Well he did…

You see on the 9th May 2012 he wrote this in one of his posts on Jill Havern’s Forum:

In addition, I have the support of my M.P., Robert Halfon, who has kindly agreed to take up the issue of the denial of legal aid to me, and the wholly disproportionate legal resources available to the McCanns in this case – contrary to numerous strong rulings by the European Court of Human Rights – directly with Minister for Justice, Ken Clarke.

Today on Twitter Justine Spencer tweeted this to Robert Halfon MP.

@halfon4harlowMP Sick Tony Bennett has made parents of Madeleine #Mccann s lives a misery through harassment and libel and you support him??

May 16, 2012 7:52 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@justinespencer

justine spencer

To which Robert Halfon MP replied

@justinespencer I do not support what he has done and have every sympathy for the McCanns

May 16, 2012 11:09 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@halfon4harlowMP

Robert Halfon MP

As Twitter only allows 140 characters, I thought it best to Tweet to Robert Halfon MP a link to the post and a copy of the screenshot.

@halfon4harlowMP Link to where he states publicly he has your support http://t.co/RIqqqKSk http://t.co/D40Tv5DV

May 16, 2012 12:58 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrenR1958

Bren

To which Robert Halfon MP replied

@BrenR1958 thank you for this information. I understand this will now be corrected.

May 16, 2012 1:22 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@halfon4harlowMP

Robert Halfon MP

So it is evident from mine and Justine Spencer’s tweets that Robert Halfon MP does not support him in his campaign against the McCann family.  Yes as an MP he has a duty to his constituents to take up cases on their behalf.  But in this case, Robert Halfon MP is just helping Bennett over his legal aid claim (which begs the question has Bennett been completely honest with his MP, especially if he can imply things that are not true)….

Mind you I wouldn’t blame Robert Halfon MP, in the slightest, if he washed his hands of Bennett especially after Bennett leading a forum full of anti-McCanns posters to believe that Robert Halfon MP was supporting their cause.  And Bennett did this by his selective and manipulative way of phrasing things, implying one thing whilst meaning something totally different.

Well at 1.22pm Robert Halfon MP was under the impression it was going to be corrected, as of 17.14 pm the post has not been altered and there has been no amendment by the admin or moderators of that forum, explaining that Robert Halfon MP does not support their campaign against the family of a missing child.

As we all know in the world of the anti-McCanns you hear many myths, one of the myths that is spouted regularly is that the McCanns or one of their associates was behind the death of Goncalo Amaral’s pet dog.  Whatever possesses these people to believe that I don’t know because upon reading “The little girl died in that apartment” interview on TVI broadcast on the 28th July 2008, the dog is mentioned, even GA states that is not the case.

Duarte Levy asks this question:

There is a question. We heard, a short while ago, about the existence of an investigation into your private life, yours, inspector Tavares de Almeida’s private life and even Guilhermino de Encarnação’s private life. Carried out by private detectives that are connected to the McCann family. And in the book, at some point you mention your dog. What happened to that dog? This is a question.

Goncalo Amaral then replies:

A mere coincidence, at the beginning of the investigation, the dog died. Surely nobody went there and killed him, it could have been other dogs, right.

So Goncalo Amaral fully accepts that the dog dying was NOTHING to do with the case… as was a mere coincidence.  -  So even the lead detective at the time didn’t think the death of his dog had anything to do with the case, so why do the anti-McCanns repeat that they believe that the McCanns were behind it? So that is another untruth that is being spouted across the virtual world to smear the McCann family.

Now another enlightening thing about that interview is this… How can anyone write a book, based on the case, without reading the final Report.  We know from his own words on the Panorama interview that Goncalo says:

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) The book deals with six months of the investigation and the conclusions at the time so the investigation needed to continue. The truth is only known when an investigation is finished.

So it is evident what is he saying that nobody knows the conclusion of the case and what happened until the investigation is finished, so how can he still say his conclusions that he reached at the end of his term as investigator are correct as the Final Report said clearly that the McCanns and Robert Murat played no part or committed any crime in relation to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Paulo Reis: A very precise, very direct question for Dr Gonçalo Amaral. Do you think that the PJ’s final report, which was widely reported by the media and was even published online by Expresso newspaper. Do you think that the report faithfully reflects, does it make an accurate balance of the investigation?

Goncalo Amaral: Well before anything else, I want to thank you for the work that you have done since that time, the manner how you have followed the investigation and the way that you have been solidary with truth and justice.

PR: That is my obligation as a journalist.

GA: You may not have done more than your obligation but I want to thank you and to thank all the journalists. Concerning that report, I have to be sincere, I haven’t read it yet. I haven’t had time to read it but if it is a report that led to the archiving, it cannot be faithful towards what exists in the process, so it’s an imposition, I would not like to comment much further on that, but it’s the position of police professionals who took it, that decision to write that report that was being very well written…

Júlia Pinheiro: Weren’t you curious to read that report? That final report from the PJ?

GA: No, no. I haven’t had time, either. I haven’t had any time at all to read it. This has been a bumpy ride…

JP: I find that absolutely impossible, I don’t believe it. Have you cut all bonds with what you left behind? Have you distanced yourself emotionally from all of this?

GA: No. I haven’t cut all bonds. No.

JP: I don’t believe it!

GA: But sincerely I haven’t read the report yet. I haven’t read the report, I know it’s on the internet, so I will read it but I haven’t read it yet.

JP: I’m not convinced at all but say it.

GA: But I’m telling you the truth.

Now the part that intrigues me is his answer to the question posed to him by Júlia Pinheiro when she asks this:

Weren’t you curious to read that report? That final report from the PJ?

and he clearly said:

NO, NO.

Very telling isn’t it? He’s basically saying that you can’t get to the truth until the case in concluded but he is not interested in the conclusion at all otherwise he would have read the final report before forming an opinion.

It is evident from where I am sitting that Goncalo Amaral, just wants to smear the McCanns and label them as guilty without evidence to back up his thesis.  And that to me is clear libel and defamation and I am sure the Judges will see that when they hear the case in Lisbon in September 2012.

Anyway here is the Final Report in English and Portuguese - You can read more of this interview here

In the case of Madeleine McCann, it was the creche workers who last saw Madeleine alive at 5.30pm on the 3rd May 2007, when she was last seen at the creche.

David Payne saw her alive after that but the last independent witness time was 5.30pm.

Goncalo Amaral has stated this on various documentaries, in his book and I really thought those that believe him would take his word.

But alas no.

@BacardiKid @mccannexposure Yes, I believe Maddie died on May 1 evening when Mrs Fenn heard screaming from the #McCann apartment

May 1, 2012 10:20 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JillyCL

JillyCL

I did, rather politely if I have to say so myself point this out to JillyCL in this tweet.

@JillyCL By you believing that proves that Goncalo Amaral thesis is wrong & too incompetent to even get last known sighting correct #McCann

May 1, 2012 10:27 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrenR1958

Bren

To which I received this:

@BrenR1958 Fuck off terrorist! #McCann #Mercenary

May 1, 2012 10:29 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@JillyCL

JillyCL

I am really finding it hard to comprehend why they can’t see logic.  If as they say Madeline is dead, which by the way I don’t believe for one minute, and she did die on the 1st May2007, then Goncalo Amaral and his team are too incompetent to even get the last known sighting correct.

Logic tells me that if the Police can’t get a last known sighting and confirm beyond shadow of doubt that the last known sighting is correct, then surely a certain ex-coppers book is based on incorrect information which is libellous.

What don’t the anti-McCanns understand?  Why don’t they understand the moment they deviate from the Goncalo Amaral thesis they are in fact proving that the entire investigation was bungled?

Because as sure as night follows day, they don’t do logic.

As soon as the page loads you are presented with this banner

Full size banner

As you can see, underneath the banner is this:

Gerry McCann: ”I strongly believe in Freedom of Speech…I don’t have a problem with somebody purporting a theory…”

Again this is a clear example of selective reading and twisting of the truth.  You see what Gerry McCann actually said at the Leveson Inquiry on the 23rd November 2011 was this:

Thank you, sir. I would like to emphasise that I strongly believe in freedom of speech, but where you have people who are repeatedly carrying out inaccuracies and have been shown to do so, then they should be held to account. That is the issue. I don’t have a problem with somebody purporting a theory, writing fiction, suggestions, but clearly we’ve got to a stage where substandard reporting and sources, unnamed, made-up, non-verifiable, are a daily occurrence.

And the part that says:

where you have people who are repeatedly carrying out inaccuracies and have been shown to do so, then they should be held to account.

has been deliberately left off to give the impression that Gerry McCann said something entirely different.

That is exactly why Tony Bennett has saddled himself with a possible £120K legal costs bill from Carter Ruck. Simply because when shown the inaccuracies in his postings he refused to accept he was wrong and continued on his path of self-destruction, by repeating those inaccuracies.  Tony Bennett has no-one else to blame other than himself.

If he had kept to what he promised the High Court Judge in December 2009 he would not be in this position.  If he had stopped spreading inaccuracies about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann he would be sitting there now without having to worry if his life savings and his home are going to be wiped out from under his feet.

And he wonders why Carter Ruck and the McCanns are NOT going to back down, they have given him more chances than most people would, and every chance they gave him was thrown back in their faces and he continued on his path of accusing two people and their friends of the most heinous crimes of all, being complicit in and covering up the death of Madeleine McCann.

Tony Bennett and his followers do have selective reading problems (no-one can forget “the only assumption” turning into “only an assumption” incident and your post here Tony) and it is proven by that banner.  He doesn’t speak the whole truth and he allows the owner of the said forum to  miss out the parts that do NOT play into the great anti-McCann argument.

Well Tony two can play that game….  Just look at the picture above and by placing 3 dots and removing some content I have changed the entire meaning of what you actually said.

From:

TONY BENNETT There are always going to be those who entirely believe the McCann’s account and regard me as evil and perverted for what I am doing. On the other hand there are those who have got legitimate questions and fully support what we are doing.

To:

… regard me as evil and perverted for what I am doing.

Not nice is it?

Her blog article states, you said:

“They speak about sightings, about visions by mediums. A lot of things have been produced over the years and well produced and therefore the English police has to pass the ball to the Portuguese police and we are left with the onus and the expense of investigating. It is important to reopen the process, nobody should doubt that, but to reopen the process without limitations, the way they want to limit us”, the former Judiciary Police inspector explained.

Now if you listen to what DCI Andy Redwood actually said here, he speaks of 195 INVESTIGATIVE OPPORTUNITIES. I agree they could include sightings, but they could also and probably do include statements that should have been taken from people, whilst you were in charge of the investigation.  Information that was submitted to the PJ that got filed by the likes of Paiva as NO FURTHER ACTION.

Police work is hard, information comes in and until you check it out thoroughly you CAN’T discount it.  So before you go spouting your mouth off Goncalo Amaral, please listen to Andy Redwood actually said, because from where I am sitting you are sounding like a bitter and twisted thug who only cares about his reputation and honour and doesn’t give a shit about a missing little girl who could be alive and needs to be found.

You openly admitted on that Panorama interview that mistakes were made, you said:

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) Its a fact that our investigation had its faults and lost a lot of time, lots of time and a lot of things didn’t get followed up. And I am just as much to blame for that as anyone else.

So stop acting like a child who is throwing their toys out of the pram in a tantrum and grow up and be a man and do all you can to find this child.  This isn’t about you and this isn’t about your honour, this is about finding a missing child who could well be alive and a child who needs to be found and returned to her family.

Even the archiving dispatch mentions the errors only they class them as an enormous error margin, they state:

The investigators are well aware of the fact that their work is not exempt of imperfection; they have worked with an enormous error margin, and what they have achieved is very little in terms of conclusive results, especially concerning the fate of the unfortunate child. Nevertheless, they always knew that action was necessary and in reality they acted intensively and with commitment, even at the risk of erring.

You also state the following:

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) The book deals with six months of the investigation and the conclusions at the time so the investigation needed to continue. The truth is only known when an investigation is finished.

You state that the book deal was during your time at the investigation and then go onto say that the truth is only known when the investigation is concluded.  The investigation concluded with this:

Therefore, after all seen, analysed and duly pondered, with all that is left exposed, it is determined:

a) The archiving of the Process concerning arguido Robert James Queriol Eveleigh Murat, because there are no indications of the practise of any crime under the dispositions of article 277 number 1 of the Penal Process Code;

b) The archiving of the Process concerning arguidos Gerald Patrick McCann and Kate Marie Healy, because there are no indications of the practise of any crime under the dispositions of article 277 number 1 of the Penal Process Code.

Article 277 number 3 of the Penal Process Code is to be fulfilled.

Under article 214 number 1 item a) of the Penal Process Code, the coercion measures that have been imposed on the arguidos are declared extinct.

So please can you tell me how you can call your book the truth, when the conclusions of the investigation are not the same conclusions that you had when you were heading the investigation during the first six months? Surely it should be called The Lie of the Truth of the Lie.

Anyway here is what DCI Andy Redwood actually did say.

Just one more thing you go onto state this according to Joana Morais and her blog:

Lastly, the former inspector further accused the Judiciary police of internally persecuting his colleagues that remain by his side.

Have you not thought to yourself, that perhaps the PJ think you are a disgrace to the profession?  Have you not thought that they do not approve of ex-cops that have been convicted of lying and falsifying documents?  Have you not considered that some of the company you keep (all the other ex-PJ officers who are now arguidos in various different cases including torture) tarnish the reputation of the PJ?  Have you not thought that in a modern civil society, truth and justice come from investigative skills and proper policing and not by intimidation, threats or in some cases violence, in order to extract a confession?

Thought not, think about it and then you might see why the PJ want to distance themselves from you and people like you.

And it is not the British Press that are demonising the reputation of the PJ who are in fact printing the truth, it is you that is doing that.

RICHARD BILTON: It is five years since a little girl vanished without trace on holiday in Portugal.

KATE MCCANN: Please do not hurt her. Please don’t scare her.

RB: Why has Madeleine McCann never been found?

ALAN JOHNSON: Disgraceful. It didn’t seem to me that they had had the benefit of a proper police investigation.

RB: And why in the country she disappeared have so many people made up their minds about what happened?

ISABEL DUARTE: I have friends that don’t want to talk to me about the case. I feel alone because I don’t feel support in public opinion.

RB: Why did the Prime Minister take the unprecedented step of telling British Police to investigate the case?

SANDRA FELGUEIRAS: Oh God. The Prime Minister giving an order to the Police to investigate something that is closed without no new evidence about it. Very strange.

RB: And with such views in Portugal what chance have the British Police got of solving the case? They talk for the first time tonight.

DCI REDWOOD: We are seeking to bring closure to this case.

RB: What does that mean?

DCI REDWOOD: Establishing what happened to Madeleine McCann.

RB: Solving it?

DCI REDWOOD: Solving it. Yes, of course.

RB: Tonight as Police identify new leads, Panorama exposes the tensions and deals behind what could be te last hope of finding this lost little girl.

This is Praia da Luz on the Algarve, out of season and very quiet. In May 2007 as a BBC correspondent I was sent to this apartment block in Luz, because a little girl had disappeared. What I couldn’t possibly know then was how enormous this case would become, that everybody would know about Madeleine McCann, that everybody would have a theory about what happened here and how she disappeared. And that even now, five years on, millions is still being spent trying to solve the case. After a year, the Portuguese authorities shelved the case. But now there’s a new drive to solve the mystery and its based here in the UK.

DCI REDWOOD: Our initial estimates in terms of the amount of material that we are facing is that it will be somewhere in the region of forty thousand pieces of information. There is ultimately a process of us turning every single piece of paper over and interpreting and analysing what is contained within them.

RB: Operation Grange, set up after a direct request from David Cameron is a year into its work and has already cost the British taxpayer two million pounds. This is the first time an officer has spoken publicly about the new search for Madeleine McCann.

DCI REDWOOD: There is myself a Detective Chief Inspector. I’ve got three Detective Inspectors, five Detective Sergeants, nineteen Constables and, Detective Constables I should say. And about six or seven members of civilian staff that perform various different functions. We are here in terms of seeking to bring closure to this case. That would be the ultimate objective, of course, and is our ultimate objective.

RB: What does that mean?

DCI REDWOOD: Well closure means establishing what happened to Madeleine McCann.

RB: Solving it?

DCI REDWOOD: Solving it. Yes, of course.

RB: Their daughter’s case has slipped down the news agenda but Kate and Gerry McCann have continued to raise awareness of the issue of missing people. Last month the couple took part in a charity fun run in London.

KATE MCCANN: For so many people its certainly a lifeline really. To anyone who has gone missing but also the families that are left behind.

RB: The McCanns have never wavered from their account that Madeleine was abducted and that they played no part in her disappearance. The new review is the result of their long campaign to get the British Police to re-examine the original Portuguese investigation.

GERRY MCCANN: Its taken pressure off us, I have to say, knowing that the Police are actually reviewing everything. Its a huge step for us.

RB: Since the case was shelved, four separate investigations by private detectives have been funded by the Find Madeleine Campaign. And the McCanns have issued a series of artists impressions of how Madeleine might look in the years since she disappeared. And this is the latest picture released today by British Police. How Madeleine might look aged nearly nine. In 2009 the family campaign for a review took them to meet the then Home Secretary.

ALAN JOHNSON: I was enormously sympathetic to their case. All the stuff that appeared in certain tabloids, you know, suggesting they were the guilty party. You know I think it is very difficult under that kind of saturation coverage, er, not to start believing in some of those theories. But by the time they came in to see me I was absolutely clear that, you know, they were the victims in all of this.

RB: What do you think of the way the Portuguese treated the McCanns?

ALAN JOHNSON: Well it seems to me, er, not from any close working with the Portuguese Police, but it seems to be disgraceful. It didn’t seem to me that they had had the benefit of a proper police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine.

RB: The review team finally set up last May and made up of experienced murder squad detectives has been sifting through the evidence ever since. Its not simply office based. They’ve travelled to Portugal four times and have visited Spain twice. But what can they do that hasn’t already been done?

DCI REDWOOD: We are drawing together information from three separate sources; the legal enforcement bodies within Portugal, the UK law enforcement agencies of which obviously the Police are a main part and also and unusually the private investigation world which as we know is an element that was used by Mr and Mrs McCann to further the search for their daughter.

RB: And why, why was this unique circumstance?

DCI REDWOOD: Well because at no time before have those three elements been drawn together in one place. And so what we’ve done over the past number of months is bring into one place, i.e. here at Belgravia all of those, all of those pieces of the jigsaw.

RB: And thats important because private detectives are banned here in Portugal so its the first time all of the gathered evidence is being seen together. Today, the Met team said they’ve so far identified 195 fresh leads in their review. But concerns remain about how much can be achieved given the intital flaws in the investigation.

ANTONIO MARINHO PINTO: (translated) I’m convinced the McCann case will feature in Portuguese judicial history as a bad example. What a criminal investigation should not be.

RB: So even now what do we know for sure about the case? Madeleine’s parents were five days into a week-long holiday at the Ocean Club Resort. They were there with three other families. All four couples had left their children sleeping unattended, something they were later criticised for. But they made regular checks to make sure all was OK. It was at 10pm on May 3rd when Kate McCann made the seventy metre walk to check on her children. She told police when she entered their bedroom in Apartment 5A the window and shutters were open and Madeleine had gone. One of the McCanns friends said earlier that evening she’d seen a man carrying a small child away from the block.

The holiday flat still draws attention for some but for me it feels strange to be back. I feel a real odd bond with this place. I spent so much time thinking about what might have happened here as every sort of new theory was rolled out. It feels like its still full of questions.

Right from the start its a case thats marked by mistakes. Local police initially assumed that Madeleine had simply wandered off so it was some hours before the flat was sealed off as a potential crime scene. Access wasn’t restricted. The Portuguese Attorney General would later report this meant any forensic evidence at the scene was contaminated with irreversible and undetermined damage. And the man who led the investigation for the first six months, Goncalo Amaral, now admits he got things wrong.

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) Its a fact that our investigation had its faults and lost a lot of time, lots of time and a lot of things didn’t get followed up. And I am just as much to blame for that as anyone else.

RB: Five years on it is easier to assess the early days of the investigation. Thousands of police files have been made public. And some of those who were at the centre of the Police operation are now prepared to talk.

RB: So this is where she disappeared from. This street is lined with satellite trucks and then the police say that they have taken in for questioning a man who lives at the end of the street just behind those bushes down there. So all the journalists shift from here to there and Robert Murat now becomes the focus of everybody’s attention.

Robert Murat was in his thirties and living with his mother. Half English and Half Portuguese, when Madeleine went missing he offered his skills to the Portuguese Police as a translator. But eleven days in with no quick resolution to the investigation in sight the spotlight turned on him. Now Robert Murat believes that with the Portuguese Police under pressure he was an easy scapegoat.

ROBERT MURAT: At one stage I was taken to an area where they wanted to fingerprint me and take photographs and all that kind of stuff. And I think they were trying to disorient,er, me because they moved me around from room to room, hallway to hallway, corridor to corridor and it seemed very choreographed calling out, “Well, take photographs of him” and you know, he’s, er, “We want to send a team to Poland.” It was kind of a choreographed situation.

RB: What, to intimidate you?

ROBERT MURAT: Yeah, I think so. And it did intimidate me at the time. Its now that I realise what was going on. I had five people rushing into a room and, erm, and standing behind me and it felt very very ‘Life on Mars’. It felt very, er you know, erm, just very pressured.

RB: He was questioned for nineteen hours before he was released. The next day he returned to collect his belongings and Robert Murat says he met Goncalo Amaral, the lead detective.

ROBERT MURAT: He basically told me it was a game of two halves and as the night before I hadn’t confessed, erm, then, he would get me on the second half and he just kind of turned his back on me. He didn’t… He just… It seemed he didn’t care about the truth. That was the, thats how I felt.

RB: One of Portugal’s leading lawyers now believes that close attention of the worlds media affected the initial investigation.

ANTONIO MARINHO PINTO: (translated) The police feel like they have to quickly find the culprit because if they don’t they would be in the dock themselves. And as such, what happened in this case is that the Police’s main concern was to find the suspect.

RB: It was British Police sniffer dogs that changed the way Portuguese detectives were thinking. The dogs indicated possible traces of DNA in the McCann family’s flat and in the family’s hire car. Although this was found to be inconclusive by forensic scientists the Portuguese Police made Kate and Gerry McCann arguidos, or suspects in their daughter’s disappearance.

REPORTERS: How do you feel Gerry? How do you feel Gerry?

RB: We know the Portuguese Police believed they had the answer to what happened that night in Apartment 5A. Because we can now read an internal interim report from the week the McCanns were declared suspects. It said, “The minor Madeleine died in Apartment 5A.” “A simulation of an abduction took place.” “Kate and Gerry McCann are involved in the concealment of the corpse of their daughter.” And five years on that view seems to be as strongly held as ever by some in the Police.

CARLOS ANJOS: (translated) I think something happened accidentally in the flat that night. In general I think most Portuguese investigators think the same as me. And I think there will be problems for the British authorities.

RB: One big problem is only the Portuguese authorities can re-open the case. Sandra Felgueiras is one of Portugal’s leading TV presenters and has covered the McCann story from the start. With her own nightly news show she’s watched Portuguese public support shift away from the McCanns.

SANDRA FELGUEIRAS: They were following the case as it was a big movie. So if you start saying three months later from her disappearance that maybe the McCanns are involved people start thinking, “Oh my God, those guys, the same that were asking for help, I gave them money. I tried to help them and now they must be involved. The police is saying that.” And peoples minds changed and I never felt really that the Portuguese were likely to give a chance to the McCanns again.

RB: With the Portuguese Police and public opinion apparently against them the family decided it was best simply to get out of Portugal. They returned home without Madeleine.

GERRY MCCANN: We have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter.

RB: Nearly a year later the Portuguese Attorney General assessed the evidence and found there was no case to answer for the McCanns or Robert Murat.

KATE MCCANN: Its hard to describe how utterly despairing it was to be named arguido and subsequently portrayed in the media as suspects in our own daughters abduction.

RB: Despite Kate and Gerry McCann no longer being suspects, Portuguese public opinion hasn’t changed and it continues to be influenced by the man who initially led the investigation before he was removed. Goncalo Amaral has since made this documentary sticking to his version of events. He still believes that Madeleine wasn’t abducted but died in the flat. He’s also written a best selling book about it. And so far he’s made at least £300,000.

RB: Are you comfortable making money out of a missing girl and a case that actually you failed to solve?

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) When I left the Police Force it was to write the book to clear my name, defend myself from what the British journalists and some Portuguese journalists were saying accusing me of incompetence and other worse things.

RB: By assuming a case for which there is little evidence you actually diverted attention from the actual search for a missing little girl.

GONCALO AMARAL: (translated) The book deals with six months of the investigation and the conclusions at the time so the investigation needed to continue. The truth is only known when an investigation is finished.

RB: Kate and Gerry McCann are suing Goncalo Amaral. They say his allegations are false, and not only libel them but also damaged the hunt for Madeleine.

RB: Hi, its Richard Bilton from BBC Panorama. We’re here for Isabel Duarte. The libel lawyer concedes that defending the McCanns against the former detective is not a popular fight here in Portugal.

ISABEL DUARTE: I feel alone.

RB: Why?

ISABEL DUARTE: I feel alone because I don’t feel support, not in public opinion. I have friends that don’t want to talk to me about the case.

RB: Why? I don’t understand.

ISABEL DUARTE: Because everyone believes in Goncalo Amaral. Everyone believes that I am defending a father and a mother that have killed the daughter and got rid of the corpse.

RB And its that public opinion thats critical to the way the case has been dealt with. A former British Home Secretary believes that to have any hope of success the new review will require huge political effort. How complicated is it that in Portugal public opinion seems to be against the McCanns?

ALAN JOHNSON: Its not something I had to thing about because I was going through to the first state but its something the Prime Minister might need to think about. And I hope he does have to think about it because that would suggest that there is something there that is worth pursuing. And it is worth having a bit of a diplomatic, er, charm offensive with the Portuguese on. Now a bit of diplomacy can ensure that you do get the cooperation you need from Portugal, erm, and we do get to the bottom of this.

RB: Its taken years for the McCanns to secure a British Police review of the investigation. Years in which public interest in their daughters disappearance has faded.
By 2010 the case of Madeleine McCann was getting far less media coverage and the Find Madeleine Fund was starting to run out of cash so Kate McCann decided to write a book to tell her story of what life was like in Luz. The book was serialized in both the Sunday Times and the Sun with their parent company News International paying a reported one million pounds into the Find Madeleine Fund. But it was about much more than money. The McCanns felt they were getting nowhere with the new Home Secretary, Theresa May, so printed on the front page of the Sun was an open letter from the McCanns to her boss, David Cameron, appealing to him as a parent to agree to a review. But Panorama has learned there was much more going on behind the scenes to try to influence the Prime Minister.

It was just a year ago before the worst excesses of phone hacking were known, a time when News International seemed to have had enormous influence over Downing Street. Now we’ve been told by the highest government sources that pressure was being exerted on David Cameron by News International and by the Sun newspaper in particular as well as by the McCanns. Within 24 hours the Prime Minister decided that a review could be paid for out of a special contingency fund run by the Home Office and reserved for special cases. Madeleine McCann, the Prime Minister decided, was a special case. The Home Office declined to explain to us why they chose this unsolved case above any other but a source at Number Ten told us David Cameron acted as a sympathetic parent. Of course, its politically risky to pour millions of pounds of taxpayers money into an investigation that might never be solved. But the man in charge is optimistic, publicly at least, saying he believes his team has the best chance yet of finding out what happened to Madeleine McCann.

DCI REDWOOD: As a detective it is a huge privilege to have an opportunity to work on this case and I’m…, both my team and I feel that.

RB: So five years on, two teams on, two million pounds on are we any nearer knowing what happened to Madeleine McCann?

DCI REDWOOD: I am satisfied that the systems and process that we are bringing to this set of circumstances will give us the best opportunity to find those investigative opportunities that we can then present to our colleagues in Portugal.

RB: And could the mystery of Madeleine McCann be solved in such a basic way as a re-appraisal of a piece of paper that you have got downstairs?

DCI REDWOOD: Anything is possible and clearly within that material the answer could lie.

RB: Do you think this case will be solved one day.

DCI REDWOOD: I really, really hope that we can make a difference and of course we are here to try and bring closure for the family.

RB: But in Portugal the McCann family’s lawyer believes since the case was shelved in 2008 detectives here convinced the mystery has already been solved have ignored new lines of enquiry.

ISABEL DUARTE: I consulted documents that were sent to the file after the investigation was closed. There was a declaration on those documents saying, “It is not of the interest of the investigation”.

RB: So there were new leads that were coming in that were being discarded?

ISABEL DUARTE: New information, pages and pages and pages of information and no-one was interested in making a deeper investigation around that information.

RB: We understand that in the Algarve there has been some low level animosity at the arrival of British officers. Operation Grange has no jurisdiction in Portugal and only the Portuguese can re-open the case so much of the British work over the last year has been spent reassuring their colleagues here that its a joint effort. But just last month the idea that the Portuguese themselves would have a case review was unheard of.

SANDRA FELGUEIRAS: Madeleine McCann case now in Portugal is a file that is closed. Its an old story, a closed story. We don’t have any news about it. The last information I got this morning from our Public Prosecutor was that even knowing that you in UK are trying to solve the case again with Scotland Yard, with the Scotland Yard as an investigatiion, they are telling here in Portugal that there’s no investigation, that they are not going to re-open the case.

RB: Is there a review of the case here in Portugal?

CARLOS ANJOS: (translated) No, no I don’t think so. I think its too delicate to roll. It calls into question the reputation of the police and I don’t thing the Chief of Police would risk it.

RB: It was only while we were in Portugal that things began to change. We contacted a well-known politician here, Ana Maria Gomes, to get her to ask questions.

ANA MARIA GOMES: According to the information I got the Portuguese Police is also conducting a review.

RB: Who told you there is a Portuguese review then?

ANA MARIA GOMES: I called the Director of the National Criminal Police. His deputy told me that. Its a review of the procedures that were followed in the investigation.

RB: Why does nobody here in Portugal know about this review?

ANA MARIA GOMES: Well, I don’t know. Public opinion here in Portugal now is so upset and concerned with the economic crisis and its job destruction and so on but this is a very important case, first and foremost to find out what happened to Madeleine and to make sure that the Portuguese justice and political system is properly seen outside of Portugal.

RB: Within a week of our interview the Portuguese Police finally confirmed that a team based in the northern city of Porto, well away from the original investigation, has been reviewing the case for the last year.

UNNAMED PT SPOKESMAN: (translated) A network has been carried out discreetly and it will continue to be carried out discreetly.

RB: Here people seem to be open-minded. In Portugal people seem to have a clear view about what happened. Have you encountered that?

DCI REDWOOD: My engagement with the Portuguese is with the Police Officers sitting within the review team in Porto. Those officers are engaged. They are open. They are working with us collaboratively and I’ve not encountered with them any of those views.

RB: So what next. An odd and at times a tense mix of British and Portuguese Police Forces continue to pick through the evidence. One wrong word could jeopardise everything. The discomfort is obvious.

RB: Won’t they be slightly offended that they worked very hard on the case and now a foreign Police Force is saying we are going to have a look at what you did cos you failed?

DCI REDWOOD: What I would say to you on that, Richard, is that it would be wholly inappropriate for me to comment to you about how the PJ, the Policia Judiciara feel about this and that most probably is a matter best taken up with them.

RB: Did they start their review because you had yours?

DCI REDWOOD: I’m not willing to discuss with you the logistical side of the Portuguese policing response but ultimately the decision around re-opening is for them. It is a sovereign decision for the Portuguese authorities but obviously what we seek to do is to bring them the best quality information to assist them in making that decision.

RB: Next Thursday, Madeleine McCann will have been missing for five years. Our Prime Minister has gambled taxpayers money on finding a resolution. Today the British team announced they have fresh evidence in addition to the leads from their review. It now falls to them to succeed where the Portuguese have so far failed, to solve this enduring mystery.

25th April 2012

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service conducting the investigative review into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are releasing an age progression image of her as we approach her ninth birthday on 12 May.

The image has been created in close collaboration with the family and is being released ahead of the fifth anniversary of her disappearance on 3 May. It shows how we believe Madeleine would look today.

“we are releasing the age progression image today with a specific appeal”

The release comes as detectives announce that as a result of evidence uncovered during the review they now believe there is a possibility Madeleine is still alive and are appealing for anyone who is able to provide direct information as to her whereabouts to contact the team.

The investigative review commenced in May 2011 under the leadership of the then commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson. A murder team within the Homicide and Serious Crime Command was tasked to conduct the review and is led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood acting to Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell and Commander Simon Foy.

Work of the team involves close collaboration with a senior investigating officer from the Policia Judaria and detectives have been to Portugal several times.

Throughout the course of the review officers have been in close contact with the McCann family who have been assigned a Family Liaison Officer as is standard in accordance with national family liaison policy.

The review team are in a unique position in that their task is to compile and review material from three separate strands – the Portuguese investigation, inquiries by UK law enforcement agencies, and the work of private investigators/agencies.

Officers are now methodically going through that material which they believe amounts to around 40,000 pieces of information equating to approximately 100,000 pages.

The intention is to identify from that material investigative opportunities which we will then present to the Portuguese authorities who retain primacy for the investigation. Officers have so far identified around 195 such opportunities within the historic material, and are also developing what they believe to be genuinely new material.

The objective of the review team is to work with the Portuguese authorities with a view to having the case, which has remained closed since 2008, re-opened in due course.

DCI Andy Redwood said: “From the outset we have approached this review with a completely open mind, placing Madeleine McCann at the heart of everything we do. We are working on the basis of two possibilities here. One is that Madeleine is still alive; and the second that she is sadly dead.

“Based on the former we are releasing the age progression image today with a specific appeal.

“If you know where Madeleine McCann is now or you have new direct information/evidence about what has happened to her then please contact us.

“The second point of appeal today is in relation to those who were at the resort of Praia da Luz between 28 April and 3 May 2007. If you were either on holiday or in residence in the resort during this period, particularly in the vicinity of the Ocean Club, and you have not been spoken to by police either here or in Portugal then please call us on 0800 0961011 if you are within the UK. The number for non-UK residents is +44 2071580 126. Alternatively if you do not want to speak to us directly you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

Madeleine McCann – Aged 9 – Age Progression Photo Released by Met Police

Source

According to an article on the BBC Media Centre site, Alan Johnson says:

“It seems to be disgraceful.  It didn’t seem to me that they had had the benefit of a proper police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine.”

Goncalo Amaral, who was the initial investigator later convicted of falsying documents and perjury with regards to another missing child case states:

“It’s a fact that our investigation had its faults and lost a lot of time, lots of time. And a lot of things didn’t get followed up. And I’m just as much to blame for that as anyone else.”

Meanwhile, whilst honest detectives are trying to find Madeleine and bring those who harmed Madeleine to justice and sane, rational people support the family of a missing child, supporters of Goncalo Amaral – also known as Anti-McCanns - on a Facebook group are discussing Madeleine by saying that it would be in her best interests not to be alive if there is slightest chance she would end up like her aunt.

These are the people who proclaim they want Justice for Madeleine McCann, my view of justice is definitely not the same as theirs, my view is that Madeleine be given the right to life and that all efforts are made to find this child, hopefully alive and reunite her with her family.

Anyway here is a clip about the Last Hope search for Madeleine.

Personally I would have chartered a plane, shoved him and his mates on it and sent him and his mates packing to Jordan.

Damn what the ECHR said, if they thought he had rights then let them find another country to house him, because we don’t want him in ours.

But I did laugh at David Cameron and his “I sometimes wish I could put him on a plane and take him to Jordan myself.” comment…. please do DC.

Because from where I am sitting, if our Home Secretary can’t work out dates, what the hell is she doing in a high powered job.  And what a revelation Yvette Cooper come out with, our Home Secretary partying with X Factor judges when she should have been making sure the likes of the deportation of Abu Qatada does not get stalled, referred back to the ECHR or is delayed any further.

Mind you I think Matt from the Telegraph has summed this up correctly. Just one more thing DC, if you did put him on a plane personally and take him to Jordan, I think you would find that could be a vote winner.

On Facebook today I read a comment by Keir Simmons, he stated (screenshot):

I didn’t think it was very well carried out to be honest. A few days after she disappeared I went and sat in a field above the Portugese / Spanish border to watch the Portugese police carrying out checks on cars. As soon as it started to rain they packed up and left. Just to be clear – I’m not saying I know what happened to Madeleine… I’m saying I don’t, which is what any right thinking person should say…

Well what do you have to say about that revelation, other than it is now understandable why the British Press called the Police inadequate, inept, bumbling etc etc.

So because it rained they packed up, don’t they have water-proofs?  Don’t they have coats? A child was missing and those borders should have been manned 24/7 and just not during sunshine hours.

It is no wonder, the McCanns, begged for assistance, it is no wonder they contacted MP’s the British Police and the British Consulate, any person would do, especially if the Police carried on like this around them if it rained.  Bloody disgraceful….

And I don’t think for one minute Keir Simmons is lying, he wouldn’t dare lie and make such an allegation if it wasn’t true.

Well all I can say about that is, if this is how the Police in Portugal behave, criminals only have to wait for a rain shower and they will have a clear getaway.

Talk about fair-weather policing….