Duarte Levy, 19 June 2009 - 09 July 2009
|
Joana Morais
June 19, 2009
In this post I will expose and prove how the so called journalist 'Duarte Levy' is nothing more than a con man, a swindler
and a dangerous pathological liar. I was compelled to write this article as a warning for others who may fall prey of his
lies and manipulative games, even though the subsequences that will probably originate from here will no doubt be used by
persons who have other agendas.
In 2007 I used to follow a few blogs to learn about the Madeleine McCann case, one of those blogs was SOS Maddie, written
by a freelance Belgian journalist, 'Duarte Levy'. As many others, I had the impression that 'Duarte Levy' was a man that knew
through investigative journalism and that had in his possession documents which he would use as a basis to then write articles
about the Madeleine case.
Later in 2008, Duarte Levy wanted to meet me, at the time I was in the North of Portugal at my family's house, and he
travelled there to meet me and to talk about the case. What I didn't know at the time is that Duarte Levy 'studies' very well
his soon to be victims, before he does the operation 'Charm & Con'.
Anyway let's stop calling this man 'Duarte Levy' since that is not his real name. Let's call him by the name that his
Portuguese parents gave him: Nuno Miguel Duarte, being Duarte his family name, a common name in Portugal like Silva or Lopes.
So, in 2008, this man, wanted to meet me. Obviously I was absolutely excited for knowing someone that could fill in the
gaps, with whom I could exchange information and ideas. He presented himself as being Duarte Levy, a freelance journalist
who worked with The Times, The Sun, Hareetz, La Derniere Heure, El Mundo and several other papers which I don't recall - The
Times and El Mundo being the only newspapers that I could confirm the veracity of his allegations [that is regarding the Madeleine
McCann affair; previous to that... nothing exists].
When I questioned that his name 'Duarte Levy' didn't appear in the on-line newspapers or that his professional past as
a freelance journalist simply wasn't traceable he told me that he wrote under a few alias', one of them being Simon de Bruxelles
[profile at
journalisted.com;
facebook and
twitter]; the twitter social profile of Simon de Bruxelles has however a striking similarity with
'Duarte Levy' &
'Arthur Finkelstein' twitter profiles, updates, similar followers, etc... As a final consideration on these three tweeter profiles, I can
only assume that the journalist 'Duarte Levy' uses this
'sock puppets' to sustain his own allegations and to, in the public view, assume a credible professional image.
There is also another fake on-line character, just created to praise and divulge his work - a kind of split personality
syndrome - named DJorn - which as 'Duarte Levy' himself explained to me was a nick created by adding his name 'Duarte' with
'Jornalista' [Journalist].
Djorn, who is a member of the 3 Arguidos forum, has defended his "master's voice" several times, even affirming
that he and Duarte Levy are totally different persons - interestingly Djorn posted several times on the 3 Arguidos forum using
- guess what - my own IP address, attributed by TVCABO operator [see screenshots below] - which is odd, to say the least,
considering that I never met Djorn. Or did I?
Another interesting situation is how Djorn was also able to connect to the internet via the TMN GPRS operator, an account
that 'Duarte Levy' asked me to open for him, affirming that he would pay me every month, since he didn't have a Portuguese
home address to give - a condition to have a mobile net service. Yes, gullibly, I opened that account with my name, my home
address and ended up paying more than 1000 Euros - and this is not an easy thing to assume in front of unknown persons: I
was defrauded.
Moving on and resuming what could become very quickly a long tale.
'Duarte Levy' upholds a professional image that has no basis at all and that no one (not even colleagues) are able to
verify, this despite several attempts to corroborate a highly unlikely professional past history; he alleges to have immeasurable
contacts and knowledge to the highest levels than can never be verified [José Socrates, Ricardo Paiva, Lopes da Mota, Clarence
Mitchell, Paulo Rebelo, etc]; he fantasises, deceives about the possession of explosive documentation whose existence cannot
be proved and when confronted or urged to demonstrate the veracity of fantasist allegations, has always a ready-made answer.
If pressured, he reacts in an aggressive and/or a victimizing behaviour, never recognizing that he can be in error, even keeping
fantasised characters to sustain his allegations.
The conclusion that I arrived is that this man exhibits a pattern of systematic lies, of compulsive nature, he is someone
who is a fantasist, a megalomaniac and without any doubts a pathological liar.
*
Duarte Levy
28/06/2009
NOTE: All the information published by me on this blog or any other blog, not to mention the media with whom I continue
to work, is authentic and has been verified from several sources as required by a journalist. Obviously I am always ready
to defend myself against any counter claim. Besides, any matter which does not have a direct connection with my work but is
about my private life, in particular comments that were made recently after the end of a romantic relationship that lasted
for several months, does not deserve a response... at least not here.
*
Joana Morais
June 30, 2009
'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.' in 'The Sign of the Four' (1890) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Following my initial approach concerning the alleged 'investigative journalism' that is practised by a person that calls
himself 'Duarte Levy', and having been confronted with suggestions that I might be merely reacting to a personal problem,
I leave you a collection of items that range from the merely doubtful to the outright fantastic.
It is not my concern to discredit the person who produced these so-called facts, but rather to urge people who have been
following the Madeleine McCann case, to seriously question these allegations and to start with a fresh clean slate.
The rogatory interviews done with the Tapas 7 in the UK, in April 2008,
are legitimate. The DVD process is authentic. The book written by the former coordinator to the case is based on facts pertaining
to the investigation - it is there that we should look for the Truth.
What is not true/does not exist/incorrect fabrications :
The 24 photos
- The story according to Duarte: a Spanish tourist that was on the night of 3 of May having dinner at the Ocean Club's restaurant
known as Tapas Bar takes some photos which show a few of the Tapas group members and how some, like Kate McCann, changed clothes;
then the Spanish tourist back in Spain is robbed, his apartment was broken in and the camera with the alleged photos is taken;
then the camera and the thief are found by the Spanish police; then Duarte worked as a middle man between the Spanish tourist
the PJ and the British media who had an interest and wanted to buy the alleged photos.
Explosive
documents left behind by Justine McGuinness - a dossier with documents, and a sketched map that pinpointed
a location on Ribeira do Vascão. Duarte knows perfectly well that the 'explosive documents' were in fact a message of a group,
inviting the McCanns for a meeting and a prayer for Madeleine.
Interview of Antonio Jiminez in a Spanish jail
- Antonio Jimenez,
an ex-officer, assistant investigator of Metodo 3 detectives agency who was arrested on drug trafficking charges - this bit
is true. What is not true is that he ever met 'journalist Duarte Levy'. In fact, no video recorded interview was made of Antonio
Jimenez.
Extra facts that are NOT true:
A debate in Lisbon promoted by 'Duarte Levy' about the McCann case
- which never happened in spite of 'Duarte Levy' affirming the contrary. The debate according to him happened in Fábrica Braço
de Prata, or in Universidade Lusofona.
A book written in partnership by Duarte Levy and others - sold in
advance to the French ladies in his SOS Maddie forum, the book was never sent to the members of that forum, or to any other
persons who reserved it. Duarte has stated that his share of the book 'Maddie.Net' was given to the Unicef. [see screenshot
below]
Duarte being a good pal with: Paulo Rebelo, Jose Socrates, António José Seguro, Lopes da Mota, Ricardo
Paiva, etc.
Duarte being on: Oprah, in Sri Lanka, in Dubai, Aachen, etc..
What we still don't know, and might be based in genuine fact(s) i.e. 1% of truth/99% of falsehood
:
The McCanns demanding 100,000-500,000 euros in a non-existent lawsuit
The PJ mole - a family member of one PJ superior officer
A forensics report with 17 matching markers out of 19, when the preliminary report only detailed 15 markers - Duarte
Levy claimed he had access to that document in the Portuguese Documentary about Madeleiene McCann in 'Maddie: The Truth
of the Lie'.
The Tapas who gave interviews to 'Duarte Levy', repentant and who broke the 'McCann's Pact'
Kate McCanns' suicide attempt
Jose Luis Arnault meeting with Gerry McCann
Bob Small coming forward in an interview given to 'Duarte Levy'
The People's photo which by 'Duarte Levy's' account was a lookalike
'Duarte Levy' week in Rothley with the McCanns
The British abandoned cemetery where Madeleine's body is, which sometimes was in Madrid other times was in Huelva and
which has a webcam recording 24/7
Clarence Mitchell being a good pal and facilitating information to 'Duarte Levy'
Duarte having numerous contacts in the SIS, PJ, FBI, Mossad, Nasa, etc...
The satellite dish facing Morocco article
The hit and run incident in Barcelona
The room hotel assault where his laptop was stolen
Being arrested at the airport of Madrid upon arrival
*
Paulo Reis
9.7.09
As a journalist since 1982, I always did my best
to check and confirm, with several and reliable sources, all facts and information in the articles I published, either alone
or co-authored. Serious allegations were raised by Joana Morais, a blogger that I know and respect, concerning the credibility
of Mr. Duarte Levy, with whom I co-authored many articles about Madeleine Mccann's investigation.
My credibility
is also seriously damaged, due to my association with him. A journalist's credibility takes a long time to build but it's
a fragile thing. A single mistake is enough to destroy it. Once lost, it's almost impossible to have it back. So, I decided
to stop writing about this case.
Time – and the persistent work of so many people, in hundreds of blogs and
dozens of forums, analyzing the large amount of information available – will show what is truth and what is not truth.
In the end, I believe, truth will prevail – and that is the most important.
|
|
DNA test boosts parents' hope that Madeleine is still alive
Timesonline
Paulo Reis in Praia da Luz, and Duarte Levy August 16, 2007
Traces of blood
discovered in the bedroom where Madeleine McCann was sleeping on the night that she disappeared do not come from the missing
girl, The Times has learnt.
The conclusion that the blood came from a man follows two weeks of reports that the
traces proved that Madeleine had been killed in the Algarve holiday apartment.
The finding will give fresh hope
to Kate and Gerry McCann, who have said that they continue to believe that their daughter will still be found alive 105 days
after she was taken from her bed.
The minute spots of blood, which were discovered on a bedroom wall by British
sniffer dogs, had been sent for testing at the headquarters of the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham.
The
four pages of technical results conclude that the blood did not come from Madeleine.
The analysis shows that the
blood probably comes from a white man from the "northeast European subgroup". However, this conclusion is only 72
per cent accurate owing to the poor condition of the sample because of its age and also that the bedroom wall had been cleaned
with a detergent. The Forensic Science Service is carrying out further tests on the samples.
Detectives had already
suspected that the blood came from a man who had injured himself while staying at the two-bedroom apartment after Madeleine
disappeared. This explains why the blood was not discovered when Portuguese police examined the apartment in the first weeks
of the investigation. The ground-floor apartment in the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz was cordoned off by police for five
weeks after Madeleine’s disappearance before being handed back to its British owners.
Mrs McCann contemplated
for the first time yesterday returning to Britain to live without Madeleine: "We know we will be going back and I guess
one day we will wake up and it will be right. We never thought that we would go before she came back. Now we just don’t
know. We have the twins to consider. I can’t imagine how we came out as a family of five and going back as a four."
The Times reported yesterday that Portuguese police have said for the first time that the focus of the inquiry is
that Madeleine is now dead. Inspector Olegário Sousa, of the PolÍcia Judiciária (PJ), said: "The
possibility of Madeleine's death is the one that we are paying more attention. However, none of the other possibilities
is closed."
Mr Sousa confirmed that one of the dogs had found a scent indicating that a corpse had been in
the apartment.
Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, are likely to face fresh questioning
by police next week. The seven British adults with them at the Ocean Club are also likely to be requestioned.
The
couple and their friends were dining at a tapas restaurant at the resort complex on May 3 while Madeleine was asleep in the
apartment with her two-year-old twin brothers and sister, Sean and Amelie.
Mr Sousa said this week that the McCanns
are regarded as witnesses and are not considered suspects. But he refused to rule out the possibility that their friends may
have been involved.
Portuguese police are believed to have found some new evidence in the case about two weeks
ago which led to officers saying that they now considered it possible that Madeleine, who disappeared shortly before her fourth
birthday, was now dead. However, reports that they are hunting a mystery British man who had stayed in Praia da Luz at the
same time as the McCanns have been dismissed. James Gorrod, 34, a solicitor from Exeter, said that detectives had cleared
him and his wife of any link to her disappearance. They had raised suspicion because they were a couple who were on holiday
with the McCanns and had hired a car with a child seat. However, it transpired that they were travelling with their two-year-old
son.
Detectives in Portugal are expected to hold the first press conference on the investigation tomorrow for more
than a month. A judge is expected to decide this month that the only official suspect in the case, Robert Murat, 33, should
be cleared.
|
Detectives hunting for Madeleine on alert for series of new searches, 18 August
2007
|
Detectives hunting for Madeleine on alert for series of new searches The Times
Paulo Reis in Praia da Luz, Duarte Levy and David Brown August 18, 2007
GMB LINK
|
Detectives' hunt for Madeleine
'was illegal', 25 August 2007
|
Detectives' hunt for Madeleine
'was illegal'
The Times
Paulo Reis in Praia da Luz,
Duarte Levy andDavid Brown
August 25, 2007
GMB LINK
|
Final report not yet sent to Portugal, 06 September 2007
|
Final report not yet sent to Portugal
Gazeta Digital
6.9.07
Portuguese TV crew creates panic in Birmingham
The final report of the analysis being made at Forensic Science Service (FSS), the British Police laboratory in Birmingham,
wasn't yet sent to Portugal. Only some partial results were sent and Portuguese CID received it today, September 5. The
British Police laboratory has been sending some partial results to the Portuguese authorities since the second week of August,
as The Times referred, in August 16.
Meanwhile, a Portuguese TV crew that was recording in front of FSS building,
in Birmingham, was threatened and Police was called, by the private security of FSS. Tiago Contreiras, from RTP, was warned
first, by a security element that "he should leave the place, immediately, for security reasons, as that area was off-limits
for journalists". When the journalist questioned that order, somebody who introduced herself as the laboratory director,
talking in a "very aggressive way", as Tiago Contreiras told, threatened the journalists, saying that if he didn't
moved from that place immediately he would face some unpleasant consequences.
A police car came to the place but
the policemen remain inside and took no action. Inside the FSS building, there was total panic. As soon as a foreign TV crew
was spotted, internal security gave orders to close all the windows and the building's entry was blocked, with orders
to not allow anyone to go out or come inside.
The TV crew has an interview scheduled wit Madeleine's grandmother
but, after this episode, the McCann family Press Office called Tiago Contreiras and cancelled the interview.
Paulo
Reis with Duarte Levy in Birmingham
|
Madeleine McCann - One more witness contradicts Jane Tanner statement, 29 October
2007
|
Madeleine McCann - One more witness contradicts Jane Tanner statement
NowPublic
by pjcvreis October 29, 2007 at 11:55 am
A teenager, who was with her family at Ocean Club, saw Gerry McCann and Jeremy Wilkins talking,
the night Madeleine disappeared – but she didn't see Jane Tanner or a man carrying a child. The girl wasn't
in the list of guests, as their presence at Ocean Club wasn't registered with the management. Father and daughter have
been in Portugal, recently, to help Policia Judiciaria in the reconstruction of what happened the night of May 3 and to give
a formal statement to Police, according to a source close to the case.
Speaking to SOS Madeleine, the Irish teenager
confirmed she saw Gerry McCann and Jeremy Wilkins talking, for a few minutes, near the McCann apartment: "There was only
the father of the little girl talking to another man."
The teenager went out for a cigarette, around the same
time Jane Tanner said she saw a man carrying a child. She only mentioned what she saw to her family later, because she had
also to confess the reason why she was there. Since the beginning, Police had some doubts about Jane Tanner statement, as
Jeremy Wilkins, a tennis partner of Madeleine's father, told them he only saw Gerry McCann near the apartment.
Jane Tanner description of the man she allegedly saw was used to draw a sketch that the McCanns released, yesterday, October
25. But Jane Tanner was initially quoted, in the British Media, as saying that the man was walking to the church. Later, British
newspapers referred she said the man was walking in the opposite direction, to Robert Murat's house.
Jeremy
Wilkins told the Press he was walking his eight-month son when he met Gerry McCann, who was checking his children. The TV
producer said he didn't saw a man carrying a child and he also didn't saw Jane Tanner: "It was a very narrow
path and I think it would have been almost impossible for anyone to walk by without me noticing."
After a
few weeks claiming they couldn't talk to the Media because of Portuguese secrecy laws, the McCanns accepted being interviewed
by Antena 3, a Spanish TV channel. Gerry McCann praised the Portuguese Police but, at the same time, the usual "family
friends" were quoted by the British Media in another attack to the credibility of Portuguese police, who hasn't recorded
the statements given by Madeleine parents. This is denied by a PJ source, who told that "all formal questionings of the
McCanns were recorded, but no recording was made from the informal meetings with them."
Statements given to
Police, in the Portuguese legal system, are only used in the investigation and even confessions are not valued by courts,
as only statements made during trial are considered evidence.
Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis
Gazeta Digitial http://www.gazetadigital.blogspot.com/
|
PJ detectives prepare for final steps of the investigation, 30 October 2007
|
PJ detectives prepare for final steps of the investigation
Gazeta Digital
30.10.07
Paulo Rebelo called a meeting with all the detective's
team working in Madeleine's case for today, October 30. Criminal coordinator Gonçalo Amaral, previously in charge
of the investigation, was asked to participate in the meeting. The last days have been very busy for Paulo Rebelo and his
team of around twenty detectives working in the case. Recently, a new witness has been in Portugal and went to PJ headquarters
in Portimão. This witness, an Irish teenager, saw Gerry McCann and Jeremy Wilkins talking, near the apartment from
where Madeleine vanished, in the night of May 3, but she is also sure that there was no man carrying a child or Jane Tanner
around, at that time.
Paulo Rebelo decided to call a special meeting to make a general analysis of the conclusions
of the investigation, until now, after a careful review of all evidence collected, including the results of the samples already
sent by Forensic Science Service. Yesterday, October 29, a team of detectives headed by Paulo Rebelo went to apartment 5A,
at ocean Club, to check with detail some aspects of those conclusions. After almost four hours inside the apartment, the other
detectives left to Portimão, while Paulo Rebelo went to the small square near the church with another PJ investigator.
Before calling the meeting, Paulo Rebelo had a long talk with the national director of Polícia Judiciária, Alípio
Ribeiro.
News in the Portuguese Press referred that Portuguese police was still waiting, last week, for the list
of phone calls made from Praia da Luz, using mobile phones from UK networks. A request has been made to Police in the UK to
allow Portuguese police to check the calls with the list of guests and other people staying at Praia da Luz, since the McCann
arrived there, on April 28.
This meeting follows also the first public indications that the Portuguese Government
is getting more uncomfortable with the violent attacks directed against the Portuguese police and the Judicial system. Mr.
Santana Carlos, the Portuguese Ambassador in London, criticise the attitude of British Media, in a interview with The Times,
and referred that there are "many more cases of abductions (in UK) than Portugal, and nobody talks about that, but this
(Madeleine) case has come up very, very high in the news."
Also last week, the McCann revealed, for the first
time, they have hired a Spanish detectives private company, Metodo 3, to help find Madeleine. The company, according to Antena
3, was hired in August, before the McCann were named as formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter. The company
set up a hotline and issued a sketch of an alleged abductor, seen by one of the friends of the McCann, Jane Tanner, less than
30 minutes Kate McCann found Madeleine was missing.
Just a few days after the hotline was set up, Marita Fernandez,
the general-manager of Metodo 3, told Spanish Media that witnesses calling the line have confirmed Madeleine McCann was alive
and in Morocco. Metodo 3 told newspapers they had also found another kidnapped child, an American blonde girl, in the mountains
of Rif. But a source from "Sureté Nacionale", the Moroccan intelligence services, denied this information
and told us they didn't have any information about the American girl or Madeleine McCann sightings.
The law
that regulates privates detectives work, in Spain, demands that any information related to a crime must be immediately forwarded
to Police. A PJ investigator considered "very strange" that a positive identification of Madeleine, as the one referred
by Metodo 3, could be made available to the Media, instead of remaining absolutely confidential: "This could be a death
sentence, if the child was in the hands of a paedophile network, what those Spanish detectives say it's also a possibility..."
Moroccan authorities expelled a British citizen, recently, after he offered large amounts of money in exchange of
specific statements about a blonde girl, to several staff members from a gas station in Marrakesh – the same city were
Interpol will have its 76 General Assembly, between 5 and 8 of November.
Duarte Levy (Marrakesh) and Paulo Reis
(Lisbon)
|
McCann friends breaking ranks, 07 November 2007
|
McCann friends breaking ranks
Gazeta Digital
7.11.07
Lawyers from two of the McCann friends who were having
dinner at Tapas Bar, on the night of May 3, have contacted Police, recently, and told their clients were willing to be questioned
again, in order to "correct" some details that were mentioned in their initial statements. The two members of Tapas'
group asked for their identity to remain confidential, as they fear the "clarification" they want to do, about the
events on the night Madeleine disappeared, could bring some pressure from people connected to the McCann family.
Contradictions among the seven friends that were having diner with the parents of Madeleine McCann have been, since the
beginning, one of the reasons why the investigation of Polícia Judiciária has looked into other theory, apart
the possibility of a kidnapping. After Gonçalo Amaral was replaced as the head of the investigation, by Paulo Rebelo,
on October 3, a complete review of the case and all evidence collected has taken place.
But the results of this
review, until now, didn't changed the main line of inquiry – one that Portuguese police first referred on August
11, exactly hundred days after Madeleine's disappearance. Paulo Rebelo called a meeting with the all investigators involved
in the case and invited Gonçalo Amaral to participate, last week, in order to be briefed about the review made by the
team of experts he brought from Lisbon.
Police is now getting ready for the final steps of the investigation: a
new round of questioning of the McCann's friends, to take place in UK, after all the results from the samples collected
at the crime scene and sent to the Forensic Science Service, in Birmingham. Until now, all evidence collected "gives
consistency to the possibility of Madeleine McCann being dead and there are almost no leads than point to a kidnapping",
according to a source close to the case.
Since the end of May, when first reports were published in the Portuguese
Press, casting doubts about the statements of parents and friends, the McCann started their own private investigation. They
hired Control Risk Group, a risk management and security company, staffed with former members of the British Special Forces
and Intelligence services, to help find Madeleine. But this contract was revealed only in September and, during that time,
the couple from Leicester always made clear they trusted the investigation of the Portuguese police.
When the former
head of PJ team, Gonçalo Amaral, was replaced, after criticizing the lack of cooperation from the British Police, the
McCann said they hoped the man in charge, Paulo Rebelo, would drop the status of "formal suspects" the parents were
given, in early September, and go back to the initial theory – that Madeleine was kidnapped. At the same time, they
hired Metodo 3, a leading Spanish detectives company, to set up a hotline for witnesses with information about the child.
In the first weeks, dozens of alleged sightings were reported to that hotline, putting Madeleine McCann in specific
areas, in Morocco. This weekend, Moroccan authorities made a clear denial of the existence of any clue about the presence
of Madeleine McCann in Morocco and announced that one of the alleged "positive identifications", in the city of
Fnideq, was a local girl who lives with her parents.
The campaign to find Madeleine was supposed to start a new
phase, in October, with Portugal, Spain and Morocco as main targets but no signals of that new phase are visible, yet. A request
for an interview with the McCann, on behalf of French and Moroccan TV channels, was considered "very interesting"
but postponed to a unknown date because, according to the McCann's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, Gerry and Kate's
lawyers advised them not to do any interviews. The last one, to Antena 3, gave the opposite results the McCann expected. Even
with Kate McCann crying in public, for the first time, a pool showed around 70 % or Spanish viewers believed the parents are
not telling the truth about their daughter.
Duarte Levy (London) and Paulo Reis (Praia da Luz)
|
Maddie: Police conducting a battle between David and Goliath, 02 February 2008
|
Maddie: Police conducting a battle between David and Goliath
SOS Madeleine McCann
By Duarte Levy 02/02/2008 Thanks to 'beachy' for translation
"In the McCann inquiry, given the obstacles that have been created in the United Kingdom, the better tactic would
have been to continue the investigation without naming the parents as arguidos," said a source from the PJ about statements
of their National Director, adding that "at the moment the investigation has become a battle between David and Goliath."
The National Director of the Judicial Police (PJ), Alípio Ribeiro, considered yesterday that there had been
"haste" in constituting Kate and Gerry McCann as arguidos in the disappearance of their daughter. Alipio Ribeiro
also confirms that the right direction is being followed by the investigators and that this is an investigation and we
must be patient.
The statements by the Director of the PJ were made during the recording of the "Diga Lá
Excelence" programme on Radio Renascença which will be broadcast tomorrow afternoon, in which he is questioned
by journalists and Paula Paiva Celso Torres.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann, responded
rapidly to the statements by the National Director of the Judicial Police stating that the couple had "very well received
comments from Alipio Ribeiro in which he accepts that Portuguese police officers under his authority had acted in haste
in designating the McCanns as official suspects." Clarence Mitchell went further, and even before full knowledge
of Alipio Ribeiro's interview, invited the Portuguese authorities to remove their status as arguidos, with "humanity."
The former director of the British Media Minitoring Unit, who became head of public relations for the McCann couple,
responded via the Find Madeleine web site, which now has a new design. The site has adopted a more low-key look and more pink,
maintaining the sale of bracelets and T-shirts but no longer [reporting] the financial situation of the Madeleine Fund.
|
McCanns
rented car: 11,229 kms in four months, 08 August 2008
|
Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis
08 August 2008
The Renault Scenic
was rented by the McCanns on May 27, 2007 and sent back to the renting company on September 23. Mr. Alexander Cameron was
also registered as a driver, on May 27. At the end of August, another driver was included in the list: Michael Terence Wright.
The final contract extension was signed
until September 24. Before the end of the contract, there was a contact between the company and the McCanns, because Madeleine's
parents were interested in keeping the car for more time.
But the company had also a renting contract with Renault Portugal and had to send the car back to them,
so could not extend the renting period. The only way for the McCanns to keep the car was buying it, but they refused.
On September 23, the car was delivered
to the renting company, in Lagos. A tall man, around 1,80 metres, with short grey hair, 60 to 65 years old, speaking English,
took the car back and signed the delivery document. The car drove 11,229 km, between May 27 and September 23.
Payments to the renting company were made with credit cards. Several extensions of the renting contract
were negotiated, with at least two different credit card numbers. The last extension was made on September 1, until September
24.
|
McCann case: 24 pictures that may help to re-open the case, 13 August 2008
|
McCann case: 24 pictures that may help to re-open the case
Gazeta Digital
13.8.08
A tourist that was at the Tapas Bar, on the night of
May 3, took several pictures where the table with the McCann and their friends is visible. The tourist was with his wife and
another couple and they took pictures from each other, with the McCann table on the background.
The owner of the
pictures is negotiating with several British newspapers to sell the rights for an exclusive publication, but with a condition:
before being published, the pictures must be sent to the Portuguese police. The tourist is well aware that the pictures may
have important evidence related with a crime and not sending it to police is considered also a crime, in his country.
Yesterday, a well known legal office from UK knew about the existence of those pictures and contacted the owner, offering
to buy all pictures for 600,000 Euros. But the British lawyers didn't accept the condition set by the owner – that
the pictures should be sent to the Portuguese police, just before the transaction. The lawyers' office wanted to be free
to choose the moment when the pictures would be send to Portuguese authorities, so the offer was refused by the tourist.
Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis
|
GRUESOME TWOSOME, 17 August 2008
|
THE PEOPLE UNMASKS GHOULS CASHING IN ON MADDIE EXCLUSIVE
Vile fantasist ties to sell 'dynamite' Madeleine McCann pics The People
Exclusive by James Millbank
|
The People: Duarte Levy's response, 17 August 2008
|
Clarification about the article in the newspaper The People, of August 17, 2008 SOSMaddie
Duarte Levy
17 August 2008
The People: Duarte Levy's response
Clarification concerning the article in the Sunday newspaper, The People, August
17th 2008.
The information concerning me, published
today in The People newspaper, is false. Between August 9th and August 15th, I was contacted by and met with several British
journalists (*) at their request, about a witness who claimed to have seen Madeleine McCann in Brussels, and about the article
published by me and Paulo Reis about the existence of 24 photos, taken on the the night of May 3rd by tourists who were at
the Tapas Bar.
These colleagues asked me for help, because, besides the fact
that they don't speak French, they didn't know Brussels, didn't know where or to whom to direct themselves to
investigate the case of the witness claiming to have seen Madeleine.
As is
the rule between professional colleagues, I met with these journalists and I helped them as much as I could. As is obvious,
we spoke about the Madeleine McCann case, on the information published recently on my blog and on my colleague Paulo Reis'
blog. We exchanged impressions and comments. I will not repeat the comments from my English colleagues, because private conversations
are private conversations - at least for principled people.
So that it is clear, I do not have in my possession, anything which
is of interest to the authorities or which might concern the investigation of a crime.
Duarte Levy
17 August 2008
(*)
– Nick Fagge & Jonathan Buckmaster - Daily Express / Lucy Hagan - The Sun / Julie (?) Daily Mail / Emily Miller
- The Mirror / James Millbank - The People (14 and 15 August)
|
Maddie: Private detectives received help from a "mole" within the PJ,
11 November 2008
|
Maddie: Private detectives received help from a "mole" within the PJ
SOS Madeleine McCann
11/11/2008 Thanks to 'annaesse'
for translation
A Spanish
private detective reveals how the McCanns were able to gain access to confidential police information within the Maddie case.
According to one of the Spanish detectives hired by Metodo 3 within their contract with Kate
and Gerry McCann, a PJ inspector allegedly gave confidential information concerning the movements of the Portuguese investigators
and their British colleagues in the investigation into Maddie's disappearance to the Spanish agency.
The information
thus obtained allowed the private detectives to inform the McCann couple and their entourage about work being planned by the
Portuguese investigators: "Several of Amaral's men's initiatives failed thanks to information given by their
colleague... but there was also information coming from informers linked to the British embassy," this detective states.
This is the information that allowed us to know in advance what inspector Amaral and his colleagues wanted to do,"
the private detective continues during an interview recently recorded in Spain, stressing that, "the investigation would
probably have ended differently without the intervention of the private detectives, but also of certain British professionals."
In his interview, a video recorded in unusual conditions, and which will be included in a documentary for television
about Madeleine McCann's disappearance, the Spanish detective clearly identifies the PJ inspector and also puts forward,
"that he benefited from a certain protection by the PJ at Faro."
The detective goes further and states,
"that at times when the investigation was closed, thanks to information received from the Portuguese inspector, we created
diversions in the media."
"That didn't always work, because I noticed that certain operations were
set up without our knowing in advance. I imagine that Amaral must have had his suspicions and that he limited access to information
to the men he trusted," the detective adds.
"The investigation was practically condemned in advance...we
knew in advance what Amaral was preparing and the desired objective in his operations," states the detective who, after
several months of working for Metodo 3, had even tried to make contact with the Portimao CID coordinator, before he was
dismissed from the investigation: "I had personally met Gonçalo Amaral a few years ago, but he mustn't have
remembered me and as soon as he heard that I was linked to Metodo 3 he refused to speak to me, arguing that if I had important
information to bring to the case, this should be done in an official manner."
"He (Gonçalo Amaral)
was known to us as a hard guy, in particular in cases of fighting drug trafficking... he is incorruptible," the detective
concludes.
The revelation which risks creating controversy around the Algarve PJ, meanwhile confirms the suspicions
raised by certain investigators. At least two PJ inspectors, contacted by SMM, directly put forward the name of the inspector
who allegedly passed on the confidential information to the detectives of the Spanish agency. According to them, the man benefited
from a certain protection from the Faro commission and his behaviour was not new, because he had allegedly previously committed
the same offence in other investigations.
We are no longer looking for Maddie....
me, in any case, I was never hired to do that."
According to the same detective, he was allegedly
never hired to look for Madeleine MCann: "We are no longer looking for Maddie.. me, in any case, I was never hired to
do that. All I was asked to do was gather the most details in order to direct the Portuguese investigation towards
Morocco or Spain.
This former detective - who is no longer able to carry on his work - further states that the
Spanish agency allegedly led British journalists to Morocco for them to meet previously selected and paid witnesses: "the
aim was to spread the Moroccan lead in the media and thus confirm that it was indeed an abduction, which the Portuguese and
British police did not want to believe," states the detective, stressing that he is unable to say whether the McCanns
were behind this kind of operation.
"The couple never asked me to lie about anything whatsoever. Unfortunately,
I cannot say the same about the agency or the couple's entourage," the detective concludes.
Duarte Levy
---------------
McCanns had informant within the PJ TV Mais
(appears in paper edition only)
A PJ inspector supplied confidential information
to Metodo 3, concerning the movements that the Judiciária and the British policemen made on the terrain searching
for Maddie
by Hernâni Carvalho 12
November 2008 Thanks to Joana Morais for translation
The accusation
is brought forward by one of the agents from Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency that the McCanns hired, and was made during
an interview that journalist Duarte Levy recorded for Belgian television. According to said Metodo 3 agent, the privileged
information that the McCanns held were always delivered by an inspector who "benefits from a certain protection at the
Judiciária in Faro" and by informants that are connected to the British Embassy.
The PJ investigators'
most confidential movements were always monitored by the McCanns or by their entourage. The information reached them through
an informant from inside the PJ of Faro itself. The man from Metodo 3 goes as far as stating that numerous initiatives by
Amaral's men were known before time due to the alleged informant.
"That was the information that allowed
for us to known in advance what inspector Amaral and his colleagues intended to do", the Spanish private detective said.
The interview was videotaped in Spain a few days ago and will be part of a documentary about Maddie's disappearance that
the journalist is preparing. In Belgium, the case continues to raise much interest and discussion. During that interview,
the Metodo 3 agent identifies the man from the PJ in Faro. The Spanish detective states that he always knew that the investigation
was condemned. And he explains that he always knew in advance about the purposes of the actions and diligences that were carried
out by Gonçalo Amaral's team.
The detective says that he tried to speak with the coordinator of the
investigation at the PJ (Gonçalo Amaral), but the latter replied that, whatever he had to declare or to denounce, he
should do it in an official manner.
During the interview, the detective explains that he wasn't hired to search
for Maddie and that he never did that. He says that was not his mission. His mission, he says, was to carry out actions that
would direct the authorities that were responsible for the investigation and the search for Maddie, into Morocco or Spain.
And that he says he did.
The detective advances that the McCann couple never asked him to lie, but that he cannot
say the same about the McCanns' team, or Metodo 3's team.
When contacted by TV Mais, Gonçalo Amaral
says that he knows what we are talking about, but that he believes this is not the time for clarifications. The former coordinator
of the PJ's investigation about Maddie says he is still waiting for the lawsuit that the McCanns threatened him with,
and at that time he will have much to say or to reveal. Another book...
----------
Inspector
told everything to the McCanns
24horas
(page 8)
Former detective hired by Maddie's parents knew all
the steps being taken in the investigation
Text: Luis Maneta 13 November 2008 Thanks to Joana Morais for translation
Soon it can be revealed the name of the inspector who belonged to Gonçalo Amaral's team and who was a 'snitcher'
for the McCanns
A former detective from the Spanish Agency Método 3 guarantees to have had "access
to confidential information" during the investigation undertaken regarding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. According
to the detective, at the origin of this alleged leak is an element of the Judiciary Police who "is protected" by
the Directorship of Faro.
The statements given by the Método 3 man - the detective agency hired by Kate
and Gerry to search for Maddie's whereabouts - were recorded in a video by the journalist Duarte Levy and will become
part of a TV documentary on the subject.
"In the interview, the Spanish detective clearly identifies the PJ
inspector", guarantees the journalist, adding that this statement "confirm suspicions arisen" by other elements
of the Judiciary. "This information allowed us to know beforehand what inspector Gonçalo Amaral and
his colleagues where going to do", summarises the detective, who believes that without this element the investigation
"could have had a different ending".
Failed Initiatives
Quoted by Duarte Levy, the man form Método 3 says that the resultant information from an alleged "leak"
in the PJ had repercussions on the process: "Several initiatives from Amaral's men failed (...) but there was also
information coming from informants who where connected to the British Embassy". The former detective highlights that
the investigation "was doomed" since there was a previous knowledge of all the steps to be taken by the Police.
That until Gonçalo Amaral started having suspicions. Then, and still according to the detective, he started
giving information only to his "men of trust".
24horas contacted the National Directorship of
the PJ, however it did not receive an answer in time for publication. Gonçalo Amaral was out of reach up to the
end of the closing of this edition.
Facts
Incorruptible
In the interview, the detective reveals that he tried, without successes, to contact the coordinator
of the investigation to the Maddie Case, Gonçalo Amaral. "He was considered among us as tough, especially in the
fight against drug trafficking... he is incorruptible", states the detective.
Abduction
Guaranteeing that he was "never" asked to search for Maddie - he was only
asked to collect information about alleged sightings - the Método 3 man says that his objective was to "spread
broadly" the Moroccan lead to "confirm that it was an abduction."
|
The Tapas 7 rogatory interviews in the UK, 06 December 2008
|
The Tapas 7 interviews in the UK - Volume 1 SOSMaddie
By Duarte Levy
06 December 2008
Thanks to 'AnnaEsse' for translation
All seven Britons were interviewed,
in early 2008, before the Portuguese investigation was put on hold for lack of impartial and brave justice.
In the interests of the public, remembering that justice is always the conquest of civilisation over
violence, of appeasement over endless revenge, of stability over chaos, the conversations (yes, it was more like conversations
than real interviews) were recorded on video and the transcriptions will be available for download, only in English, at the
end of each article. The videos will be opportunely disclosed.
Jane
Tanner: selective memory, contradictions and other things...
After 11 months of the investigation, in spite
of all that could have been said or done about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas 9, admitted
to officer Ferguson of the Leicestershire police that she was mistaken about the arrangement in which the group were seated
at the table. An apparently minor detail, but which is now more revealing: "Russell said he was sitting between Rachael and
Diane. So, I think, I had Diane there, Russell was there. And I think Dave, I think that Dave could have been there and Fiona
there."
Jane Tanner's interview, in April 2008, was recorded
on video, to which I have had access and which will be disclosed at the right time in a documentary about Maddie's disappearance.
According to the new seating plan, Jane was sitting
"in an anti-clockwise direction," next to Kate, followed by Matthew, Fiona, David Payne, Gerry McCann, Dianne, Russell and
finally Rachael.
According to Jane Tanner, in her interview with
the British police, Kate McCann was more anxious than usual during dinner on May 3rd 2007, the night of Madeleine's disappearance:
"There is something I haven't mentioned (...) she had said that Madeleine had said something strange about where were you
last night when I woke up. And as I said, I can't
remember at what point in the meal she said that (...) I think she said "when Sean and me woke up," I can't remember if it
wasn't when two of them woke up."
"I
wondered, if there wasn't another reason, you know, why the checks were more frequent," Jane Tanner then stressed, indicating
that Kate was wondering if Maddie might wake up.
Questioned
about the length of time that Gerry was absent from the dinner table, Jane explains: "that would have been at least five minutes,
if not more, because, I wonder, because he had left before I actually left there were conversations about whether he had stopped
on the way. So, I mean, if, I think it must have been something like five or ten minutes, five or ten minutes after he had
left. I can't say for sure though."
"(...) I went back up the road and I can't remember
exactly, I know this, I know, I think that Gerry thinks he was in a different place from where I think he was standing, but
I was quite sure, as I walked back up the road, they were standing, one of them was on the road and the other was just on
the edge of the pavement, but I thought that it was at the side of the road where I was walking, but I know that Gerry thinks
they were on the other side. But I think they were closer, because as I passed, I nearly went to greet them in some way and
I thought at that moment Oh "they're chatting, chatting, chatting" and I thought, you know, I didn't, I didn't know if they
had seen me or not, but I actually went to greet them and I think if they had been so far away I don't know if I would somehow
have almost gone to say hello to them," states Jane Tanner admitting that she and Gerry don't agree about where they found
themselves.
"I thought that they were, when you go up here,
I thought they were more, euh, once again I know that this is where me and Gerry disagree, but I thought they were kind of
closer to the alleyway. I think kind of (...) I think that one of them was on the road and I think, I thought that it was
Jez on the road because he had the pram. And towards, I don't know, I can't remember in which direction he was facing. No,
I mean, I think I remember that in my statement I said it, but I can't remember now in which direction he was facing.
"And I thought that Gerry was almost on the edge
of the pavement or just, just kind of on the road, but certainly kind of alongside it, kind of closer to that alleyway. I
don't think they were near the apartment gate, I thought they were kind of a bit further down, further down the road than
that," Jane admits to the police, demonstrating - according to one of the British investigators, a quite strange memory.
"Madame Tanner gave a witness statement before
the television cameras, she was interviewed by our Portuguese colleagues...now she is incapable of remembering most of the
details - the Leicestershire police, however, got her to read her previous statements -, but curiously, she happens to clarify
certain key points that agree with the story recounted by the other members of this group," states an officer from the British
police after having viewed the videos of the interviews.
This British police
officer, who no longer has contact with this case, is meanwhile one of the direct witnesses of the most important moments
in the investigation by the Portuguese authorities. Bitter and deeply disappointed with the behaviour of the British government
in this case, the man, from a legal point of view, no longer has the right to speak about Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
A ban which he has not respected for reasons "of professionalism and moral conscience" in spite of the heavy consequences
to come.
"Oh, it's someone
taking their child to bed."
Jane Tanner, one of the key witnesses, whom the McCanns
have not left much space for manoeuvre, explains once again the layout of the premises and her movements: according to her
witness statement, going out through the door of the Tapas Bar, she walked up the hill, passed by Gerry and Jez who were on
her right.
"(...) Right, yeah, So, I went past them, um, going up the hill, and then getting to the top of the road, as I arrived
at the top, this person, someone crossed the top of the road with a child. And obviously at that time - I just thought 'oh
it's somebody taking his child to bed,' as they say."
"I think it
was starting to get dark (...) there wasn't, apart from Gerry and Jez, there wasn't anyone else. (...) I really saw no one
at all. I said, I think, that this made me think that it was even more strange, I think that when I had gone to check on other
evenings at that time I probably didn't see anyone at all, it was earlier that you would see people here and there, carrying
their children," Jane Tanner said, confirming that it all happened, " roughly, around ten past nine."
"(....) I was kind of jogging along, because obviously I was trying to do the check and get back as quickly as possible
too, so I just thought 'Oh I'm just going to do the check as quickly as possible.." In
answer to officer Fergusson, Tanner states that her intention was just to "check on Ella and Evie," because no one else had
done it: "Gerry was there, so I thought he had just checked (his children). Matt had checked when he had, um, been (...).
And we never checked Dave and Fi because they had their monitor, which they were quite happy with, so they didn't check at
all, like that."
"Oh, a poor parent like us..."
"(...) just as I got to the top, someone crossed
over. And the thing that really hit me was, um, the bare feet. And the thought that came to mind was, I was saying, that when
we were in Leicester (...) we had the habit of walking to David and Fi's house for, um, the children, for dinner with the
children, the children would play, we put them into travel cots there and we would sometimes stay a bit late and then carry
the children to the house (...) We wrap them in a blanket or something, but their feet always stick out, and you think 'Oh,
they're going to get cold feet' because they would always wriggle about. So, one thing I thought was 'Oh, a poor parent like
us, you know, that child is obviously being taken home (...)
(...) That was the only reason that I looked at him really, I think.
Because at that moment I thought it's somebody picking their child up from the crèche or, you know, just a father carrying
his own child..."
To be continued.
|
McCann Case: Analysis of the phone calls reveals a clue, 16
December 2008
|
McCann Case: Analysis of the phone calls reveals a clue
SOSMaddie
Duarte Levy
16 December 2008
Justine McGuinness and the Vascão river
Justine McGuiness, spokesperson for the McCanns who accompanied them in fleeing to
England immediately after they were made arguidos, left various documents in the apartment that served as the couple's headquarters,
including photographs, establishing a possible connection between Madeleine's disappearance and the banks of the river Vascão,
near the Spanish border. Today, 19 months after Madeleine's disappearance, the trail
left by Justine McGuiness resurfaces.
|
This picture is to give an indication of the general area, rather than define a specific spot |
It is September 9th 2007, the day that Kate and Gerry
take flight to England, four months after Madeleine McCann's disappearance that the PJ get their hands on a series of documents
left in the Vista Mar villa, until then occupied by the couple, where photographs and even a sketch are found, indicating
the detailed location of a place on the border between Alentejo and the Algarve, 20 km from Almodovar, crossed by the Vascão
river. The PJ inspectors went into the house immediately after the McCanns left for the airport, thus taking advantage of
the fact that the journalists were accompanying the couple.
The documents left there by the McCanns' spokesperson, Justine McGuiness, were found under a sofa. In addition to
the identification of a clearly defined geographic area, were numerous inscriptions which the PJ have never succeeded in interpreting.
According to sources close to the investigation, nothing was done in this direction and the PJ employees who allegedly regarded
the documents as being the work of an esoteric group, did not even take the trouble to visit the place indicated, considering
the lead as being of no value to the case.
The McCanns' spokesperson, who
was with them throughout the time when they were constituted arguidos under Portuguese law, ended up being dismissed on her arrival in England, this in spite of the fact that she might
prove to be one of the most embarrassing witnesses for the couple and the English authorities. The
fact is that Justine McGuiness has never been questioned by the PJ and thus it is that the exact significance of the documents
and photographs has never been explained.
|
Ribeira do Vascão satellite picture (click to enlarge) |
In statements recorded recently in London, sources close to the former Liberal Party
candidate and specialist in public relations, confirmed that Justine McGuiness was even allegedly the target of various pressures,
notably in the legal field, meaning, for her, that she should keep quiet about everything she saw and heard during the time
she worked for Kate and Gerry McCann.
What is certain is that the former
spokesperson and her employers, the McCanns, were already at odds, particularly with Kate, on the day they left Portugal together
and their "divorce" on arrival in England did not surprise anyone. Justine had always directed very harsh criticism towards
Madeleine's mother, sometimes in the presence of journalists. And the poor relations between the two women were not limited
to financial matters, on which Justine always demanded settlement for her work and for numerous extra hours spent with the
couple, but also in meetings and dinners with journalists and representatives of the British authorities.
Today, all this might have been forgotten if it were not for the results of an investigation
into records of the McCanns' telephone calls and of all the people who were in contact with them, an investigation led by
journalists, in collaboration with former operatives of the information services.
While investigating the calls received and made on the McCann's mobile phones during their stay in Portugal, the
investigators found a report from inspector Paulo Dias of the PJ where it is confirmed that Kate received, on the 2nd of May,
at around 11h21, a call from Swansea (UK) which, later, she would justify to the PJ as being a mistake. A sufficiently important
"mistake" that Madeleine's mother guarded the register of this call in her mobile, in spite of having deleted all the details
of other communications.
More interesting, the investigators - some Britons, used to dealing with sensitive cases - also found the register
of a phone call made on the same day, after lunch, between a mobile phone in Praia da Luz and the same number in Swansea
that had contacted Kate McCann. The mobile from which the call was made does not belong to either of the McCanns or to
the group of friends who were accompanying them and, up to today, the Judiciary Police, despite several requests to the English
authorities, has never been able to identify the owner of that mobile nor have they obtained from the English support or willingness
so that they can question whomever it was regarding these calls.
Now, while cross-referencing the results obtained next to the mobile telecommunication operators in Portugal and in Spain
with the reports of the Judiciary Police - in particular the excellent work of the inspector Paulo Dias - investigators
and journalists found a new element worthy of interest: the mobile phone used in Praia da Luz to call the number in Swansea,
who had contacted Kate on May 2, was used to make and receive calls in the area indicated in the documents and in the photographs
that the McCann's spokeswoman left under the sofa on the day of the return to England.
According to the records now known, the mobile phone was used near the Ribeira do Vascão on several occasions, namely
between the days 12th and 15th of May, 2007 but equally in June and July of the same year. Those phone calls were always made
to England or to Praia da Luz, except for one, which was made to the British embassy in Lisbon.
|
Maddie Case: What is Justine McGuinness hiding?, 17 December 2008
|
(click images to enlarge)
Maddie Case: What is Justine McGuinness hiding? TVMais
(no online link, appears in paper edition only)
By HERNANI CARVALHO
17 December 2008
The former spokewoman of the McCanns left "some documents" behind and gave
a hint to an inspector of the PJ. On returning to England she was dismissed but still remains silent. Why did she stop working
for the McCanns?
When parted from the company of the McCanns, that morning of September 9, Justine McGuinness left
behind a few documents. Forgotten - in the words of some, deliberately - to others. In the papers can be found a remote
location explicitly placed deep in the Algarve and a few more details which have not yet been decoded.
What you do not realise yet is that this place has a mysterious connection with the Maddie case. There is no
information that the PJ have ever gone there. But why did the official spokeswoman for the couple leave the papers in
Portugal, forgotten underneath a sofa at the villa of the McCanns?
It is known is that she had barely set foot on British soil when Justine McGuinness was fired. "Because of the
extra workload," explained the McCanns in those days. Justine never spoke and continues in silence, but tvmais
knows that Justine McGuinness continues an aversion to the McCanns and that Kate McCann, the mother of Madeleine, did not have
confidence in their official spokeswoman (see box) in Praia da Luz.
Justine McGuinness was a voice for the McCanns in the Algarve while Clarence Mitchell was still in contact with
his prime minister. But Kate always distrusted her. "She never refers to her (Maddie) as a person and there seems no great
emotion, sympathy or understanding with regard to my feelings," wrote the mother of Maddie in the notes. It was probably this
that founded the doubts of Kate.
The day she departed for England, Justine McGuinness told an inspector of the PJ to read the documents
that she had forgotten at the McCanns' villa.
Kate's relations with Justine were always tense and very suspicious (see box). But Kate did not imagine that Justine
would forget some documents on the sofa, in the villa where the couple lived in Praia da Luz.
A source close to the investigation in those days told tvmais that, at the airport, Justine McGuinness
told a PJ inspector to look at the documents that she had left at the McCann's villa. Until now nobody has given any importance
to the PJ papers.
There was no response from the phone of Justine McGuinness, but Goncalo Amaral, contacted by our editorial, denies the
information. "There were only a few papers about a group with links to esoteric things... Nothing important for research,"
the inspector coordinator of Portimao told us, explaining that the papers were found by the owners of the villa, whilst cleaning,
after the couple had left for England.
tvmais recalls that in those days, the PJ inspectors visited the villa, after the McCanns had left Portugal.
In the "paperwork" included a detailed location of a place on the border between the Alentejo and Algarve, 20 km from
Almodovar, crossed the river by Vascao. It is not easy for those who do not know Portugal to invent such a place... What happened
there? When and why? Only McGuinness (for now) can tell, but she remains in silence. Until then, you know that tvmais
runs (one more) private research.
Kate's distrust
The notes of Mrs McCann reveal what she thinks of Justine McGuinness.
Saturday, July 14 "Just got to 1h30m, after a conversation / a confrontation?
with Justine about trust or lack of it. A little emotional - Justine, due to doubts about my trust
in her and for questioning her professionalism and me for not taking into account, or at least recognising, my emotional
state. Anyway, even though I feel uncomfortable, I feel that a conversation was necessary.
Tuesday, July 17 "I talked to Michael about them and he will help
us after Trish and Sandy have a little party, and on the work of Dani and the relationship of Phil / Justine, and so on. Also
return the call from Jill, although it is very difficult to find chat with people from home, other than those who were closely
involved.
Wednesday, July 25 "I spoke with Trish about Justine. Some uncertainties.
The key is to what extent she is dedicated to Madeleine. I need to feel that she is. She never refers to her as a person
and there seems no great emotion, sympathy or understanding with regard to my feelings. Maybe this is not relevant to her
role and her activities while managing the campaign, but I know that I would feel a little happier. The other concern,
I think, is related to her remuneration and validation of her necessity and her "overtime" and therefore the
request for more money. I think we all need to have a conversation soon. After having said all this, I cannot imagine how
things would be without her and that worries me.
|
Suspicious phone calls launch new clue in the Maddie case, 18
December 2008
|
Suspicious phone calls launch new clue in the Maddie case
24horas (pages 8-9)
Text: Duarte Levy
18 December 2008
- This is the
same article produced on Duarte Levy's 'SOS Madeleine McCann' site, of 16 December 2008 (see above)
|
The Tapas Seven Rogatory Interviews, 27 January 2009
|
The interrogation of the Tapas 7: the words before the images
SOSMaddie
Duarte Levy
27 January 2009
"Russell James O’Brien was questioned on the 8th of April from 9.55 a.m. until 8.18 p.m., divided into 5 distinct
time periods (9.55 – 11.30 a.m., 12.01 – 12.50 a.m., 2.06 – 3.55 p.m., 5.15 – 6.56 p.m., and 7.37
– 8.18 p.m.). Officially, all the video images of this day were rendered useless because the video camera didn't work…
which means that Enderby police wants us to believe that, even during pauses, they never verified if the interrogation was
being recorded correctly. This was the official version, the one that was offered to the Portuguese authorities. Nevertheless,
the truth of facts is different, and Russell O'Brien was questioned again on the 10th of April; this time the camera worked."
To make things easier, and given the number of documents in the process
that have yet to be taken care of (including those that are still subject to judicial secrecy and are not included on the
DVD that was distributed to journalists), I have decided to publish the original texts of the transcriptions that were made
from the video recordings of the Tapas 7’s interrogation in Enderby in April 2008. All the texts will be made
available here today. The texts are protected by a password, but all you have to do is to leave a comment
under this post, as well as your email address, and a password will be sent to you promptly.
The texts are available
HERE. The video images will also be made available in the near future.
|
McCann - Charm Offensive, 01 February 2009
|
Duarte Levy
01 February 2009
"New year, New Life"
In Portugal, as the start of each new calendar year
is marked, the Portuguese, the eternal sardine munchers - as they were described by a few xenophobic British commentators
- have the habit of using, along with best wishes, a typical expression: "New year, new life," which in French can be translated
as "nouvelle anneé, nouvelle vie". An expression the McCanns probably learned from their Portuguese lawyers, not forgetting
their Social Democrat friends.
Meanwhile, the
recent visit to Portugal by Madeleine McCann's father is the epitome of a new kind of charm offensive which has allowed the
couple to open "hostilities": after being in agreement with their seven British friends not to participate in the reconstruction
of the events and actions of the night of May 3rd, the couple have allegedly found the willingness to cooperate with the Portuguese
authorities, stating that they are convinced that there are still things that could be done in the investigation into their
daughter's disappearance.
Reassuring
the Portuguese media that there would be no legal action against them, while in London he was succeeding, once again, in making
a British daily back down - forcing another "contribution," to the Madeleine fund - Gerry McCann announced, in preparation
for Kate's next visit, that it was the first of many visits.
Arriving at Faro airport on January 13th, Gerry McCann
stayed on Portuguese territory for twenty-two hours in order to meet, according to his spokesman, the couple's lawyer and
the British Ambassador to Lisbon.
A "surprise" visit,
announced in advance by several British and Portuguese media, who say that the year 2009, in terms of communication and image,
would bring a few surprises.
Action - Reaction
Amongst
the new resolutions adopted by the McCanns, always very aware of what is being said on the internet (blogs and forums) and
in the media, we find the motto "action - reaction", evidenced in the recent "disclosure" of accounts for the fund created
after the disappearance of Madeleine's body.
After the use of
money from the Madeleine fund to pay Kate and Gerry McCann's expenses, without any direct connection to the hunt for Maddie,
was touched upon by a Portuguese television channel (TVI), number one in the ratings, the couple's advisers reacted immediately,
producing a summary of the accounts which explain nothing about the real use of the money. Some might even say that this reaction
was designed to "pull the rug from under" foreign journalists, because, in the United Kingdom few still have the opportunity
to doubt or to question the couple's good intentions, as can be deduced from the few articles published about the accounts.
In the United Kingdom, in spite of the restrictions imposed by the editors-in-chief and the huge sums paid without
any kind of legal proceedings, some still happen to be writing about the McCanns.
According to a British tabloid, after 21 months "of agony" Kate McCann is allegedly "obsessed with the search for
her daughter," spending three hours a day reading documents in the hope that they could answer the question: "where has our
Madeleine gone?"
The very
title of the article sets the tone: "Inside the mind of Kate McCann". The journalist doesn't explain how he managed such a
feat (getting into such a "tortured" mind), but it is certain that the PJ would be interested to learn the technique which
might lead them to find out the answers to the questions that Kate McCann refused to answer, notably this one: what did Kate
McCann do on the afternoon and evening of May 3rd 2007.
According to this
article - an integral part of the McCanns' new marketing campaign in the British press - Kate spends a significant amount
of her time reading the thousands of pages of the 17 volumes of the investigation into her daughter's disappearance, the same
documents which a few days ago, her husband and the couple's spokesman, said were still in the process of being translated,
but "where there was no evidence."
Again, according
to this tabloid, after Madeleine's disappearance, Kate McCann left her job as a general practitioner and while "the twins
Sean and Amélie enjoy playing with their friends at nursery," she devotes her time to "digging up clues that would lead her
to her daughter."
The article
recounts a few more details of that surprising "visit", without, however, providing answers to the investigators' questions....we
wonder what that journalist has been doing "inside the mind of kate McCann." It is probably for lack of response that the
tabloid changed the title of the article.
Three months away from the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, the McCanns' new public charm
campaign has well and truly started and other similar articles are to be expected from the British press.
*
Note: The TVI talk show programme referred to in
this article was broadcast on 21 January 2009, with guest speakers: psychologist Paulo Sargento, journalist Hernâni Carvalho
and journalist Duarte Levy.
|
Maddie is a national security case, 20 February 2009
|
By DUARTE LEVY
February 20, 2009 - 12:01 AM
In England, Leicestershire police, replying to a request from a British journalist, under legislation that regulates
free access to information, refused to explain whether or not the recourse to phone tapping and the interception of electronic
mail within the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case was covered by a warrant.
According to journalist Jon Clements, the police, after delaying its reply for several months alleging the need to consult
other "agencies", replied that it had no obligation whatsoever to explain under which terms any surveillance means were used
in the Maddie case, due to reasons of "national security".
Leicestershire police, which is considered to be England's 5th best municipal police, further explained to the journalist
that it was equally dispensed from replying to him, because the requested explanation could be related to other "security
entities", which, according to the legislation that regulates free access to information, equals several secret service bodies,
such as MI5, MI6, GCHG, SOCA or the Special Forces.
Satellite facing Morocco at the moment when Maddie disappeared
Journalist Jon Clements' "adventure" is not unique, given the fact that in May 2007, only a few days after Maddie disappeared,
a top official at the Polícia Judiciária's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Portimão asked his English colleagues,
that had been sent to Praia da Luz, for access to images from the satellites that watch over the Algarve coast.
While the request itself could be seen as normal, as satellite imagery had helped the authorities in solving one or the
other more complicated case in the past, the reply was surprising. According to the "experts" that had been sent into Portugal
by the British government, at the time when Madeleine McCann was taken from apartment 5A at the Ocean Club, all the satellites
were turned towards the coast of Morocco.
An unfortunate "coincidence" that would end up surprising the PJ men when, months later, they saw the same "experts"
defending the theory of Madeleine's abduction into Morocco, supported on the fantasist statements from a Spanish detective
agency which, in a public statement, even said it knew who had taken the little girl, why and when, promising that she
would return home before Christmas.
|
Portugal: Sara Sofia is 3 years old and was abducted by her mother over one month ago, 20
February 2009
|
Portugal: Sara Sofia is 3 years old and was abducted by her mother over one month ago Duarte Levy Wordpress
Portuguese Child Abduction Alert System starts only in March and for now the information and communication means that
are used by the authorities remain the same as before the Maddie case
By DUARTE LEVY
February 20, 2009 - 12:05 AM
Although the case is being handled by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) with the same seriousness as a disappearance, Sara
Sofia Lopes dos Santos, aged three, disappeared on the first day of 2009 within the frame of a parental abduction.
According to information from the PJ's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Portimão, Sara was abducted by her
mother and has been taken abroad, probably into Spain, where the investigators try to locate her with the cooperation of the
Spanish authorities.
According to the same source, since the couple split in 2007, Sara's parents have been in conflict concerning the exercise
of parental rights over the child, that had been officially entrusted to her father, who accuses the mother of abandoning
the child. Sara's mother and her relatives tell a different version, accusing the father of abusing the child, a fact that
was never proved.
Although Sara's abduction took place on the 1st of January 2009, it was not until now that the information was placed
on the Polícia Judiciária’s internet site (www.policiajudiciaria.pt), where a recent photograph of the child can be
seen.
According to information that was now publicised by the PJ's CID in Portimão – the same that was responsible for
the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann -, the last time that Sara Sofia was seen, she was wearing a
pink Nike track suit and pink sneakers.
The little girl, of Portuguese nationality, has brown eyes and brown hair, and a red mark on her back as a distinguishing
feature.
According to a PJ source in Portimão, there is no connection whatsoever between the disappearance of Sara Sofia and the
Madeleine McCann case, yet the investigators fear that their work may be harmed by the intervention of English media, as the
fact that both children are of the same age and disappeared from the same relatively close geographical area "will certainly
be used to re-launch the media focus on the Maddie case and to concentrate attentions on the Algarve, thus diverting suspicions
from the McCann couple".
English press associates disappearance of Sara with the Maddie case
The information about Sara Sofia's disappearance would have gone completely unnoticed in England if it hadn't been for
the intervention of a source that is close to the British authorities and to the McCann couple, who, unofficially, alerted
a few journalists while stressing the fact that the investigation is under the responsibility of the PJ's CID in Portimão,
the same one that investigated the Maddie case.
The information that was forwarded to the journalists doesn't even contain a single line about the possibility of a parental
abduction, and the focus rests on the fact that Sara Sofia is of the same age as Madeleine McCann and disappeared "mysteriously"
in the Algarve, the same geographical region where the British child disappeared from in May 2007.
According to the information that was offered to the English journalists, the disappearance of Sara Sofia in Portugal's
Southern region is evidence of the possible existence of a predator, a fact that the Portuguese police had excluded in Madeleine's
case.
Portugal adopts French Alert System model
From March onwards, the disappearance of children in Portugal starts counting on an "Abduction Alert" system which, through
messages every 15 minutes, publicise the case and request for information through various platforms, from local radios up
to public transportation terminals.
The system that is to be adopted in our country follows the French model, named "Alerte Enlèvement", which has proved
its effectiveness in practice, on several occasions.
The Portuguese version that was studied by the Justice Ministry counts on the media to join the project, and to publicise
a common alert message, that can be local, regional or national, during the first three hours after the child’s disappearance.
Just like in France, the decision to launch the alert will be taken by the Attorney General in conjunction with the PJ
through a "Crisis Cabinet", in the case of an abduction or sequestration, and not yet including cases of parental abduction
or simple disappearance.
In November last year, the Justice Minister, Alberto Costa, had already assured that the "Abduction Alert" system would
soon be available, nevertheless stressing that in order for the system to be able to function, the cooperation between the
Public Ministry (PM) and the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) would have to improve.
*
By DUARTE LEVY
February 20, 2009 - 12:25 PM
Portimão (Portugal)
According to the latest information from the Judicial Police (PJ), Sara Sofia, aged three, was abducted by her mother,
Paula Lopes, supposedly accompanied by two individuals of German nationality.
The group includes another woman and three more children.
At least three people of the group, aged 38 to 62, were previously made arguidos in a breach of trust and falsification
case for an estimated amount of 57,600 euros. The three adults were to present themselves regularly at the GNR of Lagoa.
Sara Sofia had left Faro's Refúgio Aboim Ascensão on 19th December, after the Court in Portimão had given exclusive custody
to her father, Manuel Santos, who, on 1st January, entrusted the child to her mother with whom she was to spend the
day. After 48 hours without news, Manuel Santos lodged a complaint with the Judicial Police and remains desperate, as, according
to him, the child would be in danger in company of the group.
On her escape, the mother of Sara also took her three other children with her: two nine year old twins and a 13 year
old girl.
Despite the fact that the Sara Sofia Lopes dos Santos case is a case of parental abduction, it is handled by the Judicial
Police (PJ) with the same seriousness as for any other disappearance and the Spanish authorities have been informed.
According to the information from the PJ's Criminal Investigation Department (DIC) in Portimão, since the couple split
in 2007, Sara's parents have been in conflict concerning the exercise of parental rights over the child, who had been officially
entrusted to her father in December last year.
Manuel Santos accuses the mother of having abandoned the child. Sara’s mother and her relatives tell a different
version, accusing the father of abusing the child, a fact that was never proven.
Although Sara's abduction took place on the 1st January 2009, it was not until now that the information was placed on
the Judicial Police's internet site ( www.policiajudiciaria.pt), where a recent photograph of the child can be seen.
According to information that has now been publicised by the PJ's CID in Portimão – the same that was responsible
for the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann – the last time that Sara Sofia was seen,
she was wearing a pink Nike track suit and pink sneakers.
The little girl, of Portuguese nationality, has brown eyes and brown hair, and a red mark on her back as a distinguishing
feature.
According to a PJ source in Portimão, there is no connection whatsoever between the disappearance of Sara Sofia and the
Madeleine McCann case, yet the investigators fear that their work may be harmed by the intervention of English media, as the
fact that both children are of the same age and disappeared from the same relatively close geographical area "will certainly
be used to re-launch the media focus on the Maddie case and to concentrate attention on the Algarve, thus diverting suspicions
from the McCann couple".
|
England introduced spies into the Maddie Case, 23 February 2009
|
British police classified the investigation as a matter of 'national security'
By DUARTE LEVY
23 February 2009
- Main article is, in essence, the same as that produced by Duarte Levy on 20 February 2009, entitled: 'Maddie is
a national security case' and reproduced below
*
The many casualties in the case of the girl abducted in the Algarve
24horas (page 8)
By DUARTE LEVY
23 February 2009
Translation by Nigel Moore
The investigation into the disappearance of Maddie has been marked by a large number of casualties among both diplomats
and the police. In Portugal, after the exit of Gonçalo Amaral, removed from the investigation at the request of the British
authorities, the PJ's then national director, Alípio Ribeiro, also left, as well as other inspectors.
Guilhermino
Encarnação, deputy national director of the PJ, is low due to prolonged health reasons, but was hit by the statements of a
former Spanish private investigator, who assured the existence of a "mole" inside the PJ who would have provided information
to the Método 3 agency. A "mole" would not be the director of the PJ in Faro but someone very close to him.
The British
Ambassador John Buck was replaced on 10 September 2007, the day following the establishment of Kate and Gerry McCann as arguidos.
A month earlier, in August of the same year, the consul in the Algarve, Bill Henderson, left, completely abandoning his diplomatic
career. His replacement, Celia Edwards, would also not stay for a long time in Portugal.
Also, leaving the Foreign
Office, were Sheree Dodd and Clarence Mitchell; the first, responsible for the communication of the English government,
and the second, becoming official spokesman for the McCann couple, maintaining however, for some time, a "privileged relationship"
with the British Government.
*
By DUARTE LEVY
23 February 2009
Translation by Nigel Moore
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann deserved, from the first moments, special attention on the part of the British
authorities: a crisis Cabinet, especially to support the McCann couple, was created within the Foreign Office before the arrival
of the first inspectors of the Policia Judiciária.
The importance given by the British government to the McCann couple surpassed all expectations and even the elements
of the secret services of Her Majesty, who travelled to Portugal, eventually showed surprise by the ease with which Kate and
Gerry McCann entered into contact with Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
The British government's commitment was such that neither the intervention of the Portuguese Prime Minister, José Sócrates,
asking the politicians not to interfere in the investigation into the disappearance of Maddie, managed to convince the British
to leave the PJ to work in peace.
*
By DUARTE LEVY
February 23, 2009
The investigation into Maddie's disappearance, apart from the enormous worldwide media exposure, was marked by a relevant
number of casualties among the diplomats and policemen who participated or touched this sensitive case.
In Portugal, after the exit of Gonçalo Amaral, who was removed from the Maddie case investigation by request from the
British authorities, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) also lost then national director, Alípio Ribeiro, as well as several other
inspector.
Guilhermino Encarnação, a joint national director, responsible for the Directory of Faro at the moment when Madeleine
McCann disappeared, may be the next confirmed casualty in this case. The man who became known in the investigation for having
prevented Gonçalo Amaral from carrying out the interrogation of Kate McCann at a moment when she was, according to several
inspectors who were present on location, "ready to talk", has been on long-term leave due to health issues and is not returning
to active anymore.
Despite the former director's health issues, an internal source at the PJ in the Algarve advances that Guilhermino Encarnação
only went on leave after the statements from a Spanish former private detective, who revealed the existence of a "mole" inside
the PJ, who allegedly, and for months, provided information to Método 3, the agency that worked for the McCanns.
According to the statements from the former Método 3 operating officer, which were further confirmed by a PJ source,
the "mole" wasn't the PJ director in Faro, but rather a person who was close to him and under his protection.
On the British side, some diplomats and policemen also fell, including the ambassador and the consul in Portugal, respectively
John Buck and Bill Henderson.
Ambassador John Buck was replaced on the 10th of September 2007, the day following the constitution of Kate and Gerry
McCann as arguidos. One month earlier, in August of the same year, the consul in the Algarve, Bill Henderson, had resigned,
fully abandoning the diplomatic career. His substitute, Celia Edwards, would not stay in Portugal for a long time, either.
The Foreign Office also lost Sheree Dodd and Clarence Mitchell, the former becoming the head of communications for the
English parliament, and the latter, becoming the McCann couple's official spokesman, while maintaining, for some time, a "privileged
relationship" with the British government.
|
McCanns want to return to television, 31 March 2009
|
By Duarte Levy
31 March 2009
With little over a month to go for the second anniversary of the disappearance of Maddie, the little English girl that
went missing in Praia da Luz on the 3rd of May 2007, her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, are once again negotiating a television
interview, during which they expect to launch a new public appeal, according to a source close to the couple.
According to the same source, the McCann couple's interview would be recorded in England, but equally broadcast in our
country, as there are contacts with a Portuguese television channel which, as usual, would be prepared to make a financial
contribution to the fund that was created after Madeleine's alleged abduction.
Kate and Gerry McCann – as 24horas had already reported – are equally considering the possibility
of travelling into our country, to the Algarve, to mark the second anniversary of their daughter's disappearance and to reinforce
the campaign that is presently being carried out in the area of Praia da Luz and its surroundings.
The announcement of a television interview with the couple has even surprised the British professionals in the sector,
as earlier this month, Madeleine's father had issued violent criticism against the work of English and Portuguese journalists,
in front of a parliamentary commission.
After refusing to cooperate with the PJ in the official inquest into their daughter's disappearance, Kate and Gerry,
already as arguidos, abandoned Portugal with the assistance of diplomatic representatives of the United Kingdom in our country.
An escape that was recorded and broadcast live by various television channels.
The McCanns stopped being arguidos when the Public Ministry decided to archive the process, which currently awaits better
evidence, after Gonçalo Amaral left and the process was handed over to Paulo Rebelo, who did nothing to pursue the line of
inquiry that had been opened in the first months of the investigation, as the PJ's final report proves.
Several diligences remained to be carried out, including the reconstitution of the gestures and movements of the nine
English adults who accompanied Maddie in Praia da Luz and who, according to their own statements to Portuguese and British
authorities, were always very contradictory. Several Spanish, English and Irish witnesses were never heard in the process.
|
Five constabulary forces looking for Maddie, 01 April 2009
|
Duarte Levy
April 1, 2009 • 11:23 am
Even
if the Leicestershire Constabulary force has taken, in the public's view, the primary lead in supporting and co-coordinating
the British Government's police response to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, several other Constabulary forces have
also participated. These details are not exhaustive given the fact that the work of the "private services" and "others" are
not available to the public. Not yet…
Nottinghamshire Police – HMIC Inspection Report (July 2008)
• The force gave examples of support provided
to neighboring forces, including the activation of overflow call-handling facilities (MIRWEB) to assist Leicestershire Constabulary
in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Lincolnshire Police – HMIC Inspection Report
(July 2008)
• A written protocol is in place between the five East Midlands regional forces, namely the East
Midlands Regional Information and Co-ordination Centre (EMRICC). This collaboration was developed to maintain communication
and co-ordination across the region, thereby providing effective identification and deployment of the necessary resources
to a mobilization event, which will include either a spontaneous incident or a pre-planned event, either in or outside the
region. EMRICC has been activated on four occasions, including for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Portugal in
May 2007 and, more recently, during Operation Orca, which concerned the widening of the M1 motorway through the region. An
ACPO lead is appointed on each occasion to direct EMRICC.
Derbyshire Constabulary – HMIC Inspection Report (July
2008)
• A written protocol is in place between the five East Midlands regional forces, namely the East Midlands
regional information and co-ordination centre (EMRICC). This collaboration was developed to maintain communication and co-ordination
across the region, thereby providing effective identification and deployment of the necessary resources to a mobilization
event, which will include either a spontaneous incident or a pre-planned event, either in or outside the region. EMRICC has
been activated on four occasions – for example, following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Portugal in May
2007 and more recently an operation concerning the widening of the M1 motorway through the region. An ACPO lead is appointed
on each occasion to direct EMRICC.
Leicestershire Constabulary – HMIC Inspection Report (July 2008)
•
The force has taken the primary lead in supporting and co-coordinating the British Government’s police response to the
disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine McCann (whose family live in Rothley, Leicestershire), from a holiday apartment in
Portugal on 3 May 2007. It has committed significant resources and has established an incident room to manage its contribution
to the investigation. It has also deployed a number of staff to perform various roles in Portugal. This ongoing enquiry will
continue to be a demand on the force until the investigation is resolved. • Intelligence - The major crime investigation
section (MCIS) has two dedicated analysts, although one member of staff has been committed virtually full time to Operation
Task (the disappearance of Madeleine McCann). The MCIS analysts are primarily focused on evidential analysis as opposed to
researching patterns, trends or predictive demands. A further analyst is in post to service protecting vulnerable people.
Ample evidence was provided of the regular and routine use of problem and target profiles to support operations. Staff reported
the regular use of horizon scanning and the use of open source and out-of-hours intelligence searches. There are sufficient
resources in place to prepare the FSA and a range of National Intelligence Model (NIM) products that contain prevention, intelligence
and enforcement activity. • The force can evidence effective use of gold groups and gold support groups in response
to critical incidents; Operation Task (the disappearance on 3 May 2007 of Madeleine McCann in Portugal) is an obvious example. •
In cases of hot intelligence, the superintendents heading major crime and SOC will direct and control resources and manage
any competing demands. Good relationships exist regionally for collaborative arrangements; Operation Task (the disappearance
of Madeleine McCann) illustrates how effective the arrangements are during times of excessive demand. • The disappearance
of Madeleine McCann on 3 May 2007 in Portugal generated massive international media interest and placed considerable demands
on Leicestershire, which had no legal jurisdiction in Portugal. The force responded immediately, dedicating staff and resources
to create Operation Task. Initially, it deployed to Portugal a DCI, two FLOs and a DI to advise and support the Portuguese
authorities. The force also established a MIR in Leicestershire, utilising HOLMES to manage the enquiries. The Metropolitan
Police Services Specialist Crime Review Group commented (June 2007), "the volume of information collected during this enquiry
can be compared to a Category A murder enquiry". The force also obtained short-term contract support from other East Midlands
forces. On 14 May 2007, the force activated the MIRWEB system, which allows remote telephone call centers to be set up in
other forces to direct the volume of messages received from members of the public away from the in-force MIR. Derbyshire Constabulary
hosted and administered MIRWEB on behalf of the force; up to its closure in June 2007 a total of 3,577 calls had been received.
The investigation remains active. • The ACC (crime) has performed the role of officer in overall command (OIOC) for
Operation Task (the disappearance of Madeleine McCann) (…)
Leicestershire Constabulary – HMIC Inspection
Report (September 2008)
• The force has taken the primary lead in supporting and co-coordinating the British
Government’s police response to the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine McCann (whose family live in Rothley, Leicestershire)
from a holiday apartment in Portugal on 3 May 2007. It has committed significant resources and has established an incident
room to manage its contribution to the investigation. It has also deployed a number of staff to perform various roles in Portugal.
This ongoing enquiry will continue to be a demand on the force until the investigation is resolved.
Northamptonshire
Police – HMIC Inspection Report (July 2008)
• Although there are no formal mutual aid agreements, successful
mutual aid deployments of staff from East Midlands regional forces to deal with extraordinary demand was tested during 2007,
when the force supplied HOLMES and MIRWEB staff to assist Leicestershire Constabulary in the Madeleine McCann enquiry. Specialist
functions, such as test purchase and undercover operations are provided through the EMSOU and therefore the region’s
forces can direct many resources into one or several forces for specific resource-intensive operations. The force has called
on the SOCA for specialist resources in tackling kidnap and extortion enquiries. • A dedicated HOLMES team (a manager,
three supervisors, eight indexers and clerical support) provides all the force HOLMES staffing requirements. Varying levels
of indexing are used, depending on the nature of the enquiry, including minimal indexing. There are HOLMES suites in the five
major incident rooms (MIRs). Collaborative arrangements to respond to extraordinary demand have recently been successfully
tested by Leicestershire Constabulary during the Madeleine McCann enquiry. • Casualty bureau call-taking facilities
are available in-force, operating on CASWEB through the training department, with 60 trained call-takers available for deployment.
The capacity to link the call-taking facility to an MIR (via MIRWEB) is available, using the HOLMES team to set up a messaging
unit. Collaborative arrangements for activating this facility during a large-scale enquiry have recently been successfully
tested during the Madeleine McCann enquiry by Leicestershire Constabulary. • The EMRICC has been activated on four
occasions, for example the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Portugal May 2007 (…)
|
Police officers under investigation in Maddie case, 12 April 2009
|
Duarte Levy
April 12, 2009 • 2:20 PM
An investigation targeting several British police
inspectors has been opened after a collaborator close to the McCann's stated that several internal police documents –
considered as confidential – were sent from Portugal to a British journalist.
The documents in question, which officially were not known to the Portuguese authorities, all concerning the Madeleine
McCann case, were "marked" which made it possible to determine their origin in the team that had accompanied the investigations
into the claimed kidnapping, without however identifying the specific source of the leak.
According to the journalist, he supposedly received the documents without having asked for them, which is the reason
why he supposedly delivered a copy to a collaborator of the McCann couple "in order to determine their authenticity".
According to a police source, the investigators already knew that the documents were in the hands of some foreign journalists,
but it is only now, thanks to the contribution of the journalist and his spontaneous "source", that the investigation could
start, the file being entrusted to "a national security authority".
It's since the beginning of the Maddie case that a large number of documents have been released from the British police
files, part of which were published in full or in part in the media, as well as on the internet, where some did not hesitate
to share some documents with complete strangers, allowing in this way certain parts of the file to end up in the hands of
the people linked to the lawsuit.
|
"There were mistakes on both sides", 13 April 2009
|
"There were mistakes on both sides" 24horas
Gerry McCann wants the Portuguese authorities to investigate his daughter's disappearance again. The PJ doesn't believe
him
By Duarte Levy
13 April 2009
Thanks to
Astro for translation
During his recent stay in Praia da Luz, Gerry
McCann stated that it was necessary for the police to be able to look at the inquiry's results and say: "Where are the failures
and what more can we do?".
Maddie's father adopted a conciliating discourse, stating – concerning the Portuguese police's work – that
"they worked very hard and there were many pressures". And he admitted that he made some disputable decisions: "Looking back,
there were probably mistakes on both sides".
Gerry's statements fail to convince the PJ inspectors who worked on the case since the beginning, under Gonçalo Amaral's
orders, who continue to defend that Maddie was not abducted: "I don't believe that he wants the inquiry to be reopened…
mainly if we take into account that they did everything to prevent the investigation of reaching a conclusion", a PJ inspector
tells 24horas.
"The Public Ministry itself is not very interested in reopening the process because that means they would have to admit
that it was an error to archive it", the inspector concludes.
McCann family controls the fund
Despite his promises of transparency, it was under great secrecy that Gerry McCann,
Maddie's father, joined the group of directors who manage the financial fund that was created nine days after the little girl's
disappearance.
The 'Find Madeleine' fund officially collected almost three million euros, but not being a charitable institution,
it is legally exempt from publishing its accounts, exhaustively explaining how the money was used, which doubtlessly explains
the fact that the recently disclosed documents don't include any reference to the payment of instalments of the mortgage on
Kate and Gerry McCann's house, as well as other personal expenses.
Gerry McCann himself recently told several media that the 'Find Madeleine' fund money is running out.
Gerry McCann's entrance into directorship actually happens after several personalities, who had initially supported the
family, started distancing themselves from the couple, which has also coincided with a major diminution of financial income.
With Gerry McCann's entry onto the abovementioned fund's board of directors, which officially took place late last year,
Maddie's parents assured complete control over the 'Find Madeleine' fund, given the fact that the majority of its directors
are members of the McCann family: Kate McCann, Gerry McCann, Peter Hubner, Brian Kennedy, John McCann, Edward Smethurst, Doug
Skehan, Jon Corner and Michael Linett.
Tainted questionings
The inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine was archived by the Public Ministry
shortly after Paulo Rebelo arrived to substitute Gonçalo Amaral as the coordinator of the CID in Portimão.
Paulo Rebelo, the same who had negotiated the return of Fátima Felgueiras to Portugal, was incapable of continuing the
investigations and carrying out several diligences that were considered to be extremely important, namely the official reconstruction
of what happened on the night of the disappearance.
It was also under the responsibility of Paulo Rebelo – who has now been transferred to the Lisbon Directory –
that a PJ team went to England, where the inspectors, contrary of what was expected of them, were unable to follow the totality
of questioning of the members of the so-called Tapas group, the seven English citizens that accompanied the McCanns on the
night that Maddie disappeared. A failure with consequences that are still impossible to be precise.
|
Until when will the Public Ministry keep the "Maddie" case in a drawer?, 14 April 2009
|
Duarte Levy
April 14, 2009 • 10:00 AM
It was through a press release that, on the 21st of July 2008, the Attorney General announced what
was expected already: the archiving of the Maddie case, due to an alleged lack of evidence that any crime had been committed.
An incomprehensible decision, taking into account that 14 months after the disappearance of Madeleine
McCann, numerous diligences hadn't been carried out, witnesses remained unheard and, above everything else, a child had yet
to be found.
Now, and according to statements by the AG himself, the Maddie case could be reopened if new data
elements, but despite the appearance of several testimonies and documents, the Public Ministry has not manifested the slightest
intention of continuing the investigative work that had been performed by the PJ in Portimão.
Even more incomprehensible, numerous documents from the process have come from England into the hands
of journalists, and they all point towards a clear interference from the British authorities in an investigation that was
well under way. It also remains beyond comprehension that the Public Ministry has decided not to prosecute all those who did
everything they could to delay and damage the inquiry: the Spanish private detectives, António Toscano and his false allegations,
etc.
Gonçalo Amaral, who was removed from the case allegedly due to having given a statement to a journalist,
continues to claim that he fell prey to political and diplomatic pressures that could actually be verified through internal
documents from the English Home Office and the police itself.
Today, almost two years after the death of Madeleine McCann, almost all of the indicia that were
collected and analysed by the English lab has been destroyed, or its whereabouts are unknown, and nobody really knows what
would be the famous element that the Public Ministry awaits to reopen the process, because so far, all of them have been ignored.
Several attempts have been made so far, and even with images and documents that were handed over
to the police, the Public Ministry continues to ignore the real issue: the Maddie case is no longer a case that belongs to
the McCanns, but rather a case that belongs to a society that needs to know the truth.
|
McCanns have not demanded reopening of the process, 15 April 2009
|
Reopening of the case in the hands of João Melchior Gomes and Magalhães e Menezes
Duarte Levy
April 15, 2009 • 6:05 AM
Contrary to what Gerry McCann had led to suppose in the statements that he made
to the press during his passage through Praia da Luz, neither the McCann couple nor its lawyers have requested the reopening
of the inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine, so far. The information was now confirmed to 24horas by a source
at the Public Ministry.
During the filming of his version of what happened on the night of the 3rd of
May 2007, the night of the alleged disappearance, the father of the English girl stated that it was necessary for the police
to look at the results of the inquiry in order to see "where the mistakes are and what else we can do?".
According to the same source, after the Maddie case was archived, on the 21st
of July 2008, several elements were appended to the process, but neither the joint Attorney General, João Melchior Gomes,
nor the prosecutor, Magalhães e Menezes, have so far considered that "sufficiently strong" motives exist to reopen the inquiry.
Even today, almost two years after Madeleine McCann allegedly died – as
Gonçalo Amaral defended in his documentary – the investigators continue to have no doubt that the inquiry was affected
by a contamination that was carried out intentionally by Kate and Gerry McCann, with one sole purpose: to conceal their daughter's
death. These are the suspicions that are part of a report that was signed by a chief inspector, on the 10th of September 2007,
and which are part of the process but were ignored by the PJ's final report.
At that time, the investigator even suggested a change in the coercion measure
of 'termo de identidade e residência' [obligation to state identity and residence] for the couple that had just been made
arguidos, a fact that was also ignored by the Public Ministry, which actually allowed for Kate and Gerry McCann to abandon
the Portuguese territory.
Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the CID in Portimão, continues to state
that Madeleine died on the very same night that she disappeared, and in the documentary that TVI broadcast this week, he demonstrated
the impossibility of an abduction, using a reconstitution played by actors to point out several contradictions in the testimonies
that were given in Portugal and in England by the couple and the seven British persons that accompanied them, the so-called
Tapas Bar group.
A source at the Public Ministry that was contacted by 24horas confirmed
that the documentary, which is based on the book "Maddie: The Truth of the Lie", by Gonçalo Amaral, was "watched very attentively"
and that it will "obviously" be appended to the process, while the same may happen to the documentary that will result from
the filming that was recently carried out under the guidance of Gerry McCann in Praia da Luz.
|
McCanns go to Oprah, 16 April 2009
|
Maddie's parents will not receive money for going to the show on the day of the second anniversary
of their daughter's disappearance
Duarte Levy
April 16, 2009 • 8:24 am
Thanks to
Astro for translation
Kate and Gerry McCann will mark the second anniversary of their daughter's disappearance with
an interview with Oprah Winfrey, on the most famous American talk show. 24horas had already advanced this news, but
official confirmation of the show's date was lacking.
Maddie's parents are travelling to Chicago next week, where they will complete filming, which
had been started in England, of a one-hour special that is dedicated to the case, which will be broadcast on the 3rd of May,
and during which they intend to present a new digital image representing the child with the look that she would have today
if she were alive.
Contrary to what he had announced in Praia da Luz early this month, the couple's spokesman,
Clarence Mitchell, confirmed Maddie's parents' participation in 'Oprah', stressing the fact that the couple is counting on
the interview's broadcast in 144 countries to re-launch the searches for the little girl.
When questioned about payment or a possible financial participation by Oprah to the McCanns,
Clarence Mitchell denied by saying that "Kate and Gerry won't receive the smallest dollar".
Reply to Gonçalo Amaral
Meanwhile, the documentary that an English television channel came to record in Praia da Luz,
early this month, and in which Gerry McCann and two of the friends that spent their holidays with Maddie's parents participated,
is going to be altered.
The producers thus want to include a series of 'replies' to the one that TVI broadcast on
Monday, which is based on the version of Gonçalo Amaral. This information was confirmed to 24horas yesterday by a
member of Mentorn Media, the company that is producing the documentary that Channel Four broadcasts in England on the 7th
of May.
According to the same source, the changes were made at Gerry's request and take into account
the version that was given in Valentim de Carvalho's documentary, where the former inquiry coordinator reaffirms his conviction
that the child died in the couple's apartment at the Ocean Club resort.
The English version of what happened points at an abduction that was carried out by a local
resident or by someone with Mediterranean features.
Documentary on the Internet
The documentary from Valentim de Carvalho that TVI broadcast last Monday is being a victim
of its own success. The Portuguese company has already been forced to impose its rights with various internet sites, namely
the video platform YouTube, where only hours after the end of the programme, the documentary could be seen in its entirety.
Despite the action, numerous sites now allow for the programme to be downloaded.
|
Maddie, a two-year-old "pact", 06 May 2009
|
By Duarte Levy
May 6, 2009 • 10:59 pm
Two years after the disappearance of Madeleine
McCann, the little English girl that was allegedly abducted in Praia da Luz, the Polícia Judiciária still cannot find the
ending for a story that continues to move two countries and whose actors and victims are, to this day, confronted with the
facts and theories of the most media exposed case of Portuguese justice.
There is no evidence that Maddie is alive and all indications, whether public or under judicial secrecy, have been confirming
the child's death, but many continue to question themselves about the role that was played by each one of the actors in this
case.
United in a veritable "pact of silence" against the Portuguese authorities, as Felícia Cabrita wrote, the nine English
people from the Tapas Bar – as they ended up being known – are not a homogenous group anymore and few remain side
by side with Kate and Gerry McCann.
David Payne
The 43-year-old doctor is married to Fiona and the father of two: Lily and Scarlet, both aged between two and five. Two
years on, the Payne couple stays at the side of Maddie's parents and state that they share the idea of an abduction with them.
From the entire group, David and Fiona are the most faithful, and according to a source that is close to both couples,
the recent allegations of paedophilia that have been advanced in Portugal, have only strengthened the friendship that exists
since the time when Fiona worked with Kate.
The medic is actually one of the main actors in the Maddie case: it was David Payne who organised the holiday at the
Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz, and except for Kate and Gerry, he was the last person to see Maddie.
David Payne was accused by a couple of English doctors, members of the same circle of friends, of having made paedophile
type gestures during a holiday in Mallorca, Spain.
Fiona Payne
David met Kate and Gerry through Fiona. The 36-year-old anaesthetist worked with Kate McCann, and out of the whole group,
she is the one who maintains the most regular contact with Maddie's mother.
Fiona accompanied Kate during the in vitro fertilisation from which Madeleine resulted, and she is also the one who accompanied
the child's mother most during the days that followed the disappearance in Praia da Luz.
In her statements to Leicestershire police, Fiona recognises that she didn't see whether or not her husband was at the
tennis court between 6 and 7 p.m. In her reply to the question that was asked by the police, Fiona was quite nervous but stated
that her husband only passed by the McCanns' apartment to help Kate with the children.
The Payne couple continues to live in the Leicester area, which is why they keep the same circle of friends as Maddie's
parents.
Jane Tanner
Jane Michelle Tanner, aged 38, is the other member of the Tapas Bar group with whom the McCanns keep regular contact.
In 2007, on the night that Maddie disappeared, Jane stated that she saw a man carrying a child, but her testimony, which was
altered several times, only launched more confusion into an investigation that was already affected by the interference of
English diplomacy and authorities. Jane's testimony, according to the PJ, delayed the evolution of the investigation and forced
the inspectors to concentrate on an "endless" lead.
On the night of the disappearance, Jane didn't participate in the searches and stayed at her apartment's door, but on
the following morning, it is her that contacts a GNR officer, Nelson da Costa, whom she told that she saw a "man"
running and carrying a "child" that was "clearly" wearing pyjamas. She wasn't able to describe the "man" because it was very
dark.
Jane failed to justify to the GNR how she saw the child's pyjamas despite the darkness and her statements, made to the
PJ and the British police, would end up being altered several times, "strangely" coinciding with the "schedule" that would
later be described by Kate and Gerry McCann.
Jane Tanner was in Praia da Luz during the first week of April, where she arrived in the company of Gerry McCann to participate
in the making of a new documentary that Channel 4 will broadcast on the 7th of May, and in which she will once more reinforce
the abduction theory.
Friends increasingly distant
All the other members of the group that dined with Kate and Gerry McCann on the night that Madeleine disappeared (Dianne
Webster, Fiona's mother – Russell O'Brien, Jane Tanner's partner – Matthew Oldfield and Rachael Mampilly) have
distanced themselves from the couple, bit by bit.
According to a source that is close to the McCanns, the separation of the friends is merely due to the fact that "everyone
has their own life that doesn't always allow for meetings," which is nevertheless not confirmed by all of the English people.
Matthew Oldfield himself, despite having accompanied Gerry and Jane into Portugal, always kept a distance from the journalists
and participated little in the filming.
"It's been two years, we're sad about Madeleine's disappearance but there is little or nothing that we can do to help,"
one of the English told 24horas, stressing that he wants to keep away from journalists and "get on with life" despite
"hoping that the child's disappearance can be clarified as quickly as possible".
Despite the campaign that was developed by the McCann couple, with its peak matching the dates of the little girl's disappearance,
the union of the nine English people was never constant and for several times Clarence Mitchell, the couple's spokesman, was
forced to intervene, to reunite the group and to "match" versions.
In October 2007, two of the English people announced, through a lawyer, that they were willing to change their statements
to the PJ, but the news
is advanced by Spanish daily "El Mundo", and Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman immediately contacts the members of the group and organises a meeting at a hotel,
where fidelity to the "pact of silence" is ascertained once more, and the two witnesses end up abandoning their intentions.
Memories from a night
On the third of May 2007, according to Silvia Batista, the McCanns and their friends were all inside apartment 5A at
the Ocean Club, and nobody was out searching for Maddie yet, when the GNR arrived.
The resort's head of service and maintenance, now aged 47, remembers that Maddie's father accompanied her to meet the
GNR officers, whom he gave "postcard type photographs" of the child: "they were postcard sized photographs, and they all seemed
similar to her".
"Since the first moment, both Gerry and the other members of the group insisted on stating that Madeleine had been taken,
using the word "abducted" instead of missing, and they all showed great interest in informing the press about the situation,"
the witness told the PJ.
In the bedroom where Maddie allegedly slept that night, "the beds that were used by the babies were located in the middle
of the bedroom and were aligned," which Silvia found "strange" because, she said, if "someone had taken Madeleine out of the
bed where she was sleeping, towards the window, there would be no space to get through".
"None of the members of the group, including father and mother of the child, were busy searching for her," Silvia recalled,
explaining that Kate McCann remained sitting on the bed in the couple's bedroom, the father stayed with the GNR officers,
and the other members of the group walked in and out and spoke on the phone, "concerned with informing the press about what
had happened".
|
Maddie's father prepares another visit to Portugal, 13 May
2009
|
Duarte Levy
May 13, 2009 • 10:04 am
Gerry McCann, the father
of the English child that disappeared in Praia da Luz, Algarve, in May 2007, is preparing another trip to Portugal, where,
according to someone close to the couple, the two new investigators say they made "new discoveries" about what happened to
Maddie.
Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, the two retired policemen that the McCann couple hired to analyse the documents that were
released by the Public Ministry, now say that the child is being held in the area by one of five possible abductors that they
have already identified. Those two investigators, that replaced an already long list of alleged detectives and military officers
that have worked for the McCanns, further accuse the PJ of having ignored a list of 18 alleged perverts and a series of 6
attacks against English children in the Algarve.
Contrary to what was always stated by the detectives from Metodo 3 and the former military officers from Control Risks
Group (CRG), two agencies that the McCann couple hired to allegedly search for Maddie, the new investigators don't believe
that the little girl was abducted by a child trafficking network or taken on board of a ship, some of the many theories that
have been put forward to explain Madeleine's disappearance.
Although the exact date of Gerry McCann's trip to Portugal is not known yet, a source close to the couple confirmed that
Madeleine's father "will be in the Algarve when the two investigators deem it necessary".
"Gerry McCann once challenged the PJ to find Madeleine's body", one of the PJ inspectors in Portimão said, adding that
"now it's our turn to challenge him: that he comes to Portugal to find his daughter. That is all that we ask from him. Otherwise,
he should ask for the process to be reopened and he should return with his friends, to finally cooperate with justice."
"Kate McCann" is missing
In the new documentary about the case, which SIC presented last night, titled "Maddie: Two years of anguish", the images
where American actress Lisa Donovan played Kate McCann's role in the reconstitution of what supposedly happened on the night
of the 3rd of May 2007, have disappeared.
A source at Mentorn Media – which produced the documentary for Channel 4 – told that the initiative to remove
those images came from Gerry McCann, explaining that "the decision was made after the documentary by Gonçalo Amaral was broadcast",
as we had already reported. According to the same source, "the representation of what Kate had done on the night that Maddie
disappeared was not convincing and raised some doubts".
But it was not only the images of the false Kate that were cut, and many of the facts that lie at the core of Maddie's
disappearance, like David Payne's visit to the apartment between 6 and 7 p.m., ended up not even being mentioned: David's
wife herself told the police that she didn't know where her husband was during that time lapse; while Kate and David speak
about a 30 second visit, the child's father mentions half an hour. The matter was of crucial importance to the PJ because
that is the time lapse during which Madeleine is seen alive by someone outside of the couple.
The actress, who had been chosen during a casting in England, wasn't able to explain the mystery behind the cutting of
the images that were filmed in Praia da Luz, nevertheless confirming that she was paid for her work. The actress is forbidden
from revealing to the media the contents of the images that Mentorn Media filmed, and the same happens with the other 14 actors.
|
Psychologist wants to reopen the Maddie case, 18 September 2009
|
Psychologist wants to reopen the Maddie case 24horas
Prosecutor
receives the request of Paulo Sargento By Duarte Levy 18 September 2009 Thanks to Mercedes for Portuguese-Spanish translation,
and Dr Martin Roberts for Spanish-English
translation
The man who reconstructed the disappearance of Maddie in 3D
does not want the case to die
Public Prosecutor General (PGR), Pinto Monteiro, yesterday received yet another
petition for the re-opening of the process in relation to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, this one authored by Forensic
Psychologist Paulo Sargento.
Besides the petition sent today to the PGR, Ana Lima, advisor to Pinto Monteiro, confirmed
to 24horas that an identical initiative had already been taken by a Spanish citizen, "but without prompting
anything of investigative interest, for which reason it was archived."
In the recent document - to which 24horas
has had access - Sargento bases his petition on the premise that "the couple were not correctly investigated" by
either the Portuguese judiciary or the English authorities following the departure of Goncalo Amaral from the PJ's Department
of Criminal Investigation in Portimao.
According to the psychologist, author of a 3-D video simulation based on
the testimonies concerning the night of May 3rd 2007 - when Maddie is considered to have been abducted - the McCann couple
were never interrogated with regard to the circumstances which prompted the washing of cuddle cat - a pink soft toy belonging
to the little girl: "It would be of interest to know if Kate and Gerry were informed of the arrival of the English dogs,
when and by whom." said Sargento to 24horas.
Before the dogs arrived
For the psychologist, it is revealing that Kate should wash cuddle cat before the two dogs, 'Eddie
and Keela' - trained to detect cadaver odour and the scent of human blood - had arrived in Praia da Luz.
"Today
I washed cuddle cat. I hoped not to have to do that until Madeleine's return", Kate wrote in her personal diary which
she began after the disappearance of the little girl from the apartment the family occupied in Praia da Luz in the Algarve.
In the diary, Maddie's mother justifies her action on the grounds that the soft toy was "a little dirty and smelly",
an attitude the psychologist finds strange: "It doesn’t conform to the behaviour expected of a mother in such a
situation."
"I determined that the washing of cuddle cat, several days before the arrival of the investigative
dogs, as well as the motive for such an act, were NOT made the subject of inquiry within the overall framework of the investigation!"
wrote Sargento in the petition sent to Pinto Monteiro, emphasising the fact that 'Eddie and Keela', the dogs brought
in from England, had effected a "positive identification of cadaver odour on the soft toy, but not on the bed, nor the
sheets where it was found by the investigators."
Besides this formal petition for the re-opening of the process,
Ana Lima explained to 24horas that the PGR had received "dozens of e-mails and letters, usually anonymous"
concerning the Maddie case, although until now they have had "no judicial relevance, failing to point specifically to
concrete and credible facts."
|
|
|
|
|
With thanks
to Nigel at
McCann Files
|
|
|
|
|