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
April 21st, 2008 at 2:36 am
Obviously yours.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:36 am
Yeah, Saul, whose agenda is it you are questioning?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:34 am
994
Denzylle Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 2:33 am
Saul
984
We have had the student fraternity here tonight, albeit to a reduced audience.
You do yourself no favours trying to influence…. well to put it simply, only the people you have brought with you.
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Saul, do us the courtesy of referring your posts with a #, eh, so we know whom you’re addressing, please.
Are you talking to me? Or to all of us here tonight? Or to whom?
I’ve had my laptop on since 7am and have been in and out of Anorak all day and, as always, have read all the posts. Despite this, I’m not even sure who you’re referring to as the ’student fraternity’ unless you mean Soothsayer and Hotwater.
—–
Hows this?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:33 am
Saul
984
We have had the student fraternity here tonight, albeit to a reduced audience.
You do yourself no favours trying to influence…. well to put it simply, only the people you have brought with you.
———————————————————————————————————–
Saul, do us the courtesy of referring your posts with a #, eh, so we know whom you’re addressing, please.
Are you talking to me? Or to all of us here tonight? Or to whom?
I’ve had my laptop on since 7am and have been in and out of Anorak all day and, as always, have read all the posts. Despite this, I’m not even sure who you’re referring to as the ’student fraternity’ unless you mean Soothsayer and Hotwater.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:32 am
Apparently - I just read - Gerry referred to his dumping of the fridge in his own blog - and then after they were made suspects the reference was removed. However, for anyone who has the time to read through - all of the Gerryblogs are on mccannfiles.com - but it would take ages to read through them all.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:32 am
I just question your agenda.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:30 am
990
Why not?
Do you have something to say?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:29 am
You are talking to yourselves, do you need to do it here?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:28 am
980/983
Ian was told off for giving 3a threads and M & A warned him about it then, they said
virtually what I have just said and that by printing Anorak could be sued. Anyway,
it certainly hampers our efforts to try to introduce new theories and “inside” info
which could prove more knowledgeable than anything the Press report.
On that note, I will bid you all Goodnight. Sleep well.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:27 am
I was definitely just sourcing from 3a.
But when have the tabloids and other rags been more reliable?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:27 am
VQ
985
Sheet!?
I thought it was about fragments.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:25 am
Val
972
So, the remark was from a poster on another site, rather than from a news source?
I think it’s interesting to explore these things - such as the metal / bag / fridge - but where there’s no news source, it’s difficult then to remember to separate unsubstantiated gossip from reported information in one’s analysis, in one’s own mind.
And, of course, if what VQ says is true, that tabloid journalists are following our discussions, then the metal / bag / fridge could all be ’sourced’ in next week’s newspapers, anyway!
April 21st, 2008 at 2:25 am
Seems no consensus about the sheet of metal, perhaps from a car, perhaps from a frig.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:22 am
We have had the student fraternity here tonight, albeit to a reduced audience.
You do yourself no favours trying to influence…. well to put it simply, only the people you have brought with you.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:18 am
Search shut me out again!
I suppose there are so many following our exchange that 3A can’t handle all of the hits!
All those tabloid journalists, hee-hee.
My understanding of libel is very confused: I can imply that someone is a murderer but not that they may be autistic. Maybe it is like Murat being able to prove that he does not have a glass eye.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:18 am
Saul
978
Then I assume you’re suggesting I’m being indelicate? Well, I am, but it’s an indelicate subject.
I would prefer to be explicit rather than unintentionally mislead.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:17 am
972 Denzylle
I can”t quote the link on Geraghty, it was a post on another site. In fact that”s the first
time I”d heard about a fridge, I wasn”t following the case until I joined Anorak about
January.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:14 am
Val
976
See my post to VQ. What I don”t understand is this theory that if you quote something
that is then found to be libellous, you can be in trouble for quoting it. what about all
the items quoted from Express group that we posted which turned out to b libellous?
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Well, perhaps M+A will give us a definitive answer, but my assumption would be that quotes we have repeatedfrom the Express Group’s newspapers remain potentially libellous if those pursuing other instances of defamation look to other fora beyond the newspapers themselves. Likewise any quotes from the newspaper and media sources cited by Murat if his own defamation cases should be successful.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:14 am
well, there is reference to “congealed, possibly frozen matter in that bag” . . . I am still looking for the metal reference
April 21st, 2008 at 2:13 am
977
Denzylle Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 2:10 am
Saul
You’re doing a fine job of womanning the barricades since Chenier left us, but to whom was your suggestion to look up ’subtle’ intended?
——–
If the cap fits.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:10 am
Saul
You’re doing a fine job of womanning the barricades since Chenier left us, but to whom was your suggestion to look up ’subtle’ intended?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:09 am
968 Denzylle
See my post to VQ. What I don”t understand is this theory that if you quote something
that is then found to be libellous, you can be in trouble for quoting it. what about all
the items quoted from Express group that we posted which turned out to b libellous?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:07 am
VQ
970
Thanks.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:06 am
Metal in bodily fluids - remnants of storage place deposited along with bodily fluids in car after seeping thru’ bag. (Thinking about how flesh sticks to frozen surfaces - it’s not impossible for fragments of metal to be dislodged along with frozen contents of freezer, is it?)
—-
this is what I recall, too.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:06 am
I suggest you look up the word subtle in the dictionary.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:05 am
Maravilha
967
Who is this Gerarghty and what is his role in this case?
Is there a publication about him and did he talk about a fridge?
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Google ‘McCanns Geraghty’ and you’ll find a number of things, including newspaper and media sources.
Hopefully, Val can find a link to the statement about the fridge.
Geraghty is one of the many wealthy and influential supporters of the McCanns, with them a lot in PdL but keeping a lowish profile. Stevo questioned what his reasons were and what his connections were with the McCs, and I’m sure he could tell you much more about Geraghty.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:04 am
964 VQ
That”s where I found it, I do have the link but we were warned again today so I cant
print it .
I”ts a pity we don”t have our own “in the know” poster, then we wouldn”t have to go
scouting.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:04 am
I managed a search, but didn’t have time to get to where I wanted to be before I was told “try again later.” I will.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:01 am
I have been left in charge of the barricades.
I take this responsibility very seriously.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Val
962
I mentioned this morning , my “Aunt” had a dream that the PJ have supposedly found traces of metal, in the car and the bag and in the bodily fluids which might have come from a fridge. that”s all she could say.
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Well, that would all fit with what we’re discussing currently.
Metal in car - fridge being taken to dump.
Metal in bag - bag’s final trip with contents having been removed from fridge in villa.
Metal in bodily fluids - remnants of storage place deposited along with bodily fluids in car after seeping thru’ bag. (Thinking about how flesh sticks to frozen surfaces - it’s not impossible for fragments of metal to be dislodged along with frozen contents of freezer, is it?)