Madeleine detective convicted of perjury

Madeleine detective convicted of perjury
Wesley Johnson and Sam Marsden
22 May 2009
12:32 PM
Press Association National Newswire

The disgraced former Portuguese police chief who previously led the inquiry into Madeleine McCann's disappearance was convicted of perjury in a separate case today, Portuguese media reported.

Goncalo Amaral was given an 18-month suspended sentence by a court in Portugal.

Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, said the couple thought the conviction "speaks for itself" and would be continuing their defamation action against Amaral.

Mr Mitchell said: "While Kate and Gerry McCann will not be commenting on the court's decision, they will be continuing their defamation action against Goncalo Amaral.

"Today's conviction speaks for itself."

The McCanns are taking action over Amaral's "entirely unfounded and grossly defamatory claims" in the media about the case, which included the allegation that Madeleine was dead and that her parents were somehow involved in concealing her body.

In the separate case, Amaral was one of five officers of the Policia Judiciara (PJ) in Portimao, Algarve, charged over an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl.

The five men were 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 2007.

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

Today, three PJ officers were cleared of torture, but Amaral was convicted of falsifying documents and another officer, Nunes Cardoso, was convicted of falsifying evidence at the court in Faro, the Correio da manha, a Portuguese newspaper, reported.

Earlier this month, the McCanns said:

"We - together with our three children Madeleine, Sean and Amelie - are taking this legal action against Goncalo Amaral over his entirely unfounded and grossly defamatory claims - made in all types of media, both within Portugal and beyond - that Madeleine is not only dead, but that we, her parents, were somehow involved in concealing her body."

The decision was taken in a bid to prevent further publication of Amaral's "deeply offensive" book The Truth Of The Lie, his television documentary and his "disgraceful thesis" that the parents were involved in their daughter's disappearance.

The statement continued:

"The primary reason for our legal action is simple: to stop any negative effect that these absurd and deeply hurtful claims may be having on the ongoing search for Madeleine. "We can no longer stand back and watch as Mr Amaral tries to convince the entire world that Madeleine is dead. "Nor can we allow this blatant injustice to Madeleine, with its obvious risk of hindering our attempts to find her, to continue.

"Mr Amaral's entirely unjustified claims have not only brought indescribable devastation and suffering to our lives, they have hugely compounded the already immense pain and anxiety we have endured since Madeleine's abduction."

   

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Clarence Mitchell, DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria, Press Association, The Truth of the Lie

Uncle admits having tried to sell Joana Cipriano

Uncle admits having tried to sell Joana Cipriano
Expresso
Maria Luiza Rolim
May 19, 2009

João Cipriano

[Portuguese to English translation-Google]


The brother of Leonor Cipriano concedes that "tried to sell the girl but is afraid to indicate where the corpse of her niece. (Click the image at the end of the text and read the confession)

Joana Cipriano may even be dead and the Attorney General's Office may reopen the issue and revise the sentence which condemned the girl's mother. A request to this effect was made today by Leonor Cipriano's lawyer and stepfather of the girl missing for nearly five years.

On the basis of application (see word document using the link at the end of text) is a written confession by the girl's uncle, Manuel Domingos João Cipriano, who says he "tried to sell" Joan.

The lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia also calls for the prosecution to establish "who are the individuals who wanted to 'buy' Joana Cipriano, and for what purposes, where the body of Joanna, and retrieve it in order to conduct medical-legal and forensics, and finally provide a decent burial to the girl. "

In the document sent to the attorney, the attorney says the uncle of Joana Cipriano yesterday signed a document stating "I tried selling my niece," thus confirming, without giving further details, the version of Joana's mother. And that "it just shows that he gave the girl fate following such transaction frustrated."

According to Leonor Cipriano, after the failure of the sale, his brother Manuel Domingos João Cipriano have murdered the child.

Marcos Aragão Correia also explains that "João Cipriano finally confessed the truth only because of the fear expressed that it could be murdered in prison by inmates at the behest of the criminals who tried to 'buy' Joana,  following public revelations of the girl's mother, especially Leonor after the interview, especially the cover page, the newspaper "24" on the 11th of this month. "

Also according to the lawyer, "the confession of João Cipriano as intended, according to it, to obtain state protection, and is the same fear that, also according to their own, prevents him from identifying criminals and others indicate the precise location the girl's corpse. "

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Marcos Aragao Correia

Sandra Felgueiras interview with McCanns 05.11.09 (Parts 1, 2 and 3)

McCann - Sandra Felgueiras 05.11.09 (Pt 1)



Discussion about Amaral's book "The Truth of the Lie".

4:45 on - Sandra asks about the cadaver dogs:
How can you explain the coincidence of the scent of cadaver found by British and not Portuguese dogs?"
...
"Ask the dogs, Sandra"
"We've obviously looked at evidence about cadaver dogs and they're incredibly unreliable."
"Unreliable?"
"Cadaver dogs, yes. Thats what (???) if they're tested scientifically"

 

McCann - Sandra Felgueiras 05.11.09 (Pt 2) 



Questions about Gordon Brown. Gerry explains they are still in touch with Home Office and Foreign Office. Questions about Clarence Mitchell. Questions about the new Portuguese communications agency the McCanns hired, paid from the Madeleine Fund.
  


McCann - Sandra Felgueiras 05.11.09 (Pt 3)

Questions regarding one million euros McCanns seeking from Goncalo Amaral for alleged defamation. Sandra asks about Amaral's motives. McCanns reply that it was possibly for "financial gain".

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, The Truth of the Lie

Axed Maddie cop: I'll talk for £75K

Axed Maddie cop: I'll talk for £75K
Jerry Lawton8 May 2009
Daily Star

McCanns in fury as he cashes in

The police chief sacked from the Madeleine McCann probe after declaring her parents suspects is selling interviews at £75,000 a time. Goncalo Amaral, 48, has already cashed in on Maddie's disappearance by writing a bestselling book. He also acted as adviser to a controversial TV documentary based on his belief that Madeleine died in her parents' holiday apartment.

Now Amaral is trying to rake in more money by selling interviews to TV firms across Europe. According to his representative Luis Varela Marreiros, the disgraced detective is willing to spout his views about the mystery "for `80,000 plus VAT'' - which works out at £75,000.

In an email Mr Marreiros said:

"Since he left Policia Judiciaria his main concern is to reveal the facts that occurred during the investigation. "If you prefer to interview Mr Goncalo Amaral at this moment he will be available but will charge a fee of `80,000 + VAT.'' 

Last night Madeleine's doctor parents Kate, 41, and Gerry, 40, slammed his money-making antics.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell raged:

"It is scandalous that anyone should seek to make money out of Madeleine's abduction.


"Further than that Kate and Gerry will not dignify anything that Mr Amaral says with any comment.'' 

They had to conduct their own search for their daughter - helped by public donations - after Amaral heaped suspicion on them four months after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007. Kate quit her job as a GP to spend six months going through 17 volumes of police files.

Last night's Channel 4 documentary, Madeleine Was Here, highlighted potentially vital leads that Portuguese police ignored. These include five reported sightings of a sinister scar-faced stranger casing out the McCanns' apartment - by four witnesses.

The McCanns' investigators believe her kidnapping was a planned two-man operation. They think she may still be alive and not even realise she has been abducted.

BLOGGER QUESTIONS:

• Was Amaral "selling interviews" or did this reporter contact his representative asking for an interview?  The email was obviously a reply rather than soliciting.
• Every single reported sighting, including the ones listed in this article, have been proved to be false leads.  
• How could a five year old child "not know" she'd been abducted?
• Goncalo Amaral has clearly stated his reasons for writing the book and it was done in a quest to see the truth of the investigation available to the public.
• Wikileaks published a cable indicating that the British police involved in the investigation came to the same conclusions as the Portuguese - Goncalo Amaral was not SOLELY responsible for making the McCanns arguidos.
• The public donations have been used to pay the McCann mortgage and lawyers.
• The McCanns announced in 2010 that they would be writing a book about the case and their publisher expects the book to result in over a million dollar profit for the McCanns.

Continue Reading... Labels: Clarence Mitchell, DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria, WikiLeaks

Gonçalo Amaral: "Prime ministers are not eternal"

See The McCann Files archive:  Gonçalo Amaral - The Interviews (July '08)

Gonçalo Amaral: "Prime ministers are not eternal"
03 May 2009
IOL Portugal Diário
Thanks to Astro for translation


With "some irony" and always defending the theory that Madeleine McCann died on the evening of the 3rd of May 2007, in the apartment in Praia da Luz, where she was spending holidays with her family, Gonçalo Amaral, a former Polícia Judiciária coordinator inspector, states to tvi24.pt that he has doubts whether the appearance of a corpse "would be enough to reopen the case". Despite that, he adds, "prosecutors are not eternal, prime ministers are not eternal either. We live in a democracy and things are going to change".

Two years after Maddie disappeared, the man who led the investigation for six months and ended up being removed from the case, states that, at the moment, "the will that exists is to keep everything silent, without talking much about the subject". Nevertheless, he awaits "someone influent" with the courage to reopen the inquiry. "That person will come and say: 'Let's find out, once and for all, what happened here'," he says, filled with hope.

From the investigation that he led, he draws two lessons. "Political pressure cannot exist within criminal investigations" is the first that he refers. But the second one is so much more personal: "We often say yes, but there's always that one time when we can say no. We can abdicate from our careers and do some good in the search for justice and truth".

"They wanted to fill us with sightings"

Having been removed from the case after controversial statements about his British counterparts, Gonçalo Amaral reaffirms his accusations and goes further: "There was information management done by the English police". "A lot was concealed and they wanted to fill us with sightings", he adds.

He offers two examples. The first denunciation associating suspicious behaviour by one of the members of the group of friends that was on holidays in the Algarve, David Payne, was made on the 16th of May 2007, by a doctor, to the British police. "The information arrived in Portugal in October, after I had already left", he recalls.

But if this information arrived several months later, others were never seen. The former PJ recalls that, with the consent from Portuguese authorities, an appeal was made for tourists to send in photos from the day and the night of Maddie's disappearance. The purpose was "to identify anyone suspicious who might appear looking at the family", he says. But despite "much that arrived at the English police, none of those images ever reached us".

Many diligences left to carry out

When questioned whether he is still investigating the case, Gonçalo Amaral refuses to use the term investigation because "he is dedicated to other things in life". But he admits that he has been "in contact with other people, including retired policemen, both Portuguese and foreign" and that "the entire process is being analysed, in order to understand what was done and what diligences are left to carry out".

Despite the archiving coming as no surprise, he defends that it was rushed and that "there is much left to clarify". Like, for example, "to find out whether or not David Payne, one of the last persons to see Maddie, was with Kate in the apartment and bathed the children". This name is actually a piece of the puzzle that he considers to be "crucial" to clarify "what really happened that day".

Still, he insists: "What happened is in the process. There are indications that the little girl's death happened in that space. Now, it is necessary to reopen the process to find out about the circumstances and the possible involvement of a third party, and to advance in that direction. That was what we were doing when I was removed".

   

Continue Reading... Labels: Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral

The moment Gerry walked into kidnap flat... after 2 years

The moment Gerry walked into kidnap flat... after 2 years
Sarah Jellema
3 May 2009
People


This is the moment Gerry McCann stepped back into the last place he saw his daughter - to reconstruct the nightmare of the evening she was snatched.

Standing outside the bedroom where he had left three-year-old Madeleine asleep, he looked anguished as he relived the events of exactly two years ago.

Gerry, 40, walked into Apartment 5a at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz and said:

"We are a family and we are a happy family - but we are not a complete family.

"There is still a scar - a deep, deep scar - that is kind of knitted at the minute.

"But you still think the stitches of it might break or come loose." 

Meanwhile, Maddie's mum Kate, 41 - who did not return to the Portuguese holiday flat - said:

"I think we are far from normality.

"We need to get out there - she is alive, she is out there, she is findable.

"She might look different, she could be speaking a different language, she might have her hair different, she might have different interests. But she's still our daughter."

As brave Gerry and Kate today to mark the second anniversary of Maddie's disappearance, Channel 4 is preparing to air a TV documentary reconstructing the disappearance and spelling out how a team of British investigators have already uncovered new leads they believe will help find her captor.

More than 30,000 files released by Portuguese police after they shelved the hunt for Maddie last summer contain key witness statements about a suspicious man loitering near the McCanns' apartment.

Answer

The Cutting Edge documentary - to be screened at 9 pm on Thursday - reveals vital sightings around the Ocean Club complex in the days leading up to May 3, 2007.

Search leader Dave Edgar believes the key to the mystery lies within 10 miles of the Algarve resort.

The retired detective inspector, who has more than 30 years police experience, says:

"Someone local has the answer to this.

"This offence happened in Praia de Luz. It's a very self-contained resort and that's where we've started - and that's where I think the answer is."

The Portuguese files - which cost the McCanns £100,000 to translate into English - include a statement that seems to corroborate a sighting by Jane Tanner, one of the pals holidaying with the McCanns when their daughter went missing.

She told police she saw a man carrying a small girl near the apartment at about 9.10pm on May 3 - minutes after Gerry had last checked on Maddie.

The British investigators have now found the files show another family reported a similar sighting shortly afterwards.

The search team also uncovered statements from tourists who had spotted a suspicious-looking man near the McCanns' apartment on several dates BEFORE she went missing.

Investigators believe the reports suggest the family may have been staked out for days in the run-up to Madeleine's abduction.

Mr Edgar - who worked with witnesses and the McCanns to make the reconstruction for Cutting Edge - says:

"In my experience random just doesn't happen.

"Someone - a passer-by - doesn't go in and pick up a child and take it. These things are planned.

"So someone will have been in the vicinity of Apartment 5A.

"They may even have been watching the apartment for a week - or more." 

GP Kate and brain specialist Gerry, of Rothley, Leicestershire, reported Madeleine missing at 10 pm on the evening she vanished. They had been eating at a nearby restaurant with a group of pals - the so-called Tapas Seven - after putting Maddie and their two-year-old twins Amelie and Sean to bed.

The devastated couple have always insisted their daughter is still alive. And they have toured the world in their desperate search for some clue to her whereabouts. Last week they appeared on Oprah Winfrey's top-rated American TV chat-show.

They are also publicising a digitallyenhanced pictue to show what Maddie might look like now - as she approaches her sixth birthday. Launching the image and backing the TV reconstruction, Gerry and Kate said in a statement:

"It is two long years since Madeleine was taken.

"It is two years since we were a happy family of five.

"The pain does not lessen but our determination to find our beautiful daughter remains steadfast.

"It is our hope the reconstructed scenes will trigger somebody's memory and prompt them to come forward, giving us the key piece of the jigsaw we - and Madeleine especially - so desperately need.

"Madeleine is still missing. She has the right to be back with her family. We have a responsibility to keep looking for her. We urge you - please do not give up on Madeleine."

But their tireless crusade has been blighted by disgraced former police chief Goncalo Amaral.

Amaral was appointed head of the Portuguese hunt when Maddie first went missing.

Sleuths

But he was unceremoniously sacked after accusing British cops of being "too close" to her parents - who were later branded official suspects in the case.

Now Amaral plans to launch a private investigation into the disappearance - with the help of sleuths from across Europe, including the UK.

He has vowed to send the results of his probe to Portugal's judicial chiefs and demand the case is reopened. Amaral, who claims Maddie died in a "tragic accident" in the flat, said:

"This investigation is not aimed at finding evidence against Gerry or Kate McCann or persecuting anyone.

"We want to make sure the truth comes out and justice is done." 

Meanwhile, the McCanns are due to mark today's traumatic anniversary joining in prayers for Maddie at their local Catholic church, the Sacred Heart.

The front gates outside the couple's home are draped with green and yellow ribbons of hope.

And posters in windows throughout Rothley bear the words: "Still missing, still missed."

Continue Reading... Labels: DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria, Smith sighting

Two years later

See The McCann Files archive:  Gonçalo Amaral - The Interviews (July '08)

Two years later
02 May 2009
Correio da Manhã
Matter of fact
Gonçalo Amaral
Thanks to Astro for translation

Two years after the death of Madeleine McCann, much has happened in the Justice sector, but the conclusion is that we are worse off, despite the great solutions being the same: when a certain process is unhelpful, it's archived.

But two years ago already, seven helpless English children were abandoned to luck, while their parents dined and socialised with their holiday companions, a light matter to some, who consider it normal, but something that is severely punished in England. For some, they were safe, despite one of them having been abducted, by Portuguese paedophile networks, admitting no other possibility, limiting and conditioning the investigation's purpose, pressing into that direction. As that was not enough, they demanded the end of the investigation and the precipitated archiving of the process, showing their satisfaction. For those, any police investigation, Portuguese or British, is not convenient, expensive private detectives and psychics are the solution.

They don't care about finding the truth, or about the unemployment and the crisis that were generated in Praia da Luz. They continued denying the child's death, despite the strong indications, because they run a millionaire fund that searches for a child that is alive and in good health, and any recoil will have baleful consequences.

   

Continue Reading... Labels: Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral