Police officers under investigation in Maddie case

Read also “Maddie died in Praia da Luz”

Internal documents

An investigation targeting several British police inspectors has been opened after a collaborator close to the McCann’s stated that several internal police documents – considered as confidential – were sent from Portugal to a British journalist.
The documents in question, which officially were not known to the Portuguese authorities, all concerning the Madeleine McCann case, were “marked” which made it possible to determine their origin in the team that had accompanied the investigations into the claimed kidnapping, without however identifying the specific source of the leak.
According to the journalist, he supposedly received the documents without having asked for them, which is the reason why he supposedly delivered a copy to a collaborator of the McCann couple “in order to determine their authenticity”.
According to a police source, the investigators already knew that the documents were in the hands of some foreign journalists, but it is only now, thanks to the contribution of the journalist and his spontaneous “source”, that the investigation could start, the file being entrusted to “a national security authority”.
It’s since the beginning of the Maddie case that a large number of documents have been released from the British police files, part of which were published in full or in part in the media, as well as on the internet, where some did not hesitate to share some documents with complete strangers, allowing in this way certain parts of the file to end up in the hands of the people linked to the lawsuit.

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Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Media, Clarence Mitchell, Duarte Levy, Enderby, Leicestershire, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Major Crime Unit, police

Five constabulary forces looking for Maddie

Even if the Leicestershire Constabulary force has taken, in the public’s view, the primary lead in supporting and co-coordinating the British Government’s police response to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, several other Constabulary forces have also participated. These details are not exhaustive given the fact that the work of the “private services” and “others” are not available to the public. Not yet…

Filed under: Documents, Madeleine McCann, Constabulary, Derbyshire, disappearance, Duarte Levy, HOLMES, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Major Crime Unit, MCIS, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Operation Task, police

Portugal: Sara Sofia is 3 years old and was abducted by her mother over one month ago

Portuguese Child Abduction Alert System starts only in March and for now the information and communication means that are used by the authorities remain the same as before the Maddie case

Although the case is being handled by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) with the same seriousness as a disappearance, Sara Sofia Lopes dos Santos, aged three, disappeared on the first day of 2009 within the frame of a parental abduction.

According to information from the PJ’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Portimão, Sara was abducted by her mother and has been taken abroad, probably into Spain, where the investigators try to locate her with the cooperation of the Spanish authorities.

According to the same source, since the couple split in 2007, Sara’s parents have been in conflict concerning the exercise of parental rights over the child, that had been officially entrusted to her father, who accuses the mother of abandoning the child. Sara’s mother and her relatives tell a different version, accusing the father of abusing the child, a fact that was never proved.

Although Sara’s abduction took place on the 1st of January 2009, it was not until now that the information was placed on the Polícia Judiciária’s internet site (www.policiajudiciaria.pt), where a recent photograph of the child can be seen.

According to information that was now publicised by the PJ’s CID in Portimão – the same that was responsible for the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann -, the last time that Sara Sofia was seen, she was wearing a pink Nike track suit and pink sneakers.

The little girl, of Portuguese nationality, has brown eyes and brown hair, and a red mark on her back as a distinguishing  feature.

According to a PJ source in Portimão, there is no connection whatsoever between the disappearance of Sara Sofia and the Madeleine McCann case, yet the investigators fear that their work may be harmed by the intervention of English media, as the fact that both children are of the same age and disappeared from the same relatively close geographical area “will certainly be used to re-launch the media focus on the Maddie case and to concentrate attentions on the Algarve, thus diverting suspicions from the McCann couple”.

English press associates disappearance of Sara with the Maddie case

The information about Sara Sofia’s disappearance would have gone completely unnoticed in England if it hadn’t been for the intervention of a source that is close to the British authorities and to the McCann couple, who, unofficially, alerted a few journalists while stressing the fact that the investigation is under the responsibility of the PJ’s CID in Portimão, the same one that investigated the Maddie case.

The information that was forwarded to the journalists doesn’t even contain a single line about the possibility of a parental abduction, and the focus rests on the fact that Sara Sofia is of the same age as Madeleine McCann and disappeared “mysteriously” in the Algarve, the same geographical region where the British child disappeared from in May 2007.

According to the information that was offered to the English journalists, the disappearance of Sara Sofia in Portugal’s Southern region is evidence of the possible existence of a predator, a fact that the Portuguese police had excluded in Madeleine’s case.

Portugal adopts French Alert System model

From March onwards, the disappearance of children in Portugal starts counting on an “Abduction Alert” system which, through messages every 15 minutes, publicise the case and request for information through various platforms, from local radios up to public transportation terminals.

The system that is to be adopted in our country follows the French model, named “Alerte Enlèvement”, which has proved its effectiveness in practice, on several occasions.

The Portuguese version that was studied by the Justice Ministry counts on the media to join the project, and to publicise a common alert message, that can be local, regional or national, during the first three hours after the child’s disappearance.

Just like in France, the decision to launch the alert will be taken by the Attorney General in conjunction with the PJ through a “Crisis Cabinet”, in the case of an abduction or sequestration, and not yet including cases of parental abduction or simple disappearance.

In November last year, the Justice Minister, Alberto Costa, had already assured that the “Abduction Alert” system would soon be available, nevertheless stressing that in order for the system to be able to function, the cooperation between the Public Ministry (PM) and the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) would have to improve.

Duarte Levy

Filed under: Child Abduction, Madeleine McCann, Portugal, Sara Sofia, Child Abduction, Duarte Levy, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Missing, PJ, police, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal, Sara Sofia

DC Ferguson interviews Matthew Oldfield… with “Technical problems”

– Can someone offer the Leicestershire police a high quality video camera?

– One that actually works please?

I am Detective Constable 4078 FERGUSON of the Leicestershire Constabulary currently stationed on the Major Crime Unit and engaged on enquiries on Operation Task.
At 10:19 hours on Wednesday 9th April 2008 I was present at an interview suite at Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters when I commenced a recorded interview with the witness Matthew OLDFIELD. The interview ceased at 11:22 hours.
This interview was recorded onto DVD and a master copy and a working copy were produced.
I produce the master copy of this DVD as exhibit reference S.V.F.115 and the working copy as exhibit reference S.V.F.116
I have had the opportunity to read and check through a transcript made of this interview and I produce the transcript of the interview as exhibit reference S.V.F.116A
At 11:54 hours on Wednesday 9th April 2008 I was present at an interview suite at Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters when I commenced a recorded interview with the witness Matthew OLDFIELD. The interview ceased at 13:08 hours.
This interview was recorded onto DVD and a master copy and a working copy were produced.
I produce the master copy of this DVD as exhibit reference S.V.F.117 and the working copy as exhibit reference S.V.F.118
I have had the opportunity to read and check through a transcript made of this interview and I produce the transcript of the interview as exhibit reference S.V.F.118A.
At 14:14 hours on Wednesday 9th April 2008 I was present at an interview suite at Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters when I commenced a recorded interview with the witness Matthew OLDFIELD. The interview ceased at 14:51 hours.
This interview was recorded onto DVD and a master copy and a working copy were produced. (Page 1)
I produce the master copy of this DVD as exhibit reference S.V.F.119 and the working copy as exhibit reference S.V.F.120
Technical problems were experienced during this interview and no data was recorded.
At 15:18 hours on Wednesday 9th April 2008 I was present at an interview suite at Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters when I commenced a recorded interview with the witness Matthew OLDFIELD. The interview ceased at 15:38 hours.
This interview was recorded onto DVD and a master copy and a working copy were produced.
I produce the master copy of this DVD as exhibit reference S.V.F.121 and the working copy as exhibit reference S.V.F.122
I have had the opportunity to read and check through a transcript made of this interview and I produce the transcript of the interview as exhibit reference S.V.F.122A.
During this interview process the witness Matthew OLDFIELD marked on a copy of exhibit D.M.2 (a plan of the area) which is now produced as exhibit reference M.O.1.
Later the same day I returned to Barunstone Police Station where I placed all of the discs for the interviews and exhibit M.O.1 into a secure store.
At 15:10 hours on Monday 14th April 2008 I it out of the secure store and handed exhibit M.O.1 to exhibits officer 7383 CRAVEN.
At 15:50 hours on Monday 14th April 2008 I handed exhibits S.V.F.115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 and 122 to exhibits officer 7383 CRAVEN having taken them out of the secure store.
AT 8:15 hours on 8th May 2008 I took exhibits S.V.F.116, S.V.F.118 and S.V.F.122 from Exhibits Officer CRAVEN and retained possession of them until 09:00am on Friday 9th May 2008 when I returned them to Exhibits Officer CRAVEN.
This statement is made by myself and is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signed:    S FERGUSON

Filed under: Documents, Madeleine McCann, Duarte Levy, Enderby, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Interview, Jane Tanner, Kate McCann, Leicestershire, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Major Crime Unit, Matthew Oldfield, Missing, PJ, police, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal, Russell O'Brien, Sophie Ferguson

Jane Tanner – Record Of Tape Recorded Interview VII

4078    “Right.  It is now nineteen thirty on the evening of April the eighth two thousand and eight.  I am DC Sophie FERGUSON from Leicestershire Major Crime Unit.  And you are?”
Reply    “Jane TANNER”.
4078    “And Jane this is our seventh interview today and the purpose of this interview is just to clarify some points in relation to a sequence of events that was drawn up, it is a timeline, in effect, of the events that happened on Thursday May the third two thousand and seven.  Firstly, I mean, I don’t know what format you may have seen this in before”.
Reply    “Umm”.
4078    “How did this come about?”

Filed under: Documents, Madeleine McCann, Duarte Levy, Enderby, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Interview, Jane Tanner, Kate McCann, Leicestershire, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Missing, PJ, police, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal, Russell O'Brien