Madeleine McCann: The 48 questions Portuguese cops used to hound parents during 11-hour ordeal as investigation hit another dead end

Madeleine McCann: The 48 questions Portuguese cops used to hound parents during 11-hour ordeal as investigation hit another dead end

Yet another 'unhelpful' article from the Mirror

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All eminently reasonable, sensible questions which show the police doing a thorough, professional job. How else could the McCanns have hoped to be eliminated as suspects? Her refusal to answer screams fear of incriminating herself. Those with nothing to hide answer questions clearly and truthfully. It is a small piece of karma that this refusal still hangs over their heads like the sword of Damocles and always will. The shadow of suspicion and "no smoke without fire" will always loom over them no matter how much they pay the media to try to have it removed.

Is it unhelpful? They have re-produced the 48 questions Kate refused to answer in full.
Many people won't have seen them before,

This Daily Mirror article is so extreme that I can only conclude the British establishment know what's  coming when the PJ release more files. The "investigation" here ( I use the term loosely) has hit the buffers  and has no face-saving exit route. They are stalling yet again with the latest last throw of the dice nonsense. Furthermore,  I believe there has been no cooperation between the PJ and SY whatsoever. I'll wager the exact opposite and I believe that will be revealed unless elements within the Portuguese establishment roll over for the British again.

The Portuguese position has been made abundantly clear through the damning Supreme Court ruling which fearlessly re-iterated the McCanns were not cleared.. Plus, Portugal say the  investigation is still open.  So SY are left up a gum tree and looking pretty diminished.

Nothing for it now but to get their retaliation in first and I expect an escalation in nasty attacks on the PJ's investigation ... and you can rely on our supine press to do the dirty work.

It is simply unbelievable that a supposedly top police force who have never questioned the couple's flaky story are now busy finding fault with a police force who did due diligence in that regard.

And to think all the FOI  secrecy was meant to avoid diplomatic difficulties, which now look inevitable anyway as this case turns into an ugly war of attrition between Britain and Portugal.

ChippyM wrote:Is it unhelpful? They have re-produced the 48 questions Kate refused to answer in full.
Many people won't have seen them before,

I meant unhelpful to the McCanns. They wouldn't really want those re-published this close to the 10th Anniversary.

In the past couple of days the UK media have written a couple of good articles about Amaral, without using derogatory terms, and the IBT has mentioned Richard D. Hall's films in a good way.

Oh dear they seem to have forgotten to mention the 49th question put to Mrs during her "hounding".

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Get'emGonçalo wrote:

ChippyM wrote:Is it unhelpful? They have re-produced the 48 questions Kate refused to answer in full.
Many people won't have seen them before,

I meant unhelpful to the McCanns. They wouldn't really want those re-published this close to the 10th Anniversary.

In the past couple of days the UK media have written a couple of good articles about Amaral, without using derogatory terms, and the IBT has mentioned Richard D. Hall's films in a good way.

Oh right, thanks. I was reading late at night!

Not sure if the IBT mention R.H . in a good way really, they say it's a conspiracy theory involving clones , I don't know if that is one of his theories, I haven't watched all his films.
  Still, you no what they say about 'bad publicity' and all that!

ChippyM wrote:

Get'emGonçalo wrote:

ChippyM wrote:Is it unhelpful? They have re-produced the 48 questions Kate refused to answer in full.
Many people won't have seen them before,

I meant unhelpful to the McCanns. They wouldn't really want those re-published this close to the 10th Anniversary.

In the past couple of days the UK media have written a couple of good articles about Amaral, without using derogatory terms, and the IBT has mentioned Richard D. Hall's films in a good way.

Oh right, thanks. I was reading late at night!

Not sure if the IBT mention R.H . in a good way really, they say it's a conspiracy theory involving clones , I don't know if that is one of his theories, I haven't watched all his films.
  Still, you no what they say about 'bad publicity' and all that!

This bit's not bad though:

IBTimes UK recently attended a lecture by Hall in which he promoted his films and elaborated on his theories regarding the Maddie case. In an intro clip played to the audience before he took to the stage, he noted that public attitudes were increasingly turning against the McCanns.


"In the Madeleine McCann case – where there is a huge establishment lie in my opinion being told about it – the public really aren't buying it now and there has been a bit of a sea change in that one issue," he said.


Hall is a fierce critic and self-styled antithesis of the traditional print and broadcast, or mainstream, media – which he regards as being largely under the control of the government"

plebgate wrote:Oh dear they seem to have forgotten to mention the 49th question put to Mrs during her "hounding".

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Q49: 'Are you aware that the fact of your not answering the questions put to you jeopardise the investigation that was aimed at finding out what happened to your daughter?'

KM answered: "Yes, if the investigation thinks that."

Q50: ' Do you have anything to add?'

KM said: "No."

Her lawyer was asked 'to comment'.

'Lawyer' said: 'he had nothing to state or request.'

Thanks JeanM - the snoozepapers should know it is important to give their readers all the known info.

jeanmonroe wrote:

plebgate wrote:Oh dear they seem to have forgotten to mention the 49th question put to Mrs during her "hounding".

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Q49: 'Are you aware that the fact of your not answering the questions put to you jeopardise the investigation that was aimed at finding out what happened to your daughter?'

KM answered: "Yes, if the investigation thinks that."

Q50: ' Do you have anything to add?'

KM said: "No."

Her lawyer was asked 'to comment'.

'Lawyer' said: 'he had nothing to state or request.'

How many times does a collective groan go up across Britain when the news shows grainy CCTV footage - usually trained on the top of some chancer's bonce - going no comment, no comment, no comment?

Although admittedly, with 48 questions given the no comment treatment - plus a 49th that tantamount says  I don't give a stuff about staying schtum about any aspect of these questions that might help find my infant daughter, -you are entering world championship  territory.

That was before the files were released for public viewing/discussion though Mirage.

The Sun have included the 49th question in this article:

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The old Daily Mail article [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

During eleven hours of interrogation, Kate McCann refused to answer 48 specific questions.
Madeleine's mother, who was legally represented in the interview, stayed silent as police threw a series of loaded questions at her that made clear they thought she was involved in her daughter's disappearance.

She answered only once - when accused of harming the hunt for Madeleine by her silence.



These are the questions:

1. On May 3 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch?
2.  Did you search inside the bedroom wardrobe? (she replied that she wouldn’t answer)
3. (shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents?
4.  Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (whose photo was shown to her) been tampered with? Did somebody go behind that sofa?
5. How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected your daughter Madeleine’s disappearance?
6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted?
7. Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the ‘Tapas’ and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment.
8. Why didn’t you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn’t you ask them later on?
9. When you raised the alarm at the ‘Tapas’ what exactly did you say and what were your exact words?
10. What happened after you raised the alarm in the ‘Tapas’?
11. Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah?
12. Who contacted the authorities?
13.  Who took place in the searches?
14.  Did anyone outside of the group learn of Madeleine’s disappearance in those following minutes?
15. Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance?
16. What does 'we let her down' mean?
17.  Did Jane tell you that night that she’d seen a man with a child?
18.  How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted?
19. During the searches, with the police already there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way?
20. Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs?
21. Who did you phone after the occurrence?
22. Did you call Sky News?

23. Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor?
24. Did you ask for a priest?

25. By what means did you divulge Madeleine’s features, by photographs or by any other means?

26. Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving?

27. What was your behaviour that night?

28. Did you manage to sleep?

29. Before travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling?

30. What was Madeleine’s behaviour like?

31. Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication?

32. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister?

33. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates?

34. As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked?

35. What is your medical specialty?

36. Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services?

37. Did you work every day?

38. At a certain point you stopped working, why?

39. Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness?

40.  Is it true that sometimes you despaired with your children’s behaviour and that left you feeling very uneasy?

41. Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative?

42. In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication?

43.   In the case files you were SHOWN CANINE forensic testing films, where you can see them marking due to detection of the scent of human corpse and blood traces, also human, and only human, as well as all the comments of the technician in charge of them. After watching and after the marking of the scent of corpse in your bedroom beside the wardrobe and behind the sofa, pushed up against the sofa wall, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

44.   When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

45.  When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

46.  When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

47.   When confronted with the results of Maddie’s DNA, whose analysis was carried out in a British laboratory, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

48.   Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter’s disappearance?
A QUESTION SHE DID ANSWER

Q.  Are you aware that in not answering the questions you are jeopardising the investigation, which seeks to discover what happened to your daughter?

A.  'Yes, if that’s what the investigation thinks.


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Not that they will ever be published now, but it would have been much better for the public to see the questions that Gerry refused to answer, because they are actually more enlightening. The fact that he would answer some questions, yet refused to answer whether he ever sedated his children with 'no comment', speaks volumes. Also his refusal to answer whether he knew Robert Murat before events unfolded (although that was to a journalist, I'm not sure if the police asked him that question).

Question 1 is a perfectly reasonable question, suspect or not.

 On May 3 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch?

That's question 1.

Why didn't she answer the first perfectly reasonable question?