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Post by Admin on May 8, 2014 13:37:42 GMT
Scotland Yard detectives are in Portugal to oversee the excavation of a number of sites as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The digs for evidence are set to take place at three principle locations around the resort where the youngster vanished in 2007. Scotland Yard detectives believe the sites were not properly explored at the time of her disappearance. One is a road just below the apartment block where trenches were dug before Madeleine went missing, that were filled in the day after she vanished. There is a waste ground to the side of the apartment block where a man was seen carrying a child, according to some witnesses, soon after Madeleine disappeared.  And there is the beach area where over the years there have been reports of activity, of people seen there acting suspiciously. Forensics officers are due to use ground-penetrating radar equipment to aid the search at the three sites in Praia da Luz. It is not known exactly when the excavations will begin. Madeleine disappeared from the apartment she was staying in with her parents and two siblings on May 3, 2007. She was three years old at the time.  Officers from Scotland Yard arrive at Faro Airport. Pic: EXCLUSIVEPIX Officers from the Metropolitan Police have also identified three potential suspects they want to talk to, not necessarily around Madeleine's disappearance, but who had been involved in break-ins in the area. However, they have reportedly been refused permission by Portuguese authorities to search the homes of these burglary suspects, who used to work at the Ocean Complex at the time Madeleine vanished. Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt, in Praia da Luz, said: "That's a blow for Scotland Yard."  They will oversee excavations at three sites. Pic: EXCLUSIVEPIX Brunt said disagreements over leaks to the media may delay British police in their efforts to scour areas they will be given access to. "I'm not sure that those searches are going to begin quite so quickly," he said. "The Portuguese are making it very clear that they were not happy with journalists being briefed. It's not something that happens in this country and in fact, the Portuguese authorities, according to the Scotland Yard message last night, had threatened to stop any of the work once it begins if they hear that Scotland Yard are talking to reporters, or indeed if reporters are in any way disrupting the work. |
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Post by Admin on May 9, 2014 13:29:08 GMT
Detectives from Scotland Yard have used a helicopter in a fresh search for Madeleine McCann ahead of crucial excavation work in the holiday resort where she vanished. After Scotland Yard detectives met with Portuguese authorities, an Alouette helicopter scoured the Praia da Luz coast on an apparent reconnaissance mission. Military photographers, who were accompanied by British policemen, took pictures of the beach and key sites in the resort where detectives plan to dig for clues in the coming days.  The Met Police have been granted permission by Portuguese authorities to dig up three areas of land in Praia da Luz and they said the searches will begin within weeks The preparatory work began amid ongoing tensions between British and Portuguese authorities over the cold case inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance seven years ago. A team of Scotland Yard detectives flew in to the country on Wednesday and later met with their counterparts for four hours. It is thought they have requested permission to question eight crucial witnesses after being given the green light to excavate key sites yards from where Madeleine was last seen on May 3, 2007.  Local media said six Scotland Yard officials, including two forensics experts, had landed in Faro A Portuguese Air Force helicopter was seen circling over Praia da Luz on Thursday afternoon. During a 15-minute flyover, aerial photographs were taken over the beach and the areas surrounding the Ocean Club resort where Madeleine was holidaying with her twin siblings and their parents Gerry and Kate. It is thought the reconnaissance exercise was commissioned by the Scotland Yard team on the ground, which is being led by detective chief inspector Andy Redwood. They flew over key areas expected to be dug up for clues in the coming days, including a large wasteland just yards from the Ocean Club complex.  Search site: The waste ground in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Scotland Yard officers will join local police officers in digging as part of the investigation  This land that was not fenced at the time of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is contiguous to the path where witnesses saw a man passing with a child in pajamas in her arms the night of the disappearance |
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Post by Admin on May 10, 2014 15:19:48 GMT
Is the Press Complaints Commission going to find itself dealing with one last controversial complaint or will it become the first headache for the new Independent Press Standards Organisation? Gerry and Kate McCann, have issued a statement, registering their disquiet at "interference" by journalists in the new investigation into their daughter's disappearance. It states: But where exactly should the press draw the line? What happens if reporters discover facts without having had police briefings? Is it wrong for British papers to reproduce every story appearing in the Portuguese press? Where does factual reporting stop and intrusion into grief begin? With the questions in mind, let's look at how have the press has reacted to the call for restraint.  The Daily Mirror has been in the forefront, running a "world exclusive" splash on Monday, "Maddie cops to start digging up resort". The story appeared to be well sourced. On Wednesday, the Mirror splashed on an "exclusive new lead" headlined "Maddie cops to dig yards from apartment". A similar story was the splash in the Daily Star, "Maddie: police dig up 3 sites" and in the Daily Express, "Police dig in new hunt for Maddy." If factually accurate, as appears to be the case, the problem for the Met with these stories was that it was bound to raise suspicions by the Portuguese police about off-the-record briefings (even if that was not the case).  The holiday complex where Madeleine McCann went missing The Sun also ran a page lead that morning, "Kate had dream of where to dig", in which Mrs McCann was alleged to have told a family liaison officer about her dream of where officers should look. By Wednesday evening, Sky News was reporting that "disagreements over leaks to the media may delay British police in their efforts to scour areas they will be given access to." Its crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, reported from Praia da Luz, on "what appears to be a developing row between the British authorities and the Portuguese authorities about essentially Scotland Yard giving out information to journalists about what is going to happen."The Portuguese are making it very clear that they were not happy with journalists being briefed." Brunt also spoke about another "blow for Scotland Yard" because - according to a report in a local Portuguese newspaper, the News Journal - the authorities had rejected a Scotland Yard plea to search the homes of three men accused of burglaries at the Praia da Luz complex at the time Madeleine vanished.  An age progression image showing how Madeleine may have looked aged eight The Daily Mail also referred to "ongoing tensions between British and Portuguese authorities" It quoted Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe as saying: "There are always going to be complications when you have got one police force in one country working with the police force of another. We have both got to be sensitive to these things." British newspaper editors cannot be other than aware of the sensitivity surrounding the Madeleine McCann story. Her parents spoke movingly at the Leveson inquiry of their unfortunate treatment by certain papers some seven years ago.  They remain acutely concerned about intrusions into their privacy despite acknowledging the need for continuing publicity about the case. They and their friends, along with a local man wrongly identified as a suspect, were paid large sums in libel damages for inaccurate, defamatory reports in the aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance. Although it is obvious that editors would not wish to repeat the sins of the past, they are fascinated by the story and remain wedded, as always, to the kind of scoop journalism that can lead them to overstep the mark. |
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2014 13:19:31 GMT
 Detectives from Scotland Yard want to dig up land in the Algarve resort where Madeleine vanished seven years ago. The Brits fear she was abducted by an Algarve sex fiend who had targeted foreign girls before. But local detectives are now said to believe that her disappearance was “unique” and nothing to do with the pervert behind the assaults. A Portuguese cold case review team persuaded bosses to reopen their archived Madeleine inquiry last year after discovering similarities between her case and five sex attacks by a mystery man. They looked into the background of a now dead immigrant burglar, still thought to be among their suspects. But Portuguese officers told a local paper yesterday that evidence gathered over the last six months had weakened the possibility of a connection.  They suspect a foreigner who has now left the country snatched Madeleine. They fear she was killed and her body smuggled out of the country. The theory signals Portuguese police think excavations near the Praia da Luz complex will be a waste of time. Last week a team of Met detectives, led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, inset, visited Praia da Luz and are now studying aerial photos taken from an air force helicopter ahead of any digging. No date has been set for the digs, which are expected to be preceded by searches involving ground-penetrating radar and sniffer dogs.  Local residents also think the digs are futile. One elderly British expat believed the Met police were “trying to prove a point” and “keep their jobs”. She added: “I wonder what the British taxpayer thinks? After all, they are paying for it!” The woman said locals were “mad” and “feel it (the digging)could ruin our tourism”. She said: “The resort was busy over Easter and although it’s quietened down we’re heading into the main holiday season. I can’t imagine any family with young children would want to see officers digging up the ground.” |
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Post by Admin on May 12, 2014 13:30:30 GMT
 The parents of missing Madeleine McCann face the most heartbreaking day of the year today as they mark her 11th birthday. Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, will remember their daughter with cake and presents at home in Rothley, Leicestershire. The couple and their nine-year-old twins Sean and Amelie will also lay gifts in Madeleine’s pink bedroom, which has become a shrine since she vanished. Gerry said: “It is really hard. She won’t be here. It’s by far the toughest day of our year, every year. But we still have a birthday cake for her.” As they prepared to mark the day, it was revealed Met Police detectives have quizzed a British child rapist in his prison cell. Anthony Woodhouse, 68, was visited by police trying to establish what happened to Maddie, aged three at the time of her disappearance in May 2007. Woodhouse had been due to stand trial in 1999 charged with raping a 14-year-old who fell pregnant as a result but fled the country and set up a cleaning business in Portugal.  He was jailed for seventeen-and-a-half years in 2008 after giving himself up to the British Embassy in Lisbon claiming he felt guilty about his crime. Judge Alistair McCreath told his trial at Worcester Crown Court: “This is as bad a case of rape that one can imagine and it is difficult to overstate how wicked it was. It is inevitable that the child was hugely damaged.” Thousands of calls have been made to Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange team over the disappearance of three-year-old Maddie on a holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal. A spokesman said: “We will not be providing a running commentary.” Plain-clothed detectives asked him about a cleaning business he was running in the Algarve.He was operating the firm at the time three-year-old Madeleine went missing from her family's Praia da Luz holiday apartment in 2007. They also asked him of his whereabouts before and after she was abducted. Woodhouse returned to the UK in 2008 to serve a 17-and-a-half year prison sentence term for the rape of the teenager after giving himself in. He said he was “preoccupied with guilt every day” after he admitted the crime to the British embassy in Lisbon. British police detectives are working their way through 38 possible abductors in the Madeleine case — 12 of them Brits. Woodhouse was questioned after it was revealed that police wanted to trace six British cleaners who were working at the resort. |
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