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

The McCanns’ Manipulation – Part I

the suspect according to Derek

Portuguese – Français – Espagnol

Derek Flack, one of the witnesses that the Channel 4 documentary was based upon, told the Polícia Judiciária that on Wednesday, the 2nd of May, or on Thursday, the 3rd of May, “during the day (can’t remember but says that possibly in the afternoon), in the company of his wife, and while walking to the ‘Baptista Supermarket’, he observed an individual (approximately 1,70 tall, dark skinned appearing to be of Portuguese nationality, with a one-day stubble, with short thick hair that stretched down to collar level at the back, and wearing a solid yellow t-shirt) who was standing on a corner of the walkway looking (that being the reason to suspect said person) into the direction of the apartment where Madeline would later disappear from.

He added that in a straight line from where the individual was standing, looking, on the other side of the street, a vehicle was parked, of a van type, white colour, with a person (can’t remember whether the person was inside or outside the van). He can’t describe said person.”
Derek Flack’s testimony is equally consigned in the process on pages 145 to 153 and 200 to 205, where the photofit (nr. 18) that was created according to the couple’s instructions is also included.

Norton's van

The same process includes the identity of an English citizen who was identified as being the man who Derek Flack saw, which was equally corroborated by other witnesses: it is BARRINGTON GODFREY NORTON, who, like Flack had mentioned, drives a white van, namely when he goes to the Batista supermarket to shop, which happened on that date.

translated by Astro on Joana Morais blog

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Portugal, Barrington Godfrey Norton, Derek Flack, Gerry McCann, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, PJ, Policia Judiciaria, Praia da Luz

Oprah show, or the McCann show

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah did everything to make the public cry. The tears were counted and now the television show is expected to bring in a new wave of Maddie sightings. Meanwhile, the FBI confirms that it only cooperated with the Portuguese and British authorities and that the “McCanns should have been suspects from first moment on”. Finally, the alarm wave in the Algarve because of the McCann case paedophiles is useless.

Português – Français – Español

During the recording of the show with the largest audience on North American television, the “Oprah Winfrey Show”, last Friday, a tearful Kate McCann stated once more that she believes her daughter is alive and somewhere in the world, after having been abducted from the room where she slept in the tourist resort in Praia da Luz, in Portugal.
After a long moment of preparation in the backstage, Kate McCann even cried in front of Oprah, the star host, again, lamenting that she didn’t recognise her daughter in the images that were presented on a giant screen, and where a Maddie was shown very different from what has become normal to see in the media since the child disappeared on the 3rd of May 2007: the child now appears dressed in blue, looking more tender and sad, as if she had endured long captivity.
The child’s new images, with the look that she would have at the age of six, were created by experts at the National Centre for Missing children and were presented to Kate and Gerry McCann before the show’s recording, during the visit that they made to that institution as soon as they arrived in the United States.
The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which Gerry McCann had already visited in July 2007, is a private non-profit organisation that does not depend from the North American authorities, as an FBI spokesman told 24 horas.
Sitting next to the North American television’s star host, and in front of a mainly feminine audience, which had been previously prepared for a show “with lots of emotion”, as Oprah described it, Kate McCann explained what the family’s life has been like since Maddie disappeared, emphasizing the twins’ suffering over their sister’s absence.
Despite Gerry’s presence, Oprah directed the show’s spotlights on Kate, following the line that had been previously traced backstage, where the production team tirelessly underlined the “emotional environment” that had been created in the room, and where the public, which had been previously selected, was already converted to the British couple.
The real star of the show that will be broadcasted in 144 countries at the beginning of May, Kate told Oprah that she felt Maddie was still alive and that although she didn’t recognise her in the new images, she would be able to recognise her on the street if she crossed her, which didn’t fail to produce some emotional sighs from the public.
The “Oprah Show”, which will also be broadcasted in our country, has still kept part of its mystery, as not even journalists were allowed to watch the entire recording. The final programme will also include images that were recorded in the Rothley house, where Maddie’s room can be seen, tided as if the child could return tomorrow, and Kate playing with twins Sean and Amelie.
Very special relevance is equally given to the documentary that Channel 4 will broadcast on the seventh of May, in which the McCanns will once more launch the idea that an abductor took Maddie from the bed where she slept in apartment 5A, that was occupied by the couple during the vacation that they spent in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve. The new “suspect”, who has nevertheless been identified in the investigation files, is allegedly a Mediterranean looking male, someone who looks Portuguese, and he was seen staring at the apartment where Maddie disappeared from.

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Gerry McCann, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Oprah Winfrey show, PJ, Praia da Luz

Maddie: “New suspect” is identified within the process

Português – Español – Français

The alleged “new suspect” in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, that was revealed by English newspaper “The Sun”, yesterday, citing a source that is connected to the production of the documentary that Channel 4 will broadcast on the seventh of May, was identified by the Polícia Judiciária during the inquiry.

According to the English newspaper, the man, who allegedly had a suspicious behaviour and a Mediterranean look, was seen alone, staring at the apartment that was occupied by the McCanns. The suspect was supposedly aged between 20 and 30.

This is allegedly not the same man that Jane Tanner described to the police but, as 24horas had already advanced, the documentary that was filmed under the direction of Gerry McCann will place the tone on an abduction that was committed by a “Mediterranean”, eventually a Portuguese man.

McCann’s don’t have all the documents

The alleged “new lead” was apparently discovered by the lawyers and the investigators who work for the McCanns, in the process that is no longer under judicial secrecy and in which, among other things, the identities of some of the citizens that were investigated at the time, are not revealed.

In the copy of the process that was consulted by the team that works for Kate and Gerry McCann, many pages are missing, as is the case for the majority of journalists.

Duarte Levy

Translated by Astro from Joana Morais blog.

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Duarte Levy, Gerry McCann, Jane Tanner, Kate McCann, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, PJ, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal, Praia da Luz

Madeleine McCann: Two versions, two documentaries.

“Jane Tanner gave the Portuguese authorities a version of the fateful night that was very different from what she later told the English authorities”

24horas magazine in Portugal

Português – Español – Français

In 2007, after Gonçalo Amaral left the coordination of the Polícia Judiciária’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Portimão, on the day of his birthday – October the 2nd – many diligences were still possible within the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, but few or almost none were carried out.
Despite the fact that all the English people of the so-called “Tapas Group” were officially summoned to return, to participate in the reconstitution of what happened on the night that Maddie disappeared, none did so and the Portuguese authorities accepted that fact as if they were expecting it from the start. Another diligence, the questioning that was carried out in England, ended up revealing further contradictions in the statements but were regrettably sabotaged both by the English police and by the PJ.
Like Gonçalo Amaral had denounced already, the authorities in England didn’t cooperate at the level that was expected from them and the diplomatic interferences – that have become more than evident now – had produced their purpose: the head of the investigation was removed and replaced by someone more “malleable”, and the case was prepared to be archived.
With two versions of the same night, now recreated in documentaries that have been produced for television – one in Portugal under the guidance of Gonçalo Amaral and another, an English one, by the McCanns – 24horas has gone back over the witness statement of Jane Tanner, who is one of the key “characters”of a real case in which the victim remains solely one: Maddie.

24horas newspaper in US.

Strangely, according to the videos and transcriptions of their interrogations, to which 24horas had access, all the English witnesses – David Payne, Fiona Payne, Dianne Webster, Jane Tanner, Russell O’Brien, Matthew Oldfield, Rachael Mampilly – were given, by the English police, the possibility to consult what they had already told the PJ directors earlier on.
Some of the English people – as was the case of Jane Tanner, among others – were also given the opportunity to read the others’ witness statements and to change their final statements. Despite this abnormal behaviour by the Leicestershire police, at least two video recordings of the questionings never arrived in Portugal, and given the fact that the PJ inspectors who travelled to England, following orders from Paulo Rebelo, were not present, their contents might be lost, if it wasn’t for so-called information “leaks”.

The alleged abductor as described by Jane Tanner

Jane Tanner, who is without doubt one of the key characters of the case and in both documentaries, described, in Portugal, a person, the alleged abductor, “who couldn’t be a tourist” because – as she says – “he was too heavily dressed”. The man would be between 35 and 40 years old, with very dark hair, thin and approximately 1,70m tall. Despite the distance, Jane tells the Portuguese inspectors that the suspect was wearing beige or gold-coloured trousers, a “duffy” type of jacket (but as thick) and black, classical shoes.

Filed under: Madeleine McCann, Duarte Levy, Enderby, Gerry McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, Jane Tanner, Kate McCann, Leicestershire, Maddie, Madeleine McCann, Major Crime Unit, Missing, PJ, Policia Judiciaria, Portugal, Praia da Luz, Robert Murat, Russell O'Brien