Kate and Gerry McCann face fresh
heartache after discovering two books about their daughter Maddie's disappearance may be published.
Tony Bennett,
barred by injunction from making allegations in the matter, plans to release The Madeleine Case Files Vol 1. And Stephen Marsden
will publish Madeleine McCann: Faked Abduction.
Clarence Mitchell, acting for doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, both
41, said: "We will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who defames them."
The pair are due in Lisbon on
Tuesday for ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral's bid to overturn a ban on his book, which questions their account.
Author Unknown, 07 February 2010
Author Unknown
EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com
By Dr Martin Roberts
07 February 2010
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Okay, so 'everyone is acting, some in big ways.' (Gerry McCann on ITV, 25 May, 2007).
Jane Tanner is undeniably a member of the cast, as is crystal clear from what follows. The question is, who wrote the script?
What you are about to read is not the result of a 'cut and paste error' but the literal flow of Jane Tanner's
verbal responses during her Rogatory Interview with Leicestershire Police.
JT:
Madeleine, if she's dead or alive, whatever, you know... maybe it is too late to find her but there's somebody
out there that's done this and it's not Kate and Gerry; it's not us, you know... they can do it again and that
is the... you know, they're laughing their socks off; they've just got away with this scot free and, you know... and
I think it's... the thing is, they are there, then it's not us and that person is out there and, you know, could do
it again and, as I say, it might be... we obviously hope not, but it could be too late for Madeleine; but a lot of other kids
out there that might not be too late for, and it's just... and to sit and see, and I know... I can quite understand
why that time and effort has to be put into looking down that route and... but, you know, I can't say any more
but it's not... well, it's not us; it's not Kate and Gerry and it's something happened which to Madeleine
that night and none of us are involved and, you know, I just don't know what else we can do to make them believe us
and I think that's the... you know, and I think that's the... you know, I think that, and I don't think there
is anything else we could do to believe us but, you know, we're not (inaudible), we were normal people that made a
really stupid decision because we were lulled into a false sense of security from previous holidays where baby listening was
offered, so I don't know."
4078: "But you have a sinking
feeling inside that it was?"
JT: "Yeah, and I... yeah,
and I just think, you know, they just... and, you know, at the end of the day, this person is still out there. Somebody
did this and it wasn't Kate and Gerry and it wasn't any of us, you know, and it just... that is the worse thing, that
person is out there; could do it again. He's absolutely, you know... they must be laughing their socks off... well...
not, you know, they, so I think that's, you know... that's all we can... and I think it's just that frustration
and, as I say, I mean, I can't make them believe us, and they might still not believe us, but, you know, like I say...
so I'm just begging, really, that they believe us, I think it's a..." Jane, poor tortured
soul, 'can't say any more.' (For 'can't' read 'won't').
[Headline later rewritten to: Man accused of conning £300,000
from Madeleine McCann fund wanted on 2nd scam]
6/02/2010
EXTRADITION
A man accused of conning
£300,000 from the Madeleine McCann fund will fight extradition in a separate fraud case.
Kevin Halligen,
48, is wanted in the United States after allegedly ripping off an oil company in a £1.2million scam.
His
lawyer Mark Summers told City of Westminster magistrates yesterday: "The extradition is contested." Halligen, who
appeared by videolink from prison, was remanded in custody for a further three weeks.
Businessman
to fight US extradition order Liverpool Echo
By Staff Reporter Feb 6 2010
A BUSINESSMAN,
whose firm helped look for Madeleine McCann, will fight extradition to the US where he is wanted over an alleged £1m
fraud.
Kevin Halligen, 48, is accused by prosecutors in America of attempting to defraud a London law firm of 2.1
million dollars.
At City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, yesterday, the Irish national's lawyer Mark
Summers confirmed that his client would contest extradition proceedings.
The brief session was adjourned to allow
time to evaluate his request for legal aid. He will next appear on February 26.
The businessman’s firm Oakley
International had been employed by Kate and Gerry McCann for around six months in 2008 to look for their missing daughter.
In all the Washington-based firm was paid around £300,000 for its services by the McCanns.
Madeleine Fund fraud accused's court bid; Irishman fighting extradition
to US LexisNexis News
AN Irishman accused of conning EUR343,000 from the Madeleine McCann Fund will fight extradition to the
United States in connection with a separate alleged fraud, a court heard yesterday.
Kevin Halligen, 48, is wanted
in the US over a EUR1.4million scam after allegedly ripping off an oil company.
Last November, Halligen was led
away in handcuffs from the Old Bank Hotel in Oxford where he had been staying with his girlfriend under a false name.
He is suspected of swindling the Maddie fund after claiming he could use satellite technology to help find the missing girl,
although allegations relating to the McCanns are not before the court.
Further reports since his arrest have claimed
Halligen tried to squeeze another EUR189,000 out of the fund after he was sacked by the McCanns when they grew suspicious
of his credibility.
Halligen, who appeared by videolink at a brief hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates Court
in central London yesterday, was remanded in custody for a further three weeks until Friday, February 26 when a short hearing
will take place ahead of a full extradition hearing on an unspecified date.
After the hastily
scribbled "Let's dismember Noddy" timelines the group subsequently sat down and created what they called
a "collective recollection" of events. Written over the weekend of the disappearance - how did they find the time?
- this was an expansion of the hand-written notes into a three page printed document, now including a lengthy description
of Jane Tanner's fleeing stranger, though quite how a "collective document" could assist a sole witness, rather
than unintentionally corrupting her evidence, was not made clear.
Nothing, indeed, has ever been clear about this
document except the bafflement it induced in the Portuguese police. Didn't professional people like them understand that
it was a complete corruption of the statement process? Apparently not. Couldn't they see that it looked like another attempt
at a unified story, as well as breaching the secrecy guidelines? Nope. Basically we wrote it to help you, said the
group. Help us?You think this helps us? Police bemusement was complete when, having handed the thing around
to British embassy staff as if it were the latest Big Issue, those who were being re-questioned on May 10 asked if
they could take their own copies into the interview room to help answer the questions!
Soon after these interviews,
one of which featured Jane Tanner giving her remarkable lecture on the well-known British tradition of leaving infants alone
in hotel rooms, those of the seven who wished to leave for England were free to do so. According to the spokesman Clarence
Mitchell they did not meet again as a group until the strange and shadowy Rothley meeting in late November. The days of openly
working together on their version of what happened on the holiday were over.
The soap-opera Search for Maddie,
that "fairy-story" as the ex-police officer Marita Flores described it in a Lisbon court, ran for almost three more
months to huge viewing figures and rave reviews until it was taken off in early September when the leading man and lady were
removed from the stage and named, to audience uproar, as arguidos. Following their hasty exit to the UK the two stars now
had to concentrate on the altogether less glamorous business of clearing themselves. Those, however, who thought that the
parents, once away from the hysterical rumour mill of the Portuguese press, would dismiss the "ludicrous" claims
against them with ease by calmly and simply putting forward the facts that demonstrated their innocence, were in for a shock.
That was not to be their strategy at all.
With their new-found financial resources the parents engaged two of the
most skilled and expensive lawyers in London. One, Gerald Caplan QC, was a specialist in saving people from extradition, however
strong the evidence against them appeared to be. He was the saviour, if that is the right word, of Chile's ex-dictator
General Pinochet, who had begun his political career with the slaughter of his democratically elected predecessor and continued
it with his "expunging" of political opponents by killing them on a truly South American scale.
Pinochet,
having been arrested in England at the behest of a Spanish lawyer, first stalled and then thwarted extradition to that country.
Since, so we were informed, the aged General was suddenly suffering from advanced Alzheimer's' disease and was hardly
able to function, let alone plan a defence, the credit for his escape must be all Caplan's. Unable to claim that Pinochet
wasn't a killer - the evidence against him was far too strong - the lawyer claimed the Spanish weren't legally entitled
to seize his tottering client. Eventually, after months of house arrest, the wizened old killer flew back to Santiago, there
to add to his fame as the first man in history to make a complete recovery from Alzheimer's.
The other selected
lawyer was a Mr Angus McBride, a high whizz at – what? Helping innocents abroad? No, not exactly. Wrongful
arrest cases? Miscarriages of justice? Not those either. The very, very expensive McBride specialises in "repairing
high-profile reputations" and dealing with the media. Famous actor caught with kiddy porn, career facing ruin? Angus
is your man. Famous footballer with a penchant for violence and adultery? Send for Angus, he'll clean you up so you keep
your earning power. Knows how to use the media, you know, there's nobody to touch him.
For two innocent people,
victims of a ghastly misunderstanding who just wanted the police to find their child, these were very strange choices indeed.
Unlike the Red Hot Chile Killer they were claiming innocence and totally clean hands, not legal technicalities in their defence.
Unlike Mr John Terry, the footballer, they had no history of criminality and therefore no need of a defence strategy more
suited to a fugitive Mafia boss than the innocent victims of a family tragedy. And quite how a celebrity reputation repairer
could help free two innocent provincial doctors to return to Portugal and carry on with the search for their child seems something
of a mystery. All very weird.
Nevertheless that was their choice. Returning voluntarily to co-operate with the
police was out of the window. Using the so-called "twin-track" strategy that the other lawyer, Ed "expunge
it" Smethurst, so helpfully described, Caplan and his staff would explore the strength of the case against them,
highlight their vulnerabilities, counter the police evidence and, in effect, challenge the Portuguese to come and get them
via the extradition process.
At the same time, on the other track, McBride would use the media via the pliant Clarence
Mitchell to maintain or rebuild public confidence in the pair, using the full battery of leaks, documentaries, selected interviews
and all the other black arts of news management to ensure that, even if the Portuguese case was strong enough legally to push
the pair into a plane, public opinion would intimidate the Home Office into raising the bar.
It was very clever,
very professional and very pricey. As for the vulnerabilities in their version of events, some of which involved members of
the Tapas 7 too, they had to be tackled. What to do?
Injunction translation
The translation
of the text of the Civil Court ruling, that granted the temporary injunction on Gonçalo Amaral's book, 'Maddie
– The Truth of the Lie', and the corresponding DVD, is now available to read here.
The Heart Of The Matter, 04 February 2010
The Heart Of The Matter
EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com
By Dr Martin Roberts
04 February 2010
THE HEART
OF THE MATTER
When Uncle John sat down to write his Chairman's Report on the fiscal
activities of Madeleine's Fund for the last trading year, one person was certainly not uppermost in his mind. Clearly
focussed on his schoolboy pun, he managed to omit Madeleine's name from the rosta of previously nominated litigants
in the libel case against Goncalo Amaral. The date on which Madeleine was 'taken' seems also to have been forgotten,
as elsewhere (the Director's Report, signed off by Brian Kennedy, Madeleine's great-uncle), the 3rd May
2008 is referenced. Not just 'a day late and a dollar short', but a full twelve months.
Perhaps Messrs.
McCann and Kennedy do not quite attach the same importance to their niece/great-niece as do her parents. But if we look for
evidence of how Madeleine stands in their regard, she seems to fare little better. KM: "So
it's difficult to hear something that's incorrect and inaccurate. At the bottom of all this is a little girl,
and I think it's important that we don't forget that."
Madeleine is not identified as being at the
heart, or even centre of events. But that shouldn't surprise us unduly, since she never was. Interviewed
by Jane Hill (BBC):
GM: "Yeah, I mean, without doubt, they... they help us to continue, you know.
This is every parent's worst nightmare and everyone can feel and imagine what we've gone through but, you know, if
we'd had discovered all three of the children had gone or if something else had happened, then, you know, we... we'd
not have had the same strength and resolution and determination to find Madeleine that Sean and Amelie give us,
as well, because we know that they're there, errr... life continues but we need to bring them back... bring
Madeleine back as much for them, as for Madeleine, as for us."
There is no ambiguity here. It is Sean
and Amelie who imbue the parents with the determination to find Madeleine. Were they to be missing as well, then so would
that determination. In such an event the twins need of rescue comes first ('them' does not include Madeleine initially.
She is mentioned separately). The need to bring Madeleine back is then measured in terms of the twins first, Madeleine second.
Announcing their intention to suppress Goncalo Amaral via a libel action, Gerry again puts Madeleine in her place. GM: "I'd like to read this statement on behalf of Kate, myself and our three children."
"...,the other action is about the damage that's caused to ourselves, our children and Madeleine,
obviously."
Suddenly Madeleine is not so much one of the children as an afterthought.
And, with
thanks to Anna Andress for bringing the following to light, according to a statement by Katherina Gasper (a doctor who holidayed
with the McCanns and their friends in 2005):
"During our stay in Majorca, Dave and his wife, Fiona, accompanied
by their daughter Lily, took Madeleine with them to spend the day, in order to give Kate and Gerry a bit of rest and time
to be with the twins."
Amongst the questions Kate McCann refused to answer when made arguida, is one which
raises more questions concerning Madeleine's place in the family:
"When asked whether or not it is true
that in England she considered the possibility of handing over Madeleine's guardianship to a relative, she did not reply."
Perhaps we should not be too surprised at Uncle John and Great-Uncle Brian's errors and omissions after all.
Formby residents in tribute to missing Maddie, 03 February 2010
Formby residents in tribute to missing Maddie Champion News
By Natasha Young 03
February 2010
Hundreds of
residents braved the cold winds at Formby Football Club last week, to mark the 1,000th day of the search for missing Madeleine
McCann.
With the aim of releasing 250 lanterns into the sky, the event was one of four that took
place simultaneously across the country. Other locations included London, Scotland and Madeleine's hometown of Rothley
in Leicestershire.
Schoolchildren, churches, and Formby FC members attended the event, alongside residents
and friends and local relatives of the McCanns.
There was also a singing performance and a prayer reading at the
ceremony.
A Formby FC spokesperson told The Champion: "It went really well and everyone was there for the
right reasons. Formby FC is at the centre of the community and it was really fitting to be holding the event here."
Local councillor Barry Griffiths, who was also present at the event, added: "People were very respectful and
we felt priviledged to be having the event here.
"Residents did us proud and stood out in the bitterly cold
weather."
Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Liverpool-born Kate McCann, were not present at the event as
they were hosting a fundraising evening in London to help keep their campaign in the public eye.
Donations fell from 2285 million euros to 743 thousand euros in one year
2010-02-02 09:45
Donations to the 'Find Madeleine' fund have reached the lowest
level since the girl disappeared in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007.
According to the 'Mirror' newspaper
website, donations fell, in the space of a year, from about 2285 million euros to 743 thousand euros.
"Only
cash received in libel payouts to friends of Gerry and Kate McCann – dubbed the Tapas Seven – enabled the search
for their daughter to go on," reveals the newspaper.
After the disappearance of Maddie McCann, donations arrived
at a rate of 297 thousand euros per hour, and after ten months the fund had grown to 1.6 million euros.
However,
donations started to fall after the McCanns were constituted as arguidos in the criminal investigation, now archived.
Up to 31 March 2009, the accounts show that the fund's income had dropped to 718 thousand euros, during which period
spending rose to one million euros. Spending focused on private investigators, advertising campaigns and in the judicial proceedings
of the family against Gonçalo Amaral.
Birthday gift 'from Maddie' for twins, 01 February 2010
By ANTONELLA LAZZERI Published:
Today (01 February 2010)
MADDIE McCann's sister and brother celebrated
their fifth birthday with a party yesterday and a present from their missing sibling.
Parents Kate
and Gerry held the special bash for twins Sean and Amelie.
They always buy the pair a gift from their missing sister
for Christmas and birthdays.
The twins are a year older than Maddie was when she vanished from a holiday apartment
in Portugal on May 3 2007.
A source close to the McCanns said the party at their home in Rothley, Leics, was "poignant"
but Kate and Gerry, both 41, did everything they could to make it a happy day.
The source said: "Milestones
like this are hard for them. Kate and Gerry are determined to give the twins as normal an upbringing as possible."
Madeleine McCann donations dramatically fell in just one year, 31 January 2010
Madeleine McCann donations dramatically fell in just one year Daily Mirror
[Also appears as: Pals rescue search for Maddie as funds dive
Daily Mirror]
Exclusive by Tom Pettifor 31/01/2010
Donations to the Find Madeleine McCann fund fell from almost £2million to £650,000 in just one
year, it was revealed yesterday.
Only cash received in libel payouts to friends of Gerry and Kate McCann –
dubbed the Tapas Seven – enabled the search for their daughter to go on, latest accounts show.
Around £260
an hour flooded into the Fund as a wave of public sympathy swept the UK after Maddie's abduction in Praia da Luz in the
Algarve in May, 2007.
It had £1.4million in bank donations alone in the first ten months of the search.
But contributions fell away after the McCanns became one-time suspects. And the Fund's income dropped to £629,181
in the year up to 31 March 2009 – while spending rose from £815,113 to more than £1million.
Outgoings
covered investigators, publicity and the pair's legal fight against Portuguese policeman Goncalo Amaral.
Kate
and Gerry, both 41, have been granted a temporary injunction on his book claiming Maddie, three, died the day she went missing.
The couple's friends were paid £375,000 in October 2008 after false newspaper allegations about them.
In a foreword to the accounts lodged at Companies House, Fund chairman, Gerry’s brother John, said: "Rather
than accepting libel damages, the friends requested a donation was made to the fund. This has enabled us to continue our search
for Madeleine."
A FORMER cop claims he has identified the
area where he says Madeleine McCann is buried.
South African Danie Krugel says it is just 500 yards
from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, from where Maddie disappeared.
The area is a wasteland, full
of building rubble, rocks and black, plastic bags.
It is one of two "priority search" locations highlighted
by the former detective – one close to the complex and one near the beach.
Krugel – known as "The
Locator" for his success in tracing missing people in South Africa – was called in by Kate and Gerry McCann two
months after Maddie vanished.
He used DNA tracking – helped by a strand of Madeleine’s hair given to
him by Gerry – and GPS satellite to pinpoint the area.
He has also highlighted an area where he spotted
a muddy pink and white child’s blanket.
Findings
He
claims he didn't remove it because he didn't want to interfere with the police investigation.
He then drew
a map and gave a detailed report of his findings to local police.
But he says a full search for Madeleine, who
vanished shortly before her fourth birthday on May 3, 2007, never took place. Krugel told the Daily Star Sunday: "If
they want me to go with them I will.
"I'm convinced they will find her. I will do whatever I can to help.
That area needs to be properly searched.
"If it means training up officers from Scotland Yard in how to use
the technology, I will do that.
"There needs to be a proper team of experts."
Kate and Gerry,
both 41, of Rothley, Leics, are convinced Maddie was abducted and is still alive.
But Krugel said: "I believe
the truth will come out and I pray for the family that they get their answers. There is somebody out there that is guilty."
Daily Star Sunday, paper edition,
31 January 2010
Daily Star Sunday, 31 January 2010
Madeleine McCann Search Decision Support Document, 23 July 2007
Madeleine McCann Search Decision Support Document PJ Files
Page 2224/2225 of the 201/07.OGALGS Investigation Process
By Mark
Harrison MBE National Search Adviser Homicide, Missing Persons, Mass Fatality Disasters
in National Policing Improvement Agency [NPIA] 23 July 2007
- Extract -
'A Mr Krugel, at the McCann's request, attended Praia Da Luz last week from South Africa alleging he could
assist in locating Madeleine McCann. I have spoken with the Police officers that accompanied him and viewed the documentation
Krugel has supplied to the PJ.
The limiting factor in coming to a view is that Krugel did not allow anyone to view
the handheld device he had with him or observe him using it. He was unable to provide any validating scientific data or documents
to support the claims he made or the device he alleged to have with him.
In short he would appear to claim he has
uniquely developed a handheld device that can find a missing person alive or dead in any given terrain over any elapsed time
period.
In debriefing the officers who accompanied Krugel it is possible to hypothesise what he may have been doing
and using.
In consultation with a colleague Dr Wolfram Meier-Augenstein we feel he may have been attempting to
give the impression he had developed and was using a "Remote Laser based gas sensing device". However his claims
regarding the distance of detection, up to 20km, and the use of a hair sample are highly unlikely and would be a great innovation
in the scientific world. Further provenance of this technique could be sought from Prof. Miles Padgett who is a Professor
of optics in physics at the University of Glasgow.
One obvious challenge to the claims of the device capability
is that if Krugel claims that by taking 3 separate location readings he is able to triangulate to an area then one would assume
that, as an area was identified, further reading and triangulation inside that area could be conducted repeatedly until an
"X marked the spot".
Of most concern is the poor quality of his report which merely shows a google earth
image of an area to the east of Praia Da Luz and includes open scrub and beach and sea. As Krugel was not prepared to allow
the device to be viewed or provide any specification data of readings or equipment and the fact that no known device currently
exists commercially or academically then I can only conclude that the information he has provided is likely to be of low value.'
I attended An Evening For Madeleine 1,000 Days On on Wednesday. It's that long since Madeleine McCann was abducted while
on holiday in Portugal.
It's that long - though it must seem like an eternity - that Kate and Gerry McCann
have suffered the greatest sadness there can ever be. The loss of their beautiful daughter lives with them every moment of
every day.
Kate told friends, supporters and fundraisers: "I can't speak too much about Madeleine, otherwise
I'll be in a heap." She did say how much "Madeleine is still loved, she is still missed and we want her back
so much".
Kate and Gerry paused to compose themselves several times. After a moving video - reminding us of
the search for Madeleine - had the whole room in tears, Gerry's voice broke as he said: "It's so painful watching
that." Their message was: Don't give up on Madeleine or the hundreds of other missing children. Go to www.findmadeleine.com
or call 0845 838 4699.
On the very first page of this
blog, we asserted that the McCanns had lied about the case from beginning to end. Perhaps readers thought, oh this is
blogland, people make all sorts of claims.
No. We repeat, and it is a matter of record, that Kate & Gerry
McCann lied from beginning to end of the investigation into their daughter's disappearance, a claim that will stand up
in the libel courts because it is undeniably true.
It began, as we said, with the parents failing to tell the police
the truth in their very first interviews. As the case prosecutor, Mr. Menezes, stated in court, in Lisbon, this month: "the
couple lied to police about how long they had left Madeleine alone."
And it ended with the McCanns claiming
through their spokesperson that the final report from that same Mr. Menezes concluding the case in August 2008, "cleared"
them. That was also a lie, not a misunderstanding, one which they later embellished by claiming that "the courts"
had cleared them. Nowhere does the report clear them.
Now, this is not just a problem for Kate & Gerry McCann.
It is a very real problem for their friends, the so-called Tapas 7. Why? Because most members of the group confirmed in their
own statements the accuracy of what the couple had told the police. And they did not do so by accident, nor by hearsay. Hearsay? No, couldn't be. They unequivocally confirmed the parents' claims from their own observation
of who did what when they all shared a meal in the so-called Tapas bar that night. Accidental misinformation?
How could it be? We know that they discussed the claims of who checked whom on the night of May 3/4 and then wrote down what
they had agreed, on two separate pieces of paper which the police seized. A few days later, and before their second police
interviews, the group produced a third, fully detailed, printed document again confirming that the parents had checked the
children at the times they said they had. The times which Mr. Menezes, with the benefits of the investigation papers behind
him, states are lies.
It is worth remembering what a witness statement is designed to do. As a UK legal guidance
document puts it, in plain language: "In general a witness statement should only contain information on
what the witness saw, and not what others have said to him/her."
The reason for this is simple: if everyone
sticks to a frank description of what they themselves, and nobody else, did and saw then the statements can be compared to
build up a picture of the truth. If, however, witnesses discuss what others have done, or if they describe what
othersare supposed to have done, the statements actually obstruct a picture of events emerging.
The
May 4 statements of the McCanns are not only untrue but they present a devastating breach of witness good practice. From the
start both of them describe what others were doing that night when out of their sight, i.e information that they could not
possibly have known was true, but which fits in with their own version of events. And, equally damning, even though the statements
were taken independently, they use almost exactly the same words for long passages: they have clearly discussed and agreed
and memorized what they are going to say.
It would take months of police work to unravel the mixture of confusion,
untruth, and collusion which these statements by the group provided, information, it's worth reminding ourselves, which
was vital for the effort to trace the child during the first forty eight hours. When they had done so – and after Mr
Amaral the "discredited cop" was removed from the case - they pinpointed the areas of inconsistency in the statements
and decided that only by making these witnesses actually repeat their supposed movements that night – the so-called
reconstruction – could the confusion be clarified.
So much for the claims, repeated again recently, that
the case against the parents was "old stuff", an absurd idee fixe of Goncalo Amaral and his few colleagues
in the early days of the case. On the contrary it was the new team led by Amaral's successor Rebelo who put the whole
process of trying to get the truth out of the nine into action: if, as it appeared, the parents' version of their movements
that night was untrue and the other seven had confirmed that version, then the investigation could go nowhere until the inconsistencies
were confronted.
And then? It was certainly not impossible that the inconsistencies would be ironed out and the
credibility of the witness statements strengthened – in which case all nine probably would have been "cleared"
- genuinely cleared - of suspicion. That in turn would certainly have led to a re-focusing of the case onto different lines
of investigation.
Why should anyone object to such an idea? And what did the Tapas 7 think about it?
Leave No Turn Unstoned, 29 January 2010
Leave No Turn Unstoned
EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com
By Dr Martin Roberts
29 January 2010
LEAVE NO TURN
UNSTONED
In the course of the recent appeal hearing in Lisbon vis-à-vis the
injunction on Goncalo Amaral's book, The Truth of the Lie, mention was made of the McCann's lies during the initial
stages of the Portuguese investigation into Madeleine's Disappearance. John Blacksmith (The Blacksmith Bureau) has now
eloquently and forthrightly reminded us that the McCanns have lied from beginning to end; a statement he feels able to make
without fear of being challenged for libel because the claim proves to be true.
The abduction of Madeleine McCann
is, in fact, a 'sky lantern' and with the business end of the McCanns' libel action now approaching, here
is an 'over' of 'spin bowling' which Goncalo Amaral and his team would be perfectly entitled to deliver:
1. Cuddle cat found abandoned on high ledge (report carried by several newspapers and attributed to Kate McCann).
Cuddle cat was actually photographed by the police alongside the pillow, on what is supposed to have been Madeleine’s
bed.
2. Interviewed by Paris Match, 4.9.2007: GM: We have replied to all the
questions that have been put to us and we will continue to do so, whatever the new information might be.
Of course, we shall be completely honest. KM: We have said everything we know
and responded to everything that we have been asked.
Replied? Responded? Police
questions unanswered by KM: 48
(clearly graduates of the Mitchell school of political circumvention).
3. KM: "If what happened hadn't happened I would not have thought it important."
But Kate thought 'it' important enough to have already discussed 'it' independently with two witnesses
at least, before 'what happened' had happened at all.
4. Madeleine only ever answered to that name. Use
of 'Maddie' coined by the press to fit headlines. "We never called her that." (KM). KM: "But she hated it when we called her 'Maddie'. She'd say, 'My
name is Madeleine', with an indignant look on her face." (Woman's Own, 13 August 2007).
5.(a)
GM Witness Statement 4 May, 2007: Thus, at 9.05pm, Gerry entered the apartment using his key, the door being
locked
(b) GM Witness Statement 10 May, 2007:He effected his normal path until
the back doors, which were closed but not locked.
The last delivery of the over has to be the 'jemmied
shutters' story put about by Philomena McCann and other family members, none of whom were any nearer Portugal at the time
than their own front doors and all of whom had been contacted directly by either Kate or Gerry McCann immediately after the
first alarm bells were rung in Praia da Luz.
That story was a myth. The reality was articulated subsequently by
Clarence Mitchell:
6. (a) Jon Corner, godparent to the McCanns' twins, said: "She was in an absolutely
hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted out Madeleine had been abducted.
"Kate said
the shutters of the room were smashed."
(b) Brian Healy Grandfather:
"Gerry
told me when they went back the shutters to the room were broken, they were jemmied up and she
was gone,"
"There was no evidence of a break-in," said Mr Mitchell (The McCanns'
spokesperson - Irish Independent, 25 October 2007).
Madeleine '1000 days' lanterns spark alert, 28 January 2010
CHINESE lanterns set off on Wednesday evening in north west Sutherland in memory of missing Madeleine McCann, sparked an
alert involving police and coastguards.
A woman reported seeing three bright orange lights in the sky at around
9pm in the Scourie area. She feared they were flares which had been set off by someone in distress.
Police called
out the local coastguard unit who spotted more of the lights. But enquiries revealed they were Chinese lanterns set off to
mark the 1000 days since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Lanterns have been released across the UK in support of Jerry
and Kate McCann's search for their missing daughter.
But local police have now asked to be informed if anyone
is still planning to release the lanterns in the Sutherland area.
Amanda sticks to the case of missing Maddy, 28 January 2010
Amanda sticks to the case of missing Maddy ntnews.com.au
Wulagi resident Amanda Oosterbaan, 14,
is still obsessed with the Madeleine McCann case, 1000 days after the little British girl was reportedly snatched from her
holiday home in Portugal.
DANIEL BOURCHIER January 28th, 2010 A TERRITORY teenager says she is "obsessed" about raising awareness of missing
child Madeleine McCann.
Amanda Oosterbaan, 14, has devoted her life for the past 12 months to helping
find the toddler who disappeared in 2007.
Yesterday marked 1000 days since the disappearance of the little British
girl allegedly snatched from her holiday home in Portugal.
Amanda, a Year 9 student at Sanderson Middle School,
said she was drawn to the case and could not pinpoint exactly where her interest started.
"I feel that I have
to make a difference and do something," she said.
And Amanda has been busy with her awareness campaign.
For the 1000-day anniversary she hung a poster on the front fence of her Wulagi home which read "Bring Back Madeleine
McCann".
Amanda said she posts an average of 30 blogs on discussion sites a week, keeps herself informed of
all alleged sightings and breaking news developments, has photos of McCann on her MSN page, and carries a collection of photos
of McCann with her to show whenever she meets someone new.
"I believe she's still alive," Amanda
said. "It just doesn't feel like she's dead. Maybe her life is living hell, but I don't believe she's
dead."
Amanda's mum Nadina Cauchi said she had no idea where the interest has come from.
Candles mark Madeleine McCann's 1,000 days missing, 28 January 2010
Candles mark Madeleine McCann's 1,000 days missing BBC News
Page last updated at 09:38 GMT, Thursday, 28 January 2010 Candles were lit at a special event in Leicestershire to mark 1,000 days since Madeleine McCann went
missing.
Simultaneous events took place in Portugal - where Madeleine disappeared in 2007 - mother
Kate's home city of Liverpool, and in the United States.
Plans to release 1,000 lanterns into the sky above
the McCanns' home village of Rothley were cancelled due to bad weather.
Parents Kate and Gerry McCann said
the events symbolised them never giving up.
Madeleine was three years old when she went missing from her family's
holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, while her parents dined with friends nearby.
A statement from
the couple on their website said: "It is a symbolic way for our family, friends and supporters to show that we have not
forgotten Madeleine and will never give up on her.
"We remember the first few days after Madeleine was taken,
watching the clock and counting every hour.
"Now we've reached 1,000 days.
"It's difficult
sometimes to understand how we've been able to keep going and survive without Madeleine, especially since nothing has
changed since that terrifying first night. Madeleine is still missing.
"Sometimes it even feels 'wrong'
to be coping. And yet if we weren't, there would be no search and no campaign to find Madeleine and that just doesn't
bear thinking about."
The service took place at the Rothley Court Hotel and a poem, entitled The Beacon, was
written for the event by Simon Armitage.
Flames keep hope alive on 1,000th missing day, 28 January 2010
An emotional ceremony marking 1,000 days since Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal
took place in her home village of Rothley last night.
Family and friends gathered at the Rothley Court Hotel, in
Westfield Lane, to say prayers and light candles for the missing youngster.
About 300 people squeezed into the
hotel's chapel to listen to a short service led by Madeleine's great-uncle Brian Kennedy and the vicar of Rothley
Rob Gladstone.
A poem called The Beacon, written specially for the occasion by contemporary British poet Simon
Armitage, was also read out by Madeleine's great-aunt, Janet Kennedy.
She said: "Every word in the poem
expressed exactly what I wanted to say – it's beautiful.
"The flames we lit here today are much
like the candle we have on Cross Green, which has been burning since Madeleine disappeared, and symbolises the tremendous
hope we feel for her safe return."
The candle stands at the Cross Green war memorial in the centre of Rothley.
The family had originally intended to release 100 lanterns last night as part of an international co-ordinated event
to launch 1,000 glowing beacons into the sky – one for every day the youngster has been missing.
However,
strong winds meant it would have been unsafe.
Instead, the family handed out candles to all the well-wishers as
they listened to the family's words in the chapel.
Brian Kennedy said: "It's a shame that we couldn't
light the lanterns, but the important thing is we remember what they symbolise. The flames represent light and hope and never
giving up."
Residents from Rothley and the surrounding villages attended the event to show their support for
the family.
Hannah Harvey, 14, from Rothley, said: "It's good to remember her and it's respectful
to the family. Tonight will help people remember Maddy – it's important to never forget."
Frank
Hull, 75, from Cropston, said: "The service was very beautiful. Tonight was about remembering a lovely girl and showing
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry that they have our support."
Jo Willars, 47, said: "I live in
Rothley so all the news about Madeleine is literally very close to home.
"The village will always do what
it can to help Kate and Gerry."
Chris Wright, 44, from Rothley, said: "I'm Kate's hairdresser
and she used to come in all the time with Madeleine – she was such a lovely little girl.
"The events
in Portugal have really had an effect on the village."
CHINESE lanterns were released in Formby to mark
the 1000th day Madeleine McCann has been missing.
Plans to release scores of balloons were disrupted by bad weather
but members of Formby Football Club, and Madeleine's grandparents released a floating lantern to mark the occasion.
In London, Kate and Gerry McCann were joined by celebrities at a charity bash.
Kate McCann trying to 'move forward' on 1,000th day, 28 January 2010
Kate McCann trying to 'move forward' on 1,000th day Telegraph
Kate McCann said she was 'trying to move forward' as a charity event was held to mark the
1,000th day since her daughter Madeleine went missing.
Published: 7:30AM GMT 28
Jan 2010
Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry were joined by celebrity supporters at the £150-a-head fund-raising
dinner, raffle and auction at Kensington Roof Gardens in west London.
Jack Dee, the comedian, Peter Bowles, the
actor, and television presenters Fiona Phillips and Gloria Hunniford were among the guests.
Speaking on the steps
of the venue Mrs McCann said: ''We are hoping for a positive night."
Asked about her feelings on the
sad anniversary, she added: ''It's obviously difficult but we are trying to move forward to help Madeleine and
all missing children."
Madeleine was nearly four when she disappeared from her family's holiday apartment
in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal on May 3, 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby.
Martin Houghton-Brown,
chief executive of the Missing People charity, joined the McCanns at the event.
He said: "It's 1,000 days
since Madeleine went missing, it's a timely reminder for thousands of parents around Europe and the UK who are tonight
waiting for news of their missing child."
It is understood the event was being compèred by Phillips,
with Dee helping to kick off an auction of various prizes.
Sir Richard Branson, who owns the exclusive venue, was
believed to have donated a week's holiday plus Virgin Atlantic flights to his private retreat, Necker Island.
Author JK Rowling was also said to have given signed Harry Potter books to the fund-raising effort.
In a statement
released ahead of the event the McCanns, both 41, said it sometimes felt "wrong" that they were coping with life
without Madeleine.
"We remember the first few days after Madeleine was taken, watching the clock and counting
every hour. Now we've reached 1,000 days," they said.
"It's difficult sometimes to understand
how we've been able to keep going and survive without Madeleine, especially since nothing has changed since that terrifying
first night.
"Madeleine is still missing. Sometimes it even feels wrong to be coping.
"And
yet if we weren't, there would be no search and no campaign to find Madeleine and that just doesn't bear thinking
about."
Mr and Mrs McCann are taking legal action against Goncalo Amaral, the former head of the Portuguese
police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.
McCanns try to 'move on' as
1000 days pass, 27 January 2010
Transcript
By
Nigel Moore
Tom Lowe (voice over): The parents of Madeleine
McCann say they're "trying to move forward", as another milestone passes since their daughter's disappearance.
It's now a thousand days since Madeleine vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort
of Praia da Luz.
Kate and Gerry McCann were joined by celebrity supporters including Gloria Hunniford and actor
Peter Bowles at a charity fundraising event to mark the sad anniversary.
Kate McCann:
Well, it's obviously difficult but we're trying to move forward and, you know, to help Madeleine and help all missing
children, so...
Martin Houghton-Brown (Chief Executive, Missing People): It's
a thousand days since Maddie, errr... went missing and it's a timely reminder of the thousands of parents around Europe,
errr... and in the UK, errr... who tonight are alone and, errr... hoping for news of their missing child and, errr... it's
an important night for all of us to remember those families who are left behind when a child goes missing.
Tom Lowe (voice over): Comedian Jack Dee and television presenter Fiona Phillips were also
among the guests at the event in West London.
Maddie: 20 people attend mass in Praia da Luz, 27 January 2010
Approximately 20 people attended a religious ceremony this Wednesday, at the Church of
Praia da Luz, to mark the passage of 1000 days since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, which happened in May 2007, in
that Algarve village.
The initiative, which was organised by the FindMadeleine Fund, and celebrated by Anglican
priest Haynes Hubbard, gathered mainly members of the English community that resides in Praia da Luz, near Lagos.
At the end of the prayer "to remember Maddie", which lasted for about half an hour, the participants set off some
light lanterns into the sky, in a homage to the little missing girl.
"It's a symbolic gesture to mark
the disappearance, with a request for Madeleine to return to her parents", Haynes Hubbard told the journalists.
"We want to help maintain the efforts to find Maddie", he observed.
In the United Kingdom, the FindMadeleine
fund prepared similar initiatives, in order to mark 1000 days after Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Madeleine
McCann, then aged four, disappeared on the night of May 3, 2007, from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, while she was sleeping
in her bedroom with two siblings and her parents dined in a nearby restaurant.
The parents, Kate and Kerry [sic]
McCann, who always maintained the position that Maddie was abducted, were made arguidos in September 2007, but ended up being
cleared in July 2008 due to a lack of evidence to sustain the hypothesis that had been put forward by the inquiry, of the
little girl's accidental death.
The Public Ministry archived the process, that may be reopened at any time,
if new data that is considered to be consistent, about the child's disappearance, appears.
The McCanns curious behaviour, as witnessed by Inspector Ricardo Paiva,
03 September 2007
The McCanns curious behaviour as witnessed by Inspector Ricardo Paiva PJ
Police Files
Processos Vol X Pages 2533 - 2534
Date: 2007/09/03
For : Goncalo Amaral
From Ricardo Paiva, Inspector
Subject: Disappearance of Madeleine
McCann
During the course of the ongoing investigation, various personal contacts were made by the undersigned
with Kate and Gerald McCann, within my task of serving as communication element between the police and the McCann couple.
Within this context, the undersigned was present during various "strange" behaviours by the couple, who
gradually began to react in a very negative manner to the increased investigative activity carried out by this police force,
especially during the use of the English sniffer dogs for detecting cadaver odour, when more evidence arose in the investigation
for the hypothesis of the death of Madeleine McCann.
Several times, the McCann couple said that the attention of
the police should be maintained focussing on the abduction hypothesis, which, in the couple’s opinion, was the only
scenario that occurred and that the police should not forget to continue to investigate the suspect Robert Murat.
Strangely, Kate also made several requests, three months after the disappearance of Madeleine, that the police should take
blood, hair and nail tests of Madeleine's twin siblings, because, as she said, she remembered that on the day of Madeleine's
disappearance, in spite of all the commotion and noise made by the authorities and other persons who were looking for Madeleine
in apartment 5ª of the Ocean Club, the twins never woke up, having been transported to another apartment, they remained
asleep, due to which she now presumes that they were under the effect of some sedative drug that a presumed abductor had administered
to the three children in order to be able to abduct Madeleine, a situation which Kate refers to being possible according to
what she read in a criminal investigation manual given to her by the British authorities, that would have been the procedure
of the abductor in the real case involving abduction, rape and murder of the girl.
Today, when the undersigned
went to the McCann's temporary residence to notify them of the need to present themselves at the police station to make
statements, being able to take their lawyer with them, Kate McCann immediately reacted in a negative manner, making comments
such as "what are my parents going to think" and "what is the press going to say when they find out" and
that "the Portuguese police is under pressure from the government to finish the investigation quickly".
With regard to Gerald McCann, he constantly insisted in giving the undersigned letters and emails that he was receiving,
mostly from psychics and mediums, whom he had selected and which mainly contained information without much credibility about
the possible whereabouts of Madeleine and her presumed abductor.
More recently, and even before Kate's interrogation,
during a telephone call between Gerald McCann and the undersigned, he made a reference regarding the investigation, that he
was certain that the police did not have any proof that could incriminate them with regard to the death of Madeleine McCann
and he said that the police were wasting their time in directing the investigation around the parents.
I bring
this to your knowledge. Inspector Ricardo Paiva
Conclusions of a report compiled by chief inspector Tavares de Almeida, for the attention
of the Criminal Investigation Coordinator, 10 September 2007
Conclusions of a report compiled by chief inspector Tavares de Almeida, for the
attention of the Criminal Investigation Coordinator, Gonçalo Amaral, on the 10th of September 2007:
(PJ Files: page 2601, vol. X, of process NUIPC-201/07.0 GALGS)
"(…) From all that was presented, the process results in the following:
a) the child Madeleine McCann died in apartment 5A of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, on the evening of the 3rd of May
2007;
b) an abduction was simulated;
c) in order to make the child's death impossible before 10 p.m., a situation of checking the McCann couple's children
while they slept, was made up;
d) Kate McCann and Gerald McCann are involved in the concealment of the cadaver of their daughter, Madeleine McCann;
e) at this moment, there seem to be no strong indications yet, that the child's death didn't result from a tragic accident;
f) from what was established until now, everything indicates that the McCann couple, in self defence, don't want to hand
the cadaver over in an immediate and voluntary manner, and there is a strong probability that said cadaver was moved from
its initial location. This situation is susceptible of raising questions about the circumstances under which the child's death
happened."
PJ Case Files: Intercalary Report, 31 January 2008
PJ Case Files: Intercalary Report
Thanks to Ines for translation
Processo NUIPC
– 201. 070.0 GALGS Vol XV Pages 3948 to 3964
Intercalary
Information
With the aim of comprehending and linking the circumstantialities
found in the process files in a better way, this intercalary report was elaborated.
The case refers to the disappearance
of an English girl, Madeleine Beth McCann, the daughter of Gerald Patrick McCann and Kate Marie Healy, who would have been
4 years old on 12th May 2007.
With regard to place and time, the events occurred on 3rd May 2007 during the time
period, according to witnesses, between 21.05 and 22.00 at the Ocean Club resort, in Luz, Lagos, where the girl’s family,
together with seven other people, who were friends of theirs, were spending their holiday.
The group's arrival
in Portugal, via Faro airport, took place on 28th April, arriving from the UK. They travelled in two different groups, given
that they live in different areas of the country. The journey from the airport to the resort in Luz was made in a small vehicle
provided by the Mark Warner company which was responsible for the management of the resort.
During check in they
were allocated different apartments, all of them in block G5, close to each other and this had been an imposition or at least
a suggestion made by the whole group.
The McCann family occupied apartment G5A, located at the left corner of the
residential block, which can be said to be the most accessible apartment and with visibility from the outside.
This
was a group that was in certain way homogenous, given that seven of the members were doctors, trained in various specialties,
added to which they all had young children with them. The McCann family consisted of the parents as well as Madeleine and
the twins, Sean and Amelie, aged two years old.
This holiday trip was organised by the Payne family, namely by
David Payne who had previous experience of Mark Warner tourist resorts.
This group shared, concomitantly, a friendship
that dated from before the holiday, based upon professional relations and other leisure trips.
With regard to the
disappearance, the intervention of this police force occurred at about 00.10, by means of a communication received from the
Lagos GNR, informing of the disappearance of a girl, which led to the immediate departure of the police to the scene (pages
2 and ss). Jointly with various diligences carried out to establish the facts, a photographic report was made of the scene
(pages 12 to 23) as well as the diffusion of the disappearances, with photographs and a description of the girl, both to the
authorities and to the press, after authorisation from the Public Ministry (pages 32 – 33B and 459).
During
this night and the during the early morning intensive searches were carried out by this police force, GNR officers equipped
with sniffer dogs and by local people organised in groups and employees of the resort. These searches were extended over the
following days over a radius of 15 km2 by GNR officers and tracker dogs, locals, marines (page 821 marine control Portimão),
civil protection officers, the use of a helicopter as is documented in the report on pages ??? (sic) In spite of titanic efforts,
time and methods used, the search for the girl was fruitless.
As the investigation was oriented in two initial
objectives, the location of Madeleine and the discovery of the truth of the facts, we proceeded to the questioning of the
parents and the whole group of friends (page 34) as follows:
Gerald Patrick McCann – Apartment 5A Kate
Marie Healy – Apartment 5 A David Anthony Payne – Apartment 5 H (1st floor) Fiona Elaine Payne –
Apartment 5H Dianne Webster – Apartment 5 H Russell James O'Brien – Apartment 5D Jane Michelle
Tanner – Apartment 5D Matthew David Oldfield – Apartment 5B Rachel Mariamma Jean Mampilly – Apartment
5 B
In synopsis, from the witness accounts obtained, it is important to emphasise the statements of Gerald and
Kate as well as those of Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield.
With regard to the former, their daily routine was marked
by normality, nothing strange or of any relevance was detected during the days before the disappearance. After leaving the
children at the crèche, the twins near to the Tapas restaurant (inside the resort) and Madeleine at the main reception,
they dedicated themselves to ludical and sporting activities.
With the exception of the first day, all day time
meals were taken in the apartment.
At night the group would dine in the Tapas restaurant, leaving the children
asleep in their respective bedrooms, without an effective control, although the Payne family had baby monitors.
The
children's supper, described as high tea, took place as a group, regardless of age, at a recreation area next to the Tapas
restaurant between 17.30 and 18.00. Once this meal was over, they were taken to the apartments, where they were bathed and
prepared for bed, at about 19.30.
On 3rd May, the daily routine was followed as normal, the McCanns returned to
the apartment at about 17.30/18.00 accompanied by their children. After this time and until 19.00, they bathed the children,
fed them again, giving them light products, they played a bit and then went to bed, the parents stating that the three of
them were asleep at 19.30. Gerald remained at the tennis courts until about 19.00.
The parents then consumed some
drinks and got ready for dinner, leaving at about 20.30 in the direction of the Tapas restaurant (a journey on foot of a little
more than one minute). Upon leaving, as usual, they left by the patio doors, which could not be locked from the outside and
which was just pushed to, the reason being that it was the shortest route to go to the restaurant and for consequent return,
whether to check on the children or for definite return. The checking of the children by that route was a daily practice and
which seems to us to have been carried out daily, carried out at half hourly intervals, although as the case files show, in
truth these were extended to periods that were superior to one hour.
The McCann couple was the first to arrive
at the restaurant table and engaged in a casual conversation with a couple who were not part of the group, but who were also
British, whose surname was Carpenter. As time passed, all of the other members of the group arrived.
At about 21.00
Matthew and Russell went to check on the children, having first listened outside the window of Madeleine’s bedroom,
located at the front of the residential block on the ground floor. Upon his return, Matthew did not report having noticed
anything unusual. Russell stayed in the apartment as his daughter was ill.
At 21.05, given that Matthew's check
did not involve him entering, Gerald went to the apartment. He left through the second reception area, headed up the road
for twenty, thirty metres and entered through the metal gate, next to the bedroom, which leads to the garden/patio. He entered
the apartment through the sliding patio door, which according to what was mentioned earlier, was not locked. He walked through
the living room and headed for the children's bedroom, noticing that the bedroom door was wider open than normal, as it
was normally left pushed to. He presumed that Madeleine had got up for some physiological need. He entered the bedroom and
saw his three children sleeping calmly. He went to the WC and left by the same means. Upon coming out of the gate he met Jeremy
Wilkins, known to him from tennis practice, also British, who was pushing his son in a push chair and who was also on holiday
at the Ocean Club. He conversed with him for a few instants and returned to the Tapas restaurant at about 21.15.
At about 21.10 Jane Tanner, Russell's partner, given his absence, went to check on the state of her daughter. She left
by the reception and went up the road that runs along the entrance to the block. She was not seen either by Gerald or Jeremy
although she did see them, she saw Gerald from the side, however Wilkins was facing the place that Tanner passed.
At the exact moment that she passed them, she perceived, at the top of the street, an individual on foot who was carrying
a prostrate child, barefoot and in pyjamas, heading in the opposite direction to the entrance to the apartments. She thought
it was a father carrying his child.
She only told of this situation sometime after the discovery of the disappearance
and made the association, saying it was Madeleine, as the pyjamas were identical. A photo fit was made without facial features,
the description and clothes of the individual were also spread by the media, to see if anyone could clarify what was happening
there (page 1592) – no response was obtained.
Coming back to the narrative, at about 21.35, half an hour
having passed, Kate decided to go and check on the children, but Matthew volunteered to this as he was also going to his own
apartment to do the same. He took the normal route and entered by the patio door of the McCann's apartment which was open.
When he was in the middle of the living room, which had a slight light, he saw the twins in their respective cots, given that
the door was ajar, however he did not enter the bedroom and therefore could not confirm whether Madeleine was sleeping in
her bed.
Upon his return he said that everything was fine. When he was questioned at police HQ he added that the
children's bedroom had more light than would be probable if the windows were closed and the lights off. He cannot clarify
the state of the window nor the existing luminosity.
Half an hour later (22.00) according to their reports, Kate
went to the apartment to check on the children. She entered by the patio door which she closed upon entering and she saw that
the door to the children's bedroom was open wider than the way she had left it when she went to dinner. Upon closing the
bedroom door, she felt a current of air which led her to observe the bedroom with greater care and this is when she noticed
that her daughter Madeleine was missing. The bedroom window was wide open as were the curtains. The bed was practically intact,
her daughter's soft toy was at the head of the bed.
In a state of alert and with waves of panic, she searched
the entire apartment, not managing to find the girl, which led her to go, in an upset state, to the Tapas restaurant, saying
that her daughter had been taken. Clear allusion to an abduction, justified by the fact that the window was open, they said.
During this time, the twins were in the bedroom, alone and sleeping. Furthermore, they never woke up during this night, in
spite of all the commotion.
Informed about the disappearance, the whole group went to the McCann's apartment,
accompanied by Ocean Club employees, who searched the apartment and the adjacent area several times, without results. The
call to the GNR took place at 22.41, according to the list in page 3051.
With the arrival of the GNR, the officers
of that force again searched the whole apartment including the electrodomestic appliances, no useful results were found inside
or outside the apartment. On that night the commander of the Lagos GNR received, supposedly from Gerald, four photographs
of the girl, page 2294, poster type, 10 x 15, in two different poses, identical to page 30, their printing/developing must
have been done at a moment before the events.
Diligences were carried out to establish the origin of these images,
pages 2295 and 2296.
After 00.00 a team from this police force arrived at the scene and immediately began diligencies,
namely fingerprint inspection which only revealed the collection of prints from people who had legitimate access to the apartment.
The bedroom was also examined by Scientific Police Laboratory, which collected numerous vestiges for continuous examinations,
which up until now have not contributed to a full clarification of the facts.
During the course of the collection
of elements, on the next day a mobile GNR post was placed in front of the residential block with the aim of receiving/treating
and channelling information related to the disappearance, all investigated by this police force in a methodical and strict
manner, some were added to the inquiry, others were placed in annexes so that it was possible to visualise what was done.
Apart from the information collected by the mobile post, hundreds of other pieces of information from civil society
and from the authorities were received by email or telephone and were treated in the same manner.
None of this
information to date had attained the required result of locating the girl and clarifying the facts under investigation.
The British media were alerted to the disappearance, on the night of 3rd May, Sky news opened its news report at 07.00
on 4th May with news about this case. A huge media presence without precedence was mobilised, accompanying all the police
work, speculating and imagining scenarios, some of them possible, some of them fantasy.
Given this introspective
picture, we can be sure that as well as the abduction situation, all other possibilities were open, as they are now.
This thesis – abduction – was exhaustively investigated, all information leading to this in every sense, was
examined. No ransom was ever demanded.
We clarified two situations, with the valuable help of the Dutch and Spanish
authorities which led to the detention of three persons who were trying to extort money from the family in exchange for false
information about the girl and who were proven to be fraudulent. These facts can be found in two Apenso volumes annexed to
the files.
We proceeded to question all the OC employees, pages 848 and 856 whose statements did not reveal anything
of any relevance in spite of the parsimonious attention used.
We carried out diligencies in 443 rooms in Praia
da Luz, page 198, nothing useful was found.
For the rest, we heard witness accounts relating to incidents with
children, which were not possible to link to Madeleine, in particular the case of a Polish couple who were on holiday in Portugal
and who were seen taking photographs of a girl who looked like Madeleine. But once again nothing of relevance was found with
relation to them as can be seen in pages 213 to 216.
Photo fits were elaborated based on the indications of witnesses
who reported situations that they characterised as being "strange, most concretely of individuals who were seen in the
proximity of the apartment during the day", but again, nothing that could be related to Madeleine.
Particular
attention was paid to individuals connected to the criminal underworld, those connected to crimes against children, diligences,
which to date have not enabled the collection of any relevant data.
In order to perceive the Babel of information,
we can say that some of the incidences about the disappearance, in particular with relation to sightings, placed the girl
at the same time and date in different locations in our country (pages 524 and ss) as well as in places around the world separated
by thousands of kilometers, from Japan to the States, passing through Indonesia, Singapore and the African continent. As regards
the latter, a sighting was transmitted from Morocco, near to Marrakesh, at a petrol station, by a Norwegian woman. In spite
of efforts the images were never obtained, therefore it was partially dismissed.
We has reports of sightings in
public transport and on motorways all over Europe, in some of these cases it was possible to confirm that these were girls
accompanied by their parents and in some cases, girls with physical similarities.
The images from petrol stations
along the main roads of the Algarve were seen, the result was negative, Gerald and Kate were shown stills from these images,
such as those in pages 129 – 133, showing a similar looking girl but who did not correspond to the missing girl.
At a determined moment, and because as is known in these cases, it is necessary to have a perfect knowledge of the
scene, in order to facilitate procedures and plan actions duly, suspicions fell on an individual who lived metres away from
apartment 5 A, Robert Queriol Murat. The suspicions referred to are found in pages 308, 328, 442, 461, 957, 960, 961, and
968 – 1000.
During the initial phase, before the deepening of the investigation, this individual fulfilled
the conditions to be made a suspect. The intrinsic elements of his condition as suspect can be analysed in the previously
mentioned pages.
In order to confirm or discard the suspicions about Robert Murat, searches were carried out and
telephone interceptions were made, pages 995 – 1013 of the suspect and of individuals who interacted directly or indirectly
with him, namely those who had daily contact with him or with whom he maintained telephone contact. In spite of an exhaustive
and methodological investigation of Murat and the persons close to him, no elements were collected that could connect him
to the crime being investigated. Apart from the analysis of communications and forensic examinations of their computers which
did not reveal anything useful, various searches of his home were made with the use of sniffer dogs, the subsoil was examined,
physically and using detection methodologies, again with no useful results.
The cars of those connected to him
were examined, no results were obtained.
The homes and vehicles were minutely inspected by the Police Scientific
Laboratory, no relevant vestiges were found.
The analysis of the telephone and electronic communications (attached
in annex) and the resulting correlation, gave no results.
At the police HQ the suspect denied any involvement in
the events. The inquiries made in relation to the other individuals who had personal or professional relations with Murat
did not bring up any data worthy of investigation.
In truth, during the searches various objects were taken for
analysis without any incriminating result having been found yet.
As reported on page 1606 and following pages,
a new element appeared, brought by an Irish family, who told of a sighting on 3rd May 2007 at about 21.55 of a man carrying
a child who was walking down a road that leads to a zone near to Praia da Luz. They did not manage to recognise the man, however
Martin Smith, in subsequent information, page 2871, said that judging by the bearing it could have been Gerald McCann, which
upon initial analysis did not seem very viable to us given the time period indicated. However, new questioning of Martin Smith
by the Irish authorities was requested in order to check the reliability of his information. A reply is awaited.
Concerning the theme of searches referring to the construction work underway in Praia da Luz, page 1650 and ss we collected
the statements of the workers, employees and the engineer in charge who did not detect anything unusual and who focused on
the impossibility of hiding a body, even a child’s body.
***
Meanwhile, I come to the knowledge
of this police force about the information relating to the use of the dogs, page 1989 and following pages, specialised in
the marking of human blood remains and human cadaver odour, from the UK.
This is an inspection technique commonly
used in the UK, sometimes with positive results, consisting in the use of two specially trained dogs.
One of the
dogs is trained to detect cadaver odour and the other to detect human blood traces.
Opting to use this resource,
a large number of objects and places were examined, where, in some cases, the dogs were seen to show the behaviour of identification
and signaling, as follows:
1. Apartment 5 A, Ocean Club resort from which the girl disappeared
- Cadaver
odour dog • in the couple's bedroom on the floor next to the wardrobe. • In the living room, behind
the sofa, next to the lateral window of the apartment.
2. Patio area, in front of apartment 5 A
- Cadaver
odour dog • in one of the flower beds, the dog handler commented upon the weakness (lightness) of the odour detected.
3. Apartments where the rest of the group was staying
• Nothing was found by either dog.
4. Residence of the McCann couple at the time of the date of inspection
• Nothing was found by either dog
in the villa.
5. In the locality of Praia da Luz
• Nothing was found by either dog.
6.
The clothes and belongings of the McCann family
- Cadaver odour dog • On two pieces of clothing belonging
to Kate Healy. • On a piece of clothing belonging to Madeleine. • Possibly, on a soft toy belonging to
Madeleine (cadaver odour was detected when the toy was still in the residence (on the date it was occupied by the family)). • Signalling was confirmed in a scenario outside the villa.
7. In the vehicle used by the McCann family
- cadaver odour dog • signalled the car key
- blood dog
* signalled the vehicle's
key. * signalled inside the vehicle's luggage boot.
8. In a vehicle used by a friend of the family who
was staying at the same resort, coinciding for a few days.
• Nothing was found by either dog.
9.
In all the cars used by Robert Murat and people close to him
• Nothing was found by either dog.
(Of
a total of 10 vehicles the cadaver odour dog and the blood dog only signalled the vehicle hired by the McCann family on 27th
May).
The places and objects signaled by the blood dog were tested forensically by the reputed British Laboratory
(FSS) whose final results are not yet available. However, there are indications that would show that these will be inconclusive,
in other words they do not corroborate the dogs signalling without leaving any doubt.
Based upon the action of
the sniffer dog team which reveals the eventual existence of a cadaver in the apartment and in the car used by the McCann
family and with the aim of enabling Gerald and Kate to safeguard their position in the process they were constituted arguidos,
in the face of the mere possibility of their involvement with the eventual cadaver. During the course off their interrogation
as arguidos they denied any responsibility in the disappearance of their daughter.
**
During the process
phase we are in, according to the results of the information already in the case files, we proceeded to elaborate the thematic
annexes (apensos) that contain all the information relating to sightings, suspects or suspicious situations, temporary analysis
reports and reports on communications and examinations as well as information subject to international cooperation.
The investigation continues in the sense of checking all credible information received in the meantime on a daily basis,
with particular relevance to information with regard to paedophiles and the authors of sexual crimes which has already exceeded
150 individuals.
Reports and diligences will always be carried out in a methodical manner, taking into account
the investigation actions and conclusions already carried out in the unrenounceable and unforgettable hope of discovering
the truth of the facts.
In the wake of what has been mentioned, a proposal was made for the elaboration of a Letter
of Request to the British authorities, enunciating the diligences, which are pertinent in our opinion and which could be fruitful
for the case.
