The British Press gets better every day. - Donal MacIntyre investigates....again.

Donal MacIntyre travelled to Praia da Luz to investigate how two kidnappers must have been needed to abduct Madeleine McCann
Saturday 6th July 2013

Sunday World investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre reports from Praia da Luz where he conducted a cold case review of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The new Police theory for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann corresponds to a review of the case  by the Sunday World cold case team   based upon the statements of the tapas seven and witnesses talked to on the ground which indicated that at least two people were involved in the abduction  who must have carried out several dry runs in inside the McCanns’ apartment in the days leading up to her abduction.

Our team concluded that such was the limited time for the kidnapping,  that the kidnappers must have entered the apartment to rehearse because they were working to an incredibly tight timetable.

Essentially, they were working on an abduction time frame of some three minutes which left no margin for error. It is clear that the kidnap must also have involved meant that culprits were very close to capture at a number of points but through pannning and luck managed to evade immediate suspicion on the evening of the abduction.
That evening having settled  Madeleine, then three, and their then two year old twins, Sean and Amelie, Gerry and Kate McCann had a glass of wine before heading off to the Tapas bar,  a minutes walk  away, to join their holidaying friends, Jane Tanner and her Partner, Russell O’Brien, Rachel and Mathew Oldfield, David and Fiona Payne and Diane Webster.
At around nine o’clock Gerry McCann left  the table and walked over to the apartment to check on the twins and Maddie.

He entered the apartment  and then went to the toilet. He checked on his children and savoured a proud father’s moment as he stood by the doorway looking into the back bedroom where they were all soundly asleep. The twins were in cots and Maddie in bed, holding her cuddle cat.
Gerry spends up to ten minutes in the five room apartment  and would only later reflect that he felt there was someone else there at the same time.
For the kidnap to have taken place   we must assume that literally a few minutes before Gerry arrived, the abductor walked along the public road by the apartment, opened the gate, walked up ten steps to the patio and then entered via the open patio doors. There is confusion as to whether these were open or not but if they were then this would have been the obvious entry point. The theory that the culprit has a key does not discount this entry because the suspect would take the easy route all the time.

At this stage the kidnapped could only have been a heartbeat away from being caught. But where could he have hidden?

Gerry walked through the front room, used the bathroom and looked in on the kids, but did he check his own bedroom or the kitchen?

The abductor was probably at that time in the children’s bedroom, possibly behind the door or crouching behind furniture.

During a dry run he or she would have found somewhere to hide, realizing that there was a strong liklihood of either Kate or Gerry returning  to check on the children. The Met believe that he had inside knowledge and they want the ex-employees of the complex and all the transient workers to be inteviewed again.

As Gerry  strolled out the patio doors, closing but not locking them, he left through the small vanilla gate facing the road where the adbuctor had entered just minutes before.
Just outside the apartment gate,  Gerry meets television producer, Jes Wilkins , on the way back to the Tapas Bar. The streets are silent other than for the murmer of their conversation. There is not another soul to be seen.
Back inside the apartment the abductor must have breathed a sigh of relief as Gerry departed but then realised his expected exit route was blocked.
So at this point the abductor makes contact with an accomplice hiding in the shadows nearby and instructs him or her to open the shutter, so that an escape can be made through the window with Maddie.
The front door was not an option because it could not be opened from the inside without a key unless he had a copy through an insider, also a new police line of inquiry.
Getting  Maddie away was the next problem for the perpetrator and in view of the lack of noise it is some substance was used to knock out Maddie probably, chloroform. The simple management of the abductaion and a little child with two other children in the room meant that  a second accomplice was essential to the abduction of Maddie.  

The abductor  inside the apartment  passed Maddie through the open window or door into the arms of the accomplice who spirits her away.

In the distance, around the side of the apartment, the voices of Gerry McCann and Jes Wilkins waft through the air. Imagine the fear in the  kidnappers as they heard Gerry’s voice resonate through the balmy Algarve air as they stole away his precious daughter.

What trauma would Maddie McCann have suffered if, paralyzed by fear, or forcefully kept silent, she heard the garrulous Glaswegian voice of her Dad waft through the air while she was being bundled into the hands of dangerous strangers.
I have walked these streets and conversations down by the gate can be heard by the children’s bedroom window on still nights.
Unnoticed by Wilkins and McCann;  at the same time ( aprox 9.10pm ) Jane Tanner observes the two men, having a chat on the street outside the apartment. She walks past both men. She sees them but they don’t see her.
The kidnapper holding Maddie, retreats away from 5A and into the adjacent car park before heading right 20m away onto the public footpath where a short distance away downhill,McCann and Wilkins are still talking.
The accomplice makes his way out of the window and exits into the darkness.
By now the kidnappers must have thought they had got away with it, but in reality they were on the brink of being caught in the act.

Here the kidnapper holding Maddie was about to make a near fatal mistake. Despite hearing the voices of Madeline’s father a short distance away, he plans to cross the road junction just above them.
As he hit the footpath, he would have seen both men chatting;  and Jane Tanner heading his way – three potential witnesses to the abduction, including the father of the child.
The smart thing for the kidnapper to do would have been to cautiously look down the road from the corner to check who was on it –before making the crossing.
So why take such a potentially disastrous course of action?

Was he desperate to get to the getaway car parked nearby? More likely there could have been people walking around from the left and he did not want to pass them not realizing that by crossing the junction and into the light of a street lamp he was exposing himself to capture.

My belief was that he had to make a rendezvous with the getaway driver in a 4x4 if the latest police theory is true that Maddie was kidnapped by or for  a childless couple.
The seven seconds he took to cross the road was either well planed, foolhardy or a sign of breathtaking confidence, in any case,  the kidnapper never faltered and was never seen again.
Jane Tanner says that the man  was carrying a small child. She now believes upon reflection, that that man was carrying Maddie McCann. This is the theory supported by the Metropolitan Police and the McCann investigators and concurrs with our own cold case review.
It takes about 30 seconds to walk from the back bedroom window to the junction where Jane Tanner saw the kidnapper.
The Tapas seven gave detailed statements on when they check out and looked in on their respective children and these timings indicate  that there was a maximum of three to five minutes for the abduction to be executed and Maddie to be whisked away.

In such circumstances only good planning and co-ordination could make this child heist possible without being caught directly in the act.
It would be  an extraordinary effort,  with an astonishing degree of  luck beyond credulity to think that this could be achieved on a completely  opportunistic basis.
This is not the work of an opportunistic drifter. This abduction was interrupted by Gerry McCann‘s visit to check on his children.
Experts point out that  the execution of the kidnap, leaving little useable evidence suggests that it was a highly professional operation.
Such precision could either be the hallmark of fixated obsessive sexual predators but also of obsessive childless couples who may be so desperate to have children that they would abduct a child to fill the gap in their lives.

that at least two people were involved in the abduction  who must have carried out several dry runs in inside the McCanns’ apartment in the days leading up to her abduction.

Our team concluded that such was the limited time for the kidnapping,  that the kidnappers must have entered the apartment to rehearse because they were working to an incredibly tight timetable.

Essentially, they were working on an abduction time frame of some three minutes which left no margin for error.

No Fate Worse Than De'Ath wrote:I apologise profusely for calling Donal a donut; he must indeed be having a laugh!

My belief was that he had to make a rendezvous with the getaway driver in a 4x4 if the latest police theory is true that Maddie was kidnapped by or for  a childless couple.
The seven seconds he took to cross the road was either well planed, foolhardy or a sign of breathtaking confidence, in any case,  the kidnapper never faltered and was never seen again.
Jane Tanner says that the man  was carrying a small child. She now believes upon reflection, that that man was carrying Maddie McCann. This is the theory supported by the Metropolitan Police and the McCann investigators and concurrs with our own cold case review.
It takes about 30 seconds to walk from the back bedroom window to the junction where Jane Tanner saw the kidnapper.
The Tapas seven gave detailed statements on when they check out and looked in on their respective children and these timings indicate  that there was a maximum of three to five minutes for the abduction to be executed and Maddie to be whisked away.

ShuBob wrote:

No Fate Worse Than De'Ath wrote:I apologise profusely for calling Donal a donut; he must indeed be having a laugh!

It would be very scary and quite worrying if he is being serious  

candyfloss wrote:So at this point the abductor makes contact with an accomplice hiding in the shadows nearby and instructs him or her to open the shutter, so that an escape can be made through the window with Maddie.





So he was inside the apartment and could raise the shutters easily  and more quietly with the cord, but no, he asks the accomplice to try and lever them up from the outside, and somehow make them stay up.  All in 3 minutes  

No Fate Worse Than De'Ath wrote:

ShuBob wrote:

No Fate Worse Than De'Ath wrote:I apologise profusely for calling Donal a donut; he must indeed be having a laugh!

It would be very scary and quite worrying if he is being serious  

There is still a doubt in my mind as to his intentions. If he was an anonymous blogger known for his satirical reports on current events, we'd say immediately that he was pointing out the lunacy of the official story.

However, the fact that he was known until then for dealing with important issues makes me wonder if this report is supposed to be taken seriously.

candyfloss wrote:

candyfloss wrote:So at this point the abductor makes contact with an accomplice hiding in the shadows nearby and instructs him or her to open the shutter, so that an escape can be made through the window with Maddie.





So he was inside the apartment and could raise the shutters easily  and more quietly with the cord, but no, he asks the accomplice to try and lever them up from the outside, and somehow make them stay up.  All in 3 minutes  

Note the abductor could be a him or her  what does that say about JT's description and artist sketch.

Châtelaine wrote:This is such a relieve for me. At the time everyone was criticising the guy, whereas I thought he was doing a PERFECT spoof. I will see if I can find the video...

Hobs wrote:[...] The brain wants to tell the truth and if we listen careful we will hear what it has to say.