Gonçalo Amaral admits that investigators protected the McCanns

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

Gonçalo Amaral admits that investigators protected the McCanns
27 July 2008
Jornal de Notícias
Marisa Rodrigues
Thanks to Joana Morais for translation

For the first time since he began to talk publicly about the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Gonçalo Amaral, the co-coordinator of the investigation, analyses his own responsibilities in the outcome of the case and in the conduct of all the work of the Judiciary Police.

Of the pressures and constraints that they were anticipating, more than feeling, of the virtually unlimited autonomy in the carrying out of the diligences and even in the mistakes that he himself now assumes to have committed, particularly the group of investigators initial decision to show precaution with everything that concerned Kate and Gerry McCann. For fear of the reaction of public opinion. Today, he would not agree with decisions that he helped the group of investigators to take. In the book " Maddie, The Truth of The Lie " he does not say everything that he knows. A second book is not out of question.

Jornal de Notícias: Who has pressured the Judiciary Police (PJ) so that it could not advance with diligences?

Gonçalo Amaral

The pressures were immediately felt in the morning following the disappearance of the girl. The British consul in the Algarve went to the Judiciary Police to find out about the investigation, which is not abnormal. Shortly afterwards, it was the turn of the ambassador to go there. It is not a normal proceeding with all the English subjects. At least, I had never assisted a similar situation.

But were you prevented from advancing with the diligences that had been planned?

To me no one told me "do not do it". If that had happened the "broth would pour over" [Portuguese idiomatic expression meaning it would be over the top]. There my participation in that investigation would have ended. But we felt constrained.

In what way?

Notice. Soon after the visit of the ambassador, an announcement goes out referring the thesis of abduction.

Was it the ambassador who pressurised the PJ?

It was not that what I said. The pressure was felt in the team of investigators. When, in the heart of the group, if it was discussed the realisation of a determined diligence there was always someone who would say "Oh, oh, we have to be careful".

Who?

I am not going say names. If in the book I was careful to never give names, I am not going to do that now. It is one of those things that are kept. But in the group there were seven, eight, ten persons taking part, between co-ordinators, directors. When the question of the necessity of doing a determined diligence was raised, everything was discussed, namely, which was the importance, the objective that was wanted to accomplish and what were the consequences. And when there were issues that needed us to come even closer to the couple and the group of friends, one was careful for them not to be considered suspects so soon at that time, to prevent them from being accused in the public opinion, faced with the existing media pressure.

Are you saying that the PJ itself decided to protect them. Why so many precautions? It's natural to have suspects in a criminal investigation.

Because, at that time we would have been crucified by public opinion.

You were afraid of the media pressure?

No. We felt it was necessary to treat them with 'tweezers'. I recognise what we were mistaken.

If you believed in the accidental death thesis and in the parents involvement what was the reason for you not to insist that determined diligences were done?

At the time when the arguments against were suggested they were considered valid for the whole group. It was the group itself that said "let us not go there".

If you didn't agree why didn't you close the door? It was your image, while co-ordinator, that was in question.

Those were not times for rebellions. I always worked in group. If the arguments were valid, one had to respect them.

Even without agreeing with them?

At the time I agreed because I considered them to be valid. Perhaps now, at a distance, I do not agree.

What remained to be done?

Too much. The first version of the rogatory letter, which was changed after my expulsion on 2 October, had several steps that were simply struck out. It was requested that the British dogs be used to search the house of the McCanns in Leicester and also those of their friends and that they smelled their clothes. It also asked to verify the existence of a chart on the refrigerator of the girl's parents, which showed that she had problems with sleep and used to rise several times at night. The chart is referred to by an English police officer. New interviews with the arguidos were proposed but were never done. The charter was amended by the prosecutors.

With what goal?

Probably the steps were not considered important after my removal.

You said that with another prosecutor perhaps the outcome of the investigation would have been different. If there had been another National Director, not Alípio Ribeiro, recently criticised by Almeida Rodrigues, would the investigation have been conducted differently?

I do not know, but probably not. The National Directorate is only one and has a very specific understanding and procedures, regardless of whom addressed.

Who chose the laboratory from Birmingham to examine the remains?

The PJ decided that the remains had to be analysed by an English laboratory. Given the campaign that already existed at the time against the PJ. At that time, we had to be fully aware that if the results tested positive, in Portugal, there would be a strong reaction against the competence and capacity of our laboratories. We did so to show confidence in British laboratories. The choice of Birmingham was made by the English police.

It was a strategy? Or was there fear that the samples had not been well received and that they had been contaminated?

It was strategy. We had confidence in the strength of the traces and the competence of our technicians. It was all collected with the utmost care. During the collection, the Portuguese had the technical care to contact the English technicians and follow the information given to them by phone. In particular the remains collected on the tile of the room, so that nothing collapsed on the question of evidence from the collection to the handling and packaging.

But the procedures are not universal? Or did you want to safeguard your position in case of failure?

They are universal. But we wanted to follow to the letter the procedures of the English police because the remains were to be sent to an English laboratory.

Were you not confident in the Portuguese technicians?

I had and still have absolute confidence. But we wanted someone who the British police would also agree with what they were doing to that later, no one could see that the remains were poorly collected.

It was a kind of defence before the attack?

That's more or less it.

The line is that you advocate accidental death in the apartment with the involvement of parents. But the book raises suspicions about David Payne. It seems a contradiction.

Nobody can say that the two have no relationship until they are investigated. I have suspicions about this gentleman or against anyone. Only I can see that there are situations that were unclear. There is a testimony from a couple of British doctors who say that in September 2005, when holidaying with the McCanns in Majorca and other couples, they became aware of behaviours that are not normal for them and that they related to this gentleman. The couple went to British police as soon as they saw them on television and the evidence only came to Portugal on 26 October. They say they saw Payne put a finger in his mouth, and move it in and out, whilst rubbing his nipple with the other hand. And speaking of what Madeleine would do, next to the father, Gerry. These testimonials from doctors, as credible as the McCanns, should have had another treatment by the police.

And what did the PJ do when they finally received this information?

Nothing. Not even included in the letter of any investigation related to this episode.

David Payne, in your opinion, may have something to do with the disappearance of Madeleine?

I do not know why it was not investigated properly as it should, in my opinion, have been. He was the last to see Madeleine alive after 17.30 hours, when she left the nursery. Gerry was playing tennis and asked him to look in on Kate and the kids. Gerry replies that he was in the apartment and she (Madeleine) was there. He returned 30 minutes later. Kate says it was 30 seconds. Something that does not fit together.

In the book you say that he was recognised by a social worker. What did you intend by reporting this episode?

Only that people realised that it is one more situation that was not investigated. The following morning to the disappearance, a social worker of English nationality in the Algarve offers to help, but she was almost ill-treated (offended) by the couple, apparently by indication of this man [David Payne]. This man is recognised by the social worker as already having passed in a process, in an investigation, without her being able at the time to tell if it was in the quality (status) of a witness or as in another processual figure [means a judicial status like arguido or suspect]. If he has or not some relation with the death, I do not know. But these are situations that could not have passed in clear (without being investigated), as they were. They should have been checked.

How did Robert Murat become a translator for the accused?

There were many difficulties in finding translators. We needed him because many had to listen to many people. It was the GNR who suggested the name of Robert Murat because he spoke fluent Portuguese and English. He was known by the military to have helped informally in some translations. He was now accused by a number of factors combined. There is a testimony of Jane Tanner that recognises him from the view of his back and assures that this is the man who she saw that night passing with a child.

But Jane Taner was a credible witness?

Never was. But there were other things. Phone calls from anonymous people who came to mention it as a possible abduction.

These anonymous phone calls took place before or after being recognised by Jane Tanner?

I do not know need, but it was certainly before he was made arguido. Either way, nothing has been found that links Robert Murat in this case.

Recently you said that there is much you know and have not written. Is there something that has been purposely left out?

It is logical that yes.

What and for what purpose?

I cannot disclose it.

It leaves room for a second book, for example?

Maybe. Let's see.

    

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, Alipio Ribeiro, Forensic Science Services, Gaspar statement, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Leicestershire Police, Policia Judiciaria, The Truth of the Lie

Since the day I left I knew the process would be archived

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


Carlos Rodrigues and Rui Gustavo Lima
4 July 2008
Expresso
Thanks to 'astro' and 'debk' for translation

The former inspector reveals some secrets from the investigation into the Maddie case. He guarantees that the process contains evidence, not personal convictions, and he reveals that Paulo Rebelo, his successor, never contacted him to talk about the case. When asked about what he would say to Gerry and Kate McCann, today, he replied: "I'm worried about the girl, not the parents".

Your name and your career will remain connected to the Maddie case forever?

I'm not worried about that. I have always worked in a team, with the preoccupation and the goal of reaching the discovery of the truth. No policeman likes to leave a case halfway through.

Was that what happened with this investigation? Is it left halfway through?

Not according to my will.

Have you agreed with the decision of the former director of the PJ, who removed you from the case?

No. It's an unfair and dangerous decision. I was not removed from the investigation due to incompetence. I left because of the direction that the investigation was taking. But the strategy was not decided by me only. It was everyone. It involved the English police and other Portuguese policemen. And what was being investigated, was the little girl's death, even an accidental one.

After you left, was that course maintained?

I don't know. I'm very naïve and I want to believe that my exit from Portimão had the purpose of advancing the investigation, because the person that took over is much more efficient.

Do you believe that Madeleine McCann died in the apartment on the evening of the 3rd of May?

Yes. That is what I and other persons believe in. And this is not because we idealised it that way.

Is there evidence to sustain that thesis?

I can't enter any details of the process. I will only say this: I am certain that I, and the persons who worked with me, did a good job and I doubt that anyone else could do better. Some day, people will see the process, they may agree or not, but there is nothing in there that questions my professionalism.

Was the investigation's direction, homicide, disturbing the political power?

This case was more political than a police case.

Did any politician pressure you?

I was not pressured, I was removed.

If there was a homicide, where is the body?

That was what we were going to establish next. On the day that I was removed, I was carrying out diligences for a fundamental witness to come to Portugal. It was necessary for the PJ to pay for the trip, to arrange for lodging, and that was being taken care of. But then the important witness never came to Portugal and was never heard.

But why? Why was an exception opened? The English police was used by the McCanns to send the PJ information that often was nothing but noise?

Yes. And the fact that the couple had a press advisor, is a figure that is not even foreseen in the penal process code. In some way, we were all influenced by the campaign that was built, which said that the child is alive and must be found. I don't say that the English police were being ordered around by the McCanns, but it was influenced, like we all were. The PJ should have found a way to protect the investigators from everything else.

That is strange: you say that it was established with the English police that the direction that should be followed was the little girl?s death, that there were enough indices, but there seems to have been an inflexion.

Yes. And I was removed. I don't know whether there is a direct connection. I know that colleagues from the investigation have requested the police's directory for a syndication, to see whether the work was badly done. Whether mistakes were made.

Do you believe that you reached the truth?

I am convinced that we were on the right path and that we might end up knowing everything or not, but a great part. Now, that which we have collected and which we consider to be indices, may not be valued in the same manner.

One of the criticisms is that the results from the months when you were leading the investigation are lots of convictions and zero evidence. Do you agree?

I was the coordinator of the investigation from 3 May to 2 October. Five months. After me, there came other people that have been there nine months. I am not comparing, but we were professional and I'm not ashamed of anything. And when the process is public you will see if it is true that there is nothing. There are indications and they are in the files. We did hundreds of interviews and searches. Thousands of diligences and from that there are no results? The little girl went up in smoke?

Did the theory of the death of the child continue to be followed after your exit?

I don't know. I can say that ever since that day I knew the process would be archived.

That being so, is there still a death to be resolved?

There is. And diligences to be completed.

Who made the decision to constitute the McCann?s arguidos?

Everyone. And the national director was informed of all the decisions.

Alípio Ribeiro agreed with the decision?

Exactly.

But then he ended up saying that the decision was hasty.

Hasty? Four months later? When there were concrete diligences that reinforced some of the indications? While we waited for results of various tests? And beyond that, in our law there exists the principal of no self-incrimination. A person can't continue speaking forever as a witness and providing evidence ("indications"). There is certainly a stigma in the arguido status, but I don't know what is worse. They were made arguidos, this was public, for simulating a crime and hiding a cadaver.

Do you think that you made any mistakes?

I made one. The error of the first hour. There are things about which I still cannot speak. But we know that there are things which could have been done in another way. No one should be shocked if we begin, immediately, to wonder if the parents were involved.

After leaving the investigation, did you ever speak with your successor, Paulo Rebelo?

No. It is an interesting question to consider. If they removed me for the barbarity of speaking to the press, and not for incompetence, it would be normal to be consulted. But this never happened.

If, as all seems to indicate, the case is archived, the public is going to hold the Portuguese police responsible. How will you react?

Archival is not a declaration of innocence. A process can be archived and reopened. The archival of this case could be the declaration of some incapacity of the police, or it could have a different meaning.

What would you say to Madeleine's parents?

I have nothing to say. My overriding preoccupation is with the little girl, not the parents.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alipio Ribeiro, Clarence Mitchell, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Paulo Rebelo, Policia Judiciaria

Divers search for Madeleine's body in remote reservoir after underworld tip-off

Divers search for Madeleine's body in remote reservoir after underworld tip-off
Daily Mail
Vanessa Allen
05 February 2008


A grim search for Madeleine McCann's body has been launched at an isolated reservoir.

Teams of frogmen began scouring the remote Barragem do Arade amid claims the girl's body was dumped there last May.

The private search - funded by a Portuguese lawyer - came as Portugal's most senior detective admitted that police had rushed into making Kate and Gerry McCann suspects in the case.

Divers have been searching the Barragem do Arade in Portugal for several days after an underworld tip-off that Madeleine's body was dumped there days after she disappeared

Alipio Ribeiro, the national director of the Policia Judiciaria, said his officers had acted with "a certain hastiness" and should have assessed the evidence again before naming the couple as official suspects.

But he defended his men against claims they had acted under political pressure and had failed to investigate properly.

Last night there were calls for him to resign over the comments, as lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia revealed he was forced to fund the £1,200-a-day reservoir search himself because the police had refused.

Lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia has paid thousands of pounds for the private search at Barragem do Arade dam

The human rights lawyer said he was convinced the massive man-made lake was "the perfect hiding place" for an abductor to conceal a body.

Mr Correia, 32, ordered the search after underworld contacts told him Madeleine was raped, murdered and her body dumped within 48 hours of her disappearance on May 3.

He said he believed the abductor killed the child, weighted down her body and then threw it from a pumping tower into the murky water beneath.

His team of six divers have already found a five-metre length of knotted nylon cord, which has been handed in to Portuguese police for analysis.

The remote reservoir is surrounded by dense woodland but a dirt track cuts through it to a bridge which links the water tower to the shore.

Underworld contacts apparently claim Madeleine's body was dumped in the remote reservoir after she was raped and murdered

Mr Correia told the Mail:

"I am convinced this is the place. It's not overlooked, it has easy access by car and if you threw the body from the tower the water is 55ft deep there.  "The divers have already found a cord tied in knots down there, right below the tower. I have given it to the police.  "It's logic that if you throw a body into the water then you would tie it to something to weigh it down."

The lawyer from the Portuguese island of Madeira said he would continue the search until he found proof to support his theory.

He refused to say how much he had paid to finance the trawl, but his team of six British and Portuguese divers were estimated to cost around £1,200-a-day.

They have already been searching for four days and are expected to return today, meaning the operation has already cost about £6,000.

Search coordinator Alan Wilson said the divers were only able to cover a small area in each dive because the murky water meant there was zero visibility once they descended below a few feet.

"Everything's black because there is no light," he said, adding: "The divers are searching entirely by touch, feeling in the silt for anything suspicious that shouldn't be there. It's a long, slow process."

Mr Correia said he was first told about the reservoir on May 6, three days after Madeleine vanished from Praia da Luz, some 40 miles away.

He passed the information to the police but said they ignored it, despite a May 5 witness sighting of a girl resembling Madeleine with a woman in Silves, a ten-minute drive from the lake.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said:

"Kate and Gerry are grateful to anyone who feels they have important information in the search for Madeleine.  "If his search produces significant results he must, of course, share that information with both the police and our investigators."

Mr Mitchell also welcomed Mr Ribeiro's admission that police had rushed to make the McCanns suspects in September, and called for their names to be cleared.

In a radio interview, the policeman said:

"Maybe a different evaluation should have been made. I have no doubts about that. There was a certain hastiness."

He pledged to correct any failings in the investigation but insisted police were still working on it, adding: "This whole job is a work of patience."

The couple learned of his comments on Saturday, as they prepared for a party to mark the third birthday of their twins, Sean and Amelie.

Madeleine, then three, disappeared last May during a family holiday in the Algarve

Mr McCann, 39, said the comments could be a much-needed "breakthrough" and added:

"It is fantastic news.
"We still have a long way to go but people in Portugal need to understand what has been happening and what we have been going through.
"We know it will take the police a long time to accept what has been happening is wrong, but it is an important step towards that."

Mr and Mrs McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, were made suspects on September 7 but forensic evidence in the case has proved inconclusive. They have always denied any involvement.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alipio Ribeiro, Clarence Mitchell, Daily Mail, Marcos Aragao Correia, Metodo3, Policia Judiciaria, underworld tip-off

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.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alipio Ribeiro, Carvi Scandal, Cipriano case, Clarence Mitchell, Daily Mail, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria

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.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alipio Ribeiro, Carvi Scandal, Cipriano case, Clarence Mitchell, DISGRACED, Express, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria

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

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

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.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alipio Ribeiro, Carvi Scandal, Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria

Lies, Beatings, Secret Trials: The dark side of Portugal's Life on Mars police

16 September 2007
The Mail on Sunday
David Rose

ACCORDING to his friends, Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral of the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria, co-leader of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, is a dedicated and capable detective, determined to do whatever it takes to find her - or those responsible for murdering her.

As a foreign reporter in Portugal, it is difficult to form a view. Thanks to the country's stringent judicial secrecy laws, Amaral is officially forbidden from talking to the media.

I confronted the sweaty, corpulent figure in an illfitting jacket twice last Friday: the first time at 10am, as he sat slurping coffee and cakes at the Kalahary cafe in Portimao with his colleague, Chief Inspector Guillermino Encarnacao; the second just before 3pm, when the two men made their way from a restaurant to a waiting black Mercedes, in which they were driven 400 yards to meet officials at the courthouse.

The reaction was the same both times: 'No speak! No speak!' was all Amaral would say, making a swatting motion as though batting away an insect.

But Amaral's official silence is not the only difference between him and his counterparts in Britain. In the UK, it is unlikely he would be leading the McCann inquiry at all.

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry may never be charged with anything, despite their present status as arguidos, or official suspects, and by the end of last week, apparently well-placed sources were admitting that any case against them is circumstantial and weak.

Amaral, however, is in a similar position. He, too, is an arguido, facing possible trial on a serious criminal charge arising from a murder case brought to court in 2004, the last occasion a little girl vanished in the Algarve.

The Mail on Sunday can today reveal new details of this case, the subject of a draconian judicial order that has stopped most sources who know about the case from talking to the Portuguese Press. According to the order, documents about the case have been restricted to a handful of officials, while the next stage of the process - a hearing at which Amaral and four fellow officers may be asked formal questions - will be conducted in secret. It is believed that this is set for next month.

Three of Amaral's senior PJ colleagues have been made suspects for the torture of the missing girl's mother, Leonor Cipriano, who has been convicted of killing her daughter Joana, aged eight, and jailed for 16 years.

As for Amaral, the claim against him is 'omisado de denuncia' - that he tried to hide the evidence of the alleged torture or, in other words, attempted a cover-up. He is said to deny it strenuously.

In internet blogs and newspaper columns, Amaral's supporters have claimed that the Cipriano case is built on lies - a vicious smear against a decent detective trying to do his job. It has, they say, 'no connection' to the Madeleine McCann inquiry.

Experienced lawyers in Portimao, the town 12 miles from Praia da Luz where Amaral is PJ chief, disagree.

The case against the detectives began as a complaint lodged by Cipriano's lawyer, they pointed out, but has now been adopted by the public prosecutor.

'In order to bring formal charges, the public prosecutor has to believe there is a strong case,' said Oliveira Trindad, who has practised law in the area for more than ten years. 'That means that after assessing all the evidence, he thinks that if the case to trial, a conviction is more likely than not.' That decision is likely to be made well before the McCann case is closed.

There are, to be sure, many differences between Leonor Cipriano and Kate McCann. But there are also similarities, starting with the fact that although the bodies of their daughters have not been found, Amaral and his PJ colleagues have long been convinced that both girls are dead.

No one would suggest that in the course of the marathon interrogations that preceded their departure from Portugal last weekend, Kate or Gerry McCann were the victims of physical violence. But at times it seemed they were also being subjected to torment, albeit of a different, psychological kind. It, too, say Portimao's criminal defence lawyers, may have been inspired by PJ officers desperate to achieve the end they sought with Cipriano - a confession.

It isn't hard to locate the source of some of the McCanns' current difficulties: Hugo Beaty's bar. There, amid the burnt orange concrete of the Estrela apartment complex, a fiveminute walk from the Ocean Club, most of the seats along the shady terrace and more inside will be taken all day by reporters with laptops,

authors of a daily verbal torrent that has come to seem unstoppable.

After Kate and Gerry's abrupt return to Leicestershire last Sunday, almost nothing happened in the McCann case last week.

The only verified fact is that after considering a ten-volume PJ dossier about Madeleine's disappearance on May 3, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, a junior judge in Portimao, decided to grant certain requests made by the prosecutor, Joao Cunha de Magalhaes.

Every news outlet covering the story - a waterfront that now extends across the whole of Europe to the major American TV networks and even, unbelievably, a paper in war-torn Somalia - has stated that these requests were for warrants to seize items including Kate McCann's private diary, Gerry's computer and (though this seems slightly less certain) Madeleine's beloved cuddle cat.

There is, however, nothing approaching official confirmation of these claims. Like everything else about the case, the details of the prosecutor's approach to the judge are covered, supposedly, by the judicial secrecy laws, under which the penalty - in theory - for making unauthorised disclosures is two years in prison.

Thus it is that like almost everything-else being broadcast and published beyond Portugal's borders about the hunt for Madeleine, the claim that the police want to read Kate's diary has reached its audience via Hugo Beaty's bar.

Every day there starts the same way shortly after it opens at 9am, with an informal briefing to the foreign Press by a locally resident British woman who normally makes a meagre living acting as an occasional interpreter - for the Policia Judiciaria.

Every morning, the woman - who asked me not to publish her name - goes through the Portuguese tabloids and translates their ever-more febrile articles. Every afternoon, the foreigners - almost none of whom can speak more than the most basic Portuguese, nor claim a single, genuine source inside the police investigation - recycle the tales for consumers abroad.

By the end of last week, some of the assertions made by the Portuguese had become part of a settled consensus. For example, it was reported from Berlin to Baltimore that the police had already made a photocopy of Kate's diary - which, if true, would mean they had broken the law - and merely wanted to obtain the judge's approval to use it as evidence.

The reason they are so keen on it, it was alleged, is that it suggests she found her children 'hyperactive' and difficult to handle, while railing at her husband's allegedly dilatory, hands-off approach.

The claims about the diary's contents were first published on Thursday by Jose Manuel Ribeiro, crime correspondent for the Lisbon daily Diario de Noticias. By chance I ran into him that same afternoon, outside the apartment where Madeleine disappeared. I congratulated him on his scoop, but he shook his head, disconsolate. Already, he complained, it was turning to dust.

Ribeiro said he had been given the story by an impeccable inside source, but already officials in Lisbon were denying it, and the source himself could no longer assure him it was true. 'Why is bad information getting out to the public?' he asked. 'Because we're being given it.'

Somehow, however, the denials that had made Ribeiro so angry did not get through to the foreigners. If the questionable leak had been planted for a purpose - to increase the presgoes sure on the hapless McCanns - it may well have succeeded. And, in the foreign public's mind, the germinating notion that Kate might have killed her daughter because she could not handle her had been nurtured by a further dollop of manure.

A similar, apparently sanctioned but inaccurate leak had already gone around the world to still more devastating effect. Early on Monday evening, TV channels began to report that British forensic scientists had made a '100 per cent' DNA match to Madeleine from 'biological material' - said to be hair and 'bodily fluids' - recovered from the Renault Scenic that the McCanns did not hire until 25 days after she vanished, suggesting that they had hidden her body on May 3 and moved it weeks after her death.

With no time for reporters to make checks before their deadlines, the story spread like foot and mouth to almost every British front page the next morning. It was only in the ensuing days that it began, spectacularly, to unravel.

The match was not 100 per cent after all, it transpired, but 80 per cent or less - a level that, according to Professor Alec Jeffries, DNA matching's inventor, might mean that the material had not come from Madeleine at all, but another member-of her family. Even if it had, other experts said, it would prove very little.

Among readers who followed the forensic details, the case against the McCanns had been seen to suffer damage. But others were left with a clear impression - that the PJ now believed they had real evidence that the McCanns must have been responsible for Madeleine's (still unconfirmed) death.

As for those who still harboured doubts, more rococo 'revelations' were being published widely by the end of the week, such as the claim that having bundled Madeleine's body into the car, the McCanns drove it to the marina in nearby Lagos. There they are said to have hired a boat, swore its owner into their conspiracy, then sailed into the Atlantic, into which they tipped their child, weighted down with rocks.

Could such stories really be part of a conscious PJ strategy? Some lawyers around the Portimao courthouse believe that they could.

'Portuguese journalists aren't just making this stuff up,' said Oliveira Trindad. 'They are getting it from the police, of course, and the justice officers, the people working for the prosecutors. It's obvious that some information is coming from the PJ.' Some of it, he added, appears to be accurate - so making it that much easier for the same sources to seed disinformation.

Another Portimao lawyer, who asked not to be named, claimed the PJ was fighting a 'propaganda war' with the McCanns. 'It is the fault of the British Press,' he said. 'They were the ones who started saying, "You're no good, you're no good." If you say a lie like that many times, so many people believe it. You cannot blame the PJ for wanting to hit back.'

But there might be another reason. 'Some people think journalists pay their PJ sources,' the second lawyer said, citing a case where an officer from Lisbon is facing criminal charges after being caught redhanded copying secret documents about a fraud case, allegedly for private profit. 'But they also have an interest in the case and its coverage.'

With the forensic evidence apparently confused and contradictory, 'it seems the main goal of the PJ now is to get a confession. It's like in the films, "Aha, we have a confession, let's take them to court." It's normal to want a confession when they don't have much else.' Intense interrogation of the McCanns has so far failed. But perhaps, the lawyer implied, using the media might be another way of applying the third degree.

'I want to believe that the Portuguese police do everything the right way,' said Joao Grade, the lawyer for Leonor Cipriano. 'But sometimes, if they really think someone is guilty, as they did with Leonor, they may find other ways to get what they want. It's only human.

'When they believe someone has killed a child, it's normal that they will apply pressure. In the McCann case, it seems that the police have what they consider half-proofs. But it's not airtight, it doesn't interlock, so maybe they need more.'

As he spoke, I found myself recalling British miscarriages of justice: cases such as the Birmingham Six, wrongly convicted of IRA pub bombings that killed 21, where the police, under tremendous pressure to 'get a result', built dishonest but convincing prosecutions based around confessions. Could the same thing be happening to the McCanns? The pressure on the police is certainly intense. The loss of a child evokes horror everywhere. On the Algarve, however, the need to solve the case - and, perhaps, not to leave the fear that Madeleine was killed or abducted by an unknown paedophile - has other roots as well.

'The Algarve is a family destination, and situations like this are not agreeable to anyone,' said Elderico Viegas, the regional tourism authority president. 'Our reputation for safety is one of our most important values - especially with the British, who make up our biggest market.'

And Algarve tourism, worth about £2.8billion a year and growing rapidly, is, Viegas said, the single biggest component of the entire Portuguese economy.

The police had, he added, mishandled the media, giving rise to damaging speculation. 'But for me, the details are not important. What's important is the economy. I was born and brought up here and I can't remember the last time a tourist was murdered.' So far, he added, visitor numbers this year are up.

Central to many British miscarriages of justice was a shared, deeply ingrained belief among police and prosecutors that their suspects 'had' to be guilty. With the Birmingham Six, it was founded on botched forensic tests that 'told' investigators that the men had been handling the explosive nitroglycerine - false positives that arose because they had been playing with cards coated in the harmless chemical nitrocellulose.

In Praia da Luz, there are signs of a similar mindset at work, derived from equally tendentious 'evidence'. For example, said a local source who knows several of the PJ inquiry team, from an early stage detectives laid great weight on Kate McCann's apparent composure when she appeared in public.

One of the strangest aspects of Portuguese coverage of the case has been frequent recourse to media psychologists, who have made all manner of deductions about her personality and state of mind by 'analysing' her TV image, claiming that the absence of tears and presence of carefully applied make-up indicates a 'cold', 'manipulative' or even 'psychopathic' personality.

In other words, someone capable of reacting instantly to the death of her daughter, whether deliberate or accidental, by deciding that she had to hide the body and conceal what had happened, and able to persuade her husband and perhaps other ' accomplices' to go along with her plot.

Disturbingly, said the local source, such analysis has not been confined to the media. 'Pretty early on, they had forensic psychologists in, studying hours of video footage, drawing extremely unfavourable conclusions about Kate's personality,' she said. 'You could say she's been damned by her stiff upper lip.'

Yesterday there were reported claims that Kate McCann had ' confessed' to killing Madeleine to a local Catholic priest. But the Rev Hubbard Haynes, the Anglican vicar who lives in Praia da Luz and got closer to the McCanns than anyone during their months in Portugal, refuted them with controlled fury.

A young, passionate Canadian, who took up his post a week after Madeleine's disappearance, he said: 'When I mention Maddie, Gerry and Kate in my own prayers, I find myself weeping. I have gone out into the fields and looked in the hedgerows, begging God for some sign that will help us find her, and I have wept because He has not given it to us yet.

'All I can say is that my tears are as nothing to the tears I have seen shed by Kate and Gerry. They may not have cried for the cameras, but to say they do not weep in private is facile and offensive. The man and woman I have known for the past four months are a couple whose lives have become unbearably empty because their little girl was missing.

'I do not recognise those people in recent media reports, and I find the idea that they had anything to do with her disappearance just inconceivable. There is great evil in this world, and someone has taken this child.'

Other aspects of the emerging mindset against the McCanns seemed equally questionable. Several Portuguese lawyers and journalists, along with a uniformed police officer from the National Republican Guard I spoke to outside the Ocean Club apartment, told me solemnly not only that the McCanns and their friends were 'swingers' who had taken their holiday together to indulge in group sex (an assertion made repeatedly by the Portuguese Press), but that 'everyone knows' that its tolerance of orgies is the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort's main selling point.

One afternoon I decided to test this proposition, approaching two holiday reps there, dressed in their red Mark Warner sweatshirts. 'Er, is this a good place for swingers, then?' I asked.

They looked at me in total bafflement. 'Swingers?' one replied. 'Look around you, sir. Most of our guests are retired, or families with children.'

Another assertion published several times last week is that, on the night that Madeleine disappeared, the McCanns phoned Sky TV before contacting the police - another claim echoed by the uniformed cop.

Outside the Portimao courthouse, I asked Sky's reporter Ashish Joshi if he thought this might be true. He rolled his eyes wearily. 'It's just nonsense,' he said. 'The first anyone at Sky knew about Maddy was when the story appeared on the Press Association wire. I was asked about this just yesterday by a Portuguese reporter. I told him it was crap. And this morning, his paper printed it.'

I passed this on to the Republican Guard officer, but he was unmoved. His unit, he said, had handled the case in its early stages, and from the start he and his colleagues had been convinced there was something fishy about the McCanns. 'My partner was there on the night of May 3,' he said, 'and I can tell you, that apartment was full of people, Kate was screaming - and yet her twins didn't wake up. How do you explain that? They must have been drugged. Nobody on the force believed their story about a kidnap for a moment. That little girl is dead, for sure. Soon you will see the truth.'

Why the need for such bizarre allegations? The answer, I believe, is that there is a massive hole at the heart of the emerging PJ theory. When Madeleine disappeared the McCanns did not have a car. The Ocean Club is in the middle of a busy resort, and the notion that somehow the McCanns found a way to conceal her without transport, and then went to dinner with their friends as if nothing were amiss is beyond credibility.

One Portuguese journalist suggested to me yesterday that they might have hidden her on a scrubby headland a few minutes' walk away. But as I found when I attempted to go for a run there, at night it is inhabited by feral dogs, whose barking would have made the digging of some putative shallow grave impossible.

The PJ enjoys a high reputation in Portugal. 'They are ranked among the top five police forces in the world,' attorney Trindad said, albeit admitting he did not know the source of this curious international ranking.

Most PJ officers are graduates, and would-be entrants face severe competition, with a battery of psychometric, physical and academic tests before they can even be considered for the PJ training school.

The force's Press office likes to compare the PJ to the American FBI: 'We are an elite,' spokeswoman Ana Mouro said.

But beneath the veneer, as the case of Leonor Cipriano suggests, the reality can look less impressive. 'She is nothing like Kate McCann,' her lawyer Joao Grade said.

'She is very poor, with maybe only three years of schooling, and her children have several fathers. She did not get to meet the Pope and she did not have the support of Sky and the BBC.

'But I tell you this: if Kate had been treated like Leonor, she would have done what Leonor did - ended by saying, "OK, OK, I'm guilty, and this is how I did it." '

The special judicial order - imposed on top of the usual Portuguese secrecy - means not only that Grade is prevented from disclosing virtually anything about the Cipriano case, but that pre-trial hearings of the charges against the detectives, due as soon as next month, will be held in camera.

The Mail on Sunday has established crucial alleged details from other legal sources in Portimao. After Joana disappeared in September 2004, Leonor was arrested by the PJ in Portimao on October 14 at 8am. Held there and in the city of Faro without access to a lawyer, she was interrogated without sleep for 22 hours. Then, after a two-hour respite, she was interrogated again until 7am on October 16.

By this time, as photos published by the Portuguese media make clear, her face was a mass of bruises. According to Grade: 'Not just her face but her whole body was black and blue.' The police said she 'tried to commit suicide' by throwing herself down stairs.

If the alleged torture was to force a confession, it succeeded - only for Leonor to withdraw it when she finally saw her lawyer the next day.

The supporters of the accused police have claimed that the officers must be innocent because Cipriano could not pick out her alleged attackers in an identity parade. However, according to the sources in Portimao, this is because they are not alleged to have beaten her themselves, but to have brought in paid thugs.

In any event, she was convicted and sentenced to 21 years. Last June, this was reduced on appeal to 16 - though one of the five appeal court judges issued a dissenting opinion, stating that he was convinced she had been assaulted in custody and was innocent. If the criminal case against the PJ officers does lead to convictions, Grade said, she will appeal again. He has also lodged a case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Strangely enough, Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral is not the only link between the Cipriano and McCann cases. Another of the senior officers who is now an arguido is the recently retired Chief Inspector Paulo Pereira Cristovao. He is one of the McCanns' principal scourges - not as a detective, but in his new capacity as a columnist for Diario de Noticias, among the most active of Portuguese newspapers in its pursuit of stories about Madeleine derived from leaks.

'There is another link between the Cipriano and McCann cases,' a Portimao lawyer claimed last night. 'You know, it's like if Manchester United lose a big game: next week the pressure they have to win is very big. The PJ are beginning to worry that now they might lose the Cipriano case. If that happens, they have to win with the McCanns.'

Of course, there is yet another connection. If Leonor Cipriano did not kill Joana, the chances of discovering the truth - or indeed her body - are now remote. And as the McCanns have stated repeatedly, if they are innocent, the enormous effort being poured into trying to blame them is effort diverted from the search for a missing four-year-old girl, and the person or persons who abducted her.

That is a thought so grim that it almost makes one wish that the mindset so evident around Praia da Luz had a real foundation. My fear is that it has as much solidity as the sandcastles on the beach.

ï David Rose has been investigating miscarriages of justice for 25 years and has written several books on the subject. The most recent, Violation, about a serial murder case in America, was published by Harper Press in 2007.

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, Alipio Ribeiro, BBC, Cipriano case, Forensic Science Services, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, João Grade, Leonor Cipriano, Policia Judiciaria, Press Association, The Truth of the Lie