Madeleine McCann: English Request For Secrecy
ANORAK looks at developments in the Madeleine McCann case. Writes AGW on the Forums:
While Robert Murat and Co .were settling large sums of money in London’s High Court yesterday there appears to have an intriguing little development in Portugal. It may not have been a good day to bury bad news - it travels very quickly these days.
The Portuguese tabloid Correio Da Manha produced a Page One lead with no mention of Mr Murat or his new riches.
It says under the banner headline:
English in Portimao to protect secrecy
‘CM’ reveals : Found 15 of the 19 genetic markers
A magistrate and two policemen, including Stuart Prior, responsible for liaison with PJ, were yesterday at the Court of Portimão to try to convince Magellan Meneses, prosecutor, not to release the secret of justice of the whole process of disappearance of Madeleine. One of the things that the British claim that it is not known is the report of the laboratory in Birmingham, which states that “15 of the 19 genetic markers found traces collected in a bag in the car the couple coincide [with the child disappeared].
The claim (request)was denied”
We are grateful to two Opinions posters, firstly Rasputin and Jo for the information and Google translations. The subsequent discussion in the Opinion section of the site has been about the reason for such a request.
Was it bad day? Does anyone have a close contact in Portugal who can tell us exactly what is going on?
Was the request to suppress evidence and, if so, what evidence? What reasons were given for that request and was the request made in open court? Do other Portuguese newspapers carry the story?
Our view is this may be very important.
What is interesting about the posting above is my assumption you will all know instantly I am referring to the case of the missing child Madeleine McCann and the police investigation into it…and you probably did. Frightening isn’t it?
From my point of view a good bit is the Google translation converts what would have been a Sun/ Mirror/ Express/ Mail banner screaming Exclusive!!!!! as the Correio Da Manha bleating “CM reveals”…not quite what the sub-editors intended at all…take look via the link above.

July 18th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It was the boot, not a bag.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Maybe someone doesn’t want to look stoopid…
July 18th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Agw, there is what seems to be a better translation on the previous thread, Brandon Flours just after noon, maybe she won’t mind you reposting it on this thread.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
scarlett
I dont mind i nicked it from joanna morais blog and she never minds usually!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
brandon flours Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
lone pigeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r23cm7bL9E
July 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Thanks, like Greenpeace and the UK press I’m all for rycling:
brandon flours Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
18/07/08
English in Portimão to defend secrecy - Correio da Manhã
‘CM’ reveals – 15 of the 19 genetic markers found
English want secrecy
The McCanns want to hide the data from the Birmingham laboratory
One magistrate and two policemen, including Stuart Prior, responsible for the connection with the PJ, were at the Court in Portimão yesterday, trying to convince the Public Ministry prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes not to release the entire process of the disappearance of Madeleine from the judicial secrecy. One of the situations that the English want is that the preliminary report from the Birmingham lab, which mentions that “15 of the 19 genetic markers that were found in a residue that was collected from the couple’s car’s boot, are a match [with the missing child]” is not made public. Their pretention was denied.
Also the residues that were collected behind the sofa, according to the first report, “coincide with the corresponding components in the DNA profile of Madeleine McCann”, which led the Portuguese police and also the English liaison officer to fundament their suspicions that the child died between 5.30 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, and that the body was transported in the car that was rented by the parents 22 days later.
With the lifting of the judicial secrecy next week, some of those documents may be made public. CM knows that the fundaments of the preliminary report, allied to the elements that were collected by the investigation in the meantime, led the authorities onto the path of the parents as suspects of the child’s death. Kate and Gerry McCann later alleged that there were no indicia against them, but another report, signed by Mark Harrisom, the English policeman who was assigned to help the Portuguese authorities, also peremptorily stated that the little girl was dead. The English officer even admitted the possibility that the body of little Madeleine had been thrown into the sea, and equally defended the potentialities of the sniffer dogs, that are experts in detecting odours of cadaver and blood.
Details
Extracted from the hair. Madeleine McCann’s DNA was extracted from several residues that were collected at the apartment. Among them, hair that was found on the little girl’s brush and also saliva that was collected from the pillow.
19. In Portugal, the collection of 19 genetic markers is demanded for the determination of paternity. But in other countries, like the USA, only 12 are demanded.
15. On the residues that were collected from the rented car’s boot after the disappearance, 15 genetic markers that are identical to Madeleine were found.
Traces of a crime
Two dogs that are specially trained to assist in criminal investigation detected cadaver odour in the McCanns’ bedroom, in the living room, on Kate’s clothes, on the little girl’s soft toy and on the car key, as well as blood traces in the car boot and in the apartment’s living room.
Theoretical contamination possible
The second report from the English lab, which was sent after the child’s relatives were made arguidos, raises theoretical doubts that end up annulling the first conclusions.
The technicians say that if the residues that were collected are from one single source, then they belong to Madeleine. But if they were contaminated with DNA from Kate or Gerry (who present genetic resemblances because they are the biological parents), they may not belong to the child. Apart from that, according to the experts, the obtained results are so complex that they do not allow for an absolute reading.
British technique can be verified
The technique that was used by the English experts to verify the residues that were collected from the McCanns’ apartment and car is one of the most sophisticated in the world.
It is used in that country and in the United States because it allows for the extraction of DNA profiles from very tenuous residues, by augmenting the amplification cycles. Due to the fact that it demands for very expensive material, and leads to results that are difficult to decode, this technique has not earned followers in Europe yet.
In these reports, which were sent to the Polícia Judiciária months apart from each other, the authorities start by explaining the technique that is used, and state that they used a reference DNA sample from Madeleine McCann. That sample was obtained from “saliva stains that existed on the pillowcase”.
DNA from the rest of the family was also verified, because they contain similar genetic markers and to avoid any confusion with the results.
Throughout the 22 pages of the report, which was signed by the same expert in both cases, it is frequent for the specialist in Microbiology and Biochemistry to admit that the complexity of the obtained data does not allow for a correct reading.
Nevertheless, the laboratory has duplicated the residues, a fact that makes it possible for the same results to be contradicted by the Portuguese Forensic Medicine experts.
According to what our newspaper was able to establish, some questions are still in the air and the foreseen archiving on Monday is certainly not going to clarify them. Namely the motive for the test results to have taken several months to be made known to the authorities, and having been altered in such a substantial manner.
It should also be referred that separate tests were made afterwards, which originated other reports – they all continued to be inconclusive.
Gerry is the father
The possibility, which was advanced by a Portuguese newspaper, was never under investigation. Gerry is Maddie’s and the twins’ biological father, according to what the genetic profiles of the family members were able to confirm.
Murat Compensation – Murat is going to receive 757 thousand euros from British newspapers that recognized yesterday that they had published defamatory and false news about him.
Archiving Evidence – The archiving of the process, which is due to be announced on Monday, does not mean that the case is going to be buried. It may be reopened if new evidence appears.
McCanns Arguidos - If there is no final dispatch, Kate and Gerry remain as arguidos. Today, Robert Murat also maintains the same status.
source: Correio da Manhã, 18.07.2008, paper edition
July 18th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I think we are all agreed now that ‘na mala do carro’ is actually the ‘boot of the car’, not a ‘bag in the car’……..
Long live the blue bag theories.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
AGW, anyone, I’m trying to make sense of all this, one possibility could be a potential a civil claim if you see what I mean.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
* potential civil claim
July 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Scarlett Says:
” AGW, anyone, I’m trying to make sense of all this, one possibility could be a potential a civil claim if you see what I mean. ”
No, I don’t see it. Who would be sued, and why?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Scarlett,
I’m more inclined to believe that the LP are protecting future action in the UK rather than part of a government conspiracy.
Remember that 15 out of 19 markers is acceptable in the UK courts. We do not know whether the other four markers are emphatically not Madeleine’s or whether they were too degraded to be identified. Makes rather a difference.
Just because the PJ have insufficient evidence for charges in their courts doesn’t mean that no-one else has, nor that other different charges may not be brought in other jurisdictions once the PJ have stepped out of pole position.
Can anybody find the quote from LP regarding the WOC proceedings where they said that publication of the LP’s files might be prejudicial in the future?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Carmen,
You asked about the hearing on 7.7.2008
James Lewis QC, for the police, said Chief Constable Matt Baggott shared that aim [Leaving No Stone Unturned], but felt it was ‘vital to balance the understandable desire of the McCanns to have as much information as possible against the risks of compromising the continuing criminal investigation, damaging future international co-operation and breaching Portuguese law.’
And yes, I’ve noted elsewhere that the assertion that Madeleine’s fate was within our jurisdiction is a two edged sword…
July 18th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
But if the newspaper CM knows what the information is, and so do we as its been talked about for ages on the forums then what would be the point in three people toddling off to Portimao to supress it?
I really don’t understand it at all. Maybe contact Sky and show them the translated report? I’m sure Martin Brunt would soon shed light on it. I guess there are court records in Portugal as in UK?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
chenier Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Thank-you for that.
He doesn’t exactly state whose ‘continuing criminal investigation’ - nicely obscure.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Carmen Says:
” Scarlett,
I’m more inclined to believe that the LP are protecting future action in the UK rather than part of a government conspiracy.
Remember that 15 out of 19 markers is acceptable in the UK courts. ”
One of the situations that the English want is that the preliminary report from the Birmingham lab, which mentions that “15 of the 19 genetic markers that were found in a residue that was collected from the couple’s car’s boot, are a match [with the missing child]” is not made public.
I don’t think it’s about the 15 of 19 markers. This is made public anyway. It’s about the preliminary report, and presumably about results which are so far not in the public domain.
Remind you Madeleine is still Error 404!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I hate to be thought to a smartalec but I will repeat what I said over in the Forum a day ago:
“Information is spun around the world so quickly, a judge’s direction in London will be ignored in Johannesburg within a micro-second. It will re-appear in the UK and be common-knowledge in seconds.
Sites like Anorak…but there are precious few and most are pale imitations… Anorak defends the positions of the weak (victim and suspect) where it can and will stop any obvious hurtful issues. Still, it is an access site where all are given the right to speak to air their opinion…within certain constraints.
The problem here in the McCann case is not what the courts would like to see, but what is possible. Punitive actions and subsequent agreements are one thing…closing Pandora’s Box is quite another. “
.and thank you I will lift the full translated article across for transparency all around the site.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
“Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
George Orwell quote
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”
Mark Twain quotes
July 18th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
lone pigeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6sJtA2zfyk
this will cheer you up
July 18th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Greetings!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
“In the corrupted currents of this word offence’s gilded hand may solve by justice, and oft, tis seen the wicked prize itself buys out the law: but ’tis not so above; There is no shuffling, there the action lies in his true nature; And we ourselves”
billy shakespeare
July 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
It was my Forty-Far-Too-Oldth birthday yesterday; given that I am known to be more than a little dangerous in the kitchen, Old Smuddy gave me a cast-iron pan, a razor-sharp kitchen mandolin and a book on the criminally insane! Now what am I to make of that? Or shall I just absent-mindedly slice most of my fingers off then stand on the book and hit him with the pan?
July 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Here is Anorak’s own reporting of the markers back in september.
http://www.anorak.co.uk/madeleine-mccann/176323.html
July 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
lol brandon - you gone quote mad now lol
July 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
just_me
Wot ave you dun to me ?

July 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Gloria Smudd Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm edit
Strange, Mr G gave me a kitchen mandolin for my birthday too………………I’m on the look-out for a nice dress, it’s his birthday soon.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
and i posted that before i saw your response
July 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Smudd- U - Like - Happy Forty-Far-Too-Oldth birthday for yesterday xxx
July 18th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
brandon - you freaky person you lol
July 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Thanks just_me! And have you still all your fingers Carmen? If I end up with only two, I know which gesture I will be making to Old Smuddy!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Gloria - or even one finger will work well too