In the tabloids now, take note Davel
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478087/Why-Madeleine-McCann-suspect-E-fits-kept-secret-5-years.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478087/Why-Maddie-suspect-E-fits-kept-secret-years-Images-evidence-sighting-uncovered-private-detectives-suppressed.htmlWhy were Maddie suspect E-fits kept secret for five years? Images and evidence of sighting uncovered by private detectives were suppressed
Images of man seen carrying child through Praia da Luz on the night of Madeleine's disappearance were unveiled on Crimewatch two weeks ago
Based on evidence from Irish holidaymaker Martin Smith and his family
Emerged yesterday that E-fits were contained in files from five years ago
Produced by private investigators hired by the McCanns
By Neil Sears
PUBLISHED: 01:15, 28 October 2013 | UPDATED: 01:15, 28 October 2013
The E-fits of a ‘new’ suspect for Madeleine McCann’s disappearance were drawn up five years ago – and suppressed.
Images of a man seen carrying a child through Praia da Luz at 10pm on the night the then three-year-old vanished were unveiled on BBC1’s Crimewatch two weeks ago.
They are based on evidence from Irish holidaymaker Martin Smith and his family. At the same time, the British police team behind a new investigation revealed they had discounted a 9.15pm sighting of a man with a child by Jane Tanner, a friend holidaying with parents Gerry and Kate McCann and their three children.
It meant there was a new ‘timeline’ of Madeleine’s presumed abduction. Yet it emerged yesterday that the recently released E-fits were in fact contained in files produced five years ago by private investigators hired by the McCanns. Similarly, those private detectives had questioned the Tanner sighting and the timings associated with it.
But the E-fits were kept private, and the questioning of the Tanner sighting and related timeline were kept quiet. One detective said he was ‘utterly stunned’ to see his five-year-old dossier suddenly presented as new on TV.
The investigator told a Sunday newspaper: ‘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.’
The McCanns are now fully behind the fresh police drive and release of the E-fits – but five years ago they were reluctant to issue them, possibly in part because witness Mr Smith’s account seemed inconsistent and unreliable.
Months after the disappearance and after seeing Gerry McCann on TV, Mr Smith told police that he thought the man he saw carrying a girl around Madeleine’s age at the very time she went missing reminded him of Gerry McCann himself.
Mr Smith has reportedly since withdrawn that claim – just as Portuguese police have officially told the McCanns they are no longer suspects for their daughter’s disappearance.
The couple have also won libel damages for false suggestions that they were in any way involved.
Numerous witnesses have also given statements making clear that Mr McCann was at his holiday complex at the moment the sighting occurred – which was at the very time when he and his wife started calling for help looking for Maddie.
But shortly after Mr Smith told police Mr McCann may have been the man he had seen carrying a little girl, a friend of the McCanns said: ‘Look at the facts. This man sees an individual carrying a child on the night Maddie vanished.
‘He waits 13 days to report this to the police, going back to Ireland in the meantime. At this stage he admits he has no idea who the man is. Almost four months go by before, after seeing him on TV, he feels that it could be Gerry.
‘The truth is that this is part of the victimisation of Gerry and Kate which has gone on from the very beginning by the Portuguese.’
Portuguese police have officially told Kate and Gerry McCann they are no longer suspects for the disappearance
In 2008, the McCanns used money from their charity fund to hire investigators from a firm called Oakley International, led by former MI5 surveillance officer Henri Exton, to look into the mystery – and they focused on the Smith sighting.
They produced a dossier and called for the E-fits to be published. They also suggested Madeleine could have died after wandering off.
The McCanns, who became embroiled in an unconnected financial dispute with Oakley International at around the time they received the dossier, responded by warning the detectives of legal action if they publicised their report.
A source close to the fund said the report would have been ‘completely distracting’ if it had become public.
And
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/347672/Maddie-Crimewatch-pictures-kept-secret-for-five-yearsCrucial evidence that could hold the key to finding Madeleine McCann was kept secret for five years [KATE MCCANN/PA WIRE]
The file was suppressed after being handed to her parents by ex-MI5 investigators, it is claimed.
It included two e-fits of a man seen carrying a sleeping blonde girl to the beach in Praia da Luz, Portugal, at the same time the then-three-year-old’s mum Kate, 45, found her missing.
That man is now the focus of a worldwide police hunt.
Scotland Yard detectives released the e-fits a fortnight ago in a Crimewatch special about Madeleine’s May 2007 disappearance.
The show prompted 2,400 calls from the public after being broadcast across Europe.
But yesterday it was reported the pictures were available five years ago.
Madeleine has been missing since 2007
“Henri Exton”
A letter came from their lawyers binding us to confidentiality
Kate, husband Gerry, 45, and their advisers sidelined the private detectives’ file and instructed them not to divulge its contents.
The report, delivered to the McCanns in November 2008, said the sighting by Irishman Martin Smith was “credible evidence”, had been “neglected for too long” and called on the e-fits to be immediately released.
Oakley International investigators were hired by the Find Madeleine fund set up to bankroll the McCanns’ search.
A source close to the McCanns said the report “would have been completely distracting” if made public.
They instead wanted to focus on a man seen by one of their friends and it would have been too expensive to conduct full investig-ations into both sightings, the source added.
Scotland Yard has since discovered that suspect was a dad carrying his own child.
The first e-fit released on Crimewatch
Former MI5 undercover operations chief Henri Exton, 62, who led the Oakley probe, said the fund took legal action to stop his team divulging its findings.
He said: “A letter came from their lawyers binding us to confidentiality.”
It stopped him handing the report to Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange team until detectives had written permission from the fund, he added.
One Oakley investigator said he was “absolutely stunned” when he saw their theories and e-fits being unveiled on Crimewatch as a “new revelation”.
The second e-fit released by Crimewatch
A Metropolitan Police official said yesterday any withholding of the report was “not an issue” because they were not investigating the case at the time.
Portugal’s national police force last week reopened its own investigation.
A source close to the McCann fund said they had been wary of Oakley after allegations of financial irregularities.
A spokesman for Find Madeleine said “all information privately gathered” had been “fully acted upon where necessary” and passed on to Scotland Yard.
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell was unavailable for comment.
