Press articles to mark the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

[Brietta]

Pedro do Carmo: "Maddie's parents are not suspects. Score"

02.05.2017 at 18.00

In an interview with Expresso, the deputy director of the Judiciary Police, Pedro do Carmo, argues that no police in the world could guarantee results different from those obtained so far in Portugal in the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. "We had never had and never had a similar case"

t is a mystery with ten years that still divides the public opinion and intrigues the Portuguese and English authorities that investigate the case. What happened to Madeleine Beth McCann, a 4-year-old English girl who disappeared from the Ocean Club apartment on Luz beach (Lagos) on the night of May 3, 2007 - does this Wednesday 10 years ago? The Judiciary Police (PJ) has some suspicions and a certainty: it was not the parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, who did harm to the child born in Leicester.

In September 2007, the McCanns were indicted by the Portuguese courts but the following year the suit was closed for lack of evidence. It was reopened by the PJ in 2013 and continues to be investigated simultaneously with Scotland Yard. To this day, however, despite hundreds of clues and sightings of Maddie, no one was charged or convicted and the girl, who would have been 14 years old, was never found.

Until the process was archived in 2008, there were three lines of investigation by the Judiciary Police on the case. Hypothesis 1: the parents accidentally killed their daughter and then concealed the body. Hypothesis 2: Maddie was abducted by a group linked to the trafficking of minors and sold for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Hypothesis 3: The child was killed following an abduction that went wrong.

Did the reopening of the case in 2013 open up more investigative lines than the three that were followed at that time?

I cannot speak about the investigation. What I can say is that the PJ remains convinced that there are elements that can still be worked and that can lead to some results. If it is not possible to achieve this result, at least we want to get some answers to the many questions that the case generates. Ultimately, to get to a point where the PJ concludes that there is nothing more that can be done to answer those questions.

Did Scotland Yard's entry into action in the case back in 2011 delivered results?

Since they've also decided to open an investigation, the contacts between the PJ and Metropolitan Police have been regular. There has been a constant exchange of information, which has been positive. This exchange of information remains. It can even be said that the relationship between the two police forces is of great proximity and great collaboration.

The reconstruction of the night of May 3, 2007, as the PJ investigators initially intended, with the presence of the McCanns and their English friends at the scene (that never happened due to the group's lack of willingness to return to Praia da Luz) would it have been essential to better understand what happened to the English girl?

I do not want to talk about what happened up to 2008. This has been sufficiently debated at its appropriate place.

Any idea how many people were heard in total in this case?

No. But certainly several hundred people.

Ten years on after the events at Praia da Luz, why do you think the case is still so much debated?

First because there was a deliberate and legitimate effort on the part of the child's parents in keeping the issue on the agenda of the media. But there are also other elements, such as the circumstances of the disappearance. Ten years later we still do not know what happened, which makes it possible to say, at least in relation to Portugal, that this is a unique case. We had never had one, and we did not have a similar case again. There were other cases of disappearances of children where it was not possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. But in those cases we either caught someone or it was possible for the police to understand what had happened. In this case we are not yet in a position to say what is behind the disappearance. This makes it a unique case. And maybe an extremely rare case worldwide.

Do you hope to know the truth about what happened on the night of May 3, 2007 in Praia da Luz?

Of course that's what motivates us. It is that hope that keeps us working on the investigation.

As you said in a recent interview, the Maddie case is a thorn on the side of the Judiciary Police?

Although I have used this expression into the conversation, it is not the term 'thorn on the side'. It is in the DNA of the Judiciary Police to solve all the crimes that as a duty to investigate. Whenever this does not happen it is something that will not leave us, and can not leave us, satisfied. We are very demanding with our work. In this case, we are not satisfied and remain committed to resolve the case.

Is the PJ still learning from this case ten years on?

We like to learn from every case and we also want to learn from this one. But only after we know what has happened will we be able to draw conclusions from it: understand what we have done well and less well. And we have not yet reached that point. We want to learn lessons from it in its due time.

The English media again insinuates that Portugal continues to be a country that cannot solve a case of this dimension. But the British police have not done better. Can the English public opinion change since Scotland Yard has not been successful, either?

We are not insensitive to others' opinions but our responsibility and commitment is with our fellow citizens. The Portuguese have every reason to be proud and trust their Judiciary Police, which proves on a daily basis its capacity, effectiveness and competence. Difficult cases exist in all countries. The results sometimes take time to arrive and this is also true for all countries. Our expectation is that there is a capacity for everyone to understand that this is so. No police anywhere in the world could guarantee different results.

So would a case like this one have the same results today anywhere else in the world?

would not say it would have the same results. I would say is that in a case like this one there would be no guarantee of having different results anywhere else in the world. No police in any part of the world could guarantee different results, up to this moment, from those the Judiciary has achieved.

Would the PJ have done something different today in this investigation?

That is a conclusion that we can only reach after the moment we know what has happened or have reached a point where it is not possible to do anything more to clarify the case. And we have not yet reached that point.

Do you think it was a mistake to have the McCann couple constituted as arguidos in September 2007?

Obviously, I will not answer that question. But what I can say, just as I did back in 2011 and 2013, is that Maddie's parents are not suspects. That statement remains: the parents are not suspects. Period.

http://expresso.sapo.pt/dossies/diario/2017-05-02-Pedro-do-Carmo-Os-pais-de-Maddie-nao-sao-suspeitos.-Ponto

[G-Unit]

Detective refused to head up Madeleine McCann probe because 'Scotland Yard would order him to prove Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignore other leads'
Colin Sutton said he was warned by senior friend in the Met about case in 2010
Friend said he would be told 'who to talk to and what to investigate', he claimed
'Narrow focus' would be to prove Kate, Gerry and Tapas Nine innocent, he said
Spoke on Sky Documentary based on leaked Home Office report that revealed 'turbulent relationship' between McCanns and police in London and Portugal   
By James Dunn For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 00:03, 3 May 2017 | UPDATED: 01:01, 3 May 2017
   
A detective tipped to head up the Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was abducted and ignore other leads.

Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010.

The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims.

Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he said: 'I did receive a call from a very senior met police officer who knew me and said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to head investigation on the basis that I wouldn’t be happy conducting an investigation being told where I could go and where I couldn’t go, the things I could investigate and the things I couldn’t.

Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: 'The Scotland Yard investigation was going to be very narrowly focused and that focus would be away from any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the McCanns or the tapas friends.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4467832/Met-interested-proving-McCann-parents-innocent.html#ixzz4fzcZhQFn
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[Brietta]

Maddie case still open, says PJ deputy director

APRIL 23, 2017

The investigation was delivered to a team from PJ do Porto. On May 3, ten years after the disappearance of the British child from Praia da Luz

The Judicial Police continues to investigate Madeleine McCann's disappearance in 2007 in the Algarve, admitting that it is "a unique case in the history of the PJ and the country."

"The case is still open, yes" and the investigation was handed over to a team from PJ do Porto, revealed the deputy director of the Judiciary Police, Pedro do Carmo, in an interview with the Lusa agency, about the ten years of the disappearance of the British child , Then three years old, from the tourist resort Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, Lagos.

For PJ number two, the contours of Maddie's disappearance are "a unique case in the history of the country and the PJ."

"We had never had a similar case nor did we have it," said Pedro do Carmo, admitting that the police "have every interest in knowing what has happened, because that is how the lessons can be drawn for future situations."

Asked if the long time elapsed is the enemy of the investigation, the official admitted that "PJ is aware that, as time passes, it will become more difficult to reach answers or results."

"Anyway we have this hope and we have reason to have this hope," he said.

The work of the PJ "continued and continues at this moment", there being "the hope of finding answers to the case, and achieving results" until it is time to say "there is nothing more to do."

Pedro do Carmo acknowledged that the Maddie case is a rock in the shoe of the PJ and considered that it is still premature to make an analysis on how the whole process of investigation happened.

"We do not know yet what happened, what is the reason for Madeleine's disappearance, which means that we are not yet in a position to say what was done poorly, done well or should have been done," he said.

The critical assessment of the case can only be made when the investigation is closed, "either because we have found the answers we wanted or because we have reached the point where there is nothing else to do," he said.

The British girl disappeared on May 3, 2007, when she slept, together with the twin brothers (younger), in the room of a holiday apartment in the Algarve.

At the outset of the investigation, the PJ even conspired as a defendant, a British man who lived near the Ocean Club - Robert Murat - who had participated in the searches and was an interpreter of GNR and PJ.

At the beginning of August 2007, after many incidents that would have dispersed the investigators' attention, British police, with the help of dogs, came into action at the scene of the disappearance, looking for blood and odors from the corpse of the girl.

In September, Maddie's parents, both doctors, were questioned in the PJ of Portimão and constituted defendants.

On July 21, 2008, the Public Prosecutor's Office decided to close the investigation and remove the accused from the McCanns and Robert Murat, stating that the case could be reopened if "new evidence" arose.

Ten years later, the investigation is still ongoing in Portugal and England, although the new clues that have emerged have proven fruitless.

 
Disappearance

APRIL 23, 2017
11:22
Lusa
http://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/caso-de-maddie-continua-em-aberto-diz-diretor-adjunto-da-pj-6238882.html

[Brietta]

Pedro do Carmo: "The only case of the PJ in which there are no answers"

Maddie

03 MAY 2017
08:08
Rute Coelho

he deputy national director of the Judiciary Police explains why he considers the Maddie case "the stone in the shoe of the PJ", distinguishing it from other media disappearances in national territory. The crime investigation was reopened in 2011 and runs in Portugal, in parallel with the English investigation, and the two police have "shared information". At this time, there are still no new tracks

She recently considered, in an interview with Lusa, that the Maddie case was the "stone in the shoe of the PJ". But it is not the only disappearance left unresolved in the country, right?

No, but there is a difference. It is a unique case because ten years after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann the Judiciary Police still do not know what happened. In other cases of the disappearance of minors, such as that of Rui Pedro [disappeared on March 4, 1998, Afonso Dias having been sentenced to an effective sentence of three years' imprisonment, which began to be enforced in March 2015], for example, PJ was able to find out what happened and bring those responsible for the disappearance to justice. In more recent cases, that was the case with the baby in Madeira, who was missing for three days, and with the two-year-old from Ourém (Leiria) who reappeared after having moved away a few kilometers from his grandparents' house. There were some cases of missing minors in which it was not possible to bring those responsible to justice but it was ascertained what happened. In addition,

The investigation was reopened in 2013 in the Portimão section of the DIAP of Faro but it is a team of the board of PJ of Porto that is investigating. Because?

We asked for a team from the Porto Judicial Police because it was experienced in investigations of disappearances and because it could bring a new look from those who had never had contact with the original investigation and was geographically far from where the facts occurred. We wanted researchers with a detached, unconditional view.

Why was it important to reopen the investigation, which was closed?

We felt that with the time elapsed and the immense amount of material collected by the original investigation team, it was important to look again at the clues and ascertain whether there was any information that had escaped us or whether in the light of the new facts there would be something old that gained importance .

And is there any time frame for completing this inquiry?

We do not have a definite deadline because we do not know what happened. If we were sure that we were facing a particular crime we would have a deadline to respect. But so we can not compromise with time limits for the inquiry. The deadline is to get results. At least until we get some answers or get to a point where we assume that it is no longer possible to do more.
I can not go into that detail because I would be revealing details of the investigation.

But what is the status of this inquiry? Are there new facts or hope to come to realize what has happened?

There is still work to be done. We have not gotten to the point of having the answers to the questions we have asked but we have not yet come to the point of concluding that nothing else is possible.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police investigation is under way in England. Have the two police officers shared information?

Yes, the English have their own investigation but there is a regular exchange of information and frequent contacts between the two police. The relationship is currently of frank cooperation and quite positive. There is a regular exchange of information between the Judiciary Police and the Metropolitan Police, regarding new facts or diligences.

http://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/pedro-do-carmo-o-unico-caso-da-pj-em-que-nao-ha-respostas-6652723.html

Maddie

03 MAY 2017
08:08
Rute Coelho

[Brietta]

In Praia da Luz only the masses have not changed since 2007

Maddie Case

03 MAY 2017
08:10
Hélio Nascimento

The Tapas Bar no longer exists as such, most Ocean Club staff were not there in 2007 and the resort operator has also changed. Residents do not want to talk about the Maddie case

In the church of Praia da Luz, in Lagos, the masses are in Portuguese and English. They were like this in May of 2007 when Madeleine McCann disappeared and they continue like this today, ten years passed. This is perhaps the only reality that has not changed around the Ocean Club, the resort where the 3-year-old had a vacation with his twin brothers and parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

Maddie stayed in the room with the brothers on the evening of May 3 - ten years ago today - and the parents had dinner with a group of friends. At 10:00 p.m., Kate went to the apartment and realized that her eldest daughter was not there. Given the alert, the search for the child began, during these years several theses appeared - the family speaks in abduction and the investigation of the Judicial Police pointed to the death and disappearance of the corpse -, the involvement of the English police, but to date no results About what happened to Maddie. Matter, moreover, that the population refuses to touch.

In those ten years, almost everything has changed in the village. The Tapas Bar (where Maddie's parents and friends dined) no longer exists as such, most of the staff at the Ocean Club are not from that time and the operator that worked at the resort is another. Apartment 5A, this, it's still there. It was bought, by 2014, by an English sexagenarian, Kathleen Cotton, in a quasi-secret operation at a sale price. The two-bedroom ground floor apartment was sold for 300,000 euros for many years, but it was sold for less than half that price, in the amount of 130,000 euros, since there was no buyer who Was interested in a "cursed place", but also came to say and write. Today, the owner does not complain, but it is also rare to open the door ...

"In the two to three years since Maddie's disappearance, there has been a sharp fall. However, it is also worth remembering that this period coincided with the severe economic crisis that devastated the country and where unemployment has grown visibly," recalls Vítor Mata , The president of the Parish Council of Praia da Luz since 2013. "At that time, everything was calmer, the population's discomfort disappeared gradually and everything has been improving, so that we can even speak of normality today. The people, is a forgotten subject and they do not even want to talk, especially now, with tourism rising and occupancy rates to be around one hundred percent, "says the mayor.

Vítor Mata emphasizes that the inhabitants of Praia da Luz flee from the chambers, microphones and blocks and hide themselves in an elucidative "how much farther, better" in relation to the case that was news all over the world. To compound this state of saturation, the latest news pieces further aggravated the relationship of the media with the locals, as they tell us in a tobacconist near the Ocean Club, about a "work of an English newspaper", which was to unearth the figure Of Maddie's mistress and "to publish a trick of lies, even more with this mistress always in the anonymity, without giving the face".

Forget the past

The economic crisis of a few years ago left a mark on hospitality and the Ocean Club, for example, went from 300 employees to about fifty. Those who are from that time - very few, say the DN - say they are not. In the shops nearby there is the Batista supermarket, but the common sentiment persists, including through the testimony of a British merchant: "We want to continue our lives and our business and forget the bad image linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann."

The holiday resort, however, has overcome this stigma and goes from strength to strength, now through the image of operator Thomas Cook. This English giant, which owns a number of tour operators, plus airlines based in four countries and a reservation site called Hotels4u, took the place of Mark Warner, the operator that operated in 2010 and did not withstand the scandal, very much. Although he insists on the idea that it was an "irrefutable business". The Ocean Club, and this is pure reality, is again with very high occupancy rates. Oh, and it's also true, detectives and police inspectors are likewise non grata people in Praia da Luz.
http://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/na-praia-da-luz-so-as-missas-nao-mudaram-desde-2007-7023433.html?utm_source=Push&utm_medium=Web
 


Maddie Case

03 MAY 2017
08:10
Hélio Nascimento

[Brietta]

Mystery phone call reporting burglary could hold key to solving Madeleine McCann case

Police are thought to have been diverted because of the burglary, robbing investigators of resources in the vital minutes after the British girl vanished

BYALAN SELBYPATRICK LION
10:47, 23 APR 2017UPDATED11:35, 2 MAY 2017

Policemen searching for Madeleine McCann leave a Portuguese beach resort in Lagos on May 11, 2007, after her disappearance on May 3 (Photo: Reuters)

A phone call reporting a burglary 16 minutes after Madeleine McCann went missing is believed to be a possible key piece of evidence in solving the case, it has been reported.

The theory is said to centre on the burglar alarm being triggered to distract police resources from the abduction - robbing authorities of an hour dealing with the report.


In the minutes after she was abducted a decade a go, local police in Portugal were reportedly diverted to the burglary about 10 miles from the Praia da Luz resort where the McCann family were holidaying.

The phone call to the Lagos police station, said to be from a Lisbon-based alarm systems company, was discovered in a new analysis of police phone records, The Sun reports.

The newspaper reports one of the few police cars available responded to the reported break-in in Odiaxere, northeast of Praia da Luz.

The revelations come as a Portuguese investigator told The Mirror he believed the child was snatched and taken to a warren of caves nearby that have never been searched.

The theory comes from ex cop Paulo Pereira Cristovao – who became the boss of Portugal’s missing children agency in the same year the three-year-old disappeared.

Today he takes the unusual step of criticising his fellow officers, saying human error is to blame for the failure to find Madeleine.

Speaking a decade after Maddie vanished, Mr Cristovao told the Sunday Mirror: “I think this case has lots of mistakes – from many persons, from many situations, from the police and maybe from the government.

“At the end of the day we all forgot one person: Madeleine McCann.”

Mr Cristovao believes somebody is still keeping details of that night – May 3, 2007 – concealed from investigators.

That was when Madeleine went missing from the Ocean Club complex at the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where she was on holiday with parents Kate and Gerry and their friends.

Mr Cristovao says: “Someone close to those people, or someone from the group, still has not said all that he or she knows about this.

“That’s my feeling – and I know there are many who think just like me. I think not everybody in that group has told the truth to the police. Why? I don’t know.”

Mr Cristovao’s theory is that Madeleine could well have been taken to caves in the tiny beach town of Burgau, three miles along the coast.

He formulated the idea after putting himself in the shoes of a kidnapper on his first visit to the Ocean Club flat where Madeleine went missing.

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, the former officer said: “That’s the most important thing for me. And that’s what I did, the first time I visited Praia da Luz.

“I put myself in the role of someone who knew nothing about the streets or the region. Where would I put the body of a girl?

“I stood at the apartment door – to the right is the town of Portimao. There are lots of people there, lots of buildings.

“If I had kidnapped her that’s not the way I’d want to go. I would want to go left, and find the first side road. I put my car on that road, and I went straight to Burgau. It’s a nearby beach, with a lot of rocks with caves.

“It’s a good place to put somebody. As far as I know the police never went there, because you would need divers.

“In a case where you hear theories like aliens and gypsies kidnapping Madeleine, I think this is as good as all the others. We’ve heard theories so stupid over these 10 years. When we don’t understand something, we complicate it.

“I think sometimes – always – the best solution is the simple solution.”

Mr Cristovao left the police to head up Portugal’s Association for Missing Children the year Maddie vanished. He later wrote a book about the case.

Now, discussing her disappearance for the first time in nearly a decade, he has laid out the errors he thinks set the investigation on the road to failure.

Instead of old-fashioned legwork, he believes there was too much focus on outlandish theories and behavioural profiles in the first hours and days.

Ten years ago, Mr Cristovao claimed the McCanns had been neglectful to leave their children alone as they dined nearby.

But he insists he does not believe Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, are behind her death.

He said: “The most important thing was starting an investigation on Madeleine – where is she? – instead of starting an investigation because the mother looks like this, or the father looks like that, or the mother won’t cry, or the father won’t cry.

“For me, that’s bulls**t, because everybody has their own way. I have my own little girl, and if she goes missing for 10 seconds I feel like my world has fallen apart. Everybody reacts differently.”

Mr Cristovao says this was the biggest failing of all – from the first on the scene, to the judicial police, to the British investigators who later joined the hunt. This was even though the case went on to become reportedly the most expensive in Portuguese history.

He said: “When Madeleine disappeared, we had 12 other missing children – three or four in the Madeira islands, the rest on the mainland.

“The money we spent on Madeleine was a million times more than all the others put together.

“I don’t know if it was pressure from government or the media, but it was the most expensive investigation in the history of Portugal – by far.

“That’s one of the lessons too, not always putting big numbers and lots of policemen. Sometimes you don’t need 400 officers, you need only three or four to focus on the results.”

In the UK police have spent more than £11million on the investigation.

Mr Cristovao also believes the waters were made murkier by the scale of the operation internationally – as agencies competed for control.

He said: “Half the world was investigating because everyone wanted the reward. Everybody wanted to be recognised for solving the case.

“Madeleine was big business for many, many people.”

Ex-Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton said yesterday Madeleine was most likely kidnapped by traffickers. He said: “It’s more likely than a paedophile ring. Six and seven-year-olds are much more at risk from paedophiles.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/mystery-phone-call-reporting-burglary-10278677

[Brietta]

Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry met as junior doctors and had perfect life until their daughter vanished

The couple met while working as junior doctors at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow in the early 1990s

BYPAUL JOLLANDS
23:00, 21 APR 2017UPDATED11:41, 2 MAY 2017

Kate and Gerry McCann met as junior doctors (Photo: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror

Kate and Gerry McCann had been married for nine years and had three children when their eldest daughter vanished in May 2007.

The couple met while working as junior doctors at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow in the early 1990s.


When Kate went to New Zealand to work in 1996 Gerry ditched his plans for a sabbatical in the US and followed her.

They worked in different cities but he made a 500-mile round trip on his days off to be with her.

The couple, described by friends as “inseparable”, married in 1998 in Kate’s home city of Liverpool.

They moved to Leicestershire in 2000 when Gerry landed a job as a cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital.

Kate became a GP and worked as a part-time locum at Latham House Medical Practice in Melton Mowbray, Leics.

The couple tried unsuccessfully for a baby for five years before Kate fell pregnant with Madeleine following IVF treatment.

Their eldest daughter was born on May 12, 2003, in Leicester.

The family moved to Amsterdam the following year so Gerry could carry out research at the VU Medical Centre.

It was while living in Holland that Kate discovered she was expecting twins following IVF treatment.

Sean and Amelie, now aged 12, were born in Leicester 20 months after their older sister.

Kate quit her GP role after Madeleine’s disappearance and devoted her life to work for missing children’s charities.

Gerry remains a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital and is also Professor of Cardiac Imaging at the University of Leicester.

The couple are keen runners and devout Catholics, attending weekly services at their local church in Rothley, Leics.

Anyone with information about Madeleine McCann’s disappearance should call the Find Madeleine investigation line on: 0845 8384699 or email: investigation@findmadeleine.com

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/madeleine-mccanns-parents-kate-gerry-10272760

[Brietta]

Press articles to mark the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

This thread is intended to document the various media articles which have been published in the lead up to the tenth anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Contributors should also place a copy of their post in the News thread.


This thread is reserved for media articles only. 

DO NOT POST COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=8172.msg402042#msg402042

[carlymichelle]

How the discrediting of former top cop helps shut down damning Madeleine McCann theories
Mark Saunokonoko
By Mark Saunokonoko


Crusading hero to many and vindictive villain to others, the figure of Goncalo Amaral is almost as much a part of the Madeleine McCann story as her parents, Kate and Gerry.

Amaral was the original supervising detective in the Maddie McCann case, an unsolved mystery which has captivated the world since Portuguese police were called at 10.41pm on May 3, 2007.

That first phone call, made some 41 minutes after Kate McCann claimed to have discovered Maddie was missing, sparked a 15-month police investigation that came under the most extraordinary media and political pressures.

Five months into the investigation, and following the naming of Kate and Gerry as suspects in the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter, Amaral found himself removed from the case.



Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared in Portugal ten years ago, during an interview with the BBC's Fiona Bruce at Prestwold Hall on April 28, 2017. Source: AFP

However, Amaral sensationally reappeared just days after the Portuguese police investigation was eventually shelved in July 2008, with an explosive book that was hugely damaging to the McCanns.

His 22-chapter account, titled Truth of the Lie, concluded Maddie had probably died in some kind of accident inside holiday apartment 5A, that an abduction was staged and her tiny body had been disposed of by Kate and Gerry.

The McCanns launched an expensive and protracted legal battle, using money from the millions of dollars donated to the Find Madeleine Fund, to have Amaral's personal account of the investigation banned.

Initially the McCanns succeeded, before a 2016 court tossed that decision out and ruled that the injunction had violated Amaral's freedom of expression.

Throughout the investigation, and continuing to the present day, Amaral, now aged 57, has been continuously and methodically mauled by the British tabloids and to a lesser extent various UK broadsheets.

Amaral's supporters believe the ongoing assassination of his character and policing methods helps shape the perception that his theories must be wild and fanciful.


A man named Clarence Mitchell, a former British government media mastermind, has been the key strategist in the McCann's meticulous public relations campaign for each of the 10 years since Maddie vanished.

Over the past week, as the milestone tenth anniversary of Madeleine's approached, maneuverings to discredit Amaral were once again evident in the pages of the powerful and wide-reaching UK red tops.

Two high profile stories which ran this week in The Sun and The Mirror both painted Amaral as, there's no other way to say it, a kind of crackpot.

The first attributed quotes to Amaral about Maddie being secretly placed inside a coffin with a dead body which was later cremated; the second pushed Amaral's supposed belief that British spy agency MI5 had helped hide Maddie's body.

Amaral, in both instances, was selectively edited and his comments were twisted out of context.

The former cop has previously spoken about the cremated coffin and related police information about three figures seen entering a church in Praia da Luz carrying a bag.
Madeleine Beth McCann: still missing since May 3, 2007. Source: AFP

Madeleine Beth McCann: still missing since May 3, 2007. Source: AFP

In a 2016 interview on CMTV, he confirmed the McCanns were given keys to the local church, close to where the family was staying. Inside there was a coffin of an adult woman that was later incinerated.

During the TV appearance Amaral explained that all possible angles of a missing persons case should be explored by detectives.

"No one is saying that the parents did that [put Madeleine's body in the coffin]," he said.

The startling claim that spooks from MI5 helped hide Madeleine's body is another disturbing manipulation of the truth.

The facts are in the days following Maddie's disappearance the UK government made the remarkably unusual step of becoming closely involved in another sovereign nation's police investigation.

British police were sent to Portugal to assist, while the British ambassador to Portugal and other officials also arrived in Praia Da Luz within 48 hours of Madeleine being reported missing.
Goncalo Amaral with his book, Truth of the Lie. Source: AFP

Goncalo Amaral with his book, Truth of the Lie. Source: AFP

A former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan and ex Foreign Office civil servant, Craig Murray, publicly questioned "the exceptional treatment from British authorities" for the McCanns.

"British diplomatic staff were under direct instruction to support the McCanns far beyond the usual and to put pressure on the Portuguese authorities over the case," Murray wrote in an April, 2016 blog post.

"I have direct information that more than one of those diplomatic staff found the McCanns less than convincing and their stories inconsistent.

"Embassy staff were perturbed to be ordered that British authorities were to be present at every contact between the McCanns and Portuguese police."

There were criticisms that the Policia Judiciaria were leaking rumours and unsubstantiated facts of the case to Portuguese journalists, while starving the hungry British press corp.

Ian Woods, a Sky News reporter on the ground in Praia Da Luz, explained how that dynamic divided the British and Portuguese journalists, creating an 'us' and 'them' agenda.

"For the first few weeks or months the British media were largely pro-McCann and the Portuguese media seemed largely anti-McCann," Woods wrote in a 2009 study examining media coverage of the case.

As the days ticked over into weeks, and with no sign of Maddie's return, the British press began to attack the way the investigation was handled.

On reflection, Amaral has admitted the Portuguese investigation, inevitably, made mistakes.

One of his biggest regrets, he said, was not immediately putting surveillance traces on Kate and Gerry's phones.

Amaral also lamented the failure of police to immediately obtain the clothes Maddie had worn at the resort crèche on the day she disappeared.

The McCanns have not ruled out trying to again ban The Truth of the Lie by taking the legal fight with Amaral all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, rumours have circulated that Amaral is planning a second book.

Ten years on, Madeleine Beth McCann remains missing.

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/05/03/14/02/how-discrediting-former-top-cop-helps-shut-down-damning-madeleine-mccann-theories#xcWeOU4DlImqr42L.99

[Brietta]

As the McCanns mark 10 agonising years without Madeleine, how can Portuguese police keep being so vile?
Kate and gerry have had to rebuild their family as they suffer the agony of not knowing where their oldest child is, but now one ex-cop is airing yet more ludicrous claims

BYALISON PHILLIPS
22:01, 2 MAY 2017UPDATED09:32, 3 MAY 2017

Another agonising ­anniversary for the McCann family. Another opportunity for slug-like Portuguese ­ex-cop Goncalo Amaral to crawl out of his hole and slither around in their pain.

Out of all the horrific days Kate and Gerry McCann have had to endure in the decade since their daughter went missing, this must surely be one of the toughest.

Despite their determination in an interview this weekend that they will one day be reunited with Maddie , it seems less likely than ever.

This 10th anniversary will serve as a reminder not only of how much time has passed since they last held their daughter in their arms, but also of how they’ve rebuilt family life around the chasm of missing Maddie.

Something they must have never, ever wanted to do. But which they had to for the sake of their now 12-year-old twins.

Having lost one child, they had to do everything possible to safeguard the lives of those who remained.

Yet as the family mark 10 agonising years without Maddie today, how can some Portuguese cops still be so cruel?

While they mourn and remember, Amaral – whose blundering officers fouled up so much of the search – has been airing his latest ludicrous claims about the disappearance.

And in so doing, caused new upset and anxiety for Maddie’s siblings.

He was on Portuguese ­television again pointing the finger at Maddie’s parents – the twins’ parents – and claiming she may have been hidden in a Praia de Luz church before being cremated .

Why the ­Portuguese broadcasters give him air time is a total mystery. Presumably it suits some to pump out such lies to deflect from their police failings.

Meanwhile another former Portuguese cop, Carlos Anjos, who probably knows less about the details of the case than my cat, has laid into the £11million Scotland Yard investigation as a ‘waste of money’.

Mr Anjos, a former inspector, is entitled to his opinion. Except that he is the former head of the Portuguese police union so his chief concern isn’t Maddie - it’s defending his officers’ botched investigation.

He and Amaral could do everyone a favour on this anniversary by keeping their opinions strictly to themselves.

Because these men know every smear or suggestion they make will be lapped up and repeated by the sickos and saddos of social media whose conspiracy ­theories have continued ­relentlessly over the past decade.

With children now old enough to Google their sister’s disappearance, it must be an endless battle for Kate and Gerry to keep them safe from the slurs that are constantly lobbed at their family on social media.

As Kate said this weekend: “We’ve tried to educate them a little bit as well.

“Because why would ­somebody write that? Why would somebody add to ­someone’s upset?”

A question it is impossible for right-minded people to answer.

For whatever Amaral and his band of [ censored word ]s may think about Gerry and Kate, surely anyone would have compassion for two children who have grown up against a backdrop of sadness and who have lost not just their sister but also so much of the joy of normal family life.

Amaral claims his family was also damaged by the ­investigation and he lost his marriage and son because of it. Rubbish.

I imagine he lost his marriage and son because they were able to see exactly what kind of a man he is.

A man who, incompetent at trying to find one missing little girl, appears intent on inflicting pain on her surviving brother and sister.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mccanns-mark-10-agonising-years-10343580

[Brietta]

Church prayers for Madeleine McCann ten years on
Wed 03 May 2017
By Eno Adeogun
A special church service will be held for missing people this evening in the Portuguese village where Madeleine McCann disappeared ten years ago.

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared whilst on holiday with her Catholic parents in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

The service will take place at the Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz at 9pm, which is the same time that Madeleine vanished.

It will be led by Father Haynes Hubbard, of Canada, the former priest of the church at the time of Maddie's disappearance. He has over the years become a close family friend to her parents Kate and Gerry.

A public gathering is also expected to take place in her home village in Rothley, Leicestershire, to mark today's anniversary.

In previous years, the anniversary has been remembered by members of the McCann family and villagers near their local war memorial.

Paul Luckman, a Christian and the publisher of the Portugal News told Premier interest in the case there is nowhere near the level of the UK.

"There are no ribbons, there are no posters, there's nothing. The reality is that everyone really has moved on. That's hard but that's the reality.

Luckman said it's "unlikely" many locals would attend tonight's service.   

Madeleine's parents have vowed to do "whatever it takes for as long as it takes" to find their daughter, who would now be nearly 14.

Speaking ahead of the anniversary, the couple described it as a "horrible marker of time, stolen time".

Mrs McCann said: "I think we'll get by as we have any other year really, we'll be surrounded by family and friends, you know, obviously we'll be there remembering Madeleine, as we always have."

Last month, Scotland Yard said its officers are still pursuing "critical" leads to trace Madeleine, with officers receiving information on a daily basis.

https://www.premierchristianradio.com/News/UK/Church-prayers-for-Madeleine-McCann-ten-years-on

[G-Unit]

WHO WERE THEY? Mystery couple ‘seen clambering over wall and fence directly behind apartment where Madeleine McCann was sleeping on night she vanished’
Brit police probed key witnesses about the information
By Charles Yates and Sam Christie
3rd May 2017, 2:02 pm  Updated: 3rd May 2017, 3:24 pm

A MYSTERY couple were seen clambering over a wall and fence directly behind the apartment where Madeleine McCann was sleeping just moments before she went missing, it has been claimed.

The news was revealed by British police to key witnesses as they questioned them in 2015 over Maddie’s disappearance.

Paul and Susan Moyes had an apartment above the McCanns and were out on their balcony when Maddie is thought to have gone missing

British holidaymakers Paul and Susan Moyes told the Sun Online how officers asked them about a mystery man and woman while questioning them about what they remembered from the night Maddie went missing on May 3, 2007.

Paul, 68, said officers asked them about the potentially explosive information two years ago – after swabbing both he and his wife for their DNA.

The retired accountant said: “The Met police came here about two years ago and both times they came into our house.

“The first time they interviewed us in separate rooms and took our DNA and that visit lasted more than an hour.

“The second visit was about three months later and lasted more than an hour and that was to pursue a lead and to make sure we were convinced on our timeline.

“The lead was that a couple had climbed over the fence and the back garden wall and they asked if that was us. It wasn’t.”

The couple said they had no idea who the mystery couple were but the information was “a few times removed” and had been spoken about in restaurants in the area.

The news comes after the Sun Online revealed how police are currently looking for a mysterious woman in purple seen by one witness hanging outside the apartment in the hours before Maddie went missing.

Paul and Susan, who still have the same apartment in the complex, also revealed to The Sun that despite having a prime view of both the tapas bar where Kate and Gerry McCann were with friends and the apartment where Maddie and her siblings were sleeping, they were never questioned by Goncalo Amaral – the cop who who lead the initial hunt for the three-year-old.

The now retired detective was removed as head of the investigation after criticising British detectives.

In July 2008, Amaral released a book called “The Truth of the Lie” which claims the McCanns faked the abduction.

Paul said: "It was not long afterwards (Maddie went missing) that the Portuguese police came into the apartment with a sniffer dog. They went round the apartment and we were not asked too many questions.

"They asked to see our passports and my thoughts at the time was that this was purely for elimination purposes."

The couple still regularly holiday in Praia du Luz, though they are currently selling their 200,000-plus Euros apartment.

The pair purchased a villa in the resort in 2014.

Mr Moyes described Praia du Luz as idyllic and safe and his wife added: “It is paradise.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3429641/mystery-couple-seen-clambering-over-wall-and-fence-directly-behind-apartment-where-madeleine-mccann-was-sleeping-on-night-she-vanished/

[G-Unit]

'THE F***ING B******S HAVE TAKEN HER' Kate McCann’s tormented screams on night Madeleine went missing
revealed by witnesses who told how Gerry sobbed on pals shoulder and frantic friends launched search
Key witnesses reveal desperate moments after Maddie vanished

By Charles Yates and Sam Christie
3rd May 2017, 5:33 pm  Updated: 3rd May 2017, 10:10 pm

KATE McCann screamed: “the f***ing b******s have taken her” in the frantic moments after daughter Madeleine went missing, a key witness has revealed.

The distraught mother was heard screaming out in anguish as husband Gerry sobbed on a friend’s shoulder while a frantic search for their missing three-year-old daughter took place.

Key witnesses told how they saw Kate McCann screaming in anguish after Maddie went missing
Brit couple Paul and Susan Moyes’ apartment was one floor directly above where the McCanns were staying

Brit couple Paul and Susan Moyes’ apartment was one floor directly above where the McCanns were staying
Apartment 5a, pictured today, was where Maddie was sleeping on the night she disappeared

Speaking to the Sun Online a decade after the chilling crime which gripped the world, holidaymakers Paul and Susan Moyes, who had an apartment just two floors directly above where the McCanns were staying, recounted how the couple were in hysterics.

Paul, 68, said: “The McCanns were in bits, he was crying on the shoulder of a friend.

“She was screaming ‘the f***ing b******s have taken her’.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3428088/kate-mccann-scream-night-madeleine-went-missing/

[G-Unit]

As the McCanns mark 10 agonising years without Madeleine, how can Portuguese police keep being so vile?

Kate and gerry have had to rebuild their family as they suffer the agony of not knowing where their oldest child is, but now one ex-cop is airing yet more ludicrous claims

Alison Phillips
BYALISON PHILLIPS
22:01, 2 MAY 2017UPDATED09:32, 3 MAY 2017

Another agonising ­anniversary for the McCann family. Another opportunity for slug-like Portuguese ­ex-cop Goncalo Amaral to crawl out of his hole and slither around in their pain.

Out of all the horrific days Kate and Gerry McCann have had to endure in the decade since their daughter went missing, this must surely be one of the toughest.

Despite their determination in an interview this weekend that they will one day be reunited with Maddie , it seems less likely than ever.

This 10th anniversary will serve as a reminder not only of how much time has passed since they last held their daughter in their arms, but also of how they’ve rebuilt family life around the chasm of missing Maddie.

Something they must have never, ever wanted to do. But which they had to for the sake of their now 12-year-old twins.

Having lost one child, they had to do everything possible to safeguard the lives of those who remained.

Yet as the family mark 10 agonising years without Maddie today, how can some Portuguese cops still be so cruel?

Missing Madeleine McCann's parents 'fell out with police so badly they refused to share info from own investigation'

While they mourn and remember, Amaral – whose blundering officers fouled up so much of the search – has been airing his latest ludicrous claims about the disappearance.

And in so doing, caused new upset and anxiety for Maddie’s siblings.

He was on Portuguese ­television again pointing the finger at Maddie’s parents – the twins’ parents – and claiming she may have been hidden in a Praia de Luz church before being cremated .

Why the ­Portuguese broadcasters give him air time is a total mystery. Presumably it suits some to pump out such lies to deflect from their police failings.

Meanwhile another former Portuguese cop, Carlos Anjos, who probably knows less about the details of the case than my cat, has laid into the £11million Scotland Yard investigation as a ‘waste of money’.

Mr Anjos, a former inspector, is entitled to his opinion. Except that he is the former head of the Portuguese police union so his chief concern isn’t Maddie - it’s defending his officers’ botched investigation.

He and Amaral could do everyone a favour on this anniversary by keeping their opinions strictly to themselves.

Because these men know every smear or suggestion they make will be lapped up and repeated by the sickos and saddos of social media whose conspiracy ­theories have continued ­relentlessly over the past decade.

With children now old enough to Google their sister’s disappearance, it must be an endless battle for Kate and Gerry to keep them safe from the slurs that are constantly lobbed at their family on social media.

As Kate said this weekend: “We’ve tried to educate them a little bit as well.

“Because why would ­somebody write that? Why would somebody add to ­someone’s upset?”

A question it is impossible for right-minded people to answer.

For whatever Amaral and his band of [ censored word ]s may think about Gerry and Kate, surely anyone would have compassion for two children who have grown up against a backdrop of sadness and who have lost not just their sister but also so much of the joy of normal family life.

Amaral claims his family was also damaged by the ­investigation and he lost his marriage and son because of it. Rubbish.

I imagine he lost his marriage and son because they were able to see exactly what kind of a man he is.

A man who, incompetent at trying to find one missing little girl, appears intent on inflicting pain on her surviving brother and sister.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mccanns-mark-10-agonising-years-10343580

[Brietta]

04 May 2017 - 04H00

Portugal service for Madeleine McCann 10 years on

© AFP | Candles and a photograph of Madeleine McCann are placed outside the church in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2017 to mark 10 years since the British girl's mysterious disappearance in the Portuguese seaside village

PRAIA DA LUZ (PORTUGAL) (AFP) -
Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, a service was held in her memory Wednesday evening at the church in the seaside resort of Praia da Luz in southern Portugal, marked by the absence of her parents.

On May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, "Maddie" disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve village as her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant, sparking one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.

Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her disappearance.

"It's a very sad story, a very sad case and we all hope that we turn up on that. Our thoughts are with the family and with Madeleine," said English tourist Tracy, 42, who came to attend the service.

Another British tourist, Roney, 48, said: "It's important to keep Madeleine's name alive and to pay respect to a little girl who never came home."

Both had previously gone to a cliff overlooking the sea to release pink balloons to mark the anniversary.

About 50 Anglicans and Catholics attended the service in the little whitewashed church where Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann used to gather after their daughter vanished.

The ceremony was led by Canadian Anglican pastor Haynes Hubbard, who had officiated at the church at the time of the girl's disappearance.

An English father, James, 43, accompanied by his little daughter, paused in front of a photo of Maddie surrounded by flowers at the entrance of the church.

"I just explained to my daughter that it was a little girl who got lost about 10 years ago. I just wanted to show her the photo to explain what happened," he said.

The McCanns, who did not attend the service in Portugal, on Sunday told the BBC they still hope to find their daughter alive.

"My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago," said her mother.

The McCanns attended a service Wednesday with about 200 people in the small town of Rothley, in central England where they live.

© 2017 AFP
http://www.france24.com/en/20170504-portugal-service-madeleine-mccann-10-years