There has been speculation about the Murats driveway, so I think they will start there. Seems Robert Murat is about to get a new drive !
'Twould be a good thing to get that out of the way, dont you think?
No it wouldn't. She is not there 8-)(--)
PAT KENNY: It is 7 years since 3 year old Madeleine McCann disappeared in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. If she is alive she is a very different looking 10 year old but it looks as though the British investigating Police do not believe in such a likelihood because it is reported in today’s Mirror that they will be launching extensive digs around the resort in the hopes of recovering her body. The Mirror’s Russell Myers joins me now from Praia da Luz. Russell, good morning.
RUSSELL MYERS: Good morning Pat.
PAT KENNY: Now, The English police, the British police are they acting on any specific information?
RUSSELL MYERS: Well it seems that the investigation carried out by the Met police, Operation Grange which is going over a lot of the evidence that the Portuguese police had been examining since 2007. This isn’t actually new evidence that has been uncovered with the new investigation but it’s certainly a new revisiting of the old facts in case files from the Portuguese police.
PAT KENNY: Now, at the time there were searches I suppose in the believe that Madeleine may be still alive or if she had been killed that an opportunistic killer would dispose of her body somewhere adjacent to the scene of the abduction. Why were those searches not as thorough and as extensive as it would appear were needed at the time?
RUSSELL MYERS: I think this is been a problem with the Portuguese investigation in terms of how the British have seen how the Portuguese investigation was carried out in the first instance and I think to entirely satisfy themselves they want to go over old ground and to look at these excavation sites or potential sites that were earmarked in the first instance but potentially not carried out, so by British Police applying to Portuguese police to come out here and start excavating certain sites in and around Praia da Luz and the beach and the area where Madeleine went missing I think that they will try and find their own answers to questions that should have, you know, been answered a long time ago.
PAT KENNY: Now how much waste ground, how much potential is there for digging in places that people would not be normally visiting for example in Portugal a lot of the time fields are covered in orange tree plants and they would be tended regularly by the farmers, so what sort of areas are there to be explored?
RUSSELL MYERS:
I think specifically they’re looking at 3 areas and this is what we are hearing in today’s story, looking 3 areas which are planned for major excavation. Now these were 2 areas very close to the apartment at the Ocean Club where Madeleine and her parents had been staying in 2007. There’s also an area of beach that has been actually reworked since 2004. Also there is two main areas of grassland very nearby and a road that has been relayed in 2007 very very soon after Madeleine went missing. So these are the areas that they want to revisit and essentially the British police think that Portuguese Police authorities hadn’t paid enough attention to these areas and that is why they want to go back to them.
PAT KENNY: Now, it is 7 years since she disappeared, technology moves on. Is there any specific equipment that is new that will aid them in their investigations?
RUSSELL MYERS: Certainly, I think that, you know that Metropolitan Police will employ a world renowned forensic expert with this investigation. I think they will be using radar equipment. We heard that there is a certain magnetic imaging device that they will use within these excavation techniques that will allow them to ............... map the area and search for human bones if they are indeed buried underground.
PAT KENNY: Now, what about the McCann family, Gerry and Kate McCann, are they dismayed by this, because this would be, if you like, an indication that the Met believe that Madeleine is definitely dead or do they continue to hope?
RUSSELL MYERS: Well, indeed, I mean Kate and Gerry have never given up hope that Madeleine is still alive. They’ve had a tireless campaign now for 7 years, where they were seen at the weekend at their local church in Leicestershire and you know, privately they are saying that although they would always prepare themselves for the worst in these events they still haven’t given up hope of finding Madeleine alive.
PAT KENNY: Now, there is a suspect who’s been named and he was a suspect in a number of attacks on people in the area from about 2004 on.
RUSSELL MYERS: Yes, this is a local guy called Euclides Monteiro and he was a former worker at the Ocean Club apartments where the McCanns had been staying. Now Euclides was actually killed in a tractor accident in 2009 but over the weekend it’s emerged that he was actually interviewed in 2008, a year before his death, relating to a spate of sex attacks on young British girls connected with a string of burglaries in the area. Portuguese police have always said, you know, recently that he is the main suspect, not only in the string of 18 sex attacks and burglaries across the Algarve but indeed that they believe that he is one of the main suspects in the Madeleine McCann investigation. From what we’re hearing I don’t think the Met Police really are going along with that line of enquiry. It seems that he may be a suspect connected to certain string of burglaries in the area but it still has yet to be seen whether he is actually the main suspect in Madeleine....
PAT KENNY: His widow has been spoken to by various journalists and her contention is that he was questioned yes, but there was never any DNA evidence to link him with any of these crimes, so in death I suppose you could say which you like you cannot libel the dead but the finger has been pointed at him, probably wrongly according to her.
RUSSELL MYERS: Well, essentially we will never know whether he was a, no one’s had a confession and it’s really his widow’s word against the police and until the police actually come out publicly and state that he is the main suspect in their investigation I think a lot is left to hearsay and of course his widow defends his name when he’s not here.
PAT KENNY: When will the British investigating team start their digging?
RUSSELL MYERS: Well I should think we’re looking at the next 2 weeks. Obviously, it’s a lengthy process in Portugal. The Met Police had to put in several letters asking to actually come over here. The problem with the Portuguese investigation is that they really wanted to be allowed to get on with their own ........ but obviously the McCanns have been very frustrated about the lack of movement within the investigation so I think best case scenario we’re looking at 2 weeks for Met Police officers to be on the ground and start their excavation.
PAT KENNY: And the final question really relates to the Portuguese authorities in this regard. I mean they have the go ahead now to do it, but we’re coming into high season, holiday season, it’s probably the last thing that the Portuguese tourism authorities really want is British police scratching around looking for the body of a dead tourist child.
RUSSELL MYERS: Undoubtedly I think you’ll bring some unwanted attention back to the resort, it’s a very picturesque, pretty resort at high season and I think the British police wanted to avoid that and that’s why several months ago they’ve been asking to carry out these digs and because the Portuguese authorities have really dragged their heels over it that they’re probably the ones to blame as to how long it’s actually taken.
PAT KENNY: Alright, well, Russell Myers of the Daily Mirror, thank you very much for joining us from Praia da Luz.
