Would a Portuguese Crimewatch have helped find Madeleine McCann?

[Carana]

Erm... Has anyone found a trace of this in the files?


(GA): I ask my self what is going on in here. I find it all rather enigmatic, particularly since those people (Drs. Katherina and Arul Gaspar) were not interviewed despite being listed in the “rogatory letter”.
Translators’ note: “rogatory letter”: a request by the Portuguese Justice Minister to the British Home Secretary for the Police to interview certain witnesses. The Portuguese authorities submitted their names (Gaspars) and tried to have them re-interviewed in England…
 

But that person (Dr. Katherina Gaspar) was not questioned because she was not present at the police headquarters when the questioning took place. Rather conveniently, she only arrived  (or was made to arrive) after the Portuguese police had already left the premises (…)

[Anna]

Erm... Has anyone found a trace of this in the files?


(GA): I ask my self what is going on in here. I find it all rather enigmatic, particularly since those people (Drs. Katherina and Arul Gaspar) were not interviewed despite being listed in the “rogatory letter”.
Translators’ note: “rogatory letter”: a request by the Portuguese Justice Minister to the British Home Secretary for the Police to interview certain witnesses. The Portuguese authorities submitted their names (Gaspars) and tried to have them re-interviewed in England…
 

But that person (Dr. Katherina Gaspar) was not questioned because she was not present at the police headquarters when the questioning took place. Rather conveniently, she only arrived  (or was made to arrive) after the Portuguese police had already left the premises (…)

The statements were sent 24th October 2007.

ETA
 
Statements dated 16th may 2007.

[Carana]

The statements were sent 24th October 2007.

ETA
 
Statements dated 16th may 2007.

Thanks, but this bit, Anna:

    But that person (Dr. Katherina Gaspar) was not questioned because she was not present at the police headquarters when the questioning took place. Rather conveniently, she only arrived  (or was made to arrive) after the Portuguese police had already left the premises (…)


I can't find either of them listed in the PT rogatory requests, let alone interviewed in response (April / May 2008).

[Carana]

(GA) Yes, where they found the cadaver odour. These are hairs without roots, which the British laboratory (the defunct FSS) said – by analysing its colour – belonged to Madeleine McCann.

Most importantly, they pointed out that nothing – short of being accidentally transported there – would justify their presence in the luggage compartment of the car where the dog detected cadaver odour.

Therefore, I suggest the Policia Judiciária who, as far as I know, still has those hairs; send them to a laboratory competent enough to determine its DNA profile without the need for the hair roots.


At least he's changed his mind... he'd said in other interviews that the FSS had destroyed all the hairs. I've no idea how he had come to that conclusion as there is a receipt slip signed by a PJ officer.

[Carana]

GA:
By the way, just before the rounding up of the programme, if I may. I must alert you to a situation that is critically important. The English are particularly fond of the scientific side of an investigation. For them it is not just the indicia, the circumstantial evidence, the incongruences but – the scientific bits (…)

Fascinating stuff. Many thanks to Zizi for the translation.

As it happens, quite a few PT prison inmates would quite like more of the "scientific bits" as well....

A considerable number of inmates claimed that additional
intensive and extensive uses of forensic DNA databases were desirable because
more “scientific tools” might be more protective of their own individual rights,
possibly increasing potential for exoneration or at least protecting them from
illegal and incriminatory police actions such as planting biological evidence in
crime scenes, forcing confessions or using snitches (Machado
et  al.
2011,
Machado and Prainsack 2012).

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/23610/4/Prisoners'%20views%20of%20CSI's%20portrayal%20of%20forensic%20identification%20technologies%20A%20grounded%20assessment.pdf

[Anna]

Thanks, but this bit, Anna:

    But that person (Dr. Katherina Gaspar) was not questioned because she was not present at the police headquarters when the questioning took place. Rather conveniently, she only arrived  (or was made to arrive) after the Portuguese police had already left the premises (…)


I can't find either of them listed in the PT rogatory requests, let alone interviewed in response (April / May 2008).

No request found ...unless I am looking in the wrong place
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/RESPONSE-ROGATORY.htm

The statement sent in oct 2007
To: Ricard Paiva
From: DC 1756 Mike MARSHALL
 Ref: David Payne
 Date: October 24, 2007

 Leicester Police Constabulary

 Ricardo,

 As requested, appended are the statements of Arul and Katherina Gaspar.
 

 "I read carefully the written document/questionnaire provided by David Payne."
 but was not able to extricate any other information besides what is already known. He declares that he saw Madeleine, for the last time, at 17H00 on 3/5/07 in the McCann apartment. Also present there were Kate and Gerry. He did not indicate the motive for being there or what he was doing. He also cannot indicate how long he stayed.

 When asked with whom he was on the afternoon of May 3rd, he declares that this information was already offered to the police and cannot remember if anyone else was there.

 He does not remember what he was wearing that afternoon.

 He took part in the searches, having carried out most of them alone. He was at times accompanied by Matthew Oldfield.

 He did not partake in the searches realized on the 4th of May, because, on this day, he spent to majority of time in the police headquarters.

 For many questions, he does not give a complete response, affirming simply that he has already given this information to the Portuguese police in his declarations.

 I examined once again the declarations of Fiona Payne. In her depositions, she states that she went to the McCann apartment, around 19H00, on the 3rd of May, together with Kate. She states afterwards that, 10 minutes later, the husband arrived; it is not clear which husband she refers to.

 Her responses to the questions are vague. She continued to respond to questions with "they conform with my earlier deposition" or some similar statement.
 
 3911 to 3915 Witness statement of Katherina Zacharias Gaspar 2007.05.16

TRANSLATIONS BY INES

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/Gaspar.htm

[Carana]

I haven't found anything either, Anna.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/RESPONSE-ROGATORY.htm

[Brietta]

(GA) Yes, where they found the cadaver odour. These are hairs without roots, which the British laboratory (the defunct FSS) said – by analysing its colour – belonged to Madeleine McCann.

Most importantly, they pointed out that nothing – short of being accidentally transported there – would justify their presence in the luggage compartment of the car where the dog detected cadaver odour.

Therefore, I suggest the Policia Judiciária who, as far as I know, still has those hairs; send them to a laboratory competent enough to determine its DNA profile without the need for the hair roots.


At least he's changed his mind... he'd said in other interviews that the FSS had destroyed all the hairs. I've no idea how he had come to that conclusion as there is a receipt slip signed by a PJ officer.

I'm reading through the translations in the links you provided just on the first page, Carana, well done for finding them.  How could the Portuguese public opinion have been anything other than it was when they have been subject to such unchallenged prejudicial statements from 'experts' such as these?

At the time of broadcast I think it possible that a Portuguese version of the Crimewatch programme would simply have been ignored as the attitudes of the Portuguese 'experts' seemed to prevail.
The resistance apparent at the time of the sad graffiti scrawls when SY started digging suggest they still had a certain validity.

Since then a Portuguese court has ruled in favour of the McCanns and the PJ and SY are demonstrably rubbing along quite well with the investigation.

One wonders if the SY dig were to be repeated if it would meet with the same resistance the last one did?

Back to the transcripts for now.

[Carana]

Even many of the moderate sceptics on here might well accept - at least privately - that many of the details simply don't correspond to the files or else don't make much sense.

[Carana]

Not a very popular thread...

[Alfred R Jones]

Not a very popular thread...

I wonder why not...? &%+((£

[Alfred R Jones]

Even many of the moderate sceptics on here might well accept - at least privately - that many of the details simply don't correspond to the files or else don't make much sense.

I guess they prefer to do their accepting privately Carana.

[faithlilly]

Not a very popular thread...

Hardly surprising Carana as it gone so off topic that it bears no relation to the question posed in the OP.

[Alfred R Jones]

Hardly surprising Carana as it gone so off topic that it bears no relation to the question posed in the OP.

Carana, perhaps if you started a new thread you'd get a better response - lol.

[Carana]

Carana, perhaps if you started a new thread you'd get a better response - lol.

I doubt it, but I was going off the thread title, whoever chose it: Would a Portuguese Crimewatch have helped find Madeleine McCann?

The OP was from Shining, but it may have been a new thread started by Admin.

 Would a Portuguese Crimewatch have helped find Madeleine McCann?
« on: September 09, 2015, 08:43:58 AM »

    Quote

Does anyone have a view on HOW SY/OG/DCI Nicola Wall should go about getting some sort of equivalent of Crimewatch out in Portugal?

I have been pondering this point for a while, as it seems one way of potentially making major progress in the case.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2015, 02:49:29 AM by Admin »

I don't see what's off topic in discussing the CMTV show that appeared in lieu of the Crimewatch appeal.