The Independent
11 June 2007
Thair Shaikh
A senior detective coordinating the hunt for the abductor of the missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann has been charged with criminal offences over another missing child case.
Goncalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers were charged over the weekend with offences related to the beating and questioning of the mother of a missing girl.
Mr Amaral and the other four officers were accused of “scenes of aggression” against Leonor Cipriano, whose nine-year-old daughter, Joana, disappeared in September 2004 from her home in Figueira, a village seven miles from where Madeleine went missing.
The girl has not been seen since her disappearance but her mother and uncle Joao were convicted of murdering and dismembering Joana when she found them in an incestuous relationship.
The alleged attack on Cipriano occurred when she was questioned over Joana’s apparent abduction. She lodged a formal complaint about her treatment which was followed up by the Ministerio Publico, the district attorney. The suspect was left badly bruised, according to newspaper reports.
The attorney charged three officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents.
Mr Amaral, the coordinator of the Policia Judiciara in Portimao, Algarve, has not been suspended from working on the Madeleine case, which started 39 days ago.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were informed of the charges.
The couple arrived in Morocco last night on the final leg of their publicity campaign to find their daughter, before they pause to give themselves time to grieve. They will travel to the capital Rabat for a news conference to appeal for information.
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