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Madeleine’s accidental death was concealed by her parents,
Portuguese police claim |
MADELEINE
McCann died in her family’s holiday
apartment
as the result of a tragic accident and her parents concealed her body, a
police chief told a court in Portugal yesterday.
Kate and
Gerry McCann neglected their children and lied to detectives
investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, a senior government lawyer also
claimed.
And
detectives intercepted text messages between the couple in the days
after the youngster vanished from the Algarve resort and looked into
ways of preventing them from leaving the country. One officer even
claimed that Portuguese police changed their inquiry from a missing
person search to a murder investigation after
Kate
told him she had a nightmare and had seen Madeleine’s body lying on a
hillside. The allegations – which have all been vehemently denied by the
McCanns – were outlined during the dramatic opening of a case brought by
Goncalo
Amaral, the former detective who headed the initial
investigation.
He
wants to overturn a ban on his controversial
book
on the case.
In a
separate legal action, the McCanns are seeking £1million compensation
and a final ruling preventing Mr Amaral from repeating the claims he
made about them, which they say are untrue and based on a deeply flawed
investigation. The couple have said any money would be used to help try
to find Madeleine.
The
McCanns have never been charged with any offence and were cleared by the
Portuguese authorities after they admitted there was no evidence to
prosecute the couple.
After a tense opening, their
spokeswoman
confirmed that the couple
found listening to the allegations very painful. She said: “I think it
is hurting them. They can feel hurt by these things being repeated again
and again and again. However, they know what really happened so they are
confident. They just want to find their daughter.”
Chief Inspector
Tavares de Almeida
told the court that
he believed the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were directly
involved in Madeleine’s disappearance – a theory he said was shared by
Portuguese and British officers working on the case.
He
said: “The conclusion that was arrived at was that Madeleine McCann died
at the apartment and the McCann couple simulated the abduction to hide
the fact that they had not taken care of their children.
“There was a tragic accident in the apartment that night and they
neglected the care of their children. It was the conclusion of both
Portuguese and British police. We have always spoken of a tragic
accidental death. There was no homicide.”
Asked if he thought Madeleine was dead, Mr de Almeida replied: “Yes. She
is dead. It was not only the police who believed this but the public
prosecutor. The McCanns did not kill her but they concealed the body.”
Mr de Almeida was giving evidence on behalf of his former colleague
Goncalo Amaral who is seeking to overturn a ban on the book he wrote
about the Madeleine case entitled Maddie: The
Truth Of
The Lie.
The
detective described the book as a “true history of the facts”. He said:
“Goncalo Amaral was very careful to come to this conclusion with the
facts.”
Luis
Neves, the head of Portugal’s anti-terrorism unit, told the court they
had employed a British profiler who gave him the impression that the
McCanns were guilty of involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Mr
de Almeida said their suspicions about the couple appeared to be
confirmed when
sniffer
dogs found traces of blood and the smell of death at the
McCanns’ holiday apartment.
One
of the dogs was in a nervous, excitable state and wanted to get into the
room, said Mr de Almeida.
He
said: “Inside the apartment there were two places where the dogs gave a
sign. One was in the bedroom, the other was in the dining room.
“It
was also found in the McCanns’ new apartment on a piece of clothing and
in the
rental car.”
Asked if it was the dog’s reaction that led police to make the McCanns
formal suspects in the investigation, he said: “No, they were already
suspected of simulating a kidnapping and concealing the body.”
The
McCanns’ lawyer,
Isabel
Duarte, challenged this claim, arguing that the sniffer dog
results did not constitute proof and were not allowed as evidence in the
case.
Mr
de Almeida said the investigation was hampered by the British
authorities who provided only one sheet of paper of information when
asked to look into the background of Kate and Gerry and their friends.
Earlier, District Attorney Jose Magalhaes e Menezes told the court how
text messages sent by Kate and Gerry were intercepted by police who were
suspicious about their role in their daughter’s disappearance.
He
said: “The phone taps were set up in order to clear or implicate the
McCanns.” But the texts were not considered as part of the investigation
because a judge would not allow it.
Giving evidence via videolink, Mr Menezes claimed that the couple lied
to police about how long they had left Madeleine alone.
He
said: “The truth is that the McCanns did not seem concerned about the
safety of their children. They neglected to take care of them.
“They told police that checks on the children had been made every half
an hour that evening – then how could there be an opportunity for her to
go missing? So it was therefore a longer interval – maybe 45 to 50
minutes.”
Under fierce questioning from Amaral’s lawyer, Mr Menezes was asked
again and again if he thought Madeleine was dead.
He
refused to give an answer until he was again asked by Judge Gabriela
Rodrigues for his opinion on whether she was dead or alive.
He
replied: “Fifty-fifty”. He added his team looked into ways of preventing
Kate and Gerry returning the UK.
However, under cross-examination, he conceded that the McCanns had
always made themselves available to detectives for questioning during
the investigation.
Yesterday, the McCanns sat just feet away from Mr Amaral in the cold,
stone floored courtroom in Portugal Palace of Justice.
Dressed in a pretty floral dress, tights and boots Kate and husband
Gerry whispered to each other as the legal proceeding took place in
front of a packed public gallery.
Their lawyer told the court that the couple were prepared to give
evidence but only after Mr Amaral had done so.
The
McCanns’ legal team also intend to call a new witness which could result
in the case lasting longer than the expected three days.
Madeleine was nearly
four
when she went missing from her
family holiday apartment in
Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3
2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby.
Later, another witness told the court that the investigation changed
from a missing person’s inquiry into a murder hunt after Kate had a
nightmare and told police where to look for the body.
Police liaison officer Ricardo Paiva said: “The turning point of the
investigation came after I received a phone call from Kate McCann.
“She
said she had had a nightmare and saw Madeleine’s body lying on a
hillside.” Police carried out a thorough search of the land overlooking
the beach at Praia da Luz but found nothing.
Asked if he had ever got the impression from the McCanns that they
thought Madeleine could be dead, he said: “Yes.”
However, he added that he did not think that claims that she was dead
had hampered the police investigation as officers continued to get
regular sightings of the missing youngster.
He
said: “In this week I have received a dozen sightings of Madeleine.”
Mr
Paiva, who was removed from the inquiry at the request of the McCanns,
said he received the call at the end of July when Gerry was away and
Kate was in Praia da Luz on her own.
At
this point the Portuguese police were told about British search dogs
that could find dead bodies.
He
added: “At the end of July Kate phoned me. She was alone as Gerry was in
the UK and she was crying, saying she’d dreamt Madeleine was up in the
hills and we should do searches there. She gave the impression that she
thought Madeleine was dead.”
Mr
Paiva said detectives became suspicious of the McCanns the moment they
disobeyed police advice to keep quiet while they investigated. Instead
the couple turned the case into a media circus.
He
said they claimed they had to do everything. “From the minute they
shunned our advice we suspected them,” he said.
However, under cross examination he accepted claims that the couple
contacted the
media
before the police were not true. Judge Rodrigues asked him why he could
not accept that Madeleine could have been kidnapped and then killed. Mr
Paiva did not answer.
Mr
Paiva said if Madeleine was alive and being held captive publicity would
be more likely to hasten her death. Mr de Almeida told the court that
well-wishers who gave cash donations to the
Madeleine Fund
had been conned as the girl was dead and the money was being wasted.
He
said Portuguese police investigated whether they could launch a fraud
inquiry to protect the £2million in the fund.
But
they abandoned the idea after it became apparent they had no
jurisdiction – as the fund was held in the UK.
He
said: “There was a discussion with the British police about the fund
because we couldn’t understand its purpose. We were concerned that there
was a fraud being carried out. We asked our British colleagues about it
and were told it would be very complicated.
“But
Portugal had no jurisdiction over the Madeleine Fund because it is based
in the UK.”
He
said the British authorities refused to carry out any investigation into
the McCanns or their friends.
He
told the court: “All they sent us was one A4 piece of paper. We were
told the British would not accept an investigation of the McCanns.”
Portuguese police found the “merchandising” of the Madeleine Fund – the
sale of wristbands – very strange.
The
McCanns’ status as suspects was lifted when the investigation was
shelved in July 2008. The same month, Mr Amaral published the book.
Arriving in Lisbon, Mr McCann said: “No one can be allowed to say that
our daughter can’t be found without very good evidence. That’s what this
court case is about.”
Mrs
McCann said: “We’re looking for justice.” |
