Gonçalo Amaral: "There was far too much diplomacy"

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The former inspector affirms the Judiciary Police worked hand in hand with the Scotland Yard and that there was servility from the Prosecutor's Office and Portuguese Government towards the British

"There was far too much diplomacy"

by Fernanda Cachão & Mónica Palma

Outside the judicial process, Gonçalo Amaral says the McCanns took away the chances of him having a professional life.

Is there a political assessment to be made?

There is, yes, and a very significant one. Notice that I have never returned to the Judiciary Police but the couple has already been there. The PJ direction and even the prosecutor are doing what is considered politically correct. In the United Kingdom and here the direction of the police worked hand in hand with the Scotland Yard, they would not investigate anything that could compromise the parents or the friends. That is a mistake. Besides, there may have been parallel channels of investigation, even because it's not normal for an ambassador of a foreign country to come over to the site of an investigation and pressure for a quick solution. Following that meeting, the PJ director read a statement saying that we were looking for an abductor, something that neither I nor others agreed. If the ambassador, or the consul for that matter, hadn't show up the investigation would have been directed to its standard procedure, which is to suspect those who are responsible for the safekeeping of the child. There was far too much diplomacy.

As the coordinator couldn't you have said something?

Other colleagues and I said what we had to say. We were told that was the path we had to follow and that we would later return to the other.

By whom?

By who was my superior at the time.

But how is it possible for an ambassador's visit to intimidate or direct the investigation in that way?

By the servility we have before the English. The Judiciary, Prosecutor's Office and government felt intimidated by the UK. The misstep was the statement talking about an abduction.

Did Madeleine's parents have a special treatment?

In what I call my naivety, I'll stick by the fact that they belong to a British upper middle class and that they don't like their doctors to make a mess abroad and be condemned for it.


Ten years later what is the self-criticism that you do?

I should not have retired from the PJ. I should have stayed instead - since the police directorate did not defend me nor my colleagues from the assaults targeting us - and written the book as a PJ employee. I should not have allowed us to be the target of so many pressures. When the couple went away, the British police that were here cooperating with us also left. We were left with the feeling that they had been here only to protect the couple. We were overly sincere and then we got our pay back. For example, we sent the forensic evidence to be tested in the English laboratory, when that analysis could have been done in a Portuguese one, so we wouldn't be accused that we had manipulated the final results. We were naive and too diplomatic.

Is this case of particular anguish for you?

Not the case itself. Not even the legal action brought against me. The anguish was what they did to me outside the case. The intrusion on my personal life, the destabilization of the person, the attacks, the insults and taking away all the chances of having a professional activity as I wished to have. This was forbidden for me. This didn't happen only within the legal action, there were plenty schemes being played outside that.

Is your back turned to the previous direction of PJ?

No, I'm making a criticism and I have that right. You do not get rid of a senior police officer to defend a couple suspected at the very least of child neglect, which led to the disappearance. It was almost a lack of respect to make the decision that it was an abduction and make it public. That was not looking at the investigation objectively. If this investigation ever comes to an end and if it proves that the parents have nothing to do with the case, that's fine.

in Sábado magazine, n.678 edition, extract of a six-pages spread article titled "The return of the inspector to the scene of the crime", published on April 27, 2017

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Snipped from above article

Ten years later what is the self-criticism that you do?

I should not have retired from the PJ. I should have stayed instead - since the police directorate did not defend me nor my colleagues from the assaults targeting us - and written the book as a PJ employee. I should not have allowed us to be the target of so many pressures. When the couple went away, the British police that were here cooperating with us also left. We were left with the feeling that they had been here only to protect the couple. We were overly sincere and then we got our pay back. For example, we sent the forensic evidence to be tested in the English laboratory, when that analysis could have been done in a Portuguese one, so we wouldn't be accused that we had manipulated the final results. We were naive and too diplomatic.

.......................................................

I don't understand this response - and as it is a media article I question its veracity because surely if Goncalo Amaral, had remained in the PJ, written a book and released it for publication regarding an ongoing investigation/cold case/shelved case he would have at best been disciplined or likely sacked without pension rights.

Any sign of the two:

'sensitive previously unseen crime scene pictures……'

as mentioned in the Sun article?

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aquila wrote:Snipped from above article

Ten years later what is the self-criticism that you do?

I should not have retired from the PJ. I should have stayed instead - since the police directorate did not defend me nor my colleagues from the assaults targeting us - and written the book as a PJ employee. I should not have allowed us to be the target of so many pressures. When the couple went away, the British police that were here cooperating with us also left. We were left with the feeling that they had been here only to protect the couple. We were overly sincere and then we got our pay back. For example, we sent the forensic evidence to be tested in the English laboratory, when that analysis could have been done in a Portuguese one, so we wouldn't be accused that we had manipulated the final results. We were naive and too diplomatic.

.......................................................

I don't understand this response - and as it is a media article I question its veracity because surely if Goncalo Amaral, had remained in the PJ, written a book and released it for publication regarding an ongoing investigation/cold case/shelved case he would have at best been disciplined or likely sacked without pension rights.

You're right, it makes no sense unless its some sort of defiance that he wished he had done at the time, an afterthought or it could be the case that what he said was inadequately transcribed.

The Sábado magazine six page article was riddled with inaccuracies, so was the the big 10 page spread article in Correio da Manhã published today, by the same two lady journalists who apparently couldn't bother to make a simple google search to fact check what they had written.  These two seem to be the same people that are behind the report, the CMTV documentary (all titles from the same media group) to be broadcast tonight. The articles were so poorly researched, so badly written, they made no sense grammatically, that I've decided to stop my attempts at translating them which would imply correcting almost every paragraph and just do the only interview with Amaral's directs replies. We'll see later on if he said these exact words, or if there was something the journalists omitted with this amateurish job.

xklamation wrote:

aquila wrote:Snipped from above article

Ten years later what is the self-criticism that you do?

I should not have retired from the PJ. I should have stayed instead - since the police directorate did not defend me nor my colleagues from the assaults targeting us - and written the book as a PJ employee. I should not have allowed us to be the target of so many pressures. When the couple went away, the British police that were here cooperating with us also left. We were left with the feeling that they had been here only to protect the couple. We were overly sincere and then we got our pay back. For example, we sent the forensic evidence to be tested in the English laboratory, when that analysis could have been done in a Portuguese one, so we wouldn't be accused that we had manipulated the final results. We were naive and too diplomatic.

.......................................................

I don't understand this response - and as it is a media article I question its veracity because surely if Goncalo Amaral, had remained in the PJ, written a book and released it for publication regarding an ongoing investigation/cold case/shelved case he would have at best been disciplined or likely sacked without pension rights.

You're right, it makes no sense unless its some sort of defiance that he wished he had done at the time, an afterthought or it could be the case that what he said was inadequately transcribed.

The Sábado magazine six page article was riddled with inaccuracies, so was the the big 10 page spread article in Correio da Manhã published today, by the same two lady journalists who apparently couldn't bother to make a simple google search to fact check what they had written.  These two seem to be the same people that are behind the report, the CMTV documentary (all titles from the same media group) to be broadcast tonight. The articles were so poorly researched, so badly written, they made no sense grammatically, that I've decided to stop my attempts at translating them which would imply correcting almost every paragraph and just do the only interview with Amaral's directs replies. We'll see later on if he said these exact words, or if there was something the journalists omitted with this amateurish job.

Thank you . It's not just UK media that is gutter press.

I think one of the bug bears of the McCanns was that Goncalo Amaral penned his book whilst he was a serving officer of the PJ and it was published shortly after his removal from SIO in the Madeleine case.

It's my understanding that Goncalo Amaral resigned from the PJ and his book was already in pre-production, ready to go.

There is no point in avoiding this fact. It has been my only criticism of Goncalo Amaral that he produced his book so quickly and it was written whilst he was a PJ employee.

There is no sense in avoiding this for fear of being labelled pro or anti McCann. It is far better to my mind not to hail Goncalo Amaral as a hero but as someone who was crapped on from a great height, had his life turned upside down, was vilified by the UK press which was being paid for by....

aquila wrote:

xklamation wrote:

aquila wrote:Snipped from above article

Ten years later what is the self-criticism that you do?

I should not have retired from the PJ. I should have stayed instead - since the police directorate did not defend me nor my colleagues from the assaults targeting us - and written the book as a PJ employee. I should not have allowed us to be the target of so many pressures. When the couple went away, the British police that were here cooperating with us also left. We were left with the feeling that they had been here only to protect the couple. We were overly sincere and then we got our pay back. For example, we sent the forensic evidence to be tested in the English laboratory, when that analysis could have been done in a Portuguese one, so we wouldn't be accused that we had manipulated the final results. We were naive and too diplomatic.

.......................................................

I don't understand this response - and as it is a media article I question its veracity because surely if Goncalo Amaral, had remained in the PJ, written a book and released it for publication regarding an ongoing investigation/cold case/shelved case he would have at best been disciplined or likely sacked without pension rights.

You're right, it makes no sense unless its some sort of defiance that he wished he had done at the time, an afterthought or it could be the case that what he said was inadequately transcribed.

The Sábado magazine six page article was riddled with inaccuracies, so was the the big 10 page spread article in Correio da Manhã published today, by the same two lady journalists who apparently couldn't bother to make a simple google search to fact check what they had written.  These two seem to be the same people that are behind the report, the CMTV documentary (all titles from the same media group) to be broadcast tonight. The articles were so poorly researched, so badly written, they made no sense grammatically, that I've decided to stop my attempts at translating them which would imply correcting almost every paragraph and just do the only interview with Amaral's directs replies. We'll see later on if he said these exact words, or if there was something the journalists omitted with this amateurish job.

Thank you . It's not just UK media that is gutter press.

Thank you xclamation

I did think that what I have read lately sounded suspiciously different, in that pertinent bits of information seem to be excluded, thus altering the context of how Goncalo has explained things in the past.

Goncalo Amaral would have made a lot of money from his book - more money than his pension fund or his salary from the PJ.

FACT.

Tony Bennett, who a lot of people consider to be fair game for vilification has written so much about how things have moved on in the years since Madeleine's disappearance. Things move on. Things are uncovered and discovered. Tony Bennett does this for no pay - his price for stating his opinion in the past is a hefty £125 per month.

PeterMac continues to look at the PJ files, drops in FOI's and gives his professional opinion taken from many years of being a senior police officer.

Goncalo Amaral is trading on one book and the hidden promise of another (according to the media) written at a time when he was a serving police officer and he stood to make more money from that book than he could ever have earned as a police officer - more than his pension fund.

I know people on the forum are going to reel at my observation but I can promise you that I am looking at things with complete fairness.

Rocky A's pension fund was cut short because he had to leave his post - as he has explained numerous times.

What is he supposed to do?

Live on fresh air?

His family deserve a good standard of living as they had before he left the PJ.   So what he has made money on his book and possibly from another book.   Good on him I say, good on him.

aquila wrote:Goncalo Amaral would have made a lot of money from his book - more money than his pension fund or his salary from the PJ.

FACT.

Tony Bennett, who a lot of people consider to be fair game for vilification has written so much about how things have moved on in the years since Madeleine's disappearance. Things move on. Things are uncovered and discovered. Tony Bennett does this for no pay - his price for stating his opinion in the past is a hefty £125 per month.

PeterMac continues to look at the PJ files, drops in FOI's and gives his professional opinion taken from many years of being a senior police officer.

Goncalo Amaral is trading on one book and the hidden promise of another (according to the media) written at a time when he was a serving police officer and he stood to make more money from that book than he could ever have earned as a police officer - more than his pension fund.

I know people on the forum are going to reel at my observation but I can promise you that I am looking at things with complete fairness.

I think you're assuming far too much with very little insight of the risks or acknowledgement of the debt we all owe to that "anti-hero" cop that went against the establishment. Quite frankly don't care to understand whatever moral point you're trying to make. But it just sounds bitter and full of resentment. The very fact that he published that book is the reason, I'd dare say, the sole reason, that has allowed us all to develop a more thorough understanding of this case.

Enjoy your evening.

xklamation wrote:

aquila wrote:Goncalo Amaral would have made a lot of money from his book - more money than his pension fund or his salary from the PJ.

FACT.

Tony Bennett, who a lot of people consider to be fair game for vilification has written so much about how things have moved on in the years since Madeleine's disappearance. Things move on. Things are uncovered and discovered. Tony Bennett does this for no pay - his price for stating his opinion in the past is a hefty £125 per month.

PeterMac continues to look at the PJ files, drops in FOI's and gives his professional opinion taken from many years of being a senior police officer.

Goncalo Amaral is trading on one book and the hidden promise of another (according to the media) written at a time when he was a serving police officer and he stood to make more money from that book than he could ever have earned as a police officer - more than his pension fund.

I know people on the forum are going to reel at my observation but I can promise you that I am looking at things with complete fairness.

I think you're assuming far too much with very little insight of the risks or acknowledgement of the debt we all owe to that "anti-hero" cop that went against the establishment. Quite frankly don't care to understand whatever moral point you're trying to make. But it just sounds bitter and full of resentment. The very fact that he published that book is the reason, I'd dare say, the sole reason, that has allowed us all to develop a more thorough understanding of this case.

Enjoy your evening.

 

I pray Goncalo Amaral will find happiness, peace, and prosperity, and that his life will be rich and gratifying in every way. He is indeed a hero!  
Viva Goncalo Amaral! 

xklamation wrote:

aquila wrote:Goncalo Amaral would have made a lot of money from his book - more money than his pension fund or his salary from the PJ.

FACT.

Tony Bennett, who a lot of people consider to be fair game for vilification has written so much about how things have moved on in the years since Madeleine's disappearance. Things move on. Things are uncovered and discovered. Tony Bennett does this for no pay - his price for stating his opinion in the past is a hefty £125 per month.

PeterMac continues to look at the PJ files, drops in FOI's and gives his professional opinion taken from many years of being a senior police officer.

Goncalo Amaral is trading on one book and the hidden promise of another (according to the media) written at a time when he was a serving police officer and he stood to make more money from that book than he could ever have earned as a police officer - more than his pension fund.

I know people on the forum are going to reel at my observation but I can promise you that I am looking at things with complete fairness.

I think you're assuming far too much with very little insight of the risks or acknowledgement of the debt we all owe to that "anti-hero" cop that went against the establishment. Quite frankly don't care to understand whatever moral point you're trying to make. But it just sounds bitter and full of resentment. The very fact that he published that book is the reason, I'd dare say, the sole reason, that has allowed us all to develop a more thorough understanding of this case.

Enjoy your evening.

How on earth could I be bitter and full of resentment? I contributed to Goncalo Amaral's fund.

I don't care who makes money and who doesn't...I - and I expect the vast majority of people - are only interested in the truth of what happened. The fact that the McCanns have probably been enriched by this case doesn't sway it one way or the other for me.  All that matters as they used to say in TV detective series is "the facts".  So far the facts seem way more on Amaral's side than his enemies'.