Madeleine McCann: The Sangria 7 And Introducing The McCanns’ Lawyers
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “POLICE FLYING IN TO QUIZ TAPAS 7”
The Sangria 7. It’s the Tapas 9.
Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, who heads the British arm of the probe, is likely to lead the interviews. Police chief Paulo Rebelo, the man in charge of the investigation, is also likely to make the high-profile trip to Britain.
Detectives want to clear up any “inconsistencies” in the group’s stories about what happened the night Madeleine went missing.
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell:
“Kate and Gerry and their friends see this as an important chance to help the police. The friends are more than happy to co-operate as are Kate and Gerry although, in this case, the couple will not be interviewed. We hope that the police will realise there is no evidence to link Kate and Gerry with Madeleine’s disappearance in any way and that they will be rapidly eliminated from the inquiry.”
THE GUARDIAN: “Tapas Seven in new McCann interviews”
The group - three couples, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, Fiona and David Payne, Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner, plus Dianne Webster, Ms Payne’s mother - have vociferously defended the McCanns against suggestions that they might have been involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS: “Driven to succeed”
Meeting Edward Smethurst. Getting to know the lawyers:
He is also a highly-respected lawyer who works as legal director at entrepreneur Brian Kennedy’s Latium Group. Mr Kennedy is the main backer of Kate and Gerry McCann in the fight to find their daughter Madeleine. As the family’s legal co-ordinator, Edward played a pivotal role in securing £550,000 in libel damages from Express Newspapers. He also directs the legal teams in the UK and runs a team of private investigators searching for Madeleine.
Edward says: “My role is to oversee the teams. I am not a libel lawyer and left that to the team from Carter-Ruck who secured a huge settlement as well as an unprecedented front page apology after the newspapers printed highly defamatory articles about Gerry and Kate McCann. I am also on the board of the Madeleine Fund - No Stone Unturned. It is an extremely high profile case and every effort is being made to find Madeleine.”
April 1st, 2008 at 7:32 am
1st?
April 1st, 2008 at 7:33 am
2nd?
April 1st, 2008 at 7:37 am
Edward says… “every effort is being made to find Madeleine.”
-=-=-=-=-
I would like to know exactly what efforts the McCann’s have made recently.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:46 am
“MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS: “Driven to succeed”
Meeting Edward Smethurst. EDIT As the family’s legal co-ordinator, EDIT..He also… runs a team of private investigators searching for Madeleine.”
So there is another team searching. Are they liaising with M3 ? Do M3 know about this other team. Do the PJ ? Has anyone ever heard of this other team before ?
April 1st, 2008 at 7:47 am
“Meeting Edward Smethurst. Getting to know the lawyers: …
He is also a highly-respected lawyer who works as legal director at entrepreneur Brian Kennedy’s Latium Group”
Probably a specialist in bankruptcy law, then.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:05 am
Also from today’s Daily Record and a few pages earlier, an article headed COUPLE LEFT TOTS TO GO FOR A CURRY. A couple from West Yorkshire received jail terms (the mother’s was suspended). The paper quotes the judge telling the mother it was a gross breach of her duty of care. It is an offence to leave a child alone if it puts them at risk. The NSPCC stated babies, toddlers and young children should not be left at all.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Says it all really.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/newsfeed/2008/04/01/couple-left-tots-to-go-for-a-curry-86908-20369541/
Couple Left Tots To Go For A Curry Apr 1 2008
A COUPLE have been given jail terms for leaving their two babies and a toddler home alone while they went out for a curry.
The children - aged eight months, 19 months and three years - were imprisoned in a bedroom for five hours.
Their bedroom door was tied shut with a cord to stop them “wandering through the house” if they woke up, the pair told police.
The dad has now been jailed for six months and the mum given a suspended six-month sentence after they admitted neglect.
Police discovered the offence by chance. They had offered the pair a lift home from the restaurant in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and were suspicious over their refusal.
Judge Stephen Gullick told the mum it was a gross breach of her duty of care.
It is an offence to leave a child alone if it puts them at risk.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children says babies, toddlers and young children should not be left at all.
Kids under 13 should not be left for long periods while those under 16 should not be left overnight.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Is it possible the children (3) were not in that particular apartment! Could have been somewhere else in the complex too.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:27 am
Good for the NSPCC! Standing up and being counted. Left a message on the last thread saying that I was reminded the other day that the sniffer dogs were recorded going bananas in the apartment.
This reminded me that a number of the Clan were interviewed on tape which is then placed in sealed containers until such time that a court case ensues. I wonder if they all remember things as well as they did nearly a year ago?
It’s not as if their lawyers can see the tapes before they are reinterviewed which is a bit tricky for their lawyers - because the lawyers don’t know for sure what the witnesses said at the time immediately after. And we have seen how mixed up they have been about what happened and how, where and when …… And then chopped and changed it.
Who’s to say that all these time-mix-ups haven’t been mixed up for the lawyers? Can the lawyers be sure of the times? If so - how? Because they have their careers riding on this. Somebody somewhere has to directing this because we just could not make all this up!!!
Good legal advice for the Clan not to go back to PDL for the anniversary. Would be a bad move in these present climes.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Good moaning
I mean the ONLY thing they want is to be cleared
What has happened to Madeleine is the least of their preoccupation
April 1st, 2008 at 8:30 am
lyn: This is something that a few of us on here have considered from time to time.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:31 am
7
PeterMac
The law does not work for everybody
Makes me sick first thing in the morning
April 1st, 2008 at 8:34 am
DW has allegedly said the everybody was responsible for their own children. I am personally unable to believe that such young children would all be able to stay asleep in one apartment unless ………
April 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am
PETER MAC Its one law for the McCANNS and a differant one for joe blogg.All these associations who dont speak out against the whole group (the tapas 9)are in my eyes saying,you can do what you like,but others down the social ladder cant.IMO
April 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
PeterMac
I look forward to the inevitable ‘Clarrification’ of the difference between popping out for a curry and popping out for Tapas…….
April 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
lindy: Too right! People interviewed in the streets said the same thing at the time and suggested that had they done the same thing they would have had their children taken into care. No question of it.
Very unsavoury for human rights and the UK law!!!!!!!!!!!
April 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am
Very very interesting article as usual
“Eddie the dog reportedly reacted to Mrs McCann’s clothing. Almost overnight, the McCanns turned from victims into suspects, and the crowds who had surrounded them in support began to boo and jeer at them in the street. Seemingly as a result of the dog’s reactions, the Portuguese police made the McCanns official suspects.”
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/04/mccanns-smells-suspicious.html
April 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell:
EDIT We hope that the police will realise there is no evidence to link Kate and Gerry with Madeleine’s disappearance in any way …
You really are remarkably stupid, aren’t you, Mr Mitchell
Even if we follow their own story, and on their own admission, the link is, Mr Mitchell, that they left the children in an unlocked apartment. Why can you, Mr Mitchell, not understand that.
Of course, if the apartment was in fact not left unlocked then ….
April 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
Carmen: It will be based on the years spent at a University or medical school prior to nipping out into the back garden for a tapas or nipping down the road for a curry.
There is no class distinction in UK. None at all.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:50 am
“I am also on the board of the Madeleine Fund - No Stone Unturned. It is an extremely high profile case and every effort is being made to find Madeleine.””
******
….and give her a decent burial may be?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
If the McCanns are convicted of child neglect in Portugal…?
In the case of a person whose “regular residence” is outside of Portugal, then the law in the country in which the person is normally resident applies. So in the McCanns’ case, UK law would apply.
So WHY doesnt it apply NOW?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070604203043AAdMfyP
April 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Coco,
Given the Common Law’s predilection for excruciating ratio’s, it will be interesting when we have a case where the ‘curry eater’s’ back garden turns out to be so large that they are actually further away in their garden than the ‘Tapas eater’ was when ‘just down the road’……
Denning would have had a field day.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
6 months sentence is well deserved, but really tough if the father is the breadwinner. Couldn’t it be replaced by hours of free work during the w.e ? The man would do something useful, and learn his lesson as well.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Jo
Possibly because the PJ have on-going investigations. Be patient.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:08 am
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15
Carmen Says:
April 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
PeterMac
I look forward to the inevitable ‘Clarrification’ of the difference between popping out for a curry and popping out for Tapas…….
——————-
How about 5 hours as a start?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:10 am
Garth
An interesting start, but does five hours make such a difference if an abduction is possible in minutes?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
At least the children were all there when they got back.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am
If the whole thing has been a “scam” then this week would be good to “find” Madeleine.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am
DCB
Curry keeps your children safer?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
29
Carmen
++++++++++
It would appear so