May 2008

01 May 2008
McCanns' drive needs more support MSNUK News
pa.press.net - 01.05.2008 05:22
Kate and Gerry McCann's campaign for a Europe-wide missing child alert system has so far received less than one third of the support it needs from Euro-MPs.
The McCanns visited the European Parliament last month, pleading for MEPs' support to get EU governments to back the scheme.
 
Anniversary appeal is our last chance, say Kate and Gerry McCann Timesonline
David Brown
May 02, 2008 (First published online: May 01, 2008)
 
Kate and Gerry McCann admitted that their publicity drive this week was the "last chance" to promote the international search for their missing daughter, Madeleine.
They want information from the PJ 24horas
 
Clarence Mitchell, gave an interview to Rádio Renascença
 
Text: Rita Coelho
01/05/2008 (Thanks to 'Li' from the3arguidos for translation)
The couple would like to have more details given by the PJ about the steps of the investigation concerning the disappearance of their daughter, revealed yesterday the spokesman of the McCanns. Mitchell also said in the interview that the McCanns will not come to Portugal to the reconstruction of the disappearance scheduled for 15 or 16th of May. As the spokesman had already told 24 Horas, the McCanns do not believe that this exercise, a year after and without being filmed by television cameras brings any benefit to discover the truth.
"Nobody stopped to think the psychological effect that it could cause to Kate, to see another person impersonating Maddie" said recently to 24 Horas, Clarence Mitchell.They would like "that the arguido status was withdrawn as soon as possible because they are not involved in the disappearance of their daughter", said Clarence Mitchell in the interview.
"They never placed the child in danger, they were never negligent or something like that. They are responsible parents", guarantees Mitchell.

Madeleine could be held against her will for years like Fritzl's secret family Daily Mail
 Last updated at 14:44pm on 1st May 2008
Madeleine McCann's parents fear she could end up like the secret family Josef Fritzl kept captive in an underground dungeon in Austria, they revealed today.
In an appearance on Sky News the McCanns were asked if the shocking case gave them a glimmer of hope, as proof that it was possible for someone missing so long to still be alive.
Mr McCann replied: "It's an interesting concept isn't it? And of course Austria has had the other case of Natascha Kampusch who was missing for eight years.
They are both adamant their daughter, now four, is still alive and that it will only take one piece of information to find her.
The couple have embarked on a huge round of TV interviews to kick off a renewed campaign in their search for their girl ahead of the anniversary of her disappearance on Saturday.

Burglar Snatches Madeleine Sermon Notes Sky News
Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
Thursday May 01, 2008
 
Anglican priest Haynes Hubbard and his wife Susan lost a computer that contains personal and confidential email exchanges between the two couples.
 
Police chief rules out alert system Ananova
 
01 May 2008 
The most senior officer responsible for tracing missing children in England and Wales effectively ruled out introducing an "amber alert" system.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Bryan said there is no need for UK forces to adopt the American system of immediate information broadcasts.
The officer, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) lead on missing people, said forces already operate an effective "child rescue alert".
Mr Bryan said police would rather use other investigative techniques to trace children before going public and potentially alerting abductors.

Blood marks the death Correio da Manhã
 Tânia Laranjo
02 May 2008, 10:00h (translation: Debk) 
The definitive exam results have been with PJ for some months and indicate a high degree of similarity between the blood in the McCann's car and that of Madeleine. The same comparisons were made with the vestiges detected in the apartment rented by the English [couple] and where the child, then three years old, disappeared without a trace.Notes

18 Interviews

Yesterday, Maddie's parents gave 18 interviews to the media.

The PJ waits for 9 months for the complete tests Jornal de Notícias
 
Alexandra Serôdio, Maria Rodrigues and Nuno Miguel maia
(Thanks to 'Li' from the3arguidos forum for translation)
A year after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and nine months after the collection of biological vestiges, the sophisticated and prestigious forensic lab of Birmingham, in England, did not send yet to the PJ the final reports of all the analysis. The JN found that still missing is the complete examination to the hairs found in several places and that could help the complex investigation. The PJ was already been informed informally that it will not be technically possible to determine, through DNA analysis, if the hair samples belong to Maddie. This is due to fact that the hairs have no capillary tubes.

For this reason, it won't be possible to determine in scientific terms if the hairs found in the boot of the car hired by the McCanns and in the flat of the Ocean Club belong to Madeleine or to one of her siblings. The only data that is possible to obtain without capillary tube is the identification of the mother.

-- snip re the Smith’s sighting:

This deposition ended to give credibility to Jane Tanner's words, a friend of the couple, that guarantees having seen a man with a child in the night Madeleine disappeared.
The investigators opted to listen again to the witnesses but decided that the depositions would be made through rogatory letters sent to the Leicester police.
Before this step was fulfilled, in April, this family was contacted by detectives of Método 3. The JN discovered that since that contact the certainties of the Smiths ended.

The Press AssociationPosted online 11:40, 03 May 2008
 
Kate McCann has written a message that is to be read out during a service at the beachside chapel in Praia da Luz and Gerry McCann's brother was expected to attend.
 



McCanns ask for police files to help in search for Madeleine Irish Independent 
 By Allison Bray
Saturday, May 10, 2008
snip
Clarence Mitchell keynote speaker at Public relations institute of Ireland annual conference.
He spoke of how the initial tide of negative publicity surrounding the McCanns was eventually turned in their favour following a successful libel action against the Express Group newspapers in the UK that he said was embroiled in "a huge spin cycle of nonsense" with some of the Portuguese tabloid media.
On the whole, the coverage of Madeleine's disappearance in the Irish media was much more responsible and balanced than in the UK or elsewhere, he said yesterday.
He also credited the internet with being the single most effective tool in the entire campaign.
 "It was access to the internet that gave us a boost," he said in his speech on public relations crisis management.


Kate and Gerry hold quiet birthday vigil for Maddy Sunday Express (No online link)
By Tracey Kandohla
Sunday, May 11, 2008
 
Missing Madeleine McCann's fifth birthday tomorrow will be marked by a small family gathering, but withour presents and cards.Kate, 40, and Gerry, 39, would welcome a fuller involvement from Scotland Yard, especially as the National Director of Portugal's Police, who seemed to be on the couple's side, has announced he is to quit.
Alipio Ribeiro, 48, is set to leave three months after saying that Portuguese detectives had been hasty in branding the couple official suspects.

Madeleine McCann: reconstruction may occur Telegraph
 By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 7:29PM BST 14/05/2008
A reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann went missing may still go ahead, her parents' Portuguese lawyer has said.
 
"It is not going to be televised, so it won’t throw up any new leads outside the police investigation," said the source. "There are physical differences more than a year on, such as the hedgerows are a different height, for example. 

"And has anyone given any thought to how Kate might feel about taking part in a reconstruction with another child playing her daughter?"Maddie cops get set for re-run 

The Sun
Published: Today 15 May 2008
A reconstruction of Madeleine McCann's disappearance is set for May 29 — but her parents are still undecided whether to take part.
A source close to the McCanns said the group had "serious reservations".
The source said: "Why just them and the Tapas Seven? Why not all the holidaymakers and staff?

16/5
McCann advances against "T&Q" 24horas
Former director and journalist of the extinct weekly newspaper were formally constituted as arguidosKate and Gerry McCann believe that the publication of the headline "PJ believes that the parents killed Maddie" put public opinion, world-wide, against themIf the publisher and journalist of "T&Q" are found guilty of criminal libel they could be jailed for up to two years. They could also be fined up to €120 (£80) and €180,000 (£122,000).



McCanns: It's still no to a rerun The People
By Marc Baker
18 May 2008
 Defiant Kate and Gerry McCann have rejected a new plea to help re-create the night their daughter Maddie vanished.
 
Ultimatum for the McCanns 24horas
 Public prosecutor fed up with the lack of cooperation from the British couple
Text Carlos Tomás
23/05/2008
Kate, Gerry and the seven friends have not yet accepted a return to Portugal on the 29th. The Public Prosecutor is going to accuse the couple of gross negligence
 
The Public Prosecutor made an ultimatum to the McCanns: Attend the reconstruction of Maddie's disappearance that will take place on the 29th of May or the Public Prosecutor will advance with the accusation of gross negligence against the couple.




Mark Warner, at that time, offered a 'baby listening service', where nannies toured the complex listening for crying children and then alerted their parents. However, this service was not available in Praia da Luz as the company said the resort was too spread out, with many apartments being outside the bounds of the actual Mark Warner complex.
 
The McCanns will almost certainly argue that if Mark Warner were offering this service at that time, albeit at other resorts, then it must have been considered legal and 'responsible' to leave the children alone - as long as they were being checked on a regular basis. 
 
Their argument will be that all they were doing was the Mark Warner 'baby listening service' by themselves and that, even if Mark Warner had offered the service in Praia da Luz, there would have been nothing to stop an abductor undertaking the same act between checks made by nannies, as opposed to them.
 
The immediate questions that flow from this are: Would the Mark Warner 'baby listening service' have complied with Portuguese law (if the service had been available) and, if such a service was considered illegal, would the McCanns have been expected to know this?
 

British Officer accuses McCanns of having agreement to prevent reconstruction SOS Maddie (French language site)
  Duarte Levy
23/05/2008
 
According to a senior British police officer from Enderby, in Leicestershire, "Kate and Gerry McCann have established an agreement with their seven friends to prevent the realisation of the reconstruction request by the Portuguese authorities."
 
"They know that this reconstruction will not take place if the group is incomplete," said the officer adding that "it is clear that Kate and Gerry cannot refuse directly and publicly discuss their participation for fear of seeing public opinion in the United Kingdom turn against them."
 
"That is why they know their friends will not participate." said the British officer who had accompanied the investigation in Portugal.

Source: 24Horas – Paper Edition pages 4 and 5
 
Full ruling of the Relation Court in Évora on the 29 of April 2008
(Portuguese language)
 
Reconstruction of Madeleine's disappearance cancelled due to absent witnesses Lusa / Expresso
27/05/2008 (Thanks to Joana Morais for translation)
 
The reconstruction of the facts relative to the disappearance of the English child Madeleine McCann, appointed for Thursday and Friday, was cancelled due to the absence of four of the witnesses, informed today the General Procuracy of the Republic (PGR).

According to a note of the PGR, the diligence "won't happen" due to "the previously announced absence" of four friends of the McCanns who spent holidays in the tourist resort of Praia da Luz, Algarve, at the time that the child disappeared, on the 3rd of May 2007.

Kate and Gerry McCann showed willingness to participate in the reconstruction of their daughter's disappearance, but their friends put in question the validity and the proposed model.


"Basically, it's not up to Gerry and Kate (the making of the reconstruction) because they are arguidos and, if their presence is requested, they will go, they have to go", guaranteed recently the spokesman of the couple, Clarence Mitchell, to the Lusa News Agency.

"Everything depends on their friends, who were also invited to go but, since they are not arguidos, they have a right of questioning the usefulness of the exercise and whether it will help to find Madeleine - and at this moment the answer seems to be it will not ", he said.

A reconstruction of all the steps given by the parents and the friends present at that time was suggested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) about a month ago, first through the McCann's lawyers and then through individual notifications.

Here they would have already been arrested 

24horas
McCanns' friends refused to cooperate with reconstruction
 
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
They were notified about the reconstitution of the disappearance, but they are not coming. If Kate’s and Gerry’s friends were Portuguese, they would participate under detention
 
The last hope for the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) to be able to reconstruct the steps that were made by the McCanns and their seven friends on the evening of Maddie’s disappearance, have been demolished. The reconstruction of the events of the 3rd of May, which was scheduled for next Wednesday, has been annulled.
 
"As arguidos, Kate and Gerry were forced to cooperate with the authorities, and they would attend. But their friends decided not to go, because they failed to understand the usefulness of this diligence", Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman, said to 24Horas. "The friends were formally notified about the reconstitution, recently. The couple had been notified already".
 
According to Mitchell, the PJ has always made it known that "either all of them were coming, or none of them". As is obvious, a reconstruction with only Kate and Gerry would make no sense…


Madeleine McCann's parents investigated for neglect Timesonline
 David Brown
May 28 2008
 The parents of Madeleine McCann are being investigated for possibly neglecting their daughter on the night she disappeared from their Portuguese holiday apartment, it was revealed today.
 
The first published court ruling on the Madeleine case confirms that the police inquiry covers homicide, abandonment, concealment of a corpse and abduction.
 
The reference to "abandonment" suggests that Portuguese detectives are investigating if there is evidence that Kate and Gerry McCann were negligent in leaving their daughter alone on the night she was reported missing. The charge carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
 Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, said: "We are pleased to see that the investigation covers abduction. Kate and Gerry have had legal advice in both Portugal and Britain which say that everything they did was within the boundaries of reasonable behaviour."
 
He said that Mr McCann had no knowledge of the texts referred to on May 3 and 4 and had received only a few calls on his mobile in the six days the family had been in Portugal prior to Madeleine disappearance.
 

Afraid of being constituted arguidos 24horas
McCann friends refused to return to Portugal
  Text Carlos Tomás
29/05/2008
The other two couples that left their children in the Ocean Club were afraid by the fact that the Portuguese law now provides a penalty up to 10 years in jail for those that abandon minors
 
Two couples refused to return to Portugal to cooperate with the PJ in the reenactment of the 3rd of May 2007. Amongst the motives for the refusal, 24horas discovered that it was the fact that Jane Tanner, Russel O'Brien, Rachel and Matthew Oldfield were afraid of being constituted as arguidos.Should the McCanns face child neglect charges?

McCanns in fury after 14 txts slur Daily Mirror
By Martin Fricker
29/05/2008
 
Gerry McCann reacted angrily yesterday to claims he received a string of mystery texts the day before his daughter vanished.
 
Police applied to Portugal's supreme court to seize his phone records after learning of the alleged messages.
 
They claim Gerry was sent 10 texts from an unknown number 24 hours before Madeleine disappeared.
 
And detectives say four messages arrived from the same mystery number the day after she went missing, according to court documents.
 
But Gerry and wife Kate have dismissed the claims as "utter rubbish".A source close to them said: "They have had their phone records available for inspection for months. But the police never asked for them. And now they have formally asked, they have been refused.
 
"Any suggestion of Gerry receiving 10 texts the day before Madeleine disappeared are utter rubbish.
 
"He hardly used his phone during the holiday and most of the friends with them didn't even have mobiles.
 

The Shields Gazette
Web vote result
 
30/05/2008Our poll asked:
 
Are Portuguese police right to consider charging the McCanns with child neglect?
 
The result was:
Yes: 92 per cent
 - No: 8 per cent

Conclusion: from the above it may be seen that they're far from safe yet.
They cannot refuse to do the reconstruction because they are arguidos, so spinning it to make it appear they are 'willing' but have reservations is the only thing they can do.
The best and only option is for the T7 to refuse.
It's interesting that the fact it would not be filmed or televised seems to be an obstacle.


The next bombshell - if they do not take part in the reconstruction they will be taken to court for child neglect, which carries a hefty prison sentence in Portugal - is played down by the media and not widely reported.
Their only excuse for this is the child listening service by MW which has been replicated by them. This is clearly not going to be a valid argument.
Basically naivity and 'babes in the woods' excuse again.

Meanwhile they're still trying to find a role in the Amber Alert scheme and are disappointed by both the MEPs' response and that of the British police.

Right at the end of the month the DVD with the telephone records is mentioned in the press and yet another difficult fact needs to be denied.

All through the month the fear of negative publicity is haunting the fragrant pair and the main driving force. Right at the end we see the opinion of the public.

tigger wrote:Conclusion: from the above it may be seen that they're far from safe yet.
They cannot refuse to do the reconstruction because they are arguidos, so spinning it to make it appear they are 'willing' but have reservations is the only thing they can do.
The best and only option is for the T7 to refuse.
It's interesting that the fact it would not be filmed or televised seems to be an obstacle.


The next bombshell - if they do not take part in the reconstruction they will be taken to court for child neglect, which carries a hefty prison sentence in Portugal - is played down by the media and not widely reported.
Their only excuse for this is the child listening service by MW which has been replicated by them. This is clearly not going to be a valid argument.
Basically naivity and 'babes in the woods' excuse again.

Meanwhile they're still trying to find a role in the Amber Alert scheme and are disappointed by both the MEPs' response and that of the British police.

Right at the end of the month the DVD with the telephone records is mentioned in the press and yet another difficult fact needs to be denied.

All through the month the fear of negative publicity is haunting the fragrant pair and the main driving force. Right at the end we see the opinion of the public.

tigger, I'm awe-struck by all your work, accumulating the old essentials.
With the new information which we have seen and chewed over, the old info can take on a new significance.

So good to see it all for 'revisiting'. Thank you, a valuable and really worthwhile effort.

Yes I agree TY so much tigger , I always seem to find a clear summary in all your posts and it really helps in trying to keep up , I must read the above in more detail , but one thing sticks out to me in when comparisions are made to MM being found alive after so many years like other cases , I mean please it gives the image of some loony building a special shelter all equipped to keep a child for years , all built in time for when the MCS would come to Portugal and leave their kids alone and ready to be taken