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The following video clip
from CMTV* is a
collection of highlights
from two programmes
about a reconstruction
by CMTV* about the
disappearance of
Madeleine McCann.
The first programme was
a 'Maddie Case Special'
that aired on the
evening of the 16th of
November, 2013, and had
Gonçalo Amaral and
Francisco Moita Flores
in the studio.
The second programme is
called 'Rua Segura' and
was broadcast on the
evening of the 18th of
November, 2013. It
featured Rui Pereira,
Gonçalo Amaral, Carlos
Anjos and Eduardo Dâmaso.
Anchor - After CMTV
screened a reconstitution
about the disappearance of
Madeleine McCann, there were
many reactions, that
multiplied themselves,
mainly because of the
various contradictions in
the witnesses’ statements.
Voiceover – The case
dates back to the 3rd of May
of 2007. Six years later,
several inconsistencies and
contradictions are counted,
which contribute to the
mystery surrounding the
disappearance of Madeleine.
After the screening of
CMTV’s reconstruction
relating to the little
girl’s disappearance, there
were many reactions that
multiplied themselves,
mainly about the various
contradictions that were
raised.
One of the inconsistencies
has to do with the time of
the visit that was done by a
friend to the McCann couple.
David Payne would have met
Gerry at 6.30 p.m., and only
afterwards went to see Kate.
Until today, it is not known
how long the visit took:
According to Gerry, Payne
was at the location for over
half an hour; according to
Kate, the visit lasted
little over 30 seconds.
Gonçalo Amaral – This is
a figure that, I use to say,
that is enigmatic, and who
was not well investigated.
Not a lot is known about
this person.
Voiceover – A mysterious
man with a profile that is
linked to indications of
inadequate behaviours
towards children. He even
used to bathe the daughters
of the friends that he spent
holidays with.
To CMTV, Gonçalo Amaral and
Francisco Moita Flores,
former Judiciary Police
inspectors, state that this
is one of the gaps in the
process.
Moita Flores – It is
strange, in a group of
friends, that one friend
bathes the other friends’
children. And that all of
this is natural, and nobody
questions this from the
investigation’s point of
view.
Gonçalo Amaral – What
weight did it have in the
disappearance, if it had any
weight at all, and what was
going on there with that
individual. One is this one,
the 30 minutes or the 30
seconds, what he went there
to do. The other one is the
fact that he always cared to
bathe the other people’s
daughters.
Voiceover – There is
even a concrete episode,
which took place on the
island of Mallorca, in 2005.
David Payne, in the company
of Gerry McCann, would have
been seen making obscene
gestures, while referring to
Maddie.
Gonçalo Amaral – Then
there is the other moment,
that of the obscene gestures
he made, in Spain, in
Mallorca, where there is a
denunciation in May 2007,
ten days after the
disappearance, by another
doctor, who was also on
holidays, who knows him and
tells the English police
about said obscene gestures
in the presence of the
father.
Voiceover – For Eduardo
Dâmaso, joint editor at
Correio da Manhã, these
indications should have been
explored.
Eduardo Dâmaso – All of
those indications are much
stronger to explore, that
enigma that is installed
within that group, than the
thesis of the abductor. The
feeling that I have is –
Voiceover – Some
statements by Gerry McCann
are also contradictory. To
the police, Maddie’s father
told different versions
about the way that he
entered the Ocean Club
apartment at 9 p.m. In a
first statement, Gerry said
he had entered through the
front door; later, he
changed the statement and
said he had entered through
the back window. Despite
everything, the key was
inside the apartment.
For the former Judiciary
Police inspector Carlos
Anjos, the change in the
depositions is an attempt by
Gerry to adjust to the
facts.
Carlos Anjos – I think
he has no certainty
whatsoever. That is the big
problem. And hence the
difficulty, the
contradictions they had, all
of the contradictions they
had, which were verbalized
when they gave statements,
even the changing of
depositions… We at the
police use to say that when
the depositions start to be
changed, it’s an attempt by
the witness to adjust the
deposition to the fact.
Voiceover – Another
inconsistency has to do with
the visit of another friend
of the couple to the Ocean
Club apartment. Matthew
Oldfield entered the room,
looked to where Maddie and
her siblings were. Later on,
he said he wasn’t sure
whether or not the little
girl was in the apartment.
Eduardo Dâmaso – We
return to another aspect
which, from my point of
view, proves that all the
indications that exist,
which point towards an
enigma that is installed
within that group, is much
stronger than what exists
about the possibility of an
abduction.
Voiceover – Another
question that remains
unanswered is the place
where Gerry was at 10 p.m.
Two Tapas Bar employees said
that Gerry was not at the
restaurant. According to
Gonçalo Amaral, there are
only three moments that the
authorities are able to
locate in time. This is not
one of them.
Gonçalo Amaral – As far
as accurate times are
concerned, there are only
three: The time at which
they pick up Maddie from the
crèche, which is at 5.30
p.m., the time of the
payment at the restaurant by
the Irish family, which is
at 9.22 or 9.27 p.m., and
the time of the phone call
to GNR, which is at 10.47
p.m. From there on, nothing
is certain.
Voiceover - Contributing
to the mystery of Gerry’s
location at 10 p.m., a
statement by a family of
Irish tourists, four adults
and five children, appears.
According to the Smiths,
that evening, the family
left Kelly’s Bar and headed
home at around 10 p.m. Five
minutes later, Kate raises
the alarm to the
disappearance. At the same
time, the family crosses
ways with a man that carried
a blonde child, aged
approximately four, wearing
a pink pyjama.
Martin Smith, one of the
group’s members, gives the
police a detailed
description. Four months
later, already in the United
Kingdom, the Smith family
sees images of Gerry McCann
carrying one of his
children. When he sees the
image on television, Martin
remembers the same man that
he had seen in Praia da Luz.
The denunciation was made to
the Judiciary Police and the
PJ decides to bring him to
Portugal. At that time,
Gonçalo Amaral, the
coordinator, is removed from
the investigation, and the
new coordinator, Paulo
Rebelo, considers that the
trip of the Irishman to
Portugal is useless.
Six years later, Gonçalo
Amaral remains certain that
it is important to listen to
the witnesses’ statement.
Gonçalo Amaral – It
makes all kind of sense to
even bring him, and the
family, it’s 3 or 4 people
more, to Portugal, even to
understand how long they
took after leaving the
Dolphins restaurant, how
long they remained in
Kelly’s bar, because there
is no payment, the payment
was not made with a card, we
found out the exact time of
the payment, not the exit
from the restaurant, through
the payment, because the
payment was made with a bank
card. At the bar, it was
made in cash, so we don’t
know. We don’t know how long
they took having their
drinks. We don’t know at
what time the sighting takes
place. It would have been
around ten, a bit earlier, a
bit later, at around that
time, we don’t know exactly
at what time it was.
Voiceover – For the
former Judiciary Police
inspector, the question of
the e-fit that appeared at
the time ended up taking
importance away from the
deposition.
Gonçalo Amaral – This
family, which is not only
one person, says that the
person that they saw that
night is a certain person.
They say it is. Then they
say it’s 80%. And then the
e-fit – someone appears that
looks like a certain person.
While they never said it was
a person that looked like
Gerald McCann. The e-fit has
that effect, the effect of
devaluating the statement
itself.
Voiceover – These are
contradictions and
inconsistencies that remain
unanswered to this day. And
adding to all of these
questions, a new issue
appears: That of the crime
of exposure or abandonment
[child endangerment], that
would have been committed by
Kate and Gerry McCann when
they left Maddie alone
during the night.
Moita Flores – You can
be absolutely certain that
if this couple was
Portuguese, the Public
Ministry would have
immediately triggered the
child protection measures
against them. Have no doubts
about that. Because in our
culture, this is not
reasonable nor explainable.
And I don’t know if I can
even be explained under the
light of the Anglo-Saxon
culture.
Rui Pereira – At the
beginning, the McCanns were
obviously suspected of a
crime of exposure of
abandonment. Obviously. It
is evident that it was not
easy to make them arguidos
right away. Why? Because
investigators are also
human. And the most
immediate sentiment that was
experienced was that of a
certain compassion towards
the parents.
Moita Flores – I
understand, with some
effort, but I understand
that it’s a cultural trait
that is different from ours,
to leave children far away
from the place where we are,
and to enjoy ourselves until
midnight, from 8.30, 9 p.m.
until midnight. I find this
hard to believe, for our
Latin culture, in which the
children are very directly
controlled, I find this very
difficult.
Voiceover – For Carlos
Anjos, all the participants
in the case tried to find a
way not to be implicated in
this crime.
Carlos Anjos – They all
knew that they were at stake
because of exposure and
abandonment, and all of them
somehow tried to find a
story that would not harm
them much, that would not
mistreat them much in that
situation.
Voiceover – These are
reactions that are raised
after the exhibition of
CMTV’s reconstruction about
the disappearance of Maddie.
A job that was never done by
the Portuguese police.
Gonçalo Amaral – The
reconstruction was never
done because one awaited the
best moment. At the time
when everything happened,
one thought about the
reconstruction, which is
normal in such a situation.
There were many journalists
in Praia da Luz, it was not
convenient to do it at that
time, due to the apparatus
and the spectacle that would
be given, it was almost as
someone said, necessary to
close the air space to make
a reconstruction.
Moita Flores – This was
decisive. And I don’t know
how the police could do it,
I understand the
difficulties of this media
circus that was built there,
but it would have been
necessary and decisive.
Because as can be seen from
this reconstruction, and one
understands that it follows
the statements from the
participants in the process,
one realises that it is full
of contradictions.
Voiceover – For
Francisco Moita Flores, the
reconstitution by CMTV is
more accurate than the one
that was shown by the
English Crimewatch
programme.
Moita Flores – What CMTV
just did, I saw the
reconstitution that was made
by Crimewatch and this one,
and one understands that it
is like day and night, in
terms of accuracy.
Gonçalo Amaral – One has
more red wine and the other
one shows empty glasses.
Moita Flores – This one
has the wine, it has the
party, it has the
disposition of the people,
it has the relationship with
the physical space, which is
important.
Voiceover – These are
reactions that appear after
the exhibition of the
reconstitution of the
moments before and after the
disappearance of Madeleine,
a case that still prompts
much discussion.
Carlos Anjos – This is
the most verified case that
I can recall in the history
of criminal investigation.
Countless CDs were made,
they were distributed to all
of the newspapers, to all of
the detective agencies, to
all of the policemen. And
one thing is objective at
this moment in time, just
like Gonçalo said: Today we
are exactly the same as when
the case was closed. This is
to say that we are, today,
just like we were in 2007.
The entire investigative
community, that read the
process from beginning to
end, possibly all of us read
it already, there was nobody
who said – some have said
that this or that could be
done, but those are
diligences that could hardly
have any other result than
the one that is there [in
the case files].
Voiceover – The doubts
remain. The uncertainties
about what really happened
to Madeleine McCann remain.
from:
CMTV, 19.11.2013
Note:
José Carlos Castro, the
anchor, read a
communiqué at the end of
the CMTV* newscast:
"A Direção do Correio da
Manhã reitera o
compromisso público
junto dos leitores e dos
espectadores que vai
continuar a investigar o
desaparecimento de
Madeleine McCann
recorrendo a todos os
meios legítimos e
necessários.
A equipa CMTV/Correio da
Manhã não descansará
enquanto não for
descoberta toda a
verdade sobre o
desaparecimento da
menina de 3 anos da
Praia da Luz no dia 3 de
Maio de 2007."
Translation:
"The Management of
Correio da Manhã
reaffirms its public
commitment with its
readers and viewers that
it will continue to
investigate the
disappearance of
Madeleine McCann making
use of all legitimate
and necessary means.
The CMTV/Correio da
Manhã team will not rest
until the whole truth
about the disappearance
of the little
three-year-old girl from
Praia da Luz on the 3rd
of May of 2007 is
discovered."
* CMTV is the television
channel that belongs to the
Correio da Manhã newspaper. |
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