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wvgirl
 Posted:
Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:46 pm |
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Maddie News August 8
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id79.html
Joan Smith: Everyone, it seems, has a theory about Madeleine The Independent
Friday, 8 August 2008
Fifteen months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from her parents' holiday apartment in Portugal, the mystery of her whereabouts is as compelling as ever. At least two new theories have emerged this week, one involving a paedophile ring in Belgium and the other a possible sighting in Amsterdam.
The less sinister of the two is based on an incident not long after the disappearance, when a little girl answering Madeleine's description apparently told a shop assistant in Amsterdam that she had been taken from her mother. The other involves a "spotter" photographing Madeleine in Portugal, sending the images to paedophiles in Belgium and then kidnapping the child to order.
Both theories emerged as the police released files on the case, which were immediately seized on as containing significant pointers to Madeleine's fate. Her parents' decision to launch a massive publicity campaign, which was understandable in terms of their desperate situation, produced thousands of sightings in the weeks after the little girl disappeared; most of them were well-meaning but mistaken and there is no evidence that the Amsterdam lead is any different. When a second woman came forward this week, asserting that she too had spotted Madeleine in Amsterdam, it emerged that the local police had responded promptly to her call and decided it was a case of mistaken identity.
"Maddie" has been spotted all over Europe and indeed in Morocco, where a sighting of a blonde child caused great excitement before turning out to have an innocent explanation. Many of these "leads" are based on nothing more substantial than calls to the police switchboard from members of the public who have been racking their brains in the hope of remembering something that might help; the McCanns' media strategy has worked, insofar as it has made millions of people feel personally involved in their daughter's disappearance, but the truth is that most of us have nothing to offer that might help. With reporters hungry for new angles, tip-offs and cases of mistaken identity have been elevated into sensational developments that will supposedly crack the case, producing unbearable feelings of disappointment when they go nowhere.
Few criminal investigations have produced such an intense craving to become involved, but there are parallels. From the beginning, the McCann case has had echoes of the kidnapping in 1932 of the Lindbergh baby, the 20-month-old son of the celebrated aviator Charles Lindbergh, which attracted the intense interest of everyone from the US President to prominent members of the mafia. (It also changed US law, leading to kidnapping becoming a federal offence.)
One of the ransom notes was leaked to a newspaper, prompting a rash of false claims and letters, and all sorts of theories were floated to establish the toddler's whereabouts. But the case ended tragically when his body was found in woods two miles from his parents' house in New Jersey. A German carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann, was convicted and sent to the electric chair four years later.
The reason that a minority of cases catch the public imagination is not just to do with the family's relationship with the media, although the McCanns have become as well known as the Lindberghs in the months since their daughter was spirited from Praia da Luz. As well as incarnating parents' deepest fears, the disappearance (and reappearance) of children is a regular feature of myths and fairy stories, a fact which has clearly, if unconsciously, influenced the theories floated by newspapers.
A persistent theme in coverage of the McCann case is the sighting of a flustered woman, dragging a reluctant toddler in her wake, who has taken Madeleine to fulfil her craving for a child; in this narrative, Madeleine functions as a changeling who might one day be reunited with her real family.
Then there are the strangers with evil intent, who prey on children and steal them for their own wicked purposes; two decades ago, they would have been on the look-out for children to use in Satanic rites, but now they come in the more up-to-date guise of paedophiles.
This is not to argue that such explanations for Madeleine's disappearance could not possibly be true, but it does sound a warning note about placing too much credence in new "leads" unsupported by hard evidence. For more than a year now, the McCanns have been searching for their daughter amid headlines which have repeatedly presented speculation as fact. Tragically for them, the huge publicity surrounding the case has thus far been much more effective in producing fantasies than the breakthrough which might lead to her recovery.
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| wvgirl
Posted:
Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:20 pm |
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ETA: Sorry guys and gals, but I dn't have time to separate the dif articles right now.
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id79.html
I spotted Maddie on Belgian tram The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday August 08, 2008
A WOMAN who is convinced she saw Madeleine McCann wearing beach shoes on a city tram in Belgium told The Sun last night how cops ignored her.
The sighting by supermarket buyer Line Compere came just 12 days after Maddie was snatched from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal.
Line, 31, is one of THREE credible witnesses who say they saw the five-year-old in Belgium during the same period.
The sightings come on top of three more in neighbouring Holland and fears expressed by Scotland Yard that Maddie was stolen to order by a Belgian paedophile ring.
They also suggest a trail of movement across the Low Countries by the tot and her kidnappers.
Information buried in the Maddie files released by Portuguese police shows that 107 sightings were reported to Belgian cops and passed on to Portugal.
Thirty-six were investigated, 34 were deemed too vague and 37 came from clairvoyants.
But all were virtually ignored by the Portuguese detectives heading the case.
Line reported seeing a girl of Maddie's description on a No18 tram heading towards Brussels' Eurostar station the Gare du Midi at 8.45am on May 15 last year.
She was with a man and a woman. Line told The Sun: "I thought it was strange because they didn't look alike physically. They definitely were not from the same family."
Her suspicions were further aroused when the three seemed to be communicating in different languages.
She said: "The couple looked to me as if they came from East Europe and were between 35 and 40.
"It looked as if life had taken its toll on them — they looked rough.
"The little girl was dancing in the tram and at one point they told her to sit down. She was dressed as if she were going to the beach, with plastic beach shoes and no socks.
"She also had a jacket with a hood. The couple had a red pushchair."
Line observed the trio for 15 minutes before getting off the tram. At the time she had not heard of Maddie. But later that day a friend emailed her with news of the girl's disappearance along with a photo of her.
Line said: "I put the two together instantly." She contacted the missing children network Child Focus. But she said: "They didn't take the call seriously. I had to call again and insist they take notice.
"They then passed my details on to the federal police, who sent around a woman officer several weeks later."
As far as she is aware, her report was not followed up.
The case files show a girl looking like Maddie was spotted in the Belgian town of Mouscron, near the French border, on June 2 last year.
Gilles Crippiau, 33, saw her in a shop called O Cool with an English-speaking woman.
He said the girl was about three with big eyes and the pale face of a tired child.
He told Belgian police: "Once back home I looked at a photo of the little McCann child and I was struck by the resemblance."
The files also reveal a British national saw a girl like Maddie asleep, possibly drugged, on a Brussels to Antwerp train on May 27 last year.
She was with a 6ft man who carried her off at Medechen.
The Sun has told this week of two sightings in Amsterdam by party goods shop worker Anna Stam, 41, and pensioner Hannie Weichmann, 71.
And yesterday it emerged a man saw a little girl sitting on her own and crying in the Panorama restaurant at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry, said all credible leads would be quickly followed up by private detectives working for the family.
Fears that a Belgian paedophile ring grabbed Maddie were reflected in an email sent by a Metropolitan Police intelligence unit to the Leicestershire force, who led the British end of the inquiry.
It said an informant claimed the ring ordered a young girl to be abducted three days before Maddie vanished — and chose her after a photo was taken in Praia da Luz.
Yesterday a senior Met source said the email had a strong proviso attached saying the information could not be substantiated.
The source added: "We have no way of knowing whether it was accurate. Nor is there any realistic chance of finding out more details from this particular source."
May, 2007: Amsterdam The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
ANNA Stam is asked by a little girl in the fancy dress shop where she works: "Do you know where my mummy is?"
The 41-year-old tells her that her mum, who she believes the girl came in with, is further back in the shop.
The girl says: "She's not my mummy . . . she is a stranger. She took me from my mummy."
Anna tells cops of the sighting in Middenweg, Amsterdam, in June.
May, 2007: Amsterdam The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
HANNIE Weichmann, 71, sees a girl in pink with an anxious woman in the Weteringsplantsoen area of Amsterdam.
The woman, aged about 30, and the youngster are speaking English and the woman does not look as though she's used to children.
Hannie calls police after the woman tells her she's a tourist who is babysitting the girl.
She said: "Those eyes. I knew it was her."
May 15, 2007: Brussels, Belgium The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
SUPERMARKET buyer Line Compere, 31, spots a young girl looking "very much" like Maddie on a No18 tram heading for the Gare du Midi rail station.
Her suspicions are aroused because a couple with the youngster do not look like her, talk in a different language and seem "rough".
Even though the girl is in the middle of a city, she is wearing beach-style shoes and no socks.
After seeing a photo of Maddie later that day, Line is convinced the child on the tram is her.
May 27, 2007: Brussels to Antwerp train The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
BRITON spots lookalike child asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp.
It appeared as if the girl could have been drugged.
She was accompanied by a balding 6ft white man aged about 40 wearing sports clothes.
The man got off the train at Mechelen carrying the child. The sighting was reported to cops.
May 28, 2007: Schiphol Airport The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
MAN sees a little girl sitting and crying on her own at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 9.30am.
She looked the same age and size as Maddie and had her hair tied back in a pony tail.
A white man went up to the child but did not appear to be very close to her.
Call was passed on to Crimestoppers.
June 2, 2007: Mouscron, Belgium The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
BELGIAN Gilles Crippiau sees a girl aged about three, looking tired and pale, with an English-speaking woman in a shop.
He watches as the woman puts purchases in a Renault Scenic before driving off with the child.
Sick Nation The Sun
Published: Today, Friday August 08, 2008
BELGIUM, a nation of only 10million people, is plagued by paedophiles. Rapes and sex crimes are more likely to involve children than adult victims.
At least two people a day are sentenced for sexual assault or rape involving minors. In 2003, the last year official figures were available, almost 850 paedos were jailed.
The authorities believe many may be copying countryman Marc Dutroux, 51 — convicted of sexually abusing six girls aged eight to 19 in the mid-90s. He killed two.
It is claimed he was in a paedophile ring. Two girls were also raped and murdered in Liege in eastern Belgium in 2006.
Latest From the Madeleine Files, 08 August 2008
Latest From the Madeleine Files Sky News
2:34pm UK, Friday August 08, 2008
Sky News is continuing to plough through the 30,000 pages of files released by Portuguese police that make up their investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Refresh throughout the day to hear what they say.
:: The files show Portuguese police wanted to bug Kate and Gerry McCann to eavesdrop on their conversations before making the couple "arguidos", or formal suspects, last summer.
On August 1 last year detectives requested permission to place two bugs in the McCanns' apartment in Praia da Luz and one in their car. They were refused permission. The McCanns' arguido status was lifted on July 21, when prosecutors shelved the case.
:: Four families stayed in Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment between the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine and further forensic searches, the case files say.
Just over a month after Madeleine went missing, flat 5A in Praia da Luz's Ocean Club resort was allowed to be occupied again. Despite the apartment being a crime scene, 11 people stayed there between June 12 and July 26 last year, raising the possibility that it was contaminated before fresh forensic examinations in August.
(article continues with information as per yesterday)
Maddie: We warned Portuguese, say Vice Squad, 08 August 2008
Maddie: We warned Portuguese, say Vice Squad Daily Express
By Martin Evans
Friday August 8, 2008
BRITISH police did everything in their power to investigate claims that Madeleine McCann had been snatched by an international paedophile ring, they insisted last night.
Officers working for CO14, a specialised vice unit within the Metropolitan Police, wrote to their Portuguese counterparts in March warning them they had intelligence that the three-year-old had been kidnapped to order by a Belgian gang.
The Policia Judiciaria then contacted Interpol and asked them to investigate further. But just weeks later Portuguese police chiefs shelved the line of inquiry, claiming it lacked credibility.
Private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann are now urgently examining the information to see if any more could have been done to check out the anonymous tip-off.
An email sent by John Shord of the Metropolitan's Vice and Clubs Unit in March to Leicestershire Police – who were coordinating the UK end of the Madeleine case – read: "Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.
"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium.
"The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken."
Interpol contacted its departments in London, Belgium, Germany and Finland to gather more information about European paedophile gangs.
But detective Paulo Rebelo, head of the Madeleine inquiry, ruled that all but the German intelligence showed "lack of credibility".
As a result, the Scotland Yard tip-off was added to the massive file of evidence considered during the hunt for Madeleine.
Belgium is less than 100 miles from Amsterdam, where there have been two highly credible possible sightings of the missing youngster.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to comment on "sensitive" information found in the Portuguese police case files.
He said: "Clearly, with any information of that nature, Kate and Gerry would hope that the Portuguese police in conjunction with Interpol have acted to the absolute best of their ability in following this up."
Madeleine McCann dossier: Crime scene 'contaminated' by holidaymakers, 08 August 2008
Madeleine McCann dossier: Crime scene 'contaminated' by holidaymakers Daily Mirror
By Mirror.co.uk
8/08/2008
Four families stayed in Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment between the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine and further forensic searches, official case files revealed today.
Just over a month after the little girl went missing, flat 5A in Praia da Luz's Ocean Club resort was allowed to be occupied again.
Despite the apartment being a crime scene, 11 people stayed there between June 12 and July 26 last year, raising the possibility that it was contaminated before fresh forensic examinations in August.
A couple from Liverpool who are friends of the flat's owner spent a week there from June 12 to 19, a document in the newly-released Portuguese police files showed.
They were followed by a family of four from Falkirk in Scotland who stayed there from June 28 to July 12.
A couple from New Barnet in Hertfordshire used the apartment from July 12 to 19 and a family from Leicester stayed in it from July 19 to 26.
In August last year two specialist British sniffer dogs trained to scent corpses and human blood were brought to Portugal and taken to the flat.
As a result of their findings further samples were taken from the apartment and sent to the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS) for analysis.
The sniffer dog and DNA evidence were key in the Portuguese police's decision to name Mr and Mrs McCann as "arguidos", or formal suspects, in Madeleine's disappearance on September 7.
The case files also reveal the frustration felt by the officers sifting through the thousands of potential sightings of Madeleine that could not be substantiated.
Detective Constable John Hughes, from Leicestershire Police, the force coordinating the British end of the investigation, looked into a spate of reports of children resembling the missing girl seen in Malta.
In an e-mail dated June 26 last year, he wrote: "Most replies we get back from other countries don't take us far as many can't be verified or discounted, and I feel these will be the same."
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from apartment 5A on May 3 last year.
On July 21, Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light.
At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer "arguidos" in the investigation.
Guardian bought Madeleine McCann link by mistake, says marketing director, 08 August 2008
Guardian bought Madeleine McCann link by mistake, says marketing director Journalism.co.uk
By Laura Oliver
Posted: 08/08/08
The Guardian has admitted it mistakenly bought the keywords Madeleine McCann from Google.
By wrongly purchasing the keywords a link to the paper's coverage of Madeleine's disappearance appeared in a column of sponsored results when a search for her name was made on Google.
The newspaper has now taken down the link and has reviewed the list of keywords it owns, Marc Sands, marketing director for the Guardian, told Journalism.co.uk.
The paper's purchase of the words Madeleine McCann was criticised by Justin Williams, assistnat editor at Telegraph Media Group, on his personal blog, who said the practice showed the paper was 'desperate' to hold onto its position as the UK's most popular newspaper website according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) traffic figures.
"The purchase of terms is a way of getting your stories, at a cost, in front of people. It's absolutely what everyone does all the time," said Sands.
A search for the terms shows the Mirror currently owns the keywords McCanns cleared, while a Google search for other keywords, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, show the the Sun and Times have also purchased phrases from Google.
"It is a way of getting it [news] distributed to people who have expressed an interest in that subject," he added.
"The issue with the Madeleine McCann keywords is an interesting one. It's like advertising, but not really: the only reason you and I search for a term is because we are interested in that term."
The practice had been criticised in the blog post, he said, because of the Guardian's previous stance on the coverage of the McCann story.
"The Guardian in the past has been very critical of the coverage of Madeleine McCann, saying it has been salacious and misleading. What the person in the blog post is saying is that Madeleine McCann is not to be treated in this way, so what on earth are they doing buying keywords?"
The issue led the paper to review its list of current keywords to assess 'what news is okay to do it with and what isn't', he said.
The Guardian buys thousands of Google keywords relating to current news stories every week, he added. It currently owns the keywords 'stamp duty', 'university league tables' and 'post office closures'.
"Madeleine McCann slipped through the net. You don't approve all these [keyword purchases] every day. We would have had to say to the company that buys the keywords for us: never buy the keywords for Madeleine McCann," he said.
Search engine marketing and search engine optimisation of newspaper websites is a 'new area' for publishers, added Sands.
"Everyone is working their way through and trying to remain true exactly to the principles of what they're doing, but also to ensure that they're getting read."
*
How low will the Guardian sink with search engine marketing? CounterValue.com
By Justin Williams, Assistant Editor at the Telegraph Media Group
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008, at 8:35
As I commented last month, the digital team at Guardian News and Media seems to be desperate to hold on to its recently regained crown as the No 1 newspaper website in the UK. There is no phrase too sensitive, no taste that is too poor … apparently. Now GMG has bought the keywords "Madeleine McCann" from Google.
The Guardian has bought the key phrase "Madeleine McCann"
Even though it repeatedly denounced the Telegraph's perfectly legitimate search engine optimisation strategy back in May after telegraph.co.uk had risen to No.1, that distaste for what is not decent journalism doesn’t extend … apparently … to its marketing department. Or perhaps search engine marketing at GNM isn't just the domain of the marketing department - last month GNM's digital head, Emily Bell, was quoted on her own website explaining how the newsdesk has involvement in SEM:
'Also in the past two months, we have started to combine search engine optimisation - talking to the news desk on the paper about SEO-friendly headlines and underlining SEO with our subs desk [on the website] - with our marketing and pay-per-click activity'
That pay-per-click activity now extends to buying the phrase "Madeleine McCann", something that even The Sun has stopped doing after being roundly condemned for poor taste in its dash for unique users.
Police tried to bug McCanns' villa in attempt to implicate them in Madeleine's disappearance, 08 August 2008
Police tried to bug McCanns' villa in attempt to implicate them in Madeleine's disappearance Daily Mail
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:49 AM on 08th August 2008
Police tried to bug Kate and Gerry McCann's villa in Portugal in an attempt to implicate them in their daughter Madeleine's disappearance, it emerged today.
Portuguese detectives wanted to listen in on the couple in the weeks before they were made official suspects, or arguidos.
They applied for a court order for permission to bug the home the couple were renting but were denied by a local judge.
The plans for the covert operation are contained in 30,000 pages of police files made public in Portugal this week.
It suggests the lengths the police were willing to go to try to implicate Mr and Mrs McCann, both doctors from Rothley in Leicestershire.
Portuguese police also requested Mr McCann's credit card details over a six-month period, beginning prior to his daughter's disappearance on 3 May last year from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
The application to the Home Office was also turned down, according to an email in the files, because it 'appears disproportionate'.
The bugging operation centred on a house rented by the couple in the weeks after Madeleine vanished.
The McCanns left it in September after being made arguidos, and returned to the UK.
But the fact police wanted to bug them shows they had no substantial case against the couple and will raise questions as to why they were made suspects.
Their arguido status was lifted last month after authorities announced the case was being shelved.
Madeleine, who was three at the time she disappeared, has never been found.
The police files have revealed hundreds of possible sightings of the girl - from Egypt to Guatemala - but none appeared conclusive.
A tip-off to Scotland Yard suggested she may have been kidnapped by an international paedophile ring and taken to Belgium.
The Daily Mirror today published an artist's impression of two adults seen with a girl who resembled Madeleine in a shop in Amsterdam.
Shopworker Anna Stam reported the sighting to police. The drawings show a dark-featured man aged 35 to 40 and a woman in her forties with light brown hair.
But Goncalo Amaral, who was sacked as head of the investigation after publicly criticising British officers, today told a Portuguese newspaper that the Belgium link was fully investigated.
'Everything was analysed. It was treated in the same way as all the other reports,' he said.
Pictured: The couple 'spotted in Amsterdam with Maddie lookalike', 08 August 2008
Pictured: The couple 'spotted in Amsterdam with Maddie lookalike' Daily Mail
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 10:53 AM on 08th August 2008
These are the first pictures of a couple seen with the little girl who told a shopkeeper in Holland 'My name is Maddie, they took me from my holiday'.
The artist's impressions were created with the help of Anna Stam who saw the girl in her party shop in Amsterdam days after Madeleine McCann vanished.
The sketches, first published in the Daily Mirror, show a swarthy man aged 35-40 with a moustache and a woman in her 40s with brown hair.
The man was speaking in Portuguese and the woman in French, according to the paper.
Sighting: Artist's impressions of the couple seen with a young girl who looked like Madeleine McCann
Ms Stam told the Mirror: 'They fit the faces I remember. I just hope its not too late and we can do some good.'
Her report was one of a number of potential sightings that emerged in the official police files released this week. The MCanns are now treating it as a priority.
The girl entered Ms Stam’s party shop in early May last year with a man and a woman and two other children, according to a witness statement to Dutch police.
The man - who ‘did not look like a nice person’ - appeared to be speaking Portuguese but the woman spoke in English and told Ms Stam they had a small circus in France.
Ms Stam, 41, was at the back of the shop when the young girl approached her and asked in unaccented English: ‘Do you know where my mummy is?’
On being told that her mother was a little further back in the store, the child replied, ‘She is not my mummy,’ and added: ‘She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy.’
The Dutchwoman said she thought the girl looked ‘very much like’ Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair.
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday flat in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.
Private detectives working for her parents Kate and Gerry McCann were investigating Ms Stam’s account as well as pursuing newly-revealed leads pointing to a possible Belgian link to their daughter’s disappearance.
The McCanns’ investigators are also looking into a Scotland Yard report suggesting the child may have been snatched to order for a Belgian paedophile ring, despite a warning that the intelligence is ‘flawed’.
The police files also revealed a string of possible sightings in Belgium.
The Scotland Yard paedophile ring tip-off was contained in an email from the Metropolitan Police’s CO14 clubs and vice unit sent to Leicestershire Police and forwarded to Portuguese detectives.
An informant claimed a photograph was taken of Madeleine on holiday in Portugal and passed to a ‘purchaser’ in Belgium days before she vanished.
Sources cautioned that the information was second or even third-hand and impossible to corroborate with forces in the UK or abroad.
Portuguese police pursued the lead, requesting assistance from Belgium via Interpol, but only limited information was available and the trail ran cold.
The McCanns’ lawyers are now sifting through the massive police dossier of thousands of pages of evidence looking for credible clues that the couple’s private investigators can pursue.
On July 21 Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the Madeleine McCann case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light.
At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer ‘arguidos’, or formal suspects, in the investigation.
Detectives probe 100 'Madeleine sightings' in Belgium after claims she was stolen to order, 08 August 2008
Detectives probe 100 'Madeleine sightings' in Belgium after claims she was stolen to order Daily Mail
By VANESSA ALLEN and EMILY ANDREWS
Last updated at 10:00 AM on 08th August 2008
Detectives are investigating more than 100 Madeleine McCann ' sightings' in Belgium following a warning she could have been stolen to order for a paedophile ring.
Interpol officials in Brussels said they had received 107 reports since she vanished from Portugal on May 3 last year.
It is understood to be the largest number of reported sightings outside Spain and Portugal.
Private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann have said that they will check the most credible sightings.
It emerged yesterday that a secret British police report had warned of 'intelligence' suggesting Madeleine had been sold to a Belgian child sex gang by a 'spotter' in the Algarve.
Scotland Yard attempted to play down the email, sent by one of its officers in March this year, and said the tip-off was unproven and could have been wrong.
But the mammoth Portuguese police files released this week revealed a series of sightings around Belgium in May and June last year.
On May 15, Belgian woman Line Compere reported seeing a girl resembling Madeleine with an Eastern European couple on a tram in Brussels.
She said: 'It was obvious she was not their child and they were behaving quite strangely. I thought she looked lost somehow.
At that point I had not seen a picture of Madeleine and I didn't know what she looked like, but when I saw a picture of her later I knew it was her.'
Twelve days later a British man said he saw a similar-looking girl asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp and feared the child could have been drugged.
Then on June 2, Belgian man Gilles Crippiau told police about a sighting in a shop in the town of Mouscron near the French border.
The girl, who had big eyes and a pale, 'tired' face, was with an English-speaking woman who drove her away in a grey Renault Scenic.
Mr Crippiau said: 'Once back home I looked at a photo of the little McCann child and I was struck by the resemblance to the girl I had seen in the shop. '
Belgian police contacted the shop's manager but were told there were no CCTV cameras inside. Meanwhile a Dutch witness who said she saw a girl in Amsterdam who called herself 'Maddie' has met with the McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell.
Anna Stam, 41, was flown to Britain by a tabloid newspaper and is understood to have helped draw an artist's impression of the people she saw.
Interpol official Alain Remue, the chief commanding officer of the Belgium Federal Police's missing persons unit, said a special hotline had received 107 witness reports related to Madeleine's disappearance.
He said 67 were too vague to be properly investigated. The remaining 36 were investigated and passed to Interpol's Lisbon bureau but there was no response from Portugal. Portugal's attorney-general formally shelved the investigation last month and cleared Mr and Mrs McCann, both 40, as official suspects in their daughter's disappearance.
Mr Remue said his officers had been able to rule out some of the Belgian sightings, including a 'strong' witness report from the Dutch border last August. The girl was later found to be a Dutch girl who was seen with her family.
The Portuguese police files detail only a handful of the Belgian sightings.
The Worldwide Hunt
Sightings of Madeleine McCann across the world have varied from the credible to the absurd.
One well-meaning British diplomat even sparked a major incident in Guatemala when he thought he had seen the girl.
The Consul to the Central American republic told police he believed he had seen a girl who 'bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine' in a shopping mall in Guatemala City in June last year.
It proved to be a false alarm but the girl's father, one of the city's leading lawyers, accused the British Government of intending to kidnap his daughter and demanded a formal written apology from the British Embassy.
There have also been incidents where would-be helpers have accosted parents with blonde daughters, demanding to see their eyes to check if they have Madeleine's distinctive fleck. The McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: 'Investigators have the capacity to move quickly to any part of the world.
'For example there was a sighting in Chile a couple of months ago and we had people on the ground - within the building she was supposed to have been seen in - in three hours.'
'I saw girl who looked like Maddie on tram in Brussels': New sighting as McCanns' detectives focus on Belgium, 08 August 2008
'I saw girl who looked like Maddie on tram in Brussels': New sighting as McCanns' detectives focus on Belgium Daily Mail
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:56 AM on 08th August 2008
Tram sighting: Line Compere
A Belgian woman has spoken of the moment she spotted a child who looked like Madeleine McCann in Brussels just days after she went missing.
Line Compere recounted how she saw the girl with an Eastern European couple on a tram heading for the city's train station.
Her sighting was one of several potential leads revealed in the Portuguese police case files. Detectives are now looking at more than 100 in Belgium alone.
Miss Compere, 31, spoke out again yesterday after it emerged British police were tipped-off Madeleine may have been snatched for a paedophile ring in Belgium.
'I made the sighting on a tram. We were on the Number 18 tram from Porte d'Anderlecht going towards the Gare du Midi,' she said.
'They got off and then got on to the number 51 tram. She really looked like Madeleine, but her hair was different.
'In the photos I saw of Madeleine, she had a fringe, but this girl did not. She was dressed all in pink and was in a pushchair.
'I was standing close to her and saw her eyes - they were blue. But I did not notice any marking on her eye.
'She was with a man and a woman, both between 35 and 40 years old. They were white but had dark hair and looked Eastern European.
'They were both dressed in dark clothes. The girl looked very different to the adults.'
She added: 'I was interviewed once by Belgian police who launched an inquiry, and I gave them all the details I knew.'
The report was passed on to the Portuguese police but it is unclear what action was taken to follow it up.
According to the Portuguese police case files, Ms Compere said she saw the girl 12 days after Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.
She was suspicious because the couple with the youngster did not look like her, appeared to be speaking a different language and did not seem to know her well.
At the time, she had never seen a picture of Madeleine but later that day was shown a photograph of the missing girl and was struck by the similarity, according to the files.
In her interview on June 1 last year, she told police: 'When I saw the photo in question, it immediately jumped out to me that there was a big resemblance to the little girl on the tram.'
Madeleine McCann dossier: Three sightings in Belgium but police drew blank, 08 August 2008
Madeleine McCann dossier: Three sightings in Belgium but police drew blank Daily Mirror
By Martin Fricker in Portimao
8/08/2008
A girl resembling Madeleine McCann was spotted on three separate occasions in Belgium - the first time just 12 days after she vanished, police files reveal.
It is feared that she may have been snatched to order by a Belgian paedophile gang. And that may fit with the sightings of a child looking like Madeleine in neighbouring Holland.
Witnesses say the girl looked just like missing Madeleine but minus her fringe. She was first seen by Line Compere, 31, on a 8.45am tram in Brussels on May 15.
Line said she was suspicious because the girl was with a couple, she thought were East European, had dark hair and did not look like her. She saw a photo of Madeleine on the TV later that day and called a child protection group.
She told police: "What immediately leapt out to me was there was a big resemblance with the eyes of the girl on the tram and Madeleine.
"I can't tell you what language they were speaking but I think they were speaking different languages. The couple did not seem familiar to each other."
It is not certain what action police took but they did not trace the trio.
Line said yesterday: "I was interviewed once by Belgian police who launched an inquiry, and I gave them all the details I knew."
Then 12 days later, on May 27, a Briton saw a child asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp and thought she might drugged. She was with a balding, 6ft white man aged about 40. He got off at Mechelen at 9.20pm carrying the sleeping girl. Leicestershire police asked Interpol to check stations and CCTV.
Then on June 2, Gilles Crippiau, 33, saw a girl who looked like Madeleine in a shop in Mouscron, west Belgium. He heard a woman, who was with the girl and a man, speaking English and thought she must be a tourist.
He noticed that the youngster, who he described as having the "pale face of a tired child", looked like Madeleine and kept a watch on them. They put their purchases in a Renault Scenic and drove off. The shop had no CCTV, police files released this week show.
Judge refuses tappings on the McCann couple, 08 August 2008
Judge refuses tappings on the McCann couple Correio da Manhã
Investigation - the only fingerprint on the window belongs to Kate
Text: Manuela Guerreiro
07 August 2008
Thanks to 'astro' for translation
The criminal instruction judge did not allow for ambient tapping in the villa in Praia da Luz where the McCann moved into in July last year, a short time after Maddie's disappearance. The Judiciária wanted to listen to the conversations between Kate and Gerry in a search for the possible involvement of Maddie's parents in the disappearance of the child, which took place on the 3rd of May 2007.
The McCanns moved into the Vista do Mar villa, in the Luz Parque area, when they were not arguidos yet. They only left the house on the 9th of September, when they returned to England.
The request from the Judiciária took into account a series of indicia that is mentioned in the process, including the only fingerprint that was found on the Ocean Club apartment's window of the bedroom where Maddie slept, and where she allegedly was taken through. That fingerprint belongs to Kate McCann.
The hand mark – thumb and indicator – may indicate that Kate opened it. The direction and the position of the fingers on the window indicate that it was opened towards the left.
This is one more lead that was abandoned on the way, despite the glaring contradiction with Madeleine’s mother’s witness statement.
Kate is the only person who refers that the window was open. As there are no signs of a break-in or of the presence of strangers, the Polícia Judiciária looked for traces of gloves, which weren't found either. The only marking is Kate McCann's hand, given the fact that the window had been cleaned on the day before the child's disappearance by the employee who carried out the cleaning of the apartment.
In the statement that she gave to the Portuguese police right after her daughter's disappearance, Kate clearly refers that "the door to the children's bedroom was completely open, the window was also open, the shutters were up and the curtains were open, while she is certain that she had closed everything."
The fingerprint was registered and photographed by the Polícia Judiciária’s investigators and may indicate that Madeleine McCann's parents simulated the abduction crime.
.................................................
Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process: "It was a very important means of evidence"
Correio da Manhã – Was it important for the investigation to listen to Kate and Gerry's conversations?
Gonçalo Amaral – It was a very important means of evidence, the last opportunity that we had to find out what they said. Even in order to set some doubts aside. The judge refused and we accepted it.
Why is Kate McCann's fingerprint relevant? Wasn't it supposed to be there?
It is the only fingerprint on the window, when she said herself that she never opened it. As there are no signs of a break-in and no signs of gloves and the window had been cleaned a short time before, it becomes relevant, mainly when they defend the theory that an abductor went through the window.
There is a denunciation in the process concerning the possibility that Maddie was abducted on demand from a Belgian paedophile ring. Did the PJ follow that lead?
Everything was analysed. It was treated in the same manner as all the other denunciations. We investigated.
The mysterious photos, 08 August 2008
The mysterious photos 24horas
Gerry said he made copies with Maddie's image on the night of the crime
Text: Luis Maneta
07 August 2008
Thanks to 'carilina' for translation
The PJ analysed the printers at the Ocean Club and in Praia da Luz and came to the conclusion that the McCanns could never have printed the photos of their daughter there.
A set of 4 photos that the McCanns gave to the GNR on the night of the disppearance is one of the major mysteries in the process that was closed by the MP. Many references are made to these pics in the 17-volume dossier, because the type of photographs and the paper were they are printed – in a size 15.3 cm x 10.3 cm – is not "convenient for transportation" says inspector Tavares de Almeida from the PJ in Portimao, in a request he sent to the Scientific Police Lab to analyze the photos.
Inspector Joan Carlos says it was 'strange' that the family was in posession of those photos because on that night they couldn't have had the possibility to make that type of photos in that size. The PJ always wanted to know who took the photos, where they were taken and why they were taken to the Algarve.
When Kate was made arguida on Sep 7, she was questioned about the ways they were making known the face of Madeleine, just hours after her disappearance, but Kate didn't answer. Some hours later, the same question was asked to Gerry, who said the photos had been taken with a digital camera and printed in the reception of the Ocean Club through the initiative of Russell O'Brien. Gerry was making reference to hundreds of photographs that were being printed in A4 sheets in the printer of the Ocean Club as was confirmed by the manager of the complex, John Hill.
But the photos that are intriguing for the PJ are the others. The set of 4 photos that the McCanns gave to the GNR on the night of the disppearance. Gerry declared that he was not the one that had given the photos to the GNR. But the dossier contains also declarations from Sílvia Baptista, responsible for the Ocean Club who says she saw the father of Madeleine give the photos, on a poster-type paper to one of the officers of the GNR. "They were practically all similar" said Baptista. The PJ made a research of the printers available in Luz, but the sort of paper the photos of Maddie were printed on, could not be found anywhere. Nelson Costa, one of the officers in the GNR who was called on the night of 3 May, was perplexed. He told the PJ he saw several pictures of Maddie, some A4 size and others with the size of a poster, that 'couldn't have been made' in the reception of the Ocean Club.
GNR got the pics
Antonio Duarte, a commander for the GNR in Lagos, got the mysterious photos. Four equal images, in sets of two, printed on photographic paper, 15.3 cm x 10.3 cm. The military declared to the PJ that he got the photos at 2 a.m. on the 4th of May – four hours after the disappearance was reported. Antonio Duarte said he got the photos when he was sitting in a vehicle when trying to get identification data of the McCanns, but that he cannot recall who gave him the photos. He declares he's got 'an idea' that he saw Gerry McCann but that he cannot 'guarantee' that Gerry was the one that gave him the pics. Nonetheless he’s quite sure that the pics "could not have been revealed / printed on the premises of the Ocean Club".
Text under the accompanying picture: The McCanns had 4 copies of this picture, on photographic paper, and this fact intrigued the PJ, because Gerry said that the copies had been made in the Ocean Club, and they were not made there.
Recourse to the dogs was advised by British expert, 08 August 2008
Recourse to the dogs was advised by British expert Jornal de Notícias
07 August 2008
Thanks to 'astro' for translation
The British [man] was determinant for the turnaround in the Maddie case. He walked around in the Algarve for several days, looking for evidence
An English expert who counsels the police in cases of missing persons, abduction and homicides was determinant for the turnaround in the Maddie case, dictating the call for the dogs that detect cadaver and blood odour.
Mark Harrison was called into the Algarve by the Portuguese investigators in mid-July, and according to his report, in his investigation he only had to consider the possibility of Maddie "having been murdered and her body hidden in the areas that were searched by the police and located near Praia da Luz".
The request for help appeared on the 20th of July, and for days Mark Harrison carried out recognition trips, walked through various areas of Praia da Luz, at night and during the day, consulted with several colleagues and experts and rode a helicopter.
Throughout 13 pages, the English expert advises the use of the dogs that detect cadaver and blood odour, namely inside the apartment that had been used by the McCanns and in Robert Murat's house. Facing the possibility that the little girl might have been buried in that area, after being killed, Mark even suggested that the investigators consult with a forensic anthropologist, as well as a careful investigation about the natural necrophagous predators of the area.
The report, which has now been made public, reports on the change of direction of the investigation line into the disappearance of Madeleine. "Other opportunities are now being considered, of new searches into locations, given the possibility of her (Maddie) having been murdered and hidden in the surroundings", Mark Harrison refers, stressing that this "would be the proportional and appropriate response, given the period of time that elapsed since her disappearance, and the former experiences in similar cases".
This document, which was accepted by the Public Ministry of Portimão, allowed for the dogs that detect cadaver odour (Eddie) and blood (Keela) to come to Portugal for two weeks. Despite the requests from the investigators, the Public Ministry ended up not finding it useful for the dogs to carry out tests in the McCanns's house in England, and in the residences of some of the friends that were in Praia da Luz on holidays.
The media exposure that surrounded the so-called Maddie case disturbed "the course of the investigations, directly and indirectly".
This is assumed by the prosecutor of the Public Ministry in Portimão, who in the closure dispatch assures that the "verdicts" that were prompted by the so-called "trial by newspapers", which never represent a "fair trial" had an effect of "diverting attentions".
In some sectors, the Public Ministry adds, they even assumed "aspects of a global media orgy and a feast of anticipated guilt over the participants in the process that have arguido status, with a disrespect for the dignity of the person, including that of the missing child herself".
Who framed Robert Murat?, 07 August 2008
Who framed Robert Murat? IOL Portugal Diário
07 August 2008
Thanks to 'astro' for translation
An anonymous phone call from a Portuguese woman alerts the authorities to the "abductor" Murat, one week before the Englishman was known around the world
The denunciation from a journalist, an anonymous phone call and Jane Tanner, the McCann couple's friend who saw a man carrying a child on the evening that Maddie disappeared, produced the first arguido in the investigation. Murat's over-helpful posture was one of the first indicia that turned him into a suspect. But what led to his anonymous incrimination, days before he was known around the world?
The Polícia Judiciária was first in suspecting Murat. On the 7th of May, they already possessed diverse information about his personal and professional life: what he did, his bank accounts, where and with whom he lived, among other details.
On the 8th, one week before the suspicions were made public and Murat was made an arguido, another log fed the fire. A female voice makes an anonymous phone call, in Portuguese, to the PJ and states that the abductor is closer than the police thinks. The inspector asked who she was referring to and the female voice explained: it is an individual who resides in Praia da Luz, from a British mother, fluent in Portuguese and in English, who walked around in the area to help the authorities.
The author of the anonymous phone call added that the abductor was called Robert, that he visited chats of a sexual type and that he managed to encrypt his emails.
Suspicious British journalist…
The suspicions about Murat are also raised by a British journalist. Three days after Maddie's disappearance, on the 6th of May, the reporter gets in touch with the English police, to share her suspicions about a man, who lived in the area and was excessively helpful.
Born British, he has been living in Portugal for a long time. The fluency of his Portuguese and his English soon rendered him useful to the Portuguese authorities, which were confronted with a case that involved British tourists. Furthermore, he had a daughter of Maddie's age, from whom he was separated, as the child lived in England with her mother.
The journalist remembered a case that had taken place in England, where the criminal had a similar attitude and even helped in the searches of his own victim.
Serving as a translator
Even after the suspicions were assumed, the Judiciária continued to use Murat's translation services in several questionings, to English employees of the Ocean Club resort, until the 9th of May. "In order to prevent the suspect from noticing something", they then justified.
It is only at a later date that Jane Tanner, a friend of Kate and Gerry, is confronted with the possibility that Murat is the individual that she saw carrying a child. Despite the fact that the physical description that Jane gave and Murat's look are not the same, the English tourist had no doubts in stating that he was almost certainly the man that she had seen.
It is worth reminding that after having been made an arguido, other members of the group that was on holidays with the McCanns asserted that they saw Robert Murat participating in the searches, on the night of the disappearance. A fact that was always denied by himself, who said that he had been at home with his mother. He only heard about the alleged abduction on Friday the 4th. The GNR itself confirmed to the PJ that it only remembered seeing the Englishman on the following morning.
But the English profilers also guaranteed that there was a 90% chance of Murat being the abductor. And as if that was not enough, an alleged childhood friend asserted that as a teenager, he revealed an inclination to have sex with animals.
A set of circumstances, a friendly behaviour, a suspicious sighting, an anonymous phone call and convenient testimonies turned Murat into the first arguido by Portuguese justice to be financially compensated by British newspapers, for becoming a suspect in a crime that nobody managed to prove to exist.
Without evidence to support that any crime was committed, the Public Ministry archived the Maddie process, on the 21st of July. Kate and Gerry, together with Robert Murat, saw their arguido status lifted.
Madeleine McCann: First pictures of Dutch sighting suspects, 08 August 2008
Madeleine McCann: First pictures of Dutch sighting suspects Telegraph
New photos of the couple believed to have been seen with Madeleine McCann three days after she disappeared have been released.
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 7:47AM BST 08 Aug 2008
They show a dark-featured man with a moustache in his late 30s, who was speaking in Portuguese when Madeleine was allegedly spotted, and a brown-hair woman in her 40s who was talking French.
The sketches were drawn by a police artist for the Daily Mirror on the evidence of Anna Stam, 41, who claims to have seen the trio in Amsterdam.
Ms Stam's report was one of a number of potential sightings that emerged in the official police files released this week.
According to a witness statement to Dutch police, the girl entered Ms Stam's party shop in early May last year with a man and a woman and two other children.
The man - who "did not look like a nice person" - appeared to be speaking Portuguese but the woman spoke in English, telling Ms Stam they had a small circus in France.
Ms Stam was then approached by the young girl at the back of the shop, who asked her in unaccented English: "Do you know where my mummy is?"
When she was told her mother was in the store, the child replied: "She is not my mummy," adding "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."
The Dutch woman thought the girl looked "very much like" Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair.
It emerged yesterday that there were three more sightings of Madeleine, then aged three, in nearby Belgium in the weeks after she disappeared.
Madeleine McCann dossier: Did this Dutch couple snatch Maddy?, 08 August 2008
Madeleine McCann dossier: Did this Dutch couple snatch Maddy? Daily Mirror
By Ryan Parry
8/08/2008
Exclusive
This is the mystery couple believed to have been seen with Madeleine McCann three days after she vanished.
The sketches were drawn exclusively for the Mirror by a police artist on the evidence of witness Anna Stam, 41, who saw the trio in Amsterdam.
They show a dark-featured man aged 35-40 with a moustache, who was speaking in Portuguese, and a brown-haired woman in her 40s who was talking French.
Anna, who was flown to London by the Mirror to aid the hunt, said: "They fit the faces I remember. I just hope it's not too late."
The shop assistant claims a girl with the couple told her: "My name is Maddy", adding, "They took me from my holiday".
It emerged yesterday that there were three more sightings of Madeleine, then three, in nearby Belgium in the weeks after she disappeared.
Anna was praying last night she had given new hope to grieving Kate McCann.
Anna was stunned Kate and husband Gerry have still not received her statement about a suspected sighting of missing daughter Madeleine with a mystery couple three days after she vanished.
She said: "I hope something will come of this and Kate and Gerry will find their little girl. I want to help get her back to them.
"I can't believe they didn't know about this. Did these people take Madeleine? We may never know. I only hope it's not too late.
"But now I have a good feeling about this. This is the first time something will be done with the information I gave over a year ago."
Anna, 41, spoke out after arriving in London to meet a police artist and representatives of the McCanns.
Pledging to instruct investigators to make Anna's dramatic sighting a priority, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "I'm grateful to the Mirror for bringing her to us.
"Her evidence could be very significant. Our investigators will interview her in the next few days."
Anna saw the couple with the Madeleine lookalike in her party shop in Amsterdam on May 6 last year.
The drawings based on her recollection show a dark-featured man of average height, aged 35-40 with small eyes and wearing a moustache. He was speaking Portuguese.
The woman was in her 40s with light brown hair. She was speaking French.
Anna, who claims she has a photographic memory, said the images are far better than a computer e-fit by Dutch police a year ago.
"They're much clearer and more lifelike. They fit the faces I remember.
"I'll never forget the girl. She had her hair in a ponytail, huge green-brown eyes and a pale face which showed no emotion.
"I didn't like the man, he didn't look like a nice person.
"I work in a party shop so most people smile when they come in to buy things.
"But he didn't smile back at me when I smiled at him. He had no sparkle in his eyes.
"He was short with me and seemed angry. I got the feeling he didn't want me to interfere with him and the others."
The woman, she said, seemed "stressed and uncomfortable".
Anna said: "She tried to smile at me but it was out of obligation not from the heart.
"The whole way they reacted made a big impression on me. The man spoke in Portuguese. I know because I have Brazilian friends.
"The woman spoke in French while the little girl spoke English. It didn't seem like a real family."
Anna's sighting emerged in Portuguese police files this week in which she disclosed that the girl told her: "My name is Maddy."
The child said of the woman: "She is not my mummy. They took me from my holiday."
It strengthened fears that Madeleine was snatched to order from her Algarve holiday home in Praia da Luz by a Belgian paedophile gang.
Anna said: "Because this woman spoke French, I immediately thought they would go to Belgium or France.
"The woman told me she was in a station wagon, a larger car. Maybe they were going on a long journey.
"Looking at the artist's drawings make me feel uncomfortable.
"Maybe I could have done something more.
"Maybe the police could have taken it more seriously."
Anna told Dutch police a month later when she saw reports of Madeleine's disappearance.
A full report was sent to Portugal on June 18 last year. It is not known what action was taken.
But the sighting was never made public and Kate and Gerry, both 40, of Rothley, Leics, were never told.
Before meeting a McCann representative at a hotel in East London, Anna said: "When I told police about this, I presumed the McCanns would be told.
"I still can't believe they weren't."
Yesterday Mr Mitchell said McCann investigators would quiz Anna in Dutch.
He said: "The principal is always to speak to a witness in their mother tongue so there's absolutely no confusion over what they saw or heard."
Mr Mitchell again blasted the Portuguese police for not passing Anna's statement to the McCanns.
He said: "Anna did the right thing in contacting the Dutch police. But I find it shocking that the Portuguese police weren't even in touch, either with her or with us.
"If they ruled her sighting out then fine, we'll rule it out as well. But we just don't know at this stage."
DO YOU KNOW SKETCH PAIR?
If you recognise the people in Anna's sketches, go to www.findmadeleine.com or ring 0845 838 4699.
You can also contact our newsdesk on 020 7293 3831.
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News Review: The Maddie files: A tide of words that say little The Scotsman
By Stephen McGinty
Last Updated: 08 August 2008 8:32 PM
At up to 40,000 pages, the Portuguese police's Madeleine McCann case files raise more questions than they answer, writes STEPHEN McGINTY
THE worn stone of the court house at Portimao glowed in the late afternoon sunshine. Since before noon, journalists and television camera crews had been waiting outside for access to the locked files on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Each individual had to fill out a form stating their interest in the case and to hand over a blank DVD to which the files, the size of which has been estimated at between 10,000 to 40,000 pages, were copied. On Monday at 4:10pm, European time, a female court official carried a cardboard box down the steps and called out the number of each media organisation.
After 15 months in which all information connected with the abduction of the three-year-old was restricted under Portuguese law, except for partisan leaks designed to blacken the names of her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, the press and the public were drowning in witness statements, photographs, e-fits and reported sightings.
As the press hurried off to translate key files into English, and lawyers and detectives for the McCann family began focusing on tangible leads, it would quickly become apparent that, as the Portuguese authorities decided on 21 July, when the case was closed, the files contained everything and nothing.
For the armchair obsessives who view the abduction of the little girl from the bedroom of her parent's holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz as the 21st century's equivalent of the assassination of JFK in 1963 or the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932, there were the poignant pictures of the child's bedroom and personal details about the couple's relationship.
A hand-drawn sketch by Kate McCann showed that when the couple left their three children to dine at a nearby tapas restaurant with seven friends, they did not sit beside each other.
In a police interview, Kate explained that the previous night she had been angry at her husband for ignoring her during dinner and had decided to sleep in the room next door, beside the children. Gerry appeared to be unaware of the tiff, saying he assumed she had gone to the next-door bedroom because of his snoring.
Then there was Kate McCann's heart-breaking letter to Chief Inspector Paolo Rebelo, the man leading the investigation, pleading for information: "Madeleine is the most precious thing in our life." It went unanswered.
The principle emotion the couple have had since examining the case files is anger at a botched job. For the first time they saw the e-fit drawings never publicised of a young white man with dark, deep-set eyes, that were put together from sightings by Derek Flack, a holidaymaker and Lance Purser, a British expat. Mr Flack, 64, told police he had seen a man acting suspiciously around the McCanns' apartment just before Madeleine went missing. Mr Purser, 45, said he had seen a similar man in the weeks before the disappearance. They learned that four days before both were named as "arguidos" – official suspects – the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham had told the police that suspected blood samples sent to them might not be blood and could not be directly linked to Madeleine. However the Portuguese police used the samples to name the McCanns as arguidos then leaked the false line that the couple may have used the car, which was rented 25 days after her disappearance, to move their daughter's body. The police note said: "Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be."
While others may question a police decision to release all their files, the McCann family believe it is to be welcomed. John McCann, Gerry's brother yesterday told The Scotsman from his Glasgow home: "We are continuing in a very co-ordinated way the search for Madeleine and it's been very useful to see the police case files as it allows us to see what has and what has not been done.
"The e-fits and potential sightings were hugely frustrating to learn about. But there is a strange irony in the fact that we could not get any information for so long, and now we are flooded with information, especially as the police were persistent and selective with their leaks."
THE line of inquiry that offered hope, albeit of a horrendous sort, was that the child had been abducted to order by a paedophile gang. An intelligence officer in the Metropolitan Police Vice Squad heard that a Belgian child abduction ring had placed an order for a "young girl". According to the report, Madeleine McCann was spotted on holiday by someone connected with the gang, who took her picture. It was sent to Belgium, where the paedophiles agreed she should be abducted – and three days later she was gone.
The e-mail was sent from the Met on 4 March to counterparts in the Leicestershire force and in Portugal. DC John Hughes from Leicestershire forwarded the e-mail to the Policia Judiciaria at Portimao on 21 April, the next day it was sent to Ricardo Paiva, one of the three Portuguese police officers leading the investigation.
On 28 April the Portuguese police faxed the information to Interpol in Lisbon and asked them to investigate it as a matter of urgency. Interpol replied on 23 May, passing all the information gathered from its bureaux in London, Brussels, Germany and Finland.
On 27 May, Interpol sent an urgent fax to Portuguese police asking for more information, but an undated return fax told them they had all the information that there was.
Belgium is less than 100 miles from Amsterdam where there have been two possible sightings of Maddie. Shop assistant Anna Stam, 41, spoke to a little girl called "Maddy" who said she had been taken from her mother while on holiday in May last year. Hannie Wiechmann, 71, called police after seeing a young child she believed to be the missing girl in the second week of May last year. Police have also investigated a sighting of a girl who looked like the missing child at a service station near the town of Tongeren on Dutch border last August.
EARLIER this week the Metropolitan Police said the tip-off, recorded by an intelligence officer working for Scotland Yard's CO14 clubs and vice unit, was second or even third-hand and impossible to corroborate in the UK or abroad.
Yet last night a former senior detective said the material was "a gold mine" for the detectives hired by the family.
He explained: "The first thing I would be doing is looking for a policy file or master index. In British investigations these files detail all the lines of inquires and the reasons why some have fallen off or been abandoned.
"I would also examine all the forensic evidence and reports. Then you would do a detailed structured review. The benefit is that they can now take a cool, detached look.
"The case is very cold. The golden period is the first 12-24 hours. Yet the files are an absolute gold mine of possibilities."
Perhaps the most poignant and honest words in the vast case files were written by Joao Gomes and Jose Magalhaes e Meneses, the prosecuting lawyers who reviewed the police files. They said: "No element of proof whatsoever was found which allows us to form any lucid, sensible, serious and honest conclusion about the circumstances (of Madeleine's disappearance]."
THE EXPERT'S INSIGHT
'Nobody's done anything to find her'
Danny Collins, journalist and author of Vanished
I DON'T think the release of the files enhances the case; it's yet another hindrance.
As we've seen on TV and read in the newspapers over the past few days, each day brings another direction, another sighting. First we've had a very questionable sighting in Amsterdam and the next day Madeleine is in the hands of a Belgian paedophile ring after a "kidnap to order" operation.
This won't give the McCanns any viable leads, it will just send the detectives of Método 3 chasing around to follow year-old sightings to justify their huge monthly fee.
The most interesting revelation in the case files is that nobody appears to have done anything to find her.
If a parent left a three-year-old unattended in an apartment with access to the street and returned one and a half hours later to find the child missing, what's the first logical thought that should enter their mind? That the child has wandered off.
Madeleine was tracked by a Republican Guard dog to 400 metres from the apartment on the night. This was largely unreported because it fitted neither the McCanns' insistence on abduction nor the police conviction that the child was dead.
Madeleine McCann will not be found until someone starts seriously looking for her.
• Vanished: The Truth About the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is published by John Blake, priced £7.99.
THE INSIDER'S VIEW
'The McCanns are frustrated by the delays'
Clarence Mitchell, McCanns' family spokesman
IT HAS been frustrating beyond words, and the worst thing is that all this time, Madeleine has been let down by this lack of apparent co-operation. Kate wanted to write the letter. It was her idea. She wrote it in a more emotional way than perhaps Gerry would. It was sent without much hope and there was no response for a long time. There finally was a short response acknowledging the letter. We were told it would lie on file.
A reconstruction for Crimewatch has been on the cards for a while. We have had low-key contact with Crimewatch ever since they wanted to do something with us last year. Kate and Gerry may well take part – it is certainly something we would consider.
(On the report that the child may have been abducted to order, Mr Mitchell said:] Clearly any information of that nature – Kate and Gerry would hope that the Portuguese police with Interpol have acted to the absolute best of their ability in following this up.
The private investigators, as with all the other sightings and all the other information, will be pursuing this line as an absolute priority to establish if it has been fully investigated and properly ruled out. They have some of the information already from their lawyers and investigators and they are waiting to hear what is legitimate, what is promising and what is not.
They are frustrated by the delays and the mistakes. They have learned an awful lot, and God forbid she has fallen foul of any of these types.
IN QUOTES
"Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken. Somebody saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed and Maddie was taken."
– CO14 (vice unit) report from Metropolitan Police
"Unsubstantiated information was received by CO14 relating to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann."
– A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman
"I am appealing to you as a fellow human being to work with us … Lack of communication and a void of information, as the parent of a missing child, is torture."
– Kate McCann
"She came right to me to pat the dog. Then I let her go. Stupid, but I thought, since the police are so convinced it wasn't Madeleine. I let her walk away."
– Hannie Wiechmann, 71, who said she saw Madeleine in Amsterdam
"This is not , unfortunately, a crime fit for the investigative mind of a Sherlock Holmes or an Hercule Poirot, guided by the illusion that the forces of law and justice always restore order."
– Public prosecutor's report
"So the little girl stood before me and asked in English: 'Do you know where my mummy is?' I answered that her mother was a little further back in the shop and she answered: 'She is not my mummy.'"
– Anna Stam, Amsterdam shopkeeper in her witness statement to police
"Although they left their daughter alone with her siblings in the apartment, sometimes for extended periods, they were keeping an eye on them. We must also recognise that the parents are already paying a heavy penalty for their carelessness."
– Public prosecutor's report
KEY WORDS
• ARGUIDO
Arguido derives from the Latin 'arguire' or 'arguere'. The English words "argue" and "argument" have the same etymology. Under Portuguese law an Arguido (male) or arguida (female) is normally translated as a "named suspect" or "formal suspect". Arguido status gives a range of legal protections, such as the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer during questioning.
• Metodo 3
Is the name of the detective agency, based in Barcelona, and hired by the McCann family last September to conduct their own investigation. Initially, the British security company Control Risks Group, a firm founded by former SAS men, was called on for advice. The Spanish detective agency was hired, according to Clarence Mitchell, because of Portugal's "cultural connection" with Spain.
New leads on missing Madeleine, 08 August 2008
New leads on missing Madeleine Daily Mirror
Friday August 08, 2008
Short video link
A cluster of new leads in Holland and Belgium are being examined by detectives leading the search for Madeleine McCann.
'I spotted Maddie on Belgian tram' and other 'sightings', 08 August 2008
I spotted Maddie on Belgian tram The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday August 08, 2008
A WOMAN who is convinced she saw Madeleine McCann wearing beach shoes on a city tram in Belgium told The Sun last night how cops ignored her.
The sighting by supermarket buyer Line Compere came just 12 days after Maddie was snatched from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal.
Line, 31, is one of THREE credible witnesses who say they saw the five-year-old in Belgium during the same period.
The sightings come on top of three more in neighbouring Holland and fears expressed by Scotland Yard that Maddie was stolen to order by a Belgian paedophile ring.
They also suggest a trail of movement across the Low Countries by the tot and her kidnappers.
Information buried in the Maddie files released by Portuguese police shows that 107 sightings were reported to Belgian cops and passed on to Portugal.
Thirty-six were investigated, 34 were deemed too vague and 37 came from clairvoyants.
But all were virtually ignored by the Portuguese detectives heading the case.
Line reported seeing a girl of Maddie's description on a No18 tram heading towards Brussels' Eurostar station the Gare du Midi at 8.45am on May 15 last year.
She was with a man and a woman. Line told The Sun: "I thought it was strange because they didn't look alike physically. They definitely were not from the same family."
Her suspicions were further aroused when the three seemed to be communicating in different languages.
She said: "The couple looked to me as if they came from East Europe and were between 35 and 40.
"It looked as if life had taken its toll on them — they looked rough.
"The little girl was dancing in the tram and at one point they told her to sit down. She was dressed as if she were going to the beach, with plastic beach shoes and no socks.
"She also had a jacket with a hood. The couple had a red pushchair."
Line observed the trio for 15 minutes before getting off the tram. At the time she had not heard of Maddie. But later that day a friend emailed her with news of the girl's disappearance along with a photo of her.
Line said: "I put the two together instantly." She contacted the missing children network Child Focus. But she said: "They didn't take the call seriously. I had to call again and insist they take notice.
"They then passed my details on to the federal police, who sent around a woman officer several weeks later."
As far as she is aware, her report was not followed up.
The case files show a girl looking like Maddie was spotted in the Belgian town of Mouscron, near the French border, on June 2 last year.
Gilles Crippiau, 33, saw her in a shop called O Cool with an English-speaking woman.
He said the girl was about three with big eyes and the pale face of a tired child.
He told Belgian police: "Once back home I looked at a photo of the little McCann child and I was struck by the resemblance."
The files also reveal a British national saw a girl like Maddie asleep, possibly drugged, on a Brussels to Antwerp train on May 27 last year.
She was with a 6ft man who carried her off at Medechen.
The Sun has told this week of two sightings in Amsterdam by party goods shop worker Anna Stam, 41, and pensioner Hannie Weichmann, 71.
And yesterday it emerged a man saw a little girl sitting on her own and crying in the Panorama restaurant at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry, said all credible leads would be quickly followed up by private detectives working for the family.
Fears that a Belgian paedophile ring grabbed Maddie were reflected in an email sent by a Metropolitan Police intelligence unit to the Leicestershire force, who led the British end of the inquiry.
It said an informant claimed the ring ordered a young girl to be abducted three days before Maddie vanished — and chose her after a photo was taken in Praia da Luz.
Yesterday a senior Met source said the email had a strong proviso attached saying the information could not be substantiated.
The source added: "We have no way of knowing whether it was accurate. Nor is there any realistic chance of finding out more details from this particular source."
May, 2007: Amsterdam The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
ANNA Stam is asked by a little girl in the fancy dress shop where she works: "Do you know where my mummy is?"
The 41-year-old tells her that her mum, who she believes the girl came in with, is further back in the shop.
The girl says: "She's not my mummy . . . she is a stranger. She took me from my mummy."
Anna tells cops of the sighting in Middenweg, Amsterdam, in June.
May, 2007: Amsterdam The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
HANNIE Weichmann, 71, sees a girl in pink with an anxious woman in the Weteringsplantsoen area of Amsterdam.
The woman, aged about 30, and the youngster are speaking English and the woman does not look as though she's used to children.
Hannie calls police after the woman tells her she's a tourist who is babysitting the girl.
She said: "Those eyes. I knew it was her."
May 15, 2007: Brussels, Belgium The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
SUPERMARKET buyer Line Compere, 31, spots a young girl looking "very much" like Maddie on a No18 tram heading for the Gare du Midi rail station.
Her suspicions are aroused because a couple with the youngster do not look like her, talk in a different language and seem "rough".
Even though the girl is in the middle of a city, she is wearing beach-style shoes and no socks.
After seeing a photo of Maddie later that day, Line is convinced the child on the tram is her.
May 27, 2007: Brussels to Antwerp train The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
BRITON spots lookalike child asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp.
It appeared as if the girl could have been drugged.
She was accompanied by a balding 6ft white man aged about 40 wearing sports clothes.
The man got off the train at Mechelen carrying the child. The sighting was reported to cops.
May 28, 2007: Schiphol Airport The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
MAN sees a little girl sitting and crying on her own at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 9.30am.
She looked the same age and size as Maddie and had her hair tied back in a pony tail.
A white man went up to the child but did not appear to be very close to her.
Call was passed on to Crimestoppers.
June 2, 2007: Mouscron, Belgium The Sun
From LUCY HAGAN in Brussels and VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz
Published: Today, Friday 08 August 2008
BELGIAN Gilles Crippiau sees a girl aged about three, looking tired and pale, with an English-speaking woman in a shop.
He watches as the woman puts purchases in a Renault Scenic before driving off with the child.
Sick Nation The Sun
Published: Today, Friday August 08, 2008
BELGIUM, a nation of only 10million people, is plagued by paedophiles. Rapes and sex crimes are more likely to involve children than adult victims.
At least two people a day are sentenced for sexual assault or rape involving minors. In 2003, the last year official figures were available, almost 850 paedos were jailed.
The authorities believe many may be copying countryman Marc Dutroux, 51 — convicted of sexually abusing six girls aged eight to 19 in the mid-90s. He killed two.
It is claimed he was in a paedophile ring. Two girls were also raped and murdered in Liege in eastern Belgium in 2006.
Latest From the Madeleine Files, 08 August 2008
Latest From the Madeleine Files Sky News
2:34pm UK, Friday August 08, 2008
Sky News is continuing to plough through the 30,000 pages of files released by Portuguese police that make up their investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Refresh throughout the day to hear what they say.
:: The files show Portuguese police wanted to bug Kate and Gerry McCann to eavesdrop on their conversations before making the couple "arguidos", or formal suspects, last summer.
On August 1 last year detectives requested permission to place two bugs in the McCanns' apartment in Praia da Luz and one in their car. They were refused permission. The McCanns' arguido status was lifted on July 21, when prosecutors shelved the case.
:: Four families stayed in Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment between the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine and further forensic searches, the case files say.
Just over a month after Madeleine went missing, flat 5A in Praia da Luz's Ocean Club resort was allowed to be occupied again. Despite the apartment being a crime scene, 11 people stayed there between June 12 and July 26 last year, raising the possibility that it was contaminated before fresh forensic examinations in August.
(article continues with information as per yesterday)
Maddie: We warned Portuguese, say Vice Squad, 08 August 2008
Maddie: We warned Portuguese, say Vice Squad Daily Express
By Martin Evans
Friday August 8, 2008
BRITISH police did everything in their power to investigate claims that Madeleine McCann had been snatched by an international paedophile ring, they insisted last night.
Officers working for CO14, a specialised vice unit within the Metropolitan Police, wrote to their Portuguese counterparts in March warning them they had intelligence that the three-year-old had been kidnapped to order by a Belgian gang.
The Policia Judiciaria then contacted Interpol and asked them to investigate further. But just weeks later Portuguese police chiefs shelved the line of inquiry, claiming it lacked credibility.
Private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann are now urgently examining the information to see if any more could have been done to check out the anonymous tip-off.
An email sent by John Shord of the Metropolitan's Vice and Clubs Unit in March to Leicestershire Police – who were coordinating the UK end of the Madeleine case – read: "Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.
"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium.
"The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken."
Interpol contacted its departments in London, Belgium, Germany and Finland to gather more information about European paedophile gangs.
But detective Paulo Rebelo, head of the Madeleine inquiry, ruled that all but the German intelligence showed "lack of credibility".
As a result, the Scotland Yard tip-off was added to the massive file of evidence considered during the hunt for Madeleine.
Belgium is less than 100 miles from Amsterdam, where there have been two highly credible possible sightings of the missing youngster.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to comment on "sensitive" information found in the Portuguese police case files.
He said: "Clearly, with any information of that nature, Kate and Gerry would hope that the Portuguese police in conjunction with Interpol have acted to the absolute best of their ability in following this up."
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id79.html
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