges.

But are these comedy cops the only ones who think the McCanns erred?

One lawyer said: “After an inquiry costing millions and unprecedented international help, these Keystone Cops still haven’t got a clue what happened to Madeleine. The investigation was a mess from Day One.”

Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We haven’t heard through official channels if they are considering this charge. But you’d have to ask yourself, ‘Why now?’”

Or why not now?

quote:

"However, now the relationship is back at rock bottom. "The Portuguese justice minister needs to get a grip on his police force," Mitchell told The Mail on Sunday.

"We are confident those statements came from someone in the police chain. It's not just disappointing that after nearly a year, there is no sign of Madeleine: it's an absolute tragedy."

If the PJ had been "doing its job properly", Mitchell continued, the McCanns would never have felt compelled to engage the Barcelona private investigation agency Metodo 3, on which the Find Madeleine campaign has already spent £200,000. "Not a penny would have been spent on the private investigators," he said."

quote:

"Wat betreft Joana Cipriano, het gaat er nu om of Portugese cops haar moeder hebben gemept, daar is nogal twijfel over, blog van Duarte Levy: "A letter sent by another prisoner contradicts this version: she affirms that, while in prison, Joana’s mother had said that she had fallen down the stairs but that after a meeting with the prison director, she changed her version and said instead that she had been tortured and that she hoped to receive damages.

Despite several confrontations with the inspectors, Leonor Cipriano was unable to make any positive identification. The public prosecutor nonetheless decided to proceed with the lawsuit, even though he admitted that he, himself, could not guarantee that the inspectors being charged had anything to do with the alleged assault or whether any such assault had even actually taken place."

Nou ja, een onfrisse kwestie die zeker wel is misbruikt door de Britse pers die zonder meer Gonçalo Amaral in het verdomhoekje heeft gezet.

quote:

McCanns Risk Ten Years in Jail
Public Ministry prepares an accusation for Exposition/Abandonment and Negligence against Maddie's parents

"The Public Ministry has collected enough evidence to accuse the McCanns even if there is or not a re-enactment of the facts that occurred in the day the girl went missing". The guarantee was given to 24Horas by a judiciary officer who has been following the investigation. The same source added that the indictment might only take place in July and that the McCanns can incur in a penalty "that can go up to 10 years in jail". Another source connected to the case concluded: "We know that the girl disappeared and there are strong evidences that she died in the apartment, apparently in an accidental way. There are also strong probabilities that her corpse was hidden. Nonetheless, independently from that, there is clear proof under the Portuguese Legislation that the parents of the child left her exposed to an eventual kidnapping, like they did with her twin siblings. That is a crime of Negligence and Exposition/Abandonment over people they had the duty to protect.

Ongoing Investigations

Contacted by the 24Horas, Guilhermino Encarnação, the assistant director of the Judiciary Police and the very person in charge of the Directorship of Faro, merely said: "the investigations continue and when there is something relevant to reveal" about the mediatic case "that will be done through the official channels". (dus is er niks zeker en kan dit artikel gewoon nergens op slaan. Want er zijn nog verhoren gaande wat betreft de statements van de Tapas 7 en wat er daana mogelijk volgt nav de gevonden DNA-sporen)

A source from Portimão's Court assured to 24Horas that the Public Prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes, the responsible for the administration of the inquest, is already working in the accusations against the McCanns and that will be made public "very soon". That is, the probability for the McCanns to stop being arguidos in the following months is almost null. 24Horas also knows that Robert Murat and his companion [Michaela Walczuch] have strong possibilities of not being implicated in the accusation. Source: 24Horas Bron

quote:

Portuguese Judicial Code
Article 138
Exposure or abandonment

1 - Whom endangers the life of another person:
a) By exposing her in a place where the person is subject to a situation which she cannot defend herself from on her own; or

b) By abandoning her in a defenseless state, for motive of age, physical defect or illness, when the agent had the duty to guard, watch or assist to the person;
is punished with a prison term of 1 to 5 years.

2 - If the fact is practised by an ascendant or descendant, adoptant or adoptee of the victim, the agent is punished with a prison term of 2 to 5 years.

3 - If the fact results in:
a) Serious offense to the physical integrity, the agent is punished with a prison term of 2 to 8 years;
b) Death, the agent is punished with a prison term of 3 to 10 years. Bron

quote:

Comptes en banque des McCann investigués Bank accounts of McCann investigated (Google vertaling)

As part of the ongoing investigation in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the Judicial Police (PJ) claims to have access to the movement of bank accounts of his parents but also those of the seven British who have accompanied them during their stay in Portugal.

According to the Portuguese television channel TVI, investigators want to know the exact nature of the payments before and after the death of Madeleine. Arguidos the investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, McCann will continue to maintain this status despite pressure from his lawyers and British diplomacy.

Recently PJ asked them to return to Praia da Luz in order to participate in a re-enactment of the night of the disappearance of their daughter, but the couple refuses to return without guarantees not to be harassed by the police. The other arguido in the investigation, the British Robert Murat, unconditionally agreed to the request of investigators. Bron

quote:

PJ want McCann bank details
TVI, Updated 21 April 2008, 21:21

PJ intends to obtain access to the banking transactions for Madeleine McCann's parents and their seven friends who accompanied them on the holidays in the Algarve. The investigators' objective is to determine the purchases made before and after the girl's disappearance. PJ is also waiting to receive the report of the analysis of the biologic vestiges sent to the Birmingham lab. Almost a year after Maddie's disappearance, many questions remain unanswered, in a process which has once again extended the secrecy of justice. The only certainty is that the police investigations are inconclusive.

quote:

Just seen on TV1 here in Portugal, on a breaking news story that the PJ are to investigate the Mccanns bank accounts, anyone got any more details? Am wondering if it is the same station that the program which is going to be aired at 9.10p.m. on the same channel if it is a "proper news story" or is it a breaking news like sky?
-----------
I saw it.
They said the PJ wants the moviments of the bank accounts of all the tapas 9 to check what they purchased before and after madeleine's disappearance it is part of the rogatory letter also they said that FSS are still making tests.
-----------
Nothing on spanish news or sky.god i hope its true.the fraud case sadly will be bigger than the death of madeleine...The whole family are involved in this and close friends..
-----------
This is from a very reliable Portugues lady from the Sky message boards.

" Break news in PT TV:

new details in Maddies case

PJ asked Uk police the bank details of the tapas friends and parents and with that they know where thete were in the days after and day before 3rd of May

PT lab gave some results and PJ is only waiting for the resulst of UK lab to do something.

PJ continue to believe that Maddie died inside the apartement and parents are involved.

I will try to post the article of TVI "
----------------
Just the news already imparted that there are investigations for fraud being carried out in Ireland.......mainly focussed on the HTFM site.
---------------
From the duplicate thread - they are looking at transactions on the day before Madeleines disappearance
---------------
not that I am dancing with joy here, but if it is breaking news on a PT channel, there must be something going on. They could just put it in a paper tomorrow.
---------------
Exactly mulderscully, IMO the fund and the bank accounts etc have been already investigated, now it has just been made official and has been covered in the rogatory letters, all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, now the information will be passed from one nations force to the PT.
---------------
If they are looking at transaction on the day before the disappearance then this is very interesting. Things that are springing into my mind are - they are looking to see what was in the accounts before and to see if any substantial amounts of money have been moved into or out of their accounts. Have they been paid a sum in as payment for their daughter, or have they paid a sum out for someone to take their daughter away. They might also be looking at times and places of money transactions to see if any unusual trips had been made, payments for dubious activities, boat hire, car hires etc., payments to unknown persons. I would have thought that they would have looked at all this ages ago.
--------------- >>> etc etc

quote:

PJ wants McCanns Bank Transactions
The objective of the investigators is to identify which purchases they did before and after the disappearance of the girl. The Judiciary Police intends to have access to the bank transactions of Madeleine’s parents and of the seven friends who accompanied them on holidays to the Algarve. This request was also in the Rogatory Letter .

The Rogatory Letter Saga

The Home Office in October 2007 raised some questions to Eurojust and the Letter was sent back to the Portugal, to the Public Prosecution Service.

The rogatory letter was then sent, a second time back to the Home Office, on the 7th January 2008 by the Public Prosecutor José Cunha de Magalhães e Menezes, the responsible for the administration of the inquest through the EU body, Eurojust.

In February 2008 the Public Prosecutor of the Portimão's court, Magalhães e Menezes as well as the team that conducted the investigations concerning Madeleine McCann were losing their patience with the delay of the British authorities in giving green light to the execution of the rogatory letter. "This is reaching unacceptable proportions. In a case like this, if there was cooperation, the rogatory letter would be fulfilled in less than a month. This is going on since October last year with the English returning the letter and making mere bureaucratic demands. We already sent a new rogatory more than two weeks ago and the only thing we have is the silence of the police and diplomatic authorities" and "Like this is difficult to make an investigation", concluded the source connected to the process.

The Forensics Delay

Almost at the end of April 2008 the Judiciary Police is still waiting the final report of the analyses of the biological evidences which were sent to the Forensic Science Service [FSS], a laboratory in Birmingham, England on August 2007. The same laboratory which was supposed to do DNA analyses in less than 36 hours. The remaining analyses done by the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal [INML] - National Institute of Legal Medicine were completed after 1 month.

The first results of the FSS analyses to the evidences taken from the McCanns' apartment in Praia da Luz, their hire car and other parts of the Mark Warner holiday complex, were inconclusive. A senior source close to the investigation reportedly said: "There is no reason to change the direction of the investigation and everything that has emerged indicates that it is focusing where it should. "This is a very complex case and forensics are rarely conclusive on their own, but the new material adds to the existing picture that has been built up by police and fills in a few more pieces of the jigsaw." Sources added that the tests raised more questions into the explanations offered by the McCanns for the original results, thought to have shown traces of Madeleine's blood in the family apartment and of her bodily fluids in the McCanns' hire car.

Almost a year after Maddie's disappearance, many questions remain without an answer, in a process in which the secrecy of justice was extended for a second time.

quote:

McCanns' spokesman surprised about the possibility that the couple may be accused of neglect
Maddie's parents indignant over accusations from the Judiciaria

The McCanns are indignant. Maddie's parents do not understand why, according to what 24 Horas reported yesterday, it is only now that the Public Ministry assumes that there is enough evidence to condemn them to ten years in prison for exposure and neglect. The formal accusation is to take place in July, pressuposing that Maddie died an accidental death in the apartment and that her cadaver was then concealed. Apart from that, the authorities believe that Gerry and Kate left the little girl exposed to a sequestration situation, just like their twin children, when they abandoned them inside the apartment while they dined with friends on the evening of the disappearance.

"We are not going to comment on that matter because we have not received any official information from the Portuguese authorities", Clarence Mitchell said to 24 Horas yesterday. The McCann family's spokesman said that Gerry and Kate were "suprised" when they heard about the possible accusation.

"They found it strange that that matter became public only now. Why was that not discussed a few months ago?", Clarence Mitchell questioned, and did not comment further.

quote:

"The McCanns' lawyers have really been trying to stop the reconstruction. Because of the difficulties they (McCanns and lawyers)
are causing, Eurojust have stepped in and the case is now a joint investigation (Leicestershire Police and the PJ).

The minimum charge is neglect. (This is to stop the McCann team in their tracks), but more charges will follow.

As I said before, the CCTV from the bar in the Ocean Club revealed the real time lines and who left the tables. [Juxtapose
also said this.]

The maximum charge will be manslaughter.

The fund is revealing to the PJ and Leicestershire Police - money laundering via Metodo3 is one definite, but there are others

quote:

The PJ is still waiting the for the transactions made with credit cards

Phone calls analysed with magnifying glass Only now the PJ received the list of the phone calls made by Maddie's parents and friends. The registers of three persons are still missing.

"Drop by drop". This is the way how a responsible connected to the investigations on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann describes the way that the data of the phone calls made by the parents and friends on that day arrive to the PJ. The registers were asked more than six months ago to the British but only now they begin to arrive. "The British authorities already send us several invoices of phone calls made by the group, included the McCanns, but there are still some registers missing", said the same source. We discovered that the missing data are from three friends of the McCanns and that is the reason why the complete analysis cannot be made. "Everything is being duly analysed but the crossing of the data means that we have to get the missing calls. Without them is impossible to reach any conclusion because two of the persons involved in the process are fundamental to the investigation", the source explained.
An investigator that was connected to the case in its initial phase said that "since the first hour the investigations came up against bureaucratic problems".

"An investigation in a case like this must be quick. But when we tried to obtain evidence we were confronted with incredible bureaucracy. An urgent rogatory letter took more than five months to be authorised", he added.
To cross phone data is now a team task directed by the director Guilhermino Encarnação and by the coordinator Paulo Rebelo.

Police and banks in silence

But apart from the phone calls the public prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes still waits the register of the bank transactions made by all people that dinned in the Tapas Bar. The objective is to know where the arguidos and the main witnesses were in the day the child disappeared.

"Although that request was made informally to the British police more than seven months ago and officially requested afterwards in the rogatory letter ( five months ago) the truth is that we did not have yet any reply", said to the 24 Horas a police source. Officially Encarnação and Paulo Rebelo are laconic about the case. None of them say anything because the process "is in secret of justice".

quote:

Op dinsdag 22 april 2008 12:55 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
>knip<

Ik hoop eigenlijk dat de PJ in alle stilte alle bewijs verzamelt en dan ineens met een afsluiting komt van deze zaak, dus gewoon een gag-order handhaaft totdat ze er daar uit zijn.
Ik denk dus dat er geen vertragig is maar echt totale stilte voor de storm, misschien is het wel een geval van de wens is de vader van de gedachte hoor.

quote:

Gonçalo Amaral former coordinator of the Department of Criminal Investigation of the PJ of Portimão, goes into retirement. The request for retirement was presented a month ago and was accepted last week by the National Directory of the PJ. The JN knows that one of the motives for this decision were more than 38 years in the force and the wish to recuperate his "freedom of expression". The former coordinator was the head of the investigations in the case of the British girl Madeleine McCann and was removed due to declarations given to the "Diário de Notícias" with critics to the British police. Jornal de Notícias

quote:

Gonçalo Amaral sends thanks to all his supporters and says we will very soon know the 'Truth about the Lie', EXCLUSIVE to this site, 23 April 2008
Message from Gonçalo Amaral

As you can understand, I can't do any comment about the investigation on the "McCann Case"... (I have omitted the next part, in the interests of privacy but this did not in any way compromise the judicial secrecy laws)

Looking towards my freedom of speech, I asked for my retirement last month. All the insults, false accusations and lie's from the past year are now being brought to court from my lawyers (the very last one is from Daily Mail, yesterday).

I would like to say thank you to the thousands of persons that every day, for the last year, are supporting me all over the world. I would like to answer all the phone calls, emails and letters, but is not possible...there are so many! As you can imagine, most of the days are not that easy, and these messages have been a great support not only for me, but also for my family. Once again, thank you all!

You're allowed do display this message on you site, and I thank you for that. One last thing:

*Soon, very soon the world will know the "Truth about the Lie" and "we will gain truth and justice for a little girl who has no voice", dead on the evening of May 3rd at apartment 5A, Ocean Club, Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal"*

Best regards,
Gonçalo Amaral Bron

quote:

Op donderdag 24 april 2008 16:46 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Hey de nieuwe MIS-mod, gefeliciteerd!

quote:

Message to Alipio Ribeiro, head of the PJ:

Congratulations, Mr. Ribeiro. We know now that it's official: Goncalo Amaral is taking early retirement. He won't be around to embarrass you any more.

Of course, neither will he be around to perform the impressive feats of narcotics interdiction he's been doing for the past 28 years, to work inhuman hours at the expence of his own family life trying to find missing children like Joana Cipriano and Madeleine McCann, or to stand up virtually alone for months, with no support from you, against the slanders of the British press. He won't be there to literally beg the parents of the next child who goes missing in the Algarve not to put out an ill-advised wanted poster that he believes could make her a liability to anyone who has her and mark her for death. He won't be there to do whatever he feels is necessary to find a missing child even if the parents DO have impressive and powerful friends who can pressure the Portuguese government.

We have read in the papers in the past two days that Chief Inspector Amaral is considering an offer to go into security working for a private company. His lawyers are also looking at libel suits against the British press. He will probably make far, far more money in the next few years than he ever made as a policeman. But I think he didn't want to go. I think he would have been willing to continue to work for a copper's pay and put up with a copper's hours if he had enjoyed a little support from you. He didn't get it. That is YOUR loss, and the PJ's.

Who's next, Mr. Ribeiro? Guilhermino Encarnacao? Luis Neves? God help us (and you), Paulo Rebelo?

When are you going to REALLY apologise for your incredible statement that the public prosecutor may have been "hasty" in making the McCanns arguidos? When are you going to stop mouthing platitudes about all avenues of investigation being open in the Madeleine McCann case? That is laughable. The investigation thus far has ruled out the possibility that Madeleine was abducted, and you know it. The reason this case hasn't already been solved is because, under political pressure, the PJ kept investigating that angle for so long.

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT THE BRITISH THINK AND STAND UP FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN IN YOUR ORGANISATION, AND FOR PORTUGAL?

We're waiting. But in the meantime, congratulations anyway. You got what you wanted. I hope you enjoy living with it/

quote:

Jon Gaunt - Sun columnist
Published: Today

IS it just me or are the McCanns getting on your nerves too?

I have enormous sympathy for them losing a child but I am getting fed up of them blaming everyone else for their misfortune.

I heard about the McCanns’ latest trip around Europe while on holiday and although I think the amber alert system is a good idea, when I need tips on childcare from the McCanns I’ll ask.

Now, in a new TV documentary, Kate says that she wanted a baby monitor but the resort didn’t have one. So instead she, Gerry and the Tapas Seven made the bizarre decision to eat out every night and leave three young children home alone.

I’m sorry, in any language that’s child neglect. So instead of touring Europe proposing amber alert systems, I would like them to clearly just send out one message to all parents: NEVER EVER MAKE OUR MISTAKE AND LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN ALONE IN A STRANGE HOTEL ROOM.

And, by the way, I’m not being heartless, just honest.

Smears

I am also fed up to the back teeth of the smears and counter smears from both camps, so why don’t the McCanns and the Tapas Seven just shut up, get on the plane, return to Portugal and do the police reconstruction? At the same time, why don’t the Portuguese plods stop spinning and start analysing and either charge them formally or remove their official suspect status?

It’s nearly a year since little Madeleine went missing and the focus needs to return to her, not the other characters in this sorry saga.

quote:

Stop the carnival

This column has pretty much steered clear of the Madeleine McCann story. The fact is, no one knows what happened to her - except those who took her or covered up her disappearance.

But she's been gone a year and we must fear the worst.

I've always been uneasy about the media carnival, but figured if that's what got her parents through the night, what business was it of mine.

However, one year on, there's something distasteful about the continuing round of claim and counter-claim, blame and counter-blame.

Gerry and Kate McCann should be left alone with their demons, with our sympathy, and not live out their guilt in public any longer. The police and the private detectives should be left to get on with their job. The Tapas Seven, the McCanns' PR man, the professional ghouls should all keep their theories to themselves.

It's time Team Maddie was wound up.

quote:

Investigation: Explosive data reported by inspector Gonçalo Amaral

Rui Pando Gomes, Friday April 25, 2008
(Thanks to 'Li' from the3arguidos forum for translation)

The inspector of the Criminal Police, Gonçalo Amaral, that coordinated the team who investigated Maddie's disappearance has already a title for a book about the case: "Truth of the Lie", ‘Verdade da Mentira’.

The CM discovered that the book is almost finished and contains explosive elements about the investigation concerning the disappearance of the British girl in Praia da Luz, Algarve, the 3rd of May last year.Apart from important data about what happened in that night in the Ocean Club, the "several manoeuvres of counter information" around the big media case of the last years will be revealed.

"It won't be something speculative but factual, with reports of someone who lived the case one hundred per cent", referred to the CM Paulo Santo, the defence lawyer of the PJ's inspector who is in the process of retirement. The lawyer of Gonçalo Amaral, hired to defend his image after the controversy regarding his removal from the coordination of Maddie's case, confirmed to the CM that there is already a publisher interested in the book.

"The fact that the retirement process is not yet fulfilled and the secrecy of justice that are in place at this moment stipulate the publishing of the book" said the lawyer of Gonçalo Amaral. The book will try to put an end to Maddie's case.

quote:

er moeten konten schoon worden geluld

quote:

Kate and Gerry want assurances to return to Portugal.They are the lawyers of the couple who began the first contacts at the highest level to obtain some sort of immunity that could allow Kate and Gerry McCann to travel to Praia da Luz, Portugal, without being worried.

The approach of lawyers was followed by the intervention of British diplomacy in Portugal. According to a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Office) informal contacts were made with the Portuguese authorities to find out the real intentions of the Prosecutor and the Judicial Police (PJ), especially for what concerns the reconstruction of the events of May 3, 2007, the day of the disappearance of Maddie, as requested by the investigators.

Gerry and Kate McCann had certainty, after their return to the United Kingdom last September, that their status arguidos be abandoned before the end of 2007 but neither their lawyers nor the media pressure exerted by their relatives were able to change the normal court of justice in Portugal. Bron

quote:

What really happened on the night of May 3rd, in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared, will be one of the more "explosive" passages in the book that PJ Inspector Gonçalo Amaral is to write and wants, later, turned into a documentary.

The contents have already been examined by a publisher, who also proposed publication in English. According to CM's source close to Gonçalo Amaral, "There is no definite date for publication," but, apparently, it will only be after the lifting of the secrecy currently covering the investigation which is still ongoing at the Public Prosecution Service in Portimao.

It is the intention to reconstruct the celebrated case on film, as a documentary, and already there are producers interested. "It will clear up all the lies that have been created and call into question the institutions that investigated and are linked to the case," CM discovered from the same source, who has already got hold of passages from the future publication.

DETAILS

SECRECY

The publication of the controversial book should only happen after the lifting of the secrecy restrictions on the case. "The intention is to restore the truth of what happened that night and not to cause problems for the author," explained the 'CM' source close to Gonçalo Amaral.

REFORM

Despite being about to go into retirement, with 38 years of service - 26 in the police, 8 in military service and a 20% subsidy - Gonçalo Amaral is in danger of receiving disciplinary action for the publication of the book. Even in retirement, the inspector must comply with police disciplinary regulations. Bron

quote:

'True Lies' of Maddie parents

THE disgraced cop who led the search for Maddie McCann has written a money-spinning book – pointing the finger at her parents. Goncalo Amaral, 48, who was booted off the case after five months, refuses to believe Gerry and Kate McCann had nothing to do with the tot’s disappearance.

He authorised their status as suspects, but was removed after allegedly enjoying boozy lunch breaks while leading the hunt in Portugal. Amaral’s book True Lies accuses Maddie's parents of dumping her body at sea after accidentally killing her. He says British police were too close to the couple and did not follow up leads he suggested.

His lawyer Paulo Santos said of the book: "It’s not speculative, but factual." But the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are not surprised at this. "It is sad that people feel the need to make money out of Madeleine."

quote:

Three points to note from this report:

1) The Telegraph article on Clarence Mitchell (see below) states that 'Offers are coming in for book, broadcast, and lecture circuit opportunities when he returns to "ordinary life"'.

Given Mitchell's assertion that "It is sad that people feel the need to make money out of Madeleine", one hopes that these offers were dismissed out of hand - if they related to Madeleine. Indeed, it would seem highly unlikely anyone would be interested in Mitchell's views on anything outside of the Madeleine case.

2) It is worth remembering, in terms of making 'money out of Madeleine', that section 1.1.3 of the objects of Madeleine's Fund states that money collected can be used 'To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine’s family'.

This object enabled mortgage payments to be made on the McCanns house in Rothley. The boundaries of this object are, in fact, so vague as to be able to include any kind of payment to the McCanns within it.

3) No details have yet been revealed of the contents of Mr Amaral's book. The revelation that the McCanns dumped Madeleine's body 'at sea after accidentally killing her' appears to relate to 'Madeleine's Star', a book already written and published by Paulo Pereira Cristóvão.

quote:

Op zondag 27 april 2008 12:35 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Inderdaad, mooi verwoord, dat heb ik geloof ik ook al eens geroepen. Wel ja joh, dat hebben we al tig keer geschreven en daar komen nog tig keren bij...imo kan dan niet genoeg benadrukt worden! [..]

Ook dit is natuurlijk allemaal gespeculeer en gespin, dat mes snijdt 2 kanten op, blijft moeilijk om tussen alle gezeur de juiste nieuwsfeiten te zoeken. Maar op de een of ander manier sluiten die Portugese berichten meer aan bij mij dan dat geouweneel van de Britse pers. Overigens zijn er op het 3arguidoforum Britse posters die voor het merendeel de kant van Portugal (PJ) kiezen, hoe pijnlijk ze dat soms zelf ook vinden. [..]

http://news.scotsman.com/(...)e-year-on.4024359.jp
Even terugblikken met 'The Scotsman', daar hebben ze hetzelfde euvel ontdekt als wij geloof ik.

quote:

The couple could make up to £1million in a deal for a tell-all memoir about Madeleine's disappearance and their eight months as police suspects. Several publishers have approached them amid intense interest in the year-long case, sparking the possibility of a bidding frenzy for the book.

quote:

'It has the potential to be of enormous interest with buyers across the market, from the literary middle class audience who think "This could have been us" to the mass market who buy books in supermarkets and have been devouring this story for a year.'

quote:

News of the couple's book comes just days after it emerged that disgraced Portuguese police officer Goncalo Amaral plans to publish his own book about the case.Mr Amaral, who was sacked from the Portuguese inquiry after criticising the British police, is penning a book called The Truth of the Lie which may be turned into a documentary.

Mr Mitchell criticised Mr Amaral and said it was an attempt to make money out of the situation. Police inspector Paulo Cristovao has written a fictional account of the investigation called The Star of Madeleine, which has become a best-seller in Portugal.

Mr Mitchell said: "A number of books are being published in Portugal and the UK. Kate and Gerry want the public to know the real truth."

quote:

KATE: It's not about us, you know, we were bobbing back and forwards several times and I wanted to see the kids so.. you know, it's not about us. You know, I think that the problem is it's a predator basically who's been watching us, which gives you the shivers anyway, and broken into the apartment and taken Madeleine out of her bed.

Gerry McCann says he went at just after 9 to check on his children. He says that their bedroom door was more open than usual so he goes in. Gerry McCann has told Panorama he remembers looking down at Madeleine. He spent a moment thinking how beautiful she looked and how lucky he was. He says this was the last time he saw his daughter. He closes the bedroom door and leaves through these unlocked patio doors.