The purpose of
this site is for information and a record of Gerry McCann's Blog
Archives. As most people will appreciate GM deleted all past blogs
from the official website. Hopefully this Archive will be helpful to
anyone who is interested in Justice for Madeleine Beth McCann. Many
Thanks, Pamalam
Note: This site does not belong to the McCanns. It belongs to Pamalam. If
you wish to contact the McCanns directly, please use
the contact/email details
campaign@findmadeleine.com
Five years ago this
week, Madeleine McCann disappeared from a family holiday apartment in the Algarve, Portugal, and has never been found. Her
parents, Kate and Gerry, are adamant that their daughter was abducted by a predator and persuaded Prime Minister David Cameron
to order a review of the case by the Metropolitan Police. Here, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior UK investigator,
talks to Richard Bilton about how he is working collaboratively with Portuguese police and explains why he believes he has
the best opportunity yet to establish the facts.
Cast and crew
Reporter
Richard Bilton
Editor Tom Giles
Producer Joanna Burge
Repeat:
Thu 3 May 2:05am BBC1
Madeleine aged eight, as US experts
see her, 22 April 2012
Madeleine aged eight, as US experts see her Sunday Express (paper edition)
See Page 7
Madeleine McCann aged
eight, as US experts see her Sunday Express
By Mike Parker and Gerard Couzens Sunday April 22,2012
THIS is an age-progression picture of Madeleine McCann as she would be now,
aged eight.
US experts, who work with police forces tracing missing people, created the image for the
Sunday Express using FBI forensic computer techniques.
They believe Madeleine will now have more defined features
with a longer nose, slightly thicker lips and her face would be more elongated as her facial bones continue to grow. In the
main image she appears to show a stronger resemblance to her mother Kate, with the "puppy fat" of her early years
giving way to a more slender look.
Her wide eyes would also have narrowed a little and her hair darkened, say experts,
since she vanished from a holiday flat in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast on May 3, 2007.
One image-progression
expert said: "Her eyebrows would be coming in more and would seem darker and fuller than they were.
"She
would look more like the teenager she would soon become than the little girl who was so cruelly taken from her parents."
He said that the new image also showed how her shoulders would be taking shape.
The new face of missing Madeleine McCann,
22 April 2012
SHE looks like any other little girl coming up to her ninth birthday.
But
experts believe this could be the face of Madeleine McCann today.
Almost five years since she went missing, this
image has been created by a crack computer team that helps police forces across the United States try to find long-term kidnap
victims and other missing people.
Using forensic age-progression techniques also employed by the FBI, they believe
Maddie would by now have lost the wide-eyed, chubby-cheeked appearance she had when she vanished without trace, aged just
three, in May 2007.
Police are expected to release their own age-progressed image of Maddie this week as they renew
attempts to solve the case.
Madeleine was snatched from a holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da
Luz while her parents Kate, 44, and Gerry, 43, of Rothley, Leics, dined with friends in a nearby tapas bar.
Madeleine McCann detective positive case will be solved, 24 April 2012
Madeleine McCann detective positive case will be solved The Telegraph
The ongoing review of the Madeleine McCann case offers the "best opportunity" to solve the mystery because
it is the first time information from all sources has been pooled, a detective has claimed.
By Victoria Ward 2:23PM BST 24
Apr 2012
Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood, who is leading the UK police hunt for the missing little girl, said
his team was sifting through around 40,000 pieces of information with the sole aim of solving the case.
Madeleine
was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz in the Algarve almost five years
ago, on May 3 2007, as her parents Kate and Gerry McCann dined with friends nearby.
The official inquiry was formally
shelved in July 2008 but Scotland Yard's review of the case, called Operation Grange, was launched last year at the request
of Theresa May, the Home Secretary, in response to a plea from the McCanns.
DCI Redwood said his team of 28 detectives
and seven civilian staff was in the process of turning over "every single piece of paper" generated in the investigation
and interpreting and analysing everything they contained.
He said: "Anything is possible, and clearly, within
that material, the answer could lie."
The team is drawing together information from three separate sources:
Portuguese legal enforcement bodies, British legal enforcement agencies, which include the police, and the private investigations
commissioned by Madeleine's parents.
Asked why he believed the operation was unique, DCI Redwood told BBC Panorama:
"Because at no time before have those three elements been drawn together in one place. And so what we've done over
the past number of months is to bring to one place all those pieces of the jigsaw."
He added: "I am satisfied
that the systems and processes that we are bringing to this set of circumstances will give us the best opportunity to find
those investigative opportunities that we can then present to our colleagues in Portugal."
Operation Grange
has so far cost the tax payer £2 million. Officers have made two trips to Spain and visited Portugal four times, most
recently last week.
But while Portuguese police remain the lead agency on the case, DCI Redwood said his team in
London aimed to solve the mystery.
"We are here in terms of seeking to bring closure to the case," he
said. "That would be the ultimate objective and is our ultimate objective. Closure means establishing what has happened
to Madeleine McCann."
Goncalo Amaral, the former detective who led the original case before being removed
after criticising British involvement, admitted making mistakes.
"It's a fact that our investigation had
its faults and lost a lot of time, lots of time," he told the programme. "And a lot of things didn't get followed
up. And I'm just as much to blame for that as anyone else."
Since leaving the police in 2008, Amaral has
written a book and presented a DVD about Madeleine's disappearance, in which he makes allegations against her parents,
Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, who are now suing him for libel.
In March, a new team of detectives
from Porto, northern Portugal, was brought in to re-examine the case, which the McCanns' Portuguese lawyer Rogerio Alves
described as a "very positive sign".
The latest alleged sighting of Madeleine was made earlier this month
in the Costa del Sol.
BBC Panorama – Madeleine: The Last Hope? will be shown on Wednesday April 25 at 7.30pm
on BBC One.
Madeleine McCann: UK police 'seek to
bring closure', 24 April 2012
Madeleine McCann: UK police 'seek to bring closure'
BBC News (with video)
24 April 2012 Last updated at 16:06
The detective leading the UK review of Madeleine McCann's disappearance says they have the "best opportunity"
yet to find the missing girl.
Det Ch Insp Andy Redwood told the BBC's Panorama his team were "seeking
to bring closure to the case".
Madeleine, aged three at the time, went missing from a Portuguese holiday apartment
five years ago this week.
The UK review began last May after Prime Minister David Cameron responded to a plea from
Madeleine's parents.
DCI Redwood told Panorama, his first interview since taking on the role, that solving
Madeleine's disappearance is "the ultimate objective and is our ultimate objective".
His team of
28 detectives and seven civilian support staff are working their way through an estimated 40,000 pieces of information, including
reports and documents from UK police, Portuguese police and private detectives hired by the McCanns.
He said one major advantage for Operation Grange is that for the first time it has access to all of the available
evidence all in one place.
"At no time before have those three elements been drawn together in one place.
And so what we've done over the past number of months is to bring to one place all those pieces of the jigsaw."
DCI Redwood believes the case could be solved by reappraising the documentary evidence.
"Clearly within
that material, the answer could lie," he said.
No hostility
Officers have made
two trips to Spain and visited Portugal four times, most recently last week.
A review of the procedures followed
in the investigation is also under way in Portugal.
It is being conducted by officers in Porto, in northern Portugal,
far away from the Algarve where Madeleine went missing.
Portuguese public opinion has not been supportive of the parents of Madeleine, but DCI Redwood said he is finding
no hostility from the Portuguese review team.
"Those officers are engaged, they are open, they are working
with us collaboratively and I've not encountered with them any of those views."
But he said if the case
is to be reopened, it is up to the Portuguese police.
"It is a sovereign decision for the Portuguese authorities.
But obviously what we seek to do is to bring them the best quality information to assist them in making that decision."
Andy Redwood says investigation team has 'best opportunity' to find leads into disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Shiv Malik Tuesday 24 April 2012 19.29 BST
The officer in charge of a renewed Metropolitan police investigation
into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann says he hopes to solve the case, five years after she disappeared from a resort
in Portugal.
Detective chief inspector Andy Redwood told BBC's Panorama programme that he and his 35-strong
team will begin analysing nearly 40,000 documents in what he says is the best opportunity for finding the child, who disappeared
on 3 May 2007, just before her fourth birthday.
Redwood, who is leading Operation Grange, which was set up after
an intervention from David Cameron last year, said his team had access to all of the available evidence on the case gathered
by Portuguese police and private investigators.
He said that this wealth of information offered the "best
opportunity" to find leads, which would then be presented to police in Portugal who continue to lead on the investigation.
"There is, ultimately, a process of us turning every single piece of paper over and interpreting and analysing
what is contained within them," he said.
So far, the new review of the McCann case has cost taxpayers £2m.
The former home secretary Alan Johnson, who was also interviewed for the programme, which airs tonight, called on
Cameron to launch a "charm offensive" on the Portuguese government to help boost the McCanns' profile and get
further co-operation from the country's police. "A bit of diplomacy can ensure that you do get the co-operation you
need," he said.
Maddie police: We have evidence that
may help us solve the mystery, 25 April 2012
Maddie police: We have evidence that may help us solve
the mystery Daily Express (paper edition)
----------------
Maddie McCann police: We have evidence that
may help us solve case Daily Express
By John Twomey Wednesday
April 25,2012
THE detective leading Scotland Yard's probe into the disappearance of Madeleine
McCann has given new hope to her parents by declaring how police aim to solve the case.
Andy Redwood says
the work of his 35-strong squad is the "best opportunity yet" of discovering exactly what happened to
the little girl who went missing days before her fourth birthday while on holiday in Portugal.
Detective Chief
Inspector Redwood explained the key to his inquiry is bringing together three separate investigations.
A mass of
material from police in Portugal and Britain along with files from private investigators hired by Madeleine’s parents
Kate and Gerry McCann is now housed in Belgravia police station in central London.
"We are here in terms of
seeking to bring closure to the case. That would be our ultimate objective," Mr Redwood told BBC's Panorama.
"Closure means establishing what has happened to Madeleine McCann."
Interviewer Richard Bilton asked
him: "Solving it?" Mr Redwood replied: "Yes, solving it, of course."
He said the task facing
the Yard team is massive. He said: "Our initial estimates in terms of the amount of material we are facing is that it
will be somewhere in the region of 40,000 pieces of information.
"There is, ultimately, a process of us turning
every single piece of paper over and interpreting and analysing what is contained within them.
"Anything is
possible, and clearly, within that material, the answer could lie."
The probe, codenamed Operation Grange,
was launched in May last year after the McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, appealed directly to Prime Minister David Cameron for
help from Scotland Yard.
Last week, officers made a fourth visit to Portugal and they have also been to Spain twice.
So far, Operation Grange has cost taxpayers £2million. The money has come from a Home Office contingency fund.
Madeleine vanished from a flat in the holiday resort of Praia da Luz on the Portuguese Algarve coast on May 3, 2007.
The Portuguese, who faced severe criticism over the way the investigation was handled, formally shelved the case in 2008.
But Mr Redwood said he hopes the work of the Operation Grange team, composed of 28 detectives and seven civilian support staff,
will lead to the inquiry there being re-opened.
He said: "I am satisfied that the systems and processes that
we are bringing to this set of circumstances will give us the best opportunity to find those investigative opportunities that
we can then present to our colleagues in Portugal."
Mr Redwood stressed the advantage of having all the available
evidence in one place, including the detailed dossier compiled by Metodo 3, the Barcelona-based investigations firm hired
by the McCanns.
Francisco Marco, the agency’s director, has revealed that up to eight "important leads"
were handed to Operation Grange when officers from the Yard visited Spain in December, last year.
Mr Redwood said:
"We are drawing together information from three separate sources. At no time before have those three elements been drawn
together in one place.
"And so what we've done over the past number of months is to bring to one place
all those pieces of the jigsaw."
The Panorama programme is on BBC1 at 7.30pm tonight, apart from in the North-west.
It also features an interview with Goncalo Amaral, who led the initial Portuguese inquiry.
He was removed after
his outspoken criticism of the British involvement in the investigation.
He said: "It's a fact that our
investigation had its faults and lost a lot of time, lots of time. And a lot of things didn't get followed up. I'm
just as much to blame for that as anyone else."
Top cop: I'll solve Maddie mystery,
25 April 2012
Top cop: I'll solve Maddie mystery Daily Star (paper edition)
Amazing new
evidence revealed
------------------- Top cop: I'll solve Madeleine McCann mystery Daily Star
By Jerry Lawton, Chief Crime
Correspondent 25th April 2012 [12:00am]
THE British detective leading the hunt for Madeleine
McCann says he has the "best opportunity" ever to discover what really happened to her.
Det
Chief Insp Andy Redwood is the first officer to get access to both the UK and Portuguese files into the child's disappearance,
which he says puts him in a "unique position" to solve the mystery.
And he says the clue that could crack
the case could well lie within the 40,000 pieces of evidence his team of officers are currently sifting through.
"Clearly within that material the answer could lie," he tells tonight's Panorama. "We are here in terms
of seeking to bring closure to the case.
"That would be the ultimate objective. Closure means establishing
what has happened to Madeleine McCann – solving it, of course."
Mr Redwood talked to the BBC news show
nearly five years after three-year-old Maddie vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of
Praia da Luz while her parents Kate and Gerry dined at a nearby tapas bar.
Despite several claimed sightings around
the world in the months and years that foll-owed, no trace of the youngster has ever been found. But Mr Redwood believes his
team on Operation Grange, a review of the case launched by David Cameron last May, could provide some answers.
Portuguese
police remain the lead investigators and the UK team reports to them – but Mr Redwood, speaking a week before Maddie's
ninth birthday, said his 28 detectives were determined to solve the case from their central London HQ.
And he said
the key is being able to see all evidence collected by police in Portugal and the UK, as well as private investigators, which
were used by Kate, 44, and Gerry, 43, after Maddie's disappearance in May 2007.
At no time before have those
three elements been drawn together in one place," he said. "What we've done is to bring to one place all those
pieces of the jigsaw.
"There is ultimately a process of us turning every single piece of paper over and interpreting
and analysing what is contained within them.
"The systems and processes we are bringing to this set of circumstances
will give us the best opportunity to find those investigative opportunities that we can then present to our colleagues in
Portugal."
BBC Panorama – Madeleine: The Last Hope? is on BBC1 tonight at 7.30pm.
The detective leading the British review into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has spoken of now having the
"best opportunity" of finally solving the mystery of what happened to her.
Detective Chief Inspector
Andy Redwood said his inquiry, named Operation Grange, had access to all of the available evidence in one place for the first
time.
It will be five years ago next week since the three-year-old went missing from her family's holiday flat
in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, as her parents Kate and Gerry McCann dined with friends nearby.
There have been
hundreds of possible sightings of her all over the world since she vanished, but so far they have come to nothing.
Mr Redwood told the BBC's Panorama programme that his team of 28 detectives and seven civilian support staff were handling
a large number of reports and documents from both Portuguese and British police along with private detectives.
He
said: "I am satisfied that the systems and processes that we are bringing to this set of circumstances will give us the
best opportunity to find those investigative opportunities that we can then present to our colleagues in Portugal.
"Our initial estimates in terms of the amount of material we are facing is that it will be somewhere in the region
of 40,000 pieces of information. There is, ultimately, a process of us turning every single piece of paper over and interpreting
and analysing what is contained within them."
Asked by reporter Richard Bilton if Madeleine's disappearance
on May 3 2007 could be solved simply by reappraising documentary evidence, he said: "Anything is possible, and clearly,
within that material, the answer could lie."
The Metropolitan Police detective is the senior investigator
in the inquiry, which was established last May after David Cameron responded to a plea from Madeleine's parents to hold
a UK police review of the case. To date the review has cost taxpayers £2 million while officers have made two trips
to Spain and visited Portugal four times, most recently last week.
Mr Redwood told the programme: "We are
here in terms of seeking to bring closure to the case. That would be the ultimate objective and is our ultimate objective.
We are drawing together information from three separate sources. The legal enforcement bodies within Portugal, the UK enforcement
agencies of which the police are the main part, and also and unusually the private investigation world which as we know is
an element that was used by Mr and Mrs McCann in the search for their daughter."
Detectives believe there is a possibility
that Madeleine McCann is still alive, 25 April 2012
Detectives believe there is a possibility that Madeleine
McCann is still alive. Metropolitan Police
25 April 2012
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service conducting the investigative review into the disappearance
of Madeleine McCann are releasing an age progression image of her as we approach her ninth birthday on 12 May.
The
image has been created in close collaboration with the family and is being released ahead of the fifth anniversary of her
disappearance on 3 May. It shows how we believe Madeleine would look today.
The release comes as
detectives announce that as a result of evidence uncovered during the review they now believe there is a possibility Madeleine
is still alive and are appealing for anyone who is able to provide direct information as to her whereabouts to contact the
team.
The investigative review commenced in May 2011 under the leadership of the then commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson.
A murder team within the Homicide and Serious Crime Command was tasked to conduct the review and is led by Detective Chief
Inspector Andy Redwood acting to Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell and Commander Simon Foy.
Work of
the team involves close collaboration with a senior investigating officer from the Policia Judaria and detectives have been
to Portugal several times.
Throughout the course of the review officers have been in close contact with the McCann
family who have been assigned a Family Liaison Officer as is standard in accordance with national family liaison policy.
The review team are in a unique position in that their task is to compile and review material from three separate
strands - the Portuguese investigation, inquiries by UK law enforcement agencies, and the work of private investigators/agencies.
Officers are now methodically going through that material which they believe amounts to around 40,000 pieces of information
equating to approximately 100,000 pages.
The intention is to identify from that material investigative opportunities
which we will then present to the Portuguese authorities who retain primacy for the investigation. Officers have so far identified
around 195 such opportunities within the historic material, and are also developing what they believe to be genuinely new
material.
The objective of the review team is to work with the Portuguese authorities with a view to having the
case, which has remained closed since 2008, re-opened in due course. DCI Andy Redwood said: "From
the outset we have approached this review with a completely open mind, placing Madeleine McCann at the heart of everything
we do. We are working on the basis of two possibilities here. One is that Madeleine is still alive; and the second that she
is sadly dead.
"Based on the former we are releasing the age progression image today with a specific appeal.
"If you know where Madeleine McCann is now or you have new direct information/evidence about what has happened
to her then please contact us.
"The second point of appeal today is in relation to those who were at the resort
of Praia da Luz between 28 April and 3 May 2007. If you were either on holiday or in residence in the resort during this period,
particularly in the vicinity of the Ocean Club, and you have not been spoken to by police either here or in Portugal then
please call us on 0800 0961011 if you are within the UK. The number for non-UK residents is +44 2071580 126. Alternatively
if you do not want to speak to us directly you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Madeleine McCann - Age progressed to
age 9, 25 April 2012
