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

A copper without shame

I invite you to review this article after actually READING "The Truth of the Lie" and the PJ files. I would suggest that it is NOT Goncalo Amaral who should be feeling any sense of shame in regard to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Others (including this reporter) should, Gonçalo Amaral should not.

A copper without shame;
As the McCanns are cleared, The detective sacked from the Maddie hunt launches his book. 
For the failure to solve the case, he blames her parents, MI5, the British police, the NHS and even Gordon Brown. 
In short, everyone but himself
26 July 2008
Daily Mail
Richard Pendlebury

EL CORTE INGLES is Lisbon's grandest department store. The name loosely translates as 'The English Style', though 'corte' can also mean a cut, as from a knife. Perhaps the ambiguity amused super sleuth Goncalo Amaral, for this was the location he chose on Thursday evening to launch the 'confidencial' inside story of his most sensational case: the mystery of Madeleine McCann.

The portly detective sat before a table piled high with his newly published paperback memoir of the investigation, ready to be signed and sold at £10 apiece. Hundreds of local people had queued to see him.

As the officer in charge of the hunt for Madeleine from the night she vanished until he was fired from the case last October, Amaral, 48, presided over the shredding of the reputation of the Portuguese CID.

With a perjury charge still hanging over him, connected to an alleged assault in a separate missing-child case, he has just taken early retirement to publish his book.

'I want to clear my name,' he says in the blurb. To this end, 40,000 copies of Maddie: A Verdade Da Mentira (The Truth Of The Lie) are to be printed in Portuguese alone. An English translation is being arranged, and lucrative international rights are being neglotiated (SIC).

This week the unsolved case was finally shelved, and Kate and Gerry McCann were cleared of their arguido -- official suspect -- status.

Yet in Amaral's book, the couple face a fresh attack from the former police chief who long ago decided their guilt. (Blogger note: See wikileaks cables re: British police / McCanns)

The couple's lawyers are on a war footing and they intend to sue. Having read the book with the help of a translator, it is not hard to see why.

It takes character to admit gross failure. Amaral has not done this in print. Instead, he petulantly dresses it up as a conspiracy against him while, without any hard evidence, (Blogger note: See video / British cadaver dogs) placing blame on those who were hurt most.

We cannot go into the allegations he makes against the McCanns, as they have indicated they will take legal action if the charges are repeated. In any case, most of them are already known.

But what can be examined in detail is the long list of institutions which the embittered former head of the Portimao CID blames for his inability to crack the case.

Most of these are British. He says he was a victim of international politics. He claims the British media sided against him, and that their portrayal of Portugal as a 'Third World country' hampered the investigation.

He says the British police, the Diplomatic Service, the MI5 and even the NHS were blocking his path to the 'material truth'.

He even hints that Prime Minister Gordon Brown delayed signing last year's Lisbon Treaty until it was confirmed that 'this humble Portuguese employee' was removed from the McCann investigation.

But it is not just Britain he blames. The Portuguese government and even the Policia Judiciria, to which he had belonged for 26 years, 'betrayed' him.

During the investigation, his beloved wife left him. His dog was killed under suspicious circumstances, perhaps because of the case.

His martyrdom was 'unique', he writes. This was crushing to 'minha dignidade' -- my dignity.

SOME of the blame Amaral heaps on his junior colleagues is almost certainly justified.

On the night of May 3, 2007, Amaral -- who had been brought up in Lisbon -- was the head of the CID in the Algarve town of Portimao, a few minutes down the coastal highway from the resort village of Luz.

He says he was informed by phone of Madeleine's disappearance that evening, at midnight. The National Guard -- a junior branch of the police services -- had been on the scene.

But before specialised detectives arrived, he says, Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club complex had become the scene of a virtual 'arrial' -- a party.

A host of National Guard personnel, dogs, resort staff, members of the McCann family and friends and other people had trampled through it, damaging potential evidence.

Even at this early stage, he began to see conspiracy theories: 'We had to wonder if that kind of contamination was unconscious or intentional.'

The next day Amaral seemed appalled that the police were visited first by the British Consul in Portimao and then no less a person than the British ambassador.

'It was not normal,' he exclaims. 'Who was this couple? Who were their friends? We did not need diplomats. We needed quick answers to the questions' -- particularly from the English police whose tardiness he was already critcising.

He complained that, from the start, ' politics and diplomacy seemed to be shaping the initiative'.

In particular, he felt he was not being helped as much as he could by the British authorities.

He says he was told that British security services had bugged the McCanns and their friends. 'If that was the case, information [from the bugging] was never given to us.'

Amaral was suspicious of the motives of the British police officers who arrived in Luz on May 7. He ordered a 'shadow' on the senior British officer in Luz.

'I want to know what they are doing,' he told his subordinate. 'You will escort them day and night.'

Amaral writes how he had wanted Madeleine's UK medical records, but they 'were not given to us because of huge difficulties raised in England.

'They certainly would have been very important. Why were they not given to us? The British judicial system was not very co-operative in these matters, which was regrettable.'

More conspiracies and paranoia.  (Blogger note: See wikileaks cables re: British police / McCanns)  Early on, Amaral fixed on alleged inconsistencies in the testimonies of the main individuals in the case and their 'bizarre' behaviour. Anything else was a distraction.

Amaral was clearly uncomfortable about the investigation's international profile, and perturbed that senior British politicians, such as Gordon Brown, had shown interest.

This is understandable, for he was a provincial policeman. Yet in his book, he interprets such political involvement as a sign of forces at work beyond his control.

But wasn't this simply the case of a man out of his depth and looking for excuses?

It seems extraordinary, for example, that it was not until July that specialist forensic sniffer dogs were brought in, and from the UK. By that stage, Amaral admits in his book, the case had reached a 'dead end'.

But while the dogs' findings -- they are said to have detected spots of blood in the apartment from which Madeleine had disappeared and other matter in the boot of the McCanns' hire car -- appeared to confirm his own well-advanced theories, the development also led to the final, fatal split with his British colleagues.  (Blogger note:  Another video of the British sniffer dogs at work in the McCann case)

When a British police superintendent arrived and declared himself 'disappointed' at the inconclusive nature of results from the UK Forensic Science Service, Amaral could see only two possibilities.

One, that the British technician responsible was incompetent. The other that there was deliberate obfuscation.

He writes conspiratorially of the subsequent 'nervousness of British police . . . who wanted to know everything that was going on'.

As the British police urged caution, Amaral became ever more convinced of his theories. He rationalised that the UK police were reluctant to get drawn into a prosecution on foreign soil.

On September 7 last year, the McCanns were made official suspects. Soon afterwards, they left for the UK. Amaral was astounded by the alleged reaction of the British police who maintained their links with the couple.

He argues that after Kate and Gerry were made suspects, the British police should have severed their links with the couple.

'It happened with the Portuguese police. But this rupture did not occur between the couple and the British police.'

The point is that the British force was still pursuing the possibility of a kidnap.

Tension between the two police forces had been growing for some time and in that month when the McCanns were declared suspects, it erupted.

When a tourist picture taken of a woman in Morocco with a blonde child on her back appeared in the UK Press, Amaral was furious.

'I asked a colleague to contact the English police to ask what was happening,' he writes. 'The answer could not have been more unreal and absurd . . . They had received the photo and showed it immediately [to the McCanns and the media] without consulting us, who were in charge of the criminal investigation.'

His frustration was perhaps understandable. The child was almost immediately shown not to be Madeleine. And Amaral's team was being overwhelmed by both well-meaning and malicious reports of sightings from all over the world.

In the following month, October, Amaral was removed as co-ordinator of the investigation. He claims it was not because of 'incompetence, but because of an inconvenient outburst'. In a terse exchange, he had accused British detectives of chasing leads only that Gerry and Kate McCann wanted following up.

A journalist had phoned him to ask about an alleged sighting of Madeleine in Lisbon, information that had been e-mailed to British police.

Amaral -- who had long since given up on the theory that the little girl had been kidnapped -- writes that he gave an 'irrational answer' demanding that the British police should fall in line with the Portuguese. 

He was sacked by fax and recalled to regional headquarters in Faro.

He says his dismissal was 'orchestrated by the British media'. The strategy was simple: 'Attack the investigation and portray Portugal as a Third World country with a judicial system that is completely obsolete.'

But he also writes, astonishingly, that higher powers were at work.

'The British Prime Minister had spoken to (the UK police) asking to confirm my resignation.

'We didn't know the reason for such an interest in such a humble Portuguese public employee.

'We didn't know what happened backstage of the Lisbon Treaty negotiations, before the signing of the Treaty.'

But he adds, darkly:

'For first time in Policia Judiciria history, an employee lost his job due to external influences.'

Reflecting on his dismissal, he lambasts the British police, who had failed to deliver background reports on the McCanns and their friends 'though we knew they had them'. (Blogger note: See the Gaspar's statement re: David Payne - withheld by the British police.)

'They came to Portugal not as an act against our sovereignty, but in a display of international police co-operation.'

Yet such co-operation, he argues, requires a high degree of mutual trust. 'Soon we realised it would not be like that,' he writes, pointing out that when the McCanns finally returned home to Britain, so did the British police.

'We felt they were ordered to stay in Portugal only for the McCann couple rather than Madeleine. She vanished here. So what is the reason for the UK police to leave? It is a question no one can answer.'

But as far as Amaral was concerned, the answer was clear, apparently. It was a conspiracy against his investigation.

In his book, he writes that he believes Madeleine died in Apartment 5A on the night of May 3 last year. That is all we can report here of his beliefs.

His account begins with a reminder that Britain and Portugal enjoyed a centuries-old political alliance.

It ends with repeated and rather ludicrious allusions to a historic Portuguese notable who had defied the demands of an overweening British ally.

A local crime reporter, who knows the Portuguese police intimately, said that Amaral remains very well-respected among his former brethren, several of whom appeared in Lisbon to support him.

'He was a copper's copper. The only criticism or doubt I have heard about him is that he may not be an open-minded policeman.

'One policeman told me that when he thinks something has happened, he excludes all other lines of inquiry.
'And that can sometimes be a dangerous trait.'

(Blogger note: See wikileaks cables re: British police / McCanns)

Indeed. The McCann case was the most high profile of Amaral's career -- the pressures were enormous -- and the only one, it is said by supporters, that he failed to crack.

That hurt him deeply. But his hurt was nothing near that of the McCanns, who lost their child and have now, once again, been maligned in his book.

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, Daily Mail, Gaspar statement, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria, The Truth of the Lie, WikiLeaks

A conversation with ... Pinto da Costa

Research on the contrary
A conversation with ... Pinto da Costa
26 July 2008
Jornal de Notícias

In the book "The truth of lies", Gonçalo Amaral, the coordinator of the PJ that was removed from the "Maddie case", has no doubts about the girl's death. Pinto da Costa followed his reasoning.

Specialist in Forensic Medicine, Pinto da Costa will meet the thesis defended by Gonçalo Amaral, who points to the death of Madeleine McCann. The teacher did not perceive why the analysis done by the British laboratory is not conclusive and is convinced that sooner or later the truth will eventually know. The big problem, according to the president of the Portuguese section of Transparency International, has resided in the wrong way as an investigation was conducted. Pinto da Costa believes that the chance of death should have been considered from the outset.

Believed in the thesis defended by Gonçalo Amaral, that Madeleine McCann died accidentally in the night of his disappearance?

It seems to me that it is possible that this has happened, basing myself on the fact that sniffer dogs had indicated the existence of a corpse, and also blood with the genetic profile of the girl.

The English laboratory says that the analyzes are not conclusive...

What the lab found was that, for a total of 19 alleles, 15 are present in the sample examined. However, in Portugal, Treble hooks to the authenticity of membership, ie, in paternity tests, we used 15 alleles. Therefore, the results from the British laboratory are highly significant. It seems to me, therefore, pertinent that the Thinking and the child may have died in the apartment. Another hypothesis is that it may have died out and then the body had been brought inside.

There is, in Portugal, the technical capability to do this kind of analysis?

Yes, could have been made in Portugal. I think that both the Forensic Science Laboratory of the Judicial Police and the various institutes of legal medicine are able to do. That has not happened perhaps for the people concerned are UK citizens.

The explanation, Gonçalo Amaral, the body that have been frozen or preserved in cold for more than 20 days, it also seems plausible?

What strikes me is that the body would not be totally putrefied. There are situations in which the corpse is kept more or less without having any substance, such as ice, for example. Moreover, we should not forget that this is the body of a child and and not an adult, decayable more quickly.

Believed that the truth will be discovered?

Yes, when all concerned to distance themselves. The neighbors get angry, to know the truth. The process has so many contradictions, so it is impossible to have a truth.

And what is the origin of so many contradictions?

The fact that the investigation had begun badly. Should [have broken] the positive hype and think that the child was dead. Also because the existence of abuse is a reality and, in such cases, the number one suspect is the father, not stepfather, uncle or anyone else. Moreover, the site should have been immediately put into custody to avoid circumvention, because the site survey is essential. The parents have launched the hypothesis of abduction, but who does criminal investigation must have "cuca cold" as they say in Brazil, and it cannot deviate from the essential elements. The investigation was done in reverse.

Investigação ao contrário
A conversa com... Pinto da Costa
26 July 2008
Jornal de Notícias

No livro "A verdade da mentira", Gonçalo Amaral, o coordenador da PJ que foi afastado do "caso Maddie", não tem dúvidas sobre a morte da menina. Pinto da Costa segue-lhe o raciocínio.

Especialista em Medicina Legal, Pinto da Costa vai ao encontro da tese defendida por Gonçalo Amaral, que aponta para a morte de Madeleine McCann. O professor não percebe por que razão as análises feitas pelo laboratório britânico não são conclusivas e manifesta a convicção de que, mais cedo ou mais tarde, a verdade acabará por se saber. O grande problema, segundo o presidente da secção portuguesa da Transparência Internacional, residiu na forma errada como foi feita a investigação. Pinto da Costa entende que a hipótese de morte deveria ter sido equacionada logo desde o início.

Acredita na tese defendida por Gonçalo Amaral, segundo a qual Madeleine McCann morreu acidentalmente na noite do seu desaparecimento?

Parece-me que é possível que tal tenha acontecido, baseando-me na circunstância de os cães pisteiros terem assinalado a existência de um cadáver e, também, de sangue com o perfil genético da menina.

O laboratório inglês diz que as análises não são conclusivas...

O que o laboratório concluiu foi que, num total de 19 alelos, 15 estão presentes na amostra examinada. Ora, em Portugal, para garatirmos a autenticidade da filiação, ou seja, nos testes de paternidade, utilizamos 15 alelos. Portanto, os resultados obtidos pelo laboratório britânico são altamente significativos. Parece-me, por isso, pertinente o raciocício de que a criança poderá ter morrido no apartamento. Outra hipótese é que poderá ter morrido fora e depois o corpo ter sido levado para dentro.

Não há em Portugal capacidade técnica para fazer esse tipo de análises?

Sim, podiam ter sido feitas em Portugal. Penso que tanto o Laboratório da Polícia Científica da Polícia Judiciária como os diversos institutos de Medicina Legal têm condições para as fazer. Isso não aconteceu talvez por as pessoas em causa serem de nacionalidade inglesa.

A explicação, de Gonçalo Amaral, de que o corpo terá sido congelado ou conservado em frio, durante mais de 20 dias, também lhe parece plausível?

O que me parece é que o corpo não estaria totalmente putrefacto. Há situações em que o cadáver se conserva mais ou menos sem haver adição de qualquer substância, como o gelo, por exemplo. Além disso, convém não esquecer que se trata do corpo de uma criança e não de um adulto, que apodrece mais rapidamente.

Acredita que a verdade vai ser descoberta?

Sim, quando todas as entidades envolvidas se distanciarem. Zangam-se as comadres, sabem-se as verdades. O processo tem tantas contradições que, assim, é impossível haver uma verdade.

E o que está na origem de tantas contradições?

O facto de a investigação ter começado mal. Devia-se ter partido do exagero positivo e pensar que a criança foi morta. Até porque a existência de maus-tratos é uma realidade e, nestes casos, o suspeito número um é o pai, e não o padrasto, o tio ou qualquer outra pessoa. Por outro lado, o local deveria ter sido imediatamente posto em custódia para evitar a sua violação, porque o exame do local é fundamental. Os pais lançaram a hipótese de rapto, mas quem faz investigação criminal deve ter "a cuca fria", como se diz no Brasil, e não se pode desviar do essencial. A investigação foi feita ao contrário.

Continue Reading... Labels: Forensic Science Services, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria

Gonçalo Amaral presented Maddie book publicly

Gonçalo Amaral apresenta livro
24 July 2008
VIDEO
Gonçalo Amaral presented publicly Maddie book The Truth of the Lie

The former PJ inspector says he does not want to accuse anyone, just show the work of the research team who directed and believes that the traces were collected could have been evaluated differently if it were another prosecuting authority. Gonçalo Amaral says that since the case was dismissed that he thought this would be filed.

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

Goncalo Amaral believes that the Maddie case may be reopened

Gonçalo Amaral acredita que o caso Maddie pode ser reaberto
Goncalo Amaral believes that the Maddie case may be reopened
24 July 2008

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

Accidental death and concealment of a corpse

É a tese defendida por Gonçalo Amaral em "A verdade da mentira"
It is the thesis defended by Gonçalo Amaral "The truth of lies"
Accidental death and concealment of a corpse
24 July 2008

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

Gonçalo Amaral published a book on the Maddie Case

Gonçalo Amaral publicou um livro sobre o Caso Maddie
VIDEO
Gonçalo Amaral published a book on the Maddie Case
24 July 2008

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

Cadaver was frozen or kept in the cold

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

Cadaver was frozen or kept in the cold
24 July 2008
Correio da Manhã
Thanks to Joana Morais for translation

Gonçalo Amaral regrets that a 'fact-finding inquiry (sindicância) to the investigation was done".  In the first interview where he talks about the process, he defends that Maddie died at the Ocean Club. The book is launched today in Lisbon and promises to re-launch controversy ["revive the controversy"].

Interview with Gonçalo Amaral in Correio da Manhã

Correio da Manhã: As the case investigator, what is your thesis?

Gonçalo Amaral

The little girl died in the apartment. Everything is in the book, which is faithful to the investigation until September: it reflects the understanding of the Portuguese and the English police and of the Public Ministry. For all of us, until then, the concealment of the cadaver, the simulation of abduction and the exposure or abandonment were proved.

What led you to indict the McCanns over all of those crimes?

It all starts with an abduction theory that is forced by the parents. And the abduction is based on two facts: one is Jane Tanner's testimony that says she saw a man passing in front of the apartment, carrying a child; the other is the bedroom window, which, according to Kate, was open when it should have been closed. It was proved that none of that happened.

How was it proved?

Jane Tanner is not credible: she identifies and recognizes different people. She starts with Murat, later on someone else is mentioned, according to the drawing done by a witness, and she already says that is the person, completely different from Robert Murat.

Jane Tanner's testimony drove the abduction theory.

In order to advance into that direction, it would be necessary to give her credit: there was no other indicium of the abduction. And the issue of the bedroom window, where Maddie and her siblings slept, is vital. It leads to simulation. This means, whether or not it was open when Jane says that she saw the man carrying the child. The little girl's mother, Kate, is the only person that mentions the open window.

Does that undo the abduction theory?

There lies the solution. To be closed or not, is a strong indicium for simulation. And why does one simulate abduction, rather than simply saying that the child has disappeared? She could have opened the door and left?

Do Kate's fingerprints reinforce the simulation theory?

They are the only fingerprints on the window. And in a position of opening the window.

Did Kate have suspicious attitudes?

She goes out for dinner and supposedly leaves three children asleep. She returns, one is missing, she goes out, leaving the window wide open with the twins asleep. And the night, according to what she says, was very cold?

What about Maddie's bed?

It carries no signs that anyone was in it. Nor does the chair or the bed under the window. And there are no imprints from strangers.

The reconstruction is missing.

It was not carried out 10 or 15 days after the facts, because the resort was full of tourists. We trusted that it could be carried out at a later date. It couldn't.

Did you request data about the group?

At 8 a.m. on the 4th, the request was made to the English liaison officer, but [the data] never arrived.

What did you want to know?

Who the people are, their antecedents. And the child, whether or not there are complaints against the parents or others. How she behaved in school, to find out if she was the target of abuse.

How important is the Irish witness within the case?

He explained where he and his family had seen, at 10 p.m. on the 3rd of May, a man carrying a little girl. And it wasn't Murat. They did not see the face, but they described the athletic and clumsy manner in which he carried the child.

That was back in May.

When the McCanns returned to England, the witness, watching Gerry get off the plane and walking across the asphalt carrying his child, he [Martin Smith] had a realization. By the manner in which he walked and the clumsy way that he carries the child, he [Martin Smith] is 70 to 80 percent certain that it was the person he saw that evening. Says he and say the other members of the family.

What did you do?

On the days before I left Portimão we were taking care of that trip to Portugal. Then, the hearing of that witness was requested through a liaison officer from the Irish police in Madrid, which took months. During that time, the witness was approached by persons that are connected to the McCanns' staff, I don't know with what intention. They felt pressured. Later on, the hearing arrived and he maintains the probability of 70 to 80 percent that it was Gerry who carried the little girl towards the beach.

Couldn't that have been included in the rogatory letter?

It could and it should. The ideal would have been for him to come to Portugal, as a key witness. Just like the couple of doctors that describe the situation in Mallorca [the Gaspars].

Once the abduction theory was set apart, how was the death theory built?

With the elements that exist, we could only reach an accident, natural death, any cause without the intervention of another person. We were cementing evidence and advancing to understand what happened to the little girl's body. Also based on information from the British lab [Forensic Science Laboratory - Birmingham, UK], about residues that were found inside the car that was rented by the McCanns.

Where and how could they have hidden the body for over twenty days?

That was what we were trying to find out. Searching within their friends, because the couple had a lot of acquaintances. We tried to understand where the little girl could have been during those twenty something days.

Out of reach from the searches.

Yes. There was information that the couple had been seen walking towards a certain apartment block, we were trying to understand which apartment it was. Who had access to that apartment. But everything stopped.

How do you interpret that stopping of everything, when you left?

It almost looks as if the investigation was syndicated.

It was even said that the blood that was found was not human.

The dogs [British sniffer dogs] only smell human blood. The sample that is collected and taken to England, to be analysed with the Low Copy Number technique, is microscopic. The technique does not allow them to state whether it is blood or any other type of fluid but it guarantees that it is human.

The family tried to justify itself.

Later on, a brother-in-law and a cousin of Kate said that they had carried steaks in the trunk that had thawed, even garbage, but no. The dogs follow neither garbage smell nor non-human blood. Then there is a witness, that was never heard, a jurist that lived next to the couple, in the second house [villa] outside of the apartment, saying that the car trunk was left open during the night, for airing. But maybe that was because of the garbage?

Within the theory of the parents' involvement, can you reconstruct that night?

We had already concluded, long before the Irish witness, that if those persons were involved, there was only one possibility. It pointed towards the beach. Not only because of what [locations] they knew but also due to the terrain's conditions. In that area, it is not easy to dig a hole. One either knows where holes already exist, or it is not possible, within a short time lapse, to decide where to place a corpse without knowing the area. If there was involvement, it would have been towards the beach area. Which is later corroborated by the Irish witness.

At the time when the Irish tourist reportedly saw Gerry, there are various witness statements that place the child's father at the Ocean Club.

They are not credible. The employees are unable to tell at what time the persons were there, for how long each one of them stayed away when they say they went to the apartments. And the group is not credible. They say that on the previous nights, every 30 minutes, each one of them went to check only on his own children; but on that night, between 9.30 and 10 p.m., someone curiously goes to check that apartment [McCann's apartment], almost every five minutes, leaving the rest unchecked.

And what about Gerry?

He justifies some of the time with a trip to the toilet. That is not five minutes, then he meets another individual outside. Hence the need for the reconstruction. To find out how long it took them to get to the apartments, what route they walked, etc. A reconstruction that should be joint with the restaurant's movement, because when it is said that they asked for the food from 9 p.m. onwards, there was one person who ordered a steak. And that steak was heated again because someone was not there. It is necessary to find out whose steak that was. He was away for a much longer time period?

An adult carrying a child, until the beach, how long [does it take]?

Fifteen minutes.

How was it possible for the apartment to be rented out after the crime?

The apartment was immediately fully contaminated by the parents' action, before the police arrived. A complete fair was built there and at a certain point, dogs were demanded to come inside the house.

You admitted the possibility that the children had been given sedatives.

The twins, with the lights on, with the lights off, with a crowd of people going in and out, slept until 2 a.m., when they were carried into another apartment. Even then, they continued to sleep. That sleep is not normal.

But the Judiciária did nothing.

Once again, we were inhibited. We thought about asking the parents to test their hair, in order to understand whether there were sedatives, but as soon as it was found out, it would be said that we were suspecting the parents, and it was being avoided at all costs that it became public that those suspicions existed.

How is there room for speculation about the DNA tests? It was those results that allowed you to advance with the arguido status.

The speculation is done by the scientist who performs the test. He starts out by saying, in his preliminary report, that it was easy to say that it was Maddie. Then he raised other questions. Of course nobody can be accused, based on that data alone.

"The cadaver was frozen"

Correio da Manhã: What do you think happened to the body?

Gonçalo Amaral

Everything indicated that the body, after having been at a certain location, was moved into another location by car, twenty something days later. With the residues that were found inside the car, the little girl had to have been transported inside it.

How can you state that?

Due to the type of fluid, we policemen, experts, say that the cadaver was frozen or preserved in the cold and when placed into the car boot, with the heat at that time [of the year], part of the ice melted. On a curb, for example, something fell from the trunk's right side, above the wheel. It may be said that this is speculation, but it's the only way to explain what happened there.

If the body was hidden in the beach area first, was it always out of reach for the searches?

The beach was searched at a time when it is not known whether the body was still there. Using dogs, but sniffer dogs have limitations, like the salted water, for example. Later on, it may have been removed.

"We should have done phone tapping"

Correio da Manhã ? Did you feel political pressure during the investigation?

G.A.

Inhibition. One of the mistakes was that we did not advance on this group with everything that legally was within our reach: Tapping, surveillance. It was necessary, for example, to recover the clothes that the little girl was wearing when she left the crèche to go home. There, we thought: if we go, it will immediately be said that we suspect the parents. That inhibition happened throughout time.

And that led you towards the abduction.

We had to prove that there was no abduction, in order to focus on those persons afterwards.

How does the pressure appear?

Right on the morning of the 4th of May, with a consul calling the embassy and saying that the PJ wasn't doing anything. Then an ambassador. Next, an advisor and the English prime minister.

"Payne is the last one to see her"

Correio da Manhã: When do testimonies concerning David Payne's behaviour indicating sexual practices with minors arrive?

Gonçalo Amaral

In May. Something went wrong with that group during a holiday: David Payne made revealing gestures concerning behaviour towards children. Even towards Maddie. We asked for information but it arrived after the 26th of October. They sent the information without giving it any importance.

What exactly did arrive?

A couple of doctors spent holidays in Mallorca, in 2005, with David Payne, the McCanns and another couple. The lady says she saw Payne with his finger in his mouth, making a movement in and out, while rubbing his nipple with the other hand. And he was talking about Maddie, next to her father. Those statements should have been given a different treatment by the police. It was relevant to access the information, about doctors, who are just as credible as anyone else.

What else remains unclear concerning David Payne?

He will be the last one to see Maddie alive after 5.30 p.m., when she leaves the crèche. He meets Gerry playing tennis and asks him about Kate and the children. Gerry answers that they are in the apartment and he goes there. He returns 30 minutes later. Kate says it was 30 seconds. There is something not quite right here.

---

Pre-publication
The evidence and the results of the case

"Arriving this far, it is important to make a deductive summary about this case. Which means, to reject what is false; to set aside what cannot be proved, because it is insufficient; to consider as valid and certain what has been proved.

What is proved

Therefore:

1. The abduction theory is defended by Maddie's parents since the first moment;

2. Within the group, only her parents stated that they observed the open window in the missing girl's bedroom; the majority cannot witness it faithfully because they arrived at the apartment after the alarm was raised;

3. The only statement outside of the group that mentions the open window and the raised shutters comes from Amy, one of the Ocean Club's nannies, who points her observation towards 10.20 / 10.30 p.m., which is some time after the alarm was raised and does not prove that it was open like that at the time when the crime happened;

4. The set of depositions and witness statements exposes a high number of imprecision, incongruence and contradictions which, in some cases, may be typified as false testimonies. In particular, the key statement for the abduction theory, from Jane Tanner, which loses all credibility due to the fact that it successively evolved throughout various moments in time, becoming ambiguous and disqualifying itself;

5. There is a cadaver that has not been located, a conclusion that is validated by the English EVRD and CSI dogs  [Eddie / Keela] and corroborated by the preliminary lab test results [Forensic Science Laboratory - Birmingham, UK].


Certainties until October

"For me, and for the investigators that worked with me on the case until October 2007, the results that we reached were the following:

1. The minor Madeleine McCann died in apartment 5A at the Ocean Club, in Vila da Luz, on the evening of the 3rd of May 2007;

2. An abduction was simulated;

3. Kate Healy and Gerald McCann are suspected of involvement in the concealment of their daughter's cadaver;

4. Death may have resulted from a tragic accident;

5. There is indicia of neglect in the guard and safety of the children."

"Decisive diligence was never carried out"

"The Smith family [Irish witnesses] is available to make a formal recognition. We had already contacted the Smith family, from Ireland, whose patriarch was prepared to travel to the Algarve, to give a new statement and for a formal recognition [?] following the recognition that he had made on television of the man who on the 3rd of May, in Vila da Luz, walked towards the beach carrying a little girl, a little girl that they had recognized as being Madeleine McCann.

"The man that the Smith were talking about was, with a high degree of certainty, Gerald McCann, who they had seen on the English television news, on the day that the McCann couple returned [on their definitive trip] to the United Kingdom. That man that came down the airplane stairs and walked on the asphalt, carrying a child, was apparently the same man who, on the evening of the 3rd of May, walked into the direction of the beach, carrying Madeleine, who seemed to be deeply asleep.

"When the situation was presented to the National Director of the Polícia Judiciária [Alípio Ribeiro at that time], he agreed with what was being suggested to him, [namely] the coming to the Algarve, at our expenses, of the elements of the Smith family that were able to testify the facts."

McCanns erased all the telephone calls

The calls on the couple's mobile phones were erased, with the exception, in Kate's case, of a call from her husband at 11.17 on that night of the 3rd of May, minutes after the disappearance was known. But this call is not registered on the mobile phone that belongs to Gerry, who erased all the phone calls of that day, presumably after he called Kate at that time. This fact, that was never clarified in terms of its motivation, intrigued the investigators.

Continue Reading... Labels: Forensic Science Services, Gaspar statement, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Smith sighting

Ex-inspector claims that David Payne, a friend of the McCanns should have been investigated

Ex-inspector defende que David Payne, amigo dos McCann, deveria ter sido investigado
Ex-inspector claims that David Payne, a friend of the McCanns should have been investigated
23 July 2008

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

Victims of bungling and incompetence

Victims of bungling and incompetence
Paddy Shennan
22 July 2008
Liverpool Echo

Chief feature writer Paddy Shennan reports on how Madeleine McCann has been badly let down by those investigating her disappearance

Move over Inspector Clouseau and the Keystone Cops, you no longer appear to be quite so clueless.

So this was what Portugal's attorney general, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, meant by a "solution" was it?

A near 15-month-long case, characterised by gross incompetence and almost unbelievable ineptitude, is being shelved, with the police having about as many clues no was they did on day one.

Some solution.

Calamitous cock-ups together with diversionary and devastatingly damaging leaks to the press solved nothing, but caused untold misery and heartache.

There are many innocent victims of what has laughably been called the "investigation" into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - but Madeleine, herself, is the biggest victim of them all.

How refreshing - and honest and right - it would have been if those at the cutting edge of this inquiry had come out and begged for Kate and Gerry McCann's forgiveness.

But instead of receiving the apology they so richly deserve for being so badly let down, Madeleine's parents have instead been basically told: "We haven't got a clue - so we're giving up."

Again, I would have been expecting too much for the police to say: "We've not only made a pig's ear of looking for your daughter, but added insult to injury by dragging your good names through the mud."

No one is disputing that this, the abduction of a young child in a sleepy holiday resort, presented the Portuguese police with a particularly difficult challenge.

But the seemingly overawed detectives didn't help themselves by making fundamental mistakes - like failing to preserve the crime scene.

And unused to being under the glare of the international media, they were like rabbits caught in headlights - frozen in fear and unable to act. Yet they alienated people by appearing arrogant. They were not going to be rushed - either by desperate parents at the end of their tether or an army of reporters hungry for information.

Their stubborn, blinkered and bloody-minded approach was aided and abetted by Portugal's secrecy laws, which hindered rather than helped.

Within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, an ocean of goodwill engulfed Praia da Luz. Everyone wanted to help because everyone wanted the same thing. A little girl had gone missing and her family, the mass media and countless millions of people wanted her to be found safe and well - and as quickly as possible.

Portugal's secrecy laws are supposed to smooth the wheels of justice, but they ended up sending this investigation careering off the rails. By building and then maintaining their deafening wall of silence, the police caused dismay and created distrust.

They also created a vacuum, which the more irresponsible members of the Portuguese and British press were happy to fill.

It was a calamitous cocktail of precious few facts mixed together with a mountain of fiction.

The biggest and most poisonous of smokescreens began choking our senses last September, when Madeleine's mum and dad were made arguidos.

As Kate's despairing father, Brian Healy, said at the time:

"I think Charlie Cairoli the clown must be in charge of the investigation."

Justine McGuinness, the McCann family's then campaign manager, said police believed Madeleine's DNA had been found in the couple's car ... hired 25 days after she went missing.

If there had been disquiet at the circus surrounding the first named arguido, Robert Murat - who sections of an out-of-control media appeared to presume guilty on the basis that they thought he looked shifty - it now seemed clear that this was an investigation with no place whatsoever for reason and common sense.

That it has taken this long to lift their arguido status is another indictment of the police.

Amid all the lies and distortions being peddled in Portugal, an enlightened piece of journalism appeared in the leading Lisbon newspaper Diaro de Noticias last December.

Columnist Joao Miguel Tavares talked of the need for the media in Portugal to "make a serious analysis of its role in the tragedy and activate mechanisms to stop it from behaving again as a ping-pong table throwing too many lies and too little information".

He also wrote that it was now "as likely that the case will be solved as penguins starting to fly" and referred to the "it will go away" attitude that people in Portugal have, adding: "I suppose this is now also the strategy of the detectives leading this case - let's keep quiet and soon nobody will remember ... In the PJ (Policia Judiciaria) all they dream about now is the silence of the archives."

And now, they have it.

But while the police in Portugal may have given up on Madeleine, her family haven't - and they never will.

Kate's Liverpool-based mum and dad didn't want to comment on the news from Portugal. They instead wished to focus on the family's ongoing search.

Susan Healy told me: "We yearn for the safe return of Madeleine and we thank all the many people who have supported us with their prayers and good wishes.

"We ask that they continue to support us as we continue to search for Madeleine. May God bless them all, we will never forget their kindness."

Their dignity is in stark contrast to the crass opportunism being shown by the disgraced former head of the investigation, Goncalo Amaral, whose grubby book, out this Thursday, reportedly promises "explosive revelations" about the inquiry.

Just in case he, and anybody else, needs reminding, Madeleine McCann went missing 446 days ago - and she is still missing.

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Keystone cops, Policia Judiciaria, The Truth of the Lie