'Maddie is dead'


23 November 2007
The Sun
Veronica Lorraine in Praia Da Luz and Antonella Lazzeri

Portugal's top law chief delivers grim verdict

Portugal's top law chief yesterday admitted he believes Madeleine McCann is almost certainly DEAD.

Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro said any kidnapper would have murdered four-year-old Maddie because of the enormous publicity surrounding the case.

He told Portuguese current affairs magazine Visao:
"If it is an abduction, it is natural the abductor killed her. There is a greater degree of probability of the little girl being dead than being alive.

"Would an abductor, with the whole world having Maddie's photo, still demand a ransom?"
Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry, both 39, last night said they were "extremely distressed" by the claims.

Official spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We still firmly believe that she is alive. Making these comments is entirely unhelpful. Our investigators have every confidence they will find her alive soon."

Portuguese cops have claimed the chance of finding Maddie alive is slim, but this is the first time a high-ranking source has been so blunt.

The comments were last night seen as the clearest sign yet that Portuguese authorities fear Madeleine will never be found alive and the people behind her disappearance in May will escape justice. But daily newspaper Diario de Noticias yesterday rubbished the reports that police were ready to give up on the case.

It claimed a team of officers would continue probing alleged "inconsistencies" in the original statements of Maddie's parents and their holiday pals.

The McCanns' friend Jane Tanner told The Sun this week how she watched the tot being taken away in a blanket.
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'Poker face' Kate to sue


27 October 2007
The Sun
Clodagh Hartley and Antonella Lazzeri
Fury over 'interview act' slur


ANGRY Kate and Gerry McCann may sue over claims this week's emotional TV interview was "staged like theatre".

Kate, 39, was blasted as being like a "poker player" -and her heartfelt tears were called "part of the act" by a psychiatrist.

And Gerry, 39, "controlled" Kate in the Spanish TV broadcast, Jose Cabrera claimed.

Last night a pal of the McCanns said: "When the time is right they will take action against anyone who they feel has overstepped the mark.

"He is one more person on the list to sue.

"The people who criticised Kate when she managed to hold it together are now attacking her because she couldn't."

Kate and Gerry think daughter Madeleine, four -who vanished from Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 -may be in Spain. On Monday they gave their first TV interview since they were named as suspects.

The couple, from Rothley, Leics, were warned not to show too much emotion after Maddie vanished in case an abductor "gets off on it". But Kate finally broke down in the 30-minute interview.

Spanish facial expression specialist Cabrera, 50, said: "Kate seemed like a poker player.

"She holds the secret. When people cry, they move muscles in their face and she did not move one single muscle.

"Any English person is cold but she has something else."

He told a Portuguese paper Gerry controlled Kate, adding: "When she opened her mouth to talk he squeezed her hand. He knows he has to control her so she does not go to far."

And Portuguese criminologist Moita Flores called the interview "a circus act". But the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide. Our lawyers are watching carefully."

Kate's mum Susan Healy, 62, said: "You couldn't get a more heartfelt interview than that. They can't win either way."

Cops in Portugal are waiting for DNA test results. Gerry has said he fears the analysis may not be enough to clear them.

Robert Murat, 33 -arrested 11 days after Maddie vanished -has asked to be re-interviewed in a bid to clear his name.
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New team fury over files mess


New team fury over files mess
21 October 2007
The Sunday Mirror
Grant Hodgson

Search for Madeleine Day 172

The new team leading the Madeleine McCann inquiry have savaged the officers previously involved in trying to find the missing youngster.

In a withering attack, investigators who took over from disgraced detective Goncalo Amaral accused the old team of ignoring key leads.

And they complained they had to spend more than a fortnight putting vital information left lying around on bits of paper by Amaral's team on to police computers. Paulo Rebelo, a highly respected officer, took over the inquiry last month after Amaral was sacked for accusing British police of being too close to Madeleine's parents.

A Portuguese police source told Expresso newspaper: "A lot of key information was discarded. The whole process is being reviewed. Putting the papers in order has been a massive task."

A team of officers have been working round the clock to log every piece of information relating to the inquiry on to police computers. However, the number of officers involved in the case has been cut from 100 to around 40.
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Cops probe nanny's dumped at sea claim


Cops probe nanny's dumped at sea claim
14 October 2007
The Sunday Mirror
Lori Campbell and Grant Hodgson

Exclusive missing Madeleine Day 164
Key witness quizzed again
Police dig into parents' uni days

Portuguese police are becoming increasingly convinced Madeleine McCann's body was dumped at sea.

Last night officers drafted in to revitalise the investigation were planning to re-interview a key witness who saw a sailor acting suspiciously after the tot disappeared.

And British police are to delve into the student pasts of Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry.

Last night nanny Charlotte Pennington told how she saw a sailor kicking at something in the hull of his vessel in Praia da Luz, where the McCanns had been staying, two days after their daughter vanished.

Charlotte, who was working at the Mark Warner holiday complex where their apartment was, ran to get a friend to see what was happening but by the time they returned the boat - and the sailor in yellow fluorescent jacket - had gone.

The next day Charlotte spotted the man, wearing what she thought was the same jacket, and contacted police.

Charlotte, 20, back home in Leatherhead, Surrey, said: "I'm really pleased they are taking this seriously because it means they aren't just looking at the McCanns as suspects."

Her sighting of the sailor - and his possible involvement - was last night described by one police source as "credible".

The officer added: "Whoever had the expertise to make Madeleine disappear from the flat also had the expertise to throw her into the sea."

Police believe Madeleine was killed on May 3 and her body dumped in the Atlantic. They fear she may never be found.

Local council leader Manuel Borba reckoned the chances of finding Madeleine in the area were now virtually nil.

Mr Borba, who spent two weeks searching, insisted: "I personally looked in 40 wells. I'm not going to say that it's impossible the body has been hidden here but I don't believe that it has." Several new officers, including two murder squad detectives based in Lisbon, started work on the case yesterday under the command of Paulo Rebelo.

He replaced controversial Goncalo Amaral, 48, taken off the case after his criticism of British police. Mr Rebelo is reported to be receiving long-awaited results from DNA samples taken from the McCanns' hire car and apartment in the next few days. The test results, produced by the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, are being sent in sealed envelopes via the British embassy.

The Portuguese hope they will provide a breakthrough - and possibly back their theory that Madeleine's parents helped dispose of her body after she died accidentally.

Detectives in Britain are to dig into the couple's backgrounds as far back as their university days 20 years ago.

Strathclyde Police have been asked to contact former friends and colleagues to establish if there is anything in either's past which may shed light on the case.

Kate and Gerry, both 39, from Rothley, Leics, met as junior doctors in Glasgow's Western Infirmary in 1992 after finishing their medical degrees.

The couple, who attended the Church of the Sacred Heart near their home yesterday with two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, have had no contact from Portuguese police since they returned to the UK. They deny any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

A friend said: "They've not heard a word. Not only are they unaware what is happening regarding their status as suspects but they fear nothing is being done to look for Madeleine."

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said they would stay in Leicestershire for the twins' sake but would return to Portugal if asked.

In an increasing sign of desperation, Portuguese police were last night studying a map sketched by Chilean mystic Isabel Avila of an area where she claims Madeleine can be found. It suggests she is near a bridge and tall antennas.

Desperate cops to study map drawn up by a psychic
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Paulo Cristóvão talks about Joana case



from "Grande Entrevista", RTP1, Oct. 11 2007
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Madeleine parents in the clear


Madeleine parents in the clear
Martin Evans
8 October 2007
The Daily Express

New shock on DNA evidence

The case against Kate and Gerry McCann lay in tatters last night after DNA evidence was found to be inconclusive.

With no fresh leads, Portuguese police are coming under increasing pressure to clear the couple.

Now friends of the McCanns have said it is time for the investigation to focus on finding missing Madeleine.

Scientists have worked round the clock for more than two months analysing forensic material found in the McCanns' Algarve holiday apartment and hire car.

But no solid evidence has yet emerged to support the theory that the toddler died the night she vanished, aged three.

A source close to the investigation said:
"The tests which have taken place so far have proved inconclusive.

"Retesting will continue for some time but all the indications are that there will not be anything significant to come out of it."

Friends of the McCanns said the Policia Judiciaria case against the couple had only added to their distress instead of helping to find Madeleine, who vanished on May 3.

One said yesterday:
"Of course they have no DNA evidence against them. How could they? They're not guilty.

"The case has been full of holes from the start, yet Madeleine's heartbroken parents have been forced to endure the agony of being accused of killing her.

"It is a disgrace and it is now time to drop the whole ludicrous thing and get on with what they should have been doing from day one - and that is searching for Madeleine."

Kate and Gerry, both 39, are also terrified that they will not be able to rebuild their lives while the suspicion hangs over them.

A source close to them said:
"Gerry and Kate's biggest fear is that Madeleine will never be found and the case will go unsolved. They could go on for ever without knowing what happened to their daughter and that's unbearable.

"If Madeleine isn't found, the McCanns also fear they will have to live under a cloud of suspicion for years. They are desperately hoping Madeleine is alive and that hope still drives them.

"They want the police to refocus their concentration on finding Madeleine and will do whatever it takes."

Even before the latest findings emerged, cracks had already begun to appear in the Portuguese investigation.

Last week the man heading the case, Goncalo Amaral, was sacked for accusing British police of being manipulated by the McCanns, while his second in command applied for unpaid leave.

The DNA evidence formed the central plank of the PJ's case against the couple.

A huge amount of material was passed for analysis to the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham after British sniffer dogs searched in and around Praia da Luz in early August.

They were said to have detected the scent of a corpse in key locations, and found hairs allegedly belonging to Madeleine in the back of the McCanns' hire car and traces of a bodily fluid under the upholstery.

The couple had not hired the vehicle until 25 days after Madeleine went missing, so police concluded that they must have moved her body in the boot weeks after first hiding it.

Detectives were confident enough with the evidence to declare the couple arguidos, or official suspects.

But McCann family members explained the DNA - Madeleine's clothing had been placed in the boot of the Renault Scenic, as had soiled nappies belonging to the couple's young twins Sean and Amelie. The "corpse" smell was due to left-over food including meat being taken to a rubbish tip in the car.

Yesterday it emerged that a missing persons expert who claims he tracked Madeleine to a beach in Praia da Luz is returning to Portugal.

Danie Krugel, a South African former police colonel, first visited in July and used sophisticated tracking techniques to follow a trail that went cold at the water's edge.

He said:
"I'm convinced Madeleine's body is in Praia da Luz."
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Warning over cop shambles


Warning over cop shambles
7 October 2007
The Sunday Mirror
Grant Hodgson

THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE DAY 157

BRITISH crime chiefs told Portuguese police to "smarten up their act" during high-level talks last week that lead to the sacking of the cop leading the Madeleine inquiry.

British police chiefs and Government officials heaped pressure on the Portuguese as the shambolic investigation lay in tatters.

"Portuguese cops were told to sort it out," a police source told the Sunday Mirror, which last week exposed the long, boozy lunch breaks taken by Goncalo Amaral.

"It's not good enough when the man who was supposed to be running the world's biggest police inquiry was taking huge lunch breaks," the source said.

Leicestershire Police - the McCanns' local force - the Home Office and Foreign Office were all believed to have been involved in the talks.

The Sunday Mirror can also reveal how DNA evidence collected by officers in Praia da Luz is being considered "fatally flawed" and "useless".

A Leicestershire police source said:
"There is a huge sense of embarrassment about the whole thing. Questions are now being asked along the lines of, 'Why have we been supporting such a bunch off incompetents?'

"Leicester police aren't happy about it at all."

*******************

NOTE: The Press Complaints Commission received a complaint from the Leicestershire Constabulary as follows:

Complainant Name:
Leicestershire Constabulary


Clauses Noted:
1


Publication:
Sunday Mirror

Complaint:
Leicestershire Constabulary complained that an article had quoted a ‘Leicestershire police source’ being critical of the Portuguese police (in relation to the investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance) when that was not the official view of the Force.


Resolution:
The matter was resolved when the newspaper agreed to place a note of the complaint in its archive files, which made clear that the quoted source was not speaking on behalf of the Force.

Report:
76
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Portuguese police fly in supercop to solve the mystery of missing Madeleine


Portuguese police fly in supercop to solve the mystery of missing Madeleine
Matt Drake
7 October 2007
The Express on Sunday

Police were last night preparing to call in one of Portugal's most respected detectives in a desperate attempt to solve the mystery of missing Madeleine McCann.

Chief Inspector Carlos do Carmo is being lined up to spearhead the faltering investigation after the leading officer working on the case, Goncalo Amaral, was forced to stand down.

While the inquiry will officially remain based on the theory that Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry killed her, the change of leadership is expected to signal an in-depth review of the case.

Mr Carmo could take over the six man team as early as next week to avoid further allegations that the investigation is on the verge of collapsing.

Close friends of the McCanns say they are worried that for two months police have made no effort to search for Madeleine, who was three when she vanished on May 3.

Police sources confirmed yesterday that Carmo's outstanding record marked him out as the obvious choice to take over Portugal's largestever missing person case.

The McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, welcomed the possible appointment.

He said:
"Kate and Gerry are keen to see a quick and effective transfer of the handling of the case. Their main concern is that the attention of the investigation returns to searching for Madeleine.

"They are willing to do whatever is asked of them to co-operate and have always said they are willing to return for a review of the case." 

Amaral was taken off the case after he made controversial remarks about British police allegedly being influenced by the McCanns.

Mark Williams-Thomas, a former child protection detective, said whoever takes over will have to catch up quickly if the case is not to lose momentum.

"It will be very difficult, " he said. "It's good to have a fresh pair of eyes but it will take a while to get up to speed. But I don't think it will be an insurmountable task." 

Colleagues of Mr Carmo say his scientific approach could finally provide answers about what really happened on the night Madeleine went missing.

He has forged a reputation for getting results after leading a number of high-profile investigations. The chief inspector made his name in 2005 after tracking down a gang of armed bank robbers on the Algarve using phone bugs and advanced forensic techniques on suspect vehicles.

Before moving to Lisbon in 2006, he was also credited with cracking a corrupt network of undertakers in the Portimao area who were paying hospital staff for tip-offs about terminally ill patients and then contacting relatives.

Should Mr Carmo be appointed, it is expected he will return from Lisbon to live in the Algarve.

The move follows strong criticism yesterday over the amount of time it has taken forensic experts in Birmingham to return complete results of DNA tests which could provide conclusive evidence as to whether Madeleine is dead.

A police source said:
"The McCanns would never be made official suspects just based on results of the searches carried out. Naturally, the first results sent from Birmingham gave consistency to suspicions.

"There are still various operations to be carried out and we will have to wait for the rest of the results. They are fundamental for us to be able to advance with the investigation." 

But the delay was justified by a spokesman for the laboratory. He explained that the complex nature of the tests required more time than normal. He added:
"These are very specific tests and they are still being carried out. We have maintained a strict co-operation with police." 
One theory which Portuguese detectives are reported to be working on is that Madeleine could have died in the holiday apartment as the result of an accidental fall from a sofa.

Unconfirmed sources also said that Gerry McCann had refused to answer any further questions after his interrogators refused to show him the preliminary DNA results.

The McCanns' legal team visited Portugal last week to hold talks about the possibility of them launching a "public interest" appeal to have secrecy orders lifted so that they can talk about the case.
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Off the case
Vanessa Allen
Madeleine police chief demoted after amazing rant against McCanns and British detectives
3 October 2007
Daily Mail


The detective leading the hunt for Madeleine McCann was sacked last night.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral was removed from the inquiry after he claimed that British detectives had been duped by Kate and Gerry McCann and only investigated leads which were ' convenient' for the couple.

His outburst led to a reprimand from Portugal's justice minister, lberto Costa, who said: 'We need to concentrate on the job and not on the commentary.'

Within hours Alipio Ribeiro, the head of the Policia Judiciaria, ordered Mr Amaral off the case, demoted him to inspector and stripped him of his role as a regional head of the force.

Mr Amaral made his 'angry and explosive' remarks to the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias. He claimed: 'The British police have only been working on that which the McCann couple want them to, and which is most convenient for them.'

He said British police appeared to have forgotten that Mr and Mrs McCann remain suspects. He also repeated Portuguese claims that the couple were manipulating the inquiry.

'They (the English) have been investigating tip-offs and information created and worked upon by the McCanns,' he added.

The newspaper also reported an unnamed police source as saying: 'After we bought into a war with the British media we are now buying into another with the English police.'

Mr Amaral, 47, has attracted criticism from the early days of the inquiry and news of his departure was met with relief by those close to the investigation.

He enjoyed frequent three-hour boozy lunches and two days ago a British newspaper claimed he worked only four hours a day and had ignored most of the 252 possible sightings and tip-offs in the case. He is also facing a criminal hearing over another missing girl, Joana Cipriano, accused of concealing evidence that the girl's mother, Leonor, was beaten into confessing to her murder.

Mr Amaral came under pressure to step down from the McCann investigation after it emerged he could face trial over the accusations, but he refused to resign.

His sweaty, corpulent figure is a familiar sight in the restaurants and cafes around police headquarters in Portimao.

While the McCanns have been warned they be jailed for speaking about the case, Mr Amaral, who was 48 yesterday, has frequently been heard holding court and accusing them of killing Madeleine.

He has said: 'We are sure the parents killed Madeleine. They are both doctors and know about drugs. We are confident in our case.'

Mr Amaral, a father of three, has worked in the police for 26 years but has only investigated two other child killings.

British police will hope that his successor will bring fresh impetus to the investigation, which appeared to be stalling as Portuguese detectives refused to consider any evidence which did not fit theories implicating the McCanns.

Clarence Mitchell, the family's spokesman, said last night:

'We're aware of these reports and we simply can't comment. 'Gerry and Kate have consistently said that they are happy to cooperate fully with the Portuguese authorities and will continue to do so no matter who is in charge of the Madeleine investigation.' Mr Amaral had dismissed the latest development in the case, an email sent to Prince Charles which claimed Madeleine was abducted by a disgruntled former employee at the Praia da Luz holiday complex where the McCanns stayed, as 'another fact worked upon by the McCanns'.

Meanwhile Mr McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, said he and his wife, both 39, had endured 'another painful day without our beautiful daughter' on Sunday, the 150th day since she disappeared.
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Madeleine detective kicked off case after blasting British police


Madeleine detective kicked off case after blasting British police
David Pilditch and Martin Evans
3 October 2007
The Daily Express


The Portuguese detective leading the Madeleine McCann case was sacked last night.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral was booted off the inquiry hours after launching an astonishing public attack on British police – claiming they had been duped by Kate and Gerry McCann.

Disgraced Amaral has been removed from the case, demoted to the rank of inspector, and stripped of his role as regional head of the Policia Judiciaria.

He was ordered to clear his desk at police headquarters in Portimao and will begin work in a new role at nearby Faro.

A Portuguese police spokesman said last night: "We cannot make any comment on the reasons for his dismissal.

"But we can confirm that he did not resign. He was removed from his post. The decision was taken by the national leadership of the Judicial Police." Amaral, who turned 48 yesterday, was taken off the case by his boss Alipio Ribeiro.

Last night a friend of the McCanns said:
"The most important thing is that the inquiry is headed by someone who can do a professional job and help them find Madeleine."

The couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said:
"We are aware of what has happened and we simply cannot comment.  "However, Kate and Gerry have constantly said they are very willing to co-operate fully with the Portuguese authorities.  They will continue to do so regardless of who is in charge of the hunt for Madeleine."

The bombshell came after Amaral accused British police of shielding the McCanns.  He claimed they were only pursuing leads that could help clear the couple, and were hampering his investigation into the four-year-old's disappearance from her family's holiday apartment in the the Algarve.

The explosive outburst led to the first intervention by the Portuguese government, in a very public reprimand by the Justice Minister Alberto Costa.

Last night a Portuguese police source described Amaral's remarks as "the straw that broke the camel's back".

He had breached Portuguese law and broken his silence over the Madeleine case, claiming:

"The British police have only been working on what the McCann couple want them to and what suits them most."

The McCanns have been warned they face jail if they speak about the case – but Amaral appeared unconcerned by the secrecy laws as he sneered at a line of inquiry being followed by Leicestershire Police.

Amaral said a tip-off sent to Prince Charles's website that Madeleine may have been snatched by a former employee at the Ocean Club complex had "no credibility whatsoever".

He told Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias:
"The Ocean Club is in Praia da Luz, not in London.  "That means that anything in respect to the complex and the employees – current or ex – has been or is being investigated by the Policia Judiciaria.  "It won't be an email, and an anonymous one at that, which will distract our line of investigation."

He even claimed the tipoff was created by the McCanns.

The family live in Rothley, Leicestershire, and local officers have liaised with Portuguese police since their daughter disappeared on May 3. The force organised the DNA tests and brought in the sniffer dogs that allegedly identified the scent of a dead body – which was ironically the moment suspicion turned on Kate and Gerry.

But last week it was reported that the force's role in the inquiry was "hanging by a thread''. It is not known how the sacking will influence or change police thinking in Portimao.

Under Amaral – who was in charge of running the case on a day-to-day basis – Portuguese police believed that the McCanns hid, then disposed of Madeleine's body after she died in an accident the night they said she had been abducted.

The latest theory leaked by police is that Madeleine fell down a flight of 10 steps leading from the patio to the street after being given sleeping pills.

She is said to have woken to find her parents missing, then stumbled when she went to find them – in a muddled state from the effects of the drugs.

The couple were dining with seven friends at a nearby tapas restaurant, although members of the group say they made regular checks on Madeleine and the two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.

Police apparently believe that despite the McCanns being under weeks of intense media scrutiny as the Find Madeleine campaign took off, they somehow moved her body in the Renault Scenic hire car they rented 25 days after her disappearance.

Forensic evidence allegedly showed Madeleine's DNA was found in the boot of the car after tests at a lab in Birmingham.

The McCanns deny having anything to do with their daughter's disappearance and have told friends they believe they are being framed by Portuguese police who have bungled the investigation.

Two days after being named as official suspects the McCanns flew back to their home leaving Portuguese police to rely on British officers to pursue inquiries in the UK.

Amaral, who headed the police force in Portimao for six years, has been at the centre of a series of controversies.

Just days ago it was revealed he has been spending as little as four-and-a-half hours a day on the case – while up to 250 potential leads have still not been checked out.

He regularly spends hours enjoying boozy lunches. Last week, while the eyes of the world were on an apparent sighting in Morocco, he spent two hours knocking back wine in his favourite fish restaurant.

Astonishingly, he was put in charge despite being an arguido [suspect] himself – after being accused of helping to cover-up an alleged assault on the mother of another missing girl.

Amaral is to face a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence that three of his colleagues tortured Leonor Cipriano to extract a confession that she murdered her eightyear-old daughter Joana who went missing in September 2004.
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Boozy lunches and unchecked leads
3 October 2007
The Daily Express


Goncalo Amaral has been at the centre of a series of controversies since taking over as head of police in Portimao.

Just days ago it was revealed he was spending as little as four-and-a-half hours a day on the Madeleine McCann case.

Amaral regularly enjoys boozy lunches and last week, while the eyes of the world were on an apparent sighting of the toddler in Morocco, the detective spent two hours knocking back wine in his favourite fish restaurant.

It also emerged that up to 250 potential leads have still not been checked out.

Astonishingly, Amaral was put in charge of the Madeleine case despite being an arguido – a suspect – himself.

Amaral is to face a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence that three of his colleagues tortured Leonor Cipriano to extract a confession that she murdered her eightyear-old daughter Joana, who went missing in 2004.
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Replacement Gonçalo Amaral


October 3, 2007
Substituição de Gonçalo Amaral
Director nacional da PJ explica demissão do coordenador
Replacement Gonçalo Amaral
PJ's national director explains resignation of the coordinator


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Detective leading hunt for Madeleine sacked after blast at UK police


Detective leading hunt for Madeleine sacked after blast at UKpolice: 
Inspector says McCanns swayed British officers 
Family lawyer attacks 'absurd' comments
Paul Hamilos, Madrid and Brendan de Beer, Portimao
3 October 2007
The Guardian


The Portuguese detective heading the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was yesterday removed from the case and demoted from his post as chief of the police in the Algarve town of Portimao, following an outspoken attack on his British counterparts.

Inspector Goncalo Amaral has been transferred to the nearby Algarve city of Faro after criticising the British police in a leading Portuguese newspaper.

Mr Amaral, 47, has been a controversial figure from the outset of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3 from an apartment in Praia da Luz, where she was on holiday with her parents. Mr Amaral had become a target for criticism in the British press; he has reportedly investigated only two child murders in his 26-year police career. He also faces a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence, after a woman jailed for the murder of her daughter claimed his officers beat her into making a confession.

Yesterday, in an interview with the respected Diario de Noticias, Mr Amaral accused British detectives of only investigating those leads that Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, wanted following up. "[The British police] have only investigated tips and information developed and worked on for the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are suspects in the death of their daughter Madeleine."

Mr Amaral criticised the British police decision to investigate an anonymous tip-off emailed to Prince Charles's website claiming Madeleine was abducted by a former employee of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, where the McCanns were staying when she disappeared. Mr Amaral said the lead "has no credibility for the Portuguese police".

National police director Alipio Ribeiro last night confirmed that Mr Amaral had been removed from the case and demoted, saying it was a "decision I took myself".

Carlos Pinto de Abreu, the McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, told news website Portugal Diario yesterday: "The McCanns cannot confess to something they did not do and cannot and should not lie only to please the police." He said the comments by Mr Amaral were "false and absurd" and that Kate and Gerry had answered all the questions put to them by the police. Mr Abreu advised the police "to talk less and work more to find the girl".

The Portuguese minister of justice, Alberto Costa, described the cooperation between the Portuguese and British police as "beneficial", saying "we need to focus on the job in hand and not on commentary".

Mr Amaral still faces scrutiny over the case of eight-year-old Joana Cipriano, who disappeared from Figueira, not far from Praia da Luz, three years ago. Joana's mother, Leonor, was jailed for 16 years, even though the body of her daughter has never been found and she has since retracted her confession. Mr Amaral was not present at the time of her alleged beating but is accused of covering up for his colleagues, which he strenuously denies.

At the weekend Mr Amaral was criticised in the British press for allegedly working 4 1/2 -hour days, enjoying "boozy lunches" and failing to investigate most of the 252 tip-offs his officers have received.

British authorities have been working with the Portuguese from the start of the investigation. Forensic tests were conducted on behalf of the Portuguese police at a government laboratory in Birmingham. Portuguese police leaked to the local press that the evidence indicated DNA from Madeleine was in the boot of a rental car the McCanns used after her disappearance, and led to them becoming formal suspects. However, Mr Ribeiro said the forensic tests were inconclusive.

Portuguese police were yesterday in Huelva, south-west Spain, 30 miles from the border. Despite rumours that they were there to investigate a journey the McCanns made to Huelva in August, the Spanish police said that they had invited their Portuguese counterparts to celebrate the patron saint of police, Angel Custodio.
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Axed detective was controversial figure in Madeleine inquiry


Axed detective was controversial figure in Madeleine inquiry
3 October 2007
02:07 AM
Press Association National Newswire


Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, who has been removed from the Madeleine McCann inquiry, was a controversial figure at the centre of the investigation.

There was concern when it emerged in June that he had been charged over an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl.

The coordinator of the Policia Judiciara (PJ) in Portimao, Algarve, is one of five men accused of 'scenes of aggression'' against Leonor Cipriano, whose nine-year-old daughter, Joana, vanished in September 2004.  The little girl's body was never found but Cipriano and her brother, Joao, were charged and convicted of her murder.  She went missing from her home in Figueira, not far from where four-year-old Madeleine was abducted in Praia da Luz on May 3.

It is claimed the attack on Cipriano happened when she was questioned over Joana's apparent abduction.

The Ministerio Publico (MP), or District Attorney, charged three PJ officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents.

The MP did not reveal who had been charged with what offence.

Mr Amaral was 'very angry'' about the allegations and was considering taking action against the MP, according to a police source.

'He is very professional and has a lot of success in solving cases,'' the source said.  'He is very upset because reporters never speak of these successes.''

A Portuguese newspaper reported claims that the beating took place as Cipriano was questioned without a lawyer.

She lodged a formal complaint about her treatment which was followed up by the MP.

Despite the charges, Mr Amaral, who is in his late 40s, was not suspended from work.

Mr Amaral was also forced to defend taking a two-hour lunch break.

He was spotted with PJ spokesman Olegario Sousa at a fish restaurant in Portimao as the McCanns travelled to Berlin and Amsterdam to appeal for more information about their missing daughter.

A diner said he spotted them drinking what looked like white wine and whisky.

Asked if it was acceptable for police to drink alcohol in their lunch time, Mr Sousa said: 'I don't know, it is very, very sad but a person's free time is for lunch. That is normal to do.

'The persons are in charge in the day, they are working in the day but they must eat and drink - it is normal. I drink what I want to drink when I can drink.''
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New head of investigation should refocus inquiry


By PA Reporters
3 October 2007
01:29 AM
Press Association National Newswire


The new head of the Portuguese police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann should 'refocus'' the inquiry on finding the youngster, the family's spokesman said today.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral was taken off the case following his comments that Kate and Gerry McCann had been calling the shots by identifying lines of inquiry for Leicestershire officers.

The family's spokesman Clarence Mitchell told GMTV the claims were 'ludicrous''.

He added:
'What they want now is whoever takes over to refocus the inquiry on to finding Madeleine.''

Mr Mitchell said the decision to remove Mr Amaral was 'a decision for the Portuguese authorities.
''  'Kate and Gerry have always said they were more than happy to cooperate with the Portuguese authorities whoever that might be.  'So in other words, whoever takes over from Mr Amaral as head of the investigation, they will continue that cooperation and do anything that is required - including going back to Portugal for more interviews if necessary.''

Asked if it was true the McCann's were identifying lines of inquiry for Leicestershire Police, he replied: 'Of course not, it's an absolutely ridiculous suggestion.''  'It is a Portuguese-led inquiry and will remain so. And of course from time to time there is communication with Gerry and Kate as there would be in any police investigation.  'It is ludicrous to suggest that they have done anything like that.'

He called for an end to the printing of 'unsubstantiated allegations'' in newspapers in Portugal and Britain.

'What they want now is whoever takes over to refocus the inquiry on to finding Madeleine.''  'There have been so many distractions, so many unsubstantiated allegations swirling around all of this out there and repeated here in Britain.  'Surely it is now time to for all of that nonsense to end and for the search for Madeleine to be re-energised.''

Mr Amaral, who heads the regional Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, was quoted yesterday suggesting that British police had overlooked the fact that the couple remain suspects.  And he accused the McCanns of releasing new information each day in a bid to distract and confuse the 152-day-old inquiry.

The authorities in Portugal refused to discuss the decision to take him off the case.

But Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa said:
'We have to concentrate on the work, not on making comments.''

Mr Amaral has been a controversial figure during the search for Madeleine, who went missing in May during a family holiday in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

He is one of five men charged over an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl.  The men are accused of 'scenes of aggression'' against Leonor Cipriano, who was convicted of the murder of her nine-year-old daughter, Joana, in September 2004.

The detective was also forced to defend a two-hour lunch break with police spokesman Olegario Sousa at a fish restaurant in Portimao during the search for Madeleine. The men were spotted drinking what looked like white wine and whisky as the McCanns flew to Berlin to publicise the case.

Mr Amaral's comments yesterday were the latest salvo from the Portuguese authorities in an increasingly bitter war of words over the case.

Mr Amaral broke his silence after it was reported that an anonymous email sent to the Prince of Wales's website was being investigated by British police.

The message suggested a disgruntled employee working at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz may have kidnapped the young girl.

Mr Amaral told Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias all current and former employees at the resort have been investigated.

He said:
'The British police have only worked on what the McCann couple want them to work on and what suits them.''

Speaking about the email lead, he added:
'This situation has no credibility whatsoever for the Portuguese police.  '(British police) have investigated tips and information worked on by the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are suspected of causing the death of their daughter Madeleine.  'This story about kidnapping for revenge is another fact worked on by the McCanns.''

Earlier, Carlos Anjos, head of Portugal's police federation, accused Mr McCann of being negligent.  His comments came after Mr McCann said he believed someone was hiding in Madeleine's room when he went back to check on the children on May 3.

Mr Anjos said:
'If he was suspicious that there was a man in the apartment, and then he calmly went to dinner, then words cannot describe how negligent he is as a father.''

He also criticised what he claimed was a steady stream of information from the McCann camp. He said:
'Since their daughter disappeared, Gerry and Kate have followed a strategy of almost daily announcements of new facts.''
 
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Portuguese detective removed from Madeleine case


Portuguese detective 'removed from Madeleine case'
2 October 2007
11:44 AM
Press Association National Newswire
By Josie Clarke, PA


The Portuguese detective in charge of the Madeleine McCann inquiry was removed from the case today after accusing her parents of manipulating British police, it was reported tonight.

Goncalo Amaral was reportedly taken off the case following his comments that Kate and Gerry McCann had been calling the shots by identifying lines of inquiry for Leicestershire officers.

The detective, who heads the regional Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, said today British police had overlooked the fact that the couple remain suspects.

And he accused the McCanns of releasing new information each day in a bid to distract and confuse the 152-day-old inquiry.

Police reportedly said in a statement today that Mr Amaral had been taken off the case but gave no reason for the decision.

Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa refused to comment on the case, saying in reports: 'We have to concentrate on the work, not on making comments.''

Clarence Mitchell, the family's spokesman, said tonight:
'We're aware of these reports and we simply can't comment.
'Gerry and Kate have consistently said that they are happy to cooperate fully with the Portuguese authorities and will continue to do so no matter who is in charge of the Madeleine investigation.''

Despite his previous media silence, Mr Amaral has been a controversial figure during the search for Madeleine.

Last month it emerged he is one of five men charged over an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl.

The men are accused of 'scenes of aggression'' against Leonor Cipriano, whose nine-year-old daughter, Joana, vanished in September 2004.

The detective was also forced to defend a two-hour lunch break with police spokesman Olegario Sousa at a fish restaurant in Portimao.

The men were spotted drinking what looked like white wine and whisky as the McCanns flew to Berlin to publicise the case.

Mr Amaral's comments today were the latest salvo from the Portuguese authorities in an increasingly bitter war of words over the case.

The head of Portugal's police federation said a claim by Mr McCann that Madeleine's abductor may have been hiding in her room was a 'ridiculous episode''.

Mr Amaral broke his silence after it was reported that an anonymous email sent to the Prince of Wales's website was being investigated by British police.  The message suggested a disgruntled employee working at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz may have kidnapped the young girl.

Mr Amaral told Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias all current and former employees at the resort have been investigated.

He said:
'The British police have only worked on what the McCann couple want them to work on and what suits them.''

Speaking about the email lead, he added:
'This situation has no credibility whatsoever for the Portuguese police.  '(British police) have investigated tips and information worked on by the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are suspected of causing the death of their daughter Madeleine.  'This story about kidnapping for revenge is another fact worked on by the McCanns.''

Earlier, Carlos Anjos, head of Portugal's police federation, accused Mr McCann of being negligent.

His comments came after Mr McCann said he believed someone was hiding in Madeleine's room when he went back to check on the children on May 3.

Mr Anjos said: 'If he was suspicious that there was a man in the apartment, and then he calmly went to dinner, then words cannot describe how negligent he is as a father.''

He also criticised what he claimed was a steady stream of information from the McCann camp.

He said: 'Since their daughter disappeared, Gerry and Kate have followed a strategy of almost daily announcements of new facts.''

 
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Amaral accused McCanns of manipulating British police


2 October 2007
06:18 AM
Press Association National Newswire
By Chris Greenwood, PA Crime Correspondent


The Portuguese detective in charge of the Madeleine McCann inquiry today accused her parents of manipulating British police.  Goncalo Amaral said Kate and Gerry McCann have been calling the shots by identifying lines of inquiry for Leicestershire officers.

The detective, who heads the regional Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, said British police have overlooked the fact that the couple remain suspects.  And he accused the McCanns of releasing new information each day in a bid to distract and confuse the 152-day-old inquiry.  His comments are the latest salvo from the Portuguese authorities in an increasingly bitter war of words over the case.

The head of Portugal's police federation said a claim by Mr McCann that Madeleine's abductor may have been hiding in her room was a 'ridiculous episode''.

Mr Amaral broke his silence after it was reported that an anonymous email sent to the Prince of Wales's website was being investigated by British police.  The message suggested that a disgruntled employee working at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz may have kidnapped the young girl.

Mr Amaral told Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias that all current and former employees at the resort have been investigated.  He said: 'The British police have only worked on what the McCann couple want them to work on and what suits them.'' 

Speaking about the email lead, he added: 'This situation has no credibility whatsoever for the Portuguese police.  '(British police) have investigated tips and information worked on by the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are suspected of causing the death of their daughter Madeleine.  'This story about kidnapping for revenge is another fact worked on by the McCanns.''

Earlier, Carlos Anjos, head of Portugal's police federation, accused Mr McCann of being negligent.  His comments came after Mr McCann said he believes someone was hiding in Madeleine's room when he went back to check on the children on May 3.

Mr Anjos said: 'If he was suspicious that there was a man in the apartment, and then he calmly went to dinner, then words cannot describe how negligent he is as a father.''

He also criticised what he claimed is a steady stream of information from the McCann camp.

He said: 'Since their daughter disappeared, Gerry and Kate have followed a strategy of almost daily announcements of new facts.''

Despite his previous media silence, Mr Amaral has been a controversial figure during the search for Madeleine.  Last month it emerged that he is one of five men charged over an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl.  The men are accused of 'scenes of aggression'' against Leonor Cipriano, whose nine-year-old daughter, Joana, vanished in September 2004.

The detective was also forced to defend a two-hour lunch break with police spokesman Olegario Sousa at a fish restaurant in Portimao.  The two men were spotted drinking what looked like white wine and whisky as the McCanns flew to Berlin to publicise the case.

A spokeswoman for the McCanns said Portuguese police have been 'very helpful'' by regularly updating the family on progress in the case.  She said: 'The McCanns have always worked hard to maintain a positive working relationship with the Portuguese police.  'Obviously it is in their interests to support the work they are doing to find Madeleine.''
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Dismissal of Goncalo Amaral


2 October 2007
Demissão de Gonçalo Amaral
Dismissal of Goncalo Amaral


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IT'S JUST SICKENING


He has 3-hour boozy lunches, works only four hours a day and has openly accused Kate & Gerry of killing their daughter.. this is the cop leading the hunt for Madeleine.. It's just sickening
Grant Hodgson
30 September 2007
The Sunday Mirror
The search for Madeleine Day 150


Puffing on a cigarette and knocking back beers, the man leading the world's biggest missing child inquiry enjoys yet another long, boozy lunch.

Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral worked as little as four-and-a--half hours a day this week - despite a mountain of uninvestigated sightings of Madeleine McCann on his desk.

The Sunday Mirror has discovered that 252 possible tip-offs about the four-year-old have been reported to Amaral, any one of which might just lead to her being traced. But the vast majority have not even been checked.

Amaral, in charge of a squad of 30 detectives, has convinced himself she is dead, despite having no evidence for it.  (See: Wikileaks cable)

And since the return from Portugal of Kate and Gerry McCann and most of the media covering the case, many in his squad have had their feet up, their main role seemingly to provide drinking companions for their boss.

The McCanns, who cling to the hope of getting Madeleine back, will be appalled that the inquiry - supposedly still running at full-steam - has effectively stopped amid a welter of boozy lunch breaks.

A source close to the family said: "It is devastating for them to know leads are not being chased up. They always feared that once they left Portugal, the inquiry would peter out."

On Wednesday, when the world was praying that a little girl seen in Morocco may be Madeleine, Amaral and his team seemed utterly uninterested and left it to the British media to establish it was a false alarm.

He instead enjoyed a twohour 10 minute lunch washed down with wine. The next day was a similar tale - lunch lasted two-and-a-half hours. And on Friday he was gone for more than three.

Even more appallingly, while Kate and Gerry have been warned they face a year in jail for discussing the case, Amaral was overheard in a cafe brazenly accusing them of killing Madeleine.

In a conversation with a Portuguese racing driver, he was heard saying he was sure the little girl was dead even though there's no final proof that she is. He told ex-F1 star Pedro Lamy he believed the McCanns drugged Madeleine to keep her quiet and accidentally killed her.

Amaral said: "The police case is we are sure the parents kiled Madeleine. They are both doctors and know about drugs. We are confident in our case." One of the group outrageously chipped in how he believed the couple could have taken cocaine on the night Madeleine disappeared.

The conversation was a flagrant breach of the judicial secrecy rules which prevent Kate and Gerry from defending themselves against police leaks. Amaral, his beer belly spilling over his baggy jeans and a creased shirt unbuttoned to reveal a gold medallion, looked more like a holidaymaker than a detective in charge of a case which today enters its 150th day.

Only last week Antonio Cluny, president of Portugal's public prosecutors service, said the search for Madeleine's body was a huge priority for the police. Until it is found, he said, prosecutors had to consider the possibility that almost anything could have happened to the girl and they could not rely on the police theory that Kate and Gerry were responsible for her death. He said: "Without the little girl's body, everything is extremely complicated."

Amaral, who is himself under investigation for allegedly helping to cover up a police beating carried out to extract a confession from the mother of another missing girl, is the regional head of the Policia Judiciaria, or PJ for short.

The Carvi fish restaurant where he spends hundreds of pounds a week is a few minutes' walk from PJ headquarters in the seaside town of Portimao.

The Sunday Mirror watched as Amaral and colleagues tucked into a series of fish dishes, washed down with lager and white wine.

His longest session, which lasted three hours and 10 minutes, was on Friday afternoon. It meant he could not have carried out more than four-and-a-half hours of work all day. Amaral, 47, who has a young daughter, is No3 in the Madeleine inquiry, in charge of its day-to-day running. After one drinking spree this week, the moustachioed police chief got in his car and drove home.

The McCanns were questioned separately at the grim PJ building for up to 10 hours earlier this month when they became suspects in Madeleine's disappearance.

Kate was also told if she agreed to admit she had accidentally killed Madeleine she would receive a lighter sentence.

The couple, now at home in Rothley, Leics, vehemently deny having anything to do with their daughter's disappearance. The McCanns' official spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: "Kate and Gerry want to cooperate with the Portuguese police and would hope that they and their resources are being deployed as effectively as possible at all times."

And writing in his regular internet blog this week Gerry McCann told of the rollercoaster ride they experienced this week after the false alarm in Morocco. He added: "Despite the disappointment, it is encouraging that people are still being vigilant and have not stopped looking for Madeleine. This is so incredibly important to us both."

Although not, it seems, to Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral.

DIARY OF POLICE CHIEF AMARAL

1.15pm GO FOR LUNCH

4.23pm BACK TO WORK

WEDNESDAY: While the world hopes a young blonde girl seen in Morocco might be Madeleine, Amaral and his team have other priorities.

9.30am: Amaral arrives for work in his car wearing a beige jacket, jeans and a white shirt.

1.17pm: He casually strolls out of the police building and takes a leisurely stroll to the Carvi restaurant with his boss Guilhermino Encarnacao - dubbed Inspector Clueless - who is making a rare visit to the investigation.

Lunch: They share a bottle of wine white and two fish platters before heading back to the office at 3.27pm.

6.30pm: Amaral heads home.

THURSDAY: Amaral's boss has left town, meaning he can focus properly his lunch.

9.30am: He clocks on.

1.07pm: It's down tools time as he heads for lunch with a younger colleague.

1.15pm: They are joined by a Nancy Dell'Olio lookalike, who wears a figure-hugging black dress. The woman greets Amaral by patting him on the backside and ruffling his thinning hair.

1.20pm: The group move to Amaral's preferred secluded table. His first drink is a pinkcoloured fruit cordial but he's soon switching to a glass of Portuguese Sagres lager.

2.19pm: Amaral has a coughing fit which lasts more than three minutes. He splutters at the table, sipping water before picking up the bill for the £84 meal.

3.30pm: The woman leaves by herself and the men follow a few minutes' later.

6.13pm: Amaral emerges from the building with the colleague he went to lunch with. They return to the Carvi and sit watching the evening news on the TV.

6.48pm: The young man leaves after another beer. Amaral stays on, eating a couple of fish dishes.

9.55pm: After a few more beers, he heads back to his car and drives home.

FRIDAY: 9.54am: Amaral pitches up for work even later than normal.

1.08pm: After fewer than three hours at his desk, he's off to pick up his daughter from school and brings her back to the Carvi with him.

1.15pm: He orders the first of at least four beers. He and his colleague also order a bottle of white wine while the little girl has a soft drink.

2.14pm: He takes his daughter back to the car. She is driven off and he is joined by two more friends and his racing driver friend. Amaral then has at least three more beers and a glass of wine.

4.23pm: It's nearly time to go home and, after splitting the bill and saying goodbye to his friend, Amaral and two of his colleagues slowly walk back to their office.

5.55pm: After just an hour and 32 minutes back at his desk, Amaral emerges into the bright afternoon sunlight carrying a white plastic bag and blue folder. He walks the short distance from his office to the underground car park.

6.10pm: After getting into his navy blue Volvo he heads for home, and the 148th day of the Madeleine hunt ends as it began - in a hive of inactivity.
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’McCanns Are Lying’


September 24, 2007
Express
David Pilditch and Martin Evans

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".
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Detective has only been on two child murder cases


Detective has only been on two child murder cases
by Kiran Randhawa
24 September 2007
The Evening Standard


The detective leading the Madeleine McCann inquiry has investigated only two child murders in his 26-year police career in Portugal.  Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional Policia Judiciaria, has already faced criticism for his handling of the inquiry.

In one of the two other cases, Mr Amaral, 47, was accused of concealing evidence that the mother of an eight-year-old girl who vanished in the Algarve town of Figueira three years ago, was tortured by police into confessing to the killing.  Leonor Cipriano confessed after almost 48 hours of interrogation, but retracted her statement. She is now serving 16 years in jail for the murder of her daughter, whose body was never found.

The second child murder case was that of a two-year-old girl kicked to death by her father. He is serving 18 years in jail after confessing.
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Madeleine police tortured me


Madeleine police tortured me, says mother behind bars
23 September 2007
John Follain in Portimao
Sunday Times 

[Note: Article also appeared in The Australian on 24 September 2007] 

Leandro Silva and Leonor Cipriano

The senior detective leading the Madeleine McCann investigation is facing calls to step down after a woman jailed for the murder of her daughter claimed that his officers tortured her into confessing.

Leonor Cipriano, 36, told for the first time how she was forced to kneel on glass ashtrays with a bag over her head as police repeatedly hit her during almost 48 hours of non-stop questioning.

She is now serving a 16-year sentence for the murder of her eight-year-old daughter Joana, even though the body has never been found and she has since retracted her statement.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, who is jointly leading the Madeleine case, is to face a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence that three of his colleagues tortured Cipriano. The hearing could be as early as next month.

Joana Cipriano disappeared from her home in Figuera, near Portimao on the Algarve, in September 2004, not far from where four-year-old Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz 143 days ago. Leonor Cipriano was arrested at 8am on October 14 and confessed after almost 48 hours of continuous questioning.

She retracted her statement a day later when she had access to a lawyer but was still charged and convicted of murdering her daughter.

Speaking from Odemira prison in west Portugal, she told a relative:
"The police put a bag on my head, but I didn't see what I was hit with. It was something like a baton. They made me kneel on two glass ashtrays and then they hit me. I couldn't see who hit me because of the bag. "It's not true I fell down the stairs -the police hit me. I said it (the confession) because they beat me."

A friend saw Cipriano shortly after the alleged attack. She said:
 "Her head was swollen, while she had huge bruises under the breasts, on the thighs and the legs."
Amaral is accused of concealing evidence supporting allegations that three of his colleagues tortured Cipriano. The four detectives and a fifth, who is accused of fabricating evidence, deny the allegations and say Cipriano was injured when she threw herself down a flight of stairs.

Roy Ramm, a former Scotland Yard commander, said:
"It is extraordinary that a man accused of an unresolved, serious complaint like this is still handling a high-profile inquiry. You would expect him at best to be in a desk job."
Carlos Garcia, vice-president of the trade union for Portuguese police, which is defending Amaral and his colleagues, said:
"They utterly reject the allegations."
Cipriano's boyfriend Leandro Silva, 41, a car mechanic, claims that he, too, was beaten when he was taken in for questioning in Faro in October 2004.
"One officer grabbed me from behind, spun me round, then hit me in the stomach with a closed fist," he said. "They also hit me from behind with a phone book. When they questioned me, a senior officer said, 'You ate Joana's body'. I couldn't believe it. Then he said, 'You cooked her and you ate her'. I thought they must be crazy - it was like something out of a horror movie."
Silva is considering making a formal complaint.
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Madeleine inspector under fire


Madeleine inspector under fire
Citizen News Services
23 September 2007
Ottawa Citizen


The senior detective leading the Madeleine McCann investigation is facing calls to step down after a woman jailed for the murder of her daughter claimed that his officers tortured her into confessing. Leonor Cipriano, 36, told for the first time how she was forced to kneel on glass ashtrays with a bag over her head as police repeatedly hit her during almost 48 hours of non-stop questioning. She is now serving a 16-year sentence for the murder of her eight-year-old daughter Joana, even though the body has never been found and she has since retracted her statement. Chief Insp. Goncalo Amaral, who is jointly leading the Madeleine case, is to face a criminal hearing for allegedly concealing evidence that three of his colleagues tortured Ms. Cipriano.
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My daughter's girl vanished just like Maddy


My daughter's girl vanished just like Maddy
The police beat her until she falsely confessed
Lucy Thornton and Ryan Parry
22 September 2007
Mirror


Exclusive

Jailed Leonor Cipriano was facing her mother in a prison waiting room... when she began weeping for Kate and Gerry McCann.

Leonor, 36, convicted of murdering her missing daughter Joana, had just been told the British couple were facing the same accusation over their own little girl Madeleine, four.

Distraught Leonor, who is serving a 16-year jail term, asked her mother:
"Why can't the police try and find my daughter and little Maddy instead of blaming their innocent mothers?  "This whole story reminds me of my Joana. I am sure they are both still alive somewhere.  "They need to find them - instead of blaming us."

While Leonor is behind bars, her other two children Reuben, five, and Lara, four, are being cared for by her adoptive mother, Maria de Lourdes David, 58.

Maria is convinced her daughter is innocent and claims she was beaten by police until she made a false confession.

She said:
"If Madeleine's mum was beaten as badly as Leonor was, she may have confessed to some- ' thing she hadn't done too.  "But, luckily for her, she is English and not poor like us, or they would have put her in prison wrongly I too. When all this started with Madeleine, it all came back to us and it hurt me as much as if it was Joana. I just want the little girl to show up. I want them both to come home."

Eight-year-old Joana disappeared just seven miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, from where Madeleine vanished in May.

Leonor insists that she was framed and her daughter was stolen in 2004 and possibly sold to a German couple.

She claims the police beat a confession out of her, which she retracted the next day.  Local papers: carried pictures of her battered face.

Maria added:
"They put a bag on her head and she thinks they were hitting her with something hard inside a kitchen roll to stop the bruises showing so much.  "Her face was swollen and she was badly hurt around her chest.  "Police said she threw herself down a staircase."

Several officers involved in the murder investigation are facing charges. Among them is detective Goncalo Amaral, who has also been involved in the McCann inquiry.

Maria said:
"I think there is a connection with Joana because in both cases they went missing with no trace. How can two children disappear and leave no clues? If they were killed, where are their bodies, where is the evidence? I am worried there is a man out there.  "I can't stop thinking about it. Leonor says the same as me about the missing girl. There is no trail. One disappeared off the streets and the other from her bedroom, but still no one saw anything.  "Leonor cries when we talk about Joana and this other little girl."

Joana vanished after walking to a local shop. Suspicion began to turn on Leonor - just as it has done with Kate and Gerry McCann.  Leonor's neighbours accused her of failing to show any emotion.  During a chat with a local resident, she was asked how she could be so calm and replied: "Don't you go thinking things about me."

The next day the local papers accused Leonor, through a police source, of selling her daughter to a German couple and she was taken into custody for her "own protection".

Later, her brother, Joao, 35, was said to have been plied with drink and confessed.

But only a tiny trace of blood was ever found in their tiny flat and no other forensics. The murder convictions were based on the confessions.

Maria said:
"He said all sorts of things because of the pressure. He confessed to killing her but later said he lied, insisting she was alive."

Joao was also jailed for 16 years. Talking about the McCanns, Maria added:
"I can't see the mum and dad killing that little girl. They are innocent - just as my Leonor is.  "Police definitely blame innocent mothers, they blame everyone if they haven't got the answers."

She urged the McCanns to have "lots and lots of strength. Everything will be sorted out.

"They played about with us and with Joana but they are not going to get away with playing with the McCanns. Leonor did not lay a finger on Joana - never, ever.  "I want both little girls to turn up one day. If they did, what would the police say then?"


     
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Maddie case official walks out


More controversy as Maddie case official walks out
Nidha Narrandes
17 September 2007
The Star


The official police spokesperson in the Madeleine case has quit over the way the McCanns were treated, it emerged last night.  Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa resigned in disgust at the way fellow officers were briefing “friendly” Portuguese journalists behind his back.  His departure on Friday came at an awkward moment for the police team investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.

Another senior detective, Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, is still working on the case despite facing trial himself.  He has been charged after another woman accused of killing her daughter allegedly had her confession beaten out of her by police.

Leanor Cipriano, who like the McCanns made emotional public appeals when her daughter Joana (8) went missing, was later photographed with her face black and blue after her police interviews.  She has since been convicted and is now serving 16 years for killing Joana, whose body has not been found.

Amaral strenuously denies covering up the alleged abuse said to have been carried out by three of his colleagues.

Yesterday it also emerged that the examining magistrate, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, has made an unprecedented appeal to be allowed to speak publicly about the Madeleine investigation.  Normally, judges and police are bound by Portugal’s strict “secrecy of justice” laws but Frias has requested authorisation from the Superior Magistrates’ Council to be allowed to brief the public.  But it is thought he will simply use the opportunity to defend the police action and explain why he is unable to make any more details public.

In recent weeks Sousa has been deeply frustrated because he – and the press – have been misled as part of a strategy to put pressure on the McCanns.  Two weeks ago he issued firm denials when journalists asked him to confirm that the results of DNA tests had come back from a British laboratory.  But two days later, Sousa was forced to admit on Portuguese TV that he had given out false information.

Sousa felt undermined by his superiors, who briefed Portuguese journalists personally on developments and then either told Sousa nothing or instructed him to deny them.  The tactic was understood to have been designed to unnerve the McCanns by letting them know the police were “on to them” in the hope the couple could be panicked into making a mistake.  Sousa has felt several times that his position was being undermined.

On August 15, Sousa told reporters that police were now “sure” Madeleine died the night she vanished.  When that appeared in newspapers the next day, Sousa was told by his superiors he had “misinterpreted” the information they gave him.  Yet now, a month later, it is clear that this death theory has long been the central plank of their investigation.

Meanwhile, a witness who could blow the police case apart was identified for the first time yesterday.

TV producer Jeremy Wilkins, on holiday in Praia da Luz with his partner and baby son, spoke to Gerry McCann during the hour when Madeleine went missing. The cardiologist was on his way back to the resort’s tapas restaurant after checking on his three children.

Wilkins said he found Gerry McCann calm and unflustered during a 15-minute conversation – which would be remarkable for a man supposedly involved in the death of his daughter.  Wilkins (36), from north west London, has repeatedly told police he is convinced of the McCanns’ innocence. – Daily Mail
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We blundered


Maddie case police: We blundered
Mark Townsend and Ned Temko
17 September 2007
The Press (Christchurch)


The McCann family releases new pictures and announces a fresh campaign as police admit that confusion and infighting wrecked the early days of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Ned Temko in Praia da Luz and Mark Townsend report.

Portuguese police have admitted that confusion and disagreements in the early stages of the Madeleine McCann investigation mean that they could find it "very, very difficult" to prove their suspicion that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were somehow involved in the girl's disappearance and death.

And The Mail on Sunday has learned that the senior Portuguese detective jointly in charge of the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance is set to face a criminal hearing into an alleged cover-up involving another missing girl.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral has been accused of concealing evidence that the mother of eight-year-old Joana Cipriano, who disappeared in the Algarve three years ago, was tortured by police into confessing she had killed her daughter, whose body was never found. The senior officer, who heads the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, the nearest town to Praia da Luz from where Madeleine vanished, could appear before the secret hearing as early as next month.

The McCanns have strongly and repeatedly denied any involvement, yesterday launching a fresh advertising campaign aimed at finding their daughter.

The sources said that potentially crucial evidence about what happened to Madeleine, aged four, on the night of May 3, had been lost by the time the first local police arrived, due to the presence of "the McCanns, their friends and others" in the holiday flat from which she disappeared.

In the days that followed, there was growing tension between the Algarve force, which took the lead in the investigation, and senior officers from Lisbon, who were particularly sceptical about the decision to focus on a British local resident, Robert Murat, as a suspect nearly two weeks after Madeleine's disappearance, following a tip-off from a British journalist.

The source -- in the most detailed explanation yet of the reasons behind the naming of the parents as "arguidos", or formal suspects -- also told The Observer that Portuguese investigators were now united in their conviction that the McCanns' accounts of what happened on May 3 "never rang true".

Revealing details of the investigation, which were passed in a 4000-page file to the judge last week, he singled out what he termed as contradictions in the "changing versions" of events offered by each parent and their friends in the days immediately after Madeleine went missing. Specifically, he said Gerry McCann had initially told police that he entered the flat in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz from a "locked front door", but later said he had entered through the open back terrace facing the restaurant where the McCanns and their friends had been having dinner.

Kate McCann, he added, at first said the back window was open and the blind raised, while other witnesses disagreed. He also described how a plastic barrier near their restaurant table would have "prevented any clear view of events inside the flat" and that contradictory accounts had raised doubts among the investigators about their claim to have checked on Madeleine and the McCanns' two-year-old twins during dinner.

Yet in an apparent acknowledgment that the police remain far from confident of being able to move on their suspicions concerning Madeleine's parents, the source also raised for the first time the possibility of prosecutors bringing lesser charges -- "notably, the abandonment or neglect of a child" -- against them.

The McCanns insist they checked on their daughter every 30 minutes during the evening of May 3. "It will be very, very difficult, until and unless a body is found -- and with DNA and other evidence so far inconclusive -- to bring a charge of homicide," the source said.

Madeleine's parents, however, insist that their daughter is still alive, and an £80,000 ($NZ225,000) advertising campaign to help find the four-year- old was announced yesterday by Gerry McCann's brother John, who urged the public to remember "lovely wee Madeleine". The campaign is set to launch in two weeks and will involve newspaper, television and billboard adverts in Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe.

John McCann, who is also a fund director, said: "The main objective of the Madeleine fund is to leave no stone unturned in the search for Madeleine.  "I hope the general public will continue to support us in this."

It has also emerged that the McCanns have appointed former government media officer Clarence Mitchell to oversee the campaign, after their spokesperson for the past three months, Justine McGuinness, stood down on Saturday night.

Mitchell was sent to Portugal by the Foreign Office as chief adviser to the McCanns shortly after Madeleine was reported missing, before then returning to the UK last June. He is expected to resign from his post as director of the Media Monitoring Unit in the Cabinet Office this week.

Part of his new brief will involve studying the Portuguese press, amid concern that a recent spate of negative newspaper reports has led the McCanns to believe there has been an orchestrated campaign of leaks to undermine them.

To counter perceptions of an anti-McCann campaign within elements of the Portuguese media, Olegario Sousa, the official police spokesman since the start of the investigation, was moved from the role last Friday.

One police source yesterday referred to "pure speculation in the Portuguese media" ahead of the judge's ruling. He dismissed a local newspaper report, which was picked up world-wide, that police were now increasingly convinced that Madeleine's body had been dumped into the sea.

Particularly upsetting for the family were reports alleging that extracts from Kate McCann's diary suggested she was sometimes impatient with her "hyperactive" children and felt insufficiently supported by her husband.

Yesterday, two of Kate McCann's closest friends stepped forward to defend her, insisting she could not have had anything to do with her daughter's disappearance.  Linda McQueen, 45, and Nicky Gill, 39, who have been known Kate since she was a child, described her as a devoted mother.

"To have these words said about her is just so unfair and hurtful," said Gill. Asked if she had ever doubted Kate's innocence, McQueen added: "Not at all, not a shadow of a doubt. They are the most loving, caring, family-oriented couple that you could ever meet. They are absolutely fabulous. Those three children are the world to them, as our children are to them as well."

Among the issues the judge will decide this week are whether the McCanns should remain as arguidos; what further interrogations, searches or seizure of potential evidence will be authorised; and what charges, if any, should be brought. --Observer
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End this witch hunt


End this witch hunt and find Madeleine
Tony Parsons
17 September 2007
Mirror


The real crime and the real tragedy is that nobody is looking for Madeleine McCann anymore.

That little girl is out there somewhere, either dead or alive, but all of the energy of those Keystone cretins, the Portuguese police, are being poured into attributing guilt to Kate and Gerry McCann.

We are little better. Back home, the search for Madeleine has been reduced to a grotesque who dunnit, adult entertainment of the blackest kind.

The big question is no longer "What happened to Madeleine McCann?" The question now is "Which side are you on?"

Are you still completely convinced of the McCanns' innocence? Or are you one of those sad, spiteful souls - and there are plenty of them - who is asking for a refund of the money you donated to the Find Madeleine fund?

I cannot recall a news story that so totally divides public opinion.

We were told all along that the McCanns were brilliant media manipulators, but I wonder if they truly understand the nature of the beast. The media - like the mob - can turn in a moment.

I would not have thought it possible, but with frightening speed Kate and Gerry McCann have gone from tragic victims to the worst thing in the world - suspected murderers of their own child.

I don't believe for one second that they did it. If they did, then they are the greatest actors who ever lived.

The bewilderment, the grief, the overwhelming sense that their world has collapsed - it was there at the start and it is there now.

Kate and Gerry McCann would need to be better than Streep and DeNiro to play the roles they played in front of the world's media.

They would also need to be criminal masterminds. To kill - accidentally or otherwise - little Madeleine, and then court the attention of all those cameras and reporters, and then dispose of the body under that glaring spotlight. They did not do it.

I do not much care what the Portuguese spoon-feed their tame hacks in the local rags - that man and woman are innocent, and it is an obscenity that the world is playing Cluedo with their lives and the fate of their little girl.

No smoke without fire, right? But there is no smoke.

A lot of the innuendo and propaganda that the Portuguese cops have slipped to their flunkies in the Portuguese press turns out to have absolutely no basis in the real world. We were informed that the woman who lives above the apartment where the McCanns were staying often heard Madeleine crying and "sounds of violence."

Now the real woman - Pamela Fenn, 81 - says that these claims are "absolute rubbish."

Reports of hair in the hire car, blood on the curtains, the 'smell of death' in the apartment - none of these lurid titbits prove that Madeleine McCann is dead, and still less that her parents murdered her.

Forensic experts in this country say that all the evidence stacked up against the McCanns would never lead to a conviction in a British court. We are told Kate McCann "struggled to control" three children under the age of five.

Well, who the hell wouldn't? Most of us struggle with just one.

That doesn't make her any less of the calm, loving mother that she has always appeared to be.

But chuck enough dirt and it will stick. The Portuguese cops seem stupendously stupid - but they are smart enough to understand that.

It is right that the McCanns should be potential suspects. But it should all have been done months ago - not when the Portuguese cops have become a sick joke because of their blundering incompetence.

Those swaggering plods in their dark glasses clearly wanted the media circus to go away from their sleepy, sunny doorstep, and they have been granted their wish.

As the months have dragged on, they must have felt like lumbering yokels, despised by their north European neighbours. They are not the type who would enjoy that feeling.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, the fat, sweaty cop who is co-leader of the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, faces investigation himself for the torture of Leonor Cipriano, the mother of an eight-year-old girl who disappeared in the Algarve in 2004.

Official mug shots show the mother with her eyes battered so badly that she is unable to open them. She allegedly confessed to the crime and is now serving a 16-year-jail sentence.

The missing child has never been found.

That is Portuguese policing in action, and I would suggest that the smear campaign that has been unleashed on the McCanns is just as bad as being given a kicking in a police cell.

The Portuguese plods are not desperate to solve this crime - such a task was way beyond them.

They just want a convenient confession, true or false.

They just want the case of Madeleine McCann to go away so they can salvage what is left of their fragile macho pride and return to their siesta.

And somewhere a tiny child is still out there, whether she is dead or alive, separated from all she ever knew and loved.
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Portuguese police in turmoil


Portuguese police in turmoil
17 September 2007
Daily Mail


THE official police spokesman in the Madeleine case has quit over the way the McCanns were treated, it emerged last night.  Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa resigned in disgust at the way fellow officers were briefing 'friendly' Portuguese journalists behind his back.

Mr Sousa will be familiar to anyone who has followed the case as the sole officer who gave press conferences, his good looks and decent grasp of English making him a natural choice for televised events.  His departure on Friday came at a particularly awkward moment for the police team investigating Madeleine's disappearance.

Another senior detective, Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, is still working on the case despite facing trial himself.  He has been charged after another woman accused of killing her daughter allegedly had her confession beaten out of her by police.

Leanor Cipriano, who like the McCanns made emotional public appeals when her daughter Joana, eight, went missing, was later photographed with her face black and blue after her police interviews.  She has since been convicted and is now serving 16 years for killing Joana whose body has never been found.

Mr Amaral strenuously denies covering up the alleged abuse said to have been carried out by three of his colleagues.

Yesterday it also emerged that the examining magistrate, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, has made an unprecedented appeal to be allowed to speak publicly about the Madeleine investigation.

Normally, judges and police are bound by Portugal's strict 'secrecy of justice' laws but Mr Frias has requested authorisation from the Superior Magistrates' Council to be allowed to brief the public.  But it is thought he will simply use the opportunity to defend the police action and explain why he is unable to make any more details public.

Chief inspector Sousa, chose to walk away from the investigation in protest at the way it was being handled.  In recent weeks he has been deeply frustrated because he - and the Press - have been misled as part of a strategy to put pressure on the McCanns.

Two weeks ago he issued firm denials when journalists asked him to confirm that the results of DNA tests had come back from a British laboratory. But two days later, after the story had been established beyond doubt from other sources, Mr Sousa was forced to admit on Portuguese television that he had given out false information. Widely regarded as an honourable man, Mr Sousa found the experience deeply humiliating.

He was appointed official spokesman a week after Madeleine disappeared, when the Policia Judiciaria was being bombarded with questions from more than 200 journalists who descended on the resort of Praia da Luz. But he was undermined by his superiors, who briefed Portuguese journalists personally on developments in the case and then either told Mr Sousa nothing or instructed him to deny them. The tactic was understood to have been designed to unnerve the McCanns by letting them know the police were 'on to them' in the hope the couple could be panicked into making a mistake.

Mr Sousa, who is based in Lisbon, has not been answering his telephone since standing down. He has felt several times that his position was being undermined.

On August 15, Mr Sousa told reporters that police were now 'sure' Madeleine died the night she vanished. When that appeared in newspapers the next day, Mr Sousa was told by his superiors he had 'misinterpreted' the information they gave him.  Yet now, a month later, it is clear that this death theory has long been the central plank of their investigation.
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