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All the key events from January 2008
All the key events from January 2008, with video and pictures |
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January 2008 (Days 243-273) |
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Murat's lawyer denies arrest
Francisco Pagarete, the lawyer of Robert Murat, has denied the story published today on the
news website functionpix.com, signed by Toby Serter, about his client having been arrested again by Portuguese police. "This
is completely false", Mr. Pagarete said, accusing the McCanns of being behind the recent revelations of new witnesses that
claim they saw Robert Murat near the Ocean Club the night Madeleine disappeared: "All of this is just evidence of how desperate
the McCanns are", Mr. Pagarete said.
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Wednesday 02
January 2008
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Murat to be cleared soon?
The Daily Express reports that Robert Murat could be cleared tomorrow, as the investigation reaches
a crucial deadline, police files on the case are finally set to be released.
Last night Murat’s lawyer, Francisco
Pagarette, claimed that detectives now believe he is innocent and are preparing to lift his arguido status tomorrow –
exactly eight months after Madeleine vanished.
If they fail to clear him then, under Portuguese law, they must charge
him or reveal what evidence they have against the 34-year-old father of one. Murat, who was declared an official suspect on
May 14, is desperate to have the cloud of suspicion hanging over him removed, claiming his life has been destroyed by false
allegations.
Mr Pagarette said: "After eight months that is the end of the inquiry, so a suspect must be accused or
advised of the suspicions against them. The public prosecutor either accuses him or they don’t. And that is what I am
hoping will happen."
He added: "We have not had any communication from the police since August. Obviously they have
already cleared Robert, it is just a question of the deadline." Theoretically, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry, the
only other arguidos, should also be charged, released or told what evidence exists against them tomorrow.
But it is
believed the prosecutor has already granted an extension allowing a further period of secrecy for the investigation because
of the "special complexity" of the case. Detectives are also due to re-interview Kate and Gerry in Britain and do not wish
to make any decision about their status until that process is complete.
Kate and Gerry go to panto
Meanwhile, Kate and Gerry McCann call in to see the Aladdin panto at the Southport
Theatre in Southport, with twins, Sean and Amelie.
Staff at the show, which stars Syd Little and Lisa Riley, were told the family would be coming
before the performance. They were told the couple and their children, who live in Rothley, Leicestershire, would be in the
audience, but not to discuss it.
A behind-the-scenes source said the McCanns were there to watch one of the dancers from Formby,
who is a relative .
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Gerry returns to work
Gerry McCann returns to full-time work today - exactly eight months after his daughter Madeleine disappeared.
The McCanns hopes of being cleared are crushed
Gerry and Kate McCanns' hope of being cleared over their daughter's disappearance appeared crushed today after they were
reportedly named as prime suspects in a new police dossier. There had been hopes that the couple's status as official suspects
could be lifted in coming days. But they may now remain under suspicion for years, after Portuguese detectives submitted an
interim report to prosecutors.
Under new Portuguese laws - still largely untested - there had been a suggestion that files on the case could be made
public today on the eight month anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance. The deadline prompted hopes the official suspects
- or arguido - status could then be removed. But according to Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha, the Policia Judiciaria
will hand over an interim report in which the McCanns remain at the centre of inquiries.
Correio da Manha added that the police report would contain a request to reinterview the McCanns and their friends -
known as the Tapas Nine - in Britain in coming weeks. After those interviews the McCanns' lawyers are expected to apply for
arguido status to be removed.
The McCanns hire a new detective
It emerged today the McCanns have hired a detective who investigated a 7/7 suicide bomber. Noel Hogan is conducting a
"cold case" review. The former Met detective superintendent, who runs the agency Hogan International, in Farnham said: "I
have been reinterviewing witnesses that were out in Portugal at the time." It is understood these include friends of the McCanns.
From VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: 03 Jan 2008
PRIVATE detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann are to quiz an Irish family who may have been the last to see her alive.
Martin Smith, his wife and children told cops they saw a man carrying a little blonde girl in Praia da Luz on the night
Maddie vanished.
Investigators from the Metodo 3 agency hired by Maddie's parents Gerry and Kate are preparing to travel to Ireland to
interview them.
The family, from Drogheda, Co Louth, believe they saw the man taking the sleeping tot down to the beach at the Portuguese
resort.
The Smiths were leaving Kelly's Bar — 400 metres from the McCanns' apartment — between 9.50 and 10pm on May
3 last year.
They flew home to Ireland the next day, but when the times of Maddie's abduction were revealed, the family remembered
seeing a man, 5ft 7in to 5ft 9in tall and dressed in beige, carrying the child.
Significantly the description matches that given by Jane Tanner, 37, a friend of the McCanns.
Mr Smith, who has already spoken to Portuguese cops over the sighting, said yesterday: "I'd talk to anyone to move this
investigation on. I think about Maddie every day."
He added: "I found the Portuguese cops not to be the most efficient bunch."
His wife Mary, 59, said: "We saw a man carrying a blonde child. It was just such a normal thing to see in a holiday resort
— we didn't think anything of it at the time."
The Sun reported on Monday how Metodo 3 — which is costing the Find Madeleine Fund £300,000 — plan to blitz
Morocco after several leads pointed to the country.
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Policia Judiciaria continue trawl for evidence
Police in Portugal have begun a fresh trawl for evidence which could incriminate Gerry and Kate McCann. Among the items
they are said to want to seize is their missing daughter Madeleine's Cuddle Cat toy, which was examined by forensic teams
in the summer. They have also demanded Mrs McCann's diary. The requests suggest officers remain hopeful of bringing charges
against the four-year-old's parents. Police already have photocopies of the diary but these would not be admissable in court.
Police make a formal request for British police to re-interview the seven friends who were on holiday with the McCanns
when Madeleine disappeared. They submitted a catalogue of questions they want answered to the judge in Portugal overseeing
the case. They also included the list of items they would like seized. Leaks have previously suggested these would include
the diary kept by Kate.
Detectives took the diary and photocopied it, then leaked sections to the Portuguese media in which Mrs McCann allegedly
wrote that her eldest daughter was hyperactive and said she could not cope. Officers used the excerpts to suggest the GP could
have been sedating her children. Mrs McCann has always denied the claims.
Police were also said to want to seize clothes and other items - including the pink soft toy Cuddle Cat - on which trained
sniffer dogs allegedly picked up the "scent of death". Detectives have long questioned why Mrs McCann was so attached to Cuddle
Cat and why, if it was her last link with Madeleine, she allowed it to be washed. They have suggested the toy was cleaned
to destroy any potential DNA evidence, such as blood. Mrs McCann said it had simply become too grubby. Other items sought
by police are thought to include the couple's laptops and private correspondence, Mrs McCann's Bible, in which a passage related
to the death of a child was marked, and their phone records.
The formal "letters of appeal" will now be sent from the court in Portimao to the Portuguese justice minister and then
on to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for her approval. Once granted police will contact the group to arrange interviews. Detectives
in Portugal will then consider whether they need to reinterview the McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, and whether they
should be charged.
The spokesman for the McCanns, Clarence Mitchell, said: "Kate and Gerry, and their friends particularly, are very keen
to talk to the Portuguese police again because they want to be able to clarify any inconsistencies to do with the timeline
of events on May 3, or whenever the police put forward."
Irish tourist clears Robert Murat
An Irish tourist who saw someone carrying a child in a blanket on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared insists that
the mystery man was not Robert Murat. Martin Smith, from Drogheda in Co Louth, was on holiday in Praia Da Luz with his family
when they bumped into the man just before 10pm on May 3 last year.
The Smith family's suspicions were aroused because the man made no response when they asked if the barefoot child was asleep.
"He just put his head down and averted his eyes, which is very unusual in a tourist town at such a quiet time of the year,"
said Mr Smith.
Initially the Smith family thought nothing more of the encounter - and even the next day when the story broke they still
didn't make the connection. "We were home two weeks when my son rang me up and asked was he dreaming or did we meet a man
carrying a child the night Madeleine was taken," said Mr Smith. "We all remembered the same recollection, and I felt we should
report it to the police.
"We've all been beating ourselves up that we should have made the link sooner, if only we'd remembered the next day. But
the Portuguese police said you see these things on holiday all the time."
The Smiths did contact the Portuguese police once they had returned to Ireland, but say they have had no contact with the
officers investigating the case since May last year. "I rang the Portuguese police and they took a statement from me on the
phone," said Mr Smith. They asked me to make a statement to the Gardai, which I did, and two days later Leicestershire police
got on to us.
"My eldest son, Peter, my youngest daughter, Aoife, and I then flew to Luz to make a statement. They didn't seem to be
the most efficient police you ever came across - and that was the last time we had any contact with the investigation. I don't
know if this information will help the McCanns, but anything we can do to help try to solve it, we will.
"We were looking at all the commotion on Sky News and we really felt quite helpless. We had two grandchildren with us at
the time and it had a terrible effect on them - they all wanted to sleep in the same room as us."
But Mr Smith is certain that the man he and his family saw that night was not Robert Murat, who is still officially an
"arguido" in the Madeleine McCann investigation. "I told police it was definitely not him because the man wasn't as big as
Murat - I think I would have recognised him because I'd met him several times previously. He was wearing beige trousers and
a darker top. We all put him in his early 40s and I didn't think he was Portuguese."
Mr Smith's sighting is similar to the one reported by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCann family. A spokesman for the McCanns
said detectives from the Spanish agency hired to investigate the case are now hoping to speak to the Smiths. Retired Mr Smith,
58, does not wish to appear on camera in order to protect his family from media intrusion.
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Madeleine: New witness confronted man lurking near apartment days before she disappeared Daily Mail
By VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 16:11 07 January 2008 (first published 05 January 2008)
A father confronted a man lurking outside the McCanns' holiday apartment just days before Madeleine vanished, it was
revealed yesterday.
British holiday-maker Paul Gordon told police he spotted the man outside the two-bedroom flat's patio doors while his
own two children were sleeping inside.
Kate and Gerry McCann believe their daughter's abductor crept into the apartment through the same patio doors, which
they left unlocked so they and their friends could check on their sleeping children during their now infamous dinner at a
nearby tapas restaurant.
Mr Gordon, 34, contacted British police about his suspicions in May, as soon as he heard that Madeleine had gone missing.
He and his family stayed in the apartment immediately before the McCanns.
He told how he confronted the man when he saw him outside the glass patio doors, which are at the back of the apartment,
away from the front door and concealed from the main road by a high hedge.
The man claimed to be collecting money for an orphanage in the mountains and Mr Gordon told detectives he left him alone
near the doors while he went to find money to give him.
In those few minutes the stranger could have studied the lay-out of the apartment and even checked on locks and security
arrangements inside, police fear.
The private detectives hired by the McCanns, Metodo 3, have investigated a series of sightings of people hanging around
the apartment, including a report of two people claiming to be Jehovah's Witnesses who tried to get inside, and now Mr Gordon's
sighting of the suspicious charity collector.
Metodo 3 believe some of the people could have been 'spotters' who identified Madeleine as a potential victim for a paedophile
network, then monitored her family's movements and struck when the McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, left their three children
alone to go and have dinner.
Mr Gordon was interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives and Metodo 3, and was asked if he believed the charity collector
could have been trying to target his own children, aged one and two.
He said his family rented the Ocean Club flat in Praia da Luz for a fortnight last April, and left only hours before
the McCanns arrived on April 28.
Mr Gordon, a sales executive for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, yesterday refused to comment about his statement to
the police.
Speaking outside his house in Fareham, Hampshire, he said: "I've given a statement and want it to remain private. I hope
the information may help in the search for Madeleine."
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell denied claims that Mr Gordon had warned Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, about the
sighting.
He said: "Mr Gordon has spoken to the police about his time in the apartment and our investigative team has also spoken
with him.
"He said somebody came round to the apartment 5A asking for a charity donation and said it was suspicious. Gerry and
Kate have never met Mr Gordon himself."
Mr Gordon is the latest in a series of witnesses who have come forward since Madeleine's disappearance to say they saw
suspicious characters lurking around the apartment.
A baby-sitter told how she saw a man hiding in bushes outside the flat in late 2006, and a British nanny said she saw
a man 'identical' to suspect Robert Murat trying to lift the shutters on the ground floor window of the apartment in December,
while she was looking after a six-year-old boy inside.
Then last March, only six weeks before the McCanns arrived in Praia da Luz, British mother Karen Sixsmith said a woman
who looked like Mr Murat's girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, 34, came to the door with a man, saying they were Jehovah's Witnesses.
Mrs Sixsmith, of Bowden, Cheshire, said the man seemed anxious to get inside the flat, where she was staying with her
husband and young daughter, who is blonde with blue eyes, like Madeleine, and was so concerned she called police immediately.
Then an Ocean Club worker said he saw a British tourist "hiding" in a stairwell outside the apartment at 6pm on the night
Madeleine vanished, just 12 metres from the flat.
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Murat given false alibi
It is revealed that a friend of suspect Robert Murat, 34, falsely told police
the Brit expat was drunk in a cafe the night Madeleine vanished.
Murat insists he was at home with his mother Jenny, 71. A source told newspaper 24
Horas: "The friend guaranteed Murat was in a coffee shop about five kilometres from the Ocean Club. He said he left drunk."
Murat's lawyer Francisco Pagarete, said: "He tried to defend Robert and ended up prejudicing
him. We can prove Murat was with his mother."
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Claims that blood traces were definitely Madeleine's
It is claimed that blood traces discovered in Kate and Gerry McCann's hire car
were from Madeleine. A Portuguese newspaper alleges that tests conducted at the FSS in Birmingham show conclusively
that the blood is that of the four-year-old.
The Policia Judicaria apparently believe the tests back up the theory that the McCanns moved Madeleine
after she died in their holiday appartment. A second blood sample reportedly found in their Praia da Luz holiday flat was
also claimed to have come from Madeleine.
Daily newspaper Correio da Manha reported: "The definitive result of the tests recently sent from England
leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria. The blood found in the McCanns’ car is that of Madeleine, as well as those
samples detected in the flat rented by the English and where the child, then three years old, disappeared without trace.”
O'Brien and Tanner named as two who wanted to change story
Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner are named as the two friends reported last year to have told
police they wanted to change their account of that evening. Ms Tanner, 37, from Exeter, says she saw a mystery man carrying
a child away from the flat at 9.15pm on the night Madeleine vanished. Police were said to believe Dr O'Brien, 36, wanted to
change his statement to claim he also saw the man, newspaper 24 Horas reported.
But staff at the restaurant say Ms Tanner was at the table througout the meal and only left after Kate came running in
shouting, "They've taken her", the newspaper reported. Dr O'Brien and Ms Tanner have denied contacting police to change their
stories and sources close to the McCanns support that posistion.
Has Robert Murat been mistaken for David Payne?
It is reported that witnesses who say they saw suspect Robert Murat outside Madeleine McCann’s apartment
on the night she vanished may have named the wrong man. The 34-year-old ex-pat has always denied claims that he was just yards
from the flat where the little girl was last seen – and now police believe he could be telling the truth.
Detectives
think Murat could have been mistaken for one of the McCanns’ friends, 41-year-old medical researcher David Payne. And
they say witnesses who claim to have seen Murat actually spotted Mr Payne out searching for the missing four-year-old. Mr
Murat insists he never left his mum’s villa 150 yards away from the holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, that night.
A source close to the investigation said: “The similarity between the two has rendered many witnesses’ accounts
virtually worthless.”
But he added: "What is baffling is that Mr Payne’s own wife and two of his friends
are among those who claim to have seen Mr Murat outside the McCanns’ apartment that night. Mrs Payne may not have known
Mr Murat well but you’d think a wife would recognise her own husband."
Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, the Paynes
and five more of their friends on the ill-fated holiday in May are due to be re-interviewed by British detectives. The couple’s
spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are confident the accounts of eyewitnesses ... were given in good faith. It is for the
police to determine the value of identification evidence."
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Walczuch suspect status denied
A claim that the lover of Robert Murat had herself been made a suspect in the case was denied today. Portuguese tabloid
24 Horas reported that Michaela Walczuch was named an arguida - or official suspect - in November and that her alibi is still
being investigated by Portuguese detectives. But today Portuguese police officials denied the story and Mr Murat's lawyer
Francisco Pagarete said only his client was an official suspect in the case.
It had been claimed that Ms Walczuch,
a 31-year-old German, gave evidence as a witness in November. However, the 24 Horas newspaper said that shortly after she
began giving her statement her status was changed.
Mr Pagarete, who has spoken on behalf of Ms Walczuch, told 24 Horas:
"In the eyes of public opinion, they both became arguidos in a crime they did not commit. Neither of them is free of suspicion,
with all the material and psychological damage that a dramatic situation like this implies. Somebody will have to pay for
this."
Mr Pagarete added that Mr Murat will sue the Portuguese and British authorities. Madeleine was three years
old when she vanished.
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Gail Cooper reports seeing 'creepy' man in Praia da Luz
A second British tourist has reported seeing a mystery man hanging around the
McCanns' holiday flat just days before she vanished. Gail Cooper, 50, said she was confronted by the "creepy" stranger at
her holiday villa in Portugal. He claimed he was collecting for an orphanage in the next village of Espiche.
She spotted him again two days later on Praia Da Luz beach. Gail, from Newark, Notts,
said yesterday: "He was a horrible-looking man, really creepy, unkempt and dirty. He definitely wasn't Portuguese. He scared
me."
Madeleine: The Movie
It is reported that Kate and Gerry McCann are in talks to turn the story of their
missing daughter Madeleine into a movie. They are negotiating with one of the world’s largest talent and entertainment
agencies, IMG, over the film in a deal which could be worth millions. The couple are also considering a book deal and selling
interviews to television broadcasters with all proceeds going to the Madeleine Fund, the body set up to finance the search
for the girl.
It is understood the enormous costs of funding the continued search for Madeleine
is proving a strain on the fund. There are fears that the £1.2 million raised from public donations will soon run out. A source
close to the McCanns said: "We would only get involved with something done sensitively and considerately." The team that made
Touching The Void, an award-winning drama-documentary about the fight for survival of two British climbers lost on a mountain,
are the most likely to be involved in the Maddy film project.
It will be discussed at a meeting of the fund's directors, including Gerry, tomorrow
night at the McCanns' home in Rothley, Leicestershire. It is reported that the meeting tomorrow follows the resignation of
key board members, including the fund's spokeswoman Esther McVey.
Esther McVey resigns from the board of Madeleine's Fund
Mr Mitchell later confirmed reports that one of the directors of the fund, former
GMTV presenter Esther McVey, had resigned from the board, but denied it was because of any rift with the McCanns. He said
she wanted to concentrate on her role as a Conservative parliamentary candidate and was also about to start studying for a
demanding MBA qualification.
"She has a lot of commitments and realised she could not devote the time she wanted to
the fund," he said. "She felt the New Year would be a good time for the change, and spoke to Kate about her decision. Kate
and Gerry were disappointed but they both understood her reasons. She is an old friend of Kate's and continues to support
the fund."
Mr Mitchell said other directors might also want to "rotate" their position on the board, as it had created
a lot more work than was originally anticipated in May.
Moves to interview the McCanns and their friends continue
It is later revealed that Portugal's public prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes is
proceeding with legal moves to ask British police to interview Gerry and Kate McCann and the rest of the so-called Tapas Nine
over their movements on the night of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. The news could suggest that detectives are ready to
charge Mr and Mrs McCann.
A team of Policia Judicial investigators, lead by Paulo Rebelo, drafted a list of questions which were then revised
and translated by the public prosecutor's office. They were approved by judge Pedro Frias, who is overseeing the investigation.
The legal letters were sent on Monday afternoon by Mr Magalhaes e Menezes, the public prosecutor in Portimao, near Praia da
Luz, through the EU body Eurojust.
British authorities will receive them by the end of the week and will then make preparations to interview the so-called
Tapas Nine. Portuguese detectives will fly to the UK to sit in on the interviews, which will be carried out by officers from
Leicestershire police.
Watch BBC News report on Madeleine film project
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Wednesday 09
January 2008
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Madeleine's Fund running out of money?
It is reported that the search by Gerry and Kate McCann for their missing daughter may be grinding to a halt by the first
anniversary of her disappearance because the Find Madeleine fund is running out of money. The fund, currently at £600,000,
is spending £50,000 a month, mostly on the private detective agency Metodo 3.
By the end of March its directors expect it to have dwindled to £346,000 and they are aware that unless there is an injection
of cash it will run dry by the summer. They recently spent £80,000 on a poster campaign in Spain and still owe Hanover International,
a public relations company, money for work they did until November, when their involvement ended.
Clarence Mitchell, their official spokesman, said: "In theory by the summer the pot will run dry but we are taking steps
to make sure that does not happen. Hopefully we would have found Madeleine by then." He said private donations from the public
were still coming in, and the fund had been boosted by £100,000 following the Christmas appeal.
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