(Archive clip Jane Tanner) Well as I was walking up the road, this man was walking across the top of the road. Probably about 10 or 15 feet, I was a reasonable distance away from them, and that person was carrying a child I could tell it was a child, and I could see the feet, the feet and the bottom of the pyjamas. The pyjamas had a pinky aspect to them, so you would presume a girl.
(Presenter) Jane Tanner was one of the seven friends who were dining with Kate and Gerry McCann on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. In November she gave an interview to the BBCs Panorama programme. She said that about 45 minutes before the alarm was raised she had gone to check on her own children. On the way she had seen a man carrying a child, close to the McCann’s apartment. The man has never been traced. Despite an appeal by the Portuguese police, and the release by the McCann’s of an artists impression. Gerry McCann is in no doubt that the man abducted his daughter.
(Gerry McCann) I’m certain he took Madeleine. I'm absolutely certain because Jane gave the description of the pyjamas that the child was wearing, which were an exact match for what Madeleine had on and Jane had no idea what Madeleine had on. So she gave that information without knowing it. And that is what makes me convinced.
(Presenter) Behind the scenes the McCann’s contracted Spanish private detectives, who would follow up sightings of young blonde girls as far a field as Bosnia and Mexico. The investigators have so far been paid almost £300,000, but appear no closer to finding Madeleine. (music playing) On the police side, one of the lead detectives was taken off the case in October, for reportedly criticising British officers. Then, in February this year, there was a candid admission from the man in overall charge of policing in Portugal. In a radio interview Alipio Ribeiro was asked about the decision to declare Kate and Gerry McCann arguidos. Pressed by the interviewer he admitted there had been “a certain hastiness” on the part of the police. So, was the Director of Police in Lisbon distancing himself from the actions of detectives? Mr Ribeiro’s comments may have reflected the lack of obvious progress on the forensic side of the investigation. The samples from the McCann’s apartment, and hire car, had been sent for analysis at Britain’s Forensic Science Service, or FSS.
(Archive clip Paul Hackett) Hello, good morning. My name is Paul Hackett, I work for the Forensic Science Service, and today we are here in the Birmingham forensic laboratory.
(Presenter) Paul Hackett is a senior scientist at the FSS. He can't discuss the detail of this case but he did make a general point that is undoubtedly relevant to the Madeleine McCann enquiry. Mr Hackett stressed the paramount need to preserve a crime scene, from the moment a crime is committed until the moment forensic samples are gathered.
(Paul Hackett) The less people that are attending the scene and getting involved in the scene, the lower the risks are of introducing DNA that you don’t want to be there. Minimising the amount of interaction with the scene, by people that are not there to recover the evidence, is a golden rule and is in the training manual of all police offers.
(Presenter) In this case, the golden rule was broken. After Madeleine’s disappearance there was a gap of well over two months before the arrival of the British dogs, during which time the McCann’s apartment was opened up, and rented out to other holiday makers. In late November Portuguese scientists visited the FSS and just days later police sources were telling Portuguese newspapers that the forensic results were inconclusive. (On location report – traffic noises in background) Well here in the capital Lisbon I'm just staring up at an austere looking office block that houses the policia judiciaria, the investigating police in this case. The building sits behind imposing wrought iron gates, which remain firmly closed to journalists. We must have made a dozen approaches to the police for an interview. Each one was turned down. The attorney generals office, and the ministry of justice are also refusing to talk publicly about the case. But off the record, I have managed to meet a senior figure here in Portugal with direct involvement in the Madeleine McCann inquiry. (back in studio) That person, who had not spoken to a British journalist before, admitted that unless Madeleine’s body were found the chances of any of the arguidos ending up being charged with murder, or manslaughter was slim. The source insisted that all lines of inquiry remained open. Including the original theory that Madeleine was abducted.
(Archive news clip) “Portuguese detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are arriving in Britain today to attend new police interviews with friends of her parents” (fades out)
(Presenter) Since my conversation with that senior figure in Portugal, all seven of the McCann’s friends have been re-interviewed by British police officers, with detectives from the Policia Judiciaria, or ‘PJ’, present. The seven witnesses include Rachael Oldfield, who has given her first ever interview to this programme.
(Rachael Oldfield) I was there on the night. I spent time with Gerry and Kate during the week, you know, before the 3rd of May and afterwards. You know, their emotions and their reactions was just agonising. It was just no way they’re involved in anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.
You know, if you take the common sense approach as well and just look at, you know, timings of how things happened and the fact that they’re both medics, there are four other medics in the group, they would know what to do to resuscitate a child… or anyone else for that matter. Anyone with an ounce of common sense really would be able to see that they couldn’t have done it. I was there and I know that they didn’t do it.
(Presenter) You know that there are a lot of people, possibly including the police, certainly including a lot of bloggers who have suspicions about your group who’ve written all sorts of things about a potential conspiracy theory. What do you say to them?
(Rachael Oldfield) Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s outrageous. We’ve all felt very angry about it. We were asked to comply with the Portuguese judicial secrecy laws, which we were made to understand that we could face two years in prison for speaking out. So, you know, as a group we’ve not said anything from day one. And there have been all these rumours flying around and leaks from sources close to the PJ which, you know, we haven’t been able to refute.
We would have loved to have spoken out really and just sort of put the record straight but, you know, we were asked not to. It’s their legal system, their legal process. We believed that the investigation would be the best way of finding Madeleine if we cooperated with the police and, sort of, complied by their rules and regulations. So, you know, we stuck to our side of the… story.
(Presenter) And on their side?
(Rachael Oldfield) Well, double standards. They leaked information and… these rumours that have flown around for the past year.
(Presenter) So, if the leaks stop, you think the McCanns could let bygones be bygones and move forward?
(Rachael Oldfield) Yes, absolutely. Errm, they want to find Madeleine. Presumably the Portuguese want to as well.
(Presenter) You’ve all been re-interviewed. I know you can’t talk in detail about what you were asked but as far as you are aware nobody in the group changed any detail in any significant way?
(Rachael Oldfield) No. We clearly remember the events of that night. You know, you wouldn’t forget them. And nobody changed any sort of story because, you know, there isn’t a story to change.
(Presenter) Gerry and Kate remain suspects. What, in your opinion, needs to happen now for the investigation to move forward?
(Rachael Oldfield) It would enable the investigation to move forward, and certainly Gerry and Kate to work more closely with the PJ, if the arguido status was lifted. Currently they don’t really have any communication with the PJ, which, when they’re investigating the disappearance of their daughter is quite astounding.
(Presenter) Have they, to your knowledge, heard from Paulo Rebelo. He’s the man heading the enquiry?
(Rachael Oldfield) Not as far as I know, no.
(Presenter) And what do you think of that?
(Rachael Oldfield) It is strange.
(Presenter) Rachael Oldfield is one of the three members of the group who say they spoke to the suspect, Robert Murat, on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, something he strongly denies. Detectives recently returned computers and clothing, previously seized from Mr Murat. His sister Samantha says it is time he was officially cleared.
(Samantha) No matter what he does in his life now, everyone is going to associate him as a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. It’s been a year now, and our family have gone through hell, not to mention what Robert has had to go through on his own. I think that the media should make an apology for what they’ve put him through. I think the police should lift the arguidos status and make a statement saying they have never had any evidence to suggest that Robert had anything to do with this, and say that to the public.
(Presenter) But it’s not just friends and relatives of the three suspects who want their status to be reconsidered. A senior voice within the Portuguese judicial system has told me the same thing. The President of the Portuguese Order or Lawyers, Antonio Marinho e Pinto believes the police are using the judicial secrecy laws to conceal their lack of progress.
(Antonio Marinho speaking with English translation) Right now we’ve got three arguidos, including the missing girls parents, and we need to know why. Judicial secrecy is there to protect the effectiveness of the investigation, but it shouldn’t be protecting the negligence of incompetence of the investigators. Here there are strong reasons to fear that judicial secrecy is being used to conceal the fact that the police have gone down a blind alley and have no way out.
(Presenter) The frustration with judicial secrecy is shared by Gerry McCann. When we spoke earlier this week he could barely disguise his annoyance.
(Gerry McCann) I think it’s safe to say that we’re getting very little information. We haven't had any communication about what has gone on in terms of what’s been done in the investigation.
(Presenter) And are you convinced that the police are still trying to find your daughter?
(Gerry McCann) I don’t know, because we don’t have that information. Obviously we would like to know, we’d like to know why the files are still secret almost a year on with a change in the penal code. We would like to know what has been done to find Madeleine. We’d like to know who has been eliminated from the enquiry and on what grounds, and what leads are still being followed.
(Presenter) As we understand it, the Portuguese authorities believe that the files will currently remain closed until the middle of May, I mean how frustrating is it for you not to know what information they have?
(Gerry McCann) It’s incredibly frustrating. We’re the parents of a girl who’s missing and I don’t know who is benefiting from the files remaining secret. Certainly not Madeleine. We’ve always said that we want to leave no stone unturned, and to do that, we need to know which stones have already been overturned.
(Presenter) In this programme we’ve chartered the breakdown in trust between yourselves and the police, which obviously terminated in September, but there have been very strong words on both sides since then, often played out through the media. Assuming your arguido status is lifted, can you imagine that trust being restored?
(Gerry McCann) We want to work with the Portuguese authorities, err, we have co-operated with them since day one and we have been completely open and transparent. We’ve told them every single bit of information that we have had at our disposal and answered all their questions, so of course we can see a scenario by which we continue to work with them.
(Presenter) The McCann’s, and their friends, have been given until the end of the week to decide whether they’ll return to Portugal to take part in a police reconstruction, literally walking through their movements on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. I asked Gerry McCann whether going back was a risk, given that prosecutors could still pursue a charge of child neglect.
(Gerry McCann) Well we talked about this early on. We were given legal advice that what we did was well within the bounds of reasonable parenting and of course, at the time, we thought what we did was perfectly reasonable.
However hindsight has proven that we made a mistake. Clearly we would never leave the children again. We are paying more for that than anyone could possibly ever imagine, but, you know, clearly I think such a charge one has to ask why are people talking about that now when we’re almost a year down the line and Madeleine hasn’t been found? They have no more information now than was available to them on the 4th of May, so why are we talking about such a charge now?
(music playing)
(Presenter) So the McCann’s continue to campaign and to travel, but for now Portugal remains off limits. The crime of ‘abandoning’ children carries a jail term of up to 5 years, and the couple simply won’t risk another confrontation with the police. There is no suggestion that prosecutors are planning to file charges. Portugal’s justice minister has said publicly that the investigation is nearing its conclusion. For all three suspects the delay has been deeply troubling. None the less, almost a year after Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, her parents say they still have hope.
(Gerry McCann) I think that she is probably alive. One thing’s for certain, I’ve seen nothing to suggest that she’s dead, and I mean nothing. Absolutely zero. And I’m sure if there was any evidence, then we would have heard about it a long time ago.
