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"10 years ago, the disappearance of
Maddie McCann"
http://www.rtl.fr/actu/societe-faits-di
... 7788279123
This summary focuses on the
participants' statements and leaves out
archival materials that do not provide
anything new.
This program is broadcast in
collaboration with "Le Parisien"
.......................................................................................
J.Pradel introduces his guests:
- Timothée Boutry, a "Le Parisien"
journalist who has been following the
case for a long time (he was twice in
Praia da Luz) and
- Georges Moréas, Honorary
Commissioner, former Head of the OCRB
(Office central de lutte contre le crime
organisé, a sort of French equivalent of
SOCA, Serious Organised Crime Agency),
currently a lawyer at the Paris Bar,
novelist, scriptwriter and author of
columns about the Maddie McCann case on
his blog POLICEtcetera.
http://moreas.blog.lemonde.fr/
-Anne Guedes, Professor of French
in the Lisbon University Luis de Camoes,
who devoted a lot of time to this
particular case. All that is related to
it is exhaustively recorded in her blog,
Madeleine etc.
https://madmyst.blogspot.fr/
.......................................................................
J.Pradel says he will aks AG why
she is so interested in this case, apart
from the fact that it happened in
Portugal where she lives.
Timothée Boutry brings to mind a
short retrospective of the Scotland Yard
review of the case, decided by David
Cameron in 2011. He talks of a recent SY
release (note: Martin Brunt's interview
with the assistant commissioner Mark
Rowley on April 25) alluding to a critic
lead among others but remaining blurred,
as always since the beginning of
Operation Grange.
Jacques Pradel points out that SY
never questioned the McCann family.
Georges Moréas, who read the
alluded interview, finds it amazing that
the commissioner seems very embarrassed
and does not actually answer the
journalist who has to repeat questions
several times. GM reckons that SY
definitively ruled out the thesis of an
accident, of a sedative overdose ... an
hypothesis also plausible. In France,
there are similar cases of children who
are reported "abducted" by their parents
whereas they died accidentally. He
refers to the alleged "kidnapping" in
2008 of little Antoine Brugerolle (note
: he has never been found) whose mother
has recently been arrested with her
partner because according to the
latter's fellow prisoner the child died
of an accidental ingestion of drug when
he was alone at home.
In England, the police adopted a
political position, it was considered at
once that the parents were victims and
that the Portuguese police had not done
the job.
J.Pradel recalls that Gonçalo
Amaral's book sums up his thesis and
that he finally and definitively won at
the High Court the lawsuit against him,
hence will not have to pay the half
million euros to the McCanns.
G.Moréas emphasises that the High
Court judges’ ruling reminds that the
parents had not been cleared (by the
filing order of July 2008), even if
there was not enough evidence to charge
them. The case was dismissed and the
McCanns came out neither guilty nor
innocent.
T.Boutry speaks about the layout
of the premises in PDL. The apartment
was accessible from the outside, on the
ground floor.
J.Pradel : The room was on the
ground floor which would have allowed to
go in through the window, but there was
no evidence of breaking and entering and
it seems that the mother said she had
closed the shutters ... another
unanswered question.
T.Boutry : According to him, the
parents, in the restaurant, were not far
away, visual contact was possible from
the restaurant ... the parents were
criticized for leaving the children
alone .. but people are free to have
their own opinion. He talks about the
Algarve.
J.Pradel, after having
highlighted that Robert Murat (note :
the first formal suspect) had been
cleared, speaks of the concrete elements
of suspicion against the parents, in
particular the "cadaver" dog and the
"blood" dog.
G.Moréas talks about the alerts
of the dogs in the McCann apartment and
the car, mentions swabs collected in the
car related with Madeleine's DNA. He
recalls that the samples were sent to
the UK (note : FFS of Birmingham) , the
results were said to be inconclusive as
(components of more than two
contributors) were mixed. Then strangely
the samples disappeared and the
counter-expertise was impossible.
J.Pradel : There were 15 markers
matching MMC's DNA profile, it is at
least disturbing (note : it means that
15/19 components of MMC’s DNA profile
were also in the reference sample) .
G.Moréas : In France 15 markers
would have sufficed for a parents'
indictment.
T.Boutry : The McCanns put
forward the thesis of the kidnapping
which imposed itself in U.K, they
overplayed it, even if they are probably
innocent. SY might have evidence, may be
we'll know it some day.
G.Moréas : At first the apartment
was not considered as a crime scene,
there was no test made to begin with. It
is a pity but it also happens sometimes
in France because the first concern is
to find the child.
T.Boutry reports that G. Amaral
told him he regretted that the crime
scene was not preserved (the police was
called only at 22h41) and moreover not
to have being able to make a
re-enactment that would have allowed to
assess the parents' (statements')
inconsistencies.
J.Pradel asks GM's opinion about
the updated e-fits of missing children.
G.Moréas says that it can be
eventually useful for adults but that
e-fits have never proved to help in the
case off missing children.
J.Pradel asks GM what, as a
policeman, has disconcerted him in this
case.
G.Moréas : The behaviour of the
parents was disturbing. They opposed the
re-enactment demanded by Amaral and
erased all the sms of their cell phones
which is rather typical of criminals
attempting to escape the police and not
the first reaction of parents who are
searching for their three-year-old
child. This suggests that they wanted to
hide something about the recipients of
their calls. The police could not go
further because the McCanns refused to
answer the questions as soon as they
became relevant and as they refused to
take part in the re-enactment (note :
actually being arguidos they couldn't
refuse, but their friends and
acquaintances could and that was enough)
, their contradictions could not be
examined.
J.Pradel : If it had happened in
France, what would have outcome ?
G.Moréas : With the evidence
gathered by the police, the parents
would have been taken into custody, a
judge would have ordered the
re-enactment and they could not have
countered it. But in Portugal, the
system of justice protects more
individual freedoms.
J.Pradel is now on the phone with
Anne Guedes :" Why did you get so
passionate about this case that of
course takes place in Portugal, but you
have been doing an incredible job that
one can see on your blog " Madeleine
etc." and for a long time ?"
A.Guedes says the media circus
could not be ignored and she had a
neutral position, living in Lisbon,
neither Portuguese nor British but at
ease in these two languages. Besides she
was gobsmacked by the way the tabloids
treated the Portuguese police and the
Portuguese people, even going so far as
to ask the ambassador of Portugal in
England to "just keep his stupid,
sardine-munching mouth shut".
There was a lot of contempt and also
misunderstanding right from the start.
This is clearly highlighted in the
recent interview with the commissioner
Mark Rowley. Scotland Yard's primary
mission was to review the case, and a
review must start from the very
beginning and question the main
protagonists, here the parents and their
friends or acquaintances. This was not
done because the British assumed that
the Portuguese had cleared the parents.
In fact they probably only read the last
page of the Public Ministry filing order
of July 2008 which says that the
McCann's status as arguidos (formal
suspects) are lifted.. (note: it was
wrongly taken for granted that it was a
certificate of innocence) .
J.Pradel asks AG if she believes
like Amaral that the abduction covered
up an accident.
A.Guedes refers to her blog about
her opinion on that matter. She thinks
that "this little girl no longer
exists". There is no indication of
kidnapping, it seems unlikely where it
(the disappearance) occurred, the
parents did not answer the questions
asked by the police (note : the mother,
not the father), refused a re-enactment,
a behaviour that didn't make sense, even
for some tabloids' editors.
J.Pradel : Question from
listeners : Concealing the body was
difficult since they did not know the
area.
A.Guedes firmly disagrees but
does not want to exhibit her thought on
the phone, on the air. She thinks the
McCanns took a terrible and wrong
decision and soon could not go backwards
anymore. Asked, she says she thinks the
friends were not aware of what happened,
she does not believe there was any
complicity.
J.Pradel asks whether it was
"behind closed doors" and AG answers
yes, that's what she thinks it was.
A.Guedes : The McCanns made a bad
choice and it would have stopped there,
had they not told incredible tales like
for instance the abduction through the
open window without trace of break-in,
etc.
J.Pradel : "Do you think that the
body of the child will be found one day
?"
A.Guedes : The answer is no. I
think that Madeleine has stopped
existing materially for a very long
time".
As J.Pradel encourages everyone to go
and have a look at her blog, AG points
out that this blog mainly establishes
facts so that people, after reading,
will be able to make their own opinion.
There were many fake news in this story.
And so it ended.
Note from Anne Guedes : Jacques
Pradel's program generated thousands of
hits on Madeleine etc., mainly from
francophone countries and particularly
from France, in the hours that followed
the broadcast. |
