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

[vms]

September 23, 2007

Madeleine McCann police tortured me, says mother behind bars

The senior detective leading the Madeleine McCann investigation is facing calls to step down after a woman jailed for the murder of her daughter claimed that his officers tortured her into confessing.

Leonor Cipriano, 36, told for the first time how she was forced to kneel on glass ashtrays with a bag over her head as police repeatedly hit her during almost 48 hours of nonstop questioning.

She is now serving a 16-year sentence for the murder of her eight-year-old daughter Joana, even though the body has never been found and she has since retracted her statement.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, who is jointly leading the Madeleine case, is to face a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence that three of his colleagues tortured Cipriano. The hearing could be as early as next month.



Joana Cipriano disappeared from her home in Figuera, near Portimao on the Algarve, in September 2004, not far from where four-year-old Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz 143 days ago. Leonor Cipriano was arrested at 8am on October 14 and confessed after almost 48 hours of continuous questioning.

She retracted her statement a day later when she had access to a lawyer but was still charged and convicted of murdering her daughter.

Speaking from Odemira prison in west Portugal, she told a relative: “The police put a bag on my head, but I didn’t see what I was hit with. It was something like a baton. They made me kneel on two glass ashtrays and then they hit me. I couldn’t see who hit me because of the bag.

“It’s not true I fell down the stairs – the police hit me. I said it [the confession] because they beat me.”

A friend saw Cipriano shortly after the alleged attack. She said: “Her head was swollen, while she had huge bruises under the breasts, on the thighs and the legs.”

Amaral is accused of concealing evidence supporting allegations that three of his colleagues tortured Cipriano. The four detectives and a fifth, who is accused of fabricating evidence, deny the allegations and say Cipriano was injured when she threw herself down a flight of stairs.

Roy Ramm, a former Scotland Yard commander, said: “It is extraordinary that a man accused of an unresolved, serious complaint like this is still handling a high-profile inquiry. You would expect him at best to be in a desk job.”

Carlos Garcia, vice-president of the trade union for Portuguese police, which is defending Amaral and his colleagues, said: “They utterly reject the allegations.”

Cipriano’s boyfriend Leandro Silva, 41, a car mechanic, claims that he, too, was beaten when he was taken in for questioning in Faro in October 2004. “One officer grabbed me from behind, spun me round, then hit me in the stomach with a closed fist,” he said. “They also hit me from behind with a phone book. When they questioned me, a senior officer said, ‘You ate Joana’s body’. I couldn’t believe it. Then he said, ‘You cooked her and you ate her’. I thought they must be crazy – it was like something out of a horror movie.”

Silva is considering making a formal complaint.

Link

[vms]

SECOND SIGHTING IN MADDIE HUNT

"I SAW HER AS WELL"

By Dominic Herbert

A SECOND witness told police he ALSO spotted missing tot Madeleine McCann in MOROCCO, the News of the World can reveal.
A British man saw a young girl closely resembling four-year-old Madeleine in Marrakech, just YARDS from where she was sighted the same day.

And his account was made BEFORE news of the strikingly similar report by Norwegian Mari Pollard became public — and will renew pressure for a fuller search for the lost toddler in Morocco.

Crucially, both sightings were in the same location in the city of Marrakech on May 9 — and at around the same time of day.

Portuguese police have never released any information about the second witness, who comes from Yorkshire.

But a source close to parents Kate and Gerry McCann confirmed the man's sighting was reported.

According to our source, he saw the girl alone, close to the Ibis hotel — just across the road from the petrol station where Mrs Pollard saw a girl she thought was Madeleine.

The source added: "When the man, who is from Yorkshire, arrived home from Morocco he saw Madeleine's picture and was convinced he had seen her.

"He reported the sighting to police and the Leicestershire force passed this on to the Moroccan and Portuguese authorities.

"Maybe it's the same girl, but the authorities have not yet been able to establish whether it was Madeleine.

"It is significant that the man made his report unaware of the other sighting. So we have TWO independent sightings in the SAME place."

Mrs Pollard, 45, insisted she was "100 per cent certain" she had seen Madeleine at the garage on the morning of May 9 — six days after the youngster vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

The Norwegian, who was staying at the Ibis hotel with her British husband Raymond, was at the Afriquia garage when she saw a blonde girl standing near a man in his late 30s.

The girl was asking him in English: "When can I see Mummy?"

She claims she instinctively felt something was wrong — but did not approach the girl. It was only when she returned home to Spain and saw appeals for Madeleine that the penny dropped.

Mrs Pollard said: "I am sure it was Madeleine. She was a sweet girl with a very cute face.

"She was standing alone, with a man about a metre from her. She looked sad and a little lost."

News of the second witness in Morocco comes just days after Portuguese police admitted they are now considering all options, including that Madeleine could have been abducted.

The McCanns, both 39-year-old doctors from Rothley, Leics, have been named as suspects in the case by Portuguese police. The cops have leaked stories suggesting the couple sedated and accidentally killed Madeleine, then got friends to help cover it up.

Heartbroken Gerry and Kate have always insisted their daughter was kidnapped, and the latest witness account adds weight to this theory.

Last night, a source close to the family said: "The significance of this sighting is that it was reported at the same time as the one by the Norwegian woman.

"This shows the person did not come forward as a result of publicity about the Norwegian witness, but is entirely independent.

"The fact that there are two separate sightings of a young girl looking like Madeleine in the same area, at the same time, give a great of deal of weight to this line of inquiry.

"Gerry and Kate are encouraged by this news and are fully aware it is significant."

Morocco has a reputation as a haven for paedophiles and its close proximity to Portugal and Spain immediately caught the attention of the McCanns.

Ferries leave eight times a day from Tarifa in Spain — a five-hour drive from Praia da Luz — on the 35-minute crossing to Morocco.

Maddie's frantic parents visited the town in June and held up pictures of their missing youngster, as more than 100 children who lined up to meet them chanted the child's name.

During the two-day visit, they met the Moroccan interior minister and conducted a series of talks with child protection officials.

It is understood they also met Morocco's top policeman to seek reassurances that everything was being done to investigate if their daughter was being held there.

Due to Portuguese laws, police are unable to talk about the investigation. But Gerry and Kate will be desperate to know more details of the second Morocco sighting and how it is being investigated.

A source close to the McCanns said: "Gerry and Kate are anxious the focus is on finding Madeleine.

"From day one they have insisted she was abducted and they are clinging to the hope someone is holding her and she is alive.

"They will continue to do everything possible to find their daughter and want people to remain vigilant and report anything that can help to find her.

"Until they are told different, they pray for the day when she can return to her family and they will never give up hope."

In a further development, it emerged the lie detector test the McCanns have offered to take to clear their names is not valid in a Portuguese court.

State prosecutor Joao Rato said: "It goes against constitutional principles and our penal code prohibits its use."

Link

[klaasend]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/23/nmaddy123.xml&page=1

Madeleine McCann: police chief breaks silence
Last Updated: 1:00am BST 23/09/2007Page 1 of 3




It was a moment of quiet satisfaction for Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa.

In full: The Madeleine McCann case

   
The McCanns face the media

 
Since making his sudden, dramatic announcement exactly one week ago, that he was no longer prepared to act as the official Portuguese police spokesman in the Madeleine McCann investigation, he had pretty much maintained his silence.

To a tight trio of trusted colleagues he had confided that he was ''unhappy" about the inquiry and ''exasperated" with the constant leaks from junior officers who, in exchange for extravagant meals, were willing to either reveal snippets of confidential information, or to embroider vague facts if they felt that was what their moles in the Portuguese media wanted.

In public he has said nothing.

But this weekend Mr Sousa, for four months the public face of the Portuguese inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance, has come clean.

He has made it clear to friends that he feels his resignation has been vindicated – and why.

He has acknowledged that the leaks were intended to push Kate and Gerry McCann into confessing they had killed their daughter.

More crucially, he believes that the concerted fightback by the McCanns will reveal that, for all the police posturing when they named the couple as suspects, their evidence was at best flimsy, at worst supposition. ''He has told me he always worried that the evidence against the McCanns was weak," says one former policeman. ''He was worried it would not bear scrutiny."

It has not been Mr Sousa's only concern over the investigation.

He also feels that he has been dragged into a war of words. "He told me he felt caught in the middle of a propaganda war between his police colleagues and the McCanns," another investigator who has spoken to Mr Sousa confirmed.

He has complained that while fellow officers were leaking information illegally — Portugal has strict secrecy laws — the same officers would instruct him to deny the stories when printed. The problem for Sousa was that the denials rarely got into the media.

The result has been endless column inches slandering the McCanns. ''Some Portuguese journalists were fairly convinced the so-called evidence passed on to them by police was nowhere near as concrete as their sources suggested," says Jose Lugios, a freelance reporter based in the Algarve.

"The way it works here is that we can't get official police comments so we have to rely on tip-offs from them. We know they use us at times?…?as they did when they drip-fed us snippets that might exert enough pressure on the McCanns to confess.

But that's the strange way it works. It's the only way we can get crime stories."

Such lax practice has shocked even the country's politicians. ''The leaks to the press of some details that are supposed to be classified have been used as an easy way to manipulate and shape public opinion," says Francisco Louçã, leader of a Portuguese opposition party.
 
(snipped)

[SteveDinMD]

AND....why NOT answer all the Portuguese police questions?  Even if the question was "did you accidentlally kill your daughter"?  No seems an easy enough word to say.  Even if asked 40 questions...maybe one or two you might not want to answer....but not answer 22 questions?  Wow!  Or even beyond Wow!

Per the newspapers, as of yesterday, the McCann's group of high-end attorneys had grown to four (4) !!!  Why?

Answer this:  "Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?"  Perhaps you'd prefer to answer this:  "How much money do you have?"  The Aruban police actually asked Jug Twitty that one.  Suffice it to say we don't know how stupid, demeaning, prejudicial, or irrelevant those questions might have been.  The McCanns were questioned for something like 11 hours, in which time they presumably answered HUNDREDS of questions.  Were I in their place, I'd have told the police to bugger off long before 11 hours had passed.  

[SteveDinMD]

News reports I've read say front door was locked but that the patio door was unlocked.

"If" and intruder entered the room and took Madeleine, why not go out one of the doors (and not a window)?

Why didn't the twins wake up when a multitude of people and police were in the apartment looking for Madeleine?

Just imagine the noise and confusion going on....why did neither twin wake up?

sedated with something like a cold medicine...perhaps

puts MOST kids to sleep whey have the sniffles
and even when they DONT have the sniffles

 

...or the intruder could have used chloroform to facilitate the abduction, but no one bothered to run a toxicology series on the twins when it might have yielded some valuable information.  Evidently this great mystery of the "comatose" twins didn't strike anybody as so peculiar at the time.  Maybe because the story is completely bugus. 

[ldstlou]

AND....why NOT answer all the Portuguese police questions?  Even if the question was "did you accidentlally kill your daughter"?  No seems an easy enough word to say.  Even if asked 40 questions...maybe one or two you might not want to answer....but not answer 22 questions?  Wow!  Or even beyond Wow!

Per the newspapers, as of yesterday, the McCann's group of high-end attorneys had grown to four (4) !!!  Why?

Answer this:  "Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?"  Perhaps you'd prefer to answer this:  "How much money do you have?"  The Aruban police actually asked Jug Twitty that one.  Suffice it to say we don't know how stupid, demeaning, prejudicial, or irrelevant those questions might have been.  The McCanns were questioned for something like 11 hours, in which time they presumably answered HUNDREDS of questions.  Were I in their place, I'd have told the police to bugger off long before 11 hours had passed.  

Great job Steve!! I agree with you 110%!!!
I would think in 11 plus hours of questioning, they answered every question there was, a few dozen times!!! So some bogun reporter states a "source" said they did not answer some quetions? I thought the police were not allowed to talk. As the above article states, some police officers are getting some mighty good free lunches and a chuckle at the expense of the reporters. Only it's not funny one bit, because a child is still missing and too much time has been wasted on this garbage, imho. 

[SteveDinMD]

FWIW:

MADELINE: HUNT LATEST
THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE: DAY 11
By Simon Wright 13/05/2007

<snipped>

MADELEINE'S abductor got into the family's holiday flat through patio doors which had been left unlocked, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

It was originally thought metal shutters at the front of the villa had been broken and jammed open.

But Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa has confided to former British chief inspector Albert Kirby that neither the windows nor the shutters had been tampered with.

Mr Kirby, who led the Jamie Bulger inquiry in Liverpool and is now in Portugal, revealed it was the sliding patio doors of the ground floor apartment that allowed Madeleine to be quietly and quickly kidnapped.

The McCanns would have used the doors as they checked on their children during their meal. They had a line of sight to the apartment from the restaurant table, but a hedge obscured their view of the doors.

Mr Kirby said: "The window shutters are not involved. The door was left unlocked. The shutters are almost impossible to open from the outside."

Link

so, DOORS were UNLOCKED

 

The presence of patio, or sliding glass, doors is new information to me.  They're notoriously insecure unless special precautions are taken, the simplest being to have them locked and pinned.  Did the McCanns actually leave the doors unlocked?  If so, that would have been extremely neglectful in my opinion, but we don't know for certain what the truth is.  It would also be important to know whether the patio doors were CAPABLE of being secured.  Some are not properly equipped.  That has been the case in a number of hotel rooms I've stayed in, but the rooms in question were on upper floors, so it made little difference.  One experience, though, was especially troubling, and possibly relevant to the case.  Some years ago I had a hotel room with patio doors on the ground floor.  The patio doors were properly equipped with locking pins, and they were secured when I left the room to go about my business in the morning following my first night at the hotel.  Since my business was nearby, I was able to stop by my hotel room over lunch to pick up some equipment for use later in the afternoon.  To my surprise, the pins on the patio doors had been REMOVED.  It was obvious that the chambermaid or some other hotel employee had deliberately rendered the doors insecure, quite possibly to facilitate the theft of my equipment.  I immediately complained and switched to a room on an upper floor.  From that day, I've never occupied a ground floor hotel room.  Who's to say the same thing didn't happen to the McCanns?  Would they have even noticed?  I did, but then I'm paranoid.    Also, who's to say that an intruder didn't enter through the front door and leave via the patio?  Assuming the resort is so equipped, one of the first things I would have done as an investigator would have been to have demanded electronic key entry reports on the McCanns' room and those occupied by other members of their party.  We could have learned much from those and from similar reports run against other areas of the hotel.  

[ldstlou]

News reports I've read say front door was locked but that the patio door was unlocked.

"If" and intruder entered the room and took Madeleine, why not go out one of the doors (and not a window)?

Why didn't the twins wake up when a multitude of people and police were in the apartment looking for Madeleine?

Just imagine the noise and confusion going on....why did neither twin wake up?

I think it is fair question that is asked about the twins not waking up. But my 7 year old can sleep through a tornado and always has been that way. He fell asleep during fireworks!! lol NOTHING will wake my child up in the middle of the night, and I mean nothing. Just last night I was at a friends house and he fell asleep. I had to carry him down a flight of steps, out to the car, strap him in his booster seat, then drive him home, take him back into the house and up another flight of steps because I could not wake him up...and he is not light!!
So in my experience, it is very plausible the twins slept through the commotion.

[LouiseVargas]

Just a few thoughts in response to Steve's and Robots' posts below:

The fact that the McCanns are European does not mean a thing regarding child care. When I was 5 and living in Fort Lewis, WA, my Army father was always at the Officer's Club and my mother went across the way to play poker with her friends. So leaving kids alone at night is not a European thing. It happens everywhere, even in 1949.

Regarding checking on the children by listening at the door, they were listening to hear if the kids were crying. I remember my daughter opening the baby's room door one inch wide to HEAR if the baby was ok and not crying. She was scared to death to go into the room lest she wake the baby up. I believe the McCanns and crew were doing the same thing because it didn't enter their minds that Madeleine could be missing.
*****************

Steve: Remember; there are different cultural norms at play here with respect to parental due dilligence.  Approaches to child care are different in many parts of Europe.

Robots: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, blah blah blah that DOG doesnt hunt.

Robots: We dont know who was actually checking on whom if they were really even checking. The "checking, but not really checking" makes NO sense to me. If you dont actually check on them and see them, are you really checking on them ?

[Puzzler]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....511985.ece

Kate and Gerry McCann divided on helping police
The parents of Madeleine McCann are agonising over whether to co-operate fully with Portuguese police or to do no more than comply with basic requests.

A friend said: “Gerry wants to co-operate with the police but Kate does not trust them so at times they are at cross-purposes. Kate is insisting that the police cannot be trusted and they don’t know what to do for the best.

“She is more cynical [about the Portuguese police] but Gerry has rolled with the punches and doesn’t care what it takes. He says they need the police [on side].” The source said they could not agree on what to do.

It is unclear whether they fear that the police will use any information they volunteer about the events on the day of Madeleine’s disappearance to pursue them rather than to help the search for their daughter.

The couple’s uncertainty has emerged after the Portuguese prosecutor’s office said that there was not enough evidence to question the couple again. The McCanns’ lawyers believe it is a sign that the focus of the investigation is shifting away from them.

Last week, however, a senior police source told a Portuguese newspaper that officers were still suspicious about the McCanns’ movements during the “missing six hours” before Madeleine’s disappearance.

Sources close to the family say that David Payne, one of the holiday party, saw Madeleine being put to bed when he visited the McCann apartment at 7pm. Previously the last confirmed sighting of Madeleine was at 2.29pm when a photograph of her and Gerry was taken at the swimming pool.

Kate and Gerry McCann believe Payne’s testimony will be crucial in proving their innocence. They arrived at the tapas bar at 8.30pm, which would leave just an hour and a half in which they are supposed to have killed their daughter and disposed of the body.

A source close to the legal team said: “If they were responsible for killing their daughter, how would they have have done so and hidden the body in that time? There is a very limited window of opportunity.”

A friend revealed that the McCanns feel they are now in a “catch 22” situation. “Normally you would come out fighting, destroy your opponents and clear your name,” the friend said. “But the ‘opponents’ in this situation are your only lifeline to finding your daughter. You can’t go Portuguese-bashing, even though that’s your instinct, because it will be counter-productive.”

Gerry McCann is now considering returning to Portugal next month to try to gain access to details of the case against him and his wife. He will meet his team of Portuguese lawyers to discuss making a formal application for the dossier of police evidence, including the results of forensic tests. The move comes after legal changes relaxing Portuguese secrecy laws. A source close to the legal team said: “We are considering the effects of the new Portuguese law and whether it can help us get a clearer picture of precisely what Gerry and Kate are being accused of. At the moment we are in the dark.”

The fighting fund has been boosted by a donation from Brian Kennedy, the home improvements tycoon, who is worth an estimated £350m. Kennedy, who owns the rugby union team Sale Sharks, is paying the £75,000 salary of Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman.

Kennedy is also making his company’s lawyer available to advise the McCanns. He said: “In light of the quite incredible allegations against Gerry and Kate McCann, which are exacer-bating their emotional torture, I felt compelled to offer my financial, logistical and legal support.”

Friends of Robert Murat, the only other suspect in the case, yesterday played down claims in the Portuguese press that he was about to be cleared. “Robert thinks that there’s too much red tape for them to clear him – that it’s a bureaucratic nightmare,” one friend said.

[Puzzler]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=483345&in_page_id=1770

Robert Murat ‘to be told he will not face charges’ over Madeleine's disappearance
Last updated at 23:43pm on 22nd September 2007
Former chief suspect Robert Murat is to be told he will not face charges over Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Police are said to be about to inform the Briton that they consider him innocent of any involvement in the case.
Respected Portuguese weekly Sol said yesterday that officers are planning to tell Mr Murat this week that he will not be charged but will remain an official suspect – or 'arguido' – while the Madeleine investigation continues to avoid jeopardising the investigation.
If Mr Murat is ruled out of the four-month investigation, Gerry and Kate McCann would be the sole remaining suspects.
When Mr Murat's arguido status is removed it will pave the way for him to sue Portuguese police and also to speak out about his ordeal.
The newspaper, quoting sources close to the case, said authorities will tell the 33-year-old estate agent they are convinced he has nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance on May 3.
The report said: 'He will remain an official suspect on paper until the investigation is over. But it is only to avoid the case being compromised. 'Public prosecutors are concerned that if they drop the case against Murat now, they would have to archive evidence needed to mount a successful prosecution against other suspects.'
The decision brings an end to a four-month nightmare for Murat which began on May 15 when Portuguese police declared him an arguido.
Detectives ransacked the home he shares with his mother Jenny close to where Madeleine disappeared in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz and dug up their garden after sending in sniffer dogs to look for evidence.
Mr Murat was unavailable for comment.
His cousin, Sally Eveleigh, said: 'This has been a nightmare for Robert and his family. His name has been dragged through the mud.
'His family and friends have always known the whole thing was ridiculous and there was never any truth to the allegations. Words wouldn't be able to describe how we will feel when this is all over. We haven't been told anything officially yet, but then Robert hasn't spoken to anyone involved in the investigation for ages.'

[Puzzler]

http://*******.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2175241,00.html



McCanns urged use of police sniffer dogs


Couple became suspects because of the forensic tests they had requested

Mark Townsend and Ned Temko
Sunday September 23, 2007
The *******
Kate and Gerry McCann requested the re-examination of evidence that led directly to the Portuguese police naming the couple as official suspects in the death of their daughter because they were so concerned about the chaotic nature of the police investigation.
The couple, worried that inquiries by the Policia Judiciaria were losing momentum, asked detectives last month to re-examine the apartment where their daughter went missing and also for the use of sniffer dogs to seek fresh clues.
The subsequent use of British police-trained dogs detected the 'scent of death' on Kate's clothing, a finding that was central in the decision by the Portuguese authorities to name Madeleine McCann's parents as formal suspects. Fresh forensic tests also found new biological samples, partially matching Madeleine's DNA, in the apartment and in the parents' hire car - developments that crystallised the thesis of Portuguese police that the couple were somehow responsible for the disappearance of the four-year-old.
'The family were asking for the investigation to be more thorough,' said a source close to the McCanns. 'That is the supreme irony of the case; that it was them who were asking for the police to look harder at the evidence and re-examine all the issues. Is that the action of a guilty couple?' Police sources close to the investigation said yesterday that, although the sniffer dogs 'reacted' to some of Kate's clothes, 'no usable evidence' could be extracted for DNA testing, meaning there was no forensic corroboration for the dogs' reaction.
Tomorrow, in an ironic reversal of the UK media invasion of Praia da Luz, a number of Portuguese journalists who have been covering the McCann case are due to arrive in Britain and make their way to Rothley for a scheduled press conference on the case. Before the refocusing of the inquiry urged by the McCanns, Portuguese police had named only Robert Murat as an 'arguido' - official suspect - but sources close to the investigation have told The ******* there is no evidence so far that he was involved. Yesterday a Portuguese newspaper said Murat himself had been told this by police, but that he would remain a formal 'arguido' for the duration of the investigation.
Portuguese detectives appear to be moving back to the notion that Madeleine was abducted by a stranger from her bedroom.
A source close to the inquiry said yesterday that there are 'no new potential suspects' and no serious new leads in the investigation. He added that the search last week of the home of Dutchman Eef Hoos, who runs a business cremating the bodies of family pets about 30 minutes' drive from Praia da Luz, was 'merely routine'.
Police are also thought to be reappraising a reported sighting by a man from Yorkshire of Madeleine in Morocco, which appeared to corroborate that of a sighting by a Norwegian tourist in the North African country. Although the sighting dates back to May, it remains one of the last credible sightings of Madeleine.
Last week a Portuguese judge ruled there was no need to question the McCanns after police failed to find new evidence. However, a friend of the McCanns hinted yesterday that they may head back to Portugal even without being summoned by the police. 'They may return for social reasons, they have friends over there,' he said.

[pdh3]

News reports I've read say front door was locked but that the patio door was unlocked.

"If" and intruder entered the room and took Madeleine, why not go out one of the doors (and not a window)?

Why didn't the twins wake up when a multitude of people and police were in the apartment looking for Madeleine?

Just imagine the noise and confusion going on....why did neither twin wake up?

I think it is fair question that is asked about the twins not waking up. But my 7 year old can sleep through a tornado and always has been that way. He fell asleep during fireworks!! lol NOTHING will wake my child up in the middle of the night, and I mean nothing. Just last night I was at a friends house and he fell asleep. I had to carry him down a flight of steps, out to the car, strap him in his booster seat, then drive him home, take him back into the house and up another flight of steps because I could not wake him up...and he is not light!!
So in my experience, it is very plausible the twins slept through the commotion.

ITA....

My children slept through vacuuming, phones ringing, car horns, TVs, music blaring, door bells ringing....you name it. And if children have been playing hard in the sun on vacation, they really do sleep very deeply at that age. It looks as though the McCanns tried to keep their kids on a regular bedtime schedule even while away from home. I did that too when possible, and my children slept well when I could put them to bed at their normal time, no matter where we were.
I believe the McCanns were lulled into a false sense of security by the reputation of the resort as safe, and by the fact that they could see their rooms from their table.

[Anna]

My children were also sound sleepers but did not sleep from 7 pm until 9 am the next morning normally.  For one thing, they would never go that long without eating.

All children are different I suppose.

[pdh3]

Were these children taking naps during the day? Maybe that explains the long sleep....I don't know.
I have a friend who is a nurse, and her pediatrician told her to give her kids benedryl when they wouldn't sleep, to break the cycle, and get them on a regular schedule. She did it, too. 
I didn't know what to think about it, because my kids were always on a schedule, and had a regular bedtime routine, so I never had sleep problems.
Apparently, some parents also give their kids benedryl when they travel to make them sleep during the trip... I never did that either.
Maybe these doctors in that group did this with all their kids, because some doctors think it's ok.

[klaasend]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/09/24/we-ll-find-her-ourselves-89520-19836742/

WE'LL FIND HER OURSELVES
Maddy parents bring in SAS private detectives
By Martin Fricker And Lucy Thornton 24/09/2007

Kate and Gerry McCann have hired teams of ex-SAS and MI5 experts to launch their own hunt for Madeleine.

They brought in the crack detectives after Portuguese police failed to follow up leads. Investigators from security firm Control Risks Group are in Portugal and Morocco. One specialist team is in Marrakech probing a double sighting of Madeleine that was dismissed by police.

The McCanns say officers have stopped searching for her because they only care about convicting them.

[ldstlou]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/09/24/we-ll-find-her-ourselves-89520-19836742/

WE'LL FIND HER OURSELVES
Maddy parents bring in SAS private detectives
By Martin Fricker And Lucy Thornton 24/09/2007

Kate and Gerry McCann have hired teams of ex-SAS and MI5 experts to launch their own hunt for Madeleine.

They brought in the crack detectives after Portuguese police failed to follow up leads. Investigators from security firm Control Risks Group are in Portugal and Morocco. One specialist team is in Marrakech probing a double sighting of Madeleine that was dismissed by police.

The McCanns say officers have stopped searching for her because they only care about convicting them.

Thanks Goodness.
My prayers go out to the McCanns. May these detectives find their precious daughter and bring her home alive!!

[FoolsGold]

This is just insane. There were tons of pictures of their visit to the shrine of Fatima, not to mention the crowds of people who followed their every move.

Yes, but the police are under attack and are going to defend themselves by striking back harder. All the cops have to do is get into the press the suggestion that the parents might have buried her while all those photographers were distracted and enough of that mud will stick to protect the Portugese police and the tourism industry.

Those 10,000 dollars a day SAS types are the only ones conducting an investigation in this case.

[Anna]

Were these children taking naps during the day? Maybe that explains the long sleep....I don't know.
I have a friend who is a nurse, and her pediatrician told her to give her kids benedryl when they wouldn't sleep, to break the cycle, and get them on a regular schedule. She did it, too. 
I didn't know what to think about it, because my kids were always on a schedule, and had a regular bedtime routine, so I never had sleep problems.
Apparently, some parents also give their kids benedryl when they travel to make them sleep during the trip... I never did that either.
Maybe these doctors in that group did this with all their kids, because some doctors think it's ok.

I was married to a physician for 25 years and my education is in nursing.  The implication that this is some how acceptable behavior on the part of parents drugging children for their convenience is not something shared by the medical community at large I can assure you.

And neither is leaving three under the age of four years alone.  They of all people should have known the dangers from choking, electrocution, any number of tragic things that can happen for they see the consequences in their work all the time of what can result from children being left alone.  In this country, they are even required by law to report such things.

I don't believe for one minute that members of the medical community are more likely to neglect or drug their children as several have implied here.  In fact, I deeply resent the suggestion.  It's one of the most insulting things I have ever read about physicians and while there are bad people in every profession, I am just not buying that one as a common practice among doctors.

[pdh3]

Anna - with all due respect....no one is attacking the entire medical community. But I GREW UP with doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, and I can tell you that they have a different attitude about health care than someone not in the profession. Most doctors and nurses are caring people, and so are the people I've mentioned. They're not ogres by any means, and I said as much, if you'd care to go back and read. I am relating what I know, and have experienced.
They are no different than the mechanic whose car doesn't run.....or the plumber with leaky pipes at home.
No one is attacking doctors and nurses here, as a profession. No one is saying that all doctors agree with drugging kids, and leaving them alone unprotected. But to say that they don't make mistakes, or are always above reproach in their behavior is not true either. And also, we don't know how British physicians view things. In Europe, they certainly have a different approach to medicine than American doctors.
We're just discussing what may have happened to a beautiful 3 year old child, and the fact that her parents are doctors may or may not have anything to do with what happened. But it should be fair game to discuss what could have happened to Madeleine that night.
Maybe you should try to see the big picture here, and stop picking on certain posts that you don't like. I'm mentioning events that I personally experienced, and as much as you don't like what I've posted, I think it's relevant to the discussion about Madeleine.