Child abduction in Portugal and beyond - is it really so prevalent?

[John]

There is without doubt a history of child disappearances on the Algarve going back many years.  I have purposely not used the abduction label since abduction has not been proven in several of the cases such as René Hasée (6), Joana Cipriano (8) and Madeleine McCann (almost 4).   There is also an alarming number of reports of British children, mainly girls, being targeted.

Some people choose to disregard these reports referring to them as Maddie hype, bogus, fantasy and the such like.  Whatever ones views are, there is without doubt something sinister going on which the Portuguese authorities appear unable or unwilling to stop.

Please discuss.



Pre pubescent children (under 15 y.o.) in mainland Portugal disappeared / possibly stranger abducted.

Note
BLUE represents the north mainly in and to the north of Porto
RED represents the south around PdL


The disappearances and possible abductions started seriously in the north of PT, in the area of Porto and north of there, spreading towards Guimares in an easterly direction.

1.  1991 Jorge Sepulveda, aged 14, disappeared from the Masserelos district of Porto.



2.  1994  Claudia Silva e Sousa, aged 7, disappeared from Oleiros, Vila Verde, Braga. Believed to have been taken by two men and forced to get inside a car.


 
3.  1996  Rene Hasee (German boy on holiday), aged 6, disappeared from Amoreiras beach, Aljezur, [Atlantic] Algarve .. (approx 18 miles PdL)



4.  1998  Rui Pedro Mendonca, aged 11 or 12, taken from Lousada, Porto. It is now believed that this child was taken abroad and is in the hands of a paedophile network.



5.  1999  Rui Periera, aged 13 or 14, from Vila Nova de Famalicao, Braga.  Believed seen in Switzerland with two Italian men.



On the internet I read on a forum that the son of an elite had been picked up by the PJ  in the north [and ?charged?]  but released with a warning.  That was whitewashed out after I mentioned it on forum.  A friend, Catkins, also saw another mention in a somewhat similar vein.  She can no longer find her reference either, IIRC.

The abductions ceased in 1999, after the warning,  for 5 years.   Except for in Madeira IIRC, but here I think the father sold his child.

They started up again in the Algarve near PdL. after the 5 Year gap.


6.  2004  Joana Cipriano, aged 7 or 8, disappeared from Figueira, Algarve (7 miles from PdL). Mother and uncle convicted of murder but body has never been found.



7.  Xmas day 2006,  Carolina Santos, aged 3, attempted abduction from near Silves (approx 18 miles from  PdL).  Parents came out of cafe to find Carolina being led away by a man.



8.  May 2007,  Madeleine McCann, aged nearly 4, disappeared from holiday apartment at Ocean Club, Praia da Luz, while her parents dined nearby.




I have not included Titania/ Odete Freeman, aged about 3, who was passed around via three parts of the family and had three different names.  No-one knew what had happened to her, including which part of the family she was with when she vanished, according to reports.  Later they said she had died in an accident in Spain .


I am not aware of any newer cases but I haven't been searching for the past 4 or 5 years.


Please note that all the northern disappearances were clustered within an area of no more that about 32 miles across in Porto and to the north  and east of there

All the southern disappearances, including Rene Hasee, were clustered within an area of about 25 miles across with the centre being near PdL

.... and there is approximately 300 miles between the two clusters.


NO other cases in the relevant age group anywhere else in mainland Portugal ... just in the two clusters only and 300 miles apart


[This post has been edited in terms of the forum policy on publishing factual information]

[John]

That is a total falsehood. No British children were ever attacked, other than a british girl 9 years before Madeleine, and that was abused by a friend of the family(another british).

Those faked cases that Kate McCann had the effrontery of mentioning in her book never happened. That is all fabrications to sell the abduction theory.

That is not true Luz.  There have been several attempts to snatch children over the last several years around the Algarve.  Can I remind you of some like the man chased from the child's bedroom, the attempt to take a child in a cafe and an attempt by someone on a motorcycle to lift a Londonderry girl while on holiday.  There are probably many others which like these have never even been followed up.

If you believe for a minute that these attempted abductions are fake then you are closing your eyes to reality.

[colombosstogey]

That is not true Luz.  There have been several attempts to snatch children over the last several years around the Algarve.  Can I remind you of some like the man chased from the child's bedroom, the attempt to take a child in a cafe and an attempt by someone on a motorcycle to lift a Londonderry girl while on holiday.  There are probably many others which like these have never even been followed up.

If you believe for a minute that these attempted abductions are fake then you are closing your eyes to reality.

They are BOGUS. IF you read into them properly and made little sense when reported. The only people saying they were real were people wanting to use these so called near abductions to strengthen the case for the McCann child to have been abducted.

For example Carolina Santos. BOGUS

If you check on archives you need to look at this piece from the Diário de Notícias of May 25, 2007:

A 30 years old man, from Morocco, threatened to kidnap the three year old daughter of a woman who rents a coffee-shop at Fonte de Luzeiros, between Silves and São Bartolomes de Messines." and that the "kidnap threat was made, last Tuesday".

See there was no actual attempt at kidnapping Carolina Santos, only a threat, and that it all happened after Madeleine was snatched, not four months beforehand.

Each one of the cases you mentioned can be blown out of the water.

[John]

They are BOGUS. IF you read into them properly and made little sense when reported. The only people saying they were real were people wanting to use these so called near abductions to strengthen the case for the McCann child to have been abducted.

For example Carolina Santos. BOGUS

If you check on archives you need to look at this piece from the Diário de Notícias of May 25, 2007:

A 30 years old man, from Morocco, threatened to kidnap the three year old daughter of a woman who rents a coffee-shop at Fonte de Luzeiros, between Silves and São Bartolomes de Messines." and that the "kidnap threat was made, last Tuesday".

See there was no actual attempt at kidnapping Carolina Santos, only a threat, and that it all happened after Madeleine was snatched, not four months beforehand.

Each one of the cases you mentioned can be blown out of the water.

Bogus and can be blown out of the water...really?

Exactly how is this fake? 

Beast on a bike targeted girl, 4, weeks before Maddie was snatched.

Does an 'attempted kidnap' not merit the same condemnation as an actual kidnap in your book? 

[John]

Maybe these were fake too?

APRIL 14, 2004: Praia do Carvoeiro, Lagoa, 20 miles from Praia da Luz (PDA). s.e.x assault on 10-year-old girl.

JUNE 9 2005: Sao Rafael, near Sesmarias, 50 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on nine-year-old girl.

JUNE 2 2006: Praia do Carvoeiro, Lagoa, 20 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on seven-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister in separate rooms.

OCTOBER 29 2006: Albufeira, 45 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on eight-year-old girl

CHRISTMAS DAY, 2006: Silves, 35 miles from PDA. Attempted abduction of three-year-old girl.

MAY 28 2007: Albufeira. 45 miles from PDA. Intruder disturbed at the bottom of nine-year-old girl's bed.

[Redblossom]

Bogus and can be blown out of the water...really?

Exactly how is this fake? 

Beast on a bike targeted girl, 4, weeks before Maddie was snatched.

Does an 'attempted kidnap' not merit the same condemnation as an actual kidnap in your book?

From that link

Wierd....sketch of scruffy suspect
Says the Sun

This is the sketch done by Melissa Little IIRC  for Mrs Cooper's creepy toothy George Harrison charity collector..who gave her the creeps in April 07.....since when was it the same man?

[Wonderfulspam]

Man on motorbike tried to snatch four-year-old girl close to Madeleine McCann apartment

A man on a motorbike tried to snatch a four-year-old girl yards from where Madeleine McCann vanished only weeks later, it has been revealed.

The man drove up to Tirna Duncan on a moped and reached out as if to grab her, according to the Sun on Sunday.

When he tried to grab Tirna, her parents spotted him and yelled at him as they gave chase. He sped off, pulled over, shoved the moped in the back of a white van and drove off.

The Duncans gave details of the kidnap bid to the British Embassy and Irish police after they heard about three-year-old Madeleine.

Yet they have never been quizzed by Portuguese or British detectives.

Mum Shauna, 42, from Londonderry, Northern Ireland said: "Maddie would still be here if he had got Tirna. If we hadn't shouted, he would have lifted her."

The Duncans saw the goatee-bearded man lurking by their flat every day during their March 2007 stay in Praia de Luz and 'up to 30 times' in all.

Mum-of-five Shauna said: "No matter what time I looked, he'd be there. He was watching our children."
The family's two teenage daughters ran when they spotted him following them. A private detective did visit the Duncans and showed Tirna the sketch of the suspect.

Shauna recalls her saying: "That's the man who tried to get me."

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5266797/man-on-motorbike-tried-to-snatch-girl-yards-from-where-maddie-mccann-was-snatched.html

[Wonderfulspam]

When he tried to grab Tirna, her parents spotted him and yelled at him as they gave chase. He sped off, pulled over, shoved the moped in the back of a white van and drove off.

WTF??


"Maddie would still be here if he had got Tirna."

WTF??

"No matter what time I looked, he'd be there."

Where?

[Wonderfulspam]

The Duncans gave details of the kidnap bid to the British Embassy and Irish police after they heard about three-year-old Madeleine.

So serious was the incident that they didn't bother to report it until after they heard about Madeleine.

[stephen25000]

When he tried to grab Tirna, her parents spotted him and yelled at him as they gave chase. He sped off, pulled over, shoved the moped in the back of a white van and drove off.

WTF??


"Maddie would still be here if he had got Tirna."

WTF??

"No matter what time I looked, he'd be there."

Where?

All I see in this is clutching at straws.

Micro thin straws.

[Angelo222]

Although many of these reports are subject to Press enhancement there does appear to be a history of child abductions in Spain and Portugal.  Take the case of Mari luz Cortés who was abducted from Huelva on 13th January 2008. (8 months after Madeleine and just along the coast)

Has anyone noticed that the common denominator in many of these cases is close proximity to a harbour or the coast?






The Civil Guard today located in an undetermined point of the Huelva coast the body of a girl who could be Mari Luz, the girl from Huelva who disappeared from Huelva on the 13 of January. Sources of the Subdelegation of the Government in Huelva said to Europe Press that someone sighted a body floating in the sea and gave warning to the Civil Guard, who, with a boat, is at the moment towing the body to the 'Muelle de Levante'. The same sources indicated that, although there is no confirmation, the first indications aim that the body is the one of the of five years old, Mari Luz.

www.joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/03/mari-luz-corts-tragic-ending.htmlw

[Anna]

Although many of these reports are subject to Press enhancement there does appear to be a history of child abductions in Spain and Portugal.  Take the case of Mari luz Cortés who was abducted from Huelva on 13th January 2008. (8 months after Madeleine and just along the coast)

Has anyone noticed that the common denominator in many of these cases is close proximity to a harbour or the coast?






The Civil Guard today located in an undetermined point of the Huelva coast the body of a girl who could be Mari Luz, the girl from Huelva who disappeared from Huelva on the 13 of January. Sources of the Subdelegation of the Government in Huelva said to Europe Press that someone sighted a body floating in the sea and gave warning to the Civil Guard, who, with a boat, is at the moment towing the body to the 'Muelle de Levante'. The same sources indicated that, although there is no confirmation, the first indications aim that the body is the one of the of five years old, Mari Luz.

www.joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/03/mari-luz-corts-tragic-ending.htmlw

It also borders Portugal.

[AnneGuedes]

Although many of these reports are subject to Press enhancement there does appear to be a history of child abductions in Spain and Portugal.  Take the case of Mari luz Cortés who was abducted from Huelva on 13th January 2008. (8 months after Madeleine and just along the coast)

Has anyone noticed that the common denominator in many of these cases is close proximity to a harbour or the coast?






The Civil Guard today located in an undetermined point of the Huelva coast the body of a girl who could be Mari Luz, the girl from Huelva who disappeared from Huelva on the 13 of January. Sources of the Subdelegation of the Government in Huelva said to Europe Press that someone sighted a body floating in the sea and gave warning to the Civil Guard, who, with a boat, is at the moment towing the body to the 'Muelle de Levante'. The same sources indicated that, although there is no confirmation, the first indications aim that the body is the one of the of five years old, Mari Luz.

www.joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/03/mari-luz-corts-tragic-ending.htmlw

This little girl wasn't abducted from bed, she was on her own in the street.

[Angelo222]

This little girl wasn't abducted from bed, she was on her own in the street.

Nobody said she was  8-)(--)

[AnneGuedes]

Maybe these were fake too?

APRIL 14, 2004: Praia do Carvoeiro, Lagoa, 20 miles from Praia da Luz (PDA). s.e.x assault on 10-year-old girl.

JUNE 9 2005: Sao Rafael, near Sesmarias, 50 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on nine-year-old girl.

JUNE 2 2006: Praia do Carvoeiro, Lagoa, 20 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on seven-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister in separate rooms.

OCTOBER 29 2006: Albufeira, 45 miles from PDA. s.e.x assault on eight-year-old girl

CHRISTMAS DAY, 2006: Silves, 35 miles from PDA. Attempted abduction of three-year-old girl.

MAY 28 2007: Albufeira. 45 miles from PDA. Intruder disturbed at the bottom of nine-year-old girl's bed.

Where do those alleged crimes come from ? Rumours ?