Stéphane Moitoiret suspected of attempted abduction in 2006

BOURG-EN-BRESSE, 10th September 2008 (AFP) - We have learned from a judicial source that on Wednesday an investigation for attempted abduction of a child in 2006, in the Vienne département, was referred to the Bourg-en-Bresse prosecutor, regarding Stéphane Moitoiret, the prime suspect in the murder of little Valentin in Ain, at the end of July.

The Bourg-en-Bresse Prosecutor, Jean-Paul Gandolière, told AFP that the Poitiers Prosecutor had handed over an investigation which he had opened following the attempted abduction of a child in the summer of 2006, in the Vienne département, which might be the work of Moitoiret. He did not wish to give any further details of that case, which will now be the responsibility of the research section of the Lyon gendarmerie, which is already investigating little Valentin's murder.

According to sources close to the investigation, in August 2006, Stéphane Moitoiret allegedly attempted to abduct a 5 year-old boy, also called Valentin, in a Vienne village, just outside a room where there had been a wedding the previous day. A woman, who was supervising the children in the room where the festivities had taken place, had noticed Moitoiret trying to take him away.

The dropout allegedly stated that the child was a, "chosen one," and that was the reason he was taking him away. A few days later, Moitoiret allegedly even returned with his partner to offer money in exchange for the child.

Someone from the same source added that in addition to the witness statement of the woman who prevented the abduction, and who had recognised the couple of dropouts thanks to e-fit sketches published in the press, their presence in the region at that time was confirmed by local officials who had recorded their names. This is the first link between Valentin's murder and other potentially criminal acts, but the wandering of the dropout couple is leading the investigators to look at all similar unresolved acts in recent years. (AFP)

France-info 10/09/08

SOS Madeleine McCann: Brian Kennedy is looking to recruit British ex-police officers.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Brian Kennedy is looking for ex-police officers.

After the information from the British media, that the millionaire Brian Kennedy had just dismissed a team of private investigators, after having paid them £500,000 from the fund created from public donations, comes the announcement that the benefactor has been busy recruiting amongst former Greater Manchester police officers.

According to the Manchester Evening News, a member of the Guardian Media Group, the millionaire has allegedly received from Chief Steve Heywood, head of crime prevention, a list of Manchester police officers who are no longer in post or are close to leaving their posts.

It was from Manchester that another ex-police officer originated, Henry Exton, who, according to the Manchester Evening News, was a shareholder in Oakley International, the American agency which Brian Kennedy had dismissed, according to certain British media, and with which he was still satisfied, according to others.

Recently, Brian Kennedy admitted that he was ready to finance Kate and Gerry McCann for the rest of his life, putting at the couple's disposal the entirety of his personal fortune, estimated at more than £450 million.

9/09/08

SOS Madeleine McCann.

Moitoiret's astonishing writing on a Sunday school white board.

08-09-2008

These photos date from February 2007. At the time, Stéphane Moitoiret and Noëlla Hégo were hanging around, once again in the Lyon region. Favouring the secondary roads and little villages, they went through Savigny before landing up at Bessenay, in the Lyon mountains. There, Father Gilles agreed to put them up in the Sunday school classroom. But when he went to ask them to leave the premises as planned, he discovered the windows covered up with black paper and the white board covered with writing.

"We thought we were being attacked during the night," Moitoiret told Father Gilles, who wondered if it was anything to do with, "a sect." A reflection of Moitoiret's delusions as an astonishing expression was discovered: "back on the road to destiny." But after their arrest, his partner told the investigators that he would have been talking about, "going back," to refer to little Valentin's murder.

Another astonishing inscription: "99 sons" with a series of Christian names: Kevin, Geoffrey, Alcore, Christophe....And a diagram referring to a, "council of wise men." Also on this board was his story about clones because he gives responsibility for the murder to one of his clones. But amidst the delusion, there were also a few characters from Star Wars...Signed: "her majesty," the name Moitoiret gave to Hégo.

True delusion or simulation? Writings of this nature are at the heart of the psychiatric debate about his responsibility.

LyonMag 8/09/08

Stéphane is currently on remand, charged with the murder of Valentin Cremault, a boy of 11, in Lagnieu, on July 28th 2008. The French police are looking at a large number of unsolved crimes, in which Moitoiret may be implicated because of their similarities and correspondence with some of the places that Moitoiret and his partner are believed to have passed through. Moitoiret is being assessed at a secure psychiatric hospital to determine his fitness to stand trial.

Enfants Kidnappés 8/09/08 - Madeleine McCann - Kids Club staff interviews

At this point in the case files, the first interviews of the group are brought to a close for the time being. At the same time as these interviews, the Portuguese police were active in other directions. The case file, for the day after Madeleine's disappearance includes many documents:

• Copies of airline tickets.
• Copies of identity cards.
• Copies of passports.
• A photographic record (with measurements) of the apartments and its immediate surroundings.
• A plan of the apartment.
• Copies of faxes concerning the reporting of Madeleine's disappearance.
• A notice of alert in the Schengen area.
• A photo attached to the notice.
• A plan of the tourist complex.
• A photographic record of the neighbouring streets.
• The list of calls received and made by Kate Healy between April 27th and May 4th on her mobile phone.
• The list of calls received and made by Gerry McCann dated May 4th on his mobile phone. (previous calls having been erased)
• Copies of all identity cards for employees of the Kids Club (whose interviews are published below)
• Copies of passports for the same employees.
• Copies of the Kids Club registers from April 29th to May 4th inclusive. (We will come back to that)

The list of documents in the case files dated May 4th is not finished. It continues after the documents concerning the interviews with Kids Club staff and the seizure documents for Madeleine's book, which we will talk about now.

Madeleine's book.

Madeleine's parents ripped off both covers, the front and the back, from a book belonging to Madeleine, in order to write on the inside the timing for each person. Russell O'Brien was involved with the drawing up of the timing. The book was seized by theGNR on the night of the disappearance. It is to be noted that the writing down of the timing on the inside of the book covers was done before the police arrived on the spot. These covers would be attached to the case file, as elements of the investigation, on September 7th 2007, although seized during the night of 3rd to 4th May. Here are the terms on which the seizure document was based.

Terms of seizure:

At this time, it is considered of interest to the investigation to attach to the present deed, two covers of a child's book, on the inside covers of which is a schedule for supervision, hand-written by one of theMcCann couple's group of friends and participant in this deed by name of Russell O'Brien.

Description and result.

Today we spoke by telephone via mobile number 964...., with Madame Silvia Maria Correia Ramos B., director of handling and services for the company "GREENTROUST", which manages the "OCEAN CLUB" company.

Through her, we contacted Donna Louise R.H. (contacted by mobile phone number 964...) manager of the crèche staff for the "MARK WARNER" company, responsible for Madeleine and the twins for several days after the McCann family arrived in Portugal.

The latter advises us that all these employees are trustworthy. That they are of British nationality and that they work in Portugal from March/April until November. Donna Louise R.H. gives us the names and telephone numbers of thirteen people who work in the crèche.

• Pauline Francis M.
• Emma Louise W.
• Sarah Elizabeth W.
• Susan bernadette O.
• Leanne Danielle W.
• Shinead Maria V.
• Jacqueline Mary W.
• Kirsty Louise M.
• Lynne R.F.
• Catriona Treasa Sisile B.
• Stacey P.
• Lindsay Jayne J.
• Amy Ellen T.

We note that none of these young girls lives at the complex, but quite near and that Catriona B. was responsible for Madeleine during the day yesterday. Stacey P. was the staff member for the McCann twins. It appears that it is always the same young woman who works with the same child. The latest arrivals in Portugal are Sarah W. and Charlotte Pennington who arrived last Saturday, April 28th 2007. The informant, responsible for coordination, split the children up between several young girls, taking care that each child was unknown to each young girl. The informant noticed nothing abnormal up to yesterday and that no one was absent from work except those who were on their day off.

CATRIONA B.

In our informal conversation with Catriona Trease Sisile B., also known as CAT, the latter reports:

1. That she arrived on March 21st 2007 and that she plans to return to the UK on November 7th 2007.
2. That she has worked with Madeleine since Sunday April 29th 2007, daily until yesterday and that she always works the same hours.
3. That yesterday Madeleine arrived at 9.10am. It was her father, Gerry, who brought her.
4. That is was her mother, Kate, who picked her up at 12.45pm.
5. That her mother, Kate, dropped her off at 2.50pm and picked her up at 5.30pm.
6. That in the same room as Madeleine, there were 6 other children in the morning and 4 in the afternoon (including Madeleine)
7. That she did not see any strangers in the complex during that time.
8. That on the first day, Madeleine was shy. On the following days she was more self-possessed and uninhibited. Yesterday she was joyful. (Editor's note: verbatim from the case file)
9. That she never left Madeleine, keeping her under visual supervision at all times when she was her responsibility.
10. That, over the days, she noticed no change in the behaviour of the child's parents.
11. That she has noticed no abnormal behaviour towards this family.
12. That Madeleine has not reported to her having had contact or conversations with anyone in recent days, which would possibly be suspicious.

STACEY P.

During our informal interview with Stacey P., the latter reports:

1. That it is she and her colleague, Shinead, who usually work with the twins.
2. That yesterday, it was the informant, Stacey, who worked with the twins, her colleague was on her day off.
3. That the children were dropped off by their parents at 9.30am and that the mother picked them up at 12.30pm.
4. That it was the father, Gerald, who dropped them off at 2.30pm and that it was the mother, Kate, who came to fetch them at 5.30pm.
5. That she did not see any strangers in the surrounding area.
6. That the behaviour of the parents was always perfectly normal.
7. That she arrived in Portugal on March 18th and that she returns to the UK on November 7th next.

It is understood that it was not possible to hear the rest of the young girls, and notably the one called Shinead, because most of them were absent and we will set up other priority work to that purpose.

Our Conclusion:

Purely from a police officer's point of view, at this stage of the investigation, ignoring everything we already know, keeping in mind only the elements of the case file, dated May 4th, which we have published, we can already start to draw conclusions or at least to pose a few questions.

In addition to certain inconsistencies in the interviews with the group, serious anomalies are noted in that of Matthew Oldfield. Thus, in referring to the attached plan and publishing it here, you may notice that the children's bedroom door opens inwards to the right. Thus, if the door was open, it is impossible to see the twins WITHOUT seeing Madeleine in her bed. The question that should come to mind of any good investigator: is this a mistake or a lie? Is Matthew Oldfield complicit in abduction? Or simply upset? Logically, the head of the investigation should ask for new interviews to be undertaken to clear up these shady areas. Which thePJ did 6 days later. These new interviews were more comprehensive and more forthright. We will publish them here in their entirety.

Another question about the child's book. Why set out a timing for the checks before the police arrived?
While at that moment there were clearly three other hypotheses.

1 - Madeleine has gone out and wandered off.
2 - Madeleine has gone out and hurt herself and is stuck somewhere.
3 - Madeleine is hiding to play a joke on her parents.

Why fill out this timing instead of looking for Madeleine?
Why does Russell take it upon himself to write Gerald's name at the bottom of one of the inside covers?
Why the heavy insistence, stressing with double underlining, on the fact that at, "9pm ALL shutters down."?
Fear of being charged with negligence in putting together a timetable instead of looking for Madeleine? Hard to believe, especially as each member of the group admitted, during their interview, to having left the children alone every evening since the start of the holiday. At this stage, this timing is a disturbing detail, but nothing more.

Later on, you will learn from the case file, that it was Madeleine's favourite book that she loved to look at in the evening before going to sleep, which reinforces the police suspicions, suggesting that this book was an attempt at manipulation of the investigation.

Addenda: I am copying images here, which I found difficult to include above.

1. One of the hand-written inside covers.



2. The second hand-written inside cover.



3. Plan of the apartment.



4. Back cover of Madeleine's book.


All of the above images can be seen more clearly, particularly for reading what is written by hand on the inside covers of the book, on the web site:

Enfants Kidnappés

8/09/08

McCann case: Brian Kennedy ready to finance the McCanns for the rest of his life!

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

7/09/08

According to the British media, the multimillionaire Brian Kennedy is ready to finance Kate and Gerry McCann for the rest of his life, putting at the couple's disposal the entirety of his personal fortune, estimated at more than £450 million.

The information appeared after statements from the couple that they had spent more than a million pounds from the "Find Madeleine" fund, created after Madeleine's disappearance for the purpose of financing the search for the little British girl.

"A substantial sum has also been spent on our defence, but two benefactors covered those expenses, which means that the money from the fund was only used in the search for our daughter," Gerry McCann stated this weekend, without any mention of the money used by the couple to pay the mortgage on their house in Rothley.

According to the British media, Brian Kennedy had never met the McCanns before their daughter Madeleine's disappearance but he now maintains daily contact with the couple.

In the Maddie case, the millionaire is renowned for his hard-working presence on the ground: he personally met with Robert Murat, to whom he allegedly made several proposals concerning the case, and he contacted several witnesses, notably the Irish man Martin Smith, the witness who states that he saw Gerry McCann carrying Maddie in his arms on the night of May 3rd 2007. It was also Brian Kennedy who, in November 2007, went to the PJ, accompanied by Antonio Jiménez, the Metodo 3 detective, who later was to be arrested for involvement in the theft of 400 kg of cocaine in the port of Barcelona.

Fifth detective agency

Having taken the decision not to cooperate in the official investigation into their daughter's disappearance, already in May 2007, the McCanns had called on several companies associated with private investigation, communication and public relations, without any of them, however, being specialised in cases of disappearance or abduction.

After Control Risks, Metodo 3, Oakley International, and a still anonymous fourth agency, now there is the question of hiring a fifth private detective agency.

"Failing to find the little girl, they will still be able to claim and to prove in court that they did indeed search," a specialist in criminal law stated about the case.

SOS Madeleine McCann 6/09/08 - psychic who worked with Metodo 3 accuses Madeleine's parents of hiding her accidental death.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

6/09/08

A psychic in Spain maintains that Madeleine's body was thrown into the sea by her own parents after an accidental death caused by an overdose of medication: "her mother tried to get her to respond, she shakes her, hits her, which is when the blood spurts out."

According to Emilce Oliva, "that night a man carries the child in his arms. What I was not about to imagine was that it was her father."

The psychic, who deserves as much credibility as all the others - and there have been hundreds around the case - also maintains having collaborated with the Catalan detective agency, Metodo 3, which the officials of the agency refuse to confirm, stating that the information is confidential.

According to the psychic, who originates from Argentina, but is living in Spain, on the night of Maddie's disappearance, only the parents and a friend of the couple were present.

"What happened that night was an accident. The child received an overdose of sedative. That is why I see the mother trying to get her to respond, she shakes her, moves her, she hits her, and it is then that she (Maddie) sprays blood from her nose," the psychic maintains.

The psychic's witness statement - revealed by an Argentine newspaper - goes further and maintains that, in spite of the apparent coldness of Maddie's parents, it was an accident and that they reacted as they did because they were in a foreign country. They did not want to lose their, "good jobs," and above all be arrested by the police: "there was no other solution for them but to simulate an abduction."

Enfants Kidnappés 6/09/08: Russell O'Brien's statement 04/05/07

Enfants Kidnappés 6/09/08

The interview begins at 9.45pm on May 4th 2007. Being a British citizen and not understanding Portuguese, in written or spoken form, the informant is accompanied during his statements by a sworn translator: Filipa M.

The informant completely corroborates the statements by his partner Jane Tanner and Rachael Mampilly. Interview taken by the signatory to the present deed, J.C., police inspector. Concerning the journey, the make-up of the group and the usual routines of the adults and children of the group, of which the informant is part, at the Ocean Cub, he states that:

Apart from his partner, he is on holiday with their children **** O'Brien, aged three years and **** O'Brien aged one year. He works as a doctor. He is a colleague of (Gerry) McCann, having worked together for six months. His partner became pregnant around the same time as Gerry's wife. The informant's daughter, ****, and Madeleine Beth McCann are more or less a month apart in ages. **** and Madeleine go to the same room at the Kids Cub, near the reception. The staff are Cat and another person named Emma.

Until yesterday, May 3rd 2007, he has no knowledge of anything suspicious or strange happening around the group of friends or their children. Everybody seemed normal to him from the cleaning staff, to the gardeners, to the rest of the employees of the complex. In Praia, he never noticed anything strange or people who could have been thought of as strange enough to attract his suspicions.

Yesterday, as his daughter **** was feeling ill, the informant dropped **** (his other daughter!) at the Kids Club at around 10am after breakfast. He completely corroborates his partner Jane Tanner's statements for the rest of the day.

Comment: Why on earth was a witness to such a serious incident allowed to get away with the above? He corroborates his partner's statements!!! Surely, he should have been obliged to give his own account in his own words!!

At around 7.15/7.30pm, the informant went back to his apartment. He read stories to his daughters, including **** who was feeling better. His partner, Jane, went to have dinner at the "TAPAS" restaurant at around 8.30pm and he went there at around 8.45pm. When he arrived at the restaurant, nearly all the adults were present, without children, with the exception of David, Fiona and Diane. They arrived more or less 5 minutes later.

At around 9pm, they had all ordered their meals. While they were eating, it was normal that every 15 minutes, one person from each apartment went to make sure the children were ok. Yesterday, as **** was not well, the interval between checks was reduced. He recalls that Matthew Oldfield left the restaurant at shortly after 9pm to check the children. He is no longer sure who went out first, but five minutes later, Gerry McCann and his own partner, Jane, went out, almost at the same time, to check the children. He thinks that Gerry must have gone out first because Jane saw him chatting with a person on holiday at the complex, a certain Jez. He thinks that Jane only checked their apartment, being worried about ****. Then Gerry came back at around 9.25/9.30 and they started to eat the main course.

At around 9.35/9.40, taking advantage of the lull between two courses, the informant left the restaurant with Matthew to check the children. When he got there, his daughter **** was crying. He stayed in her bedroom with her. He supposes that Matthew checked his apartment. Matthew returned to the restaurant five minutes after leaving it. His partner came to take his place in ****'s bedroom around 15 minutes later after finishing dinner.

At around 9.55, he went back to the restaurant where his food had been waiting for 5 or 10 minutes. All the other adults had finished.

At a round 10pm, Kate Healy went out to check her children in her apartment. When she came back, she came towards our table, shouting that Madeleine had disappeared. We all went out, running, and with the help of a few people we decided to search in the area around the apartment blocks. The search proved fruitless.

Comment: And what did you do then, Russell? You went to bed? You ran round shouting? You joined the local people frantically searching more widely?

After reading with the translator, who explains to him, he goes on and signs.

Comment: Times! They started to eat the main course at around 9.25/9.30 and at 9.35/9.40, taking advantage of a break between courses...? Russell must have eaten his main course really quickly!

Enfants Kidnappés 6/09/08

Addendum: I know that the names of the other Tapas children are fictitious in these articles, but I have got used to just using asterisks!!!

Georges Moréas - Maddie: postscript.

This is a translation of the most recent post on his blog by Georges Moréas, following his excellent article on the, "Mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann."

Georges Moréas blog

Young Maddie's disappearance fascinates the blogosphere. Thousands of surfers have visited this blog, sometimes leaving comments or sending me an email. Many are very hard on the McCanns. It is true that their awful attitude reflects a poor image of them. They are nasty. But while looking nasty, maybe they are miserable!

But that's not the question!

A four year-old child has disappeared. She has been taken from her family and no one knows what has become of her.

And whether they accept it or not, the McCann couple are responsible, as we all are for our children.

And instead of accepting it, they prevaricate, they lie to the investigators, they look for protection. In a word, they behave like guilty people.

And then, they are astonished at having been suspected. And then, they are astonished at having been questioned. And they are indignant that their honour should be attacked. But I don't give a damn about their honour!

A four year-old child has disappeared. And we are all concerned because that child is now ours, as within an instant becomes the toddler we are helping to cross the road, or as we comfort a child for a bump.

The investigation must not stop. On the contrary, Interpol, Europol, and all European police should mobilise themselves to find Maddie. We have not built Europe solely for big money stories.

And if, unfortunately, it is too late! If she is dead. We want to know how. We want to know who killed her. And we want them to be punished.

3/09/08: Translator's comment:

Another brilliant article from M. Georges Moréas.

When I read words like, "And we are all concerned because that child is now ours, as within an instant becomes the toddler we are helping to cross the road, or as we comfort a child for a bump," for some reason a few words from the children's book, "Le Petit Prince," by Anotoine de Saint-Exupéry come to mind. "Dessine-moi un mouton." (Draw me a sheep.) I think it's because that phrase conjures up a picture of a small child, trusting, innocent and curious, looking to adults whom they imagine to be the font of all knowledge and experience....and security.

Such wise words from M. Moréas. Yes, Madeleine is our child now, in the same way as a small child, wandering along my road alone becomes, just for a while, my child, my responsibility. Or a small child, frantically searching for a misplaced parent in a supermarket becomes my responsibility. Madeleine's parents did not accept their responsibility towards her as they should have done. Now, we who continue to be concerned are in loco parentis and we take up the mantle of caring parents.

SOS Madeleine McCann: Photos that never reached the Portuguese investigators.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Your photos never reached the Portuguese investigators.

To this day, the PJ have not received any photos at all resulting from the campaign launched by the Leicestershire police, asking tourists who were on holiday in Praia da Luz to send copies of photos taken during the two weeks preceding Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

The appeal had been launched by Leicestershire police, in coordination with CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) and the Association of Chief Police Officers. (ACPO)

According to a source close to the investigation in the United Kingdom, several hundred photos were sent to the British authorities, most of them downloaded via internet pages specially created for the occasion.

"We will then evaluate these images - at a rate of 1000 images an hour - so that before long we are sending the significant information to the Portuguese authorities. " Jim Gamble, head of CEOP had promised.

According to Jim Gamble, the official objective of this campaign was to make progress with the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, using, notably, a programme of facial recognition for all the people "who might seem out of place or to be behaving strangely."

"Wondering what the real purpose was of launching the public appeal....We have not had access to those photos," one of the investigators confirms, stressing that the only photos the PJ were able to receive came to them directly from witnesses.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

04/09/08

Enfants Kidnappés 3/09/08: Diane Webster's statement 4/05/07

http://www.kidnapping.be/maddie/maddie.html

3/09/08

The interview begins at 8.45pm on May 4th 2007. Since the informant has no command of Portuguese in spoken or written form, an interpreter was called for: Natalia C.

On the matter in hand, we note that:

The informant is interviewed as a witness, She is part of a group who traveled to Portugal with the parents of the minor, Madeleine. She is FIONA's mother. She had accompanied her, her husband and her two small children. She has known the parents of the missing child, Kate and Gerald, for around four years, through her daughter. They have since become friends.

She states that the McCann couple have three children, twins aged two and Madeleine, nearly four years. She thinks the idea of coming to Portugal came from her daughter. She believes her daughter knows Portugal.

The informant arrived in Portugal on April 28th at around 12.20/12.30 from Leicestershire to Faro and then to Praia da Luz. From Faro to the Ocean Club they they used the airport's shuttle service. After checking in, she was placed in apartment G5H with her family. (Her daughter, her son-in-law and their two small children)

Concerning the usual routines, the informant states that she only spent part of each afternoon with her family and that not always. Sometimes she read, she went shopping or did other things. As for the mornings, she only had lunch one day with her family, Wednesday, because it was raining. On the other days, she spent the mornings playing tennis.

Concerning the day yesterday, she went to the beach with the children, her son-in-law and her daughter. They arrived there at around 3.45pm and left at around 6.15pm to go to the tennis courts where she stayed until 7pm. The informant then went to the apartment with the small children and ten minutes later, her son-in-law, David, joined them. With her son-in-law's help, they bathed the children.

They left the apartment at around 8.45 and accompanied by her son-in-law and her daughter, they went to join the rest of the group at the "TAPAS" restaurant. The McCann couple were amongst the other friends at dinner. To our question, the informant told us that given that her daughter had an intercom allowing them to hear if the children were shouting or crying, no one went to check on the spot. However, she reported that Kate and Gerald as well as other couples went a few times, on a regular basis, to make sure their children were OK. During one of these checks, Kate came back, frightened and nervous, even panicked, saying that Madeleine had disappeared.

They immediately organised search parties, in the apartment, thinking that she could be hiding in there, then outside. In spite of help from the Ocean Club's employees, the searches were fruitless.

The informant does not know Madeleine well, because she lives a long way from the McCanns, and she cannot say very much about Madeleine's personality. Nevertheless, she reports that Madeleine was calm but active and energetic and well brought up. She is an attractive and a good child.

During this holiday, she has noticed nothing unusual or which could be linked to the investigation.

She has no other details to add. After reading with the interpreter, who explains to her, she goes on and signs.

The rest of the news....

(I'll finish the rest of the news tomorrow!)

Comment: I just keep getting this sense of Déjà vu with each new statement I type. I am sure that Diane Webster's words are almost identical to those of someone else in places, especially when she talks about Kate's going back to the restaurant, frightened, nervous and panicked even.

Stéphane Moitoiret and Noëlla Hégo - echoes of Fourniret and Olivier?

(Artist's impressions of Noëlla Hégo and Stéphane Moitoiret)

On the night of July 29th 2008, Valentin Cremault, aged 11 was killed as he rode his bicycle in the little French town of Lagnieu, in the Ain region. So horrendous were the lacerations to the child's body that the first doctor to examine him thought he had been attacked by a dog or a wolf.

"The dog bites were actually stab wounds. Someone had slashed and punctured the little boy's body at least 50 times."

"True Crime Report"

On August 7th, Stéphane Moitoiret and his partner, Noëlla Hégo, were picked up by police in connection with the murder, after motorists reported the strange behaviour of a couple of hitchhikers they had picked up.

"The couple, who claimed to be pilgrims and slept rough in communal buildings, said they had been sent to France by the Australian government and wanted to carry out "commando operations on gendarmes and French public figures". (True Crime Report)

Moitoiret and Hégo are variously described as, "The King of Australia and the Divine Princess," and, "His Majesty's Secretary and the Divine Princess." According to Moitoiret's mother, Chantal, Stéphane and his partner have been traveling here and there, throughout France for the past 20 years. She had not seen her son for three years when he was arrested. She said that he was a, "kind boy, but something wasn't right there."

Chantal reported that her son had suffered from mental health problems, possibly since his father died in 1986 and that if it was Stéphane who had committed the murder that it wasn't his fault, that he had, "paranoid thoughts," and possibly, " a-t-il cru que le petit garçon n'était pas un petit garçon et il s'est senti attaqué," (he believed that the little boy wasn't a little boy and he felt he was being attacked) (20 minutes.fr)

Like Fourniret and Olivier, Moitoiret and Hégo had moved around a lot; the former couple had settled in various places and their history over the years was easy to map; Moitoiret and Hégo had led an itinerant life for 20 years and the French police are reported as saying it was very difficult to know where they had been because of there being no bank or phone records. It appears that like Fourniret and Olivier, Moitoiret and his partner may have left a trail of crime in their wake.

Also, like Michel Fourniret, it appears that Moitoiret's partner ultimately gave him away to the police. Just as Monique Olivier had made statements about her husband's crimes, Hégo gave important evidence to the police when she directed them to the place where the bloodstained sheath of a knife was found.

"The sheath of a knife, stained with blood, on which was found the DNA of little Valentin and that of his alleged murderer, Stéphane Moitoiret, was found at the beginning of the week, the Bourg-en-Bresse prosecutor, Jean-Paul Gandolière, announced on Thursday. 'It appears that this sheath held the murder weapon, which is still being sought,' he stressed."

"It was after statements made by Noëlla Hégo, Stéphane Moitoiret's partner, that the investigators of the national gendarmerie found this sheath. It was found in a coppice, a dozen or so metres from the road taken by the couple after they left Saint-Sorlin, Ain" (Le Figaro 14/08/08)

At the moment, Noëlla Hégo is facing similar charges to those initially faced by Monique Olivier. She is under investigation for, "not preventing the commission of a crime, removing evidence and non-disclosure." (Le Figaro)

The French police are now investigating a large number of unsolved murders that appear to be linked to Moitoiret.

"There are a large number of unsolved murders that appear to match Moitoiret's M.O., as well. Victims include a priest, a transvestite, and men and women of varying ages. So far, the links seem to be in how victims are displayed after death, and in the way the knife was used to kill them."

One such crime is the 2005 murder of Marine Boisseranc, aged 20.

"Marine's father Eric detailed some of the commonalities between his daughter's murder and that of Valentin Cremault. Boisseranc noted that his daughter had been stabbed at least a dozen times. The killer in both cases was right-handed and determined to be about the same height as Moitoiret. There was a homeless shelter not far from the Boisseranc murder scene, and authorities believe they can place Moitoiret in the area at the time of Marine's murder." (True Crime Report)

I would assume that this case will take quite some time, years maybe, as in the Fourniret/Olivier case, to be brought to court, since there appear to be quite a few crimes which could be linked to Moitoiret and his partner. Sometimes it seems to me that these killers who come to light only represent the bubbles that rise to the surface from some kind of evil swamp, festering away under the level of awareness of most us who are just getting on with our ordinary lives. No sooner has one bubble been skimmed off the surface, than more rise and exude their foul stench.

I look out of my window at the sunny day, the occasional person walking past my garden, and the council workers emptying the contents of my recycle bins into their truck, and remind myself that I am living in a world where most people are just ordinary like me, doing their best to live an ordinary life, going about their everyday activities. Serial killers are very rare....but I must remember to lock the back door when I go to bed!

Clarence Mitchell goes to work for Freud Communications

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, has accepted a 12 month contract as a consultant with, "Freud Communications,"* a powerful public relations and communication agency, with clients like Pepsi, Weinstein Company and Sony, amongst others. Founded by Matthew Freud the agency, whose major shareholder is Francais Publicis, has offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.

In the United Kingdom, Freud Communications carries out public relations campaigns using, amongst other methods, editorial placement to obtain positive references in the media, for their clients, their policies and their products. Amongst the most recent successful campaigns, is the visit of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to China.

Clarence Mitchell, who still does not rule out the possibility of setting up his own agency, will focus on issues of crisis management and the media.

According to Clarence Mitchell, he will continue to advise the McCanns monthly on the case of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.

* http://www.freud.com/

Five Women Buried Alive In Pakistan.

"It was shocking to see Senator Israrullah Zehri from Balochistan informing the Senate on Friday that the killing or burial of women alive for ‘honour’ is a tribal tradition and should not be portrayed negatively. Responding to Senator Yasmeen Shah’s statement on reports of five women being buried alive in Balochistan in the name of honour, Zehri asked members not to politicise the issue, as it was a matter of safeguarding the tribal traditions."

http://www.stophonourkillings.com/

The Asian Human Rights Commission has been informed from a remote area of the province of Baloutchistan that five women were buried alive there, notably by the youngest brother of Sadiq Umrani, Minister for the province and well-known leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the party in power. Further, the police have still not arrested the guilty parties and this, more than a month after the events.

Details of the case.

The Umrani tribe is concentrated mainly in the districts of Jarabad and Naseerabad of the Baloutchistan province, around 300 kilometres from the town of Quetta, the capital of the province. Sadiq Umrani, the province's Minister for Housing and Construction, was elected to the Baloutchistan Assembly during the elections of February 18th 2008 for the constituency of Dera Marad Jamzali district of Naseerabad.

The burial alive of the women took place in a remote village, Baba Kot, 80 kilometres from the town of Usta Mohammad, in the Jafferabad district. It is thought to be due to the influence of the minister and his brother that the media has not reported these facts.

Reportedly, these five women are Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two other girls, who were 16 and 18 years old. They were at the home of Mr Chandio in the village of Baba Kot, and had to leave for the civil court of Usta Mohammad (in the Jaffarabad district) where three of these girls were to marry men of their choice. Their decision to marry at the civil court stemmed from several days of discussion with elders of the tribe who refused to grant them the right to marry. The strong control of the tribal leaders in that region explains why the names of the two youngest victims are not known.

When the news of their plans became known, Abdul Sattar Umrani, a brother of the minister, arrived with at least six people and threatened them with a gun. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, registered in the Baloutchistan province, to another remote area, Nau Abadi, near Baba Kot. Once in the desert area of nau Abadi, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six companions made the three youngest girls get out of the jeep and beat them up before shooting them. The girls were seriously wounded but still alive. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices threw them into a deep pit, which they began to refill with earth and rocks. The two older women were Fauzia's aunt and the mother of one of the minors. When they protested and tried to stop the burial of the still living minors, the attackers were so angry that they threw them into the pit and buried them alive too. After completing the burial, they fired several shots into the air to stop anyone coming near.

The minors were students and were pursuing their studies in the 10th and 12th years. They were punished for trying to decide for themselves about marriage.

One month later, the police have still not registered the case and it is difficult to obtain more detailed information. The minister for the province is so powerful that the police are reluctant to collect details of the murder. When the Asian Human Rights Commission contacted Sadiq Umrani, the minister for the province, he confirmed the facts, saying only that three women had been killed by strangers. He denied all involvement on his part or of his brother in the crime. He just said that the police wouldn't give any information about the case, as if that might implicate them, if they did. In addition, officials from two different police forces have confirmed the facts and explained that no one has given them any more information. Also, as they cannot find the pit where the victims are buried, it is difficult for them to register the case. Members of the victims' families have since left the area and no one knows where they are.

Abdul Sattar Umrani, the alleged guilty party and his brother, the minster for the province, were already implicated in the murder of three people, one of them a young woman, in January 2006. In that case, Mohammas Aslam, a student, was on his way in a taxi to the civil court, with his girlfriend, to get married. The guilty parties stopped them at Manjo Shori, sub-district of Tumboo district of Naseerabad, and shot the three people, the taxi driver, Jabal Aidee, being one of the victims. The police were unable to open a murder investigation for five months, until the intervention of Iftekhar Choudhry, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and speaker at the Senate. But only one person was arrested and the main culprit and leader, Abdul Sattar Umrani, was not charged.

Additional information.

Every year in Pakistan, hundreds of women, of all ages and from all regions of the country, are killed in the name of honour. Most of the crimes go unpunished. The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are subject to traditions which involve extreme isolation and submission to men who use violence to impose ownership control on them. Most of the women stoically accept this male control over their bodies, their speech and their behaviour as being an aspect of their, "destiny," but the taking up of positions in the media, working for organisations for women's rights and a greater mobility has led to awareness of women's rights in these isolated women.

But while women are claiming their rights or simply trying to claim them, they often have to face more repression and punishment: the number of honour crimes has risen in parallel with the development of awareness of women's rights. The indifference of the state, discriminatory laws and the sexist views of most police officers and the law, assures immunity for those guilty of crimes of honour. It is ironic that women who have such a low status in society and no rights in the family should become the focus on which is concentrated the false and primitive views of family honour, which refuses to take into consideration their hopes and preferences in the question of marriage. (Honour Killings in Pakistan, by Neshey Najam)

At the root of the Pashtun and Baluchi tribal traditions, honour murders are based on the twin conceptions of honour and the merchandising of women. Women are married against a dowry paid the the father of the husband. There is no conception of girls marrying according to their free choice and if they do, they are killed in the name of honour.

http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?article3061

To add your name to the call for an inquiry into the murder of the five women, click here:

Asian Human Rights Commission

Enfants Kidnappés 01/09/08: Denise Pipitone - abducted four years ago today.

http://www.kidnapping.be/denise/denise.html

It's four years.

September 1st 2004

It's the morning of September 1st 2004 in Sicily, in Mazara del Vallo to be exact. The holidays are drawing to a close under the heat of the Sicilian sun and Denise, aged three and a half, is playing outside with her cousins, while her mother, Piera, is on a professional training course, leaving the little girl in the care of her grandmother.

Late morning, "Nonna," calls the children to eat. The cousins go running while Denise follows them, walking, and carrying on quietly with her games.

But Denise never arrives at the lunch table.

She has just been kidnapped.

There are anniversaries that we would wish never to have to celebrate.

There are cursed days, whose recurrence in the calender only crushes you a little more each time.

Today, September 1st, 2008, it is exactly four years.

4 years since Denise Pipitone disappeared, abducted right outside her house in Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily.

4 long years of anxious waiting, of disappointed hopes, of doubts, of sleepless nights, of inability to understand, of tears, of anger, for her family, for her mother.

4 years of nightmares for Piera, where her mind could not stop imagining the worst horrors that a human being is capable of, where time going by, second by second, makes her heart fluctuate between despair, the worst fear, then finally, this hope, unrealistic to be sure, which brings her back up and which becomes an objective and her only reason for living, if she wants to escape from madness.

Piera put on this hope like a coat, armed herself with courage and every day took up her struggle again so that her daughter's face and her daughter's name was not added to the list of the forgotten.

She created an association (Ass. To find Denise Onlus); with her lawyer, she set up a legal project to propose a reform to the archaic law for the protection of minors in Italy: in effect, there was a, "legal gap," concerning the abduction of children not followed by ransom. Abduction was then given no more consideration than the theft of an orange.

She is also a member of an Italian media association, which set up the Charter of Trévise: "The journalists of the Italian press and television adopted a voluntary code of conduct, the Charter of Trévise of November 5th 1990, which obliges them to maintain the anonymity of children charged with or victims of crime by not publishing details which, even indirectly, might lead to their being identified and in the violation of child protection as someone may be upset by publicity of which she was the object, including association with events which were not constituents of offences. (suicides, issues of adoption and family placement) Furthermore, in cases where personal details and photographs are necessary (for example kidnapping or disappearance of children) the Charter invites journalists to obtain the prior consent of parents and the judge responsible for guardianship orders."

But every year, when the holidays gently draw to an end beneath the heat of the Sicilian sun, Piera's heart becomes heavy, and she thinks, as she often does, of Denise's angelic face, of her childish little laugh, of their loving moments. She tries to imagine her daughter, now aged 7 and a half years; she must have changed a lot.

And she wonders, how much longer...

And she cries for her dreadful and unbearable loss.

And she relives with anguish and confusion the day when this tragedy began, the terrible day of Denise's disappearance.

It was September 1st 2004...Exactly 4 years ago.


To find out more about Denise please visit these sites :

www.associationrita.org

www.cerchiamodenise.it

www.cerchiamodenise.org

http://denisepipitone.skyrock.com

http://associationrita.mabulle.com

01/09/08

SOS Madeleine McCann: Amaral's book confirmed in Italian and Dutch.

"Maddie: The Truth of The Lie," confirmed in Italian and Dutch.

According to a manager at the Portuguese publisher, "Guerra e Paz," the book by Gonçalo Amaral, former head of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance, is going to be published in Italian and in Dutch.

"Maddie: The Truth of The Lie," is a description of the events and witness statements in the Madeleine McCann case.

"This is not my personal conviction, it is about all the work of a team of Portuguese police officers and English police officers and duly monitored by the Public Ministry," states the former coordinator of the PJ's Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) about his book.

A best seller in Portugal, "Maddie: The Truth of the Lie," is presented in Spain this week. A French version is confirmed while the English translation is only waiting for a release date to be announced, in spite of the veritable, "embargo," imposed by the McCanns.

In Spain with Esquilo

During the first two weeks in September, the Spanish edition, "MADDIE, LA VERDAD DE LA MENTIRA, published by Esquilo - Publishing and Multimedia, will be presented in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and in Galicia. The publisher has already made a blog available on the internet with information about the book:

http://maddie-laverdaddelamentira.blogspot.com/

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

01/09/08

Enfants Kidnappés 01/09/08: Rachael Oldfield's statement.

01 septembre 2008

Interview with Rachael Mariamma Jean Mampilly Oldfield.

On the subject we note that.

Being a British citizen and not understanding the Portuguese language, in spoken or written form, the undersigned was accompanied by a sworn translator: Filipa M.C.S. The interview begins at 7.20pm on May 4th 2007.

Since last Saturday, April 28th 2007, she has been on holiday in Portugal at the Ocean Club tourist complex in Praia da Luz, accompanied by her husband Matthew Oldfield. They traveled from London to Faro airport with their daughter ******, aged 19 months. This trip was organised for a group of nine adults and eight children. Her husband and her daughter are part of the group:

• The couple, Russell O'Brien and Jane Michelle Tanner, with their daughters, **** aged three and a half and **** aged 19 months.
• David and Fiona Payne with their daughters *** aged three years and ***** aged 12 months.
• Gerald (Gerry) McCann and Kate MCann with their twins, Sean and Amelie, aged 26 months and Madeleine aged 4 years.

Also in their group is Diane Webster, Fiona Payne's mother.

The holiday was organised because the men in the group are all doctors apart from Fiona Payne and Kate McCann who worked together for a long time. These shared holidays are usually organised for the whole group, although for the last holiday, last September, Gerry McCann and Kate McCann did not go to Greece with the group.

The interviewee has known the couple, Gerry and Kate, since 2003. Her husband, Matthew, knew them from before. On arrival at the airport, they were transported in a, "Mark Warner," company bus. There were other people on the bus apart from the group. They were put up at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz.

The couples had their own, individual apartments, at the same complex, with their respective children. Since their arrival until yesterday evening, when Madeleine disappeared, the days have all been the same.

After breakfast, taken between 8 and 9 am in the Millennium restaurant, she takes her daughter to the Kids Club, about 10 minutes walk from the apartment. The other couples do exactly the same thing, with the exception of Gerry and Kate McCann who have breakfast in their apartment. The interviewee's daughter goes to a room at the Kids Club which is close to the, "TAPAS," restaurant. Madeleine goes to another room, situated near the club's reception, because she is older.

After dropping her daughter off, the interviewee had a tennis lesson between 11 and 12 o'clock. Then she went back to the Kids Club to pick up her daughter, ******, for lunch. She made ******'s lunch and then they went to Russell O'Brien or David Payne's apartment, where they all ate together. Only Gerry and Kate McCann had lunch in their apartment with the twins and Madeleine. The interviewee has the impression that the McCann family had one lunch on the beach.

All members of the group did their shopping at the only supermarket near the complex, the "Baptiste."
She never saw any suspicious attention, or ever had suspicions about anybody she came across, either in their independent activities or in the group with their children.

Her relationship with the couple, Gerry and Kate, is one of good friendship and they meet up occasionally at celebrations, weddings and birthdays.

Concerning Madeleine, she is a happy child, good natured and full of energy. She considers it impossible that a stranger could take her without her shouting or crying. She is a smart child who knows right from wrong.

TAPAS

They had the habit of going to eat every evening at the,"TAPAS," restaurant which is about 50 metres from the apartments as the crow flies but 60 or 70 metres round the building to the back entrance.

Yesterday, at around 8.45pm, like every evening, they joined the rest of the group to eat at the,"tapas," restaurant. Her husband Matthew, went to look for David Payne and Fiona Payne. At around 9pm, the couple arrived two or three minutes after Matthew. He had been to check the children's bedrooms, his own apartment where his daughter was sleeping but also that of the twins and Madeleine. He listened at both closed shutters and didn't hear any noise. He also checked to see if there was any noise in Russell O'Brien and Jane Tanner's apartment. He said that he hadn't heard any noise.

After placing their orders, at around 9.15pm, Gerry McCann went to check, only his apartment. He was held up for nearly 10 minutes because, he said, he had been chatting with Jes about tennis. Today there was a tournament which they both had to compete in. During Gerry's absence, the waiters started to bring the food. Jane was also absent to check her apartment. Gerry returned shortly after Jane.

Between the starters and the main course, at around 9.30pm, her husband Matthew Oldfield and Russell O'Brien both went to check on the children. Kate was also planning to go and see the children, but they told her it was no trouble, that they would go and check. Kate, therefore, stayed at the restaurant. Four or five minutes later the interviewee's husband came back after having checked his apartment. He also checked the one where Madeleine was. He went in through the patio door (the couple Gerry and Kate McCann left this door accessible for everyone during dinner) The said patio door gives access to the apartment's lounge where two doors open into the respective bedrooms.

Her husband went into the main room and, "hung about," to listen for any noise from the bedroom where the children were sleeping. He didn't switch any lights on. He could see the twins in their beds. The bedroom door was half-open. It was only later that he realised this was strange. At the time, he gave no importance to the fact. The interviewee's husband came back to the restaurant and said that everything was fine, that he hadn't heard any noise. He also said that Russell O'Brien was staying withhis daughter, ****, who was crying.

They had the main course and Jane went off to replace Russell so that he could come and eat. The interviewee does not know exactly when Russell arrived.

At around 10pm, Kate McCann went on her own to check her children. She came back to the restaurant in tears and told us that Madeleine had disappeared. We all got up then and went with her to see. The surrounding area was combed after having checked that Madeleine was not hiding in the apartment. The twins carried on sleeping. They didn't move.

The interviewee has nothing else to add. After reading with the interpreter, who explains to her, she goes on and signs.

The interviewee remembers that Kate said the window at the front of the apartment was open, the shutters raised. The couple had never opened the shutters during their stay.

http://www.kidnapping.be/maddie/maddie.html

1/09/08

The mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann - Georges Moréas

M. Moréas has updated his article and I have made a small amendment here to reflect that update. 31/08/08

Georges Moréas writing on his blog, "POLICEtcetera," has posted this very interesting article on Madeleine's disappearance.

http://moreas.blog.lemonde.fr/

Madeleine McCann, called Maddie, was nearly four years old. On the evening of May 3rd 2007, she disappeared from her bedroom in a luxury tourist complex, the Ocean Club, in the south of Portugal, where she was supposed to have been sleeping.

No one knows what has become of her since. Recently, the press echoed a statement from the Portuguese prosecutor: case closed. This news is probably unfounded. How can a magistrate, a police officer, allow the closing of a case without thinking of the victim, a child, almost a baby. And if she were alive!...The confusion comes, no doubt, from the order that there were no grounds to prosecute the three suspects.

THE FACTS: The Ocean Club tourist complex is a collection of buildings comprising a residential block, two restaurants, the Tapas and the Millennium, tennis courts, beach, etc.

On this evening, the McCanns are dining with their friends at the Tapas restaurant. At around 10pm, Kate McCann gets up from the table to go and see her children, as she usually does, to reassure herself that everything is fine. Her two little ones, the twins, are sound asleep, in their cots. Her daughter's bedroom door is not closed, which surprises her. She goes in: the window is open, the shutters are raised, Maddie has disappeared.

She rushes back to the restaurant to alert her husband. Together they go back to the apartment, accompanied by their friends, and they only arrive at the obvious. So, they set out to explore the surrounding area.

This is the situation discovered by the first police officers on the spot. Everything leads them to believe that the child has run off. She may not be far away. Searches are organised.

Shortly afterward, the PJ director for Lisbon, receives a call on his mobile phone from the British ambassador. His caller asks him if he is aware that a British child has disappeared.....He goes into action. You can imagine the torrent of phone calls that follows this intervention.

THE INITIAL FINDINGS: There is no disorder in the bedroom where the child was sleeping. The bed is not disturbed. There is no evidence of a break-in, neither on the window, nor on the shutters, nor on the door. A local enquiry turns up witnesses, Irish holiday-makers, who say that shortly after 10 o'clock, they saw a man carrying a child, whose description corresponds perfectly to Madeleine's: face, hair, clothes. Now there is hardly any doubt: this is an abduction. The alert is put out.

THE PJ'S INVESTIGATION: The PJ officers collect witness statements from hundreds of people, and as a priority, from the parents and their friends. Very quickly, they come across certain contradictions between them. For example, a woman states that she went past the apartment earlier in the evening and noticed that the bedroom shutters were closed. But, Kate McCann states the window was open and the shutters pushed up. And the investigators find no evidence of tampering.

Furthermore, the shutters can only be opened from the inside. Can you imagine an individual entering by the door, using a picklock, and going out through through the window, with his victim, after having opened the shutters? And also, the child's bed is not disturbed, as though no one has slept in it. Intrigued, the police officers examine the mobile phones of each of the McCanns: the call history has been erased. Astonishing to think of emptying the memory of your mobile phone when your child has just been kidnapped! But the PJ officers are struggling to do their job. The pressure quickly becomes unbearable.

Little Maddie disappeared on the Thursday evening. On the Friday, the British ambassador, John Buck, is on the spot, accompanied by big-shot police officers and lawyers. And on the Saturday, three British police officers arrive in their turn, in theory to assist their Portuguese colleagues. The contact is not good. The local police officers feel belittled. However, having been involved with the training of Portuguese police officers, I can guarantee that they have no reason to envy either the French or the British - except perhaps certain technical resources.

The working conditions are as follows: 150 Portuguese police officers, three British police officers, authorities, diplomats, and journalists...everywhere. Not the ideal for an investigation. On the Saturday, the PJ director from Faro, tells the press: "It is an abduction." At the same time the McCann couple launch their desperate appeal before the television cameras. It is even said that the police are holding a sketch of the kidnapper, but it will not be published to avoid putting the child's life at risk. A little late, no, to think of the young victim!

During this political, media-staged bustling, the head of the investigation, Commissioner Gonçalo Amaral begins to entertain another possibility. He thinks the McCanns' behaviour is not, "natural." Otherwise, why refuse to participate in a reconstruction of the evening? He finds that certain witness statements do not correspond and that it is becoming impossible to determine where anyone was at any time. Thus, an implausible detail emerges when the Irish witness indicates that after seeing Gerry McCann on television, he positively identified him: this was the man he saw with Maddie in his arms, on the Thursday, at around 10pm. Yes, but at that time, the child's father was in the restaurant with his friends...

Amaral is skeptical. He feels that there is a certain degree of connivance amongst this group of friends. Would they be lying? He goes back to the initial findings and he examines the places from a different angle - as he would do it for a crime scene. The little girl's death becomes the working hypothesis for the investigators.

EVIDENCE OR PRESUMPTIONS: A suspect is arrested. He is a British national living a hundred metres from the leisure centre. I will not give his name as he has taken action against newspapers which said, "certain things," about him, and the press barons backed down. It is said that he banked 750,000€.

Meanwhile, dogs trained to detect certain odours, notably those of blood or cadavers, are brought in. They detect traces inside the apartment, in the couple's bedroom and in the dining room; as well as outside the building. More disquieting, the dogs alert on the child's soft toy and on clothes belonging to her mother. The dogs are placed near a car rented by theMcCanns , and they sniff suspicious odours there too. But this vehicle was actually hired after the little girl's disappearance! On the other hand, the dogs detect nothing, either in the car of the British man under investigation, or at his home.

The vice tightens on the McCanns.

In the places marked by the dogs, minute organic fragments are gathered for DNA comparison with Madeleine's (from samples of saliva on her bed covers). The analyses are done in Great Britain. When the results come out, there is no longer any doubt: There are 15 identical markers in the two DNAs. It is the little girl.

At the beginning of September, the McCann couple are placed under investigation, but left at liberty. The press reports that they are suspected of having concealed their daughter's body after an accidental death - there is talk of the administration of a sedative that was too powerful (the parents are both doctors) - and that they would have got rid of it afterward by transporting it in a vehicle rented for that purpose.

Meanwhile, this case has taken on an international dimension. The McCanns have called the English Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the investigation is followed more closely by the governments of both countries. The press is unleashed. The parents set themselves up as the victims of a bigoted, even backward, police force. The British newspapers really lay into the investigators, who are looking at the parents instead of searching for the missing child. The English police officers, who are involved with the investigation (and who, in theory, have no power to intervene) do nothing to put things right. The public is gripped by this mysterious story - charged with emotion. A support fund is set up. Brian Kennedy, an American Millionaire offers his services.

He takes on the costs of the lawyers and the private investigators. It's even said that he goes to meet some of the witnesses. Does that have anything to do with the fact that afterward most of them refused to go back and participate in a reconstruction? The atypical Virgin boss also puts his hand in his pocket. It is interesting to note that all this energy, all this money, is essentially used to defend the suspects.

New DNA research is carried out by the forensic laboratories in Birmingham, taking the opposite view to the first evaluation. It is said that the samples harvested (by the Portuguese police) were allegedly mixed...

Commissioner Gonçalo Amaral requests another other evaluation. Impossible, the English tell him, the samples have been destroyed, or lost, we don't exactly know, by the laboratory.Amaral can't take any more. All this hooha , this persistent pressure from the bosses, political authorities, the media, is preventing him from working properly. He is taken to task, criticised, watched closely...Even his British colleagues are causing trouble for him. Exasperated, he lets go in the press. It is a mistake, because his bosses jump at the chance. He is transferred.

Gonçalo Amaral has written a book, "The Truth of the Lie," which is out now in Portugal. Bet there will be some interesting details in it. At least if it is translated into French. Will the press, already scalded by this case, pick up on it? Not certain! The McCanns have clearly implied that their lawyers were ready to take action.

To go back to the DNA, in France, unless I am mistaken, 13 identical markers between two DNA profiles, is sufficient in law. So, if the events had taken place here, first of all the evaluation would not have been done in Great Britain, but in a French laboratory, and then the McCanns would have been placed under investigation and most certainly placed in preventive detention - and only the judge would have been able to decided on a second evaluation.

Which goes to show that scientific evidence, even the most sophisticated, doesn't depend on a mathematical formula, but on human judgment.

THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE PARENTS: I must say that the behaviour of the McCanns compared to that of other parents placed in such a painful situation is....different. From the start, they looked down on the Portugiese police officers. They lied on certain points and right away, they looked for support from their country's authorities. As if they felt threatened! Were they caught up in the media machine? The support fund which they set up (and which can be found on Google's business pages) collected around 1.5 million euros. However, one of the first expenses incurred by that fund was to make two monthly payments concerning the purchase of their house. It is said that 600,000 euros was paid out to settle the fees of private detectives, who turned out to be crooks. One of them even stated that he had infiltrated a Belgian paedophile network... In their defence, they have guaranteed that they have not used that money to pay the fees of the lawyers who are covering their defence.

These folks have mobilised around themselves so many people, so many of the smart set we might say, from politics and business.....that we can only wonder. Are they part of a network? Of a lodge? Of a sect? Of a clan?....

THE STATE OF THE INVESTIGATION: The McCann couple not having requested the continuation of the investigation, it is officially over. As things stand, there is a 4 year-old kid, probably dead; and three suspects who have been let off. One, the neighbour, suspected because of his past, but against whom there seems to be no evidence; and the parents...

There is evidence that they lied in their first statements to the police, notably about how they spent their time, apparently in connivance with their friends. They couldn't explain the presence of traces of blood or cadaver odour, particularly in the vehicle they had hired, three weeks after the events. Even if in law the second DNA evaluation negates the first, it is not entirely convincing. The experts are happy to conclude that they cannot use the gathered samples they were sent, because they were contaminated. And even if we consider that the two evaluations were contradictory, which one should we believe? The destruction of the samples makes any confirmation impossible.

And after this hullabaloo, Maddie joins the long list of missing children.




CONCLUSION: Everyone can think what they like, but Portuguese law considers that there is no charge against anyone, not any proof, not any evidence. They have, "archived," the case, as they say there.

It is astonishing. But I believe it's a good way to start over in a more calm way. In fact, nothing is stopping the investigators from, "discreetly," continuing their investigations. Portuguese procedure allows the reopening of the case at any moment, if someone brings a new element to it.

What is striking in this case, is that there is a lot of talk about money and very little about the young victim. Finally, one of the suspects pocketed 750,000 € handed over by certain newspapers to avoid action for defamation, and the other two, the parents, have collected 1.5 million euros in a support fund. Not to mention the money spent by wealthy patrons. As for the Portuguese police officers, they were ridiculed.

It must stick in their throats....I'll bet they are not ready to forget it.

(With thanks to frencheuropean at the 3 Arguidos forum, for help with some of the idiomatic French in the text!)