Madeleine's parents' hunt takes them to Morocco

Madeleine's parents' hunt takes them to Morocco
10 June 2007
07:46 PM
Press Association National Newswire
By Caroline Gammell, PA Chief Reporter in Casablanca

Armed with appeal posters written in Arabic, Kate and Gerry McCann are taking their search for Madeleine to north Africa today in the last of a series of visits designed to help find their daughter.

The couple flew from Lisbon to Casablanca last night before travelling on to the Moroccan capital of Rabat.

Morocco has repeatedly surfaced in the hunt for their four-year-old daughter, with reported sightings and apparent mobile telephone links.

The McCanns will spend two days in Rabat, meeting child abuse and molestation groups as well as holding their now routine press conference.

It is 39 days since Madeleine was snatched from her bed in the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz.

The couple have said this trip is the last they will do in their attempts to find their daughter but are determined to stay in Portugal until she is found.

Mrs McCann, 38, was particularly keen to go to Morocco because of its proximity to Spain and Portugal.

It is just 35 minutes from Spain by ferry and they run several times a day.

Mr McCann, 39, said the borders of Portugal were not closed for at least 12 hours after Madeleine was abducted, making it very possible that she was smuggled out of the country.

A sighting at a petrol station in Marrakesh six days after she disappeared is one of the leads that the McCanns want to make sure is being followed up.

Mari Pollard, a Norwegian woman living in Spain who was on holiday in Morocco, said she saw a small blonde girl on May 9 with a man who did not look like her father.

The little girl, looking sad and apparently dressed in pale blue pyjamas, turned to the man and said 'can I see mummy soon?'.

Mrs Pollard said initially the Spanish, Portuguese and British authorities were not interested in what she had seen and she has yet to meet any investigating officers face to face.

While in the north African country, the McCanns will meet representatives from the Moroccan League for the Protection of Children and Touche Pas Mon Enfants, or Do Not Touch My Children.

They are also hoping to meet the Interior Minister and the Moroccan Commissioner of Police.

Yesterday it emerged that a senior Portuguese police officer working on Madeleine's case has been charged over an attack on the mother of another missing girl.

Goncalo Amaral, co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciara in Portimao, Algarve, is one of five men accused of 'scenes of aggression'' against Leonor Cipriano, whose nine-year-old daughter Joana disappeared in September 2004.

The little girl's body has never been 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 Madeleine was abducted.

The alleged attack on Cipriano occurred when she was questioned over Joana's apparent abduction.

It is claimed the suspect was left with bruises all over her face and body, according to local newspaper Jornal de Noticias.

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.

Police sources said Mr Amaral was 'very angry'' about the allegations and was considering taking action against the MP.

'He is very professional and has had a lot of success in solving cases,'' the source said.

'He is very upset because reporters never speak of these successes.''

It is alleged that the beating took place as Cipriano was questioned without a lawyer, according to the Portuguese Expresso newspaper.

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

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria, Press Association

'I know where Madeleine is' call traced to Argentina

'I know where Madeleine is' call traced to Argentina
Daily Mail
09 June 2007

The hunt for abducted Madeleine McCann was linked to South America today for the first time. It is understood a mysterious call claiming to know the whereabouts of the four-year-old came from a mobile phone registered in Argentina.

The "credible" call was considered so potentially significant that the McCanns halted their search of Europe to help police investigate. They delayed their flight from Berlin to Amsterdam by three hours and plans were drawn up to divert to the UK It was thought the McCanns might need to return to Britain to talk to specialist advisers about the call.

The call from the pay-as-you-go phone came from a man who wanted to speak directly to the McCanns, according to Spanish police sources. He did not reveal his identity or nationality, but the phone was soon linked to the South American country. All efforts to re-establish contact with the caller failed on Wednesday and the couple carried on with their journey around Europe.

A British police source said: "The importance of this line of inquiry is still being assessed and attempts to re-establish contact are continuing."

Although Spanish officials denied they had received the call, a Guardia Civil source told the Portuguese paper Correio de Manha: "Only time will tell if this call gives help or not to the case."

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that a man matching the description released by Portuguese police two weeks ago was seen in a bar in Seville a week before Madeleine's abduction. It claimed the man was working on the instruction of others and told fellow drinkers he was going to the Algarve.

The latest development comes on the day Portuguese police were forced to defend their reputation amid allegations that they were enjoying boozy lunches while the search for Madeleine continued. Armed police officers were also criticised by Madeleine's aunt for preventing her from putting up posters of the little girl at Lisbon Airport.

Senior police officers involved in the investigation were seen laughing and joking as images of the missing four-year-old and her desperate parents appeared on a restaurant TV screen. It happened at a lunch lasting nearly two hours as Kate and Gerry McCann were away campaigning in Europe. They laughed and cracked jokes as they enjoyed a meal washed down with wine and whisky - as footage of the couple played in the background. Afterwards, they left a table littered with empty glasses - and went back to work.

Yesterday Policia Judiciara (PJ) spokesman Olegario Sousa, one of the officers spotted having lunch, said it was up to the individual to decide what he or she ate and drank.

Asked if it was acceptable for police to drink alcohol in their lunch break he 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."

When it was put to him that he had been seen drinking, he said: "Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?"

Mr Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional PJ, were spotted as Kate and Gerry McCann travelled to Berlin and Amsterdam to appeal for more information about their missing daughter.

In Portimao, a town near where the four-year-old was snatched 35 days ago, a diner at fish restaurant Carvi said he recognised the police officials.

"I knew who they were because Mr Sousa has been all over the TV and in the papers," he said.

The diner watched as officers enjoyed the lunch, which took place a short walk from the police station less than 24 hours after Kate and Gerry McCann were told that everything possible was being done to find their little girl.

Then - in what looked like becoming the first arrest in this case after nearly five weeks, a photographer trying to take a picture of them emerging from the restaurant was detained, held for four hours, fingerprinted, interviewed, and had his camera confiscated. He has now been formally named as an 'Arguido' - the same status as the chief suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, Robert Murat.

A 'credible' caller claiming to know where Madeleine is gave enough detail for the McCanns to put a brief hold on their trip to Amsterdam

On Tuesday, two groups went to two separate restaurants. The bigger party did not begin to leave for an hour and three-quarters. The smaller party had a 50-euro meal of fish and wine and shared jokes between what appeared to be discussion about police business.

On Wednesday, the party included senior figures from police headquarters at Portimao, where the investigation is based. One of them was Ch Insp Olegario Sousa, the public face of the inquiry, who appears on TV at press conferences. Another was Goncalo Amaral, number three in the investigation and a well-known figure in major police operations.

At 12.50pm the two men strolled across a sun-drenched square to Carvi restaurant, a regular haunt that specialises in fresh seafood and lobster straight from the tank. Inside, they formed a table of four with two other officers.

The diner said: 'They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on and sat at the table watching it. It must have been about 2pm. Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin and they came on the screen.'

At that Berlin conference, Gerry McCann had made it clear he was confident police were doing all they could to find Madeleine. During a live broadcast that morning he had said: 'We have had no doubts about the desire of the police to find Madeleine. We have witnessed their efforts first hand and they're working harder than Kate and I.'

The diner added: 'The police were laughing and joking among themselves while it was on. They seemed to be sharing some sort of joke. Whatever it was, I thought that laughing like that in public was in really poor taste.

'They had a bottle of chilled wine with the meal but they had a bottle of whisky on the table after the main course as well. I was pretty shocked to see they were drinking whisky at lunchtime. The bottle was passing between them for about half an hour.

'Someone on another table seemed to know them and joked about them having two-hour lunches and knocking back Johnnie Walker Black. He said they would get themselves in the papers.

'There was a guy in a red shirt holding court about Portuguese law. They were discussing a change in the law being planned for Arguidos.' (Portuguese for suspect).

Two of the party left, then Ch Insp Sousa left on his own, leaving a colleague behind.

'I got the impression they went there regularly - they were very friendly with the waiter. I don't know what time they came in but I was there for a good 90 minutes and when I left, one of them was still slumped back in his chair in the corner with the whisky bottle in front of him. He was a big sweaty guy and he was sagging into the chair. The table was littered with empty glasses.

'There was some sort of commotion and I heard someone shout out. They swore and said something about the 'Paparazzi Ingles' (English Paparazzi) hiding behind the door.'

One officer had insisted privately the Madeleine officers had been working 'punishing hours', sometimes sleeping overnight at the station in the early days of the inquiry.

Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, said such behaviour would not be acceptable in the UK: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar.

"But we have to let them to get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on.

"It is a different country and we have to accept the way that they do things and that it is a different culture where they have lunches and siestas but we hope the work is made up at other times."

She then told how armed police officers stopped her putting up posters of the little girl at Lisbon airport.

She and another relative were travelling from the Algarve to the holy shrine at Fatima when they made a diversion to the airport.

Kate McCann had noticed there were no pictures up when she passed through on her way to Madrid.

"She was so upset to think there were so many tourists coming in and out and nothing there to remind people of Madeleine," said Ms McCann.

"She asked me to make a detour on the way. I was given permission to put the posters up by a woman on the information desk.

"But straightaway we were swooped on by two armed police officers. I was with a relative who was bodily manhandled by them.

"We went back to the information desk and there was a big row between the woman and the police."

Ms McCann said the director of the airport Dr Francisco Severino told them they could fax a request which would be considered.

"It would be fair to say we were unimpressed by their unhelpful attitude," she said. "We were very badly treated.

"It seemed clear they didn't want the negativity affecting tourism but I think they are doing the wrong thing.

"Surely if people think the police and the authorities are doing everything they can to find Madeleine other families visiting Portugal would feel more secure."

Ms McCann said she had asked junior Justice Minister Baroness Ashton to put pressure on to change their policy.

The McCanns are back in Portugal today ahead of a trip to Morocco, where there has been a reported sighting of Madeleine.

In Praia da Luz today, the couple watched as 1,000 yellow balloons calling for information about Madeleine were released into the air.

Meanwhile in Praia da Luz, the Algarve resort from which Madeleine vanished on May 3, police removed their 'do not cross' tape from the McCanns' holiday apartment and withdrew all police presence exceprt for one uniformed officer outside. Alipio Ribiero, national director of the Judicial Police, said: 'The Judicial Police are seriously investigating this case. It could take time but we continue in the Algarve, even if our presence is not noticed.'

The exhausted couple had their hopes dramatically raised that their daughter was still alive yesterday - only to see them dashed.

The couple's planned flight to Amsterdam on Wednesday night was held for three hours in Berlin after what appeared to be a crucial breakthrough.

They were told that a "credible call" had been received by Spanish police from a man suggesting he knew where Madeleine was and saying that he wanted to talk to the McCanns.

The call was reportedly traced to an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone outside Europe.

The caller did not disclose his identity, but the information supplied was apparently so specific that British police liaising with the Portuguese inquiry felt it necessary to tell the McCanns immediately.

The couple were advised that the mystery source might try to make contact, and that they should delay their flight in case he called when they were in the air.

As frantic efforts were made to re-establish contact with the caller the McCanns were whisked off the flight, waiting anxiously for nearly three hours at the British Embassy in Berlin. The man never called back.

Journalists on the plane were told that the crew had been asked to draw up a new flight plan involving a possible switch of destination from Amsterdam to East Midlands Airport, close to the McCanns' Leicestershire home.

But at 7.30pm the flight was cleared to continue to Amsterdam, where the McCanns pressed ahead with their European campaign to keep their daughter in the public mind.

Soon after they touched down, it appeared that the call was a hoax, or was no longer being treated with any urgency.

Spanish police categorically denied that they had received such a call, as did the Spanish Interior Ministry.

It was an illustration of the kind of distractions the McCanns are having to endure in their relentless search for information about Madeleine, who vanished more than a month ago during the family's holiday in Portugal.

Another followed soon afterwards when a Spanish newspaper quoted an "investigative journalist" claiming he knew the identity of Madeleine's abductor, and suggesting she had been stolen to order by a paedophile ring.

Last night, however, there was no indication that police were investigating the claim.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-460533/I-know-Madeleine-traced-Argentina.html

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Daily Mail, Goncalo Amaral

Cops booze shame

8 June 2007
The Sun
Lucy Hagan

Thr cop leading the Maddie hunt was blasted yesterday after he and two colleagues spent two hours boozing - at lunchtime.

Chief inspector Olegario Sousa downed wine and whisky with fellow Portuguese officers as a restaurant TV screened Maddie's anguished parents at a Berlin press conference.

A British snapper was ARRESTED after he spotted Wednesday's long lunch in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where Maddie vanished.

He was held at a police station for four hours and had his camera confiscated. An onlooker told how Sousa - who has appeared on TV fronting the inquiry - relaxed with officers including detective Goncalo Amaral.

The witness said: "When I left, one was still slumped in his chair." Asked whether it was acceptable for cops to drink wine and whisky at lunch, Sousa insisted yesterday: "It is my free time. What does it have to do with you what I drink or what I eat?

"I drink what I want to drink when I can drink. Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?"

The missing girl's aunt Philomena said: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar."

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Officers defend two-hour lunches

8 June 2007
The Times
David Brown

Senior officers involved in the search for Madeleine McCann have been seen regularly going out for two-hour lunches. As her parents completed 13 gruelling interviews and meetings with politicians in Berlin on Wednesday, two of the leading officers in the case were seen enjoying a leisurely lunch. Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, the head of the regional Policia Judiciaria, joined two other men at a speciality fish restaurant called Carvi a few minutes' walk from police headquarters. A fellow diner said the men laughed and joked as the McCanns appeared on a television news broadcast.

"They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on and sat watching it," he said. "Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin...The police were laughing among themselves while it was on. They seemed to be sharing some sort of in-joke. I thought that laughing like that in public was in really poor taste."

The party shared a bottle of white wine and there was what appeared to be a bottle of whisky on the table during the lunch, which lasted almost two hours. Such lunches are normal for workers in Portugal, but not for police officers, who work normal shift patterns.


Mr Sousa, the official spokesman for the investigation, defended the officers when asked if he thought it was acceptable for them to drink wine and whisky in their lunchtime while involved in such a major investigation.  "It is very, very sad but a person's free time is for lunch," he said.

"The persons are in charge in the day, they are working in the day but they must eat and drink, it is normal."  Asked if it was normal for police to drink whisky at lunchtime, he replied: "I don't have to answer that because the persons during lunchtime do what they want to do. It is free time. They are not working ."  When told that he had been seen drinking whisky and wine with colleagues, he replied: "I still say to you what I do in my free time is only responsible and in my interest. It is my lunchtime. What does it have to do with you what I drink or what I eat? Have you seen anyone drunk?"

Madeleine's family reacted with shock. Her grandmother, Eileen McCann, 67, said: "I'm not happy about that. My worries are for Kate and Gerry."  The missing girl's aunt, Philomena, said: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar. But we have to let them get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on."

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Clarence Mitchell, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Madeleine officers defend their regular two-hour lunches

8 June 2007  
The Times
David Brown  and Thomas Catan
Police 'laughed at parents on TV news'
McCanns told of 'credible call' lead 

Senior officers involved in the search for Madeleine McCann have been seen regularly going out for two-hour lunches. As her parents completed 13 gruelling interviews and meetings with politicians in Berlin on Wednesday, two of the leading officers in the case were seen enjoying a leisurely lunch.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, the head of the regional Policia Judiciaria, joined two other men at a speciality fish restaurant called Carvi a few minutes' walk from police headquarters.

A fellow diner said the men laughed and joked as the McCanns appeared on a television news broadcast.

"They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on and sat at the table watching it," he said. "Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin ... The police were laughing and joking among themselves while it was on. They seemed to be sharing some sort of in-joke. I thought that laughing like that in public was in really poor taste."

The party shared a bottle of white wine and there was what appeared to be a bottle of whisky on the table during the lunch, which lasted almost two hours.

The fellow diner said: "Someone on another table seemed to know them and joked about them having two-hour lunches and knocking back Johnnie Walker Black (Label)."

Mr Sousa, the official spokesman for the investigation, defended the officers when asked if he thought it was acceptable for them to drink wine and whisky in their lunchtime while involved in such a major investigation.

"It is very, very sad but a person's free time is for lunch," he said. "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."

Asked whether it was normal for police to drink whisky at lunchtime, he replied: "I don't have to answer that because the persons during lunchtime do what they want to do. It is free time. They are not working at that time."

When told that he had been seen drinking whisky and wine with colleagues, he replied: "I still say to you what I do in my free time is only responsible and in my interest. It is my lunchtime. What does it have to do with you what I drink or what I eat? Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?"

Madeleine's family reacted with shock at news of the police's behaviour.

Her grandmother, Eileen McCann, 67, said: "I'm not happy about that. My worries are for Kate and Gerry."

The missing girl's aunt, Philomena, said: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar. But we have to let them get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on."

Police have told the parents that they have received a "credible call" from a man claiming to know what happened to their daughter after her abduction 36 days ago.

Kate and Gerry McCann were asked if they were prepared to speak to the man after he told police he wanted to talk to them.

The call, believed to have been made to police in Spain, was traced to an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone, apparently outside Europe. The couple waited for three hours in Berlin before flying to Amsterdam in case the man called, but detectives were unable to re-establish contact.

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Clarence Mitchell, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Police go on bender

8 June 2007
Daily Star 

Portuguese detectives hunting Madeleine cracked jokes during a boozy lunch as her parents flew across Europe to try to find her.

Senior officers laughed as they knocked back wine and whisky as a news programme showed the McCanns in Berlin this week.

As the parents later headed to Amsterdam, the detective ranked No 3 - Insp Goncalo Amaral - sat slumped in a chair staring at a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky.

His colleague Chief Insp Olegario Sousa burst into a fit of laughter when fellow diners warned British journalists would be shocked.

A diner at backstreet seafood restaurant Carvi said:

"The police were laughing and joking among themselves while it was on TV.

"I thought laughing like that in public was in really poor taste.

"The whisky bottle passed between them for about half an hour."

   

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Cops booze Shame

8 June 2007
The Sun
Lucy Hagan 


The cop leading the Maddie hunt was blasted yesterday after he and two colleagues spent two hours boozing - at lunchtime. Chief inspector Olegario Sousa downed wine and whisky with fellow Portuguese officers as a restaurant TV screened Maddie's anguished parents at a Berlin press conference.  A British snapper was ARRESTED after he spotted Wednesday's long lunch in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where Maddie vanished.  He was held at a police station for four hours and had his camera confiscated.

An onlooker told how Sousa - who has appeared on TV fronting the inquiry - relaxed with officers including detective Goncalo Amaral. The witness said: "When I left, one was still slumped in his chair."

Asked whether it was acceptable for cops to drink wine and whisky at lunch, Sousa insisted yesterday: "It is my free time. What does it have to do with you what I drink or what I eat? "I drink what I want to drink when I can drink. Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?"

The missing girl's aunt Philomena said: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar."

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

Maddy police defend long lunch break

8 June 2007
The Evening Standard
Ed Harris

Portuguese police working on the Madeleine McCann case defended their reputation today after they were seen enjoying a two-hour lunch.

Policia Judiciara spokesman Olegario Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional force, were seen as Kate and Gerry McCann travelled to Berlin and Amsterdam to appeal for help to find their daughter.

In Portimao, a town near where the four-year-old was snatched on 3 May, a diner at fish restaurant Carvi said he recognised the police officials from TV.

'They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin and they came on the screen.'

The diner said they had what looked like a bottle of white wine and whisky on the table.

The McCanns praised the officers. Mr McCann said:

'They are working harder than Kate and I.'

Today Mr Sousa said it was up to the individual to decide what he or she ate and drank.

Meanwhile, doubts were growing about the authenticity of a phone call to police from a man claiming to know where Madeleine is.

  

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Clarence Mitchell, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Madeleine police 'seen at two hour lunch'

Madeleine police 'seen at two hour lunch'
7 June 2007
Press Association
Caroline Gammell

Portuguese police working on the Madeleine McCann case have defended their reputation after they were seen enjoying a two hour lunch.

Policia Judiciara (PJ) spokesman Olegario Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional PJ, were spotted as Kate and Gerry McCann travelled to Berlin and Amsterdam to appeal for more information about their missing daughter. In Portimao, a town near where the four-year-old was snatched 35 days ago, a diner at fish restaurant Carvi said he recognised the police officials.

'I knew who they were because Mr Sousa has been all over the TV and in the papers,'' he said.

'They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on and sat at the table watching it. It must have been about 2pm. Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin and they came on the screen.''

The diner said they had what looked like a bottle of white wine and whisky on the table.

'After nearly two hours, two of the party left. Then Mr Sousa left on his own almost immediately afterwards.''

In Berlin, the McCanns said they had initially been frustrated by parts of the investigation but went on to praise efforts of Portuguese officers. Mr McCann said:

'We have no doubts of the desire of the Portuguese police to find Madeleine. 'We have witnessed their efforts first hand and they are working harder than Kate and I.''

Yesterday Mr Sousa said it was up to the individual to decide what he or she ate and drank. Asked if it was acceptable for police to drink alcohol in their lunch break he 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.''

When it was put to him that he had been seen drinking, he said:

'Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?''

Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, said such behaviour would not be acceptable in the UK:

'If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar.

'But we have to let them to get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on.

'It is a different country and we have to accept the way that they do things and that it is a different culture where they have lunches and siestas but we hope the work is made up at other times.''

  

Continue Reading... Labels: Carvi Scandal, Clarence Mitchell, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria, Press Association

Local family may have seen missing Maddy

6 June 2007 
Drogheda Independent
Angela McCormick

A DROGHEDA family may have been the last people to see abducted four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Portugal. The family is understood to have seen a child in the arms of a man on the night and at the time Madeleine was taken from her parents’ apartments in Praia Da Luz. They have reported the matter and recently gave statements to the Portuguese police.

The Portuguese police have asked the family not to speak to the press in case they compromise their investigations. The family declined to give any details to the Drogheda Independent. Portuguese police are convinced that the child, who vanished during a family holiday in the Algarve on May 3, was abducted. A number of Drogheda-based families holiday in the nearby Estrela Da Luz apartments, part ofa complex built by Drogheda man Gerry Fagan of Oceanico Developments. ‘Estrela Da Luz is just around the corner from Praia Da Luz. Loads of Drogheda people go there. It is an absolute paradise,’ said Jem O’Neill, a regular visitor.

Continue Reading... Labels: Policia Judiciaria, Smith sighting