Wednesday 16 December 2009

Madeleine McCann: and what about those early reports about the shutters at apartment 5A?

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During the night of May 3rd/May 4th 2007, Gerry McCann contacted various family and friends, who, in later interviews stated that Gerry had told them that the shutters to Madeleine's bedroom window had been 'jemmied,' and the window opened from the outside. This is a report from Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis on the SOS Madeleine McCann blog in August 2008.

"Witnesses have taken apart the McCanns' version about the apartment's shutters."


4/08/08

ttp://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

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Witnesses have, "taken apart," the McCanns' version about the apartment's shutters.

Apartment 5A, where the McCanns were staying until Madeleine's disappearance, had been occupied by other British people, all of whom the PJ found, confirmed the good state of the shutters, initially described by relatives of Kate and Gerry as old, worn and broken.

Amongst these witnesses, Saleigh and Paul Gordon, accompanied by their two children, occupied apartment 5A before the McCanns, between April 21st and 28th 2007. Questioned several times by the investigators, the couple maintain that, "the doors, windows and shutters of the apartment were all in good condition," even stressing that given the noise made by the bedroom shutters, it would be impossible to open or shut them without it being noticed by neighbours or passers-by.


From the beginning, the McCanns have claimed that the shutters were broken and that the door had been forced. That is the version that Kate gave to a close friend, Jon Corner, to whom she reportedly said, "that they have smashed the shutter on the window and taken my little girl."

The same version was, meanwhile, given by Gerry to Madeleine's grandfather, Brian Healy: "Gerry told me that when they got back, the shutters on the bedroom window were smashed (....) The door was open." (See McCannfiles)

"The bedroom, facing the car park, was also overlooked by other apartments. Given that, I find that if someone had tried to open the shutters from the outside, somebody would have noticed," Saleigh Gordon insists. Her husband Paul also confirms that the couple always felt safe and that the front door was equipped with a double lock, while the one at the back only locked from inside the apartment.

The, "strange," man was actually not.

It was also Paul Gordon who saw and spoke to a man described by several British media, quoting sources close to the McCanns, as strange and suspicious. However, in his statements to the police, Paul maintains that the individual never, "watched," the children or the apartment: "I would describe the man as well-educated, of good appearance (...) I remember him as looking tidy and shaved with light downy facial hair. "

"I went over to the man who asked me if I would be interested in making a donation to an orphanage (...) I spoke with him and noticed that he had an indentification badge and that he had what looked to me like a receipt book," Paul Gordon stated to the police, adding that he had even received a receipt which he had left behind in Portugal.

Since January Paul Gordon has been contacted several times by Brian Kennedy, Kate and Gerry McCann: "There are times when I feel like a chess pawn."

"The McCanns manipulated the evidence."

The PJ are convinced that the McCanns manipulated evidence and simulated the abduction of the daughter and put forward that Maddie's parents changed the arrangement of the furniture and some objects in the apartment. The information is published this morning by the Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da Manha, quoting the PJ's investigation.

According to the daily newspaper, the correlation between the alerting to cadaver odour and to blood behind the sofa, by Eddie and Keela, the two British sniffer dogs, proves beyond doubt that this was backed up against the wall after the child's death. The investigators, given the poor evidence found on this piece of furniture, concluded that it may be that it had been washed.

A detail also quoted by Correio da Manha, Cuddle Cat, the pink soft toy belonging to Madeleine and which Kate took everywhere, was placed in the child's bed after her death, given that, in contrast to the soft toy, no cadaver odour was indicated on the bed."

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

4/08/08



Madeleine McCann: a reminder of the rogatory interviews in the UK

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In April 2008, members of the group which came to be known as 'The Tapas 9,' were interviewed in the UK, as a result of rogatory letters sent from Portugal. I am re-posting a report about Russell O'Brien's interview as I think there is a very important principle at stake here. Russell O'Brien was allowed to read statements from another witness, his partner, Jane Tanner, prior to being interviewed.

Surely there is something quite amiss when witnesses are allowed to read each other's statements before being interviewed? The inconsistencies and contradictions that might be thrown up are surely of vital importance and this is unlikely to happen when statements can be viewed.


No surprise, then, that stories from those two witnesses do not contain anything other than total agreement about events!


Re-posted article follows:


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The Maddie investigation: O'Brien was questioned after having referred to Tanner's statements.

At the time of his interview, in April 2008, Russell James O'Brien was able to refer to the report of his partner Jane Tanner's statements in order to respond to questions from Andrew Gierc, a Leicestershire police officer, about the events that surrounded Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

The access of one witness to the statements of another, even when it is the same couple, is worrying and outside the norm, above all in the course of an investigation of the importance of the Madeleine McCann case. It is also judged by experts from several European police forces, consulted by SMM, as more than a simple professional error: "this can direct the witness or even worse, allow him to answer questions in a way that protects his position in the investigation," states an officer of the French gendarmerie, stressing, "that it is an error capable of compromising an entire investigation and that no professional worthy of that name would make it....The only explanation that remains is the possibility that the investigator wanted to confuse the witness for a specific reason."

"I was given the opportunity to refresh my memory about the report made by Jane Tanner (my wife) and I was allowed to see these documents. That was done in the presence of DC 1578 Gierc," O'Brien admits.

O'Brien was interviewed twice, on April 8th and 10th 2008, but strangely, his his first interview would not have been recorded on video, because, according to the British police, there was a, "technical fault." However, it now looks like the video, which was never sent to Portugal, exists but would not be attached to the report of the April 8th interview.

Russell O'Brien's second interview by police officer Andrew Gierc, was indeed recorded on video, to which we have had access.

All the other, "Tapas 7," were also interviewed: Payne was questioned for 259 minutes by police officer I. Messiah, Diane Webster for 151 minutes by police officer Fergusson, Fiona Payne for 277 minutes by police officer Messiah, Matthew Oldfield for 157 minutes and Rachael Mariamma Jean Mampilly, by police officer Andrew Gierc for 236 minutes.

Jane Tanner was interviewed for 279 minutes by police officer Fergusson, an interview with seven interruptions, the first also very hectic after only 18 minutes when the fire alarm went off.

196 witnesses and 3 arguidos.

At the time when the Portuguese Public Minister decided to place the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance on hold pending further evidence, there was a total of 196 witnesses, including the McCanns' seven friends, and three arguidos, registered in the process.

Several witnesses, who made themselves known to the British authorities, have remained unknown to the Portuguese investigators, for a reason yet to be determined. Brian Kennedy, the millionaire who would be financing Clarence Mitchell and the McCanns' team of lawyers, has even visited several of the investigation's witnesses, in particular those who were less favourable to the couple.

Robert James Queriol Eveleigh Murat, Kate Marie Healy, (also addressed as Kate McCann) and Gerald Patrick McCann were the three arguidos.

Amongst the witnesses, there are a few names already known to the general public. The, "nannies," Amy Ellen Tierney, Catriona Treasa Sisile Baker, Charlotte Elizabeth alice Pennington, Emma Louise Wilding, Jacqueline Mary Williams, Kirsty Louise Maryen, Lyndsay Jayne Johnson, Lynne Rhiannon Fretter, Sarah Elizabeth Williamson, Sinead Maria Vine, Stacey Portz, Susan Bernadette Owen and Pauline Frances McCann.

The tennis coaches, Daniel James Stuk and Georgina Louise Jackson.

George Robin Crosland (Ocean Club manager) George William James, Jennifer Anne Murat, Jeremy Wilkins, John Elliot Hill, Michaela Walazuch, Pamela Isobel Fenn, Robert James Queriol Eveleigh Murat, Sergey Malinka (Murat's friend) José Manuel Conceição Pacheco, Susan Hubard and Svetlana Malinka.

The “Tapas 9”: David Anthony Payne, Dianne Webster, Fiona Elaine Payne, Gerald Patrick McCann, Jane Michelle Tanner, Kate Marie Healy, Rachael Mariamma Jean Mampilly, Russel James O´Brien and Matthew Oldfield."

Note: The above report was originally posted on the SOS Madeleine McCann blog and on this blog in August 2008