Case Files Released: UK Reports (1)

Kate 'fell silent' in police quiz, 04 August 2008

Kate 'fell silent' in police quiz The Sun   By VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz Published: Today   KATE McCann refused to answer 48 questions when probed by Portuguese cops over her missing daughter Madeleine, it was revealed yesterday.   The devastated mum replied to some at the start of the interview on September 7 last year.   But she exercised her rights and fell silent once she was made an "arguido" in the case, leaked police files show.   Two weeks ago Kate and her husband Gerry, both 40, of Rothley, Leics, were officially cleared of any involvement in Maddie's disappearance.   Details of the Portuguese police probe are due to be opened to the public today.   The police files from the exhaustive inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, are being made available to journalists after the shelving of the case a fortnight ago.   Included in the mammoth dossier - said to run to 20,000 pages - are witness statements, transcripts of interviews with the McCanns and details of the lines of inquiry detectives pursued.   Holiday   Maddie vanished in May 2007, days before her fourth birthday.   She had been left alone with her twin siblings at a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.   Yesterday Portuguese newspaper Correio de Manhas said Kate was quizzed over why she said from the start Maddie had been abducted.   Cops also asked whether she gave the children medication and if it was true that she sometimes despaired of their behaviour and had considered handing custody of Maddie to a relative.   McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: "Kate was well within her rights not to answer if she didn't want to."

Madeleine Evidence Pics Released, 04 August 2008

Madeleine Evidence Pics Released Sky News   BREAKING NEWS 6:58pm UK, Monday August 04, 2008   Thousands of pages of evidence from the Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance have been made public. A previously unseen official photo of the room Madeleine stayed in The documents include forensic details as well as interviews with Kate and Gerry McCann. There are also previously unseen official pictures from inside the apartment where the family was staying when Madeleine went missing - including a photo of the bed in which she had been sleeping. The police files from the exhaustive inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, were made public this afternoon after the shelving of the case a fortnight ago. The mammoth dossier - said to run to 20,000 pages - includes details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the little girl's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann. The files were released under Portuguese law after the period of judicial secrecy in the case was lifted. Lawyers for the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the files last week. They are studying the dossier for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter. The McCanns are keen not to give "a running commentary" on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today. And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents. Mr Mitchell said: "The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files. "A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. "We will not be commenting on any of this. "Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos (formal suspects). The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context. "All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be." Until now Portugal's strict "segredo de justica" - or secrecy of justice - laws have limited the flow of information about the Madeleine inquiry. The legislation is supposed to ban anyone linked to an ongoing police investigation from speaking about it, but has not stopped a series of leaks. The McCanns repeatedly complained about restricted information being made public, and the couple believe there was a concerted smear campaign against them. Concerns were also raised at the top level in Portugal, with the country's justice minister, Alberto Costa, describing the leaks as "worrying" in February.

Pictured: The bedroom which Madeleine McCann vanished from in Portugal, 04 August 2008

Pictured: The bedroom which Madeleine McCann vanished from in Portugal Daily Mail   By VANESSA ALLEN and DEBRA KILLALEA Last updated at 7:46 PM on 04th August 2008   A British scientist warned Portuguese authorities that DNA tests on a sample from Kate and Gerry McCanns' hire car were inconclusive just days before the couple were made suspects in their daughter's disappearance.   In an email dated September 3 2007 John Lowe, from the major incidents team at the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), said it was impossible to conclude whether the material definitely came from Madeleine.   The email, released as part of the 20,000 page case file into the disappearance of the three-year-old in May last year, follows the emegence of details surrounding Kate McCann's eight-hour interrogation by prosecutors. The bedroom where Madeleine McCann disappeared from in Portugal last year The long-awaited files also reveal how: Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, when it was clear the direction of the questions were designed to implicate her. Portuguese authorities told Gerry that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the family's hire car, which was rented 25 days after the three-year-old vanished. The couple were made official suspects in Madeleine's disappearance despite authorities being warned there was no conclusive DNA evidence against them. Madeleine was staying in this apartment in Praia Da Luz at the time of her disappearance Portuguese authorities named the couple as arguidos on September 7, just days after the independent Forensic Science Service laboratory in Britain warned officers they had found no conclusive traces of Madeleine's DNA. Journalists were handed DVDs containing copies of thousands of pages of evidence from the case outside the courthouse in the Algarve town of Portimao. The police files were released this afternoon under Portuguese law after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case. The dossier includes details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, forensic reports, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the McCanns. Among the files is the email written by Mr Lowe to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation. In it the scientist reported that a sample from the boot of the McCanns' Renault Scenic hire car, which they rented 24 days after Madeleine went missing, contained 15 out of 19 of the young girl's DNA components. But he cautioned that this result - based on the controversial 'low copy number' DNA analysis technique which uses very small samples - was 'too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion'. Mr Lowe wrote: 'Let's look at the question that is being asked: "s there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?" 'It would be very simple to say "yes"simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample. 'What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine - because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance.' The expert noted that the components of the missing girl's DNA profile were not unique to her - in fact some of them were present among FSS scientists, including himself. He concluded: 'We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.' Mr Lowe also stressed that low copy number analysis could not determine when or how the DNA was deposited, what body fluid it came from and whether a crime was committed. The stairs leading up to the veranda and the apartment where Madeleine McCann was sleeping Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the documents last week. They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter. The McCanns are keen not to give 'a running commentary' on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today. And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents. Mr Mitchell said: 'The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files. 'A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. We will not be commenting on any of this. 'Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos. The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context. 'All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be.' Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year as her parents dined with friends nearby. Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, she has not been found. On July 21 Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light. At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer arguidos in Madeleine's disappearance. According to the files, Portuguese authorities told Gerry  that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the family's hire car, which was rented 25 days after the three-year-old vanished. The interviews were not recorded but an unidentified police officer's notes of the questioning were included in the dossier. The officer wrote that Mr McCann was told his daughter's DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic, and behind a sofa in the family's holiday apartment. But an FSS email sent four days earlier on September 3 said analysis of the DNA samples was inconclusive. It said the traces had some elements which matched her profile but warned they would also match huge sections of the population, including those of several of their scientists. The dossier also showed that Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, when it was clear the direction of the questions were designed to implicate her. The devastated mother fell silent after police told her she was being made an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Mrs McCann, a GP, was subjected to 11 hours of interrogations at Portimao police station on September 7 last year. The case files showed she faced a barrage of questions over her relationship with her oldest child. Both she and husband Gerry have denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance. Last month the Portuguese attorney general formally cleared them as suspects in the investigation and said police had found no evidence they had committed any crime. McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: 'Kate was well within her rights not to answer if she didn't want to. THE 48 QUESTIONS KATE DIDN’T ANSWER 1. On May 3 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch? 2.  Did you search inside the bedroom wardrobe? (she replied that she wouldn’t answer) 3. (shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents? 4.  Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (whose photo was shown to her) been tampered with? Did somebody go behind that sofa? 5. How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected your daughter Madeleine’s disappearance? 6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted? 7. Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the ‘Tapas’ and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment. 8. Why didn’t you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn’t you ask them later on? 9. When you raised the alarm at the ‘Tapas’ what exactly did you say and what were your exact words? 10. What happened after you raised the alarm in the ‘Tapas’? 11. Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah? 12. Who contacted the authorities? 13.  Who took place in the searches? 14.  Did anyone outside of the group learn of Madeleine’s disappearance in those following minutes? 15. Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance? 16. What does 'we let her down' mean? 17.  Did Jane tell you that night that she’d seen a man with a child? 18.  How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted? 19. During the searches, with the police already there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way? 20. Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs? 21. Who did you phone after the occurrence? 22. Did you call Sky News? 23. Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor? 24. Did you ask for a priest? 25. By what means did you divulge Madeleine’s features, by photographs or by any other means? 26. Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving? 27. What was your behaviour that night? 28. Did you manage to sleep? 29. Before travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling? 30. What was Madeleine’s behaviour like? 31. Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication? 32. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister? 33. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates? 34. As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked? 35. What is your medical specialty? 36. Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services? 37. Did you work every day? 38. At a certain point you stopped working, why? 39. Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness? 40.  Is it true that sometimes you despaired with your children’s behaviour and that left you feeling very uneasy? 41. Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative? 42. In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication? 43.   In the case files you were SHOWN CANINE forensic testing films, where you can see them marking due to detection of the scent of human corpse and blood traces, also human, and only human, as well as all the comments of the technician in charge of them. After watching and after the marking of the scent of corpse in your bedroom beside the wardrobe and behind the sofa, pushed up against the sofa wall, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 44.   When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 45.  When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 46.  When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 47.   When confronted with the results of Maddie’s DNA, whose analysis was carried out in a British laboratory, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 48.   Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter’s disappearance? A QUESTION SHE DID ANSWER Q.  Are you aware that in not answering the questions you are jeopardising the investigation, which seeks to discover what happened to your daughter? A.  'Yes, if that’s what the investigation thinks.' * The following pictures were later added to the article: Last updated at 9:10 PM on 04th August 2008 Door B shows entrance to children's bedroom and door A points to the entrance to the apartment. Outside the holiday apartment and (circled) the window to the children's room

Madeleine police files go public, 04 August 2008

Madeleine police files go public BBC News   Page last updated at 18:34 GMT, Monday, 4 August 2008 19:34 UK   Thousands of pages of evidence gathered by Portuguese detectives in the case of Madeleine McCann have been made public.   The papers make clear the girl's parents - no longer suspects - came under suspicion following a visit to Portugal by UK detectives last August.   They show a sniffer dog detected the apparent odour of a body in their hire car and apartment, but tests on a sample from the car were inconclusive.   Madeleine vanished, aged three, on a holiday in the Algarve, on 3 May 2007.   The police inquiry into her disappearance was wound up because of a lack of evidence last month.   Kate and Gerry McCann and a third British national, Robert Murat, were declared to be no longer formal suspects when the police closed the case. The McCanns and Mr Murat, 34, always strongly denied having had any involvement in what happened to Madeleine.   Lawyers for the McCanns, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were given access to the documents last week.   They are studying the papers for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives could follow up.   Police questions