Madeleine McCann Missing-Praia Da Luz, Portugal 3/05/07 #1

[festa]

The allegations against the McCanns
By Caroline Gammell in Praia da Luz
Last Updated: 8:09pm BST 14/09/2007



Is the case against Kate and Gerry McCann driven by hard evidence? Or is it simply fuelled by rumour, speculation and wild conjecture?

In full: The Madeleine McCann case
Police in Portugal are understood to believe Mrs McCann accidentally killed her daughter Madeleine and then relied on her husband to help her dispose of the body, a claim both parents vigorously deny.

However, the little girl’s body has not been found and on Friday police admitted it may never be. The allegations implicating her parents have only emerged through unofficial sources.

Here The Daily Telegraph examines the key allegations that have appeared in the press.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/15/nmadeleine315.xml

[festa]

You can see all 5 allegations in the link above, but here I'll post #5:

Allegation 5:

That Kate McCann’s personal diary holds the key to her mental state and shows how she coped with her children.

What is the claim based on?

Although Mrs McCann has been seen regularly writing in the journal, the only details of what was allegedly written have appeared in the Portuguese media.

The Portuguese public prosecutor made an application to an investigating judge to seize the diary.

It is thought police may have taken photocopies of the journal and applied to the court for the papers to be formally accepted as evidence.

However, it is still not known exactly where the diary is, with reports of its location in both Portugal and the UK.


The judge does not even have the diary yet?

[MuffyBee]

September 14, 2007
Law prevents couple from hiring private investigators
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2449011.ece
(snipped)
What are Kate and Gerry McCann doing to clear their name?
Until charged with a crime, the couple have no right to know what evidence has been collected against them. Mrs McCann was told in an interview that traces of Madeleine’s blood had been found in a car the family hired 25 days after she disappeared. The couple have now placed the Renault Scenic in a safe place and hope it will undergo independent forensic checks.

When will the independent forensic checks be done?
The couple can only ask an expert approved by a Portuguese court to carry out the checks once they have been charged. Friends of the family have said that Mr and Mrs McCann fear that police have accidentally or deliberately placed incriminating evidence in the car.

Why don’t the McCanns hire private investigators to clear their name?
It is illegal in Portugal for anyone except the police or court-approved expert to carry out an investigation into a crime. A fund was created to collect donations to pay for the search for Madeleine, but police told the parents it would be illegal to pay for private detectives while their investigation was still active.
(snipped)

[Tamikosmom]

festa ... I sincerely thank you for your response and all your trouble in provided all those quotes.  However ... I believe that the unsubstantiated allegations against Marak is as troublesome to me as all the unsubstantiated/conflicting allegations against the McCanns.

An official report or ... confirmation from ONE named official regarding those allegations would definitely have me going ... HMMM.  However ... without any official confirmation ... the journalism encompassing allegations against Murat and the McCanns could be considered tabloid reporting.

The only substantiated facts that are known in the Madeleine McCann case is ...

1.  Murat is considered a formal suspect and ... evidence/documents has not been presented by PLE to the next level ... the prosecutor.

2.  The McCanns are considered formal suspects and ... evidence/documents has been presented by the PLE to the prosecutor and ... this evidence/documents has been presented to an even higher level ... the judge.

Janet

[Tamikosmom]

What a difference a day makes in the reporting of Sky News ... an apparent reliable source in regards to updates on the Madeleine McCann case.

Janet

++++++++++++++++

SKY NEWS
SEPTEMBER 10, 2007

'Police Match Madeleine DNA To Hire Car'
Updated: 20:26, Monday September 10, 2007

"The evidence suggests very strongly that it was not that her DNA had been transferred from clothing or from a cuddly toy

"The allegation is that the DNA shows a full match of 99%. According to police, it shows the presence of Madeleine's body in the boot of the family's hire car five weeks after she disappeared."

He said the sample of blood sent to the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham carried three matches of Madeleine's DNA.

Two were partial matches that came from the car and the windowsill of the family's holiday apartment.

The third was the full match from the boot of the car.

Meanwhile, papers outlining any evidence against Gerry and Kate McCann will be passed to the Public Prosecutor in Portugal, probably on Tuesday.

<snipped>

The McCanns have been told they could be called back to Portugal "at any time".

Under Portuguese law the couple could keep their arguido - suspect - status for up to eight months, although the prosecutor could decide to extend that to a year.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html?f=rss


SKY NEWS
SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

Bodily Fluids - Not Blood - In McCann Car
Updated: 15:28, Tuesday September 11, 2007

Bodily fluids - not blood - matching Madeleine McCann's DNA have been found in the car hired by her parents, according to Sky sources.

The sample was taken from the boot, where the spare tyre is kept, the sources said.

It had an 88% match with the missing four-year-old's DNA.

Police searching the car also found so much of Madeleine's hair that it could not have been transferred from a blanket or clothes.

It must have come directly from her body, sources said.

The news comes as Portuguese prosecutors received all of the files of evidence on the McCanns from police investigating the four-year-old's disappearance.

The prosecutors are now expected to review reports of three samples of Madeleine's DNA found by detectives.

They will then decide whether to charge the McCanns with an offence.

Sky sources earlier said a full DNA match to Madeleine was found in the boot of a car hired by Kate and Gerry McCann after their daughter went missing.

"Police say it is the most damning evidence that has been returned by the tests," Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said.

As prosecutors analyse the evidence, Mr and Mrs McCann are enduring the tense wait for news at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Both have been named by police as suspects in their daughter's disappearance on May 3 in the Algarve.

Family spokesman Brian Kennedy, who is Madeleine's great uncle, said of the family: "They are holding up extremely well."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283521,00.html

[festa]

Madeleine McCann: 'No proof she was killed'
By Caroline Gammell in Praia da Luz
Last Updated: 11:15pm BST 14/09/2007


Portuguese police appeared to take a step back from charging Madeleine McCann's parents last night after a senior officer said they had "nothing concrete" to implicate them in her disappearance.

Detectives may be depending on Kate and Gerry McCann making a confession, a Portuguese newspaper reported. They were declared formal suspects a week ago, and are now back in Britain.

   The McCanns spent Friday in London consulting their lawyers
A "high-ranking" officer in the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) - Portugal's criminal investigation department - said the evidence was not even strong enough to prove whether Madeleine was dead.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/15/nmadeleine415.xml
 

OK, I just posted earlier that they would be backsliding on their allegations and I said they didn't have "concrete" evidence - 

[festa]

I also said earlier when Kate McCann was first being implicated I thought this was a tactic by the police to get her to confess (I actually said they might be targeting the female) - and now it appears (at least in the press) that that may be the case.  Time will tell what the dossier actually has and what the exact DNA results are.

[MuffyBee]

14 September 2007
MADDIE MCCANN COPS TO SEARCH FLAT NO2
http://tinyurl.com/yu7l4v
Claims of blood link to apartment in Portugal
By Tim Walsh

PORTUGUESE police believe forensic tests may show that Madeleine McCann's body was hidden in an apartment near her family's holiday flat, it was claimed yesterday.
(snipped)

[MuffyBee]

Compassion fatigue sets in at the resort forever scarred by the fate of a lost child
By Ian Herbert in Praia da Luz
Published: 15 September 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2964458.ece
(snipped)
The McCanns will benefit from a change to the Portuguese law, which is introduced from today. The changes mean arguidos will be given more information about the way the investigation is progressing. The change also brings to an end the current system where information about arguidos is disclosed after eight months – whether they are charged or not.

[vms]

14/09/2007
McCann's hire PR agency

Kate and Gerry McCann have hired a new PR agency to help manage an increasingly sceptical media. Hanover, the agency owned by John Major's former press secretary Charles Lewington have been given the brief.

The McCanns are currently fighting to clear their name after allegations were allegedly made by the Portugese police regarding the disappearance of their missing four-year-old daughter.

The poor treatment of the MacCann's in the press is apparently something Lewington, managing director of Hanover, feels very strongly about and wants to help.

The McCanns previously used Bell Pottinger crisis management consultant Alex Woolfall (who represented holiday firm Mark Warner), Sheree Dodd, a former spokeswoman for the Government, and former treasury special advisor Justine McGuinness.

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/Article.aspx?id=2904&SectionID=

[Puzzler]

Interesting….for those of us who haven’t previously followed closely the disappearance of Maddie:

http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=13873

[Puzzler]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....437011.ece  09/15/2007

Portuguese police to extend their inquiry to Leicester

David Brown and Steve Bird in Portimão and Patrick Foster

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are preparing to travel to Britain to carry out further inquiries, amid concerns that her parents are under an intolerable strain.

Police in Portugal have already been authorised to carry out a series of searches in Praia da Luz and to reinterview key witnesses as they attempt to build a case against Kate and Gerry McCann. A team of Portuguese officers will travel to Leicester to work alongside British officers who are investigating the McCanns.

Two senior Portuguese officers, Guilhermino Encarnação, the director of the PolÍcia Judiciária in Portimão, and Gonçalo Amaral, the co-ordinator of the force, had a three-hour meeting yesterday with Pedro Daniel dos Anjos Frias, the criminal instructional judge who is reviewing the evidence in the case, ahead of plans to order Mrs McCann to return to the Algarve for further questioning.

The Timeshas learnt that the couple will not be returning to the Algarve until next Wednesday. The judge has a deadline of Thursday to consider requests from the public prosecutors for a series of searches.
Portuguese police are said to believe that they will never find Madeleine’s body, making it difficult to secure a conviction. Investigators think that her body was most probably dumped in a bag weighed down with stones and thrown off a British-owned yacht on the high seas, according to reports in the Diário de NotÍcias newspaper.

The police case against the McCanns includes traces of Madeleine’s body fluids and hair allegedly found in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz and in a car that was rented by the couple 25 days after her disappearance. Reports have suggested that the finding of Madeleine’s DNA in the boot proves that her corpse had been in there. Officers also believe that there are inconsistencies in statements made by the couple and a group of friends whom they were with on the night she disappeared.

But a senior detective involved in the investigation said that although officers had plenty of circumstantial evidence, they could not prove what happened to Madeleine and had “nothing concrete”, a Portuguese newspaper has reported. The detective, spoken to by24 Horas, a Portuguese newspaper, said: “Even if the blood and the traces gathered in the car and the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100 per cent with the little girl’s DNA that would prove nothing.”

It was also reported yesterday that the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham had discovered evidence from Madeleine’s hairs that she had been regularly sedated, leading to the suggestion that she might have been killed by an overdose. The couple have denied sedating Madeleine.

Mr and Mrs McCann met their lawyers and media advisers in London yesterday to discuss how to respond to accusations that Madeleine was killed accidentally.

[klaasend]

Interesting….for those of us who haven’t previously followed closely the disappearance of Maddie:

http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=13873

There's alot of Gerry and Kate bashing going on in that forum. 

[pdh3]

No one knows anything apparently. It's all just conflicting reports, rumors and conjecture.

[klaasend]

POLICE: MADDY'S BODY MAY NEVER BE FOUND
Ryan Parry In Praia Da Luz 15/09/2007

Police fear Madeleine McCann's body may never turn up.

In a bizarre new twist to the hunt yesterday, they said the four-year-old may have been weighted down with stones and dumped off the Portuguese coast from a British-owned yacht.

Another wild theory was that an accomplice of parents Kate and Gerry could have helped hide the child's body before it was incinerated. The couple have angrily denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance from their holiday flat on the Algarve.

The Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias said: "The police admit the body doesn't now exist.

Advertisement
 "One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones at sea from a yacht." Another paper, 24 Horas, reported that detectives may be relying on the McCanns making a confession.

A "high-ranking" officer, not named, told the paper that if the case did get to court the only charge could be that of hiding a body, given the current evidence.

He added: "Was she strangled? Could she have been beaten? They are questions which only the parents could clarify in an eventual confession." Meanwhile, hairs found in the boot of the McCann's hire car have been sent for analysis to discover whether Madeleine may have been drugged.

Yesterday a friend of the McCanns said the couple were astonished at the lack of communication from detectives.

"They feel the Portuguese police are playing a game with them."


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/09/15/police-maddy-s-body-may-never-be-found-89520-19793722/

[LouiseVargas]

This is just too much information for me to make sense of.

They had access to the resort's child care system. They were rich enough to hire someone to watch the kids if they didn't like the hotel's baby sitters.

I know what it's like to have an unruly toddler. I admit I gave a double dose of baby Tylenol liquid to my grandson when he was sick and I was babysitting. I knew it wouldn't kill him and it would be much better for him to go to sleep rather than cry and work himself into a hysterical state because he was sick. And I napped on the sofa in his room to make sure he was ok.

If Kate was angry at her husband for not helping her more with the children, she should have sat him down and discussed it with him. She could have told him she needed help with the kids and she was at her wit's end and he should get off his lazy ass and contribute to the care of the the THREE kids.

If my daughter could afford two nannys, I'm sure the McCanns could afford it too, as both were physicians. After all, they spent a lot of money on vacations. Why not get Kate some extra help with the kids? After all, she has a career too.

I'm not happy with the husband's part in this story. It seems he didn't have much interest in the children or in helping Kate. He seems like a hedonist and I'm suspicious of any man who behaves this way when he has three children and a beautiful wife who is an MD. 

And further, well I could say a lot more but I'll just leave it at this.

[MuffyBee]

 MADELEINE: 'BODY THROWN INTO THE SEA'
Saturday September 15,2007
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/19187
(snipped)

Police have already investigated a vessel owned by an English sailor in Lagos, 15 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. A source close to the case said: “One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones from a yacht.”

The yacht which came under police scrutiny was investigated after a computer owned by the only other suspect, expat Robert Murat, 33, was analysed and found to mention the sailor. Other theories suggest Madeleine’s body was disposed of at one of several waste incinerators.

The McCanns have already been advised by their British lawyers that the Portuguese would have difficulty prosecuting them if they do not find their daughter’s body. Portuguese police admit they fear no judge will allow the case to go to court without that key piece of evidence.

[Kat_Gram]

What I read when I went to some of the UK blogs is quite a bit of critisim of Kate.
It reminded me of FOB and their Beth bashing....

[SteveDinMD]

MADELEINE: 'BODY THROWN INTO THE SEA'
Saturday September 15,2007
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/19187
(snipped)

Police have already investigated a vessel owned by an English sailor in Lagos, 15 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. A source close to the case said: “One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones from a yacht.”

The yacht which came under police scrutiny was investigated after a computer owned by the only other suspect, expat Robert Murat, 33, was analysed and found to mention the sailor. Other theories suggest Madeleine’s body was disposed of at one of several waste incinerators.

The McCanns have already been advised by their British lawyers that the Portuguese would have difficulty prosecuting them if they do not find their daughter’s body. Portuguese police admit they fear no judge will allow the case to go to court without that key piece of evidence.

This is the biggest pile of nonsense yet.  Pay careful attention to how Portugese authorities continue to weave this too-convenient-by-half, ever-expanding conspiracy of foreigners.  It couldn't POSSIBLY be that some resort employee or some local simply snatched the little girl from her room.  Noooo, IMPOSSIBLE!  Her disappearance HAD to be the result of a conspiracy among every British citizen, including her (malevolant genius) parents, within 50 miles of the crime scene.  If I'm to accept this theory as plausible, first answer me this: 

1)  How were all these people acquainted PRIOR to Madeline's disappearance. 

2)  Why would these alleged conspirators assist the McCann's in disposing of their daugher's body? 

If the Portugese police don't have verified, specific answers to these two questions, the entire theory should be immediately dismissed as a libelous fantasy.  Furthermore, having so demonstrated their affinity for publicizing libelous fantasies, all other theories incriminating the McCanns should likewise be dismissed.  We can't trust anything these people say.  In light of all case developments, I've been working on my own theory, which I think is ever gaining credibility: 

1)  Portugese law enforcement is staffed by a motley collection of vacuous morons, and

2)  These morons, having been continuously humiliated for months by international press coverage of their gross incompetence, have lately decided to take retribution by mounting a smear campaign against the McCanns under color of law. 

Suffice it to say I would never travel to Portugal and subject myself to the authority of such an incompetent and corrupt government. 

[Angiex911dsptchr]

I apologize if this has been posted already.. been reading the mirror forum this morning.

There is growing anger among those close to the McCanns. They claim police have bungled, are making Madeleine's parents "scapegoats", and are determined to find the couple guilty at all costs of killing Madeleine.

Today they accused detectives of failing to investigate fully the only other formal suspect in the case, Robert Murat.

Close friends of the McCanns remain convinced Mr Murat is still the most likely suspect, although he denies any involvement and the police investigation into him appears to have drawn a blank.

Robert Murat was named as an arguido - an official suspect - early in the investigation

Like the McCanns, Mr Murat has been named an arguido - a formal suspect. Sources close to the couple insist he lied about his whereabouts on 3 May.

Mr O'Brien, Fiona Payne and Rachael Oldfield - all friends of the McCanns - and a Portuguese local have testified they saw Mr Murat helping the search for Madeleine on 3 May.

Mr Murat, who was born in Britain but grew up in Portugal, lives with his mother in a villa in Praia da Luz near the McCanns' apartment.

He is said to have introduced himself to the three friends on the night of the search, saying: "I'm Robert. Can I help?"

But he has denied this and insisted he spent the evening with his mother and girlfriend.

"I cannot believe Murat is no longer being investigated," said a source close to the McCanns.

"He is lying about being there on the night. They cannot understand why it hasn't been followed up why Murat lied. Kate and Gerry are being scapegoated."

Mr Murat, 33, insists he is the victim of a smear campaign.

He acted as a translator in the early days of the inquiry until suspicions about his behaviour began to grow.

No forensic evidence has linked him to the girl's disappearance.

Friends of the McCanns also cast doubt on the ability of Portuguese officers to carry out proper forensics work.

Today, a source suggested to the Standard that labels for findings from Mr Murat's vehicles may have got confused with labels from the McCanns' car. "They could easily have got the labels mixed up," said the source.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag.....0&ct=5