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The Sunday Times December 16, 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann: Beyond the smears For six months David James Smith has examined the evidence surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for The Sunday Times Magazine. In this, the most comprehensive �?and authoritative �?investigation yet, he addresses the key issues facing Gerry and Kate as they prepare for Christmas without their daughter src="/tol/js/m24-image-browser.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> src="/tol/js/tol.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> language=javascript type=text/javascript>
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</SCRIPT> <FORM name=packageArticle action="" method=post> Kate was to go to the nearby town of Portimao the next day, Thursday, September 6, to be questioned by detectives from the Policia Judiciaria (PJ). It would be Gerry’s turn the day after. For the media this would be a shocking new twist to the story �?but not for the McCanns: the PJ had told them four weeks earlier they were going to be subjected to formal interviews and the McCanns had stayed on, instead of going home at the end of August as originally planned, waiting for the interviews to take place. Waiting. Waiting. </FORM> Finally, the PJ called. They told the McCanns they would be made official suspects �?arguidos. The McCanns had noted the change of mood in Portugal, especially among the PJ, and the increasing viciousness of the Portuguese press. Some of the stories seemed so incredible and far-fetched �?Kate, for instance, disposing of Madeleine’s body, or Madeleine’s DNA being found in the car the McCanns had hired three weeks after Madeleine disappeared �?that I at first assumed they were the fanciful inventions of an unfettered press. I soon realised how well they reflected the thinking of the PJ. More recently I have discovered the stories were being fed to the press by the PJ, from the highest ranks. So much for judicial secrecy. One Portuguese journalist told me that segredo de justica �?secrecy of justice �?was like the speed limit. Everyone knows the law; nobody keeps to it. It seems important to make it clear right away that I do not suspect the McCanns harmed Madeleine, nor do I think they disposed of their daughter’s body if, as the PJ believe, she died in an accident that night in their apartment. This is not a mere prejudice on my part. I have spent a long time considering and examining every unpleasant scenario. The McCanns are not my friends and I have no axe to grind with Portugal, its police or its media. To me, the McCanns are genuine people in the grip of despair �?the accusations against them are ludicrous and a cruel distraction from the search for their daughter. That’s why I put the quotation marks around the word “death�?at the top of the article. Madeleine may be dead, it may even be more likely she is dead, but nobody knows for sure. Nobody, not even the PJ, as we will see, can produce any persuasive evidence that she has come to harm. That evening, Thursday, May 3, at just after 8pm, by their account, Kate and Gerry McCann were having a glass of wine together in apartment 5a on the ground floor of Block 5 of the Waterside Village Gardens at the Ocean Club. Their three children were asleep in the front bedroom overlooking the car park and, beyond it, the street. Madeleine was in the single bed nearest the door. There was an empty bed against the opposite wall, beneath the window. Between the two beds were two travel cots containing the twins: Sean and Amelie. Gerry had bought the wine at the Baptista supermarket, 200 yards down the hill. They had lived and worked in New Zealand for a year and that particular bottle, Montana sauvignon blanc, was their favourite. It was the sixth day of their week’s holiday in the Algarve and they were reflecting on the enjoyable time they’d had, how surprisingly easy it had been with the children. When their old friend Dave Payne had invited them on a group holiday, it had seemed too good to resist. Dave and Fiona Payne had been on another Mark Warner holiday the year before, to Greece with Matt and Rachael Oldfield. The Algarve group would be completed by Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner and Fiona’s mother, Dianne Webster. Six of the group were doctors. Gerry was a consultant cardiologist and had worked before with Matt and Russell. Kate had been an anaesthetist and was now a part-time GP. The group first spent time together at Dave and Fiona’s wedding in Italy in 2003. Now they had eight children between them. Madeleine was the oldest, her fourth birthday a week after they would return from the Algarve. One of the attractions was that there were children for their own to play with. And the adults were a sporty group, a speciality of Mark Warner holidays; tennis had dominated the activities that week. That might all sound very cosy and middle class, but that did not mean their lives had been easy or free of suffering �?especially with the struggle to have children, eventually managed through IVF �?or that they had been born into an advantaged world. Kate came from a modest Liverpool background and Gerry, the youngest of five, had been brought up in a tenement building on the south side of Glasgow. The terms of the holiday were half-board, breakfast and evening meal, and the McCanns paid about £1,500. There had been some reduction when they had discovered that, unlike most Mark Warner resorts, the Ocean Club did not offer a baby-listening service. Instead, the group had asked for apartments close together, so they were all assigned to Block 5. The Paynes were on the floor above, the only couple with a functioning baby monitor. Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner had brought a monitor too, but theirs wasn’t getting much of a signal from the Tapas restaurant 50 yards away. The Ocean Club was not a gated, enclosed resort in the usual style of Mark Warner, but a sprawling complex open to the village of Luz and scattered over such a wide distance that shuttle buses were used. Even though the resort was open to the village, it felt safe and secure, and in early May it was still very quiet. Gerry never saw a soul, except once, on the last night, on his evening checks, going back and forth between Tapas and the apartment, an even-paced walk of just under a minute. As the McCanns endlessly repeated afterwards, if they had thought it was wrong or even risky, they would never have left their children. With hindsight, of course, they would never have done it and now they are riven with guilt, but we can all be wise after the event, and so many of us have taken similar chances at times, in search of a bit of respite from our children. Gerry had knocked up at the start of the 4.30pm tennis-drills session, but had decided not to exacerbate an injury to his Achilles tendon, so had dropped out and waited around by the courts until the children came back from the kids�?clubs at 5pm for tea. That had been one of the most enjoyable times of the holiday, all the children together for tea, then the adults playing with them afterwards. Gerry was in his apartment at 7pm, had a glass of water, then a beer, while the children sat with Kate on the couch having stories with a snack. The children were clearly shattered �?the last thing any of them needed was a sedative and, anyway, it was not something the McCanns ever did. They put them to bed after a last story. The twins were asleep virtually the moment they lay down, Madeleine not far behind them. These days it was rare for Madeleine to wake up at all once she was in bed. If she did, she’d normally wander into her parents�?bed, whether they were there or not. At home in Rothley, sometime earlier, they had begun a star chart for Madeleine staying in her own bed. The chart, still on display in the kitchen, was full of stars. At about 7.30pm, Kate and Gerry showered and changed and sat down to have a quiet glass of the sauvignon blanc. They were first to the table at the restaurant at 8.35 and spent some minutes talking to a couple from Hertfordshire �?two more tennis players �?at the next table, who were eating with their young children. As they chatted, Gerry thought how lucky he was, his children asleep nearby, he and Kate free to come and enjoy some adult time at the restaurant and not have to sit with their children, as this couple were. The McCanns sat down after a few minutes and then ordered some wine. The Oldfields were next to arrive, then Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner and, finally, always last, Dave and Fiona Payne with Dianne Webster. That night their group ordered six bottles in total and two were still untouched on the table at 10pm. No more than half a bottle of wine each. The Portuguese magazine Sol reported that the group had drunk 14 bottles. Another Portuguese journalist told me a local GNR (national republican guard) police officer had described one of the group as being so drunk later that evening, they could barely stand. They had just ordered starters when the routine of checking began. Matt Oldfield went first at 8.55 to check his own apartment and to hurry up the Paynes, who had still not arrived. He was followed by Gerry, who entered his apartment at about 9.05 through the patio doors to the lounge. Earlier that week the McCanns had used a key to go in through the front door next to the children’s bedroom but, worrying the noise might wake the children, they began using the patio doors, leaving them unlocked. When he entered the apartment, Gerry immediately saw that the children’s bedroom door, which they always left just ajar, was now open to 45 degrees. He thought that was odd, and glanced in his own bedroom to see if Madeleine had gone into her parents�?bed. But no, she and the twins were all still fast asleep. Gerry paused over Madeleine, who �?a typical doctor’s observation, this �?was lying almost in “the recovery position�?with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner, had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head, and Gerry thought how gorgeous, how lovely-looking she was and how lucky he was. Putting the door back to five degrees, he went to the loo and left to return to the restaurant. That, of course, was the last time he would see his daughter. As he walked down the hill, Gerry saw Jes Wilkins on the opposite side of the road pushing a child in a buggy. Gerry called hello and crossed over to talk. Wilkins and his partner were eating in their own apartment that night, but their youngest still wouldn’t settle. It reminded Gerry of the fraught time he and Kate used to have with Madeleine when she was a baby. In his memory, they could never eat a meal together when they went out, as she was always disturbing them and needing to be wheeled off to sleep. As Jane Tanner walked up the hill, she saw Gerry talking to Jes and, as she passed them, she saw ahead of her a man walking quickly across the top of the road in front of her, going away from the apartment block, heading to the outer road of the resort complex. The man was carrying a little girl who was hanging limply from his open arms. The sighting was odd, but hardly exceptional in a holiday resort. Her daughter fine, Jane returned to the table. At 9.30, Kate got up to make the next check on her children, but Matt Oldfield was checking too, as was Russell O’Brien, and Matt offered to do Kate’s check for her, which she accepted. Gerry teased that she would not be excused her turn at the next check. In the McCanns�?apartment, Oldfield noticed the children’s bedroom door was again open, but that meant nothing to him, so he merely observed all was quiet and made a cursory glance inside the room, seeing the twins in their cots but, agonisingly, not directly seeing Madeleine’s bed from the angle at which he stood. Afterwards, he could not say for sure if she had been there or not. Nor could he say if the window and shutter had been open. He would get a hard time from the police because of this, during his interviews not long afterwards, being aggressively accused of taking Madeleine �?you passed her out of the window, didn’t you! �?being suspected because he had offered to take Kate’s turn. Jane Tanner, too, would be accused of fabricating or misremembering her sighting of this stranger with a child. There could be no answer to such an accusation �?except that she was an ordinary, honest person who knew what she had seen. Sometime after 10pm, Rachael Oldfield would go to Jane’s apartment to tell her Madeleine had been taken and Jane would say: “Oh my God. I saw a man carrying a girl.�? It perhaps needs to be stated openly that all these timings and details, the way in which they weave and dovetail together, are based on witness accounts �?corroborated not just by the McCann group but by others, such as Jes Wilkins �?and that, despite suggestions to the contrary, there are no obvious contradictions or differences between them. Nor has any of the McCann group, at any time since, said they wanted to retract or change their statement. That suggestion too is a lie. Russell O’Brien checked his own daughter at 9.30 and found she had been sick. Jane returned to the apartment to be with her daughter, and Russell went back to the table. Russell would later fall under suspicion too, because of those few minutes he spent away from the table. Finally, at 10pm, it was Kate’s turn to check the apartment. She only became alarmed when she reached out to the children’s bedroom door and it blew shut. Inside the room the window was open, the shutter was up and Madeleine’s bed was empty. Kate quickly searched everywhere and ran back down the hill and into the restaurant: “Madeleine’s gone, somebody’s taken her�?or “Madeleine’s gone, someone’s taken her.�? Gerry stood up. “She can’t be gone.�?“I’m telling you she’s gone, someone’s taken her.�? It was reported that Kate had said “They’ve taken her,�?as if it was someone that she knew. She did use those words, but only later, back in the apartment, in her despair, as she said: “We’ve let her down. They’ve taken her.�? Matt went down to the 24-hour reception at the bottom of the hill to raise the alarm. The call to the police went in at 10.15. They arrived 55 minutes later. It is widely believed among the Portuguese media, and perhaps the police too, even now, that the McCanns called Sky News before they called the police. For the record, Sky News picked up the story from GMTV breakfast television, at around 7.30am the following day. There was a latch lock on the sliding glass window, and the McCanns thought, but could not be sure, that they had locked it at the start of the holiday. They would later discover it was common for cleaners to open the shutters and windows to give the rooms an airing, so there was no way of knowing whether the window was locked that night or not and no forensic trace to indicate where and how an abductor had gone in and out. They could easily have used the front door, perhaps even had access to a key. In the McCanns�?minds now, there is no doubt Jane Tanner saw their daughter being taken, but there was so little time to talk in the first few days that it was not until Jane saw the description of Madeleine’s pyjamas in the media, around Monday or Tuesday of the following week, that she told them the little girl she had seen was wearing the same design: pink top and white bottoms with a floral design. |
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While searches began, Gerry was worried about Kate, as she was so distraught and kept talking about paedophiles, saying Madeleine would be dead. He tried to be reassuring, but of course he was thinking the same things. It all came pouring out of him at 23.40 �?from his phone records �?when he called his sister Trish in Scotland ranting and raving semi-coherently on the phone about Madeleine being taken, and Trish kept trying to get him to calm down. A sharp contrast with the way he would be later, particularly in public, once he had regained his self-control. The detectives from PJ arrived at about 1am. By 3.30am they had gone and there was no police action at all, or none visible to the McCanns. Four times that night they put in calls via the British consul; four times the message came back from the PJ, a message that the McCanns would never forget: “Everything that can be done is being done.�? One of the PJ officers had put on surgical gloves and begun trying to dust down the bedroom, but his powder was not working properly. He tried to take the McCanns�?fingerprints for elimination, but that didn’t work either. It all had to be done again the next day. The twins slept on like logs, just as they always did at home, though even their parents were fleetingly worried �?had they been sedated by an abductor? �?that they should be quite so comatose. The Ocean Club gave them another apartment, but the McCanns did not want to be alone, so the twins were taken to the Paynes�?apartment, and Kate and Gerry went there later too, to try to rest. They got up at first light and went to search alone on the open scrubland beyond the resort, wandering around, calling Madeleine’s name. It was cold and lonely �?there was no answer. Gerry had asked the departing PJ detectives at half three about contacting the media to make an appeal. One of the officers had reacted with surprising agitation, waving his hand emphatically: “No journalists! No journalists!�?That, of course, was not quite how it worked out. ) ) ) ) ) For many weeks, the McCanns enjoyed a good relationship with the Portuguese police and were treated to regular updates and a flow of information via the family-liaison officers sent out by Leicestershire police. The problem with the three Leicester officers was that they didn’t have a word of Portuguese between them. The first public indication of police thinking came at the end of June when the magazine Sol published a story about the McCann group, casting doubts on their evidence and claiming they had undertaken a pact of silence. It was the first time the McCanns�?friends had been named in public, but Sol’s journalist Felicia Cabrita had their names and phone numbers and details from their witness statements. She had called them all, and at least one other witness, Jes Wilkins. The information had been handed to Cabrita by the police �?she says she acquired the material through good journalism, which in a sense it was �?and her source is widely believed by her colleagues to have been the former head of the inquiry, Goncalo Amaral. The PJ appointed an official spokesman, Olegario Sousa. He was apparently plucked from his day job �?he was a chief inspector on the art-robbery squad �?because he was the only one who spoke decent English. He was never directly involved in the investigation and was rarely told much of what was really going on. Initial suspicion focused on Robert Murat, who made himself busy with police and journalists from the first day, offering his services as an interpreter, as he spoke both languages and lived across the road from the Ocean Club with his mother at the villa Casa Liliana. In fact, the man Jane Tanner had seen carrying a child was walking straight towards the Murat villa. Murat later said to me that he told the PJ the press were suspicious of him, and they told him not to worry and to keep away from the press and work for them instead. He had signed papers to become an official interpreter and even sat in during the witness interview of Rachael Oldfield. Leaving the police station in Portimao one evening, a week after becoming an official police interpreter, Murat became aware he was being followed. Shortly after that he was arrested and interviewed himself and made an arguido. Murat always denied he was out the night Madeleine disappeared, but three of the McCann group claimed at the time they had seen him and still insist they were right. I was told there was at least one new independent sighting of Murat out on the night of May 3. Bizarrely, the McCanns believe they were inadvertently responsible for encouraging the PJ to take them seriously as potential suspects, as it was them bringing in a South African “body finder�? Danie Krugel, that led to search dogs being used. The PJ agreed to work with Krugel, and an officer from the UK National Policing Improvement Agency was called in to advise on a search based on Krugel’s findings. It was agreed the British would supply some specialist equipment for spotting disturbed soil and also some search dogs, including one trained in human-remains detection (HRD) and one trained to detect the scent of blood. Ultimately, only those who were there and involved know exactly what happened, but the McCanns wonder just how the search dogs were presented to the PJ and what claims were made for their success rate and infallibility. All British policing techniques are meant to be practised uniformly by every force across the country and defined in written policy created by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). But the ACPO was unable to produce for me any policy relating to search dogs. Gerry was initially optimistic at the prospect of the searches by these supposedly elite British dogs and techniques. The dogs then went on to search the apartments of the McCanns and their friends. A line-up of cars were also called in by the police, including the cars owned or used by Murat and the Renault the McCanns had been using, which they had hired on May 27. Those who told me about the dogs�?searches say they involved little objective science. It has been suggested that the HRD dog was treated differently in the McCanns�?apartment than in the others. The dog kept sniffing and running off and it was called back on several occasions. Eventually it “alerted�? meaning it went stiff and stayed still. Then the blood dog was called in and directed to the area where the other dog had alerted. Eventually this dog alerted in the same place �?behind the sofa in the lounge, which is where the trace of blood was supposedly found. The cars were lined up, not in a controlled environment, but in the underground public car park opposite Portimao police station. Again the dog was led quickly from one car to the next until he reached a Renault with “Find Madeleine�?stickers all over it. The dog sniffed and moved on to the next car, but was called back. The dog was taken around the McCanns�?car for about a minute, as opposed to the few seconds devoted to the other cars. Then the dog went rigid, an “alert�? and the doors and the boot were opened. It was this that led to the recovery of some body fluids that the PJ suspected would contain traces of Madeleine’s DNA, and which led to the supposed revelation that her body must have been carried in the car. The role of such dogs is normally intended to find a body or remains. Without any subsequent discovery the alerts amount to little more than an indication �?or worse: in one recent case in Wisconsin a judge concluded that similarly trained dogs were “no more reliable than the flip of a coin�? after hearing evidence that they were wrong far more often than they were right. The McCanns�?lawyers are in touch with the defence lawyers in that case. The PJ had never attempted to obtain a “control sample�?of Madeleine’s DNA. That had been left to the McCanns, who had found traces of her saliva on the pillow of her bed at home in Rothley and provided that DNA sample to the Portuguese police. Whatever the public’s perception �?based on a slew of news stories �?at this stage there is no published evidence that Madeleine’s DNA, or any trace of her blood, has been recovered from the apartment or the car. Any suggestion to the contrary appears to be misinformation from the PJ. Some Portuguese journalists and, apparently, some members of the PJ believed the UK’s Forensic Science Service (FSS), based in Birmingham, had been deliberately delaying the tests. There are some who suspect the involvement of the British secret services. In fact, both the PJ’s national director, Alipio Ribeiro, and another PJ official, Carlos Anjos, have both said openly that the police have failed to establish a perfect match. The PJ found several specks of what they believe to be blood in apartment 5a, including one sample that someone had apparently tried to wash off. They found a trace of body fluid �?that is, not blood �?in the boot of the Renault and a tiny trace of blood in the Renault’s key fob. Some forensic tests were carried out at the PJ’s own laboratories in Lisbon, where tests on samples related to Robert Murat were also made. The tests on the traces that were potentially the most significant came to the FSS. One sample was said to have produced DNA that was similar to Madeleine’s. An exact match would be 20 out of 20 bands, this sample was said to be similar in 15 out of 20 bands. But in reality, that result was meaningless, as any family member could produce the same match. Some journalists were told that more advanced tests were being carried out on the smallest blood traces �?tests called low copy number profiling, which could produce DNA findings in the slightest of samples. They were a slow process, but did not normally take more than two weeks. In late November, PJ officers and forensic experts came to meet police and FSS experts in the UK, amid claims the PJ were still waiting for further results. Leicestershire police have apparently paid for all the forensic tests being carried out in the case by the FSS �?they are the client in the case, not the Portuguese. The PJ have used this as evidence that the British are suspicious of the McCanns too �?even the McCanns think the British police doubted them for a while, until the forensic results emerged �?but you might think the PJ would have wanted to be in control of their own forensic findings. I heard that a PJ officer had been surprised to find a member of MI5 at a UK meeting about the case, and this made him suspicious that shadowy forces could be at work. The Sol journalist Felicia Cabrita mentioned the “mysterious Clarence�?�?Clarence Mitchell, the former government PR officer turned McCann spokesman �?and I was told there was suspicion too about another government official, Sheree Dodd, who had acted as a PR officer for the McCanns briefly in the early days �?had she come out from MI6 to help dispose of the body? These theories might seem preposterous, but for those involved in the case in Portugal, they fitted a pattern in which the Portuguese government and in turn the PJ had felt the heavy weight of diplomatic pressure from the UK �?a pressure that the police and the journalists very much resented, with its implication that the police were not doing their job properly. This could be one reason why the PJ were so ready to suspect the McCanns. There seemed to be no doubt that the PJ really did think the McCanns had done it. I was outlined a scenario in which Kate had come back to the apartment and found that Madeleine had fallen from the sofa and hit her head �?hence the blood �?and cleaned up and hid the body somewhere in the apartment, and perhaps had not even told Gerry until the next day. The police could not answer all the questions, of course. They were almost as unanswerable as they were unimaginable. Where would they have hidden the body? How would they have got it into the car 24 days later, and where would they have taken it? What kind of people would they have to be �?what borderline personality disorders must they both share �?to keep that to themselves for six months, maintain a facade in front of everyone they knew, and at the same time not hiding away but going out to ask the world to help find Madeleine? I know the McCanns believe the PJ were oversold the value of the dogs. It was after the dogs came out that the PJ’s attitude towards the McCanns changed and it became harder for the McCanns to obtain a briefing meeting. They were disturbed when the press began reporting that the PJ knew Madeleine was dead. Finally, after pressing for a meeting, one was arranged for Wednesday, August 8, three days before the 100-day point after Madeleine’s disappearance. When they arrived at the station in Portimao the couple were separated and both interrogated. Kate especially was given “the third degree�? Gerry broke down and cried, pleading with the PJ to share any evidence that Madeleine was dead. “It’s coming, it’s coming,�?he was told. The interviews caused the couple “incredible emotional distress�? But they agreed, if they had been guilty, they probably would have cracked and confessed at that point. The police said there would be no more briefings. The next time they saw the McCanns it would be across the table, for formal interviews. What was doubly dispiriting, of course, was that while the PJ treated them as suspects, they were no longer looking for Madeleine. I was told the PJ had “abandoned the abduction theory�? It was open season now on the McCanns. The publicity was wretched. The British press were not blameless either, often lazily repeating allegations and sometimes repeating them despite emphatic denials from the McCann camp. If you read the blog sites on the internet you would discover an even darker, nastier tone. The McCanns and their holiday friends were swingers, apparently. That allegation was even made on the Portuguese equivalent of the BBC by a former PJ detective, Jose Barra da Costa. When I checked with him, he said he had been told by a friend in the UK who happened to be a police officer. No doubt that officer had plucked it from the internet. It is not true. During Kate’s interviews with the PJ in September, just before she was declared an arguido, she was separated from her lawyer, and he was presented with a long list of factors pointing to her guilt, including entries from her entirely innocuous diary and a passage they believed she had marked in a Bible (which in fact had been given to her and marked by the original owner). The PJ also told the lawyer there was a 100% DNA match with Madeleine in the car and showed him a document that appeared to prove it. Possibly, this was the document showing Madeleine’s control sample of DNA. The McCanns feared even their own lawyer thought they were guilty. Kate was asked by the PJ to explain the dog alerts by her car. “You’re the police,�?she said. “You tell me.�?Kate asked the PJ: “Are you trying to destroy our family altogether?�? Gerry was asked the same questions the next day but could not answer. (Sometime earlier a Leicestershire officer had said to him, just stick to what you know.) Why did the dogs only alert next to material belonging to the McCanns? The officer was brandishing the dog-handler’s report. And then: “Your daughter’s DNA, your daughter Madeleine McCann, how do you explain that?�?“Show me that report,�?Gerry asked. “No. This is the report that matters �?with the dog.�?Of course, they could not produce a DNA match because there wasn’t one. The McCanns took heart when Goncalo Amaral was forced to step down after making public criticisms of them and the Leicestershire police �?he had made the criticisms in a phone call to a journalist contact, not suggesting the comments were private or off the record. The McCanns hope that Amaral’s replacement, Paulo Rebelo, a more sober, conservative character, will take a wide view of the inquiry. He is said to have stopped leaks to the press, and has been locked away on the upper floors of the station in Portimao reviewing the evidence with a team of officers. Meanwhile, the McCanns are back home trying to recover some kind of normality. How long can you put your life on hold? They have the twins to think of. Gerry has gone back to work half-days, and has finally told the British Heart Foundation he plans to go ahead with the research fellowship they awarded him, a week before he was accused of being involved in his daughter’s death. He had told me, weeks ago, about the six-figure grant and how it meant almost nothing in terms of professional advancement, but might one day help in the prevention and treatment of heart disease. He had prepared the application in his own time, working evenings and weekends. In other circumstances it would have meant the world to him but, right now, he had other things on his mind. If you have any information that may help the search for Madeleine, please call the confidential phone line 0034 902 300213 or visit www.findmadeleine.com language=javascript type=text/javascript>
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"Gerry thought how lucky he was, his children asleep nearby, he and Kate free to come and enjoy some adult time at the restaurant and not have to sit with their children, as this [Hertfordshire] couple were." Funny how we have forgotten that the doting parents weren't doting enough to want to share their dinner with their children. What the McCann's are guilty off, and the only thing they are guilty of on the evidence, is leaving 2 children under 5 alone in an apartment. Even in the UK this would be neglect, but in a child friendly resort it is beyond that. wendy Malney, london, The Renault hired by the McCanns and allegedly containing DNA from Madeleine would have been hired by the potential abductor or persons involved. Have not the police investigated the list of hirers from the date of Madeleine's disappearance? Assoc Prof Paul Goldwater, Adelaide, Australia For this article to be billed as 'authoritative' ,it would need to be objective and disinterested. It is quite clearly neither. It is a reiteration of the McCanns' version of events, which needs to be substantiated before quoting as fact. What is at issue is the McCanns' credibility and their motives for conducting their 'campaign'. They don't lack cheerleaders (some very powerful), which is clearly how Smith sees his role. Robin, Cambridge, UK language=javascript type=text/javascript>
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</SCRIPT> Of course the McCanns are innocent and it really makes me angry to listen to the self righteous who say they would NEVER leave their children alone. Many parents have felt safe in that kind of holiday environment especially in a group of adults who were also leaving their children asleep. How were they to know that there was some evil person lurking nearby? How have the McCanns stayed sane with all that they have suffered. Thank God for their twins. I pray that the truth will eventually come out despite the early incompetence of the Portugese police!
How does the editor of the Daily Express sleep at night? Bunty, London, England Beyond the smears hopefully the truth will emerge. Kate and Gerry have some Police questions to answer after Christmas which should be a step forward bearing in mind they refused to cooperate when questionned in Portugal. Maddie, an innocent child, is the real victim in this story. She deserves justice! Mary , Kent, UK Excellent article.
Just one thing that's ommitted - and needs to be recognised by those who've commented and are still determined to somehow cast the McCanns as the villains.
We've been hearing now for months that the McCanns an the "Tapas 7" were to be re-interviewed. And despite this hype, the Portuguese have yet to even issue a request for assistance to the British Police.
Why? Because the case Prosecutor, and supervising Judge won't authorise it, without supporting evidence - as required by the relevant international agreements.
Those who think there's a case against the McCanns have to answer this - why are the Portuguese Judiciary unconvinced by this case? Is it that they're "bought off" by Team McCann?
Or is it because they know that bringing the supposed case into the public domain would expose the Portuguese system to even more ridicule.
Is that "Dumbed Down" enough for you, Eric Smith?
Cynic, Crowthorne, Berks, UK I stayed with Mark Warner in this very resort two weeks before the McCanns. The resort is a small town. It was no more secure than any other town in Western Europe.
Mark Warner did offer babysitting at this resort too. You took your babies to the creche & your children to an evening club, where the nannies would look after them, until you came to collect them after supper.
What Mark Warner did not offer was a walk around baby listening service that they do in there other discreet resort. The reason for this being, that because Praia da Luz is a town and not an enclosed resort and it would not be safe or possible for baby listeners to get around all the rooms.
I feel desperately sorry for the McCanns & very much hope they find Madeleine. I'm sure they must regret very deeply leaving the children on their own.
However, articles that suggest the resort "felt safe & secure" are incorrect. Fiona, London, UK Thank You for you very well written article ...Lets just hope those people who have vilified them , will read it and " Think" before they persecute these parents anymore ...Shame on them !!!
Hope is all that is now left , and whatever rope the Mccanns are holding onto, I hope there is a Big Knot in the end of it ....
I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it...
Madeleine still missing ... Means Madeleine could still be found ....Thanks Again for a well written reasoned article .
Kim , Alicante, Spain This is the most reasoned, and reasonable, article that I have seen, to date, about this tragic case. Some of the appalling theories that have been put forth are not worthy of most naive of fiction writers. Some journalists and bloggers have turned to this situation as a source of income and entertainment. I commend this author for his clarification and insight. Caty, San Francisco, CA US i havent studied this case in minute detail but i am struck by the thought that it is highly unlikely that someone entered the mcanns apatment with the intention of stealling a child, for a start they would have to know the children were there alone as it wasnt late, etc etc. much more likely is that madeline woke up as she often did ( why the stars on kitchen board at home) and wandered off. the shutter were not forced merely open. the apartment door was left ajar apparently. Why wouldnt a criminal close it so as not to draw attention? i know its a distressing thought but it is highly likely that she was off looking for her parents. She may still be alive, she may well have been found by someone wandering alone but i imagine most likely outcome is to be found at the beach or some other dangerous location. i know people arent going to like what im saying but please show me one scrap of real evidence that proves she didnt walk out from that apartment alone derek anderson, cardiff, uk More spin - just in time for Christmas. Susan Bibby, Preston, UK How can you say they thought it very safe when Gerry admitted that he and Kate had discussed earlier in the week they were concerned about security as they faced the road and were on the ground floor. teresa, orihuela costa, alicante Excellent ,clear and factual. PWhite, Luxembourg, Luxembourg An excellent article. Neil, Hull, I used to go on holday to Potugual. I will never visit again. Steve Petterson, Victon, UK Isabel Macfadden - that crime was "solved" by the same policeman who's been booted off the McCann case. He's facing trial for beating a confession (unrecorded by audio or video, and the only evidence in securing that conviction) out of the mother. There was no body, no forensics - but there are photos of appalling injuries inflicted on that mother. The police allege she happened to fall down some stairs in custody, blacking both eyes in the process. Head of a missing kid's charity, Paulo Pereira Cristovao (who recently slammed the McCanns) was formerly a policeman, and involved in that case.
The PJ have totally messed up this investigation. PC denial doesn't alter that fact. You may want to Google the Casa Pia orphanage scandal, as other posters suggest. Child abuse exists everywhere; I'd rather be a parent in a nation that admitted as much, trained their police to have the expertise and resources to try to combat it, and used registration to track the movements of known offenders. Kate Lee, London, UK a load of biased garbage mark, LONDON, UK I do not believe that the McCanns had anything to do with the disappearance of their child but nevertheless thought this article was appallingly written. It completely lacks objectivity. It is gushing and emotive. Carla, Devon, UK After reading this I hope that at the end of all this,some mighty
big claims against all the liars and speculators are put to the
courts.
Go in peace McCanns. Geoff, Warrington, U.K. I think the nastiness from the public has gone on long enough now. They are human beings and can only take so much. Madeleine (I believe she is still alive) can only benefit from people being positive and wishing her home instead of assuming she is dead with absolutely no proof. lucy , UK, UK an excellent article: and Mark Gregory, I actually think everyone associated with this nightmare needs our prayers, not least the parents. michael, harrogate, uk Kudos to David James Smith for finally allowing the poor, traumatised McCann's to get their say. Dee, Blackburn, With regards to posts about the lack of child abuse in Portugal,has eveyone forgotten the massive "Casa Pia " childrens home scandal which involved abuse at some very senior levels.Look it up. JB, London, UK I am sick of the protestations of the Portuguese that they are somehow uniquely loving and protective of their children. At the moment there is an enquiry into the sexual abuse of many children in the orphanage Casa Pia. Google and read about it! This involves people in respected professions as well as powerful and influential members in public office. Lets have a truly honest and open forum from now on.
CL Cara Law, Brighton, England Dear felicity in London the reason why posters of a missing child 3 years before was never posted it was because that child was killed by her own mother. That crime was solved and the mother is still in jail.
I have read that Portugal is one of the safest countries in Europe so something like this was not expected. Here in America children disapear everyday. I think it is biased for British Citizens or press to portray Portugal as a dangerous country. That's the secong greatest outrage after the disapearence of Maddie.
To be honest I do think the parents have a strange amount of support in the British Elite.
Isabelle McFadden,
Seal Beach, California isabelle mcfadden, seal beach califonia, USA This is the best and most sensible review of the case I have seen. I've been horrified at all I have heard of the Portuguese police. I hope I never suffer a crime when in Portugal. JA, london, Well, *someone* got in touch with Sky News; I can quite distinctly remember the report in the early hours of 4th May - it was reported as abduction and the jemmied shutters were definitely mentioned. I recall being quite surprised at the amount of detail that was reported at such a late hour.
And for the record, no, I do not believe the McCann's had anything to do with their daughter's disappearance.
Margaret, Woking, i have perhaps a naive and very simple view about the Madeleine situation having followed it, heartbroken, as a mum to a three year old. in my experience one either subscribes to the cock up theory ( pardon the expression) or the conspiracy theory. it is human nature to believe the more complex conspiracy theory but it is ineviatbly a cock up that comes out in the end for why a crime occurred. some inept bungled attempt that is equally ineptly covered up. i am given to believe the McCanns, but who knows? It is my belief that if the truth ever does emerge it will be neither complex nor unbelievable. Instead, it will be something that most people will say...of course, how obvious. i fear the truth may never emerge unless by again, some cock up or accident. hopefully it will, but whatever happens, how cruel are the Metodo to suggest a Christmas return when anyone with a brain knows this will never happen? why would they alert the perpetators? shameful.
kathy , manchester, uk An innocent child is still missing and in harm's way. Her family is suffering . I cannot believe with all the technology available to law enforcement, that somebody cannot find her. Kim Righetti, Upland, Calif. USA I find this article remarkable because it is quite balanced and informative, but also in contrast with all I've been reading in the British press.
We Portuguese are still quite concerned with Maddie, but we are also apalled by the allegations of incompetence of our PJ.
You have tounderstand that Portugal is a country where serious crime (ans especially kidnapping) is very rare.
Our police isn't very used to it, but they are quite competent.
They aren't very well equiped but accepted help from the British. And the clues point to the McCanns as suspects.
Please note that we, Portuguese parents, don´t usually leave toddlers alone in foreign hotel rooms while we go out to dine.
We are also surprised with the power over the press and the huge means the McCanns seem have at their disposal: press aides, detectives, and so.
We pray that Maddie may be found alive and the crime be solved.
But if it isn't, many people here and abroad will still be suspicious about the McCanns.
Jose Rodrigues, Lisbon, Portugal I am impressed by the quality of the piece and the prudence of the words it uses. Well done and thank you David James Smith.
A reader (Felicity, London) remarked: "There should have been posters up at the Ocean Club that a girl had been missing for three years and had never been found. That would have made parents less likely to feel lulled into a sense of false security".
I agree. May I risk the suggestion that national authorities should be compelled to report all such incidents on a single Europe-wide public website?
Schemes along the same lines already exist to make known the quality of bathing waters (www.blueflag.org), or the names of dangerous airlines (http://airban.europa.eu). There is also the FCO travel advice website.
Clearly the concept is not beyond what money can buy. Would it not be a worthwhile effort similarly to publicize all cases of certain categories of serious crimes around Europe? Perhaps not all tourism authorities would agree, though...
AJV, London, UK Thank you for the well written article and the true facts. Its amazing how so many people thrive on speculation and other peoples misfortunes.. I feel so sorry for the McCann's and just pray that this nightmare will soon be over. I have never been so sad in my heart about little Madeleine and it has alerted so many people all over the world that this can happen to anyone anywhere. sandy gordon, cape town, south africa I quote from this article -
'As they chatted, Gerry thought how lucky he was, his children asleep nearby, he and Kate free to come and enjoy some adult time at the restaurant and not have to sit with their children, as this couple were. '
This point is what divides the public, not the portuguese police, not Clarence Mitchell, not the wealthy supporters, not the media spotlight, not the McCanns sober outlook when first in the spotlight, not the incredible sense of loss that is normal when a child is lost.
This is the only point.
One couple eating with their children, the other not. Therefore, the chance of an accident to the 3 very young children was magnified exponentially.
I feel sorry, now, for the situation is out of control, (Metodo 3).
But, we will probably see the heart wrenching headlines soon, Maddie not home for Christmas.
I will say a prayer for her, and her alone.
mark gregory, burton on trent, england At last, some sensible reporting of the facts. How this family have suffered at the hands of the media defies belief. More importantly, Madeleine is still missing. Teresa, London, UK It is so good to hear an objective report on the honest facts of the case, rather than just mad speculation. What a relief. The press seem to have given into public appeal for a soap opera at the moment.
I have felt terribly sad for the McCanns, with such a great loss, to be further attacked, and blog sites definately have some very dark theories, saying more about the people willing to imagine them than the family of Madeleine.
It is a relief to hear the topic given sensibility again, and focusing on human goodness rather than madness. Nicci, Cape Town, South Africa A very good and well written article. Lora, Horsham, UK McCanns are grieving parents. Would any of you have the audacity to hurl abuse at ANY other grieving parents? Because Ben Needham's mother had no access to funds or connections, her son has been forgotten. Due to the McCanns campaign, people are more aware of the dangers of predators who could be lurking anywhere, around any of our children, at beaches, funfairs, cinemas. Who can tell a predator from any other person? Clearly, a predator was searching for a child at the beginning of May. Madeleine was targeted, but equally, another child of any other nationality could have been abducted and we would have been none the wiser. Nobody was aware of any other abductees before Madeleine.
There should have been posters up at the Ocean Club that a girl had been missing for three years and had never been found. That would have made parents less likely to feel lulled into a sense of false security whilst on holiday and maybe Madeleine would not have been taken.
Felicity, London, UK Excellent article.Unfortunately some people do not want hear the truth andt hey will continue to post their spiteful comments on internet forums. lynne , Rushden, Well done, at last, a sane, sober account of the FACTS. No doubt to be poo-pooed by the baying hoards who would rather crucify this family with rumour and innuendo.
Hoping that this excruciating story will be brought to a close - soon. jacci, cape town, south africa Nice to have an article lining out the time line and facts. Its sad the the PG police and most of the media started a smear campaign against the parents. They have suffered enough losing a child and then all the false accusations. They will never get back to a "normal" life and I hope they can atleast find some comfort that most people are still hoping and praying for them. Tammie, Chicago Il, United States I am sure the Portugese Police will have considered this but I wonder if the abductor was in the McCann's apartment, or close by, when Gerry McCann checked at 9.05pm. It seems strange that Gerry McCann noticed that the children's bedroom door was open to 45'.
Then shortly afterwards, when G McCann and Jes were talking on the hill, Jane Tanner noticed a male carrying a limp young female.
The path to the beach seems a realistic option to me as an exit strategy, I hope that has been fully explored by the Portugese Police. Anita, Adelaide, Australia The parents are official suspects in the death and disappearance of their daughter. That is all that is known for sure of this case. Julie, Monmouth, UK This is the McCann ´s version, even including the word "ludicrous". One has to be at least naive to believe it.
Hopefully some day we would be able to read what the PJ has to say, so we can get the whole picture.
toky, Malmo, Sweden Just shows how truly ignorant and stupid people are....why in the world would you believe the McCann's killed their daughter? Would rather believe the sensationalized and nearly impossible stories rather than the simpler explanation that all the evidence points to - a paedophile got another child. Makes me want to throw the whole human race out on its collective ass. pathetic - just pathetic. Parents have to go through losing a child and now all these chattering morons accusing them of it.....the world is a horrible place. paul, NY, NY Thank you for a fair report on a heartbreaking story. I have never, ever believed Kate and Gerry were guilty of any crime. Many people have been judge and jury and pronounced them "Guilty". I am NOT one of them.
My heart breaks for them. Madeleine, her parents and the whole family (aunts, uncles, grandparents, brother and sister) are in my prayers.
The media must also bear a responsibility for the slurs against this family. Gisele Harrison, Calgary, Canada This writer will be attacked just as viciously as the woman in the Guardian was. Both writers are dealing in facts, as witnesses to events. Unfortunately too many people have said some horrifyingly spiteful things - and to admit they were wrong would be to admit to being nasty, pig-ignorant, vicious members of a baying mob. They can't afford to even contemplate the possibility, so they'll shoot the messengers. If, as seems tragically unlikely, Madeleine is recovered, these people will simply move on to the next target for their misplaced venom. If they had any consciences, they'd have trouble meeting their own reflections in the mirror - but then, if they had consciences, they'd not be attacking people where there's even a possibility that they're innocent parents of a stolen child.
To have a little girl stolen from her bed by a stranger is terrifying, but mercifully rare. That is why the vindictiveness shown by so many since is almost more frightening, for it seems appallingly common Kate Lee, London, UK, it's very hard to have sympathy for people who would leave small chldren alone like this. sorry that's the truth. they should have gotten a babysitter or not gone out. common sense, NYC, ludicrous againstbiasedreporting, london, Finally a frank and sober review of the case. Thank you but no doubt that some people will still prefer visiting the various internet forums for their daily fill and fabrication of vicious gossip. m, London, If any good come from this sad tale --
The EU parliament should to shine a light on the Europe wide network of child abusers - abusers who appear to act with impunity. df, truro, cornwall Very interesting summary of what is actually known about this case. It is sad that you will be vilified for refusing to vilify the McCanns. Mary, USA, The evidence was gathered and analysed by British police, so the racism iscompletely irrelevant. Are we to believe the 'dumb Portugese' were handed the raw data and told to get on with it ?
This article is aimed at an even lower intelligence level than a similar piece in the Guardian yesterday. Have the British broadsheet classes really been that dumbed down since 1981 ? Eric Smith, Glasgow, UK |
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