Madeleine McCann: The First Robert Murat, McCanns’ Neglect Charge And Old Portugal
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “MCCANNS FACE NEW CHARGE
EXCLUSIVE SCANDAL OF PLAN TO CHARGE MADDIE MUM ‘KEYSTONE COP’ FURY”
A shock new plan to charge Kate McCann over daughter Maddie’s kidnap was last night condemned as “spiteful and shameful”. British legal experts branded bungling Portuguese detectives “Keystone Cops” for considering neglect charges.
But are these comedy cops the only ones who think the McCanns erred?
One lawyer said: “After an inquiry costing millions and unprecedented international help, these Keystone Cops still haven’t got a clue what happened to Madeleine. The investigation was a mess from Day One.”
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We haven’t heard through official channels if they are considering this charge. But you’d have to ask yourself, ‘Why now?’”
Or why not now?
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “Madeleine special investigation: The damning case against the Portuguese police - and how Kate and Gerry are coping one year on”
At the holiday home where Madeleine was last seen:
The apartment gate was padlocked, but in the little paved front yard, a purple hibiscus and some dusty geraniums were coming into bloom. The Algarve spring is finally coming.”
Such are the facts in this special investigation.
“It’s a new season,” said a British woman who works in a local restaurant. “It’s tragic they haven’t found Maddie. But the time has come to move on.”
Moving on:
Of course, moving on is one thing Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, cannot do. They remain arguidos, official suspects, - as does Robert Murat, a British expat living in Praia da Luz who has strenuously protested his innocence - still supposedly being investigated on the grounds that they may have caused her death or disappearance.
“Intellectually, they have grasped what has happened,” said Gerry’s elder brother, John. “Emotionally, they have learnt, to an extent, to cope: one’s psychology adapts. But they haven’t really come to terms with it. There are times when they can seem cheerful, but then the devastation bursts through. Madeleine’s disappearance is a cataclysm that is horrendous for them, and horrendous for all of us close to them.”
“It’s an intense, full-on existence for both of them,” said the McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell. “Gerry is back at work [as a cardiologist] full-time, but when he gets home the campaign to find Madeleine is like having a second job.”
And what of Portugal, Britain’s oldest ally?
“You have to remember: until 1974 Portugal was a dictatorship,” said a veteran Algarve journalist, who asked not to be named. “That was the climate in which the PJ was created. Their methods were pretty rough.”
Rough?
Brutal treatment of suspects was routine. One expatriate British woman told me how a friend of her mother had been arrested in the late Eighties on suspicion of breaking and entering a house - only to be savagely beaten in custody.
“She was bruised all over her body. Of course, the police said they hadn’t done anything, and were never called to account,” the woman said.
Rough. Very rough:
“This is Heartbeat country,” another expat said.
Heartbeat, Why do you miss when my baby kisses me? Greengrass - take him to the ‘pit’
“People talk to the police, and so often they think they know who’s guilty, but can’t prove it. So they make an arrest and turn up the pressure in the hope of getting a confession.”
Portugal. A place of rare dangers:
Thirty miles east of Praia da Luz lies the resort of Albufeira, where a collection of clifftop villas known as Val Novio was once a thriving development, favoured by British expats. Now largely abandoned, it was there, on November 19, 1990, that Rachel Charles, aged nine, went missing.
Neil McKay, a Bafta-winning TV scriptwriter who has specialised in factual dramas about crime, was on holiday nearby with his father at the time. “We were sitting in a bar having a beer one evening,” he recalled.
“This English guy came in, saying a little girl had disappeared two days earlier but the police were refusing to mount a proper search. He said her family wanted every British tourist or expat to meet on the beach at seven next morning to try to find her.
“So we went. There must have been more than 200 of us. Tragically, it didn’t take long to find her body, hidden among some pines.”
Those Portuguese police:
Len Port, now an Algarve publisher who covered the case for The Portugal News, said: “The police search was highly inefficient, as, frankly, was everything else about the case. The way the police handled it was desperately amateurish - and ultimately, a travesty of justice.”
Just as they would later do with the McCanns, the PJ soon hit on a suspect who knew the victim and her family. But according to Port, who attended his trial, it had “no real evidence. It was an unjust trial”.
Robert Murat:
The defendant was Michael Cook, a British expat businessman who had taken part in the search, and in 1992 he was convicted and sentenced to 19 years. Having protested his innocence, he was released in 2002. Last week, he told of his ordeal for the first time.
“This has ruined my life,” he said. “I still carry the scars from the six times I was stabbed in prison; as for the times I had the s*** kicked out of me, I long ago lost count.”
Posted: 20th, April 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,270) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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April 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hello just_me
April 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
94
AgendaWide Says:
April 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Sunday People -Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We haven’t heard through official channels if they are considering this charge. But you’d have to ask yourself, ‘Why now?’”
If not heard through official channels then heard from who (their legal sources ? nah that would be official) and why bother comment? The gloves are off leaving the Team’s fingerprints on this.
In the Mail, the story about police brutality must be part of Portugal’s wake-up call to media scrutiny of its human rights record. I see Amnesty international report problems with some brutality from police and prison guards, I don’t know but problems with human rights may be either historical, insignificant (and investigated) and no worse compared with countries with the best human rights record. I’ve no time to find out today.
————————————————-
Well, having read the Amnesty International Reports, the position seems to be that Portugual is not perfect, but it’s a very long way from achieving the really professional sort of abuse of human rights managed in places like the White House…
April 20th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hiya SC46
- thats exactly what I said earlier
April 20th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
120 Steve T
Hi Steve, who knows how all this will end, it”s not going to be easy or speedy IMO.
Do you or anyone else here know when the McCanns moved into the Villa and was
a Mr. Geraghty the owner and kept the car parked after the McCanns returned to the U.K.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
123
Châtelaine
Hi there :amile:
So,what do you see in the picture for next week?
April 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Morning all.
If there is to be a neglect charge - why only for KM? She surely is not the only culprit.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
It’s true that the longer you look at photos the more you seem to see. E.g. I now wonder whether it was an extreme warm Spring that time, as the little girl is wearing cotton dress with spaghetti strips …
April 20th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
M and A
better not , as the shenanigans last week was not by 3A’s owners, in fact totally without their knowledge
**************
Ok,no prob…its why I was asking but still interesting tho”
April 20th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
113
âde Says:
April 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
They look not only scary but false with a “blondish barbie look”.
Madeleine definitively looks like she is over 3 of age
More bollocks
April 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
118
meercat
Granny was busy, and Kate is also holding Madeleines arm.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
keystone cops
and a cake
you’re nicked
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kspQVgaQpP0&feature=related
great fun
April 20th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Could have wanted a couple of photos with just the 3 generations of girls in it? Granny was prob busy keeping M from catching alight!
We have 4 generations at our parties and never miss an opportunity to get a photo of the family line - it won’t last forever.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
106 Just_Me
Wev”e been told not to post from other Forums, I will e-mail you later, there”s loads
to sift through.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
20th century keystone cops
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Zvop203_do
April 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
110
Ciara Says:
April 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
104
jo
Hi Jo.
I agree, I have always thought that Maddie does not look 2 years of age in that picture. To me that is a picture of an older child. She looks older there than in some of the PDL photos. Look at pictures of Amelie in PDL at 2+ she still has the’ babyish look’
******
Hi Ciara
Exactely
I know “my babes”,their little faces and what they mean.At a glance,I can tell a baby”s/child”s age to people”s disbelief.I can also tell other things…and its when the “fun” begins: parents very much dislike it
April 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
meercat - Stevo is a poster here who also has his own site. he has done a lot of research on the M case and has also done a lot of research into the photos too.The last photo by the pool is very suspect, in fact it is almost certainly a fake. I havent got a copy of the photo stevo posted here the other day and cant remember what thread it was on, but because of the phot resolution etc, when the last photo is made to fit the real background where the photo was supposedly taken, M’s legs end up in the concrete surrounding the pool, not dangled over the edge of the pool. the last photo seems to have been doctored and M was added into it.
Have a look back throught the recent threads, im sure you will find it,:)
April 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
just used the zoom in on that photo above
she looks bloody scary with that expression and that knife…
also, is there a hint that a candle has been edited out?
why not put the candles in the middle of the cake?
there’s a quite interesting section on photos at mccannfiles site
http://mccannfiles.com/id88.html
April 20th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
109
meercat
“looks older than 2″
Thats right,much older
WHERE is Madeleine? what have “they”(whoever it is) done to her?
April 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I have only just dropped in to see what’s what but - just looking at the photo at the top, I was curious to note that there do not seem to be any other children there at all. Yes - I see the stack of plates, and I suppose they could be cutting it in the kitchen so as not to get nasty cake-crumbs all over the stately pile before taking it in to the mass of friends gathered elsewhere, but is it not usual to have all the other kids crowding around to witness the blowing-out-of-the-candles-in-one-go-and-making-a-wish ceremony ?? or have I been doing it wrong all these years ? This is usually followed by much cheering and handing out of plates of the festive fondant-covered goo !!
April 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
104
jo
Hi Jo.
I agree, I have always thought that Maddie does not look 2 years of age in that picture. To me that is a picture of an older child. She looks older there than in some of the PDL photos. Look at pictures of Amelie in PDL at 2+ she still has the’ babyish look’
April 20th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
just_me
cannot find Stevo’s evidence, is it a site?
She does look older than 2 but she’s got long hair and the party dress is long too.
Oh no I’m doing it now!
April 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Interesting views on 3aruidos but dont know if I can post it here??
—————–
M and A
better not , as the shenanigans last week was not by 3A’s owners, in fact totally without their knowledge
April 20th, 2008 at 11:59 am
99
SteveT
Dunno if the PJ has got this pic?
Only one missing there but might be rolling under the table
http://bp0.blogger.com/_3HAnFzHSqqE/R2EMNKshDbI/AAAAAAAAAag/02yoqUtEeRA/s1600-h/partida_de_cartas.jpg
April 20th, 2008 at 11:59 am
105 Val- do you have a link or was it a ‘dream’ if you know what i mean
April 20th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Some more “gossip”…….it seems the OC staff had to phone Chaplins on 2nd May
to report children crying, Kate and Gerry returned to their Apartment. I could go on
but don”t want to get moderated.
________________________________________
M&A
good decision val! - meercat
April 20th, 2008 at 11:55 am
70
SteveT Says:
April 20th, 2008 at 11:30 am
62
jo
2 candles on the cake, but I wouldnt assume anything.
**************
She looks oddly much older,more like a 4 years old?
At 2,one still has a “babyish” round little face,her sticking foot looks like it belogs to a much older walker as well.Big for a toddler
WTF is going on?
Also,about the recent articles,the empahasis is on its only mccanns lawyers ,clarrie is commenting here and there but they are the “shield”.I dont give any credit whatsoever to these “news”.Nothing offcial,even tho” the word “lawyers” is put forward.
Im sick of it
April 20th, 2008 at 11:54 am
meercat - I am a dab hand at photoshop, but never had to doctor and of my own childrens photos, unlike some have. Im not saying there is anything sinister about the photo on this thread. I was asked what I thought about it and gave an opinion. The only thing I think is odd is that M is supposed to be very small for her age, but she looks more like a 3 year old in the photo of her 2nd birthday. However, there has been a lot of scrutiny about the last photo of M and with good reason, have you seen Stevo’s evidence? because of this, people are now more likely to look deeper into the photos than before, there is nothing ‘odd’ about it as you put it.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:54 am
99…SteveT
Perhaps….but John does seem rather sure of himself regarding his “testimony”
in the matter…..or does he merely repeat exactly what he has been told.
He has been the focus of earlier opines that he may have been present in PDL
on the night in question.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Sammy J
At least it didn’t get starved to death for art’s sake like that poor dog in Costa Rica
April 20th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Sammy J
I’m very sorry to hear about your cat. I hope it did not suffer. Very sorry