Madeleine MCanns Is Back On The Front Pages As Amaral Hearing Ends And Trial Begins
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann - The Daily Mail’s front page leads with news that the British police “Did say investigate McCanns”.
Gerry McCann was made a suspect in his daughter Madeleine’s disappearance after a British expert said he should be investigated for ‘homicide’, a Portuguese court heard yesterday.
What British expert? And what were they expert in?
Criminal profiler Lee Rainbow recommended that police on the Algarve investigate the doctor and his wife Kate because of ‘contradictions’ in his statement. The report by Mr Rainbow, of the National Policing Improvement Agency, was sent to Portugal in June 2007, a month after the three-year-old disappeared.
We are not told what these apparent contradictions are, just that one man says they existed. Such are the facts. Here are more:
It was dramatically produced yesterday by lawyers for a disgraced Portuguese detective whose campaign of vilification the McCanns are trying to stop. The couple want Gonzolo Amaral to be legally barred from accusing them of being involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Well, perhaps. What they want is for his book The Truth Of the Lie to be banned and for them to receive from him £1.2million in damages and compensation.
Goncalo’s lawyer Antonio Cabrita, reads from a translated document:
“The family is a lead that should be followed. The contradictions in Gerald McCann’s statement might lead us to suspect a homicide. This is a lead that should be investigated.”
Adding:
“Portuguese police had only considered the abduction theory. It was British police who said they must consider homicide as well.”
Some police who only consider one theory. Anorak has read hundreds.
Mr Cabrita did not outline what ‘ contradictions’ had been found in Mr McCann’s statements and refused to give any further details after the Lisbon hearing.
Meanwhile, we are still looking at the parents.
Outside court, the parents held up placards with pictures of Madeleine and a Portuguese telephone number for people to call. Mrs McCann said: “The important thing to remember is that a child is still missing.”
It is the only thing. It is the thread in single thread story that has been kinked and spun to no good.
They will find out next week if the book, which alleges Madeleine died in the family’s holiday apartment and her parents faked her abduction, will be banned for good. The ruling is scheduled for February 18.
And it might not end there. Another day, another court case:
Earlier, the couple revealed they were launching criminal proceedings against a Portuguese TV channel over claims they aired about the death of Madeleine.
TVI broadcast a documentary based on Mr Amaral’s book, which was then subject to an injunction.
It is understood the McCanns’ lawyer thinks TVI broke the rules of the injunction by continuing to discuss the allegations against them.
Madeleine McCann is still missing. And we are still gawping at the parents. There are no suspects.
Posted: 11th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (68) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
February 15th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Lawener, as the old saying goes ‘you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.’ All I have been trying to do is have people recognize there are other real possibilities of how she could have gone missing.
This has been very interesting to me reading first hand just how people react for varying reasons, suspicions, didn’t like the way the person acted or reacted, didn’t like the person’s conduct, etc., and ready to condemn with no proven facts. I am going to a meeting on Feb. 25 with a man who sat on death row for 5 years in San Quentin waiting to be executed for a crime he did not commit. Then I’ll be able to ask him face to face to explain to me all the emotions one goes through condemned and then convicted for a crime they didn’t commit.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
it’s not rocket science Rockhopper – you’re the one saying that “in the hours and days before the alarm was raised, no-one was watching”, inferring that something could have happened? in which case, please give us the benefit of your theory on how you think it was arranged, because I for one can’t work it out….
it’s not sufficient to say simply that it could have happened that way – please back it up with a credible theory and I will be quite happy to agree with you.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
65 dairy says:
February 15th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Rockhopper -
please continue to elaborate – I’m doing the bloody job for you here…..!!!
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Simple dairy, if the McCanns did cover up the death of their daughter and dispose of her body, it’s possible that it could have already have been done before the alarm was raised. What’s not to understand in that?
And by the way, what ‘bloody job’ are you doing for me?? Perhaps you’d care to elaborate.
- edited
Moderator: Dairy is not able to. There was an unmarked edit. It should have been shown as above. My apologies to both.
February 15th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
C&C has cracked it. Soups and smoothies. Nine people can eat a lot of soups and smoothies especially in a hot climate. It also accounts for why the twins weren’t taken too.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Rockhopper –
please continue to elaborate – I’m doing the bloody job for you here…..!!!
February 15th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
60 yampster says:
February 15th, 2010 at 11:58 am
A glance at my bedside would reveal Jane’s Gun Recognition Guide (4th edition, a cracking read, I just couldn’t put it down), Antony Beevor’s D Day and a guide book for HMS Warrior. This doesn’t mean I am planning to open a second front in Europe.
……….Or does it? (twirls military moustache)
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Er, um, are you saying you’ve already started a war on one front????
February 15th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
The apartment was unlocked, she could have walked out.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
My current bedside fiction reading is: Cathy Reichs and Jackie Collins.
I also have a hefty tome on Forensics for Writers, a travel guide to cruising and a book on soups and smoothies.
Imagine a detective analysing that little lot.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
59 dairy says:
February 15th, 2010 at 11:13 am
if certain people are so convinced that the McCanns did cover up the death/murder of their daughter and dispose of her body, I would love to hear the theory behind how they are supposed to have done this (with the world’s media watching)?
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Of course in the hours (and days) before the alarm was raised the world’s media (or anyone else for that matter) weren’t watching.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:58 am
A glance at my bedside would reveal Jane’s Gun Recognition Guide (4th edition, a cracking read, I just couldn’t put it down), Antony Beevor’s D Day and a guide book for HMS Warrior. This doesn’t mean I am planning to open a second front in Europe.
……….Or does it? (twirls military moustache)
February 15th, 2010 at 11:13 am
if certain people are so convinced that the McCanns did cover up the death/murder of their daughter and dispose of her body, I would love to hear the theory behind how they are supposed to have done this (with the world’s media watching)? in all the post-event analysis, I have not yet seen one plausible explanation and yet people seem to be very quick to state that she was not abducted….?
let the Agatha Christies and Hercule Poirots get their thinking caps on and come up with a viable explanation for what possibly may have gone on – I for one would be very interested to read it…
it is very easy to point the finger and say “Guilty”, as Amaral has done, but where is the credible alternative….?
February 15th, 2010 at 11:10 am
56 jass says:
February 15th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Wow, wot a lot of’ ‘Official’ manuals for a ‘person of interest’ to have at their disposal!…I wonder how he ‘sourced’ them?
February 15th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Yep. Got most of them on my shelves also.
many of us buy books for information, especially if its related to jobs or personal circumstances.. I’d have been surprised if the mcCanns hadn’t sought out every morsel of information they could find via internet and reading matter..
The research books were by their bedside in the villa they rented several weeks after the event.. NOT in the apartment from whence Madeleine went missing.
Books said to have been brought out to them by family members/friends……..
If they’d used the books to plot the event then I’m sure they would have disposed of them. If you think they could spirit away a body then a few books would have been a piece of cake!
February 15th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Cheryl, these are the books and manuals Gerry McCann had at his bedside in Portugal:
The Interpretation of Murder, by Jed Rubenfeld, Spirit Messenger, by Gordon Smith, It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life, by Lance Armstrong, plus
- Missing and Abducted Children: A Law-Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children;
- Training Courses, CEOP Serious Organised Crime Agency – Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre);
- Making Every Child Matter…Everywhere, CEOP (Serious Organised Crime Agency – Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre).
February 15th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Cheryl
Of course other nationalities are allowed an opinion, but US law doesn’t apply worldwide (yet)
In the early days of the investigation PJ was said to be reporting to the McCanns on a daily basis, and they all seemed to be the best of friends, I agree the last thing it looked like was an inquiry into a missing child.
Murat had been fingered and all seemed well with the world…and then those naughty PJ made a certain couple arguidos.
I agree there doesn’t seem to be any hard evidence of anyone’s guilt, but there isn’t any evidence of abduction either, But surely if someone knows for sure she has been abducted, why don’t they tell the police? and get the case reopened?
February 15th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Mods.
Sorry, I forgot about the two link thing.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:23 am
wot a frNd rght on m8 thx
I hav 2 b Ovr 18. whrz me fone?
February 15th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Cheryl, more links from that era:
http://www.tpuc.org/node/34
and: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2445065.stm
And then add the ‘Gaspars’ statement to the mix.
Moderator- Its a one link at a time, otherwise the post gets held, and the next goes into spam.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I thought you were exempt at your age? Check the small print
February 15th, 2010 at 8:43 am
I have been cited for jury duty next Monday.
Not Lisbon. On the coast…elsewhere.
Should it be allowed?
February 14th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
June, there is no proof and I have not stated there is that she was abducted. Is not an American permitted to show other possibilities as to what could have caused her being missing? I realize my stand is rather unpopular over there since I’m not persecuting the parents and not trying to make a case without hard facts to back it, as many are, that they are guilty. They are guilty as hell of neglect and stupidity as far I am concerned in leaving those children alone and from those actions it opened the door for the tragedy of the child disappearing. Over here a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty and then a juror is only to vote guilty if they believe that person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Frankly, from all I’ve read it is based on the suspicion of one man, who may well have been influenced by a letter from the UK to suspect them, and nothing has been produced as hard fact to back that suspicion.
I have nothing against long lunches at all but I do have something against a policeman investigating a case sitting at a long lunch shooting of his mouth for all to hear and newspapers to write about his suspecting the parents are guilty without hard facts to back it. In my books I consider that character assination.
February 14th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
jass, I have read Gerry McCann had such books with him – is that fact or fantasy? I never could sort that out from all the fantasies that were being written on the blog sites. Seriously, was that a fact?
By the way, I was being sarcastic about the excuse given by Amaral there were no procedures to follow in a missing child’s case when I said I never saw (Rebelo) carrying a manual around with him to refer to what procedures he had to follow in his investigation.
February 14th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Moderator – that link was to the Casa Pia case and I stated another place to find an update. However, here is more current report on Portugal.
Notice their leniency in sentencings in the various areas they are supposedly improving on.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/type,ANNUALREPORT,,PRT,484f9a37c,0.html
February 14th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Then long jogs
February 14th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Cheryl
Where is your absolute proof that Madeliene was taken?
She is missing.
Her parents were absent, and this is the crucial point.
And as for criticising Amaral for long lunches, her parents were having a long dinner.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
b Cheryl, 35:” I didn’t see any pictures of him carrying a manual around to refer to what procedures he needed to take.”
Are you referring to the fact that Gerry McCann was found to have some forensic book in the PdL apartment, full of advice about dealing with a dead body?
If so, rather off message of you.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Rockhopper, I have nothing against the Portugese people at all. However, I do have much against their authorities for not registering paedophiles considering they are/were known for paedophile activities there.
When I read the story on the Forum, when it first broke as to her being in the room and then disappeared, it rang a bell as to what happens over here way too often.
Paedos act swiftly and sure in grabbing a child. (Children are ‘stolen’ out of bedrooms when parents are asleep. Case in point in FLorida a few years ago, grandparents put their granddaughter to bed, father got up morning and she was gone. Paedo had climbed into her room through the window and not a sound was made. Her body was found week or so later buried in a garbage bag in his sister’s backyard, where he had been living.) (Little girl was grabbed playing with her friends behind a fence in frontyard a couple of years ago, mother couldn’t even get out of the house in time and he was gone with her. Her body was found) (Twelve year old girl was having a slumber party and her parents were asleep. Man walked into house, zeroed in on her, grabbed her before anyone could help. Her body was found.) (At a neighborhood association Xmas Party for families about 15 years ago, 7 miles from where I live, a little 5 year old girl was taken by a paedo and no one even noticed him taking her. Her body was found.) (Close friends of mine went home from work years ago and found their daughter gone. Neither her nor her body have ever been found.) (Children are grabbed at school bustops.) The cases are endless of those filthy slimy creatures and how they go about their evil work. So you might say the ‘smell’ was there as to how she may well have disappeared considering she and her siblings were left alone in a room.
So I immediately did a search on paedo activity in Portugal. Here is a link to what I found. I also found in my search they do not register their paedolphiles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/27/childprotection.uk
Now that case has been in court in Lisbon for over 6 years and as of November 2009 it is still going on. You can find that updated story on ‘Asiaone News, dated November 24, 2009.’ ‘Channel 4 News, updated October 11, 2007,’ announced the raid on the homes of 80 suspected paedophiles in Portugal seizing 150 computers. Police had infiltrated a paedophile ring in Portugal. Detective Rebelo I believe did a raid on computers when he took over the case, also.
The UK sent them a list of their known paedolphiles that visited in Portugal when the child went missing. Now, maybe I missed something in those four months after she went missing, was there a round-up of suspected paedophiles for questioning? Did they make home visits to suspected paedophiles? Did such a raid on computers take place in the first four months, as Rebelo did when he took over? Or once the UK sent that ‘generic advice’ was the whole focus thus placed on the parents and any other real possibilities to account for her disappearance just discounted?
If the authorities suspect they have all these paedophiles and have even infiltrated the ring, why aren’t they registered?
Moderator- Cheryl perhaps find a more up to date link than 2002
February 14th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Cheryl,
You still seem to be under the delusion that few – apart from those diners who overheard Sr Amaral naming the McCanns as liars – mistrust this couple.
Your loyalty to them is commendable, but even you can see that their excuses and public utterances are becoming less believable by the day?
It was shocking to hear that G McCanns only defence of their abduction theory (outside the Lisbon court) was a wild, loud and distasteful: “Where is the child? She’s not here is she?”
And Kate McCann could only say “I know more than you.” I’m sure she does, so why doesn’t she tell the investigators what she DOES know?
Your English is really good, but it is possible you don’t understand why so many find what the McCanns say is increasingly bizarre. Even a long-term supporter must wonder what they are up to.
February 14th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
39. @Cheryl. About as much chance of that scenario as the USA handing over Homeland Security to Osama bin Laden.
It is a nonsense to imagine a sovereign state would devolve judicial process to anyone from a foreign country…and probably have to translate the lot for the English speakers to pick up a fraction of the evidence gathered.
The only route would be to take a trial verdict to European Appeal.
No Charges, No trial. No appeal. No route. No Madeleine either.
Team McCann will never be in a position to influence the Portuguese Judiciary…they already will not answer questions properly put to them in the course of an inquiry.
Portuguese have never hounded the McCann’s. The reverse is true. From very early in the process the verbosity was from one Gerry McCann and a very rapidly assembled team of helpers and advisers.
It ain’t never going to happen. Not now, Not ever. Forget it.
February 14th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
AGW, very simply, Amaral lasted all of four months investigating the case, touting for all to hear he suspected the parents, before being removed; writes a book perpetuating his suspicions the parents were involved; at the trial held in Lisbon it was quite obvious other Portugese police felt the parents were involved; and, in fact, with Pavia’s testimony, one might thank the UK for those suspicions. Many of those Portugese Police come across as having ‘tunnel vision’ and, hence, their minds are already made up. What good would it do to have them do a reinvestigation? Would they actually have an open mind to follow up on any new leads, which, thus far, they have only put in files having taken no action on them, or would they focus solely on the parents bound and determined and hell bent to pin this on them?
Whose ‘… few top class investigators’ are you speaking of? I wouldn’t recommend ours, since this case does involve UK citizens; however, they may want to hire some from UK’s M15, as they are also qualified to do an investigation, if one is thinking of taking the torture route.
Frankly, a combination of top professional Portugese police, i.e., Detective Rebelo, and top professional UK police, who could look on this case without pre-formed opinions and reinvestigate objectively would be the route to go. How would that insult the Portugese Police? They didn’t solve the case the first go round and one would think they’d welcome assistance on the second go round. After all the UK got the credit for them suspecting the parents, according to testimony given by Pavia, so why not work together since they seem to think highly of the UK and helpful advice it gives.
Who would be the first to be questioned in an reinvestigation? The parents, of course, with lawyers present. However, to further protect themselves during questioning and answering, there should be present both Portugese and English personnel taking down all questions and answers so there are no misunderstandings nor misinterpretations by either side of what was being asked and answered and tape all interviews.
February 14th, 2010 at 11:51 am
35 Cheryl says:
“I immediately did a search re Portugal and found what I was looking for about that country”
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So you had already made up your mind about Portugal and a search confirmed what was already in your mind!
Perhaps you’d care to enlighten us? Did you find out it wasn’t part of America?
What on earth have you got against Portugal and it’s people?