McCanns ask for thousands of Euros from Amaral

The couple wants between 100 and 500 thousand Euros compensation

Donations increased after the Oprah Show but not enough to keep the fund active for much longer.

Português – Español – Français

One hundred to 500 thousand Euros compensation is the amount Kate and Gerry McCann want to receive from Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) of the Judicial Police (PJ) of Portimão. The lawsuit, according to the McCanns, aims at putting money into the fund that the couple uses to finance its expenditures of the campaign they have promoted since the disappearance of their daughter.
The information has been confirmed to the 24horas by a source of the “Madeleine’s Fund – Leaving No Stone Unturned”, the financial fund created by Maddie’s parents nine days after the disappearance of the child.
“The couple is hoping to receive at least a six-digit compensation,” said the same source adding that “other legal actions are not excluded, which will help putting money into the Find Madeleine fund and helping the campaign.” 24horas knows that since 2007 – soon after Kate and Gerry McCann’s return to England – the couple’s lawyers have a list of media, of journalists and even of Portuguese and English blogs that the McCanns are looking at as a possible “target”.
Gonçalo Amaral is the main target of the McCanns: according to the same source, the person in charge of the investigation into Maddie’s disappearance is “the only person who continues to question Madeleine’s abduction” and this “affects the credibility of the couple and the work of the investigators”.
The former PJ coordinator’s movements have always been the target of greatest attention for the detectives hired by the McCanns – an initiative started off by the Spanish people from Metodo 3 but remaining up to date in a report disclosing information about Gonçalo Amaral’s private and professional life and lists details such as the family’s bank accounts, and even the list of their closest friends. Part of this report, however, has been transmitted to a Portuguese lawyer who has used it in declarations and accusations related to another process.
The lawsuits seem to be the best means Kate and Gerry McCann found to finance their activities of the “Find Madeleine” campaign – a private organisation mainly managed by the family and now having Kate and Gerry as directors.
After having received more than 700,000 Euros compensation in lawsuits against various English newspapers, which have never gone through any court rooms, the couple is now aiming at various targets in Portugal: “It is clear that Amaral is the main target, but other possibilities exist, especially amongst the media and on the internet where defamatory statements regarding the couple have been made,” said the same source.

The millionaire “drops” his support

Despite the numerous donations made to the “Find Madeleine” fund since Kate and Gerry McCann’s interview at Oprah’s talk-show – a North American television programme that SIC has broadcasted in Portugal – the financial capacity of the fund no longer is the one the couple got used to in 2007, and even the Scottish multimillionaire Brian Kennedy turned his back on the expenses of Clarence Mitchell, the spokesperson of Maddie’s parents.
As 24horas already revealed in March this year, the multimillionaire, Brian Kennedy, ceased to support the activities of the McCanns alleging financial reasons to justify his withdrawal. Clarence Mitchell, the spokesperson of Kate and Gerry McCann, had already confirmed this piece of information to the 24horas saying that the multimillionaire neither paid any longer for his services nor for the payment of the detectives hired by the couple.
Despite the abandon of the multimillionaire, Clarence Mitchell assured to the 24horas that he will continue to work alongside Kate and Gerry McCann. The spokesperson of the couple, communication and public relations specialist has reduced the number of his declarations but keeps in permanent contact with the journalists.
Brian Kennedy would have seen his fortune diminishing for more than 50 million pounds which, however, would not be the only reason behind his decision to abandon his support to the couple – a source close to the multimillionaire told 24horas that Kennedy had neither appreciated the expenditures of the Spanish detectives (Metodo 3), nor the half a million pounds paid to an American company for six months of a supposed inquiry.

Paedophile says he knows nothing regarding Maddie

Raymond Hewllet

Raymond Hewlett, the English citizen denounced by the two former British detectives hired by the McCanns as the alleged suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance, denied to have seen or approached the child during the time he lived in the Algarve and has reaffirmed to the 24horas “that he had no involvement in the disappearance” of the child. This is Hewlett’s reaction to the information published during the past few weeks in the various German and British newspapers saying that the English citizen supposedly saw Maddie on two occasions.
Yesterday, in declarations to the “Sunday Mirror”, Hewlett confirmed what he had already said to the 24horas: “The only time I saw Madeleine McCann was on posters regarding the disappearance,” adding that he saw her once on television but “never in real life”.
“It is obvious why they are interested in me. But they can think what they want. I did not kill the girl. This is the truth and it will never change,” said the British to the English newspaper.
Sources close to the Leicestershire police revealed to the 24horas that the Hewlett’s profile does not correspond to the one of an eventual abductor of Madeleine and that “all the suspicions of the McCann’s detectives in relation to Hewlett are based on assumptions, as facts or evidences to support them in this direction do not exist”. – “In the first phase of the joint investigation carried out in Portugal, all the individuals registered on file or suspected of sexual aggression acts, paedophilia or abduction, had been investigated and eliminated as suspects one by one,”  concluded the same source.
The alleged suspect, currently in Aachen (Germany) in the terminal phase of a cancer disease, confirmed having been questioned by the West Yorkshire police but denied having been questioned regarding Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Yes, I have spoken to the British police and am willing to collaborate as far as my state of health permits, but they were not interested in Maddie’s disappearance,” said Hewlett to the 24horas adding that on 3 May 2007 “I was not in Praia da Luz”.

Hewlett appeared on the front pages of the British tabloids after the two former British detectives, Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley – known on Internet as “Dupont et Dupond” (Thomson and Thompson) referring to the two police officers of the comic book Tintin – revealed that the British citizen lived in the Algarve in 2007 and that the man had already been condemned in paedophilia cases in the 70s.
“An alleged paedophile who is about to die would be the ideal suspect to divert the attention of the public opinion and raise doubts in people’s minds,” said a PJ inspector in the Algarve to the 24horas, adding that “all the alleged suspects so far indicated by the private detectives had been investigated and nothing indicated that they were involved in the disappearance of the girl.”
Questioned regarding Gonçalo Amaral’s theory, the inspector only added that “Amaral has much experience, without enough elements he would never put this theory forward”.

Duarte Levy on 24horas

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Brian Kennedy, Clarence Mitchell, Duarte Levy, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Madeleine's Fund, Raymond Hewlett

Gonçalo Amaral tapped

The Maddie case is taboo for the PGR and the PJ

Gonçalo Amaral

Português – Español – Français

“Many people linked to the Maddie case and the investigation made in Portugal, were or are still the target of tapping and surveillance,” said a source of the Home Office to 24Horas in answer to the affirmations made by the ex-coordinator of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) of the Judicial Police (PJ) of Portimão.
Gonçalo Amaral said that he was “under surveillance” and he knows that his “phone is being tapped.” The former head of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann “does not know who is watching him”, but he affirms that his email has been the target of a constant curiosity and that part of this information has been transmitted to the McCanns.
“At the moment, there is information which has to be developed regarding the localisation and what might have happened to the body of the young girl,” said Amaral, accusing the Public Prosecutor (PGR) and the management of the PJ of making a taboo of the Maddie case, where “nobody does anything” allowing “that people external to the Portuguese justice and police force investigate crimes under the PJ’s responsibility”.
Gonçalo Amaral, who, until now, has not received any notification regarding the complaint for defamation announced by the McCanns, confirms that he will sue Kate and Gerry McCann and will prove that an “agreement existed” between the couple and the British police during the investigation, which supposedly influenced the end result of the investigation.
Maddie’s parents want to prevent the publication in English of the book “Maddie: The truth of the lie”, in which the ex-coordinator of the PJ reveals many details of the investigation he was leading in Praia da Luz and where he sustains the theory of Madeleine’s death. The decision of the couple was supposedly taken as a consequence of the disclosure of the documentary based on this book that TVI (Portuguese TV channel) broadcasted and is available on internet with English subtitles.

Amaral accuses the Public Prosecutor to have “trapped” him in the Leonor Cipriano case.

“I haven’t got any doubt that there was a trap from the Public Prosecutor which then led him to say during the judgement that I made a false testimony, because I should have been made arguido the first day, at the first hour, like my colleagues,” said Gonçalo Amaral on TVI (see video) on the fact of having been condemned in the lawsuit of Leonor Cipriano, confirming that he is going to appeal against the sentence.
The ex-coordinator, talking about his most recent experience made with law in Portugal, gave the example of two complaints presented around the same report worked out by an association in the Joanna Cipriano case: the complaint presented by Amaral over a year ago is on standby, whereas the second, presented by the opposing party, already has some arguidos.

Duarte Levy also on “24horas”

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Duarte Levy, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, PJ, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal

The McCanns’ interview to SIC: Fallacies and more Fallacies or the antechamber to the Swan Song?

by Paulo Sargento

Português ♦ Español

The Interview that Rita Jordão, a SIC corresponding journalist in London, carried out with the McCann couple, and which the station broadcast in May 2009, seems to have been yet another opportunity for the desperate and inconsistent defence of two issues, that are, in practical terms, indefensible: firstly, that Madeleine is alive, and secondly, that she only hasn’t been found yet because of a blockage that results from the propagation of Gonçalo Amaral’s theory, which apart from insisting that the little girl is dead, insists on the fact that the parents know that and, eventually, concealed the cadaver.
The beginning of the interview is marked by a ‘Mitchellian’ speech style, in which Gerry McCann is more competent than his wife Kate. Considering the last two years as the “longest” ones of his life, Gerry managed, simultaneously and subtly, to state that time went by very quickly, “too quickly”, a paradox that offered Kate the opportunity to, once more, inadvertently, suggest her process of irreparable grief, when she sustained that the initial times were the hardest ones in her life and that, despite becoming less “raw”, they still remain painful. But this is merely an issue of style that we have already become used to.

The twins, who are always introduced in the couple’s speeches, through their own initiative or by suggestion from the journalists, offer the perfect opportunity to introduce the theme of an incomplete family that awaits the arrival of a member in order to consecrate some kind of original union, bearing the most supreme of happiness, where some kind of mystical omnipresence (“she is always with us”) is materialised by the overly exhibitionist maintenance of artefacts (Maddie’s room remained intact) and demonstrated by Sean and Amelie’s implanted memories and their longing “by proxy”. Nevertheless, concerning the fact that everything is in constant harmony awaiting Maddie (from the supposed longing by her siblings up to the maintenance of her belongings) it is grotesque, to say the least, that they dress Amelie in her clothes and, on top of that, mention the fact to her. And what can be said about the appropriation of their beliefs concerning the events, when Gerry says that “they believe that [Maddie] was abducted”? Of course the children believe what the adults tell them, although it’s a vain and very uncertain hope, or, worse, an obvious lie. But adults also often say what suits them concerning the thoughts of children, although that constitutes merely a skewed interpretation or also an intentional manipulation.
Allow me one confession. From my point of view, journalist Rita Jordão asked simple questions, in a simple manner, but very, very intelligent ones. It was actually one of those intelligently simple questions that cleared the path towards the most central issue of the entire interview: the immeasurable anger and the enormous fear concerning the media exposure given to Gonçalo Amaral, and his theories, and the attempt to assume the exclusive pro-activity in the (pseudo) search for Madeleine McCann.

The key question was the following: “What are your main fears of what could have happened to Madeleine?”

That question allowed for the entire strategy of dismantling the facts to be operated, through fallacies of various types (particularly argumentum ad ignorantium, argumentum ad autoritatum, modus tollens and modus ponens resulting from the illogical inversions in denying the consequent and affirming the antecedent).
If at the beginning they were afraid that their daughter had been abducted by a paedophile, and afterwards, molested and killed, due to the supposed absence of indications sustaining this thesis they concluded that one cannot conclude that anything bad happened to her. I ask the reader to forgive the redaction, particularly “concluded that one cannot conclude”, but this was the most effective way to demonstrate the last two fallacies that I mentioned. But, paradigmatically, note the another sentence “If nobody knows who took her, then we cannot conclude that she is dead” (argumentum ad ignorantium). Well, but as for facts that sustain the abduction theory, NOT A SINGLE ONE! There has never been one, there is none, and I believe there will never be one.
It became patent that the documentaries that were made by the McCanns were replies, in extremis, to Gonçalo Amaral’s documentary, which is inspired in his book “The Truth of the Lie”. If that is not the case, and if no other documentary is foreseen, it is not understandable for what other reasons the actors that were invited for the documentary, namely the actress that was to play Kate McCann, never appeared in the final version. AND FOR THIS, THERE IS NO FAIRY TALE THAT WILL WORK! THIS WAS AN UNCOORDINATED AND FAILED RESPONSE, A SENSELESS ONE! Despair, which is patent in the anger, that is not always contained, especially in Gerry McCann, led us to anticipate what came to be a reality: a lawsuit against Gonçalo Amaral.

Well, apart from recommending Duarte Levy’s and Paulo Reis’ most recent articles about this issue, allow me to advance a (new) old question.

The classic Anglo-Saxon intimidation strategy usually scares the weak in order to warn the strong. It was expected that the McCanns would sue one or another journalist or one or another blogger before suing Gonçalo Amaral. They didn’t do it!

I’ll return to this subject.

I finish for today, stating, just like I did in October 2007, MY ENTIRE SOLIDARITY WITH GONÇALO AMARAL! The Authority of Arguments shall win over the Arguments of Authority! History has taught us so…

Translated by Astro from Joana Morais blog

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Media, Gerry McCann, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Paulo Sargento, Rita Jordão, SIC

Maddie’s father prepares another visit to Portugal

Photo : © Luis Silva 2009

Gerry McCann, the father of the English child that disappeared in Praia da Luz, Algarve, in May 2007, is preparing another trip to Portugal, where, according to someone close to the couple, the two new investigators say they made “new discoveries” about what happened to Maddie.
Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, the two retired policemen that the McCann couple hired to analyse the documents that were released by the Public Ministry, now say that the child is being held in the area by one of five possible abductors that they have already identified. Those two investigators, that replaced an already long list of alleged detectives and military officers that have worked for the McCanns, further accuse the PJ of having ignored a list of 18 alleged perverts and a series of 6 attacks against English children in the Algarve.
Contrary to what was always stated by the detectives from Metodo 3 and the former military officers from Control Risks Group (CRG), two agencies that the McCann couple hired to allegedly search for Maddie, the new investigators don’t believe that the little girl was abducted by a child trafficking network or taken on board of a ship, some of the many theories that have been put forward to explain Madeleine’s disappearance.
Although the exact date of Gerry McCann’s trip to Portugal is not known yet, a source close to the couple confirmed that Madeleine’s father “will be in the Algarve when the two investigators deem it necessary”.
“Gerry McCann once challenged the PJ to find Madeleine’s body”, one of the PJ inspectors in Portimão said, adding that “now it’s our turn to challenge him: that he comes to Portugal to find his daughter. That is all that we ask from him. Otherwise, he should ask for the process to be reopened and he should return with his friends, to finally cooperate with justice.”

“Kate McCann” is missing

Lisa Donovan, the "fake" Kate McCann

In the new documentary about the case, which SIC presented last night, titled “Maddie: Two years of anguish”, the images where American actress Lisa Donovan played Kate McCann’s role in the reconstitution of what supposedly happened on the night of the 3rd of May 2007, have disappeared.
A source at Mentorn Media – which produced the documentary for Channel 4 – told that the initiative to remove those images came from Gerry McCann, explaining that “the decision was made after the documentary by Gonçalo Amaral was broadcast”, as we had already reported. According to the same source, “the representation of what Kate had done on the night that Maddie disappeared was not convincing and raised some doubts”.
But it was not only the images of the false Kate that were cut, and many of the facts that lie at the core of Maddie’s disappearance, like David Payne’s visit to the apartment between 6 and 7 p.m., ended up not even being mentioned: David’s wife herself told the police that she didn’t know where her husband was during that time lapse; while Kate and David speak about a 30 second visit, the child’s father mentions half an hour. The matter was of crucial importance to the PJ because that is the time lapse during which Madeleine is seen alive by someone outside of the couple.
The actress, who had been chosen during a casting in England, wasn’t able to explain the mystery behind the cutting of the images that were filmed in Praia da Luz, nevertheless confirming that she was paid for her work. The actress is forbidden from revealing to the media the contents of the images that Mentorn Media filmed, and the same happens with the other 14 actors.

Duarte Levy

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Clarence Mitchell, David Payne, Duarte Levy, Fiona Payne, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Kate McCann, Lisa Donovan, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, PJ, Policia Judiciaria, Praia da Luz

6.000£ more and “Kate pain is eased”

The People

The entry of another 6.000£ into the Find Madeleine Fund has relieved Kate McCann’s suffering. This is what one of the media that is closest to Maddie’s parents tells us. According to that weekly paper, approximately 200 people took part in a fundraising evening that was organised at the “Bishop Ellis RC School” in Thurmaston, near Rothley, the school where Maddie should have started her school life and where Sean and Amelie will go to in September.

“It helps us so much”, Madeleine McCann’s mother said about the obtained results.

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Media, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Madeleine's Fund, The People