I cannot believe that I am reading this. "Madeleine McCann's parents have called on police to tell them about evidence that reportedly contradicts the belief that their daughter was abducted". What arrogance! The McCanns are well aware that "Under Portuguese law, police are not allowed to speak publicly about the details of an investigation". So, why are they appealing to the BBC in an attempt to get the Portugese police to break their own National law? Furthermore, even if this was not the case, it is a bit rich coming from suspects demanding that the police give them details of their investigations into their own wrongdoing. It is misplaced that the McCanns demand that the police present evidence to them which contradicts their belief that Madeleine was abducted. For one thing, the McCanns are not in charge of the police investigation, the police are. For another, the police have checked the McCanns belief that Madeleine was abducted and have rejected this belief on the grounds that the police have evidence to the contrary. There was no evidence of the break-in which the McCanns claimed took place, and the Mark Warner staff also checked for signs of a break-in and they could not find any evidence either. Perhaps, there is evidence that the McCanns are in denial?
From the outset, the McCanns have not played their cards straight. And, they have the cheek to claim that the police are not putting all their cards on the table. Gerry McCann states: "I had a fairly strong belief that there was a lack of evidence, certainly initially, that there was no evidence of serious harm and I do not know of any specific evidence now that alters that.
"I think, as parents, if there is evidence then we need to know about it."
The couple have met detectives twice this week but are understood to be frustrated by a lack of clear information.
It is obvious that the McCanns are prime suspects. If and when the police are ready to arrest and charge the McCanns, then they will find out the case they have to answer.
"When Madeleine first went missing, reaction to the fact that her parents were not in the apartment that night was muted. It was perhaps felt that it would be in bad taste to criticise parents at such an awful time". However, as this article shows, criticisms are valid because the McCanns were not able to keep an eye on their children in the apartment from the Tapas Bar. Therefore, it is pure nonsense to read this: "For us it just felt like we were dining in the garden," said Gerry. A holiday resort in Portugal open to all and sundry, and Gerry McCann likened it to his private garden in Leicestershire where it only measures a few yards?
"There has been criticism in some quarters that the couple's media campaign has been too slick, but the McCanns point out that less than £70,000 has been spent so far on staff, accommodation, transport and communications. McGuinness is being paid. So too are two others fielding thousands of media calls in the UK".
The McCanns latest gimmick is linking up with "Google, YouTube and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) in the US to set up what they believe will become a global central database of missing children". If the McCanns were in the clear it would be laudable that they are getting involved in trying to find missing children. The YouTube site is called don'tyouforgetaboutme. I cannot forget, at least, how negligent the McCanns were in the disappearance of Madeleine. But, all this setting up a business appears as though they are exploiting the missing Madeleine.
Kate McCann has made another nonsense statement: "This speculation and the actions of the Portuguese press has been hurtful, intrusive and disrespectful to our other two children. The press here have badly overstepped any reasonable line". I don't think that the two year old twins feel that at all. It's a cover to try and hide behind the 2 year olds. What is really needed is for Gerry and Kate McCann to come out into the open and start being truthful about what they really know about the disappearance of Madeleine.
Mother guilty of the brutal murder of her 4 year old daughter.
Well said. I too have always felt that the McCann's are guilty and havebeen from Day One. After all, when the mother was reported to have cried "My daughter has been abducted!" - how could anyone let alone the parents know this, unless there was prior involvement? The father also states that they will not leave Portugal as that is the last mental link they have with Madeleine. Mental link? What happened to emotional link? How, or why would anyone who supposedly had a child abducted feel a mental, rather than emotional link to the last place where they saw their child? The visit to the USA was questionable also - as a means to highlight children who are taken and what can be done to prevent this happening. Perhaps is the McCanns had not left their children in the first place, none of this would have happened, so where is common sense? How does one prevent a child being taken then becomes a much simpler question to answer.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I try to publish a negative comment about the McCanns on the Daily Mail website it will not let me get past the letter verification process.
ReplyDeleteBut at least the MSM are beginning to wake up to the holes in the McCanns stories.
I think someone show look into the financial background of the McCanns prior to Madeleine's disaapearence.
I wonder if the reluctance to return to the UK is the fear of the whole can of worms being opened up. Especially by social services in this country.
You would think for the sake of the twins that trying to get back to normality would be a parent's concern.
Instead they are being used as a shield to deflect increasing crtiism.
"It is misplaced that the McCanns demand that the police present evidence to them which contradicts their belief that Madeleine was abducted. For one thing, the McCanns are not in charge of the police investigation, the police are."
ReplyDeleteA simple but pithy observation that puts into words what the McCanns are unable to grasp. Some people declare their vice to the grave and Gerry's continued display of arrogant stupidity is becoming too discomfiting to watch.
I prescribe a long course of ECT to jolt some sense into him. You can trust me. I'm not a doctor!
barnacle bill: I suspect that Gerry was in debt, possibly, gambling, possibly drugs. I believe that their desire not to return to Britain is to avoid the social services and the police taking a stronger line.
ReplyDeletejane in fife: It is often the most simple and obvious that tends to get overlooked. I am just waiting for Gerry to come out with "Don't you know who I am?" at some stage...
Having watched the McCann's interviews given to the Portuguese media today and I expect these are not slanted for a UK sympathetic audience and the McCann's are probably a tad off guard.
ReplyDeleteI seem to observe that Kate is the most vocal and forceful of the two. This is not how the British media presents the parents.
Was It Kate that coerced Gery into leaving their three Babies alone every night?
http://sic.sapo.pt/online/noticias/pais/20070810-McCann+admitem+todos+os+cenarios.htm
http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/51938/1186735842/tut.jpg
ReplyDeleteIf this didn't so perfectly illustrate my thoughts I wouldn't post it. But at this stage, and with the McCann's increasingly erratic behaviour, I rather think it does...
Astro's Latest translation from SOL
ReplyDeleteTake a deep breath this is mind boggling
in Sol on August 11:
Under the magnifying glass
SOL reveals what the McCanns and their friends say they did on the night that Maddie disappeared. Who would have died before dinner.
by: Felicia Cabrita and Margarida Davim
translated by: astro
The tests that were made this week on the car that was used by the McCann couple, indicates that the police admits that Maddie’s body may have been moved from the place where it was initially hidden, over the last two months.
As Sol could conclude, the investigators look for clues of the cadaver in the Renault Scenic, which was rented by Maddie’s parents after the child’s disappearance. As the abduction possibility is set aside, authorities bet on the reconstitution of the route that was taken to hide the body. During this week, PJ and elements of the english police – accompanied by the c-ockers that SOL surprised on the beach and in a valley that is close to the resort, last week – performed several diligences inside and outside several houses. The authorities seem to have concluded that Maddie’s body is buried in the vicinity of the apartment that was occupied by the McCanns, or was thrown into the sea.
The english dogs marked the death inside the apartment. And portuguese dogs did not find any trace on the outside. This fact is devalued by Pinto da Costa, a forensic doctor, who says a perfume on the body is enough to lose the dogs. A source of GNR that was heard by SOL says “the dogs only detected a movement of the child from the bedroom to another location inside the apartment”.
At the same time, it is still unknown at what time the alleged crime would have taken place. A specialist that was contacted by SOL guarantees: “In order for the dogs to mark the body, it would have had to remain in the area where it died for at least two hours”. If so, and considering that Maddie’s parents say they left for dinner at 8.30 p.m., the girl would have died shortly before that – given the fact the alarm to her disappearance was given at 10 p.m.
Blank hours
It is in these four hours – between the time the McCann couple picked up their children at the creche and the time Kate noticed her daughter was missing – that lies th solution to this mystery. This is also where the inconsistencies are found, between the versions that are reported by the couple and their friends.
The four friends couples, most of them doctors, always said they took turns among them to watch their children (either by listening through windows or by entering each other’s apartments) every half hour.
On that night, if the mismatching versions of the group are to be believed, there were up to three persons doing the same job. It is in this context that witness Jane Tanner appears, who is married to Russell O’Brien. He only appeared in the Tapas restaurant almost at the end of the dinner, saying his daughter, who is the same age as Maddie, was feeling ill. Jane, on the other hand, would have left the restaurant to check on her daughter and verify the other children at approximately 9.20 p.m. And she walked a narrow, scarcely lit road.
On her way, she passes Maddie’s father, who is talking to a friend, Jeremy Wilkins – a tv producer whom he met at the resort’s tennis court. When Jane passed them, the two men were close to a small iron gate that leads to the back entrance of the apartment: “It’s impossible. I didn’t see her”, Jeremy said.
That gate, which accesses a small patio, and according to Maddie’s father, was used by him and Matthew Oldfield to check on the children. In that moment, the girl’s father noticed that the door to the children’s room was more open and that there was more light than usual. Yet, he thought that Maddie, disturbed by her siblings’ crying, would have gone into her parents’ room, leaving the door open. But he did not check whether his daughter was there.
With these elements, which were corroborated by Matthew, Maddie’s father left the possibility that at that time the abductor was already inside the room, in the air.
Contributing to the kidnapping idea, there was also Jane Tanner’s version, who says she saw a man carrying a child, shortly after she crossed ways with Maddie’s father and Jeremy. But the tv producer – who was spending his holidays in a neighbouring apartment block – also dismisses that possibility: “I did not see any man carrying a child”.
Jane’s testimony was one of the pieces of information that would later be used to incriminate Murat, given the fact that the arguido’s house is on the street where the english woman says the man was walking to.
Jane walked approximately 5 metres from the individual who was carrying the child. Although there was little light, she describes him with detail. The man, looking caucasian, was wearing beige trousers, black shoes and was covered in a thick jacket. According to her words, “he didn’t even look like a tourist”.
In spite of the proximity to the person who would later originate the first drawing of the supposed kidnapper of Maddie, Jane, who socialized with the girl on a daily basis, did not recognize her. According to her statement, the child was wearing pink pyjamas, seemed to be asleep and was barefoot. This was the detail that she found the strangest.
That night, after Kate discovered the disappearance of her daughter (and after Jane supposedly confirmed with another friend that Maddie was wearing a pyjamas of the same colour), Jane Tanner made no comment. “I did not want to worry Kate even further”, she later guaranteed.
A witness that was contacted by SOL at that time seems to indicate that Jane, although she never crossed ways with the tv producer, may have described the right person, so if the suspect crossed ways with someone on his way, the versions would match.
The last diligences that PJ has performed do however put aside the doubts that were on Robert Murat, given the fact that the searches did not find anything that incriminates him.
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The ‘movie’ of the night
After collecting all the elements, and crossing information from various sources, SOL’s investigation makes a reconstitution of the night that Maddie disappeared.
6 p.m. The McCanns pick their children up at the Ocean Club’s creche.
7.30 Madeleine and the twins go to bed.
8.30 Gerry and Kate arrive at the Tapas restaurant.
8.45 Russell, Matthew and Rachel Oldfield go to the restaurant.
8.55 David and Fiona Payne also arrive at the Tapas. According to David, all the elements of the group were already there. But Rachel assures that Matthew arrived two or three minutes after the Paynes.
9.00 Matthew went to check on the children.
9.05 Gerry left the Tapas to check on his children. When he is returning to the dinner, he meets Jeremy Wilkins – an english man he met during the holidays – and chats with him for ten minutes. Neither Gerry nor Jeremy notice Jane or the suspicious man that she says she saw, although they were all on the same narrow street at the same time.
9.10 Jane went to check on her children and notices a man walking hastily, carrying a child. She memorizes the suspect, but fails to recognize Maddie.
9.25 Gerry returns to Tapas. Russell told PJ that at this time Matt and he went to check the children.
9.30 Matthew goes into Madeleine’s apartment. Russell O’Brien leaves the restaurant at the same time. In the first statements, Matt does not refer anything strange in Madeleine’s room and Russell fails to explain that he stayed in his apartment because his younger daughter was feeling sick. Later, Matt said that he noticed more light in the McCanns’ apartment and Russell revealed his daughter was vomiting.
9.35 Matthew Oldfield returned to Tapas.
9.45 Jane Tanner says at this time – not at 9.30 – Matthew and Russell left the restaurant.
9.55 Russell returns to the restaurant.
10.00 Jane goes to the apartment and notices her daughter has disappeared. She goes back to Tapas and raises the alarm. Everybody leaves the restaurant, except Dianne Webster.
10.05 Dianne Webster goes into Maddie’s room. The twins are sleeping.
22.15 Dianne returns to Tapas, to pick up her purse and her camera.
---------------
The McCanns’ friends that the police is watching
Rachel and Matthew Oldfield
Rachell Manpilly is 36 and she is married to Matthew Oldfield. The couple has a daughter, who was only 18 months old when Madeleine McCann disappeared. But now even so the Oldfields asked for the Ocean Club’s babysitting service. Matthew met Gerry McCann when both doctors worked together at a hospital in Leicester. Matt has a pending accusation for medical negligence in that hospital, after a late diagnosis resulted in the death of a patient. This was not the first time the Oldfields spent their holidays with this group. The last trip had been to Greece – where they also stayed in a resort of the Ocean Club’s group – but that time Gerry and Kate did not accompany them.
Dianne Webster
63 year old Dianne Webster is the oldest element of the group. This credit controller is the mother of Fiona Payne and the grandmother of two of the children from the group that was spending their holidays in the Ocean Club.
To the portuguese police, Dianne told she could not precise which elements abandoned the Tapas restaurant during dinner, on the night that Madeleine disappeared. Fiona’s mother is also the only witness that said each couple was responsible for their own children, and did not enter their friends’ apartments.
After Kate entered the restaurant – visibly upset and yelling “they’ve taken our Madeleine” – Dianne was the only one who stayed seated at the Tapas’ table. Which she only left five minutes later.
David and Fiona Payne
It was David Payne who organised the group’s holidays at Praia da Luz. The reservation was made over the internet, after a good experience with the Ocean Club’s group, in Greece. This was the second time that David came to Portugal. The first time was eleven years ago, before he got married.
David and Fiona have been together for seven years and are both doctors, like the McCanns’ friends. The couple has two children and they were the only ones in the group who used the babyphone system to keep watch over the children during dinners – which always took place without the small ones.
Fiona was back in the Algarve on July 11, along with Rachel and Russell, in order to give their third deposition to PJ.
Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner
Russell O’Brien is a doctor and lives in Exeter – the same english city where the sister of Robert Murat lives.
After studying at the same university as David Payne, O’Brien met Jane, with whom he has two children. The friendship between Russell and David is so strong that he chose him as his wedding godfather when he made his relationship with Fiona official, in Italy.
Coincidentally, Jane and Kate became pregnant at the same time, as the O’Brien couple’s oldest daughter is exactly the same age as Maddie.
Jane Tanner is one of the key witnesses in the ‘Madeleine case’, given the fact she says she saw a suspicious man, walking with a child in his arms, on the night of the disappearance. Jane describes the individual with extreme precision, although she was not capable to recognize the child he was carrying. The man that Jane saw has dark, thick hair and is 1.70 m tall.
_________________
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=168542&highlight=#168542
First time I've really looked at this. It's too awful for words.
ReplyDeleteJames, I smelt a rat from the outset.
ReplyDeleteI smelt something when I heard that Mom's initial reaction was, "they've taken her".
ReplyDeleteWho "they"?