First things first. A tip of the hat to the blog Amaral Can Speak, from whom I nicked this post in its entirety. Reposted here because articles such shouldn't disappear down the cyber-hole.
The Article That Team McCann Didn't Want You To Read
Saturday, 20 March 2010
This article appeared, very briefly, in the UK Daily Express in September 2007. It was very quickly removed, and all traces of it erased from the DE Website. Fortunately, a saved copy has since been discovered.
Just why is this article so "dangerous"?
’MCCANNS ARE LYING’
24th September
Madeleine McCann
Monday September 24,2007
By David Pilditch and Martin Evans in Praia da Luz
Portuguese police believe Gerry and Kate McCann are using friends to hide their role in killing Madeleine.The Daily Express can reveal that their seven holiday friends may now be named as suspects as police believe they are hiding the truth about Madeleine’s death.The dramatic move comes as it was reported that former chief suspect Robert Murat is to be told he will not face charges over the four-year-old’s disappearance. Ruling him out of the four-month investigation will leave Kate and Gerry McCann as the sole suspects.
Last night police sources said the decision could have a devastating impact on the McCanns’ defence. In an astonishing twist, British expat Murat could be used as a key prosecution witness against the McCanns. Almost the entire police case against Murat was built on evidence from the couple’s holiday friends.
Investigators believe the McCanns “cooked up a story” that Madeleine had been kidnapped to throw them off the trail and enlisted members of their party to provide them with an alibi. They also believe the group tried to turn the focus of the investigation towards Murat.
Yesterday it was revealed that police are questioning new witnesses who cast doubts over the evidence of members of the holiday group.The McCanns and their friends told how they took turns to check on their children every 30 minutes as they ate at a tapas restaurant on May 3, the night Madeleine vanished.
But one Portuguese newspaper reported that employees at the restaurant insisted that only Dr Russell O’Brien, 36, and hospital consultant Matthew Oldfield, 37, left the dinner table that evening. Another witness has come forward to refute the testimony of a third friend Jane Tanner, 36, who told police she saw a man carrying a child rushing from the Ocean Club complex at around 9.15pm on May 3.
Yesterday it was reported in Portugal that a new witness, an unnamed Irishman, told police he was in the same spot as Miss Tanner at the same time and saw no one. He is the second independent witness to dispute her story and police sources said they viewed Miss Tanner’s evidence as “unreliable” because of inconsistencies. Officers are concerned that she apparently changed her version of the sighting.She originally claimed she saw the suspect rushing towards the Baptista supermarket in Praia da Luz. She told police the child was wrapped in a blanket. A second independent witness reported seeing a similar man with a child in a blanket near the town’s church heading towards the beach. The route he took matches the alleged trail of death discovered by British sniffer dogs who detected the scent of a corpse. But Miss Tanner has now told detectives that the man was heading in a different direction – towards Murat’s home. Police regard her account as one of a series given by the McCanns and their friends to convince them that Madeleine had been kidnapped.
Officers believe former hospital anaesthetist Kate, 39, killed her daughter by accidentally giving her an overdose of sleeping pills. They are working on the theory that consultant cardiologist Gerry, also 39, helped to dispose of Madeleine’s body. Police are awaiting results of toxicology tests carried out on bodily fluids with an 88 per cent match to Madeleine’s DNA found in the boot of a hire car the couple rented 25 days after she went missing.
Dr O’Brien, along with Mr Oldfield’s wife Rachael, 36, and another friend Dr Fiona Payne, 34, said they saw Murat near the McCanns’ apartment on May 3 and their claim appeared to shatter Murat’s alibi.Detectives interrogated the McCanns at police headquarters in Portimao 17 days ago over the discrepancies. The couple were told separately later that day they were being named as suspects or arguidos.
Last night another member of the McCanns’ holiday party was reported to have stepped into the mystery. The move came after it was revealed that police in Portugal were focusing their investigation on a “lost seven hours” on the day Madeleine disappeared.Now Dr Payne’s husband – medical researcher David, 41 – has claimed he saw Madeleine being put to bed when he visited the McCann flat at 7pm. Before his new testimony, police sources admitted they could not confirm the whereabouts of Kate and Madeleine after 1.29pm that day. Kate’s movements were said to be unaccounted for until she sat down to have dinner with Gerry and their friends at around 8.40pm.
But the McCanns believe Mr Payne’s testimony will be crucial in proving their innocence. That would leave just an hour and a half in which they were supposed to have killed their daughter and disposed of her body. But last night a source in Portugal said police were viewing alibis provided by the McCanns’ friends with suspicion. They are convinced that some or all of them may have known what happened to Madeleine and may have helped to cover up her death. The source said police had not ruled out the possibility of naming them all as suspects – and they could face being charged as accessories.
The source said: “It has long been considered a number of people may have been involved in this unfortunate case.”In Portugal yesterday it was revealed that detectives have seized a British police manual from the McCanns. Officers believe the book could be used as a key piece of evidence in building a case against them.A Portuguese police source said: “It is certainly not the sort of reading material you would expect a couple to take on a relaxing family holiday".
14 comments:
Why is it so dangerous?
14 July 2007
http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/madeleine-mccann-s-father-meets-abduction-case-experts-1-908980
"Kate and I hope this will help us understand more about investigations."
How inquisitive. M
Investigators believe the McCanns “cooked up a story” that Madeleine had been kidnapped to throw them off the trail and enlisted members of their party to provide them with an alibi. They also believe the group tried to turn the focus of the investigation towards Murat.
The next obvious question is why would members of the party agree to provide the McCanns with an alibi? Not only that but why then did some of them go even further by trying to frame up a patsy?
The DE article is to be commended for stating the obvious but they were thisclose to portraying the cover up by the Tapas group as pals doing some other pals a favor. Looked at objectively these are the desperate acts of desperate people who seemingly entered into an ill planned, sloppily executed conspiracy to conceal the death of a child and everyone is afraid to ask one simple question: WHY?
These are not clever people. The cover story is so transparently ludicrous and falls apart when examined from any conceivable angle. They are very fortunate to have had assistance from high up from the very beginning. Again: WHY?
cheers
whodunnit
15 August 2015 at 18:11
Can't help you, see last graphic.
16 August 2015 at 22:32
LOL You're a true Ooop Norther, my little tulipe.
Thanks for all the links Maren, some sterling stuff among them.
whodunnit
17 August 2015 at 00:40
If I hadn't composed the bottom graphic in 2007, I certainly had by 2008. The message being, not particularly the "why" of it all, although that is an element, but rather the unprecedented sheer scale of support McCann received.
And do you know, for all the millions of words that have been writ since, I'm not a bit nearer answering the question, not even the tiniest bit nearer.
They also believe the group tried to turn the focus of the investigation towards Murat. . . .
. . . Not only that but why then did some of them go even further by trying to frame up a patsy?
Answer one: The Tapas weren't privy to the real reason for Murat being there, but were nudged in that direction by McCann.
Answer two: The Tapas were privy to the real reason for Murat being there, but were nudged in that direction anyway by McCann in the knowledge that no lasting harm would come to Murat but couldn't be passed over as an extremely timely and convenient red herring.
Answer three: None of the above.
The pursuit of Murat by Kate McCann was when I upped my game in all this, thinking then, in my naivety, that Murat was spotless.
Written at a time when Only in America was my only blog.
http://onlyinamericablogging.blogspot.com/2008/01/yes-kate-questions-do-need-to-be.html
Kate McCann: My suspicions over Murat's alibi on the night Madeleine vanished
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id218.html
Looked at objectively these are the desperate acts of desperate people who seemingly entered into an ill planned, sloppily executed conspiracy to conceal the death of a child and everyone is afraid to ask one simple question: WHY?
These are not clever people. The cover story is so transparently ludicrous and falls apart when examined from any conceivable angle.
As you say, what on earth possessed seven otherwise normal? people to involve themselves in a situation so easily dismissed as to be farcical, but at the same time so life changing and monumentally serious for them all when the thing went tits up? As it should have done almost immediately.
And we must remember, Payne apart, these people were virtual strangers to each other. Of what magnitude was the prior situation where strangers would risk all for the likes of the McCanns?
Himself
All very salient points you make. And I agree with you about Murat. No way is he spotless in all of this.
so life changing and monumentally serious for them all when the thing went tits up? As it should have done almost immediately.
Indeed. This lot were only kept afloat by some very powerful buoys.
but rather the unprecedented sheer scale of support McCann received.
And do you know, for all the millions of words that have been writ since, I'm not a bit nearer answering the question, not even the tiniest bit nearer.
But then you have to ask WHY this scale of support from higher ups?
As you may have guessed from earlier comments I've made here at your esteemed blog, I have my thoughts on that. Anyone familiar with the ongoing scandals in the UK and who they involve may have an inkling. A similar scandal was ongoing in PDL at the time Madeleine disappeared.
cheers
whodunnit
Oh, and thank you for the links. Off to read.
cheers
whodunnit
I cannot see that Murat is anything but a well-meaning busybody who intended to cash in on the notoriety. He was thoroughly investigated by the PJ and questioned again at length by Redwood and his cohorts. Some of the "witnesses" (not just the Tapas lot) would have identified an orang-utan if asked.
Answer one: The Tapas weren't privy to the real reason for Murat being there, but were nudged in that direction by McCann.
Considering this hypothesis, who nudged McCann in that direction?
Just a thought. M
Who indeed?
"An outcome similar to Holly and Jessica is possible. I don't want to, and I can't, talk about Robert Murat but some journalists who worked with me in Soham, and that were now in Portugal, saw resemblances between that case and Robert Murat. And I won't say more."
highmyope
Murat is lying. Our research puts him in places and at times that he had no business being.
And denied being.
Among those posts I've seen, this is the most particular one, and I think the blogger must have spent lots of time on it, thank you so much!
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LOL
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