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All important events from April 2008
All the key events from April 2008, with video and pictures |
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April 2008 (Days 334-363) |
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Maddy Cops To Quiz Kingston Doctor Surrey Comet
5:01pm Monday 31st March 2008
A Kingston doctor who dined with Kate and Gerry McCann the
night their daughter Maddy went missing will be re-interviewed by police.
Portuguese officers visit the UK next week to sit in while officers
from Leicestershire Constabulary interview friends of the McCanns.
Dr Matthew Oldfield, a consultant endocrinologist at Kingston Hospital,
and his wife Rachael will be among the seven questioned.
The
McCanns, whose four-year-old daughter Madeleine disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year,
will not be interviewed.
A spokeswoman for the British force said: "Leicestershire Constabulary
will be coordinating the execution of the request for mutual legal assistance made by the Portuguese authorities.
"The Portuguese authorities have asked that the contents of the request
and the way it is being executed be kept confidential so as not to prejudice their ongoing investigation."
It is almost 11 months since Maddy disappeared from the holiday resort
of Praia da Luz.
Kate and Gerry, both 39, from Rothley, Leics, remain arguidos - formal
suspects - in the case.
Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' family spokesman, said: "Kate and
Gerry and their friends have long expected this visit by Portuguese police officers and it comes as no surprise that some
reports in the Portuguese papers in the last few days have been speculating about the arrival date.
"I am not in a position to confirm any dates or give any details
about the re-interviewing of the friends and all matters will have to go to Leicestershire police.
"However, Kate and Gerry and their friends welcome the police interviews.
The friends are more than happy to co-operate fully, as are Kate and Gerry, although in this case Kate and Gerry will not
be interviewed.
"This has not been requested but Kate and Gerry would have agreed
to answer any questions had the police wished to put anything to them."
Parents Back Interviews The Leicester Mercury
10:30 - 01 April 2008
The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have
welcomed the decision by Portuguese police to re-interview their friends.
Officers are expected to arrive in Britain
on Monday to put questions to the people with whom Kate and Gerry McCann were dining on the night their daughter vanished.
Madeleine
disappeared from the family's apartment in Praia da Luz as they were in a nearby tapas restaurant.
Kate and Gerry,
from Rothley, remain arguidos - or formal suspects - in the case.
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family's spokesman,
said: "I am not in a position to confirm any dates or give any details about the re-interviewing of the friends.
"However,
Kate and Gerry and their friends welcome the police interviews. The friends are more than happy to co-operate fully, as are
Kate and Gerry, although in this case Kate and Gerry will not be interviewed.
"This has not been requested, but Kate
and Gerry would have agreed to answer any questions had the police wished to put anything to them."
07:21 - 01 April 2008
Portuguese police are to visit next week to re-interview the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann
Portuguese police are to re-interview the Exeter friends of Kate and Gerry McCann. Jane Tanner and her
partner, Russell O'Brien, who works at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, are close friends of the McCanns.
They
were part of the so-called "Tapas Nine" who were having dinner together on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared.
The
pair declined to comment on the development in the high-profile case yesterday.
Speaking on the doorstep of their city home, Mr O'Brien said neither he or Ms Tanner wanted to speak about the
interviews and added that he was unhappy with the attention that he and his family had received from the media over the past
year.
Officers are expected to arrive in Britain on April 7th. They will not be interviewing the McCanns, whose four-year-old
daughter Madeleine disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia da luz on May 3 last year.
The officers plan to sit in while others from Leicestershire Contstabulary interview their friends.
A spokeswoman for the British force said "We will be coordinating the execution of the request for mutual legal
assistance made by the Portuguese authorities.
"The Portuguese authorities have asked that the contents of the request and the way it is being executed be kept
confidential so as not to prejudice the investigation."
It is almost 11 months since Madeleine disappeared from the resort.
Kate and Gerry , both 39, From Rothley, Leics, remain formal suspects in the case.
Last November, Ms Tanner broke her silence to say she had seen the girl being abducted.
At that time, she said she saw a man carrying a sleeping child away from the apartments a mere 45 minutes before
Kate McCann discovered her daughter was missing.
She decided to speak out despite the instructions of the Portuguese police after being labelled a liar and a fantasist.
In an interview with the BBC she said "I know what I saw and I think it is important that people know what I saw
because I beleive Madeleine was abducted that night.
"From Day one we have done everything we could to help them with the investigation. Maybe I am talking now because
I have been called a liar and a fantasist."
(Report then continues with Clarence Mitchell's oft-repeated quote)
01 April 2008
POLICE from Portugal
will fly to Britain next week to question friends of Kate and Gerry McCann.
Cops will arrive next Monday to re-interview the "Tapas Seven" who
dined with the couple the night their four-year-old daughter Madeleine vanished.
Portuguese detectives won't conduct the interviews themselves but
will sit in while British police ask the questions.
It is almost 11 months since Madeleine disappeared from the Ocean
Club holiday resort in Praia da Luz on May 3.
Kate and Gerry, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, remain arguidos
- formal suspects.
Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, who heads the British arm
of the probe, is likely to lead the interviews. Police chief Paulo Rebelo, the man in charge of the investigation, is also
likely to make the high-profile trip to Britain.
Detectives want to clear up any "inconsistencies" in the group's
stories about what happened the night Madeleine went missing.
McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry and their
friends see this as an important chance to help the police.
"The friends are more than happy to co-operate as are Kate and Gerry
although, in this case, the couple will not be interviewed.
"We hope that the police will realise there is no evidence to link
Kate and Gerry with Madeleine's disappearance in any way and that they will be rapidly eliminated from the inquiry."
Lawyer: Parents of missing Madeleine may have access to police case against them this month MSN UK News
AP - 01.04.2008 15:26
A lawyer for the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann says they may be entitled to see the Portuguese
police case against them within two weeks.
The official secrecy period covering the ongoing police investigation ends April 14.
Lawyer Rogerio Alves has told The Associated Press that the secrecy period can be extended only in major
cases such as terrorism and organized crime.
Police have given no indication whether they intend to bring charges or drop the case against Kate and Gerry
McCann, named as suspects in Madeleine's disappearance from a Portuguese vacation apartment last May. The parents deny responsibility.
Madeleine Case: Secrecy Period To End Sky News
Updated: 17:11, Tuesday April 01, 2008
Files detailing the Portuguese police case against the parents of missing Madeleine McCann could be made
public within two weeks, a lawyer for the couple has said.
An official secrecy period has until now prevented Kate and Gerry McCann from seeing why they were named
"arguidos" - or formal suspects in their daughter's disappearance.
But lawyer Rogerio Alves has said the secrecy period is due to end on April 14, and can only be
extended for major inquiries, such as those involving terrorism or organised crime.
Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have been suspects in the case since September 2007.
They have not since been charged and both deny all wrongdoing.
Clarence Mitchell, the couple's spokesman, welcomed the lawyer's comments and called for the arguido
status to be lifted.
Mr Mitchell said: "We would hope that the police will do the decent and proper thing and open up the files.
"I would go further than that, and say once they have completed the interviews with the the friends, they
should go back to Portugal and assess the evidence and eliminate Kate and Gerry and allow everyone once again to concentrate
on the search for Madeleine."
Three Portuguese detectives will travel to the UK on Monday to spend next week re-interviewing the seven
friends on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine went missing.
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April 02, 2008
Translation by Joana Morais
"If there was no understanding of when the period began to count in September, the secrecy of justice would
be lifted in April, but having this agreement the secrecy in the process will only end in August." In declarations, to the
CM, Rogério Alves, lawyer of the McCanns, contradicts the news circulating yesterday in the UK press, according to which the
process of the inquiry to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Praia da Luz, in the 3rd of May of last year, would be
available for consultation after the 14th of April.
"It is out of question", said also to the CM a source close to
the investigation. According to several English newspapers, quoting an interview of Rogério Alves to the news agency Associated
Press, the former bar of the Order of the Lawyers, would have informed his clients that they might try the consultation to
the process from the 14th of April. "What I speak with my clients I do not speak in public", said to the CM Rogério Alves,
explaining that "the secrecy will only be lifted in August".
In the count down for the investigations to the friends
who were on vacation with the McCanns in the Praia da Luz, predicted to begin day 8 of this month, in Leicester and in the
presence of elements of the PJ , Rogério Alves also said to the CM: "I was not notified of anything, neither were my clients."
Kate and Gerry, who are preparing a documentary to be shown on the 30th of April, about an alert system for missing children,
might not be, for the moment, questioned by the police.
Madeleine suspect Robert Murat back in Britain to see his five-year-old daughter Daily Mail
Last updated at 15:28pm on 2nd April 2008
Robert Murat has returned to Britain for an emotional reunion with his daughter, it was revealed today.
It is understood Mr Murat had not seen five-year-old Sofia since being named an official suspect in the
investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann almost a year ago.
Two weeks ago he informed police he wanted to visit the UK and see Sofia - and was allowed to do so. The
fact that Portuguese authorities did not stand in his way suggests there is no evidence against Mr Murat.
The move comes after the decision by police last month to return items of clothing and computers seized
when he was made a suspect - or arguido - on 19 May, 16 days after Madeleine vanished from her parents' apartment in the resort
of Praia da Luz in the Algarve.
Mr Murat's uncle, Ralph Everleigh, said: "Robert has been back to the UK for an emotional reunion with his
daughter. He loves his little girl and has missed her so much this past year."
Mr Everleigh, who runs a guesthouse just outside Praia da Luz, said he thought Mr Murat was now on his way
back to Portugal. Mr Murat was not available for comment today.
Mr Murat has always denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
Despite searches of his mother Jenny's villa - about 150 yards from where Madeleine went missing - and forensic
science tests on his car and other extensive inquiries, no evidence has been found to connect him to the disappearance.
Mrs Murat, 42, who lives in Hockering, Norfolk, said in a recent interview that Sofia had become the subject
of kidnap threats.
She said: "There are a lot of weird people out there and if something happens to one innocent child they
think an eye for an eye. They want to harm another innocent child - my daughter. We are living in constant fear."
She has said she has "no doubt" of her estranged husband's innocence, adding: "All he wanted to do was help
the McCanns."
Portuguese detectives will visit the UK on Monday to re-interview friends of Madeleine's parents, Kate and
Gerry McCann, who were dining at a tapas bar when the girl vanished.
In September, the McCanns were also made arguidos before being allowed to return to their home in Rothley,
Leicestershire. They also protest their innocence.
An Episode Ends, Another Begins Sky News
Martin Brunt, Sky News crime correspondent
Written by Martin April 02, 2008
So, they were
a dog's bones, after all, and not those of Madeleine and few people will be surprised.
Even her parents had poured scorn on the divers searching the Algarve
lake for their daughter.
But I wonder if, just for a moment, Kate and Gerry McCann had privately
harboured some hope that the underwater search of the Barragem do Arade might solve the mystery of Madeleine's disappearance?
Two weeks ago the frogmen found a bag of small bones which might
have been those of a child's fingers, but now they've turned out to be canine.
Lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for the dive team after claiming
"an underworld source" had told him the lake was Madeleine's final resting place.
But, according to one diver who considered the job before rejecting
it, the lawyer's information came from his own ability to "talk to the dead."
So, another episode ends as one more begins...we are all running
around trying to find out where the cops will re-interview the Tapas 7 next week.
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British police ready to question 'Tapas Seven' over Madeleine disappearance Timesonline
David Brown
April 3, 2008
British police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are to interview more than 30 people who could help
to prove that her parents were not involved in her abduction.
The interviews will begin next Tuesday with the first
of the seven British friends who were on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine was reported missing in Portugal. A different
couple will be interviewed each day in the presence of Portuguese detectives at the headquarters of Leicestershire Police.
The officers will concentrate on alleged inconsistencies in the timelines of events on May 3. None of the witnesses
will be made arguidos (official suspects under Portuguese law) and detectives will not seize evidence or search homes.
Madeleine's
parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, have offered to be reinterviewed but will not be
questioned.
British officers will then begin interviews with more than two dozen other people who were at the Ocean
Club resort in Praia Da Luz on May 3 last year or who were later connected to the case.
The witnesses include other
holidaymakers, nannies at the Ocean Club, people who claim to have seen Madeleine being abducted, the psychologist who comforted
Kate McCann and the McCanns' official spokesmen, Clarence Mitchell and Justine McGuinness.
The list of people to be
interviewed has been provided by Kate and Gerry McCann as part of their rights as arguidos to demand that police speak to
people who could prove their innocence.
Paulo Rebelo, the chief investigator in the Polícia Judiciária investigation
into Madeleine's disappearance, will fly to Britain with two other detectives on Monday. They will stay until Friday to watch
the interviews with the so-called “Tapas Seven” who were at a restaurant on the Ocean Club with Mr and Mrs McCann
when Madeleine went missing.
Jane Tanner, 36, claimed she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' apartment at
about 9.15pm - when another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man.
Her partner, Dr Russell O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the group for up to 45 minutes in the period that Madeleine
was taken from her bed.
Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37, a hospital consultant from London, and his wife Rachel, 36, a recruitment
consultant, were also at the tapas restaurant.
David Payne, 41, a cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the
last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine. His wife, Fiona, 34, and her mother, Diane Webster, will also be interviewed.
The McCanns' Portuguese lawyers have requested the police case against them be made made public on the eight-month
anniversary of the day they were made official suspects. However, detectives can request a three-month extension, as granted
in the case of the other official suspect, Robert Murat, in January.
Because of the change in Portuguese law, the
court could rule that the eight-month limit actually started in September last year. And the evidence could remain sealed
indefinitely if police rule that the case is a major crime, such as international child trafficking.
Mr Murat, 34,
has recently returned to Britain to see his five-year-old daughter, Sofia, for the first time since he was made an official
suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Mr Murat, who lives with his mother in a villa about 100 yards from the McCanns' holiday
apartment, has strenuously denied any involvement.
Police last month returned computers and clothing they had seized
during the search of his home in an indication that they no longer believed he was a suspect.
Original headline: McCanns could return to Portugal for anniversary of missing daughter Madeleine
Last updated at 14:58pm on 3nd April 2008
Revised headline: McCanns poised to make dramatic return to Portugal for anniversary of Madeleine's
disappearance Daily Mail
Last updated at 15:06pm on 3rd April 2008
Kate and Gerry McCann are poised for a dramatic return to Portugal to mark the first anniversary of their
daughter Madeleine's disappearance.
The couple are prepared to defy their lawyers and risk arrest in an attempt to revive the search for the
four-year-old.
The McCanns, who deny any involvement in her disappearance, were named official suspects – or arguidos
– by Portuguese police in September, prompting them to leave Praia da Luz, the resort where Madeleine disappeared, and
return to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.
Madeleine vanished on May 3 from her parents' holiday apartment as they dined with friends at a bar about
100 yards away.
On Monday, Portuguese detectives will fly into the UK to re-interview the friends – but not the McCanns
– at police headquarters in Leicestershire.
The outcome will determine whether the couple, both doctors, return to the Algarve.
The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today: 'Kate and Gerry are currently deciding whether to return
to Portugal. It is being discussed.
"Going to Portugal would send out the strongest possible message that Madeleine could still be alive and
the search for her should continue. The family feel the focus should be on finding Madeleine.
"Next week's interviews
will help in gauging the police attitude. In an ideal world they would not be arguidos and their lawyers have always warned
them not to return while they have that status.
But they want to be in Praia da Luz for the first anniversary," he
said.
Institutions - 03-04-2008 - 19:17
Missing child hotline. A meeting to consider prospects
for a Europe-wide alert system for missing or abducted children will hear from Gerry and Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine
has been missing since May 2007 (Thursday).
*
RECORDED Press conference
14:00 - 14:30
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Missing child hotline
Press Conference by Edward MCMILLAN-SCOTT (EPP-ED, GB)
Brussels, Press Conference room - 10.30-11.00 |
McCanns optimisitic about new enquiries Portugal Resident
Updated: 03 April 2008
By: CECÍLIA PIRES
THE MADELEINE case investigation is to see new action in the next couple of weeks.
While a team of PJ investigators
prepares to travel to the UK on Monday (April 7) for further enquiries into the case, a lawyer of Gerry and Kate McCann has
revealed that the deadline for the secrecy of justice rule imposed on this case ends in August.
The new information
is being considered very positive by the family of Madeleine McCann, who went missing in May 3 2007 while sleeping in the
family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
According to Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann,
and following the new enquiries, the couple are hoping that they will be released from the arguido status before the calendar
marks one year since their daughter's disappearance.
The way the date is to be remembered "depends now on the result
of the interviews to be made by the Portuguese police", Clarence Mitchell told Lusa news agency on Monday.
However,
Kate and Gerry "will not be giving any interviews if their arguido status is kept, but also refuse to let the case go cold
if that status is dropped", said Mr Mitchell.
"Madeleine is still missing. There is no evidence of her death and the
family still want the Portuguese police to help find her", he underlined.
According to sources quoted in British and
Portuguese newspapers, the new enquiries are to be focused on the friends who were holidaying with Kate and Gerry McCann at
the time Madeleine disappeared from the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz.
Confidential
Although the Portuguese
police refuse to confirm any details on the case, the Leicestershire police department issued a statement confirming that
"it will be coordinating the request of mutual legal assistance made by the Portuguese authorities".
The statement
adds that "Portuguese authorities asked for the content of the request and the way it will be carried out to be kept confidential
so that the ongoing investigation is not jeopardized".
In the meantime, for the investigators who always insisted that
the confidentiality of the investigations was of vital importance, time is getting shorter, considering recent statements
made by one of the McCanns’ lawyers.
Interviewed by Associated Press this week, Rogério Alves, former
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