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Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2014 16:41:37 GMT
The British police hunt to find missing Madeleine McCann has sparked an angry backlash in the resort where she vanished. Dozens of road signs have been defaced since Scotland Yard detectives who have been scouring Praia da Luz for clues returned home on Friday. Stop signals have had the words “McCann Circus” stencilled on them as locals vent their fury at the searches being conducted just as the busy, lucrative holiday season began. And residents are angry that four men from the area were last week quizzed by the British officers. The graffiti appeared as Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry prepared to fly to Portugal for the next stage of their libel case against disgraced police chief Goncalo Amaral. One local said of the suspects questioned by Scotland Yard: “We know these people, they are innocent. “It is crazy. When will it end? We want to be left alone.” The UK team, led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, is expected to return to Portugal soon. It is believed they want to send sniffer dogs into a shop where a suspect was seen with a child on the night Madeleine disappeared in May 2007, aged three. A former Scotland Yard commander yesterday urged Mr Redwood’s officers to search an abandoned well which lies on scrubland 1,000 yards from the holiday apartment where the youngster was staying. The widow of prime suspect Euclides Monteiro, 40, said yesterday she had not been quizzed by the British police while they were in the Algarve recently. But Luisa Rodrigues continued to insist the junkie and burglar, who worked at the Ocean Club where the McCanns were staying, was not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. The 40-year-old said: “My husband had nothing to do with it. The Portuguese police have already said that.” Monteiro was sacked from the Ocean Club for stealing tips, a year before Madeleine vanished. He died in a 2008 tractor accident.
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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2014 5:05:50 GMT
A former Met Police top cop today urged British police looking into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann to search an abandoned well. The uncovered shaft is on scrubland less than 1,000 yards from the Ocean Club complex she was staying in with her parents in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Ex-Scotland Yard commander Roy Ramm served 27 years with the Metropolitan Police and was Commander of Specialist Operations, dealing with serious crime. He said yesterday: “Whoever abducted Madeleine knew the local streets, alleyways and scrubland and used that knowledge to avoid detection.” Met officers have searched nearby scrubland, but not the deep well. Madeleine was almost four when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007 as her parents Kate and Gerry dined at a nearby restaurant with friends. The Operation Grange team , led by Det Chief Inspector Andy Redwood , are expected to return to Portugal in the coming weeks. It is believed they want to send sniffer dogs into a shop where a suspect was seen with a young child on the night Madeleine vanished. A Portuguese source close to the investigation also claimed that last week’s phase of the operation had taken the investigation no further forward. He said: “We’re back where we were seven years ago.” All four men who were interviewed last week are being treated as “persons of special interest” or arguidos. They have denied any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine. Meanwhile Madeleine’s parents are due to fly to Lisbon tomorrow for their libel action against Goncalo Amaral, the 56-year-old ex-police chief who led the initial investigation into their daughter’s disappearance. After his retirement, he published a book called The Truth of the Lie, in which he claimed that Madeleine died in an accident which was covered up by her parents. The well is on land owned by two wealthy British property developers, who were unaware of its existence until The Mail on Sunday contacted them last week. The plot includes a derelict farmhouse surrounded by rubble and litter, including a pile of English paperback novels. An old mattress inside the tumbledown building suggests someone once slept there. One of the owners, who asked not to be identified, said: ‘If they want to search on the land we have got no problem with it. We are not going to stand in anyone’s way, but no one has contacted us.’ The McCanns’ spokesman said yesterday: ‘Kate and Gerry continue to have full confidence in the work being carried out by the Met Police but will not comment on it.’
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Post by Admin on Jul 18, 2014 14:18:34 GMT
A married couple claimed bogus bomb detectors made in their garden shed could help find missing Madeleine McCann, a court heard yesterday. Samuel Tree, 67, and his wife Joan, 62, sold the fake machines for thousands of pounds each, the Old Bailey was told. They claimed that the devices were made in a high security 'laboratory' and could be used to track down drugs, explosives and even specific people. But they were actually just plastic boxes with antennas stuck on top that cost a couple of pounds to build in their back garden, the court heard. Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC said: "This is a fraud case about dishonesty and deception but it has some highly unusual features. The two people in the dock are a married couple. "For many years they made a product, called an Alpha 6, in a shed in the back garden of their home. They claimed that this product was capable of detecting the presence of drugs and explosives and other substances and objects. They have even claimed that is it capable of finding missing people and on one occasion a claim was being made it was capable of even finding Madeleine McCann. These claims were false. The Alpha 6 device is nothing more than a plastic box with antennae stuck on the top and some pieces of paper inside. It cost a few pounds to make and yet was sold to agents and suppliers for hundreds and sometimes thousands of times this amount. The basic allegation is that the device does not work and they knew it did not work but they made it and supplied it to be sold for profit. Despite the fact that these devices did not work, people did astonishingly buy them." The sham product was sold through Keygrove and Keygrove International, companies run from the couple's home in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, the court heard. 'The device was called the Alpha 6 Molecular Detector, a revolutionary product, according to the marketing material, for search and detection of specific contraband substances,' Ms Whitehouse said. 'There were apparently a number of variants - the devices could detect drugs, explosives and even particular people. It was claimed that the device could detect substances as small as 15 millionths of a gram at a range of up to 500 metres and was powered by nothing more than the static electricity generated by the body of the person operating the device.' Samuel based his design on the American-made 'Quadro Tracker', a product originally marketed as a golf ball finder, the court heard. The Quadro has now been banned across the world and its inventor Malcolm Roe came to Britain and stayed with the Trees. 'Sam Tree went to the United States in 1995 and saw this golf ball finder - Quadro Tracker - in action,' Ms Whitehouse said. 'He brought it back with him. This device could, it was claimed, detect the presence of drugs. It plainly did not impress the American authorities because in 1996, after a civil trial, the sale of Quadro Tracker was banned across the world because it was wholly ineffective and was being sold fraudulently.' She added: "Mr and Mrs Tree were aware of the problems with the Quadro because Malcolm Roe was a friend of Mr and Mrs Tree.' "Through this friendship they knew all about the failure of his detector device and Mr Tree went to America to give evidence on behalf in the civil trial." The Trees previously sold crime scene equipment, including fingerprint powder, to various police forces across the country. But they turned their hand to inventing in 1997 with their first detector device - the Mole. The Mole was discontinued in 2004 because it did not work and Samuel moved on to the Alpha 6, the court heard. "It was no more effective than the Quadro or the Mole," Ms Whitehouse said. "There is evidence that Sam Tree was well aware of that." The first batch of plastic boxes cost £5.10 each to make, the court heard. The Trees ordered £65,000 worth to be made in China and shipped to the UK by product design firm Blue MT. "The impression given is one of sophistication, and effectiveness based upon scientific principles," said Ms Whitehouse. "The reality was that Samuel and Joan Tree were assembling the devices in the garden of their semi-detached house in Dunstable with plastic boxes made in China, glue and bits of paper."
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2014 5:02:05 GMT
The potential key witness has been interviewed several times in Britain and used to live almost opposite apartment 5a of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on the Algarve, from where Madeleine, three, was taken on May 3, 2007. The woman gave an interview to Portuguese detectives 13 days after the disappearance but the report on the informal interview does not mention her overhearing a conversation about disposing of a body. However, in April 2008 the woman made a further statement in which she recounted hearing the astonishing comment, saying she heard it days after the abduction. She also claimed that the owner of a pub in Luz was called by a woman shortly after the disappearance who said she had overheard the comment about getting rid of a body. The woman has since returned to Britain with her child and is living in the Home Counties. When contacted by the Sunday Express, the woman, who we are choosing not to name to safeguard the investigation, said: “I do not want to say anything.” Last month Scotland Yard detectives shadowed three searches of wasteland near the Ocean Club but no obvious clues were found. Some materials gathered in the search were sent for forensic examination but officers were not hopeful of a breakthrough in the investigation.
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Post by Admin on Jul 23, 2014 15:36:43 GMT
A couple made bogus devices in their garden shed for detecting drugs, explosives and even Madeleine McCann, a court has heard. Samuel and Joan Tree are on trial at the Old Bailey over the black plastic boxes which they marketed as Alpha 6 under the company name of Keygrove. The court heard while they cost just a few pounds to make, they were sold on the back of “outlandish claims” for as much as $2,000. Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC told jurors: “They claimed that this Alpha 6 was capable of detecting the presence of drugs and explosives and other substances and objects. They even claimed on one occasion that it is capable of finding particular people, most notably Madeleine McCann. These claims were all false. The device was nothing more than a plastic box with an antennae stuck on the top and some pieces of paper inside. It cost a few pounds to make and yet was sold to agents and suppliers for hundreds and sometimes thousands of times that amount. Despite the fact that these plastic boxes plainly could not work, people did astonishingly buy them.” Miss Whitehouse told the court how the device was based on a product originally made by a Briton in the United States to find golf balls, and later drugs. That product, known as a Quadro Tracker, was banned by US authorities in 1996 following a civil trial because it was “completely ineffective”, the jury was told. It was claimed the Alpha 6 could detect substances as small as 15 billionth of a gram at a range of up to 500 metres and was powered by nothing more than static electricity from the user’s body, the court heard. Mr Tree produced the device despite having no training or qualifications with explosives, narcotics or search skills, jurors were told. One of the boxes was found to contain a photograph of Madeleine McCann cut into pieces inside. Mr Tree said on one occasion that it was possible to find missing people by putting a photo in the box, jurors were told. The couple deny making an article for use in a fraud between January 14 2007 and 12 July 2012. The trial continues.
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