Madeleine McCann: Torture, A Witness, Robert Murat’s Innocence And Richard Branson Investigates
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
SUNDAY MAIL front page: “MADDIE POLICE TORTURE TRIAL.”
As reported by Anorak on June 11 (see Madeleine McCann And Amaral Policing): “Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral has been accused of concealing evidence that the mother of eight-year-old Joana Cipriano, who disappeared in the Algarve three years ago, was tortured by police into confessing she had killed her daughter, whose body was never found.”
Is this the British Press discrediting the Portuguese police? Should they leave our Kate and Gerry alone? (Do the Portuguese police have a PR?)
“Lies, beatings, secret trials: the dark side of police handling Madeleine case” – If the Portuguese police do have a PR, they should get a new one.
“Madeleine: Hair in McCann Renault: ‘It could be anyone’s’” - British forensic experts have concluded the fragments said to be Madeleine’s could belong to any number of people who had come into contact with the silver Renault Scenic.
THE OBSERVER: “Maddy police: we blundered.” Remember Robert Murat?
Says a source said to be from within the Portuguese police force: “British police and crime experts also suggested that Murat fitted the profile to have been behind a kidnapping. But the Lisbon investigators were from the start unsettled about the lack of any motive. Months later, there is nothing to suggest he was involved.”
But, er, Robert Murat remains a suspect.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: “Hope for McCanns as law on secrecy is eased.”
Plans are afoot to change the rules in Portugal. The “new law means that all suspects and third parties, including the media, will have access to police documents in any investigation - unless the public prosecutor decides that secrecy will benefit the inquiry or protect the rights of the accused.”
And the police can make their views known to the public, too.
And: the McCanns have announced an £80,000 advertising campaign to help find Madeleine.
SUNDAY EXPRESS: “MADELEINE MYSTERY - POLICE TO ACT OUT MADDIE TRAGEDY”.
No longer a criminal case. It is now a tragedy. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says a tragedy is a “branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.”
Yes, dignified. Who knew?
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: “MADDIE. The missing journey.”
Where did she go?
SUNDAY TIMES front page: “Branson gives cash to defend McCanns.”
Sir Richard Branson is giving £100,000 to create a “fighting fund” to help the parents of Madeleine McCann to clear their names.
A source close to Branson says: “Sir Richard wants to ensure the McCanns get access to the best legal advice. He has a good instinct on these things.”
The Virgin Sniffer will crack the case. Or will his PR and marketing departments get there first.
But is Branson right? Let’s take a look at the survey…
“According to a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times, only 20% of respondents believe that the McCanns are completely innocent. Nearly half (48%) believe that they could have been responsible for their daughter’s death, even if it was an accident; 32% were unsure. A total of 40% said that the McCanns’ high-profile campaign had made them suspicious, but 50% said that it had not.”
Tasteful stuff. But we need another poll to find out what happened to Madeleine McCann.
Times Columnist India Knight is a McCann junkie. “I want to stop reading, listening, watching, Googling, amateur sleuthing; I nauseate myself with my own prurience. My appetite for commentary – which is all that’s left, in the absence of hard facts – has been sated many times over. But I can’t stop.”
She craves information. But there isn’t any. Unless you listen to sources”…
“Police leaks, gossip and a clash of cultures close in on McCanns” - Yesterday the police spokesman Olegario de Sousa quit “in dismay” at the daily leaks to the press.
Those Portuguese police leaks only add to the speculation and the pain. Thanks goodness for the clarity and sensitivity provided by the Times.
As the Times notes: “Maria do Sameiro Oliveira, a psychologist who does criminal profiling for the police, said she found it strange ‘how they function so much as a unit, always holding hands rigidly’ and pointed out that normally in cases of child disappearances, ‘the mother and father start to diverge, one wants to continue the search, the other not’. She added: “They show little evidence of suffering. They are very formal.”
You should not be influence by Ms Oliveria’s words. When responding to the Times’ survey, make your judgement. Make up your own survey.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: “The McCanns: Unbelievable truth or unimaginable nightmare?”
The human interest angle and a time to look back over week of speculation.
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “MADDIE: THE SECRET WITNESS – TV boss holds vital clue to mystery.”
Jeremy Wilkins is the man whose “bombshell testimony could clear the McCanns”.
And: “Jeremy Wilkins’ evidence blows holes in the police theory that Gerry and Kate killed four-year-old Madeleine.”
Wilkins is said to be the man who spoke to Gerry McCann for up to 15 minutes outside the holiday apartments — “moments after checking on his children for the last time.”
A pal says: “He is entirely convinced of Kate and Gerry’s innocence. He believes they are a decent family caught up in an unimaginable nightmare.”
With Wilkin’s certainly and Richard Branson’s sense of smell, the McCanns may be placed once more above suspicion.
All the Madeleine McCann Faction Here…
Posted: 16th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (655) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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September 17th, 2007 at 1:09 am
re: 559, Apologies for length and I meant “fuzzy” details of this case not fussy.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:08 am
559 I am not trained in psychology but I lived with someone with a psychopathic personality disorder, and Gerry’s behaviour screamed psychopath at me. Which judging by your eloquent explanation is similar. It is all about Gerry, isn’t it, maybe Kate is immobilised to speak, or maybe she is in denial.
Are you going to say something else profound because I really must go to bed!
September 17th, 2007 at 1:07 am
561 - Ian
They are odd, the abduction story (the official story) was started by the parents.
If they are innocent then they would not mind being investigated. As seemingly intelligent parents they must realise that as the last people to see her alive they would automatically fall under suspicion.
If child abuse was obvious with one of her GP practice patients. Would Kate accept that the child fell down the stairs one too many times or make arrangements to have the parents investigated.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:04 am
The car was hired from Eurocar -a rental firm where drivers have to be named at the outset. Do you know who’s names and driving licenses were provided by the Mccans other than Gerry’s?
Or were the Mccans seeking to bend the law again to suit them?
September 17th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Simon, if you want to deal with facts here they are as I understand it. (correct me pls anyone if i’m wrong)
1. Assuming the waiter/ress correctly identified Maddie at 6-6.30pm (and CCTV footage will tell), nobody independent saw her after that time.
2. None of the family friends actually saw her after 6.30pm. We dont know what the Mccan twins saw/heard.
3. There are no cctv images/photos or any independent witnesses who saw an ‘abducter’ doing an abduction or any other sign of M being abducted.
4. There is no forensive evidence of a break in through the window
5. The only way we believe M was “abducted” is by what her parents claim.
Obviously there are events and people’s behaviour since then, but on the facts above, arent the parents rightly under the spotlight?
September 17th, 2007 at 1:01 am
554
The car was hired to be used by the McCanns and friends, which you would know if you had paid any attention to the case.
I’m off to bed in a minute. Try and get one thing right tomorrow Ian.
556, Jazzy, I think it’s possible that the McCanns are misleading us on several things. i think they could be complicit in an abduction. I don’t think there is any point trying to mislead the world over the distance from where they were drinking to where Maddie was sleeping. We can work it out for ourselves. They let Maddie down and were trying to mitigate this by saying they were close by all the time. They weren’t.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:58 am
248. Maria,
I think you asked a very pertinent question to this unusual case. Especially considering what the true personalities and psychological profile of K&G McCann may really be.
You asked if the McCanns would confess if they had in fact either accidentally or willfully killed Madeleine. I think this is a very good question to ask - its childlike simplicity is nuanced extensively due to the psychological and character profiles of both Kate and Gerry.
I don’t want to start an argument but if as Catholics they believe they are absolved through confession and with the possible commingling of what I believe to be classic Narcissistic Personality Disorder (imho Gerry most definitely - I think Kate is an enabler). There is an excellent chance imho these two would not feel compelled in the slightest to confess their crimes (aka sins) to mere mortal law enforcement or anyone else for that matter, only a Catholic priest is honorable and respectable enough to hear any confession they wish to tell.
People suffering from Narcissitic Personality Disorder will frequently seek a tremendous amount of attention duing a tragic/stressful time. Even if they were the culprit or had a large hand in these troubled times the yare very clever in creating smokescreens and deflecting criticism away from themselves onto others. They are also highly skilled at making any major event (not matter how pressingly tragic it may be) about them.
So for instance, in the case of someone whose wife is dying of cancer, He confides his sadness, fear, anxiety of losing the love of his life to his friend who has NPD. His friend will not be able to empathize with him in any real way. Typically what they will do is either not be available for their friend in their time of need or they will twist the friend’s tragedy around to be about them. If a politican with NPD was caught embezzling money from public funds or accepting bribes they would be very creative in passing the blame onto a scapegoat who may have been slightly involved in malfeasance but not to the degree of the NPD politician. Yet the NPD politican is very convincing in his pleas of innocence or of baing naive and not knowing that the other guy was doing.
We could very well have the same thing here. In fact, I think a large majority of this Tapas 9 group, along with Gerry’s brother, all the high level connections both media and political, combined with Gerry’s already massive ego, ergo NPD; this tragedy is actually Narcisstic Personality Disorder individual’s fantasy come true.
Gerry and Kate & Company have brilliantly managed to transmute their daughter’s very real disappearance to be all about them (right now the super nova slimelight has been all about Gerry & Kate but I believe a few others will soon be stealing a little of that glowing slime).
Please use common sense when reviewing the fussy details and facts and non-facts and rumours of this case. Even without being in the know you cannot deny the McCann’s bizarre behavior. I am not speaking of no tears or their ability to smile (although I do think this is something to take into consideration and diplomatically weigh-in along with other “tells” the McCanns are unconsciously or consciously exhibiting). Why would any parent in their right mind, who is supposedly searching for his now 4 year old daughter, make comments on tv like, ‘We’re fighting for our lives”? This comment was not made with Madeleine in mind at all. Gerry made this remark after PJ named them suspects in Madeleine’s disappearance. It was made with silent lust that they need more money. Not to hire detectives or napping experts to assist in finding their daughter. No now the need for resources and especially money is because they need it for their impending legal defense and for their mortgage and to continue living the high life.
Compare their superstar suffering martyr (NPD’s love to play the martyr) parent status (although the McCann’s have not even phsyically looked for their daughter nor again I repeat with all that money have they hired their own team of specialisits to find Madeleine) non-identity of that precious little girl Ylenia who was abducted by a well known paedophile and was tragically found raped and murdered? Why did we not hear anything from her parents? Why does the press make stupid comments like ‘Look Alike Madeleine’? Ylenia looks nothing at all like Madeleine and that is totally okay isn’t it? We have 2 Latino children, one who disappeared about a month before Madeleine from Gran Canaria but little media coverage outside of the Canary Isles on these precious children until the McCanns visited Spain.
Why with all the funds that the McCanns have do they not search for any child missing from Portugal and surrounding areas? Wouldn’t the search for other abducted children possibly lead them to Madeleine? Wouldn’t communicating with the parents of other missing children be empowering and consoling? After all these other parents, most without the resources and connections that the McCanns have at their immediate disposal, know exactly what they are going through - don’t they? Or are these other suffering parents searching for their missing kids the real deal and the McCanns know that being around the real deal will shake them out? Will expose them for what they really are?
I’ve worked with ex-drug addicts and troubled youth who eventually over came their dark sides and have become high functioning healthy young adults. We’d have group therapy and even though it could be tough at times they really were motivated, empowered, spiritually uplifted etc….by being around others who know and understand a deeply personal and unique life challenge they are trying to deal with. I have read numerous accounts on parents of missing and exploited children who have similar groups and networks for support and continued strength in their ongoing search, assistance in learning of their child’s being found etc…..
They Madeleine Fund is a company Not a charity.
Until I hear this story refuted I will believe it: They have not only trademarked Madeleine’s name but have created a “logo” or “design” of Madeleine’s colomba which has also been trademarked. The legal papers requesting these trademarks was made not recently, not 2 months after her disappearance but within a week or so of May 3rd.
Common sense, rational thought and studying what the McCann’s say and observing the glaring discontinuity and lack of cohesion with their actions and lack of action - anything beyond the marketing of yellow bracelets (don’t they sort of look like hospital or morgue id bracelets?) and posters and billboards? Hiring of PR and media consultants?
Did Ylenia’s parents have to hire PR and consultants to find their daughter? (I understand that sadly she was found too late and my heart goes out to that beautiful little girl, her family and friends and others in similar tragic circumstances but she was actually found. Did Ylenia’s parents have political hire ups consulting with her parents? Where the political authorities orchestrating the press’ every move? Yet in spite Ylenia’s family not having important connections and that such a small amount of media coverage was given to Ylenia’s abduction and even when there was it was a minor blip. Even on the Ylenia coverage what shone through was everything McCann and sometimes even actual pertinent info about Madeleine made known to all - constantly overshadowing important details of Ylenia’s abduction and info on her perp.
The very same thing is happening to the children who disappeared from Gran Canaria. The only information coming out from most media outlets is a minor mention with Madeleine overpowering their stories as well.
Grieving parents do not hire PR, instead of seasoned detectives and claim it is an attempt to ‘Leave No Stone Unturned’ and to find Madeleine no matter what. Parents of missing children would not exclude the stories of other missing chidlren especially when there are a handful who are missing from somewhat close locations to Madeleine’s last collorborated known wherabouts.
Why do you think the McCann’s have never once travelled to any of the locations where Madeleine was claimed to have been spotted? What could the reason possibly be that a woman who is an acquantance of the McCann family, an ex-pat, saw Madeleine and reported her sighting? Yet the McCann’s didn’t even follow that lead? BUt the McCanns were able to travel around the press tour of Europe and had their papal visit but they can’t investigate leads to their daughter’s possible safe return home?
We are all speculating but I don’t believe I am speculating about their narcissistic selfish behavior. Their refusal to take common sense action to actually find Madeleine by (whaaat???!!) physically walking around, calling out her name, going door to door, meeting people and shaking hands with those who may have important information but don’t even realize it when watching the telly, they may have to sadly turn over some stones as the name of their corporation suggests - yet we don’t see the McCanns doing any of these matter of fact actions when in such a situation and we certainly do not observe them doing, or saying anything which matches that of a healthy parent who is trying to find their missing child.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:53 am
552 miss Match am trying to go to bed, but my point was, no one has repeatedly dosed a 4 year old for god knows how long, so there would be no guidelines. God forbid no one has, but how does anyone know how rapidly a little liver can rot on routine sedating? That’s what I mean in terms of an accident. Now I must sleep I have many things to ponder, including how to video Eddie cadaver dog without him licking his balls and cocking up his entire testimony
September 17th, 2007 at 12:52 am
548
An awake and alert child would not necessarily scream when taken by a stranger. Sad but true.
The Kate said leaving the children alone was naive. They never managed to say what the rest of the world knows, which s that they were negligent parents. Sometimes we say things to protect our positions.
Stating they didn’t use sedatives could be true, but based on telling videos, could very easily be wrong too. Once they took that position, they maintained it, to the media and to the police. Maybe dishonest, but understandable.
It desn’t make them killers.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:51 am
551
Simon, tell me, how can you sit there and say they were defending their position. They were purposefully misleading the public for sympathy to distract the public from the fact they were boozing it up and leaving them alone. It was not like sitting in your garden. My garden isn’t 50 yards long. Is yours ?
It may have been 50 yards long but unless they had the window seat or the building was a greenhouse, they’re unlikely to have had a good view of the complex, never mind the room. I know that in my local pub, if the lights are on inside and it’s dark outside, all you see if a mirror reflection of yourself in the bar.
Maybe if they were sitting in Richard Bransons garden could they make such a ludicrous claim.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:48 am
549 - That comment made me laugh and spit my wine all over the PC screen.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Your wrong again Simon.
The car was hired the day before the McCanns travelled to Rome to be blessed by the Pope, at a time when they would not personally need a vehicle.
You’ve also referred to multiple straight lines in the route. In my books, that means “winding” ie. not direct.
You seem to be getting quite wound up when simple facts are pointed out to you. Get some sleep and tell the Mccans to put someone else on the forum watch duty.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:45 am
interesting debate tonight folks, thank you. May you all eventually sleep well. If you have trouble, a nice lady on here says Benadryl does the trick, but only for over 18s - don’t try this at home and all that
September 17th, 2007 at 12:45 am
547 - Kate McCann is a GP. She will know the dosages for medicines including children from birth - 16 years off the top off her head. Now, admittedly, it is rare for a sedative to be given to children, but all she would have to do would be to check the on line BNF (British National Formulary) to give her the correct dosage for the age or weight of the child. We know that they had a lap top with them. It would be interesting to see what they ‘googled’.
This evening, I am thinking along the lines of physical trauma caused to Madeline. Possibly a fatal blow in the heat of the moment, possibly drowing in the bath tub, possibly suffocation or strangulation. Something went very wrong that evening.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:44 am
542
The McCanns were not trying to mislead anyone when they said they were 50 yards away and it was just like having dinner at the bottom of the garden. They were defending their position in the same way that anyone would.
You yourself have printed many untruths tonight and have gone on to defend your position. Human nature isn’t it?
Ian, you are consistantly getting your facts wrong, possibly by accident or possibly because you just want to have a pop at he McCanns.
There were no windy alleys. Get your facts right. Look at the pictures again and if you have one, switch the telly on and watch Sky One. martin Brunt is reporting right now from outside the apartment complex. The 60 meter walk tot he gate was a straightish line last the swimming pool. The 60 meter walk up the hill to the apartment was a straight line along the wall.
On the car, they had it for 3 monhs. They took it to the shops. They took it to the police station. They too it to meet firends. What would you do with a car and three months in which to use it?
Ian, If you beleive the McCanns are guilty, that is your right. I want to hear the reasons. I want to form an opinion based on facts. So far, you are not convincing.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Look, you are talking about the life of your daughter here in the Mccans case.
You would soberly tell the Police everything in truth if you genuinely wanted them to find her, even if some of the information makes you look guilty.
Isnt it going to be worse for the mcccans if the Police find out themselves further down the line?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:39 am
542 and who has gardens that the world and his wife traipse through?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Simon, of course it makes a different to the Police investigation.
An alert child would be crying or screaming if a stranger took her from bed. A drugged-up child would be asleep.
So the police would know what sort of clues to look for from potential witnesses who heard or saw something.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:37 am
538 I’m not a great one for meds anyway, so we don’t do much prescribing here at home, being blessed with healthy constitutions. I’m just saying that Kate could have over prescribed, or Gerry could have administered a dose then Kate came along. Docs do make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes with or without medical degrees. It’s not that far fetched. If you are in the habit of sedating your kids, which isn’t the norm, how would you know when too much is too much for a tiny wee girl? After all there are no trials to refer to.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Good point Simon
September 17th, 2007 at 12:37 am
4th Sep, Anorak site says
“He [gerry] prefers to tell us that the flat in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was last seen is 50 yards from the restaurant where he and his wife were dining.
“It’s difficult because if you are [at home] cutting grass in the back with the mower, and that takes about half an hour, and the children are upstairs in a bedroom, you’d never bat an eyelid,” says Garry McCann. “That’s similar to how we felt.”
Kate McCann says: “If I put the children in the car the chances of having an accident would be greater than somebody coming in, braking into your apartment and lifting a child out of her bed.”
The reality is its 120metres, through alley ways and gates and up stairs. No direct sight of the apartment from the bar. the mccans tried to fool everyone yet again on this issue.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:36 am
536
Nope.
How would telling the police that they had sedated their daughter help the police find Maddie?
Lets take a simple scenario. The McCanns from time to time sedated Maddie. Maddie is abducted and the McCanns had nothing to do with it.
It wouldn’t look very good owning up to sedating Maddie on taped interviews, when the police suspect they sedated her to death would it?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Tomorrows Star leads with
Maddies Mum In Murder Rap
Now cops claim to have found a motive
September 17th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Simon, i am saying they tried to mislead people with the 50 yards. Search on the net for the quotes from the Mccan brigade, its repeatedley frequently and they use the phrase “just like having dinner at the bottom of your garden”.
Who has a garden where you walk down winding alleys, through gates and up stairs?
On the hire car, I am asking where did they actually go to with the car? (if they are saying they didnt go to dispose of the body).
September 17th, 2007 at 12:33 am
535 - at 9.30pm, 3rd May, wouldn’t it be dark outside. Whether the blinds were open or closed, surely it wouldn’t make too much of a difference to the darkness/lightness of the room.
If he didn’t go into the children’s room, how did he know it was ‘lighter’. Also, if this was the first time that he checked on the children and stated that it appeared lighter than normal, what else did he have to compare it to?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:31 am
515…….Colette..the PJ were in possession of both photos, and cleared the guy, he was just there like everyone else..pure coincidence, and he had no idea who Murat was/is……he was not made a suspect at all at any time. he may be interviewed again to see if he maybe saw something he was not aware of at the time….it is just another Pr/Murdoch smokescreen to sling blame anywhere but at neglectful parents…..I do not give a toss about the parents.It is their fault whatever happened for constantly leaving their kids alone whilst they partied in and on and on.I only care that as a result of their selfishness, one of their kids is now missing ,and they are not helping by treating the tragedy as a PR Campaign. Find her ,they find the answers. Media can manipulate and embed and embellish “facts” to their hearts content..what it does no alter is `that a child is missing and she is missing because her parents let her down by leaving her all alone so it is their fault. .And the great PR machine is not even hitting them over that moot point .They should be collectively ashamed of the way they are treating this child, and her parents, and “news” with such disregard for factual reporting.It is all unknown “sources” or F&F or PR Teams.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:31 am
534 Ian
Show me the article where they said they were 50 meters from the apartment. The reality is, as the crow flies, they were not far wrong. I’m not prepared to hang someone because the estimate a 70 meter distance to be 50 meters.
Do you understand how legal systems work? If there is any doubt whatsoever, they should get the benefit of it.
They hired a car after 25 days because they needed a car. Why would anyone hire a car? History shows that they stayed in Portugal for more than 3 months after hiring the car. Clearly hiring a car made sense.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:30 am
529 Helsangel
Doesn’t guarantee, you are correct, but does greatly reduce the chances.
You must really worry a lot whenever you or a family member has to seek medical attention - god knows what one of those careless and incompetent medicos might do to you/them. Can’t trust them to measure a spoonful of cough mixture, hope they never have to operate.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Graeme (525),
“Even according to their own story, the only people who went in the alegedly unlocked room are the parents. Other doctor friend said he only ‘listened at the door.’ (Why, if it was unlocked and if he’d gone all that way to check…)”
…Yes, and even the first check (before the one where the friend only listened at the door, which is check no.2), the first check was Gerry. And Gerry said he saw the door ajar and thought Maddie had presumably gone to sleep in the parents room (to get away from crying twins), but that he didn’t actually check this. This implies, Gerry himself also did not look into the children’s room at all. Despite frequent checks, it seems nobody actually checked by looking to see if the kids were there….
The only check when someone looked, was Kate…
September 17th, 2007 at 12:27 am
531 SImon:
“Owning up to sedating his children would case a huge backlash of bad feeling against them. ”
Are you saying their public image is more important to them than providing all the facts that could help Police find their daughter (assuming she is ‘missing’)?