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Madeleine disappeared from
the Praia da Luz resort in
May 2007Madeleine
disappeared from the Praia
da Luz resort in May 2007
(Adrian Sheratt) |
Sunday Times - paper
edition
[Front page]
Insight
Madeleine clues hidden for 5
years
THE critical new evidence at the centre
of Scotland Yard’s search for Madeleine
McCann was kept secret for five years
after it was presented to her parents by
ex-MI5 investigators.
The evidence was in fact taken from an
intelligence report produced for Gerry
and Kate McCann by a firm of former
spies in 2008.
It contained crucial E-Fits of a man
seen carrying a child on the night of
Madeleine’s disappearance, which have
only this month become public after he
was identified as the prime suspect by
Scotland Yard.
But the trail was left to go cold for
five years because the McCanns and their
advisers sidelined the report and
threatened to sue its authors if they
divulged the contents.
The report, seen by the Sunday Times,
called for the E-Fits to be released
immediately and said "anomalies" in
statements by the McCanns and their
friends must be resolved.
A source close to the McCanns said the
report was considered “hypercritical of
the people involved” and “would have
been completely distracting” if made
public.
[Page 4]
The new prime suspect was
first singled out by detectives in 2008.
Their findings were suppressed. Insight
reports
The team of hand-picked former MI5
agents had been hired by Kate and Gerry
McCann to chase a much-needed
breakthrough in the search for their
missing daughter Madeleine.
It was the spring of 2008, 10 months
after the three-year-old had disappeared
from the Portuguese resort of Praia da
Luz, and the McCanns were beginning to
despair over the handling of the local
police investigation. They were relying
on the new team to bring fresh hope.
But within months the relationship had
soured. A report produced by the
investigators was deemed “hypercritical”
of the McCanns and their friends, and
the authors were threatened with legal
action if it was made public.
Its contents remained secret until
Scotland Yard detectives conducting a
fresh review of the case contacted the
authors and asked for a copy.
They found that it contained new
evidence about a key suspect seen
carrying a child away from the McCanns’
holiday apartment on the night Madeleine
disappeared.
This sighting is now considered the main
lead in the investigation and E-Fits of
the suspect, taken from the report, were
the centrepiece of a Crimewatch appeal
that attracted more than 2,400 calls
from the public this month.
One of the investigators whose work was
sidelined said last week he was “utterly
stunned” when he watched the programme
and saw the evidence his team had passed
to the McCanns five years ago presented
as a breakthrough.
The team of investigators from the
security firm Oakley International were
hired by the McCanns’ Find Madeleine
fund, which bankrolled private
investigations into the girl’s
disappearance. They were led by Henri
Exton, MI5’s former undercover
operations chief.
Their report, seen by The Sunday Times,
focused on a sighting by an Irish family
of a man carrying a child at about 10pm
on May 3, 2007, when Madeleine went
missing.
An earlier sighting by one of the
McCanns’ friends was dismissed as less
credible after “serious inconsistencies”
were found in her evidence. The report
also raised questions about “anomalies”
in the statements given by the McCanns
and their friends.
Exton confirmed last week that the fund
had silenced his investigators for years
after they handed over their
controversial findings. He said: “A
letter came from their lawyers binding
us to the confidentiality of the
report.”
He claimed the legal threat had
prevented him from handing over the
report to Scotland Yard’s fresh
investigation, until detectives had
obtained written permission from the
fund. A source close to the fund said
the report was considered “hypercritical
of the people involved” and “would have
been completely distracting” if it
became public.
Oakley’s six-month investigation
included placing undercover agents
inside the Ocean Club where the family
stayed, lie detector tests, covert
surveillance and a forensic
re-examination of all existing evidence.
It was immediately clear that two
sightings of vital importance had been
reported to the police. Two men were
seen carrying children near the
apartments between 9pm, when Madeleine
was last seen by Gerry, and 10pm, when
Kate discovered her missing.
The first man was seen at 9.15pm by Jane
Tanner, a friend of the McCanns, who had
been dining with them at the tapas bar
in the resort. She saw a man carrying a
girl just yards from the apartment as
she went to check on her children.
The second sighting was by Martin Smith
and his family from Ireland, who saw a
man carrying a child near the apartment
just before 10pm.
The earlier Tanner sighting had always
been treated as the most significant,
but the Oakley team controversially
poured cold water on her account.
Instead, they focused on the Smith
sighting, travelling to Ireland to
interview the family and produce E-Fits
of the man they saw. Their report said
the Smiths were “helpful and sincere”
and concluded: “The Smith sighting is
credible evidence of a sighting of
Maddie and more credible than Jane
Tanner’s sighting”. The evidence had
been “neglected for too long” and an
“overemphasis placed on Tanner”.
The new focus shifted the believed
timeline of the abduction back by 45
minutes. The report, delivered to the
McCanns in November 2008, recommended
that the revised timeline should be the
basis for future investigations and that
the Smith E-Fits should be released
without delay.
"The report questioned
'anomalies' in the McCanns' statements"
The potential abductor seen by the
Smiths is now the prime suspect in
Scotland Yard’s investigation, after
detectives established that the man seen
earlier by Tanner was almost certainly a
father carrying his child home from a
nearby night creche. The Smith E-Fits
were the centrepiece of the Crimewatch
appeal.
Investigators had E-Fits
five years ago
One of the Oakley investigators said
last week: “I was absolutely stunned
when I watched the programme . . . It
most certainly wasn’t a new timeline and
it certainly isn’t a new revelation. It
is absolute nonsense to suggest either
of those things . . . And those E-Fits
you saw on Crimewatch are ours,” he
said.
The detailed images of the face of the
man seen by the Smith family were never
released by the McCanns. But an artist’s
impression of the man seen earlier by
Tanner was widely promoted, even though
the face had to be left blank because
she had only seen him fleetingly and
from a distance.
Various others images of lone men
spotted hanging around the resort at
other times were also released.
Nor were the Smith E-Fits included in
Kate McCann’s 2011 book, Madeleine,
which contained a whole section on eight
“key sightings” and identified those of
the Smiths and Tanner as most “crucial”.
Descriptions of all seven other
sightings were accompanied by an E-Fit
or artist’s impression. The Smiths’ were
the only exception. So why was such a
“crucial” piece of evidence kept under
lock and key?
The relationship between the fund and
Oakley was already souring by the time
the report was submitted — and its
findings could only have made matters
worse.
As well as questioning parts of the
McCanns’ evidence, it contained
sensitive information about Madeleine’s
sleeping patterns and raised the highly
sensitive possibility that she could
have died in an accident after leaving
the apartment herself from one of two
unsecured doors.
There was also an uncomfortable
complication with Smith’s account. He
had originally told the police that he
had “recognised something” about the way
Gerry McCann carried one of his children
which reminded him of the man he had
seen in Praia da Luz.
Smith has since stressed that he does
not believe the man he saw was Gerry,
and Scotland Yard do not consider this a
possibility. Last week the McCanns were
told officially by the Portuguese
authorities that they are not suspects.
The McCanns were also understandably
wary of Oakley after allegations that
the chairman, Kevin Halligen, failed to
pass on money paid by the fund to
Exton’s team. Halligen denies this. He
was later convicted of fraud in an
unrelated case in the US.
The McCann fund source said the Oakley
report was passed on to new private
investigators after the contract ended,
but that the firm’s work was considered
“contaminated” by the financial dispute.
He said the fund wanted to continue to
pursue information about the man seen by
Tanner, and it would have been too
expensive to investigate both sightings
in full — so the Smith E-Fits were not
publicised. It was also considered
necessary to threaten legal action
against the authors.
“[The report] was hypercritical of the
people involved . . . It just wouldn’t
be conducive to the investigation to
have that report publicly declared
because . . . the newspapers would have
been all over it. And it would have been
completely distracting,” said the
source.
A statement released by the Find
Madeleine fund said that “all
information privately gathered during
the search for Madeleine has been fully
acted upon where necessary” and had been
passed to Scotland Yard.
It continued: “Throughout the
investigation, the Find Madeleine fund’s
sole priority has been, and remains, to
find Madeleine and bring her home as
swiftly as possible.”
Insight: Heidi Blake and Jonathan
Calvert |
