Madeleine McCann: ‘Screaming Contradictions’, Scotland Yard And Francisco Marco Interviewed
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS (front page): “MADELEINE – News call for Scotland Yard probe”
Are Scotland Yard for hire? Benazir Bhutto. And McCann? Have the discovered who killed Rhys Jones yet?
“Retired Chief Superintendent Dai Davies, former head of the Yard’s Royal Protection unit, says that if the Yard can send detectives to probe the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, then they should also fly to Portugal to try and solve the Madeleine mystery”
He says:
“The Portuguese investigation has quite simply not solved the crime and it is now looking increasingly likely that it will be shelved. I would suggest that this is the time to call on the Yard to take the lead and to get them to form a team of detectives to work on the case”
Retired copper suggests his old boys are the best – Read all about it!
GLASGOW SUNDAY MAIL: “Police Ready To Clear McCanns Over Maddie”
“Police in Portugal are set to clear Kate and Gerry McCann as suspects, it was claimed last night”
A fact claimed by “insiders” who say “officers did not have a shred of evidence against the 39-year-old couple”
The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, says: “This report is extremely encouraging”
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “Kate and Gerry ‘in the clear’”
“Police do not have a shred of evidence against Gerry and Kate McCann and they are set to be cleared as suspects, it was claimed yesterday. The couple’s status as ‘arguidos’ in the case of missing daughter Maddie, four, will be lifted unless they make ‘screaming contradictions’ in a new police quiz, said Portugal paper Expresso”
How does Expresso know? The paper does not say
SUNDAY MIRROR: “McCann cops: No evidence”
“A review of the case by homicide experts from the Judicial Police has turned up no proof that Kate and Gerry McCann played a part in four-year-old Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Attorney General Fernando Pinto Montiero told respected Portuguese newspaper Expresso: ‘The couple’s legal status will be considered at the appropriate moment, depending on various elements still to be obtained’”
Says Expresso: “They will only remain arguidos (suspects) if there are screaming contradictions revealed in the answers to the letters sent to England”
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY: “MCCANNS TO BE CLEARED”
“Last night the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the sooner they are questioned the better”
He says: “There won’t be any screaming contradictions and hopefully the emphasis can then be put on finding Madeleine, who we believe is still alive”
Says the paper: “Legal letters outlining the 40 questions are to be sent to the Home Office this week. Interviews are then likely to be carried out by detectives from Leicestershire police, the McCanns’ local force”
Says Gerry McCann’s brother John McCann: “Any sensible person realises Madeleine was abducted. We didn’t anticipate being in this position after nine months”
THE SUNDAY TIMES: “Madeleine McCann and Metodo 3: Private eyes, public lies”
“Paid £50,000 a month to find Madeleine McCann, the Spanish detective Francisco Marco said he hoped to have her home for Christmas. He issued this photofit of a suspect last month; it set off a media frenzy, but Portuguese police say it has ‘no credibility’. Christine Toomey turns the tables on a private eye who is anything but…
An interview with Francisco Marco. His company is being paid £50,000 a month by the McCann’s fighting fund
“We won’t answer any questions about Maddie. Maddie is off limits – is that understood?” Marco’s cousin Jose Luis, another of the agency’s employees, warns me sternly”
But they are not the police. What can they not talk about the big case? It was Mr Franciso who told he’d find Madeleine by Christmas – last Christmas
“I cannot ask him to clarify what he did say, or whether talking about an ongoing investigation is potentially detrimental. Instead, I am left to discuss the matter with a handful of other private detective agencies in Barcelona, the private-eye capital of Spain. What they tell me is disturbing”
Marco walks in. Does he bring his Maddy dolly? And:
“Marco slaps on the table a 144-page pre-prepared dossier of articles written in the Spanish press about himself and M-3. He goes on to list some of those in the city he says I have already been speaking to about his company. Had my movements been monitored? If so, why would a private detective agency be interested in this at a time when they were supposed to be tirelessly searching for the most famous missing child in the world?”
Fame.
“In most of the many pictures of himself included in the material he hands me”
Metodo 3 is the most famous private detective agency in Europe
“He seems eager to please. He summons a female assistant on several occasions to bring me material, including a book he has recently written, to illustrate what he is talking about. Even when I make it clear this is not necessary – aware that these distractions eat into the time we have to talk – he insists, partly showing off”
Then:
“When I ask about his background, Marco summons her [secretary] to photocopy the first pages of his doctoral thesis on private investigation: he has a master’s degree and a PhD in penal law”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “McCanns to be cleared as no evidence found”
Attorney General Fernando Pinto Montiero told Expresso: “The couple’s legal status will be considered at the appropriate moment, depending on various elements still to be obtained.”
Madeleine McCann: Money. Speculation. Sensation. A child is missing…
Posted: 10th, February 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (926) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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February 10th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
There is no motive, there is no evidence, there is no body, there are no witnesses. There is only the power of good, that will unravel the fate of Madeleine. To overcome the powers of darkness, good must confront the whore of Rome in her lair.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
119 and 120 Katy says (February 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm):
REPLY: Some good points here Katy, I’ll reply by interleaving your comments:
==============
“…this has to be a first in the sense of the ‘commentariat’ following the case so closely.
REPLY: There is IMO certainly something almost ‘unique’ about the Madeleine McCann case. The Internet has had a very important role to play in this case viz. the Forums and the information sites like Stevo’s and ‘McCannfiles’
==============
How many people do you think are on these blogs? A few hundred I suspect. And we’re all up to date.
REPLY: More like thousands
==============
But most people just read the headlines. It will be difficult to get a ‘movement’ behind this because there are different flavours among the few hundred. I for one am a bit cautious about the whole political elite stuff; but I can see that there may be a clever cover-up, and just not enough evidence to convict…re your civil action possibility, tell us more about how this would happen?
REPLY: What we want to do, inter alia, is look into at least some of the issues that this case throws up.
For example, we have written to the General Medical Council about whether the McCanns should be suspended from practice.
We have asked Freedom of Information Act questions of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office about their involvement.
We have written to the Find Madeleine Trust Fund outlining several concerns, and we’ve written to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith urging her department to co-operate fully and promptly with the PJ in their investigation.
We want people in authority to know that there is a body of people very concerned about seveeral issues in this case, and who do not want to let those matters rest.
I agree with your point about ’several different flavours’. Some people for example are insistent that the McCanns should be prosecuted for child neglect, but take a more neutral stance than we do on whether or not the McCanns were actively involved in the ‘disappearance’ of Madeleine
==============
Bigger things are successfully buried for years.
REPLY: How true. An unsolved murder in South Africa was recently solved after about 70 years. New evidence emerged. The suspect - now dead of course - had earlier been found not guilty by a jury who clearly thought that there was insuffiiemt evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt
===============
I want to see a trial, personally.
REPLY: So do I. But if there is no trial, then I want to see an **inquest**
February 10th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Lillith, I’m not sure really - I’m not sure I trust that. Are cadaver dogs always right? Could the medical connections explain the scents? Could this have been a bluff?
There have been so many cases of people convicted on dodgy forensics - Birmingham6 for example, Annie Maguire’s washing-up gloves, the cards the guys were playing with on the train - in those cases the police really believed they had their guys, and the evidence fitted - but they were wrong.
We had the same here in Ireland - police can get carried away when under pressure to secure a conviction.
Though in Portugal it would have been much easier to go with the abduction for the police. The question of police impropriety has been much more damaging for the country than an abduction arising form child neglect would have been, so the police motivation to “frame” is not I think straightforward.
So actually I am inclined to believe the accident and cover-up. Mostly on the basis of the location and the reported behaviours in the immediate 24hours before and after the disappearance. But I do try to think laterally also.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
108 Katy
I mentioned this before and Saturn said Bell Pottinger would fill up the complex with their
Staff, Courtesy visitors etc, why don “t you ask him for help?lol
Seriously, I definately think all Buy to Rent properties and Mark Warner can demand
compensation from someone, either Metodo 3 or No Stone Unturned for scaremongering.
Have you spoken to MW about this? I would.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
135 TB
That’s just what i wanted to hear. Your really a revolutionary at heart aren’t you? lol. Hopefully one day soon i can use my art to change from the ‘outside’. I’m not ready yet, but soon…
February 10th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
130
Katy
But what about the cadaver fluids and the smell of death?
February 10th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
132 CSN
Evidently, if that is the case, it’s extremely dangerous for any kind of democracy, rule of law or anything else. I know that all political and legal systems are imperfect, but when they are no longer even formally respected, I think we’re on the road to disaster.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
113 man on a hill says (February 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm):
“You work in the law TB…Do you believe that you can change the system from within, I would like to know?”
REPLY: It depends what ’system’ we are talking about. I think history shows us that sometimes ‘bad’ systems are changed from within, sometimes from without.
I would make this observation. The more deeeply corruption becomes embedded within any ’system’, the more likley it is to require an ‘outside’ challenge to change it
February 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
121 Katy
thanks for that, made a note of the website because at the moment I need to keep an ear on what”s going on with this Oil Rig. My God, what times we live in . If it IS a Terrorist
plot, so much for our MI5 and 6 !!!!!!!
February 10th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
124 CSN
Impressive writing, i like it.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
127
Chloe Spain
But the Portuguese government might force the PJto close it due to political pressure.
That’s what i’ve been telling since day one !!
Here in Portugal ,we were aware ,that the Potuguese politicos were doing a favour to Mr. G.B.
Yesterday , in the RTP channel ,i saw an interview ,with all poilitical parties ,and 1 thing ,was made very clear ,Mr. G. B. put is finger on this case
Even the one from the Govm agreed with that
February 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
126 Val
Yes, I heard about the Camden fire on Spanish radio. They talked about an explosion. Didn’t know about the oil rig though. Could be coincidence -sometimes happens- or not …..
Must go. Husband with flu and a very high temperature.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Irena
I put forward a theory like this some time back, which I do not belive, but can fit the facts.
Theory is that she is a chimera - confused gender at birth, more common with IVF babes. Babies born as one gender but genitalia develops differently. Can have two sets of DNA, male and female, in one child. Wierd but it happens. These two sets of DNA could be similar to twins’ individual DNA. “Innocent explanation”.
Perfectionist parents could not handle this. Arranged a secret adoption. Abduction to explain disappearance of daughter. Madeleine, rised as a girl, may be living a new life happily as a boy. By prior arrangement.
No abduction, no murder, huge embarassment for Government and UK medical profession.
Daughter lost forever.
Unlikely but then so is stranger abduction with no evidence.
Read “Middlesex”, great novel, in this theme.
PS Tanner was at Madeleine’s birth?
February 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Does every suspected criminal get to talk to the PM on the phone? Does this fact have any bearing on what we have just heard in the press? Makes me a little worried.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
125
lilith
February 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
123 CSN
But the Portuguese government might force the PJto close it due to political pressure. My personal opinion is that the damage to Portugal has already been done, particularly the tourist industry. There are so many alternative places to go on holiday that people will probably decide that they’d rather not risk it. It’s absolute rubbish, of course - even if it were a stranger abduction, it could happen anywhere. And, if people look after their children, it can’t actually happen at all.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
117 Chloe Spain
Thanks for that.
Don”t know if you have any connection to the U.K. but at the moment there is a lot going on
that overshadows the Madeleine case.
Last night there was a massive fire in Camden Market in London a very famous and Internationally known place.. Two minutes ago an alert about an Oil rig in the North Sea. The RAF have been
called in to evacuate 500 personnel, don”t know the reason at the moment, possible
Terrorist plot?
February 10th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
EXCLUSIVE
In an amazing breakthrough the Madeleine Mccann case appeared to be solved last night.
Mr Davies, who singlehandedly achieved this much awaited break speaks ONLY with Anorak in an exclusive interview.
I:Mr Davies, thank you for talking with us.
D:You’re welcome.
I:can you tell us how you solved the case?
D: I’ll be glad to.
During my stay in PDL I noticed CuddleCat appeared to have antennas on it’s head, something the bungling Portugese police completely overlooked.
I: how did you react?
D: I wasted no time and took it with me in my Renauld scenic to a secret location and interrogated it relentlessly for 30 hours.
I:Did it finally speak?
D: Yes. As Kate and Gerry always claimed Madeleine has indeed been abducted by Martians.
She is currently being held in a red castle far far away.
I: some people see you as an old geezer who wants to make money over the back of a dead , severely neglected girl.
How do you react to that?
D: that is ludicrous. I gave up being a pensioner with nothing to lose for being an employee of the Madeleine fund.
I can see why people would not believe me and that’s why I took pictures of Cuddlecat during his interrogation.
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/1163354162444xy4lg2.jpg
I: OMG! That is amazing!
D:I would like to take this opportunity and ask for more money.
Kate ‘n gerry are building a spaceship to fetch madeleine and that costs an arm and a leg.
I: do you take checks?
February 10th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
By: Chris Freind, The Bulletin
09/14/2007
It’s time to stop pretending. It’s time to pronounce guilt in the Madeleine McCann case.
A little girl’s life may have been snuffed out, so let’s dispense with political correctness and call it like it is. By doing so, maybe we can prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
Maddy’s fate lies squarely with her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann. They are either directly responsible for her death (accident or otherwise), as Portuguese authorities believe, or they are complicit in her disappearance by their unconscionable irresponsibility in leaving her alone, night after night, in their apartment (along with her two-year-old twin siblings).
Either way, they are guilty and should be held accountable.
McCann supporters have asked me if I sympathize with the parents of a missing child. Of course I do. My heart always goes out to any parent who suffers the loss of a child.
But that doesn’t absolve Gerry and Kate from their crimes.
How is it that they haven’t, at the very least, been charged with child endangerment? Are they too famous and powerful for that kind of treatment? Perhaps. After all, these globe-trotting celebrities were able to arrange an audience with the Pope and a trip to the White House, tops among a long list of marketing coups.
I’m sorry, but it offends me that the Pope - my Pope - all but canonized these people for such a horrendous act. How much of a “devout” Catholic, as the British media continually labels her, could Kate actually be to leave her babies alone on a continuing basis?
I’m equally offended that top American officials in the White House - my White House - met with Gerry, effectively condoning his behavior and elevating him to bona fide international star status.
To be sure, there was, and still is, the need to publicize the case to help find Maddy, but to welcome the McCanns with open arms, while refusing to publicly admonish them, borders on criminal.
Does anyone really believe that if the same situation occurred to a black family, the same preferential treatment would be given to the parents? What if it happened to another white family, but instead of the parents being attractive, well-off doctors, they were merely “average joes”?
There are no bounds to the hypocrisy in this case.
If the situation wasn’t so tragic, it would be comical to watch the British media implode. It is beside itself right now, not knowing whether to excoriate the McCanns, as it started to do after they became suspects, or to continue to blindly defend them and blame the Portuguese for everything.
Since, for the most part, the British media has chosen to ignore its journalistic mission of objectivity and aggressive investigation of all facts, it will continue to waffle on the McCanns -day by day and even hour by hour - as more developments come to light.
That’s integrity for you.
Perhaps the biggest inconsistency of the McCanns, and there are many, is the weak admission that they take responsibility for leaving Madeleine alone. While it took them quite some time to put forth this sentiment, they then turned around and, in the same breath, exonerate themselves by saying they would never have left her had they thought anything bad could happen.
Remind me never to get sick in the McCanns’ hometown of Leicestershire. If they can’t see the flaws in that thought process, I don’t want them treating me. I might go in for a heart examination and come out missing a kidney.
Sure, once again I will be accused of callousness, insensitivity, slander and, of course, being “unhelpful.” After all, it was a “simple mistake,” and woe to those who cast the first stone.
I have never accused the McCanns of killing their daughter, and they are entitled to the presumption of innocence in that regard. But not so with the negligence they have shown.
Those who criticize the McCanns certainly aren’t perfect. But they do have a brain, a sense of decency and common sense.
Are these all traits that the McCanns lack? Guilty as charged.
McCanns, and British Media, Are ‘Suspect’
By: Chris Freind, The Bulletin
09/07/2007
According to CNN, the recent naming of Kate and Gerry McCann as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance was a “surprising twist”.
This should have been a surprise only to those whose heads were buried in the sand or who were blindly, and foolishly, loyal to the McCanns.
“Equally suspect” has been the performance of the media.
For the most part, the American media gets a pass. It wasn’t on their turf, and they didn’t grasp the significance of the story. Their sole focus was that the May disappearance of a four year old British girl was a kidnapping. Since she wasn’t quickly found, the story faded into obscurity.
The behavior of the British media, however, is another matter. This was their story, their citizen who went “missing” in a foreign country (Portugal). It’s one thing to give the parents the benefit of the doubt, at least with respect to criminal conduct. But where was the thirst for the facts, the investigative instinct that is the hallmark of any good reporter? To put it succinctly, besides all but canonizing the parents, the British media did nothing.
Here’s an example. No effort was made by anyone to verify the true distance between the restaurant where the McCanns dined and the room where their three children were left alone—three children, by the way, with a combined age of seven. There have been wildly different claims of the distance, including contradictory statements by Gerry and Kate. And what about the claim that they could see the room from their table? Why didn’t the BBC run video that clearly showed that a large hedge and wall actually blocked the McCann’s line-of-sight?
The list goes on, but the overarching sin of the media is that it unequivocally shut down any talk of the McCanns as suspects, or, at the very least, incredibly negligent parents. As any detective will tell you, in the case of a missing child, everyone is a suspect. You begin with those closest to the child and work your way out. No one is left off the hook.
The vast majority of Brits were appalled at young children left alone while their parents—doctors mind you— dined. But such criticism was consistently squashed by the biased UK media establishment: letters to the editor were filtered to only reflect “victim status” towards Gerry and Kate, blog posts and forums containing criticisms were shut down, and common sense questions went unasked. Why? As an August Freindly Fire column pointed out, both the mainstream media and the red top tabloids, which pride themselves on their “print and be damned” attitude, wore rose-colored glasses and disregarded the true victim—Madeleine— by not doing their job.
Here’s the $64,000 question: What will they do now? Will they blindly defend the McCanns as they’ve done for the last four months, or do a courageous about-face and diligently investigate the facts—all the facts— in the case? Of course, there is another path they can take. Will the media, now that the forensic evidence appears damning and charges against Gerry and Kate are imminent, hang Team McCann from the yardarm to rot, jettisoning their cause without the slightest hesitation, oblivious of its hypocrisy?
We shall see, but don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do the right thing.
In the meantime, since Freindly Fire has been on the case from Day One exposing the child-negligent, globe-trotting, celebrity-wannabes known as Kate and Gerry, perhaps it is time to take a trip across the pond to do what the British media has not—and will not— do. Report the facts.
You can read more ,here
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/
February 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
110
Tony Bennett
Never the P.J. ,would close a case ,because of the crap ,we see in the media
February 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Good afternoon everybody.
This is a theory (only my opinion)
Maybe, for some reason (of which we do not know) Madeleine had to dis-appear.
So: It is possible that:
1) The holiday was intended for more than just a family break.
2) Arrangements were made in England prior to the trip.
3) An “ABDUCTOR” was arranged to be at Priai da Luz for May 3rd.
4) On May 3rd an offence was committed.
5) The apartment was left unlocked for easy access.
6) The “ABDUCTOR” entered the apartment at a pre-determined time to remove a body.
7) Each check reporting ALL children were safe and well….UNTRUE.
9) The Tapas 9 must therefore, undergo relentless interrigation until one of them falls apart and tells the TRUTH.
I am not of the opinion that the arguido status is going to be lifted quite as easily as our media try to have us believe.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
VAl, for a quick and very well presented update, go to http://www.mcannfiles.com
February 10th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Actually if not a trial, a public enquiry at least.
Tony re your civil action possibility, tell us more about how this would happen?
February 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Tony, what you say is right of course, and indeed this has to be a first in the sense of the “commentariat” following the case so closely.
How many people do you think are on these blogs? A few hundred I suspect. And we’re all up to date.
But most people just read the headlines.
It will be difficult to get a “movement” behind this because there are different flavours among the few hundred. I for one am a bit cautious about the whole political elite stuff; but I can see that there may be a clever cover-up, and just not enough evidence to convict.
Bigger things are successfully buried for years. Just listened to a good radion programme - you should listen, on RTE1 “What if” of a very famouse travesty of jsutive here in Ireland involving Nicky Kelly. It took years for him to be cleared. And that was where he was successfully framed. This situation, the possible letting off of a guilty party, is much more difficult to prove. And particularly when the people involved are very sympathetic to most people.
I want to see a trial, personally.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
114 can”t say no
Apology accepted, thanks.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
106 Val
That was investigated at the time. As I remember, the cctv of the petrol station showed the blond woman in question but she was not accompanied by a child. Neither was anything found on the cctv of the Ibis hotel and nobody remembered anything. I think the witness in the petrol station was a Norwegian woman called Mari Olli who lived in Spain. She turned out to be married to a man from Leicester, strangely enough. Don’t think it was ever said who reported the sighting at the Ibis.
I think most of the Moroccan sightings (exception made of the Mari Olli sighting, which I think might have been fixed) are because people don’t realise that there are, in fact, a lot of blond Moroccan children. So it is not unusual to see a blond child with a dark family.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
grazy . i mean crazy
February 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
109 coolandcalm
Thanks, see, courtesy costs nothing does it.!
February 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
111
val
Sorry
You can’t imagine, how many sightings ,the P.J. ,had to investigate
It was grazy ,here in Portugal
And contrary ,what most people think ,there’s a lot of blond chindren ,in Portugal
February 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
110 TB
You work in the law TB. I could never do that because i believe not all laws are just. Do you believe that you can change the system from within, i would like to know?