tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2744161705138553902024-03-04T23:21:33.020-08:00McCann ArchivesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger587125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-4561904863557820102012-07-11T13:52:00.001-07:002012-07-11T13:52:42.033-07:00Stephen Birch : Claims Posting On Jill Havern Forum.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><cite>Stephen Birch wrote:</cite>Good evening to everyone. I hope that you all well, and that am able to shed some light on the questions that you have posted. I,ve decided to come onto this blog and inform you as to the status of the investigation. I want to state that the sole objective of this investigation is to find MADELEINE MC CANN, and to bring closure to this case for millions of people. I want to further state, that no one person owns the right to the investigation, and if it had not been for the Portuguese Police making information about the case available to the public, I would not have been able to work on this case. I,ve stated from the onset that finding MADELEINE MC CANN will narrow the investigation, and assist the Portuguese Police into solving this case. The Portuguese Police in my opinion did an excellent job under very difficult circumstances. It's not easy to conduct an investigation when language, long distances and international sitings extend the scope of works.<br /><br />I familiarized myself with information provided by the Portuguese Police. I read over 12 000 pages, often walking out of my office to a rising sun. From the begining I decided to create a hypothesis, I had limited resources and limited time, so I created a hypothesis that MADELEINE died on the 3rd MAY 2007 and was buried in Praia da luz on that same evening. Anything outside that hypothesis, would create to many permatations, and I would not be able to solve the case. Given my hypothesis and the limiting of permatations, time became a critical component of the investigation. Every minute became inportant.My favourite imaginery character Sherlock Homes once said, and I quote,"if you are able to take the impossible out of the equation, the rest is academic. Inorder to do that, you must have extreme attention to detail, which I believe I have.<br /><br />I am going to answer a couple of questions, obviously I cannot deal with all of them. Here goes. Well how did I get into the yard with the big dogs??? Well at night one large dog is kept in the front of the property, while all 3 other dogs sleep inside the house with Mrs Jenny Murat.That's only on cold nights. On warm nights, the dogs circulate, hence I only went in <span style="color: blue;">on cold windy nights.Wind played a pivotable role and I had to wait for a northerly wind to blow before entering the property.(</span>in otherwords I was down wind of the big dog) Why did I not dig?? Well actually I really did try to dig. On my fourth entrance into the property, I went in only with a spade to dig, and after I moved the top layer of stones away with my hands, encountered a hard sticky tarr layers. I tried to dig through it, but the noise was to loud, and so I gave up. Remember it was 5am in the morning, and the sound of a spade slamming into hard tarr travels. Why did I choose that location to search?? Well can I be granted the right to hold over on that question, you see, inorder to answer that question, I need to start accusing people other than the Murat family, and I don't want to do that before we recover MADELEINE. With regard to the British press, I am deeply dissapointed that they did not cover the story, even thou the rest of the world thought it important. Lastly I am now liasing with the Portuguese Police and am waiting for a response. I hope that we can all stay focussed, that sanity can prevail, and we can establish one way or another whether MADELEINE MC CANN is buried underneath the rear pebble driveway of CASA LILLIANA. Keep well Stephen Birch</span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-20232266769202371962012-05-21T15:04:00.002-07:002012-05-21T15:05:52.938-07:00Transcript : Madeleine McCann - The Last Hope - Monday 21st 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em> <br />KATE MCCANN, MOTHER OF MADELEINE: Every night we had dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant. It was very close to our apartment. At 10 o' clock, when I went back to check on the children, which we'd been doing every half hour, just in case one of them had maybe woken up, I discovered that Madeleine had been taken.<br /><br />GERRY MCCANN, FATHER OF MADELEINE: You're just thrown into this absolute nightmare. Terrifying ordeal; I think the worst thing that could happen to a parent.<br /><br />KATE MCCANN: When I imagine somebody lifting Madeleine out of the bed, and I Madeleine at some point waking up, I just... so horrific that I just... your brain struggles to accept it as real.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Five years on, Madeleine McCann is still missing. In England, her parents still grieve, and police are back in the hunt. Welcome to Four Corners. Reliable data is hard to get, but it's estimated that, worldwide, something like eight million children disappear each year, and the United Nations says that at any one time, close to two-and-a-half million people are victims of human trafficking - most of them for sexual slavery. Madeleine McCann was just days away from her fourth birthday when she disappeared from a Portuguese coastal resort. The story made headlines around the globe. <br /><br />With Britain's tabloid press ramping up pressure, local police struggled for leads in their search for Madeleine and her alleged abductor. Before long, in the face of accusations that they had botched the investigation, police were pointing the finger at Madeleine's parents, casting doubts on their story. Eventually, the Portuguese police closed the case, leaving the parents to swing in the breeze of public opinion. The parents, meanwhile, <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">had launched their own private investigations</span></strong>, and eventually, in the wake of a book written by Kate McCann, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, ordered a new investigation. Some 30 specialist police are on the trail, and<strong> <span style="color: darkblue;">expressing optimism that they can crack the mystery</span></strong>. But they're going to have to find new evidence strong enough to force Portuguese police to re-open the case. In the meantime, if she's still alive, Madeleine will have just turned nine.<br /><br />The BBC's Richard Bilton has compiled this report.<br /><br />[Report - "<strong>Madeleine McCann-The Last Hope</strong>"]<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: One of the significant questions related to Madeleine McCann's disappearance is this: if she was targeted by child traffickers, what would they have wanted with a three or four-year-old? Are children targeted that young? Former senior Scotland Yard investigator, Jim Gamble, has led the British National Crime Intelligence Service fight against child sex abuse, and he was the head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre within the UK police, which did some analysis for the Portuguese police early in the investigation of Madeleine's disappearance. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">He subsequently did a scoping study for a review of the case in 2009 for the previous Labour government.</span></strong> Jim Gamble had since got to know the McCann's personally, and he joins me now from London.<br /><br />Jim Gamble, let's get one obvious question out of the way, first-up: from everything you know personally about the McCanns and the case, do you believe they had anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE, FMR HEAD, CHILD PROTECTION CENTRE (CEOP): <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">If it ever came out that either of the McCanns were involved in this, I will be absolutely shocked.</span></strong><br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Why do you say that?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, from everything I know about it, it's not that as a professional police officer they wouldn't have been first on my list of suspects, because actually, of course they would - they're the parents, they were there, they had last access. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">But having been involved in the periphery to a greater or lesser degree on different occasions with this case</span></strong>, having met the McCanns, having seen their children Sean and Amelie around them, I just would be shocked. There's nothing which gives me that feeling; there's no evidence which makes me feel that they are in any way complicit in the disappearance. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">But I'm a human being, you know, and we can err.</span></strong> I'm simply saying that I would be shocked if either one of them were proven to be involved in any way in this.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Given the five year time lapse since Madeleine's disappearance, what do you think the chances are of finding her, even with such a well-resourced UK police team?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, I think there's always hope, and nobody should take away hope from parents who have to get up and look after their other two small children every day. And people often talk to be about the statistics and what's most likely to have become of Madeleine. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">Jaycee Dugard turned up after many, many years, having been abducted from a bus stop near her home.</span></strong> And when we began to look at the Minute from Madeleine Initiative video, which we created in CEOP some years back, we looked at a number of cases where children had gone missing, been abducted, and many years later were found, or came back themselves. So, I think there's always hope. As the years go on, of course, it's harder to sustain that, and that's one of the reasons I think we all welcomed the recent Metropolitan Police investigation, and the way it's breathed new life back into this enquiry.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: What's your basis for saying "it's breathed new life"? Because, because my next question is, why the British police would succeed where the Portuguese police failed, given that at least the Portuguese had a fresh trail to try and follow.<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, I don't think it's so much where the Portuguese police failed. The investigation in the early days was complex, as these investigations are, but it was complicated by the fact that it covered such a vast geography. And none of us - you know, the British, the Portuguese, or others - were very good in those early days, because it's not something we do very often. And what happened because of that was that information would be held in different places, and perhaps shared in different ways. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">Now, with the Metropolitan Police and the level of competence that they have, and experience in these complex investigations, they bring something new to the table</span></strong>. I think there is a willingness within Portugal to have a look at anything the Metropolitan Police find that's fresh, and critically, what I believe the men are doing is <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">bringing together the disparate pieces of information</span></strong> that perhaps sat elsewhere in the UK or in Portugal, and, <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">for the first time, aggregating it in a way that all of that information can be interrogated at a single point.</span></strong><br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: What did you and your team highlight in your scoping study of the study, as areas for fresh attention?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, without going into too much detail, what we identified was that the information was all over the place. That the fact that a number of difference agencies had very enthusiastically and appropriately helped in their own ways, having itself created a difficulty because there was a lack of coherent leadership, I believe, at different times throughout the investigation - that's simply from the UK perspective. At the very beginning of this investigation, everybody, including myself and CEOP, rushed to help. And because we don't deal with this type of cases, thankfully, on a day-by-day basis, and we were learning as we went along, so I think there were little pots of information, and some big pots of information, that could have been dealt with better. So we identified that, recognised it. We also identified a number of other areas, and a number of other anomalies, where perhaps some of the other information that would have been available, and had been captured, but never properly interrogated. And as the Metropolitan Police are going through a live investigation now, I think it would probably be unhelpful of me to go into any greater detail on that.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Can you understanding why David Cameron did eventually reopen the case?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">Well, I'm glad you used the word "eventually</span></strong>". I am <span style="color: darkblue;"><strong>thrilled</strong> </span>that he, you know, prompted the new review by the Metropolitan Police, but the report which we put in, which highlighted all of the anomalies that are currently being discussed, and have been discussed for some time. That was on that government desk as they came in to power. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">The Home Secretary had it, and it's unfortunate that it took an open letter from Gerry McCann, on the front of a national newspaper, to prompt David Cameron to do this</span></strong>. But maybe he was unaware that the home secretary already had a report highlighting these issues, but it shouldn't take the plea of a parent in a desperate circumstance to get the Prime Minister to do the right thing. But now that he's done it, absolutely fantastic. With his backing behind it, I think it has more hope than it ever had before.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: What was your reaction to the book that came out from the former leader of the Portuguese investigation, particularly when essentially the finger was being pointed at the McCanns?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, first of all, I think it was <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">unprofessional</span></strong>, and secondly, I think it was unhelpful. The fact that this individual perpetrates a view that is clearly his - that the McCanns are guilty, or suggests that the McCanns are guilty of this offence - that's troublesome from a number of issues. That's an issue for a court to decide, and secondly, when a professional police officer, when someone with the access to information that that role would suggest that individual has, starts going down one specific line, it takes our eye off the broader picture. It stops being looking, because they believe, "Well, there's no point, we know who did it". Now, I'm aware of cases myself that I'll not go into in detail here, where because certain individuals have assumed that one person was guilty, the real person, the real culprit, when free for many, many more years than they actually should have, simply because everyone said, "Well, there's no point. We know who did it, we can't prove it, so let's carry on with our day jobs". I think what he's done is foolish.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Now, if I understand your position correctly, if you had been conducting an investigation like this, you'd have started with the parents and taken a very quick look and either established there was something suspicious, or you'd have ruled them out and moved on. Now, if I understand it correctly, the Portuguese were kind of the other way around. It took them some time to suddenly develop the view that the McCanns might have been suspicious.<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, I think that's a fair assessment. When we carried out the scoping review, in order to be fair, what we did was, we said, "Let's take a sleepy seaside town somewhere in the UK, and imagine that, you know, late in the evening, a couple had come to us who didn't speak English as their first language, and who were Portuguese and said, 'Look, our child has gone missing'". I think what we accepted immediately is we would have faced a complicated scenario similar to that which the Portuguese did. You're not sure whether the child has simply walked away or been taken away, and it does take a period of time to get that information together, so there were clearly difficulties, and we would all face those. In the immediate aftermath, the systematic approach is what is key, and certainly as professional detectives, we use the phrase "clear the ground beneath your feet". Look at that which is immediately in front of you first of all. <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">And the only difference between the Portuguese and myself would have been that the first suspects that I would have looked at would have been the parents.</span></strong><br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Given what you know about child abduction, if this was an abduction, what are the most likely possibilities?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, you can start from someone who has perhaps lost a child, the balance of their mind may be disturbed, and they take someone else's child to replace theirs - to meet an emotional need that they have. And then move to the sexual predator, who perhaps would target a child, engage that child, capture them and abuse them - and we've seen that happen around the world. And then you come to the point of the actual trafficker - someone that would perhaps target a particular child for sale into a specialist or particular market somewhere else around the world. And these things happen, and whilst we can look at the statistical analysis of the likelihood of children still being alive, alive after each of those scenarios, there is always the exception to the rule - <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">Jaycee Dugard is a good example of a child who was actually abducted and abused, and still alive today.</span></strong><br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: If Madeleine was the target of professional child traffickers, is it at all common, or is it unusual for somebody that young to be targeted?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">No, I don't think it's uncommon for someone that young to be targeted</span></strong>. But, I mean, in our experience, a Western child being targeted and abducted by child traffickers, is very, very rare, because the publicity that surrounds it is so massive. I mean, we often hear the argument, "Why so much attention for one little girl, when so many go missing?" It's a very complicated set of circumstances, missing children, but the kids that go missing because they've been abducted - abducted by someone other than a parent in a parental dispute - they're rare. That's why, if you come to the UK, we'll be able to talk about Holly and Jessica, we'll be able to talk about Milly Dowler, we'll be able to talk about Madeleine McCann - because those cases are so rare, they strike a chord with every parent, that you never ever forget the names of the children or the incident involved. So the cases are rare, but it's not unusual for traffickers to target particular children for particular clients.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Is there anything to suggest that this was the work of professional criminals?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Well, first of all, I'm not privy to information in the current investigation, so I really wouldn't be comfortable speculating about that.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: What do you think the odds are that we will ever know what has happened to Madeleine McCann?<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: I believe in my lifetime we will find out what happened to Madeleine McCann. I believe, in all of these cases, someone is looking over their shoulder somewhere. The person that did this knows, and they'll be concerned that other people around them might also know. And relationships change over a period of time, and if the person that did this ever watches your programme, ever watches this interview on YouTube or on the television, they need to know that someone suspects them somewhere, and it's only a matter of time until they come forward with that information, with that hint, with that degree of suspicion which will finally turn the spotlight on them. I believe we'll find out who did this, and I believe the person involved in it would be better coming forward now and doing the right thing. It's never too late for the person who did this to come forward and give Gerry and Kate the peace of knowing what has happened to their daughter.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Jim Gamble, thank you very much for talking with us.<br /><br />JIM GAMBLE: Thank you.<br /><br />KERRY O'BRIEN: Next week on Four Corners, a hard look in a new phenomenon in the Australian workforce that's come from the massive mining boom - the syndome of the fly in, fly out or drive in, drive out worker. We look at who's winning and who's losing. Join us then, but for now, goodnight.<br /><br /><strong>End of transcript</strong><br /><br /><strong>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</strong><br /><br /><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;">DISCUSSION:</span></span><br /><br />There is a huge amount to discuss within this short transcript (thank you 'friedtomatoes for posting the link) - and most of it concerns the role and agenda of Jim Gamble. I've highlighted a few points of interest in blue, but - running down tne interview in sequence - here are just a few issues brought up by this interview:<br /><br /><br />* The interviewer mentions the private investigations, but says nothing about the McCanns' two lead investigators in 2007 and 2008, Antonio Gimenez Raso and Kevein halligen, both having been in jail since 2009 <br /><br />* Did Andy Redwood express optimisim that he could 'crack the mystery'?<br /><br />* Jim Gamble says he would be 'shocked' if it ever it came out that the McCanns had anything to do with Madeleine's parents. That suggests a level of uncerrainty on his part, however small. In that case, why did he commit so energetically to promoting the McCanns' viral 'One Minute Video' and to promoting Dr Gerald McCann as a spokesman at conferences on child sexual abuse?<br /><br />* Gamble says he has 'been involved on the periphery of this case 'to a greater or lesser degree'. How can you be involved on the preiphery of a case 'to a great degree'? The more one looks at this, especially in the light of this interview, Gamble looks like he has been close to the heart of the Madeleine McCann case for the past 5 years <br /><br />* Gamble says: <span style="color: darkblue;"><strong>Jaycee Dugard turned up after many, many years, having been abducted from a bus stop near her home.</strong> </span><span style="color: black;">So she did - and Gamble mentions her <strong>twice</strong> in his short interview, because of course he can't think of any other examples. But Jyacee Dugard was an 11-year-old snatched - and seen to have been snatched - from a bus stop in broad daylight, not abducted from inside an apartment, asleep with two younger siblings, with no-one seeing or hearing anything apart form Jane Tanner, and with no forensic evidence left and iin a time-frame of only 3 minutes in between frequent checks</span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;">* Gamble says: <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">Now, with the Metropolitan Police and the level of competence that they have, and experience in these complex investigations, they bring something new to the table...</span><span style="color: darkblue;">bringing together the disparate pieces of information...and fo</span></strong><span style="color: darkblue;"><strong>r the first time, aggregating it in a way that all of that information can be interrogated at a single point. </strong></span></span><span style="color: black;">Notice first how Gamble virtually echoes idnetical words used by DCI Andy Redwood to explain why he thought he could succeed where everyone else failed...and on top of that he speaks of Redwood's men bringing 'a new level of competence...something new to the table'. So much for the Portuguese Police, then! </span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;">* Why of all people was Jim Gamble called in to do a 'scoping exercise'? What was it that made him so suitable for doing this? That also simply proves how close he is to the very heart of this case.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;">* Gamble says: <strong><span style="color: darkblue;">I'm glad you used the word they "eventually" set up a review...t</span></strong><strong><span style="color: darkblue;">he Home Secretary had it, and it's unfortunate that it took an open letter from Gerry McCann, on the front of a national newspaper, to prompt David Cameron to do this</span></strong>. Well, his bitterness towards Home Secretary Theresa May for dismissing him is coming across loud and clear here; the Home Secretary's decision to relieve him of his duties looks more and more like it was one of her better decisions. And, no, Mr Gamble, it wasn't an open letter from the McCanns that did the trick, it was Rebekah Brooks and her News International staff who threatened to 'put Theresa May on the front page every day for a week' that forced Cameron to give way. We have that on the authority of no fewer than five sources: two senior civil servants, the Panorama programme, the Leveson enquiry, and, last but not least, Rebekah Brooks herself. Except she used the word 'persuaded'. </span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Research by Tony Bennett</span></em><br />
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<a href="http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5065-new-interview-on-the-case-with-jim-gamble">http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5065-new-interview-on-the-case-with-jim-gamble</a></em></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>* The interviewer asks (a good question): "Is it unusual for somebody that young to be targeted?" Gamble replies: <span style="color: darkblue;"><strong>No, I don't think it's uncommon for someone that young to be targeted.</strong> </span><span style="color: black;">On the contrary, Gamble knows fine well that a child under 4 being abducted from inside a person's home by a stranger is such a rare event that no-ine can even name a broadly similar actual example - in fact the very nearest that Gamble can get is an 11-year-old taken at a bus stop in broad daylight. Neither are children under 4 'trafficked' - look at any major report on child trafficking </span></em></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-52832525559525890252012-05-20T07:57:00.002-07:002012-07-14T23:19:25.885-07:00MADDIE TAKEN IN DAD'S TENNIS BAG<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong>Daily Star<br />by Jerry Lawton<br />24 December 2007<br /><br />Vital holdall goes </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><span style="color: green;"><span $iceid="6" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD4">missing</span></span></u>A TENNIS bag that could have been used to move Madeleine McCann's body has gone missing, it was claimed last night.<br /><br />Dad Gerry was reportedly seen with the holdall as he took up to three tennis lessons a day on the ill-fated <span $iceid="12" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD10"><u><span style="color: green;">holiday</span></u></span> that ended with Maddie, four, <span $iceid="13" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD11"><u><span style="color: green;">vanishing</span></u></span>.<br /><br />But the blue sports bag has been lost, according to a shock new <span $iceid="7" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD5"><u><span style="color: green;">TV special</span></u></span> on the mystery that is gripping the world.<br /><br /><span $iceid="8" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD6"><u><span style="color: green;">Police</span></u></span> are <span $iceid="9" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD7"><u><span style="color: green;">desperate</span></u></span> to trace it to discover if it was used to carry the little girl's body.<br /><br />Sources say police believe Maddie died in an accident inside the McCanns' <span $iceid="5" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD3"><u><span style="color: green;">apartment</span></u></span> in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3.<br /><br />It is also reported that <span $iceid="14" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD12"><u><span style="color: green;">officers</span></u></span> accused her parents of disposing of her body to mask negligence and dodge a manslaughter rap. The McCanns, both 39, deny any involvement in the disappearance.<br /><br />According to The Madeleine McCann Mystery - a Sky News special on tonight at 7.30 - <span $iceid="4" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2"><u><span style="color: green;">the bag</span></u></span> is vital to the <span $iceid="11" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD9"><u><span style="color: green;">investigation</span></u></span>.<br /><br />But the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Gerry's baffled. He's never owned such a bag. There simply is no missing bag. They are entirely <span $iceid="10" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD8"><u><span style="color: green;">innocent</span></u></span>."</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-61384071756322248462012-05-19T16:02:00.003-07:002012-05-19T16:02:48.013-07:00Parents: We can prove we didn't sedate our children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daily Express<br />20 October 2007<br />David Pilditch in Praia da Luz<br /><br />SCIENTIFIC tests now support the denials by Gerry and Kate McCann that they ever sedated their children, it emerged yesterday.<br /><br />The development further undermines an essential plank in the case being prepared by the Portugese police.<br /><br />The development suggests other scientific and DNA test results will explain other disputed allegations against them.<br /><br />The tests were carried out on the couple's two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, as part of their defence case. It could reduce the likelihood of them being charged.<br /><br />Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to discuss the development, but added: "I am happy to confirm once again that <span $iceid="7" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD5"><u><span style="color: green;">Kate and</span></u></span> Gerry have never, ever, used sedatives on their children." Friends of the McCanns said they believe Portugese police are behind a smear campaign against them, which would account for recent claims that Gerry is not Madeleine's father, there were seven children in their apartment the night she vanished, and that they sedated their children. But Portuguese police admitted yesterday they made a crucial error.<br /><br />The night the child vanished, police allowed <span><span>K</span>ate and</span> Gerry to move to a nearby apartment, taking all their possessions. Yesterday a high-ranking police source said the move is likely to have led to vital <span $iceid="6" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD4"><u><span style="color: green;">evidence</span></u></span> being lost or destroyed.<br /><br /><span $iceid="14" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD12"><u><span style="color: green;">Reports</span></u></span> in Portugal said the McCanns were allowed to move to an apartment within the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz unchecked. The first flat was never formally searched by police, who have been criticised for making basic errors in the vital early hours after Madeleine's disappearance.<br /><br />The <span $iceid="5" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD3"><u><span style="color: green;">investigation</span></u></span> has gained new momentum following the <span $iceid="10" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD8"><u><span style="color: green;">appointment</span></u></span> of Paulo Rebelo, Portugal's second most senior policeman, to head the inquiry. He is continuing to treat Madeleine's parents as the chief suspects.<br /><br />An unnamed Policia Judiciaria source told Portuguese <span $iceid="8" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD6"><u><span style="color: green;">newspaper</span></u></span> 24 Horas: "It is obvious the house had to be sealed off but with everything inside and without it being touched. That's not <span $iceid="4" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2"><u><span style="color: green;">what happened</span></u></span>.<br /><br />" The report said: "The PJ let the McCanns 'clean' the apartment after Maddie's disappearance. The move could have been fatal to the <span><span>i</span>nvestigation</span> and, on top of it all, it was authorized by the PJ." Yesterday friends said the McCanns were dismayed at the <span $iceid="12" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD10"><u><span style="color: green;">prospect</span></u></span> that the police had given up looking for their daughter.<br /><br />One said: "<span><span>K</span>ate and</span> Gerry obviously want their arguido status lifted, but what they want most of all is for answers about <span><span>w</span>hat happened</span> to their daughter.<br /><br />"<span><span>K</span>ate and</span> Gerry did <span $iceid="3" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD1"><u><span style="color: green;">move apartments</span></u></span>. They took guidance from the police about what they could take with them. If the police are now saying the <span $iceid="11" class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD9"><u><span style="color: green;">crime scene</span></u></span> wasn't preserved properly then that is a matter for them." Yesterday 24 Horas reported one theory that British ex-pat Robert Murat could have helped the couple.<br /><br />Murat, 33, also denies being involved in Maddie's disappearance.<br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-83854972800814852752012-05-19T15:33:00.002-07:002012-05-19T15:33:18.909-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Come home soon sister: Amelie hugs Maddie’s favourite toy</h1>
Last updated at 13:55 19 May 2007<br />
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<!-- google_ad_section_start(name=s2) -->It is 16 days since Madeleine McCann was abducted as she slept in her bed and the toll is starting to show on her little sister Amelie.<br />
The two-year-old tot appeared close to tears as she hugged her sister's 'Cuddle Cut' soft toy during a walk with her Mum and Dad in Para de Luz yesterday.<br />
After a week of dramatic developments in the investigation into the four-year-old's disappearance, Portuguese police are keep a low profile.<br />
But there were reports that a girl matching Madeleine's description was seen in Morocco last week, while inconsistencies emerged in a key witness's accounts of his relationship with the only suspect in the case.<br />
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<img alt="amelie mccann" border="1" height="562" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/05_01/amelmccDM1805_468x562.jpg" width="468" /> Miss you Madeleine: Amelie McCann, two, with her sister's favourite toy Cuddle Cat</div>
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<li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=455885&in_page_id=1770&ct=5" icc="text_link" icl="article_text" ico="news_article"><strong>Sick web hijackers cash in on Madeleine</strong></a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=455458&in_page_id=1811" icc="text_link" icl="article_text" ico="news_article"><strong>Midnight phone call mystery in Madeleine investigation</strong></a> </li>
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Marie Olli, a Norwegian woman who lives in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol and once lived in Leicestershire, said she was "very sure" she saw the missing girl in Marrakech on May 9.<br />
While stopped at a petrol station she saw a "sad" young blonde girl who initially appeared to be standing on her own.<br />
Then an "anonymous-looking" man in his late 30s came over and the girl asked him: "Can I see mummy soon?"<br />
There was another sighting of a girl fitting Madeleine's description on the Greek island of Crete yesterday, the Portuguese paper Correio da Manha reported.<br />
A Swiss holiday maker alerted the local authorities after seeing a young girl with a man in a hotel in the town of Hersonissos, according to the paper. The report was investigated but turned out to be a false alarm.<br />
Another Portuguese paper, 24 Horas, reported that the size of the rewards on offer for information about Madeleine's disappearance - totalling more than £2.5 million - have hampered the police investigation.<br />
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<img alt="" border="1" height="311" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/05_01/FACupMaddiePA_468x311.jpg" width="468" /> A picture of Madeleine is shown on the big screen at the FA Cup Final</div>
More than 75 million people around the world have expressed their support for Madeleine's family by visiting their official website, www.findmadeleine.com.<br />
Tottenham Hotspur said the club's players had made a private donation to the "Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned" appeal.<br />
Player Robbie Keane said: "The lads all saw the news about the appeal on the television and thought straight away that we wanted to do our bit to help."<br />
Football fans have also been enlisted again in the search for Madeleine McCann. A film of the missing girl has been played at the FA Cup Final, while her picture has also been shown on Wembley Stadium's TV screens.<br />
The video clip, which has the soundtrack of the Simple Minds hit Don't You Forget About Me, was earlier screened at the Uefa Cup final between Sevilla and Espanyol in Glasgow on Wednesday.<br />
<br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456067/Come-home-soon-sister-Amelie-hugs-Maddie-s-favourite-toy.html#ixzz1vMEXSEFD" style="color: #003399;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456067/Come-home-soon-sister-Amelie-hugs-Maddie-s-favourite-toy.html#ixzz1vMEXSEFD</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-62100211903472410282012-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:002012-05-19T13:08:00.598-07:00Alan Johnson :From Diana to Britney, when a bodyguard gets too close the results are always explosive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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From Diana to Britney, when a bodyguard gets too close the results are always explosive</h1>
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By <a class="author" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Helen+Weathers" rel="nofollow">Helen Weathers</a><br /><span class="article-timestamp"><strong>UPDATED:</strong> 11:54 GMT, 22 January 2011 </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The relationship between bodyguard and the person protected treads a fine line at the best of times.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Long hours together, coupled with the stress of facing life-or-death situations; it is perhaps no surprise that such relationships – based on mutual trust – can so easily overstep professional boundaries.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">It will be of little comfort to Alan Johnson, but history is littered with such cases where ‘principals’ (as they are known) or their spouses become a little too close to their protection officers, according to Dai Davies, 59, former operational commander in charge of protection for the Royal Family.</span><br />
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Fine line: Mr Johnson's long hours as Shadow Chancellor may have left his wife Laura and the bodyguard the opportunity to start an affair - and it is not the first time it has happened</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">During his three years at the helm, there were occasions when officers were swiftly removed at the first whiff of overfamiliarity with their charges – although in his time none was ever alleged to have had an affair.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘Overfamiliarity has long been recognised as a risk and frankly this latest scandal doesn’t surprise me one iota,’ says Mr Davies, who retired from the post in 1998 and now works in the private sector.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘I have no doubt that Alan Johnson works incredibly long hours with this officer left looking after his wife. The opportunity was there and they took it.</span> <br />
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<li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349450/Alan-Johnsons-wifes-affair-bodyguard-Guard-faces-axe-confesses.html">Johnson affair guard faces axe: Minder confesses to liaisons with Shadow Chancellor's wife</a> </li>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘Inevitably you build up a relationship because you are together for such a long time and they are human beings. It takes two to tango but this is highly embarrassing for the Metropolitan Police. It is not acceptable for a protection officer to be doing the tango while allegedly on duty.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘It is one thing for a principal to become too close to the protection officer, but it is potentially far more explosive when it involves the principal’s wife. It destroys all trust, which is the key issue in the relationship between the officer and the person he protects.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘There are numerous examples of male and female protection officers going too far and unfortunately developing a personal relationship with the people they are employed to protect or other family members. Sometimes the boundaries become blurred. </span><br />
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Protection chief: Dai Davies says that it is not uncommon for the bodyguard and the person they are protecting to cross the line</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘Often both parties are very attractive people and the policemen may be reasonably handsome. When you are dealing with females in difficult and very traumatic cases, they look to you as the strong figure.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘It’s amazing how people react in stress and in areas where you are their rock. Even I, looking like a Welsh gnome, have had many offers from women over the years. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘I have never been tempted, but some are. So you have to be strong and turn them down, but that strength of character seems to be lacking these days in the Met. A moral laxity appears to have permeated from top to bottom and what we need now is a review.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘When Alan Johnson was Home Secretary he was the head of the police force and he has been humiliated by a constable. It doesn’t get any worse than that. It’s like a footman having an affair with one of the senior royals. It’s that kind of level.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Former Chief Superintendent Davies kept a close eye on the officers selected to become bodyguards.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Although during his tenure the royals were either a little too old or too young for the bodyguard/principal relationship to spill into something more romantic, this was something previous senior officers have had to contend with.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In 1980 Detective Sergeant Peter Cross, a married officer from Mitcham, South West London, was relieved of his royal protection duties a year after he was appointed amid suggestions that he had become ‘too close’ to Princess Anne.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Removed from the glamour of royal protection to a desk job in Croydon, in 1984 he sold his story to a red-top tabloid detailing how he and the princess had intimate meetings and would snuggle up on the sofa while watching TV at Gatcombe.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The Princess Royal has never commented on his claims.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Similarly royal protection officer Barry Mannakee, the late Princess Diana’s bodyguard, was in 1986 moved from his duties at Kensington Palace to the Diplomatic Corps amid rumours that they were ‘too close.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In 1987 Mannakee, a married officer with two children, was killed in a motorbike accident.</span><br />
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Close relationship: Barry Mannakee and Princess Diana formed a close bond until he was removed from his duties. The Princess believed that he was killed over their 'affair'</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In a 90-minute film – shot by her former voice coach Peter Settelen – Diana was reported to have confessed to an affair with Mannakee and sensationally claimed he had been killed as a result. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Talk of an affair was dismissed by Diana’s friends, who insisted she saw Mannakee as a ‘father figure’ and confidant during one of the most troubled periods of her life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Abroad, Princess Stephanie of Monaco married her former bodyguard Daniel Ducruet in 1995 after she bore two of his children. They parted company a year later.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Last year it was reported that South African president Jacob Zuma was battling a scandal involving his second wife, who it was claimed had become too close to her bodyguard.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Zuma’s office dismissed the claims that his wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, was allegedly pregnant by a member of his security team as part of a smear campaign.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">And there are many celebrities – including Britney Spears – who are rumoured to have been linked to their security staff, mirroring the 1993 Hollywood movie The Bodyguard starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.</span><br />
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<img alt="And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in the 1992 film 'The Bodyguard'" class="blkBorder" height="467" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/22/article-1349494-08B101A5000005DC-112_634x467.jpg" width="634" /> <div class="imageCaption">
'And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'... Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in the 1992 film 'The Bodyguard'</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Certainly, even without the potentially incendiary sexual attraction between bodyguard and principal, Dai Davies is only too aware that the job can go to some protection officers’ heads.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In Britain, only the top 10 per cent of street officers are recommended for protection duties by their superiors and they have to undergo a rigorous 12-week training course, on top of other courses including advanced driving and firearms, before being selected. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">They undergo intelligence and fitness tests, are assessed for diplomatic skills and the ability to assess and anticipate risks. They must also have first-aid skills close to those of a paramedic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘It is a highly competitive, highly sought after role,’ he says. ‘You go round the world and have to deal with ambassadors, heads of consulate, foreign police forces. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘They are going in at a fairly high level, so they have to be able to speak and articulate properly. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Generally, they are reasonably well educated and their ability to communicate is a key skill. You need to be warm and understanding, but you also have to lay the law down to your principal, and that requires strength of character. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘The divorce rate is very high in such departments because of the time you spend away from your family and the risk of becoming too close to not only the principal but their ladies-in-waiting, maids or servants.</span><br />
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<img alt="Wedding bells: Princess Stephanie of Monaco married her bodyguard in 1995 and had two children, but they split up a year later" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/22/article-1349494-0CDBBD90000005DC-847_306x423.jpg" width="306" /> </div>
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<img alt="Princess Anne was close to bodyguard Peter Cross" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/22/article-1349494-0CDBBD84000005DC-705_306x423.jpg" width="306" /> </div>
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Intimate meetings: Princess Stephanie of Monaco married her bodyguard in 1995 and they had two children, while Peter Cross had an alleged affair with Princess Anne in 1980 before he was relieved of his duties</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘That strength of character needs to be based on confidence in both your skills and what you are telling the principal, because that principal is putting their life in your hands. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘If assessment isn’t done properly, these people are in serious risk. This isn’t Mickey Mouse, this is real. They could die and the first person to die with you is your protection officer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘Most of the job isn’t physical, it’s mental ability to think ahead and to think the impossible and then think it again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘The job sounds hugely glamorous, but most of the time it can be boring. There are long stretches of time when you are away from your family. You can be stuck outside a room. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘That is something protection officers have to overcome and to compensate for that you </span><br /><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">get a very good allowance, thousands of pounds on top of basic pay.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘They get clothing allowance, travel allowance, they get to go to these fabulous locations, they fly business class, they get to stay in the best hotels. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘Sometimes the danger is that they forget who they are working for. They are working for the Commissioner, but I have known officers to almost think they are at the same </span><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">level as the person they are protecting. They start to adopt the mannerisms of the principal. They dress like the principal, speak like them and they sort of become minor clones.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘I remember one royal protection officer saying to me in a very posh accent, “I suppose you are the titular head”, which means in name only. </span><br />
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<img alt="Rumours: Singer Britney Spears is one of many celebrities who have alleged links to their security staff" class="blkBorder" height="534" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/22/article-1349494-00561BB900000258-356_634x534.jpg" width="634" /> <div class="imageCaption">
Rumours: Singer Britney Spears is one of many celebrities who have alleged links to their security staff</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘That was a big mistake because he soon found out I wasn’t a titular head at all.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Following the Alan Johnson incident, and PC Paul Rice’s admission of an affair with the politician’s wife, Dai Davies now believes there should be a thorough review and new rules introduced limiting the time an officer works in protection to between five and seven years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Any longer and he believes the relationship can become compromised. All royals, politicians and celebrities have their ‘favourites’ when it comes to bodyguards but the balance of that relationship can be thrown through familiarity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘In my mind it would remind all parties they are there to do a job, including the principal,’ says Mr Davies, ‘while allowing the officer to go back to normal duties and be refreshed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘I also think the Metropolitan Police now needs a little bit of ethical cleansing. There are some officers these days, some senior, who seem to think it </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">OK to misbehave but at the end of the day it is a disciplinary offence. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘I don’t know all the details of this case, but I doubt very much that this officer will be sacked although he probably won’t protect anyone else again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘This is bringing the service into disrepute. If you are in an official protection role, that gives you the same status as a medical professional to a point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">‘In my mind it does raise this ethical moral issue and whether certain moral standards should be applied in the 21st century. I happen to think they should, because it keeps people on the straight and narrow.’</span><br />
<br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349494/Alan-Johnsons-wifes-affair-Bodyguards-Diana-Britney-Spears.html#ixzz1vLdhGGoG" style="color: #003399;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349494/Alan-Johnsons-wifes-affair-Bodyguards-Diana-Britney-Spears.html#ixzz1vLdhGGoG</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-39716554376867758212012-05-18T14:57:00.005-07:002012-05-18T14:57:52.594-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Madeleine McCann investigator didn't listen to ANY tip-offs given to hotline - and squandered £500,000</h1>
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By <a class="author" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daniel+Boffey+In+Washington" rel="nofollow">Daniel Boffey In Washington</a><br />
<br /><span class="article-timestamp"><strong>UPDATED:</strong> 11:06 GMT, 29 August 2010 </span><br />
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Kevin Halligen, who claimed to have experience in the British secret services, was arrested last week in an Oxford hotel after an FBI manhunt over an unrelated £1.3million fraud case in America.<br />
His investigations company, Oakley International, was taken on in March last year by the Find Madeleine Fund and her parents Kate and Gerry McCann. <br />
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<img alt="Kevin Halligen with girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis in Washington" class="blkBorder" height="349" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/28/article-1231757-07630313000005DC-942_468x349.jpg" width="468" /> <div class="imageCaption">
Mystery man: Kevin Halligen, the private eye whose company was employed by the McCanns, pictured with girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis in Washington, where in one month he spent more than £3,000 on dining out</div>
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But The Mail on Sunday can reveal today that despite setting up a hotline for potential informants and witnesses, none of the hundreds of calls received by a call centre hired by Halligen, 48, was listened to by Oakley investigators - and Halligen also bragged to his colleagues that he had executed a series of peculiar tactics to find Madeleine.<br />
He claimed to have hired an actor to pretend to be a 'drunken priest' who would seek confessions as he toured the bars of Praia da Luz, the resort where Madeleine disappeared in May 2007.<br />
And he told colleagues that a family with a Madeleine lookalike daughter had been paid to set up home in a nearby resort in order to tempt out a potential kidnapper.<br />
Meanwhile, a paper trail obtained by The Mail on Sunday shows that Halligen, a former director of a catering firm, launched an extraordinary spending spree on hotels, cigar bars, restaurants and luxury goods while he was in the pay of the Find Madeleine Fund, and in the period shortly after he was fired last summer.<br />
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<img alt="Madeleine McCann" class="blkBorder" height="319" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/28/article-1231757-070EF652000005DC-148_233x319.jpg" width="233" /> <div class="imageCaption">
Missing: Madeleine McCann disappeared in May 2007</div>
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Documents show that in his first two months as lead investigator in the search for Madeleine, Halligen spent £7,000 on a personal chauffeur.<br />
A few months later, on a short trip to New York with a girlfriend, he lavished £1,600 on Salvatore Ferragamo leather goods, £5,500 on handbags, £500 on an Italian meal, £150 on a pair of designer glasses and £900 on a three-night stay at the five-star Renaissance Hotel. <br />
And in a one-month visit to Washington, where he owned a £1.5million mansion, he spent more than £3,000 on dining out and £6,000 on a room at the US capital's Intercontinental Hotel. <br />
He also paid out more than £50,000 on plumbing and mosaic tiling for his house in Great Falls, Virginia - a property in which he has never spent a night because of constant home-improvement work. <br />
The revelations will dismay everyone who donated to the Find Madeleine Fund. But perhaps of most concern is the lack of attention paid to the hundreds of phone calls received by the Madeleine hotline.<br />
Halligen and Oakley International, based in Washington, failed to listen to a single call received on the hotline set up for potential informants by Kate and Gerry McCann last year.<br />
Johan Selle, the director of operations at iJet, the US firm that managed the Find Madeleine phone line, revealed that for a year nobody even asked his company if they could listen to any of the calls received.<br />
Mr Selle said his operators, in Annapolis, Virginia, had answered 'hundreds of calls', but the information seemed wasted - possibly squandering valuable leads. <br />
He said: 'We delivered Oakley a report with a summary of the calls and said if they wanted to come back they could listen to the recording, but nobody did.<br />
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'For someone with an understanding of the case it would be very easy for some to say that maybe 80 or 90 per cent of the calls were hogwash, but there may be a percentage where one would say maybe we should listen to this one or listen to that one. But our understanding is that this never took place.<br />
'We are not sure whether Halligen provided our report to the family or to the trust or to those working with them or to the teams working after him, because no one came back to us.<br />
'We sent the report to Oakley group and our assumption was that they were using it as a piece in the puzzle. But it appears that wasn't the case.'<br />
The firm says it was not paid for it services by Halligen or Oakley International.<br />
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<img alt="Kevin Halligen being led away by a policeman in Oxford" class="blkBorder" height="567" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/28/article-1231757-0762E9C7000005DC-505_468x567.jpg" width="468" /> <div class="imageCaption">
Arrested: Kevin Halligen being led away by a policeman in Oxford</div>
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Two of Halligen's former colleagues in the investigation, John Taylor and Dr Richard Parton, said they became concerned early on in their working relationship with the self- styled 'super-spy'.<br />
Dr Parton, whose company Psyintel was employed for its expertise on interview techniques, said he and his partner had been encouraged by Halligen to get involved with the high-profile case. <br />
Halligen had also mentioned other future projects that could net them millions of pounds, although these schemes never came to fruition.<br />
But Dr Parton said fears over Halligen's suitability for the job first arose when the private detective suddenly asked him to stop calling him Richard, the name by which they had known him for several years. He then also raised details of Halligen's extraordinary tactics to find Madeleine.<br />
Dr Parton, who claims he was later left with an unpaid invoice for £50,000, said: 'It was very strange. I had met him years earlier and it had been Richard. Then before a meeting with some people who wanted a presentation on my techniques, I was asked to call him Kevin from then on. I thought it was odd but he was so secretive and that was just the way he was.<br />
'Whenever we had a meeting he would also always immediately say that he needed to leave for a flight. Every time. He would always also try to get the conversation around to talking about the psychological characteristics of a sociopath.'<br />
Dr Parton added: 'I repeatedly told him his investigators on the ground in Portugal were not doing a proper job but he insisted lots of things were going on I didn't know about.<br />
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'That is when he told me about some of his schemes, such as the drunken priest seeking confessions from people drinking in the bars of Praia da Luz and the family with a girl who looked similar to Madeleine. This family were set up, apparently, in a resort near to Praia da Luz just to sit and wait and see what happened.<br />
'It was all such a waste of money and time.'<br />
However, it was only later, when tape recordings of interviews undertaken in Praia da Luz were sent to Dr Parton and Mr Taylor, in Washington, that they started to fear the worst for the investigation. <br />
Mr Taylor said: 'The quality of the interviews was terrible, very amateurish. The noise in the background was bad, the interview questions were useless and the subjects were irrelevant. I told them to stop wasting time and money on such low-key figures - homeless people and receptionists who knew nothing.'<br />
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<img alt="Kevin Halligen's US identity card" class="img-no-border" height="382" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/28/article-1231757-07637063000005DC-462_233x382.jpg" width="233" /> <div class="imageCaption">
Kevin Halligen's US identity card</div>
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Things came to a head after Halligen reneged on repeated promises to pay their invoice. Dr Parton said: 'I took him to one side and asked when I was due to be paid. Three days later he disappeared. He had fled to Rome with his girlfriend.'<br />
It was then that Dr Parton and Mr Taylor started to contact others who had been hired by Oakley International. Mr Taylor added: 'He would hire lots of people to do work but only pay a few of them. Meanwhile, he was spending lots of money on his own lifestyle. It only gave the appearance that work was being done.'<br />
They also contacted Maria Dybczak, a trade lawyer for the US Commerce Department, whom they understood to be Halligen's wife. It emerged she had agreed to go along with a fake wedding service to keep up appearances for Halligen.<br />
Dr Parton said: 'She admitted she wasn't proud of it but she had been tricked, too. He claimed that a job he was doing with the CIA meant that he couldn't have his name on a marriage certificate.<br />
'She was manipulated into going along with a fake wedding with an actor posing as a priest. He said they would get properly married a few weeks later, but that never happened.'<br />
Shortly afterwards Halligen fled to Rome with a girlfriend, named in a writ filed by another former colleague as Shirin Trachiotis, a glamorous doctor based in Washington. <br />
Almost immediately after arriving in Rome on their first-class Lufthansa tickets, Halligen withdrew hundreds of thousands of pounds more from Oakley International's bank accounts and spent £8,000 on a luxury hotel before slinking back to the UK a few months later.<br />
Dr Parton said: 'He has left a trail of debts across America and the UK. But the horrible truth is that he stole from the McCanns what they really couldn't afford - time.'<br />
Following a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court last week, Halligen was refused bail and was remanded in custody until December 2, when the next stage of his case for extradition will be heard.<br />
The US Department of Justice issued an indictment for Halligen, from Surrey, earlier this month alleging that he tried to defraud a London law firm.<br />
They claim he took £1.3million as part of a deal to secure the release of Dutch business executives arrested in the Ivory Coast. Instead, it is claimed, he spent it on a mansion, a gift to his girlfriend, cash machine withdrawals and debit-card transactions.<br />
Kate and Gerry McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to be drawn on the details of Oakley's investigation, much of which, it is understood, the McCanns were unaware of. He said: 'The first phase of the contract was satisfactorily seen through, such as the setting up of the hotline. Towards the end of it there were question marks about delivery and the relationship was terminated. <br />
'Given Mr Halligen is in custody it is inappropriate to comment further.'<br />
<br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231757/Madeleine-McCann-investigator-didnt-listen-ANY-tip-offs-given-hotline--squandered-500-000.html#ixzz1vGErMzGq" style="color: #003399;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231757/Madeleine-McCann-investigator-didnt-listen-ANY-tip-offs-given-hotline--squandered-500-000.html#ixzz1vGErMzGq</a></like>A private eye whose company was paid £500,000 from a public fund to find Madeleine McCann squandered the money on a series of bizarre schemes that had no chance of locating the missing child.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-73486152586193751752012-05-18T00:48:00.005-07:002012-05-18T00:51:52.727-07:00Paulo Reis : My Opinion About Gerry & Kate McCann<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://gazetadigitalmadeleineandthemedia.blogspot.com.es/2007/06/my-opinion-about-gerry-and-kate-mccann.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://gazetadigitalmadeleineandthemedia.blogspot.com.es/2007/06/my-opinion-about-gerry-and-kate-mccann.html</span></a><br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/pjreis">https://twitter.com/#!/pjreis</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-8511535730729117102012-05-18T00:24:00.001-07:002012-05-18T00:24:07.977-07:00McCann v Bennett<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t4971-the-full-reasons-mccanns-v-bennett-was-adjourned#108103">http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t4971-the-full-reasons-mccanns-v-bennett-was-adjourned#108103</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-59480962008881236242012-05-18T00:21:00.001-07:002012-05-18T00:21:12.685-07:00Scotland Yard Freemason Cops<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t2951-scotland-yard-freemason-cops-cover-up-deaths-of-innocent-citizens">http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t2951-scotland-yard-freemason-cops-cover-up-deaths-of-innocent-citizens</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-1910844599287164872012-05-18T00:19:00.001-07:002012-05-18T00:19:44.055-07:00Brian Kennedy : Public Request For Money.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jsLkwa7cc&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jsLkwa7cc&feature=player_embedded</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-31809041527677183202012-05-18T00:15:00.001-07:002012-05-18T00:15:41.071-07:00Behind Closed Doors - McCann Foreign Policy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.ukdebate.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=18276.0">http://www.ukdebate.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=18276.0</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-18994164293284995942012-05-18T00:13:00.002-07:002012-05-18T00:13:54.747-07:00Parents Did Not Register Maddie At Birth.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2011/05/parents-did-not-register-maddie-at.html">http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2011/05/parents-did-not-register-maddie-at.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-40745848682465388842012-05-17T23:59:00.001-07:002012-05-17T23:59:13.643-07:00News Of The World EXCLUSIVE TO Ap. 5A ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://justice4mccannfam.5forum.biz/t68-first-photos-and-video-link-from-inside-mccann-s-holiday-apt-5a">http://justice4mccannfam.5forum.biz/t68-first-photos-and-video-link-from-inside-mccann-s-holiday-apt-5a</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-54116694297683734352012-05-17T23:55:00.001-07:002012-05-17T23:57:34.089-07:00Madeleine McCann : PLYMOUTH - Something Fishy.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=madeleine+mccann+and+plymouth&pbx=1&oq=madeleine+mccann+and+plymouth&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2390l9515l0l10078l31l21l1l0l0l1l1281l7034l0.6.2.1.1.0.3.2l16l0&fp=1&biw=1152&bih=634&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&cad=b">https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=madeleine+mccann+and+plymouth&pbx=1&oq=madeleine+mccann+and+plymouth&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2390l9515l0l10078l31l21l1l0l0l1l1281l7034l0.6.2.1.1.0.3.2l16l0&fp=1&biw=1152&bih=634&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&cad=b</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cosmicchronicle.com/2011/05/something-fishy-madeleine-mccann-and.html"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.cosmicchronicle.com/2011/05/something-fishy-madeleine-mccann-and.html</span></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-73450818648620144612012-05-17T23:54:00.001-07:002012-05-17T23:54:36.423-07:00The EXETER Connection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/t19121-the-exeter-cheshire-connections-and-other-coincidences">http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/t19121-the-exeter-cheshire-connections-and-other-coincidences</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-89079667156486782432012-05-17T23:53:00.001-07:002012-05-17T23:53:11.142-07:00McCann Related Libel Actions.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/t18887-mccann-related-libel-actions">http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/t18887-mccann-related-libel-actions</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-61211690941233829802012-05-17T23:51:00.002-07:002012-05-17T23:51:54.099-07:00Brian Kennedy & Robert Murat - The Madeleine Foundation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Why in heaven's name did <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>, the multi-millionaire double glazing magnate who out of the goodness of his bountiful heart poured his energies and money into helping to find Madeleine (e.g. by appointing Metodo 3 and Kevin Halligen to help find her), take his lawyer, Freemason Edward Smethurst, to meet with the leading suspect in the case, Robert Murat, who was suspected of abducting or killing Madeleine. And why was Robert Murat's lawyer there?<br /><br />Were they all on a mission to find Madeleine?<br /><br />Or were they and their lawyers sorting out something very different and striking up some sort of deal, or even a contract?<br /><br />Some of the answers maybe in Chapter N of our 120-page article on Robert Murat [ www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk/Articles/ ]. <br /><br />Here it is: <br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;">N. Robert Murat’s meeting with <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> in </span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Portugal, 13 November 2007</span></span></strong><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">We’ll now move right away from the events of early May 2007 and look at two meetings that were probably of great significance in this case that took place in Portugal in November 2007. One was between Robert Murat and <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>, the multi-millionaire double glazing magnate who has effectively bankrolled the various private investigations which were supposed to be about finding Madeleine. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Others were also present at this meeting. He was also, as was made clear in John Whitehouse’s article on our website, the man who was at the centre of these intelligence operations, running them from a house believed to be in Knutsford, appointing the staff and directing them. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">We now know that <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> flew out in November 2007, about three weeks after this ’phone call, together with his in-house lawyer from the Latium Group, Edward Smethurst. This, briefly, is the Portuguese Police’s account of a meeting between them, Metodo 3, <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> and Edward Smethurst. The date of it was probably arranged during or soon after the ’phone call of 19 October:</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">QUOTE</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“We held a meeting on 13 November, with Inspectors Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Paiva present, with <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>, Director of the detective agency, Francisco Marco and one of his advisers, plus Antonio Jimenez, ex-chief of the Kidnapping Unit of Catalonia [Note: Other information suggests that Edward Smethurst was also present]. </span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> insisted that his motives were purely charitable, aimed at finding the truth, and generally helping missing children. He said he was interested in discovering the truth even if the McCann family, the friends, or any other person is found to be involved in the disappearance”.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">UNQUOTE</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>’s involvement in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been controversial. An article by Mark Hollingsworth in the <i>Evening Standard </i>in August 2009 claimed that “The involvement of <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police [in Portugal] for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour ‘stake out’.” </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The ‘Evening Standard’ article also showed that, later, the relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had ‘completely broken down’. Hollingsworth claimed that key witnesses were questioned ‘far too aggressively’ by <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>’s investigators, so much so that ‘some of them later refused to talk to the police’. Interference with witnesses to that extent could amount to a criminal offence. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">We are not aware that any other nation allows people to interfere with potential witnesses in an investigation in such a way as to cause them to refuse to testify, as Mark Hollingsworth in his article claimed had happened in this case, due to <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>’s investigators. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">It was Francisco Pagarete, Mr Murat’s Portuguese lawyer - the one whom he was so anxious to see when he flew out to Praia da Luz on 1 May - who confirmed that a second meeting involving <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> took place at Mr Murat’s uncle’s house in the Algarve in November. He told the BBC: “[<b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>] came here to give his support to Robert and to say he doesn’t believe Robert was involved in this story in any way or sense. And he asked if Robert could help the investigation for the finding of Madeleine in any way”. Mr Pagarete added that Mr <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> had ‘promised to stay in touch with Mr Murat’ but ‘had not contacted him since’. Mr Pagarete also confirmed that Edward Smethurst was at the meeting. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Portuguese paper <i>Jornal de Notícias</i> appeared to have some additional information about this meeting. Their report, early in 2008, said: “The meeting - a dinner that <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> asked to be discreet and far away from the eyes of the press - took place in the end of last year at a house of Murat's relatives in Burgau (Vila do Bispo). At the dinner were Robert Murat and <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>, their respective lawyers, Jennifer Murat and the aunt and uncle of Murat” [NOTE: This appears in fact to have been Ralph Eveleigh, Murat’s uncle, and Sally Eveleigh, his cousin]. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">If Murat and <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> each had one lawyer with them - Pagarete and Smethurst - that makes seven people present at that dinner in Burgau: Murat and his mother, his uncle Ralph and cousin Sally Eveleigh, who ran the 8-room guest house at Vila do Bispo, two lawyers and <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">What was discussed at this meeting that <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> didn’t want the press to know about?</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This evening meeting was either on the same day, or very close to, the meeting that <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> had with the Portuguese Police on 13 November 2007 that we referred to above. The two Portuguese Police Inspectors, Ferreira and Paiva, later submitted an account of their strange meeting with <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The report, which is amongst the documents contained in the police files, indicates that right at the start of the meeting, <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> was keen to stress that his intentions were ‘purely charitable’, because he felt ‘concerned about cases of child neglect and child abduction’. The Director of Metodo 3, Francisco Marco, presented information to the PJ about three situations, allegedly received via their ‘hotline’. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The first of these concerned an incident that the British media had already referred to, at the end of October 2007: a woman who had been baby-sitting at the Ocean Club, in Apartment 5A in August/September 2006, said she spotted a man ‘hidden in the shadows’, the same day that Madeleine disappeared. A story about this had surfaced in the <i>Sun</i> on October 31.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">According to the newspaper, “The nanny - identified only as M.H. - reported the frightening incident to the police in England after the hunt for Madeleine started in May, but did not speak to the police in Portugal”. Clarence Mitchell added that: “This evidence supports what we have always said, that Maddie was taken from her bed by an abductor”. The Portuguese Police had however ruled out this report, because the detectives considered that there was no proof that it was in any way related to Madeleine's disappearance. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The second piece of information was about the alleged existence of images of paedophilia on a computer at the home of Sergei Malinka, witnessed by the fiancé of a British woman, four years ago, when he was at Malinka's house. According to this witness, he questioned Malinka on the subject and he explained that the computer belonged to a client and that he would report it later to the authorities. All of the computers at Malinka's house were seized and examined, but the Portuguese Police report said that nothing of any relevance or suspicion was found. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The third piece of information referred to a detailed witness statement, according to the Metodo 3 report, about a woman handing what the witness was convinced was a child, wrapped in a blanket or a sheet, over a fence to a man, next to two parked vehicles, near a town 100 miles from the Algarve. The witness, a Portuguese lorry driver, M.G., looked at several photos and picked out Michaela Walczuk [Robert Murat’s girlfriend, now his wife], saying that her picture was the one that most resembled the woman he had seen.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The British media published a version of this story on 19 November 2007, but with different details. The <i>METRO</i> free paper boldly wrote: “A witness spotted Murat's German girlfriend, Michaela Walczuch, in a car with Maddie, on 5 May, in central Portugal”. On the same day, the <i>Daily Mail</i> published a similar story: “According to a source, a new witness identified Michaela Walczuch as the woman seen with the missing child, in central Portugal, 160 kilometres [100 miles] from where she disappeared on May 3<sup><span style="font-size: small;">rd</span></sup>”.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">As usual, Clarence Mitchell had a few things to say to the media: “We are not going to comment on any line of the investigation except to say that we are encouraged by the fact that our investigators seem to be making progress. Kate and Gerry are not ruling out any possibility”.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Portuguese Police studied this incident and questioned the Portuguese lorry driver, but the facts that he described to the police were somewhat different to those reported in the British press. The lorry driver said he saw a woman handing something to a man, over a fence, wrapped in what looked like a blanket. It wasn't heavy, because they did it easily and the fence was around 1.6 metres high (5 feet). Asked if it could have been the body of a child, he responded that nothing he had seen would indicate that.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Questioned also about the positive identification of Michaela Walczuk, according to Metodo 3's report, the witness told the Portuguese Police that he couldn't see the woman's face, because he was driving his lorry at 45/50 mph, and the couple were at some distance. He only chose Michaela's photo from amongst the others Metodo 3 had shown him because she had the same hair colour and similar build.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The actual facts which emerged from the lorry driver, then, did not seem anywhere near sufficient to justify the press headlines claiming that he had positively identified Murat and his girlfriend.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black;">ENDS </span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The other meeting was between <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>, the Portuguese Police, and the Spanish private detective agency recently chosen by <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b> and the McCanns: Metodo 3. This took place in police headquarters in Portimao. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">A report from the Portuguese Police referring to a ’phone call on 19 October, gives us some background; here it is:</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;">On the 19th of October, we were contacted by Alberto Carbas, Chief of the Kidnapping Unit of the Commissary-General, based in Madrid, who passed to us the information that the McCann family had contracted a Spanish private detective agency known as ‘Metodo 3’. The costs of their investigation into Madeleine McCann were being covered by a Scottish multi-millionaire whose name is <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>. His objective was to find Madeleine.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“We were asked if we were available and interested in meeting with a representative of Metodo 3 and the Spanish Commissary General and Chief of the Kidnapping Unit of the Police in Spain. The purpose of this proposed meeting, they said, was to find out the truth, but they stated that they would not interfere in police work. At most, they said, they would ‘complement’ our investigation. They firmly stated that they are <i>not</i> working directly for the McCann family, but for <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Brian</b> <b class="coloradmin" style="color: #737ec4;">Kennedy</b>. They didn’t ask for any information regarding the investigation, nor was any offered to them, for obvious reasons”. </span></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-72373336031659667222012-05-17T23:50:00.002-07:002012-05-17T23:50:23.243-07:00The McCanns, Clarence Mitchell, Rupert Murdoch and the General Election result<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An article by The Madeleine Foundation - 15 April 2010</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A General Election will be held in three weeks’ time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1997, when Tony Blair was elected in triumph to the post of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the <em>Sun</em> claimed, with no little justification: ‘It was the <em>Sun </em>wot won it’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <em>Sun</em> had switched sides a couple of years beforehand, backing Labour to win the election, and had proactively campaigned on their behalf through its news coverage and editorials. Richard Branson jumped on the bandwagon that night and just ‘dropped in’ on the Labour Party celebrations early in the morning, thus beginning over a decade of close co-operation between him and New Labour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <em>Sun</em> is owned by Rupert Murdoch. So is the <em>Times</em>, the <em>Sunday Times</em> and the <em>News of the World</em>, all part of his<em> News International </em>and<em> News Corporation </em>empires<em>. </em>He owns <em>BSkyB</em> and <em>Sky News</em>. He has many other media interests, including <em>Fox News</em> in the United States. In 1993, Murdoch acquired <em>Star TV</em>, now worth billions, and one of the biggest satellite TV networks in Asia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34% stake in <em>Hughes Electronics</em>, operator of the largest American satellite TV system, <em>DirectTV</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He added <em>Intermix Media Inc</em>. to his interests in 2005. They operate <em>MySpace</em> and other popular social networking websites. Months later he acquired IGN Entertainment for £500 million. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is, arguably, the most powerful media figure in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why was it that in 2008, Conservative Party Leader David Cameron met Rupert Murdoch on his private yacht in the Mediterranean?<br />It emerged that Cameron had accepted free flights to hold </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-murdoch-and-a-greek-island-freebie-971470.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">private talks with Rupert Murdoch</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> on his luxury yacht, <em>Rosehearty</em>, off the Greek island, Santorini. Cameron, however, failed to reveal his talks with Mr Murdoch in the House of Commons register of interests, merely declaring that on 16 August 2008, he and his family had accepted free flights provided by Matthew Freud. <br />His entry actually read: “16 August 2008, private plane from Farnborough to Istanbul for my wife and two children. Then from Istanbul to Santorini, and return to Dalaman, for myself, my wife and two children; provided by Matthew Freud, of London”.<br />Cameron had been on a brief visit to Georgia at the time and met his wife in Istanbul. So far as we are aware, Mr Cameron has never discussed what he talked about with Rupert Murdoch. Mr Cameron has not broken Commons rules by not revealing the fact that he spoke to Rupert Murdoch and not disclosing anything about his talks with him. Cameron talks the talk of ‘democracy’ and ‘transparency’ etc., but he does not walk the walk. He has kept silent about what the two men discussed.<br />The <em>Sun</em> switched its support from Labour to Conservative on 30 September 2009, about a year after the yacht meeting with Murdoch. Here’s how the <em>Sun</em> triumphantly reported the reaction to this the following day:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LABOUR'S high command chumps got the hump with The <em>Sun</em> yesterday when we ditched them after 12 years. Angry Gordon Brown led the moaning with a grumpy performance on TV. The Prime Minister lost his temper during an interview that was being broadcast live on Sky News. He tried to walk off the set with his microphone still attached after a grilling by political anchorman Adam Boulton.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Mr Brown's sidekick Lord Mandelson jokingly accused Britain's biggest newspaper of being ‘chumps’ after we threw our weight behind the Tories. <em>The PM was joined by a succession of Cabinet ministers lining up to shrug off our move.</em><br /><br />Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman took a swipe at The <em>Sun</em>'s Page 3 girls. She opened a debate at the party conference in Brighton by saying she was speaking about ‘something The <em>Sun</em> knows absolutely nothing about - equality’. Ms Harman went on: “Let's face it, the nearest their political analysis gets to women's rights is Page 3's News in Briefs”. Then she told delegates: “We may be the underdog but we won't be bullied. This underdog is biting back”.<br /><br />Mr Brown then told TV stations: “It's the British people that decide the election, it's the British people's views that I am interested in. I think <em>Sun</em> readers actually, when they look at what I say, they will agree with what I said”. Mr Brown's bad-tempered Sky News questioning showed the fury felt at the highest level at Labour's annual rally. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He repeatedly tried to talk about the economic slump but faced questions, instead, about The <em>Sun</em>'s withdrawal of support. <em>At the end of the interview he looked daggers at Mr Boulton before heading off - still tangled in the broadcasting gear. </em>In his eagerness to depart he forgot he was due to have a second interview with the BBC's Sian Williams in the same chair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock was also peeved that The Sun had lost faith in Labour but tried to dismiss it. He said: "The Pope's a Catholic. That's how much surprise it gave me. "It's been obvious for a long, long time that they've been edging and edging." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was not a very difficult decision for the <em>Sun</em> to make. At the time the Conservatives were running at between 15% and 20% ahead in the polls.<br />So who was the Matthew Freud who laid on his private plane for Mr Cameron? He’s the owner and boss of one of Europe’s leading media relations and communications companies, Freud Communications, based in London. But of much greater significance, he’s married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elisabeth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, who is Clarence Mitchell and where does he fit into this picture? The answer: <em>right in the middle</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2005, Mitchell was made Director of the 40-strong Media Monitoring Unit in the Central Office of Information. In an interview with the newspaper <em>Espresso</em> published on 29 September 2007, he boasted that his role there was to ‘control what comes out in the media’. He was right at the heart of the Labour government’s formidable public relations machine; one of their chief ‘spinners’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A year after his <em>Espresso</em> interview, Mitchell was employed by Matthew Freud of Freud Communications in an undisclosed capacity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And on 4 March this year, Conservative Leader David Cameron appointed him as second-in-command to his chief media relations and communications adviser, formerly <em>News of the World</em> Editor, Andy Coulson. Cameron, Coulson and Mitchell therefore constituted a veritable clique of Murdoch contacts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, we may get a Conservative government on 7 May. If so, political control of the country will pass from Labour to Conservative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Murdoch will still control a huge media empire. And Clarence Mitchell, who has been close to Matthew Freud and Rupert Murdoch for the past 18 months, may well be at the heart of the Conservatives’ new media manipulation team, just as he was for Tony Blair.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what is the connection with the McCanns and the fate of their daughter Madeleine? Simply this: that on 7 May 2007, just four days after Madeleine was reported missing, Mitchell was appointed the McCanns’ chief public relations adviser in what was to become one of the biggest international media stories of the past three years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why it was necessary for him to be transferred to the Foreign Office in May and fly out to Praia da Luz on 22 May is not known. He soon dominated media stories about the McCanns, setting up media-friendly interviews for them, shielding them from awkward questions, and so on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many others flew out there to ‘help’ - ostensibly to look for a missing child: three staff of Leicestershire Police, staff from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), and the National Police Intelligence Service and possibly MI5 as well - they were certainly involved at a later stage. Then there were at least two staff from the private intelligence agency Control Risks Group and two more staff from the ‘crisis counselling’ agency, the Centre for Crisis Psychology, plus staff of the British Embassy in Portugal and the Foreign Office. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Director of Mark Warner, managers of the Ocean Club where Madeleine went missing, flew straightaway to Praia da Luz, and with him went the Head of Crisis Management at leading communications and media relations firm Bell Pottinger, Alex Woolfall. Just why so many important people rushed out to Praia da Luz remains very unclear. Perhaps if we all knew why they did so, we would be closer to unravelling what Mitchell himself, on 19 February this year, called ‘a complete mystery’.<br /> <br />So we have Mitchell safely in position under David Cameron, the Conservatives a comfortable 7% to 8% ahead in the opinion polls, and Mitchell still on a retainer to advise and represent the McCanns in their public relations. Therefore there seems to be of little prospect that, if the Conservatives do get elected to government, there will be any change in the government’s position regarding the mystery of missing Madeleine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is doubtful if we shall see any serious effort by a Conservative government to try to get to the bottom of what really happened to Madeleine McCann. The promised ‘re-investigation’ of Madeleine’s disappearance, as recommended by CEOP Chief Executive Jim Gamble, will probably start, its hand tied behind its back from the outset by being limited to only exploring the possibility of Madeleine having been abducted, and not other possibilities. No doubt a Conservative government would continue to refuse, as Labour has done, demands for a public enquiry into the whole affair, or even a public inquest with all the material witnesses called to give evidence on oath.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Murdoch and Mitchell, between them, will have Cameron under their control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Main source: <em>Daily Mail</em>:</span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080179/Cameron-took-free-flights-Greece-meet-Rupert-Murdoch-luxury-yacht.html"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080179/Cameron-took-free-flights-Greece-meet-Rupert-Murdoch-luxury-yacht.html</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Article filed 15 April 2010</span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-71564657248515093972012-05-17T13:55:00.001-07:002012-05-17T13:55:04.721-07:00Blood found in McCanns' hire car 'DID come from Madeleine'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Last updated at 22:46 08 January 2008<br />
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<!-- google_ad_section_start(name=s2) -->Traces of blood found in Gerry and Kate McCanns' hire car and holiday flat DID belong to Madeleine, it has been claimed.<br />
It reflects detectives' belief that she is dead and her parents disposed of her body.<br />
Tests carried out at a UK laboratory confirmed beyond doubt that the blood was that of the toddler, a Portuguese newspaper reported.<br />
The McCanns have always insisted there were innocent explanations for the traces found behind the sofa at the Ocean club apartment in Praia da Luz and in the boot of the Renault Scenic they hired there 25 days after Madeleine vanished on May 3.<br />
They have had independent DNA tests on the car which they say revealed no trace of Madeleine and are understood to be distressed by the reports which they categorically deny.<br />
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<img alt="" border="1" height="283" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09_02/mccanncarDM0909_468x283.jpg" width="468" /> Hire car: Kate and Gerry McCann maintain that they are innocent</div>
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<strong>Read more...</strong> <br /><ul>
<li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506598&in_page_id=1770" icc="text_link" icl="article_text" ico="news_article"><strong>Madeleine witnesses 'may have mistaken this friend of the McCanns for Murat' on night she disappeared</strong></a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506889&in_page_id=1770" icc="text_link" icl="article_text" ico="news_article"><strong>Madeleine: Portuguese prosecutors seek to re-interview Tapas Nine</strong></a> </li>
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They claim that the DNA could be linked to Madeleine's siblings, two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.<br />
But the respected Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reported yesterday: "The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria.<br />
"The blood found in the McCanns' car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat."<br />
Detectives in Portugal asked British scientists to carry out new tests after initial ones by the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham proved inconclusive.<br />
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<img alt="" border="1" height="396" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/madeleineG_228x396.jpg" width="228" /> Missing: Madeleine McCann</div>
It is understood that they are using a new technique called low copy number analysis, which allows them to find a genetic fingerprint from a tiny sample.<br />
The samples from the flat and the hire car were said to be damaged and of low quality, but police sources now claim the latest results are definitive.<br />
Portuguese detectives plan to travel to Britain in the coming weeks to reinterview the McCanns and the friends they were dining with at a tapas restaurant on the night Madeleine vanished.<br />
Yesterday Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner were named as the two friends reported last year to have told police they wanted to change their account of that evening.<br />
Ms Tanner, 37, from Exeter, says she saw a mystery man carrying a child away from the flat at 9.15pm on the night Madeleine vanished.<br />
Police were said to believe Dr O'Brien, 36, wanted to change his statement to claim he also saw the man, newspaper 24 Horas reported.<br />
But staff at the restaurant say Ms Tanner was at the table througout the meal and only left after Kate came running in shouting, "They've taken her", the newspaper reported.<br />
Dr O'Brien and Ms Tanner have denied contacting police to change their stories and sources close to the McCanns support that posistion.<br />
Portuguese police believe Madeleine died in an accident and that Kate and Gerry conspired with their friends to dispose of the body.<br />
Police sources claim the couple could be charged with manslaughter as well as hiding a body and wasting police time.<br />
Kate and Gerry deny involvement in their daughter's disappearance.<br />
They have had independent DNA tests on the car which they say revealed no trace of Madeleine.<br />
Last night, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "These reports are very distressing for Kate and Gerry - they are depressed that again wild rumour and speculation is being presented as fact.<br />
"We wish Portuguese police would just get on with their investigation, come over to England and carry out the interviews with Kate and Gerry and their friends. All those interviews will prove, yet again, that Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide.<br />
"As for the supposed DNA testing, we cannot comment on yet more unsubstantiated rampant speculation in the Portuguese press.<br />
"It is ridiculous to suggest that Madeleine's blood was in the their car because she was never in it.<br />
"It was hired more than 20 days after she went missing, which means it was impossible for her to have ever been in it.<br />
"Kate and Gerry were in no way involved in her death. Nor were they involved in disposing of her body.<br />
"To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. This report is flying in the face of all other articles which reported that the DNA and forensic tests were inconclusive.<br />
"If there had been anything found, I would have thought there would have been more urgent activity on behalf of the Portuguese police than there has been.<br />
"We have been waiting months now for them to come to England to carry out their re-interviewing.<br />
"Anything the police feel may give them cause for concern can be wholly and innocently explained.<br />
"But until we actually see the official FSS report, we have no idea what it contains, and I suggest the Portuguese press don't either."<br />
<br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506725/Blood-McCanns-hire-car-DID-come-Madeleine.html#ixzz1vA8ibVJX" style="color: #003399;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506725/Blood-McCanns-hire-car-DID-come-Madeleine.html#ixzz1vA8ibVJX</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-55792934442362083872012-05-16T10:28:00.002-07:002012-05-16T10:28:18.589-07:00Paulo Reis:Gerry McCann, speaking on June 3rd, 2007: "Later this year (...)"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span><span style="color: #222222;">Tuesday, 15 December 2009</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">LET'S HOLD A MADELEINE DAY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD<br /><br />Sunday June 3,2007<br />By Jason Groves<br />Daily Express</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><br />ROCK legend Sir Elton John is being lined up to front a global pop concert, to carry the message of missing Madeleine McCann’s plight to every corner of the earth.<br />It is hoped the singer will headline <strong>a huge series of worldwide events to mark a special Madeleine Day</strong> that her distraught parents are planning in the effort to find the vanished four-year-old. Sir Elton’s popular appeal is guaranteed to attract a swarm of other film and music superstars keen to offer support to parents Gerry and Kate McCann.<br /><strong>The couple</strong>, having <strong>promised not to return home until they are reunited with Madeleine</strong>, are now planning a series of visits to European and North African cities, to distribute posters and widen the appeal for information.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;">Sir Elton has played an emotional DVD of Madeline at his concerts, but now believes a larger effort would do more to raise awareness of her predicament.<br />Gerry McCann, 38, said: “One of the ideas is maybe getting all the people who have publicly supported us to come together. I don’t just mean from the UK but from different parts of the world. <strong>We want a big event to raise awareness that she is still missing</strong>.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;">“We would look at high-profile people who have already pledged support. <strong>It will be some sort of focus around an anniversary</strong>, to tell people thatMadeleine ’s still missing. <strong>I think it would be later this year, once media attention has dropped</strong>, to bring it back up, hopefully, for a short period.<br />“<strong>It wouldn’t be a one-year anniversary, it will be sooner than that</strong>. What we’re doing at the minute has its role but doing that down the line in a few months won’t have anything like the same impact. We might have a sporting event, something arts, something music.</span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mXbRBcSh0gs/SydZGMNEaII/AAAAAAAADB8/FMH9578DUaU/s1600-h/PaisASorrir.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" closure_uid_mbcfm8="2" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415395039826438274" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mXbRBcSh0gs/SydZGMNEaII/AAAAAAAADB8/FMH9578DUaU/s400/PaisASorrir.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 141px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 207px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;">"We’ve had backing from sporting people up to now. We have had backing from certain musical celebrities as well. We’ve got some other musical contacts that we are exploring, who are happy to offer support.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;">“We’re not saying it would necessarily be one big concert, it might be that on a certain day they are playing her DVD.<br />“What we want at the current time is maximum message out there now, about her disappearance but then just events to bring it back up occasionally just to remind people, if she’s not found.”<br /><strong>A month after the sleeping Madeleine was snatched from her bed</strong>, Gerry and Kate McCann have betrayed the first signs that their hopes of finding her alive are starting to fade.<br />The couple confessed that they are haunted by the harrowing thought of her being held captive by a pervert. Still desperately clinging toMadeleine ’s pink Cuddle Cat, 38-year-old Kate said: “<strong>We don’t know where she is</strong>. We’d like to think she’s still in Portugal, she might still be in Portugal.<br />“But <strong>we know there’s a possibility she’s gone over the border – or several borders</strong>. We know there are bad people out there, but we know there are also a lot of sad people. We hope it’s the latter.”<br />Gerry added: “<strong>Of course we believe Madeleine is still alive but you would be incredible if you hadn’t considered the worst scenario, that she’s dead</strong>.<br />“<strong>Kate and I discuss it</strong> – not a lot, but we talk about hope, and that while there’s some we will not give up. At the minute, there’s loads of hope.”<br /><br />PS - Don't look for this story, on the Daily Express site. It was deleted, long ago...</span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-37327452637688879472012-05-14T01:44:00.004-07:002012-05-14T01:44:35.723-07:00Mari Olli : Report sent to British Police about Madeleine's sightig in Morocco<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Mari Olli: “She looked sad (...) she turned to the man and said something that sounds like: “Can we see mommy soon?” </em></span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Mari Olli, a Norwegian and a retired social worker, 45 years old, lives in Spain, Málaga, with her husband. The couple has been on hollidays in Agadir, Morocco, when Madeleine was abducted. They knew nothing about it, as they didn't watched news, while on holidays. They were returning to Spain and they stopped at Marrakesh, for the night of May 8 to 9. </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Early in the morning, they drove their car to Tarifa, to catch a ferryboat back home. They stopped at a gas station to buy some water and that was the place where Mrs Mari Olli says she saw Madeleine. This is the report that she sent, by email, to British Police, after she tried, without success, to give the information to Spanish Police (and not to Portuguese Police, as some </em></span><a href="http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=455458&in_page_id=1811&ICO=WORLD_NEWS&ICL=TOPART"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>British newspapers </em></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>wrongly wrote): </em></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>“At the petrol station next to Hotel Ibis Palmeraie in Marrakesh (Address, Avenue Abdelkrim Khattabi) Wednesday 9th of May, about 10 am, I saw the girl inside the shop. She was wearing clear blue pyjamas. Some pattern on the top, trousers little darker. Don’t think the trousers had any pattern. She was very small. Under 1 meter. She was with a man.” </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>“She was standing alone, the man about a meter from her. I looked back at her, she was very sweet. And it was a strange situation because the man didn’t look like her father. And it’s very strange to see a blond small girl standing alone in Marrakesh. She was very small and normally you would hold her in your arms or at least her hand. And he was turning away from her.” </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>“She looked sad. I looked at her face, she looked at me. Then she turned to the man and said something that sounds like: “Can we see mommy soon?” I am not sure if he reply. I turned around to pay my things, two bottle of water and some hygiene serviettes. I went in our car, looked for if they had a car, but could not see any special. I wanted to tell my husband, but he was busy with the driving to catch the ferry from Tanger to Tarifa. I didn’t know about the missing child at that time. Because I had not watched the news, when I was on holiday.” </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>“I saw the news on Thursday the 10 of may, in the evening. Then I remember what I saw in Marrakesh. I started to phone the police, Spanish and English. The Spanish police didn’t want to talk to me. I talked to the English (Police). Friday morning I gave my report to Katy Peters from Scotland Yard. She said someone was going to phone me. But I have not heard anything. I have emailed them and phone them several times. But no response. I am very worried and very sure this was that girl. Her face is very special. And that situation was very strange!” </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>“My mind is on this situation all the time, and I need to know if someone is looking into my report. I am sure the two Moroccan men inside the petrol station can confirm my seeing as well.”<br />“If I can do anything more to help, PLEASE let me know! </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Regards<br />Mari Olli” </em></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>According to </em></span><a href="http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=243381&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Correio da Manhã</em></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>, the daily Portuguese newspaper that first got in touch with Mrs. Mari Olli, as soon as the information reached the Portuguese Police, through British liaison officers, Portuguese Police contacted Mrs. Mari Olli, for six times, on May 18 and May 21, to get more details from her.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><br />(01:57 am, June 2 - 2007)</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><span class="post-author vcard">Posted by <span class="fn">Paulo Reis</span> </span><span class="post-timestamp">at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://gazetadigitalarquivo.blogspot.com.es/2007/06/report-sent-to-british-police-about.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" itemprop="datePublished" title="2007-06-25T02:21:00+01:00">2:21:00 AM</abbr></a> </span></em></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-68081906205796287682012-05-06T10:28:00.001-07:002012-05-06T10:28:20.222-07:00Chelsea Hoffman : Who Killed Madeleine McCann?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madeleine_close2.jpg" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Madeleine McCann" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0a/Madeleine_close2.jpg/300px-Madeleine_close2.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="170" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 300px;">Madeleine McCann (Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madeleine_close2.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b80c2d;">Wikipedia</span></a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>With it being unlikely, due to evidence, that Madeleine McCann was abducted, there aren't many other theories left. Those theories all involve the death of the toddler in 2007, but how did she die, when did she die and who was ultimately responsible for her theoretical death? The following post will delve into the details of the evidence in this case (along with a couple clarifications and corrections) in hopes of building a solid theory of what happened to this "missing" child, and who might need to be investigated.<br /></em></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="more"></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>It's no secret that I am a fan of criminal profiler Pat Brown, and it's no secret that I have leaned more and more toward the probability that Madeleine McCann is dead. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise to find out that I agree with Pat Brown's assessment of this case. I've only had to do very, very light research to reach this conclusion.<br /><br />I started out not really knowing a thing about this aside from the fact that there was a cute blonde child named Maddie McCann missing since 2007. I'm prolifically known for my coverage of missing persons cases and crimes against children as an advocate of justice for those who have no voice. This whole mess started on Twitter when someone who had been following my work mentioned that I should look at this case. So here I am thinking I'm going to find out that the dear parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are just innocent pariahs.<br /><br />I'm sorry but the known evidence in this case simply points to the likelihood that they either killed their daughter or covered up a horrible accident that ended her life. Still, let's list off some of the reasons why I've come to my own idea that Kate McCann could be England's version of Casey Anthony.<br /></em></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Kate and Gerry McCann claimed they would take a polygraph test at any point. It's interesting that when a media source offered to pay for a polygraph test, the two backed out of their promise. Why would supposedly innocent parents of a truly missing child back-out after swearing they'd take one of these lie detector tests? As far as I've been able to find, they've still not taken one. </em></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>It's reported that Don Cargill, the chairman of the British And European Polygraph Association, had been in contact with the McCanns regarding the administration of a polygraph. However, Kate McCann submitted a list of "conditions" that would make giving the test impossible. In other words, it seemed like Kate would only take the test if the administrator only stuck to the questions she and Gerry would answer. </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"Kate said she'd take it to prove her innocence but in reality, she wasn't willing. I was dumbfounded, to tell the truth." -- Don Cargill.</em></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em><b>Let's be clear here:</b> People who have nothing to hide; people who are completely innocent; people who are not connected to the potential crimes committed: <b>do not refuse polygraph tests</b>, nor do they try to weasel their ways out of answering the questions that matter. In the United States, where the homicide rates are certainly higher than the UK and Portugal, it's rather general practice for the parents of a missing or murdered child to take polygraph tests. Our experts recommend it regularly, such as John Walsh of America's Most Wanted, who often reminisces that when his son Adam was abducted, he and everyone in the family immediately volunteered polygraph tests because they wanted to be cleared immediately so the crime could be investigated properly and justice could be served.<br /><br /><b>The point is simple:</b> Refusing a polygraph makes you look guilty as hell. Period.<br /></em></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Kate McCann refused to answer all but one of 48 questions during the an interrogation after Madeleine was allegedly abducted. She was asked if she was aware that her refusal to answer questions would hinder the investigation and she acknowledged it. </em></span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041635/The-48-questions-Kate-McCann-wouldnt-answer--did.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b80c2d; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>You can see the list of 48 questions right here</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>. Now ask yourself, if your child was missing would you answer these questions if you were innocent of wrongdoing? </em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>The McCanns and their friends have never been able to get their stories to fully mesh. None of them have been able to agree on when the adults checked on the children the night Maddie "was taken." Furthermore,<b> they all refused to do a re-enactment</b> to help in determining the direction in which the investigation was to travel. Why? Probably because none of them can get their stories right. A re-enactment would only further reveal the inconsistencies in their stories, I think. </em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>In regards to the evidence discovered by two famed British scent dogs, the behavior displayed by Kate and Gerry McCann was suspicious to say the least. From the very beginning the two began attempting to discredit the findings. They even quoted a U.S. case where a dog was thought to be in error -- however, <b>the McCanns didn't find it in their best interests to admit that the dog's findings were later proven correct!</b> Oh, they had tons of excuses and reasons for why the blood and cadaver dogs hit in their Algarve vacation rental and the "boot" of their car. It was from diapers, or a cut from one of the twins, etc etc etc., <b>She also washed the toy called "cuddle cat" before police were able to test it</b> -- claiming it smelled of suntan lotion. Like Cindy Anthony cleaning away the evidence from the car driven by Casey Anthony, the woman was apparently washing away some kind of evidence. </em></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>The blood evidence found by scent dogs was tested and found to have an 88% match to Madeleine McCann. It's reported that 12% of the DNA was too damaged to determine. Now, does this mean that the DNA didn't belong to Madeleine, or did it? Groupies of suspicious parents of "missing" children tend to grasp for any possibilities that their "team" scores the points they want, so in the eyes of some 88% might as well mean 0% -- However, the 16 points taken from this 88% match did indeed match Madeleine's DNA. Unfortunately, 88% DNA match is apparently inadmissible, but it certainly lent to the direction of the investigation. Also, it should be mentioned that one of the dogs who found this evidence was a dog trained to specifically sniff out human cadaver oil. That means the scent that the dog picked up came from someone who was dead -- the oils released post-mortem. <b>So, if this DNA being only 88% match to the missing child, was part of the "post-mortem" oil finds, then that blows the McCann's excuses out of the water and shouldn't be overlooked by investigators.Obviously the human cadaver oil certainly would not belong to Kate McCann or the twins! </b>In fact, that is why I believe the DNA evidence most certainly is Madeleine's. She's the one who was missing, and nobody else died in the rental apartment in the Algarve. Period.</em></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-62862374734163730482012-05-04T04:34:00.001-07:002012-05-04T04:51:30.513-07:00#McCann : Clarence Mitchell Complaint With IPCC And Police For Changing A Witness Statement.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em><u>The Independent have been informed of this disgraceful article filled with lies and written by Sam Marsden.</u></em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>A TAXI driver who believes he picked up Madeleine McCann the night after she vanished has claimed that Portuguese police ignored his report.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Kate and Gerry </em></span><a href="http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Gerry_McCann"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>McCann</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>'s spokesman said it was "deeply shocking" that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela about his possible sighting of the missing child.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Mr Castela, 72, went to the Policia Judiciaria (PJ), Portugal's CID, after three men, a woman and a young girl resembling Madeleine got into his cab on the evening of May 4 2007 in Monte Gordo in the Algarve.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>This is about an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where the British child had vanished from her family's holiday apartment the previous night.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>The taxi driver drove the group two miles to the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where they drove away in a blue jeep.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Mr Castela told the </em></span><a href="http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Evening_Standard"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Evening Standard</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>: "After I went to the police, I never heard anything from them again.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"They did not seem to take me seriously and never questioned me. They simply took down the details and that was it.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"I am amazed that it has been five years and nobody has ever asked me what I saw that night. I am absolutely certain it was her."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Mr Castela did absolutely the right thing at the time by reporting his sighting to the PJ.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"It is clearly deeply shocking that he now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective in five years.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by </em></span><a href="http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Scotland_Yard"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>the Met</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>ropolitan Police.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>"Kate and Gerry remain very happy that the Met are performing their role as efficiently as they can."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>- Sam Marsden</em></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/madeline-mccann-taxi-driver-who-believes-he-picked-her-up-is-ignored-3097315.html">http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/madeline-mccann-taxi-driver-who-believes-he-picked-her-up-is-ignored-3097315.html</a><br />
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<a href="http://marieluzcorezmurdervictimofthemccanns.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/mccann-latest-victim-antonio-castela.html">http://marieluzcorezmurdervictimofthemccanns.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/mccann-latest-victim-antonio-castela.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274416170513855390.post-42984277501364715982012-05-04T04:25:00.003-07:002012-05-04T04:25:38.860-07:00A Taxi Driver Story and The Rogatory Letter Saga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em><a href="http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxi-driver-story-and-rogatory-letter.html">http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxi-driver-story-and-rogatory-letter.html</a></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em><br />28 February 2008 | Posted by Joana Morais Leave a Comment <br />300 DAYS. The round date, on Maddie's disappearance, marked yesterday, did not deserve to Gerry and Kate any special mention in the site FindMadeleine.com, not even in the blog written by the father.<br />The last entry is of 22.<br /><br />TAXI-DRIVER IS SURE THAT HE TOOK MADDIE IN HIS CAR IN THE NIGHT OF THE GIRL DISAPPEARANCE<br /><br />“I transported that girl”<br /><br />The driver remembers that he transported them in the night of the disappearance, in the 3rd of May, from the square of taxis of Monte Gordo for the Hotel Apolo, in em Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The passengers went then to a jeep. António contacted the PJ, but, as he says, no one took notice of his story.<br /><br />A taxi-driver of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, in the Algarve, <strong><u>guarantees to have transported Maddie, Kate McCann and three men – one of them similar to Murat</u> </strong>– in the night of the disappearance of the English girl, in the 3rd of May of last year. António Castela Cardoso, 67 years, does not forget the hour or the details of the passengers. He regrets that after having communicated the Judiciary Police of Portimão, he never received a follow up call to explain his statement. Taxi-driver, with 17 years in that profession, António Castela has the habit of memorizing the face of his clients. That one particularly, “She was a girl with very pretty eyes and she called my attention because of the sign that she had in one eye and the twitch that she was doing with the chin”, he remembered. In the beginning of that night, António was in the square of taxis of Monte Gordo, four kilometres of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, was ready to stop the cab service. “It was 20h10 and I like seeing the television news”, he remembers.<br /><br />Man was similar to Murat<br /><br />The clients approached and asked him to transport them to the Hotel Apolo, in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The driver did not refuse. On his side a man seated who was using “fine glasses”. “He was similar with the one that appears in the television like the third suspect”, says António, concerning Robert Murat – who is arguido in the case. In the seat behind, a woman “like Kate” sat down, between two men. The girl that the taxi-driver says to be Maddie sat down to the lap of one of them.<br />“She was wearing pink pyjamas. The mother had the hair tied and a yellow coat”, he remembers, with exactness. It was a silent journey. The passengers did not exchange one word; they did not show any emotions. On the arrival to the journey destiny, António pulled out the baby's chair of the luggage car. “It was the same as what the couple usually uses”, he affirms. The customers asked him, in English language, how much the cab journey was. “I said that there were 3, 25 euros and they gave me five and then I thanked them”, he says.<br /><br />Top-of-the-line Jeep<br /><br />The taxi-driver saw three men, the woman and the child move towards a metallic-blue, top-of-the-line Jeep “ I do not know if it would be a BMW, but I remember that the license plate was yellow and therefore was not a Portuguese one ”, he affirms. The vehicle was parked in the Hotel Apolo parking. António returned to his house with the image of the girl in the head. It reminded him of his son, now with 37 years. “My son was operated to his eyes because he had a similar eye defect. He also did that twitch with the chin. They even looked like brothers”, he observed.<br />The next day, António was watching the television news besides his son and his granddaughter, with the same age of Maddie. With astonishment he saw that the blond girl of light eyes had disappeared. “I immediately told my son: ' I transported that girl yesterday! ’ ”.<br />The son, a police officer of the GNR, advised the father to phone to the Judiciary Police of Portimão. “ He (the son) dialled the number and I said what I am telling you (to the journalist of 24 Horas newspaper)”, he remembers to 24horas.<br />The inspector who answered then asked him if in the hotel there was a system of video vigilance. The taxi-driver did not know.<br />Up to today, António waits the police contact to give declarations personally. “I defend the girl as I would defend my granddaughter”, he affirms.<br />Some days later, out of curiosity, António still asked for informations to some of his acquaintances, at the service of the Hotel Apolo. He was told that there was not any reservation for that evening. They also told him that the Hotel had not been contacted by the Judiciary Police. Even worse. The system of video vigilance was damaged two years ago and was not catching any image. “Also I do not know if they did enter in the hotel”, says the taxi-driver.<br /><br />Since then, António Castela has been accompanying the news on Maddie. When the telephone rings, he still thinks that it will be someone who investigates the case that want to speak with him. When he knew that a certain period of time was still to be explained in the investigation, António Castela immediately thought that this might be the explanation. “In two hours you can travel from Aldeia da Luz to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and return. Someone can be lying. They should establish if Kate did not go away during this period”, says António.<br /><br />The taxi-driver has been telling this history in public establishments and to clients whom he transports. Only this week a journalist of the “Jornal do Algarve” contacted him to publish what the driver affirms to have seen. “Now they do not leave me alone. Tomorrow [today] there is a team coming from England on purpose to interview me”, he says.<br />Madeleine McCann disappeared mysteriously from the Ocean Club, in Aldeia da Luz, in the 3rd of May. 300 days already have passed since. The parents are still arguidos in the process, but up to now nobody managed to know what it went on that night.<br /><br />From Correio da Manhã: A source connected with the investigation guaranteed that the facts told by António Castela were "investigated" and the “lead was proven false”. <br /><br />Madeleine has no Twitches<br /><br />Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, reacted yesterday with amazement at the declarations of the taxi-driver. “The declarations of Mr. Castela are false. They are a perfect nonsense. He can only be mistaken when he says that at that time he transported Kate and Madeleine with three men”, he said, underlining the fact of being several independent witnesses who place Madeleine's parents in a completely different place. “How is that possible, if at 20h35 several witnesses say that Kate and Gerry were sitting down on a table of the Tapas restaurant”, he questioned. Clarence doubts of the intentions of the taxi-driver. “It astonishes me that only now, ten months later, he talks about this. These are declarations that only cause pain to Kate and Gerry", he said, advancing that that the McCann's daughter has no facial twitches.<br />“The only sign to report is the one she has in the eye.”<br /><br />THEY TOOK FIVE MONTHS TO READ A LETTER<br /><br />The Inspectors of the Judiciary Police are already preparing the suitcases to travel again to Leiceister, where the McCanns and the friends with whom they had dinner with will be questioned again. The team led by Paulo Rebelo finally received green light from England.<br /><br />English speak again with the Judiciary Police<br /><br />With the suitcases done, the Judiciary Police is already finalizing with the English authorities the details for, five months after the sending to Great Britain of a rogatory letter, their return to question the McCanns and the friends with whom they had dinner with when Madeleine disappeared, on the 3rd of May, in the Praia da Luz, in Lagos, Algarve.<br />“The rogatory letter was returned in January to the Public Prosecution Office, for lack of completion of some bureaucratic proceedings. It was remade and then returned to the English Home Office in the beginning of this month. Finally, the letter it’s already in the possession of the Police of Leicester and we are finalizing the details to give completion to the solicitations done by the British authorities”, it explained to 24horas a judicial person in charge connected with the investigations. According to the same source, everything left done is now a mere “schedulement in order that the interrogations are prepared to the friends of the McCann and to the parents of the lost girl themselves, an organized plan that will have to be ended during next week.<br />In ten days a team of Portuguese investigators will travel to England, they will attend the interrogations, as the interrogations themselves will be done by the police officers of Leicester. “We can only hear, analyse the expressions of the persons and suggest some questions that do not appear in the rogatory letter”. The first persons to be questioned<br />will be Jane Tanner, David Paine and Russel O'Brien, whose lawyers revealed the intention of their clients to alter their first statements.<br /><br />Source: Jornal 24 horas</em></span></div>
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