Madeleine McCann: The Private Detectives’ Secret E-Fits
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the story in the news.
Image above: Undated image issued by the Metropolitan Police, as part of the investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, the original sketch (left) that a person made at the time together with a Met Police photo of the British holidaymaker (right) who they have spoken to and is seen here wearing the clothes he believes he may have been wearing that evening, This is the person police believe they have identified as the man who was seen by Jane Tanner carrying a child at about 21.15 near the apartment G5A.
The Sunday Times has a scoop:
Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years
The new prime suspect was first singled out by detectives in 2008. Their findings were suppressed. Insight reports
Those prime suspects are the two efits widely circulated and featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch show (see below).
THE critical new evidence at the centre of Scotland Yard’s search for Madeleine McCann was kept secret for five years after it was presented to her parents by ex-MI5 investigators. The evidence was in fact taken from an intelligence report produced for Gerry and Kate McCann by a firm of former spies in 2008.
It contained crucial E-Fits of a man seen carrying a child on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, which have only this month become public after he was identified as the prime suspect by Scotland Yard. A team of hand-picked former MI5 agents had been hired by the McCanns to chase a much-needed breakthrough in the search for their missing daughter Madeleine.
The company was called Oakley International:
The team of investigators from the security firm Oakley International were hired by the McCanns’ Find Madeleine fund, which bankrolled private investigations into the girl’s disappearance. They were led by Henri Exton, MI5’s former undercover operations chief.
Their report, seen by The Sunday Times, focused on a sighting by an Irish family of a man carrying a child at about 10pm on May 3, 2007, when Madeleine went missing.
The Irish couple are the Smiths, who claim they saw a man carrying a child on the night Madeleine vanished.
And then this:
Exton confirmed last week that the fund had silenced his investigators for years after they handed over their controversial findings. He said: “A letter came from their lawyers binding us to the confidentiality of the report.” He claimed the legal threat had prevented him from handing over the report to Scotland Yard’s fresh investigation, until detectives had obtained written permission from the fund.
A source close to the fund said the report was considered “hypercritical of the people involved” and “would have been completely distracting” if it became public.
Kate and Gerry McCann are not suspects. The Sunday Times is keen to stress that. We are, too.
[Oakley] they focused on the Smith sighting, travelling to Ireland to interview the family and produce E-Fits of the man they saw. Their report said the Smiths were “helpful and sincere” and concluded: “The Smith sighting is credible evidence of a sighting of Maddie and more credible than Jane Tanner’s sighting”. The evidence had been “neglected for too long” and an “overemphasis placed on Tanner”.
The new focus shifted the believed timeline of the abduction back by 45 minutes…
The potential abductor seen by the Smiths is now the prime suspect in Scotland Yard’s investigation, after detectives established that the man seen earlier by Tanner was almost certainly a father carrying his child home from a nearby night creche. The Smith E-Fits were the centrepiece of the Crimewatch appeal.
One of the Oakley investigators is quoted. He claims:
“I was absolutely stunned when I watched the programme . . . It most certainly wasn’t a new timeline and it certainly isn’t a new revelation. It is absolute nonsense to suggest either of those things . . . And those E-Fits you saw on Crimewatch are ours.”
So. Why hadn’t we seen them before? Was The Met sitting on the pictures?
The detailed images of the face of the man seen by the Smith family were never released by the McCanns. But an artist’s impression of the man seen earlier by Tanner was widely promoted, even though the face had to be left blank because she had only seen him fleetingly and from a distance.
Why now? Why have the e-fits been released now?
Various others images of lone men spotted hanging around the resort at other times were also released.
Nor were the Smith E-Fits included in Kate McCann’s 2011 book, Madeleine, which contained a whole section on eight “key sightings” and identified those of the Smiths and Tanner as most “crucial”. Descriptions of all seven other sightings were accompanied by an E-Fit or artist’s impression. The Smiths’ were the only exception. So why was such a “crucial” piece of evidence kept under lock and key?
The relationship between the fund and Oakley was already souring by the time the report was submitted — and its findings could only have made matters worse.
As well as questioning parts of the McCanns’ evidence, it contained sensitive information about Madeleine’s sleeping patterns and raised the highly sensitive possibility that she could have died in an accident after leaving the apartment herself from one of two unsecured doors.
There was also an uncomfortable complication with Smith’s account. He had originally told the police that he had “recognised something” about the way Gerry McCann carried one of his children which reminded him of the man he had seen in Praia da Luz.
Smith has since stressed that he does not believe the man he saw was Gerry, and Scotland Yard do not consider this a possibility. Last week the McCanns were told officially by the Portuguese authorities that they are not suspects.
A “source” adds:
“[The report] was hypercritical of the people involved . . . It just wouldn’t be conducive to the investigation to have that report publicly declared because . . . the newspapers would have been all over it. And it would have been completely distracting.”
What say the McCanns?
A statement released by the Find Madeleine fund said that “all information privately gathered during the search for Madeleine has been fully acted upon where necessary” and had been passed to Scotland Yard. It continued: “Throughout the investigation, the Find Madeleine fund’s sole priority has been, and remains, to find Madeleine and bring her home as swiftly as possible.”
In other news:
Madeleine McCann: BBC slammed for hiring PORN STAR to play part in Crimewatch reconstruction of disappearance. Mark Sloan, who has starred in a string of X-rated movies, was cast as one of the “Tapas Seven” dining with Gerry and Kate McCann
Tsk!
Mark Sloan, who has starred in a string of X-rated movies, was cast as Matthew Oldfield, one of the “Tapas Seven” dining with Gerry and Kate McCann on the night their three-year-old daughter vanished.
So…
Yesterday, a spokesman for Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: “We are surprised that the BBC employed the services of someone who has openly worked in the sex industry for something as sensitive as this reconstruction. Anybody working with families who have been affected by crime types as serious as this should ensure that nothing they do adds to the families’ distress.”
One question: who recognised him? And can we see their DVD colletion?
That trite balls is covered by the Star is typically insane fashion:
Sloan has, we are told, appeared on Television X. Who owns that, then? Yep, Richard Desmond owner of the Daily Star.
The Sun is sticking with the killers:
TWO monsters probed over Madeleine McCann’s abduction prowled Spanish resorts for children in a battered red bus, says a former pal.
Killer paedos Charles O’Neill, 50, and William Lauchlan, 36, are feared to have lured kids on board with a puppy.
A former pal told The Sun on Sunday how the beasts:
– PREYED on runaway kids and young holidaymakers and kept one teen as their personal servant.
– WORE crucifixes to con people into thinking they were God-fearing churchgoers.
– FLED when a furious dad put a brick through the bus window and threatened to kill them.
One woman who knew the pair in Albir near Benidorm said: “A lot of rumours were flying around about what was happening on that bus. It was frightening.”
Oh, and this from Saturday’s Daily Star:
Such are the facts.
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Posted: 27th, October 2013 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
