Reports Post-Arguido (1)

The McCanns leave Portugal, 09 September 2007

Why aren't the McCanns more keen for their friends to speak out on their behalf?, 08 September 2007

Why aren't the McCanns more keen for their friends to speak out on their behalf? Mail on Sunday   By CHRISTOPHER LEAKE Last updated at 23:56 08 September 2007   They are the key witnesses to Madeleine's disappearance - the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann who could help unlock the mystery of what happened that fateful night.   But despite their knowledge they have strangely said virtually nothing in four months.   As the McCanns embarked on a global publicity campaign to find their daughter, the group of friends closest to the couple - and who were dining with them on May 3 when Madeleine vanished - were reluctant to talk.   That was only too evident when there was a report that a female member of the close-knit group might have seen Madeleine being carried away from the family's holiday apartment.   It was said the witness had become racked with guilt because, thinking the toddler was the man's own child, she had made no attempt to stop him.   She reported her sighting to Portuguese detectives but, despite the massive media campaign, refused to talk publicly about what she had seen.   Anxious to confirm the report at the time, The Mail on Sunday asked one of the McCanns' friends, Dr Fiona Payne, for an interview.   Initially she strongly indicated that she was prepared to talk to this newspaper but changed her mind when the McCanns inexplicably advised her against it.   Dr Payne and her husband David, a senior research fellow at Leicester University, and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster had been dining with the McCanns at the tapas bar near their apartment when Madeleine vanished.   The Paynes have two children, but were said to be the only ones in the group using a baby monitor that night.   They were among those who stayed on in the Algarve to support the McCanns for several weeks after Madeleine's disappearance.   Dr Payne has made no ontherecord comments apart from saying people should not attach "any significance" to claims against the McCanns being reported in the Portuguese press.   Dr Russell O'Brien, who also dined with the McCanns that night, has only said that suggestions that Kate and Gerry had been involved were "completely untrue and extremely hurtful".   He is understood to have left the table some time after 9pm to attend to his own daughter, who had become ill with vomiting.   Another member of the McCanns' party, recruitment consultant Rachael Oldfield, has supported the couple and also told people to ignore what they read in Portuguese newspapers.   In the first week of the investigation, a doctor at whose Midlands surgery Kate McCann worked as a part-time locum told The Mail on Sunday he wanted to offer £100,000 for information leading to Madeleine's safe return.   The wealthy GP, who is also a property developer, asked to remain anonymous. He became emotional as he told our reporter that Madeleine's disappearance had reminded him of when his brother's daughter had once gone missing for 20 minutes.   But later he oddly became reluctant to discuss the matter and became hostile towards approaches from this newspaper.   The doctor's wife expressed fears that if his identity was revealed, his wealth might encourage somebody to take their three young daughters hostage for ransom.   She claimed her husband had to take a week off work because his surgery had been besieged by calls from the media.   Yesterday, the doctor and his wife refused to comment on the latest developments in the case.

Now we're fighting for our lives, 09 September 2007

Now we're fighting for our lives News of the World   By Sarah Nuwar 09 September 2007   ANGUISHED dad Gerry McCann fought back last night after he and wife Kate were named official suspects over Maddie, and declared: "We're entirely innocent. But now we're fighting for our lives."   The 39-year-old heart surgeon vowed to take on the Portuguese legal system and insisted: "We did NOT kill our daughter! We WILL clear our name and we will NOT give up on Madeleine."   And it was revealed early today that the couple are to leave Portugal this morning, with their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.   The McCanns spokesman said: "It is emphasised that their return is with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police."   Earlier Gerry confessed the couple are bracing themselves for still more shock twists in the four-month investigation. And he revealed how he:   BACKS wife Kate 100 per cent.   FEARS cops are under too much pressure to come up with a result.   HARBOURS serious doubts about the Portuguese legal system— which tried to wheedle a confession out of Kate by offering her a light jail sentence.   KNOWS that, amazingly, under local laws they may have cobbled together enough to charge them.   Despite his refusal to buckle under the growing pressure, Gerry admitted: "We thought we were in our worst nightmare but now it just keeps getting worse and worse.   Vulnerable   "It's such a vulnerable position. It's appalling. We've never had to say it until now...but we did not kill our daughter. I never believed it would come to this.   "But when the paranoia sinks in, you're under severe pressure and things are going down a certain line, then it does look bad.   "In a system that you don't know and you don't really trust it's incredibly frightening."   Gerry spoke out after he and Kate endured a tense grilling by detectives and were officially labelled ‘arguidos'—Portuguese for suspects.   The couple were quizzed in the town of Portimao—30 miles from the Praia da Luz holiday apartment where Madeleine vanished on May 3—for a total of 24 hours.   Legally, Gerry is now barred from talking about the detail of the inquiry.   He is not allowed to explain why police now suspect him, or rebuff the new evidence they believe they have unearthed more than 100 days after Maddie went missing.   Although he is "absolutely confident" there is no evidence to link him and Kate with any suspicion of murder, Gerry admitted the latest twist of events had left him with "anxieties".   "I don't need to tell you how things don't stack up," he said.   "I know 100 per cent Kate could NOT have done anything. I know that's true from what I did that night.   "And in terms of what Kate knows about me, I was away from her for just ten minutes."   Gerry and Kate, who continues to hold on to Maddie's favourite Cuddle Cat toy for comfort, have always said that they put their three children to bed in the apartment at 7pm.   They told police that at 8.30pm they went for a meal with a group of friends in the family resort.   Each adult in the party of nine took turns to check on the children.   Gerry denied he would have had time to hide a body, if as police suggested, he or his wife had killed Maddie by accident.   "As I said, I was away from the table for ten minutes," he said. "Six minutes of that was spent speaking to another guest I met as I came out from checking on Madeleine.   "All of this can come out. And it doesn't stack up." But friends fear there is now evidence that raises suspicions about the McCanns' chronology of events.   They worry that any apparent discrepancies in timings are being given undue weight by police.   Nevertheless they are convinced such doubts can be blown out of the water.   And Gerry could only say: "I hope that the due diligence and processes will win through in the normal way and not the need for a result."   He said the Portuguese police's attitude towards him and Kate had shifted in the last five weeks.   There has been a steady stream of slurs against them in the local and national Portuguese press.   The Leicester couple's family in the UK believe these came directly from police sources.   The McCanns now fear the cops may be about to arrest and charge them. Gerry told us: "Our lawyer said the weight of it is that, under the Portuguese legal system, they've got enough to move forward against us."   Crack   Then he revealed they may consider flying in a crack legal team from the UK to assist their Portuguese advisor.   But he confessed he is frustrated they are not allowed to use any of the £800,000 Madeleine Fund— boosted by celebrity appeals including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham—to pay their mounting legal bills.   "It seems like a disaster that we've got this huge donated fund and now we're not allowed to use it for legal costs because we're under suspicion," said Gerry.   "I never really imagined we'd be in this situation.   "And it could get worse I suppose. But ultimately if it comes to that, sooner or later, there'll be a formal process whereby we can rebut things in court. Then it will all come out.   "We'd have to be patient but ultimately we'll have the opportunity to have all of the evidence examined and discover the whole picture about what happened.   "And that's what's sustaining me. At least now we've got a clearer view of what we're up against whereas what we had before was smear and innuendo.   "We know what we have to fight now. The problem is we DO have a fight, but before I wasn't quite sure.   "You get paranoid when there's a political shift. Because of the amount of pressure there's been on the Policia Judiciaria, and all the criticism, you always wonder how far they'll go.   "Now I've seen what they've got I'm actually clearer in my mind why they've shifted and treated us so differently.   "I'm still concerned with their perception of the evidence, but that's for us to sort out with legal support." Gerry then voiced their other big concern now that the spotlight has turned on him and Kate.   "It's a real double-edged sword," he said. "While this investigation focuses on us it's NOT focusing on looking for Madeleine."   He admitted the last few days of gruelling police interviews had been draining on the couple.   But he said that despite everything Kate was coping under the strain.   "I'm thinking clearer this morning," he added. "What we're negotiating with the police is to be allowed to go home to the UK.   "We're desperate to get back for the kids' sake and for emotional reasons.   "It's not that we're running away. If there are two people in the world that can't run away it's us. Anyway, we have to move accommodation because the lease on our villa is up this week.   "The trouble is I don't know how long all this is going to take. It's four months already. Everything is slow. It's just the culture. Kate's not too bad, though. In fact, she's pretty resilient.   "But when we were trying to decide whether to return to Britain that's when this smearing started in the papers. And Kate just thought, ‘They want us out!'   "I said, ‘Kate, there's no point in staying if it's counter-productive.'   "She realised that was right but the thought of returning home brought back all the emotions of pain almost as bad as the first few days after Maddie vanished. That sense of loss and the thought of never seeing her again.   "Kate gets that more than I do. It's still intermittent grief and pain."

Kate's fear of being locked up, 09 September 2007

Kate's fear of being locked up News of the World   09 September 2007   ANGUISHED mum Kate hugged her two-year-old twins close and said a tearful goodbye as she was called in for her SECOND tough interrogation by Portuguese cops.   She had already endured an 11-hour grilling on Thursday and feared she might not be coming home from Friday's session.   A friend revealed: "Kate was petrified that the detectives would charge her over Maddie's disappearance and keep her in prison.   "When she left for the police station on Friday she had no idea whether she'd be seeing little Sean and Amelie later that day or weeks down the line.   "So she went to see them at their crèche and said goodbye, she gave them both a big kiss and cuddle. It was a very emotional journey and her goodbye with Gerry was very personal, too.   "It wasn't so much the words he used, but the look of resilience he gave her. He was saying to her 'Don't let them get you down, we can do this.'"   Defiant   And the pal said that Kate did him proud as she remained defiant throughout the five-hour interview and even turned the tables on the officers, asking them to produce their evidence.   The source said: "Once Kate was formally named as a suspect she had the right to remain silent. But when the police started laying it on thick, she hit back and demanded to be shown what they'd got to support their theory that she and Gerry had killed Maddie then covered up the crime.   "Kate's determined not to be pushed into saying anything that isn't true.   "It was very intense but she stood her ground."   Gerry emerged from his grilling at the police station just after midnight on Friday and a family friend revealed he found the ordeal and allegations distressing.   "But he was determined not to give the police the satisfaction of seeing him break down," said the friend.   "He held firm and answered all the questions. He wasn't going to cry in front of them."   But the tears flooded out when Gerry arrived back at the family's villa in the early hours of yesterday for an emotional reunion with Kate.   The pal said: "There was an explosion of anger. They're in a state of disbelief and shock at what's happened. But they are just trying to remain focused on finding Madeleine."

Timeline inconsistencies, News of the World 09 September 2007 (link)

The Lost Half Hour   By Lucy Panton   PORTUGUESE police are concentrating on what they claim is a missing half hour in accounts of the night Madeleine disappeared.   The McCanns told detectives they believed they arrived at the Tapas restaurant at 8.30pm.   But months into the investigation, Portuguese detectives now allege they did not turn up until almost 30 minutes later.   Friends' statements show there may be differences of opinion over what time Kate and Gerry arrived with some of the pals stating it was just before 9pm.   Police want to quiz the couple again over what they call the "missing half hour".   A police source said: "We believe the timetable of events that evening is crucial to the inquiry. We want to know how they could make such a mistake over the time they arrived."   Early on in the investigation the McCanns said they got to the restaurant at 8.30pm.   Based on arrival timings given by their dining companions, that would mean the tragic couple arrived first before their friends.   But police sources say statements given by those pals show the McCanns arrived just before 9pm—and that by then all of their friends were already there. Checked The statements claim that Russell O'Brien, Jane Tanner, Matthew and Rachel Oldfield were first to arrive at around 8.45pm. At 8.55 David and Fiona Payne were said to have turned up with Fiona's mum, Diane Webster. Some statements indicate that the McCanns turned up two or three minutes after the Paynes. If these new timings are accurate police are questioning why Gerry would go back and check the children just 5 minutes later. He is reported as saying he checked the apartment and all three children were sleeping at 9.05pm. This was confirmed when on his way back he stopped to speak to Jeremy Wilkins, another guest at the resort he had met playing tennis earlier in the week. At 9.10pm Jane Tanner said she crossed Gerry's path on her way to check her own children. Around that time she says she saw a man carrying away a child she now believes was Madeleine. She describes the man as aged 35, dark-haired. wearing beige trousers and black shoes. She said the girl, who appeared to be sleeping, was toddler age, bare-footed and wearing pink pyjamas like Madeleine's. No one else out that night reported seeing this man. Portuguese cops have piled on the agony for the McCanns by retracing their steps and naming them both as official suspects. They believe the couple may have been involved in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine. And they think one may be covering up for the other. Officers are probing a "three-hour window of opportunity" on the theory that during this time Madeleine was killed in the apartment and her body hidden somewhere nearby. It starts the last time the children were seen alive by anyone but their parents and ends when Kate and Gerry were seen in public. The last time Madeleine was seen alive was by staff at the Ocean Club creche at 6pm. The McCanns were then alone with their children for almost three hours at the most if they did arrive at the Tapas restaurant at 9pm.A police source said: "The couple are being monitored to see how they react to every new piece of information they receive. "The pressure has slowly been mounting on the McCanns over the last month as new information has been fed into the inquiry." Sources say the couple have been kept under surveillance following the discovery by a dog of the smell of death in their apartment on August 1. Police now claim they have detected blood in a Renault Scenic car hired by the McCanns 24 days after Maddie's disappearance. During questioning, GP Kate was asked why she had washed Madeleine's favourite toy "Cuddle Cat". Cops believe she has was trying to hide forensic evidence of her daughter's death. Washed The police claim the smell of a corpse was found on Kate's T-shirt, jeans and on Cuddle Cat. Kate says she washed the toy on August 5—four days after police dogs picked up "the scent of death". She insists she washed the toy simply because it was covered in dirt and sun tan lotion. Portuguese police are relying heavily on a Cracker-style profiler who has been studying the McCanns' behaviour. The profiler has reportedly claimed that he suspects that the couple, from Rothley, Leics, could be "distracting" themselves from the horror of what they might have done by getting involved in the massive media campaign. Doubts have also been cast over the lack of emotion and the controlled composure of the couple since their daughter disappeared. The profiler has told cops that this matches that of a couple who are united and focused in a bid to cover up a tragedy. But former Chief Inspector Albert Kirby, who led the hunt to trap the killers of toddler James Bulger, said: "There is very little time for the McCanns to have murdered their daughter and disposed of her body. "And they would have had to carry her body a short distance away and concealed it without anyone spotting them. The body would have also had to remain concealed and unfound for a long time despite the police search. "The Portuguese police must believe that one of them managed to conceal the body in a flat or a bush."

The McCanns return to Britain, 10 September 2007

The McCanns return to Britain Belfast Telegraph   [Published: Monday 10, September 2007 - 07:38]   The eyes of the world might have been on their homecoming, but the end-of-holiday mundanities were the same as any when Kate and Gerry McCann tried to put Portugal behind them on their return to Leicestershire yesterday.   First, there were their two-year-old twins to stir from half-sleep after the drive home from the airport. It was left to Kate to unbuckle Amelie and carry her to the oak front door which the GP had last passed through joyfully, with three children in tow and a beach holiday in sight, on a spring day more than three months ago.   There was some help with their four large black suitcases from the Special Branch officers who had chauffeured them the 16 miles from East Midlands airport to Rothley.   But only Mr McCann seemed to have the know-how to unfasten the two child seats from the unmarked police car. Palpably exhausted, he spent three minutes grappling with them – close enough to one of the 100 journalists at the gate to hear his live running commentary, while a TV network's helicopter buzzed overhead. Just a few more dreadful moments in a passage of his life which has been full of little else in recent months.   The McCanns, awakening to their first day in Britain without Madeleine today, are "quite upbeat and quite buoyant" to be home, according to one family friend – their return giving them "a new confidence" that they will clear their names despite their status as arguidos (suspects) in the police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance. But the break in Gerry McCann's voice as he spoke in the heat of the apron at East Midlands airport, his son Sean in his arms, provided a different perspective on quite what it meant to leave Britain with three children and return with two.   "Despite there being so much we wish to say, we are unable to do so, except to say this: we played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine," he said.   As the 39-year-old spoke, the mysteries surrounding the Portuguese police investigation were as baffling as ever, with reports in the Portuguese press suggesting yesterday that a judge had rejected a police application to keep the couple in Portugal.   Members of the McCann family disclosed on Friday that police had told the couple their suspicions that Kate accidentally killed Madeleine stemmed from an apparent trace of the child's blood found in the back of a Renault Scenic car they hired 25 days after her disappearance. It was said to have been detected by the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham.   But FSS sources have now cast doubt on that and suggest that DNA samples found in the back of the car were too degraded to provide a complete match with Madeleine's DNA. Portuguese police are awaiting the results of further tests being carried by the FSS.   The McCanns' decision to return to Britain came at the 11th hour. Although a rental agreement on the house they have used in Praia da Luz was due to expire next week, they initially decided after the events of last week to extend their stay in Portugal. In the words of one family friend, they did not want to appear to be "running scared" and as late as Saturday, their resolve was intact. But the growing backlash against them in Portugal and the increasing unpredictability of the police investigation drove their decision, disclosed in the early hours of yesterday, that it would be better for them and their children if they left.   If the beach holiday had run its natural course, they would have returned on a Thomsons flight to Coventry, months ago.   Instead, yesterday's journey started with them driving themselves up the Algarve's A2 motorway, with photographers in pursuit, before catching the 9.30am easyJet flight 6552 to East Midlands. They were given a VIP room during their brief time at Faro airport and were afforded what privacy is available on a budget flight – the two front rows were cleared on the aircraft for their group – though that did not stop curious holidaymakers approaching them with questions as they endeavoured to settle the children.   The couple's family had done what they could to assist their return to their home, Orchard House, a detached mock-Victorian property on a five-year-old housing development. Mrs McCann's uncle, Brian Kennedy, carried in a bag of provisions shortly before they arrived. The front lawn was freshly cut and the laurel hedge neat. A yellow ribbon was visible on the Vauxhall Corsa parked outside the double garage.   But the short drive from airport to house was full of dreadful reminders for mrs McCann, returning to Rothley for the first time. From her seat behind the driver in the Special Branch Ford Galaxy, she might well have seen the image of her child in the local newsagents' window advertising Madeleine " bands of hope". Or else the cluster of cameras around the eternal flame for Madeleine which burns across the road from the newsagents.   Every other telegraph post advertised last Saturday's funfair at the local Bunny's Field – an event which, had fate taken a different course, the five McCanns might have attended.   At the house, Mr McCann asked Mr Kennedy to communicate that there would be no more statements unless the police investigation develops in some way. And so it was left to this most loyal supporter of the couple, who has had his own wife's illness to contend with of late, to communicate the enormity of recent events. "It has been the most trying three or four days of their lives," Mr Kennedy said. "They are very tired, shattered – as anyone would be."   The events of the past few days have affected the people of Rothley, too – with a sense that ambiguities now exist where they didn't before. "I don't know what I think because I don't know the facts," said one villager, who would not be named.   When Madeleine first went missing, that kind of statement would have been considered a profanity in a village where the war memorial was festooned with yellow ribbons and flowers.   "There's a surprising amount of uncertainty among people here," said a local newspaper journalist. "There was anything but, in the early days. We couldn't even gauge people's opinions about whether they felt there was an element of neglect [in the McCanns' leaving Madeleine unattended] without upsetting people."   But empathy for Mrs McCann and what she is going through was also in evidence. "I've been begging them to leave," said Tracey Warburton, from Birmingham, who travelled to the Algarve to join the search for Madeleine, in the early days of the inquiry, and who met Mr McCann in the process. "The last time she [Mrs McCann] drove that road [home] she had her baby with her," Ms Warburton pointed out.   James McDonald, a villager who works at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, said there was "a feeling of warmth" in the village and the hospital. " There's a sense for me that they're kindred spirits, being medics," he said.   Other villagers fear the couple's return will presage an unwelcome switch of media focus from the Algarve to Rothley. "I saw the TV helicopter at the golf club this morning," said Norman Ellis, 62. "It's unsettling. For a time we thought it was a police chopper. It's all taken us a bit by surprise."   Among neighbours, there was also uncertainty about how to approach the couple. Nigel Warner, a financial services executive who lives in the same cul-de-sac and who had grown accustomed to seeing the McCanns with their children in the 18 months since the doctors moved into the village, will wait until the time is right before delivering a card in support.   "I'll be guided by anybody who talks to them first," he said. "No one wants to stand on anybody's toes."   At the McCanns' house, there were friends on hand to help them pass what must already seem like endless hours and deal with the enormity of what they have experienced. "It's just good to have them back," said one friend, Amanda. "We're going to rally round as much as we can, and whatever Kate and Gerry need, we'll be there for them."   There was also a sense that the twins, at least, were relishing the return to normality which their parents crave for them. Both took great delight in removing from the window sill a long line of cuddly toys.   But life is far more uncertain for their parents. Though the couple's Portuguese lawyer expects no developments for several days and has returned to Lisbon, evidence could be passed, in their absence, at any time to the public prosecutor in Portimao, where they have been questioned. The police investigation "is not over by any means", police spokesman Olegario Sousa said. For the McCanns, there is nothing to do but wait.

Belfast Telegraph 10 September 2007 (link)

Scapegoats? McCanns reject 'compelling' new police evidence   Family says the naming of Gerry and Kate McCann as suspects jeopardises the hunt for their child Monday, September 10, 2007 David Connett and Amol Rajan in Praia da Luz Portuguese judicial sources have defied mounting criticism of their investigation to indicate that police were amassing "compelling" evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann. They rejected claims that the couple were being framed for the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine and denied the investigation had been badly compromised early on. Although serious questions have emerged over whether the crime scene and the hire car could have been cross-contaminated and so forensic evidence undermined, the couple who were declared official suspects by Portuguese police on Friday, said that they fear being turned into scapegoats for failings in the police inv