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Kate's notebooks – Sean and Amelie were only 18
months old
The concern with the image was such that Madeleine's mother
became anxious when Amelie cried in front of the Portuguese
journalists. Notes reveal some moments of tension
Kate McCann's notes are filled with details about the twin
children and the manner in which they dealt with the rest of
the family. Maddie's mother tells about the children's
everyday life and often reveals some tiredness over the
energy of the smaller ones. Sean and Amelie were born from
'in vitro' fertilization, just like Maddie, but apparently
they failed to notice their sister's absence. Kate often
tells that her two smaller children kept their own routines
and she even reveals some guilty feelings over trying to get
on with life with some normalcy.
It can also be perceived in some of the writings that Kate
wanted to avoid the tensions with her smaller children to
become known by the media. Just like she describes it about
a tantrum from Amelie dated June 4, when the little girl
started yelling in the car. "They fell asleep. Sean
instantly, Amelie only after throwing a big tantrum while we
tried to sit her into the baby seat – all in front of the
Portuguese media!!! – and then we stopped on the way so we
could cuddle them outside of the car trunk. I sometimes
worry that Amelie may be missing Maddie more than we
thought. Maybe I'm being paranoid?", writes Kate, who on the
next day left her children in the creche again. "After a
shower and breakfast, take Sean and Amelie to the Kids
Club".
On the 14th of June, Kate shows her tiredness again, not
only over Maddie's disappearance but also over the care that
the smaller ones demanded. "Sean slept with me most of the
night after half an hour of hysterics at half past
midnight", she reveals, while three days later she complains
again that her children now fall asleep at a later time. "I
tried to take Sean and Amelie to bed at around 7.30 p.m. but
it took rather long again – especially AMELIE", Kate
recognises.
On the 21st of June, Kate is ironical about the children's
behaviour: "Sean and Amelie's biological clocks seem to have
changed now. They go to bed later and they get up later!!! I
think they are becoming Portuguese", says Kate, who on the
4th of May, during the first questioning, guaranteed that
her children always went to bed at 7.30 p.m.
Kate's notes
"They fell asleep. Sean instantly, Amelie only after
throwing a big tantrum while we tried to sit her into the
baby seat – all in front of the Portuguese media!!!" - June
4
"Again we wake up relatively late, around 7:30 a.m.,
preceded by notification of the good morning by Sean and
Amelie (...) After a shower and breakfast, take Sean and
Amelie to the Kids Club." - June 5
"Sean slept with me most of the night after half an hour of
hysterics at half past midnight." - June 14
"Sean and Amelie's biological clocks seem to have changed
now. They go to bed later and they get up later!!! I think
they are becoming Portuguese." - June 21
Photographed during walks
In her notebooks, Kate tells that the walks with the twins
were agreed with the English press. They were often
photographed entering and exiting the apartment at the Ocean
Club, in Praia da Luz.
Tension with her mother and support from her father
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann generated several
tensions within the McCann family, namely between the McCann
couple, but Kate's notes clearly reveal that the most
difficult was the relationship with her own mother.
Despite the fact that her parents immediately travelled to
the Algarve, just like several aunts that helped to take
care of the twins during the times that followed the
disappearance of Madeleine, Kate only found support with her
father.
In her notes dated June 8, 2007, Kate reports that she was
"upset and angry" with her mother. "At this moment, I could
do without this kind of thing – I have enough to think about
and emotionally exhausted", the doctor wrote, recalling an
argument during a walk with the twins in the Algarve.
Five days later, at a time when Kate's parents return to the
United Kingdom, Madeleine's grandmother shows her
indignation with her daughter's attitude, at the same time
when she ends up being appeased by her father. In her notes
dated June 13, Kate writes that her mother calls her
complaining about not hearing from her since the previous
day, and saying she had "an awful day".
"I explained to her that I had been told that someone had
given us the location of my daughter's body. Did she know
that? No!!!" Kate remembers, referring to a letter from a
supposed abductor that had been received at a Dutch
newspaper. After the argument with her mother, Kate talks
with her father, a conversation that calmed her down: "Deep
down, he was very strong and he said some very sweet
things".
PJ went to London to fetch diary
Kate McCann's diary, which is considered to be fundamental
by the investigators due to the fact that it reveals the
profile of Madeleine's mother, led the Polícia Judiciária to
England to try to apprehend it but it was never validated as
evidence and the process ended up being archived.
The document, which started to be written by Kate upon
advice from a psychiatrist after her daughter’s
disappearance, was discovered by the police in the Ocean
Club apartment, in the Algarve, and was initially
photocopied and analysed. But it was only in April, during
their last trip to England, that the Polícia Judiciária was
granted permission to formally apprehend the original
document, a fundamental diligence that had been requested in
September so it could be valued as evidence.
But the judge that held the process decided to postpone the
validation of the diary, which therefore could not be taken
into account within the Polícia Judiciária’s investigation –
and in the meantime, the Public Ministry ended up archiving
the case.
The authorities believed that Kate's notes revealed her
personality, and therefore were determinant for the
investigation, but they ended up never being able to use
them as evidence.
Initially, the police only appended the copies of the
document to the process, and the original was not
apprehended because it juridically fitted within the concept
of private correspondence, which is subject to a stricter
regime. Meanwhile, the McCanns returned to the United
Kingdom, which forced the Polícia Judiciária to request the
apprehension of the diary through rogatory letters, which
took months to receive a reply.
Tomorrow: How they dealt with extortion cases
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Note: The twins were actually 2 years and 3 months
old when Madeleine was reported missing. |
