That does seem like a bit of a joke.....unless somene can explain otherwise..
Ps PF who did Buck call mad?
Ref the nuclear power that thing, I never knew that was any part of any police discussion...well well you learn something new every day
He called Amaral mad for doing his job. It's in truth of the lie. He said are you mad with all the press here when Amaral wanted to take their clothes for examining. There wouldn't be any press if the McCanns and their friends did what the police told them - No media. Getting the media involved changed this case. You can't investigate the parents the media will find out and all hell will break loose.
John Buck, the British Ambassador in Lisbon at the time of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance went to Portimão to demand that the PJ immediately announce to the media – especially the British media – that the disappearance of Madeleine was an abduction and that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann were two innocent victims.
“Immediately after Madeleine’s disappearance, when we did not yet know whether it was the case of an abduction or a different kind of crime, the PJ were obliged to issue a statement, on 5th May, announcing the abduction thesis”, announced inspector Gonçalo Amaral, emphasising that the statement had been issued in spite of his opposition and that of other inspectors participating in the inquiry.
Gonçalo Amaral was speaking yesterday in Madrid as part of an exclusive interview with SOS Madeleine McCann and Gazeta Digital.
According to sources close to the British Embassy in Lisbon, the Ambassador John Buck, previous to this intervention at the PJ in Faro and Portimão, had already discussed the affair with the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
“In a situation like the one we were presented with, in the interest of the child, no possibility would have been discarded, even the possibility concerning the parents, those that were close and the friends. Above all there was not the slightest indication of abduction”, Amaral concluded, emphasising that the “rest of the investigation has proved that”.
“They took advantage of the space we gave them, it was a mistake on our part.”
Also on 5th May 2007, two days after the announcement of Madeleine’s disappearance, the police, according to Amaral, would commit an important error: “We were busy checking all the traces that came with the Ambassador. Traces that were moreover, found to be false”.
New instructions from the regional national directorate of the PJ, given after the intervention of two British diplomats – Ambassador John Buck and Consul Bill Henderson – turned the investigator’s attention away from the McCanns.
Kate and Gerry McCann, for the first and only time, went to hand in clothes to be washed in the Complex laundry, including Madeleine’s clothes, which the inspectors only heard about two days later. Too late, according to Amaral.
“At the time we had not established exactly which clothes Gerry was wearing on the night of the disappearance nor which clothes were handed in to be washed on 5th May”, says Gonçalo Amaral.
It was by means of the statements by various members of staff from the complex, linked to the laundry service, that the inspectors were to learn that the McCanns had their children’s clothes – those of Madeleine and also those of Sean and Amélie – washed.
“That would never have happened without the intervention of Mark Warner and, in particular, of the Ambassador. They took advantage of the space we gave them, It was a mistake on our part”, admits Gonçalo Amaral.
“Last Saturday (05/05/2007) I received a bag of clothes brought in by Mark Warner staff, and was told expressly that these belonged to Madeleine’s family – there was adult clothing (male and female) and children’s clothing… “, states one of the laundry workers.
Although the laundry worker only remembers a pink skirt belonging to Madeleine, she has no uncertainty in confirming that there were also other clothes belonging to the small British girl, which has also been confirmed to the police by other colleagues.
Daily Express: Madeleine: British Diplomat had doubts about McCanns
3 December 2007 (no longer on-line)
A British diplomat warned the Foreign Office of concerns regarding Madeleine McCann’s parents, it emerged last night. Doubts about Kate and Gerry McCann were raised almost immediately by an official sent to Praia da Luz due to what he considered to be “inconsistencies” in the couple’s testimonies about the night the four-year-old vanished. The warning was contained in a classified document sent from the Algarve to the Foreign Office days after Madeleine’s disappearance. Details of the letter have been leaked through the British diplomatic mission in Brussels to the respected Belgian newspaper Derniere Heure.
The unnamed diplomat voices his concern about the “confused declarations” as to the whereabouts of Kate and Gerry McCann and their friends in the final hours before Madeleine’s disappearance. He also mentions the couple’s “lack of co-operation” with the Portuguese police in the light of instructions from London suggesting consular staff “overstretch their authority and put pressure on the Portuguese authorities”. The document also asks for confirmation of orders sent by the Foreign Office in London the day before, commanding embassy staff to give “all possible assistance to the McCann couple”.
Diplomats on the Algarve were told the McCanns had to be “accompanied at all times during any contact with the Portuguese police” by a member of consular staff or by British police officers sent out from the UK. The letter, sent just days after Madeleine disappeared, warns of the risks of siding with the McCanns so completely. Excerpts published in a report by La Derniere Heure quote the diplomat as saying: “With the greatest respect, I would like to make you aware of the risks and implications to our relationship with the Portuguese authorities, if you consider the possible involvement of the couple. “Please confirm to me, in the light of these concerns, that we want to continue to be closely involved in the case as was requested in your previous message.”
A huge team of diplomats have been involved in the case since Gerry McCann asked the Foreign Office for help. In an unprecedented move, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair despatched special envoy Sheree Dodd, a former Fleet Street journalist, to Portugal to act as a “media liaison officer” for the McCann family. Direct government communications with the McCanns came to an abrupt halt, however, when the couple were made official suspects in the case in September.
Portuguese detectives believe it is possible Madeleine died as the result of an accident on May 3 in the family’s holiday apartment and that her parents hid and later disposed of her body with the help of their friends. The couple have always said they had nothing to do with their daughter’s disappearance. The Belgian report says it is highly significant that almost all of the diplomats involved at the outset have now been taken off the case.
Special envoy Sheree Dodd has since resigned from the Foreign Office, the British consul in the Algarve Bill Henderson has retired and the British ambassador to Portugal John Buck is no longer in Portugal. Last night the Foreign Office refused to comment on the report.
