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Post by Admin on Jul 4, 2014 15:32:01 GMT
A former Portuguese Home Secretary has launched an astonishing attack on the UK police hunt for Madeleine McCann. He claimed Portuguese police had been “used and abused” and ordered to work for the British. His incredible outburst came as Scotland Yard detectives wound up the latest phase of their £5million probe into the little girl’s disappearance. Four suspects and 11 witnesses have been quizzed this week by Portuguese police in Faro, watched over by the Met team from Operation Grange. Specialist sniffer dogs from south Wales have also searched cars linked to the investigation. Sources on the Algarve say the four-day operation has failed to produce new leads. And now former government minister Riu Pereira has blasted the operation, calling it ‘absurd’ and claiming Portuguese authorities have been ‘subservient’ to the UK. He said his country’s police officers had been used as “outsource workers”. In a newspaper column on Thursday he wrote: “The Portuguese authorities, especially the Policia Judiciaria, have been used and abused in the ambit of international judicial cooperation, to carry out work ordered by their British counterparts.” He added: “From chartered Air Force helicopter flights, to search from above for holes opened seven years ago, to the return of the famous sniffer dogs, as well as quizzes of ‘suspects and witnesses’, everything has been done to satisfy the aims of our oldest allies. Is such deference justified?” He asked: “The first question that occurs to me is simple. Would the British police do the same in identical circumstances?” Before adding: “Of course not.” He said Portuguese police were capable of conducting their own inquiry. “This, therefore, is the the absurdity of the situation in all its splendour. In Portugal there’s a criminal investigation with the same objective, but our authorities are working, as exclusive outsource workers, for another country’s ongoing investigation.” And he added: “Could it be that the reopening of the case in Portugal was simply designed to facilitate the cooperation of Portuguese police at the service of British police. If that is true, then there was ‘manipulation’ of the case. We can conclude, without making conjectures, that it reveals a good helping of subservience which prejudices our national sovereignty as a penal state.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2014 15:48:20 GMT
Detectives believe they were targeting the family until the moment the alarm was raised about Madeleine vanishing. They have uncovered a series of eight calls and texts suggesting they were monitoring her parents, Kate and Gerry, before a raid on their apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May, 2007. Detectives are trying to discover if they intended to carry out a burglary or if they had a more sinister motive for watching the McCanns. The first call was placed by Suspect A, a 51-year-old heroin addict, to Suspect B, a beggar then aged just 16, at 12.08pm the day before Madeleine vanished. B then swapped four phone calls and texts with Suspect C, a 33-year-old ex-Ocean Club driver with convictions for theft, on May 3. The first was at 5.26pm, at the precise time when Madeleine was leaving the resort’s crèche. A text message was exchanged at 9.25pm when two of the McCanns’ holiday pals left their dinner in a tapas bar to check on the group’s children who were asleep in the nearby apartments. The two suspects were in contact again at 9.38pm when one of the McCanns’ pals Jane Tanner left the restaurant to check on her children. They were in touch again at 9.51pm as Madeleine’s GP mum walked to her apartment to find her then three-year-old daughter missing. Later that evening, A made three calls from a public phone box in the resort to B. Police have still not traced a man seen carrying a sleeping blonde girl in pyjamas towards the resort’s beach at 10pm. Yesterday Scotland Yard officers including Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood joined Portuguese detectives continuing to investigate the three men linked by the calls. Sources said suspicious hair had also been found that did not match Madeleine’s DNA. According to Portuguese newspapers a request to obtain DNA and fingerprints from the three men was refused. They deny any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance and have answered more than 250 police questions. Yesterday Brit police sniffer dogs were brought in to examine the cars of suspects A and C. None of the men commented as they left a police station in Faro. A friend of Suspect A, whom a private detective hired by the McCanns said would “do anything for his next fix”, insisted he was innocent. “He was indoors the night Madeleine disappeared,’’ his pal said. “It’s inhuman a sick man like him has been dragged before the police.’’ A fourth suspect, a Russian, was also questioned. Yesterday police officers were quizzing eight people as witnesses. At least one of the “skint” men would have broken ranks, Portuguese police believe. One was a heroin addict, the second a 16-year-old beggar and the third a driver who police believe organised thefts from apartments in Praia da Luz where the McCanns stayed. A Portuguese police source said it was “inconceivable that humble people with limited financial resources could keep quiet” for so long. UK detectives believe Madeleine was killed during a bungled break-in at the McCanns’ apartment in May 2007 by a gang of thieves who then buried her on wasteground near the scene. The three suspects denied all knowledge of Madeleine’s fate when quizzed by British detectives this week.
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Post by Admin on Jul 16, 2014 5:57:09 GMT
Jose Carlos da Silva, 28, used to drive guests to their apartments once they had been ferried to the Ocean Club headquarters in Luz from airports, writes James Murray. He formerly lived in an apartment block overlooking the Ocean Club but has since moved to a nearby run-down flat. Now he works as a dishwasher in a restaurant and is said by neighbours to suffer poor health because of a lung condition. The Sunday Express photographed him weeks before he was interviewed by Portuguese detectives in Faro on the Algarve where Scotland Yard officers listened intently to his every word. We understand that on May 3 2007 there was mobile phone communication between him and a second arguido, Ricardo Rodrigues, at about the time that Madeleine left a creche somewhere near 5.30pm. It is further alleged that at about 9.25pm he also sent a text to the younger man. Police say this was around the time that two of the McCann holiday group left the tapas bar at the Ocean Club to check on the children sleeping in apartments nearby. Further communication on their mobiles came at 9.38pm, around the time that another member of the holiday group went to check on the children. A short time later there was another mobile call between the men, around the time Kate McCann went to the apartment and discovered that Madeleine, then three, was missing. Friends said he is a popular man who was well liked and known in the community and would never do anything wrong. A woman friend said: “He lives alone and suffers with his health because he has problems with his lungs and he often goes to hospital for checks. He is always very polite and nice and pleasant. He is a very quiet man who leads a simple life.” Little is known about Mr Rodrigues but he is part of a group of mostly young people in Luz who contribute to an internet site showing pictures of scenic spots in the area. Fresh faced and youthful he is said to resemble a photofit prepared by an elderly British couple of a man who came to their villa with an older man to collect money for a charity on May 3 2007. The older man is said to resemble Paulo Ribeiro, 51, another arguido. He lives in Luz and is said to be a schizophrenic. Sources say the police wanted further information from him about a call he allegedly had with Mr Rodrigues the day after Madeleine vanished. Operation Grange officers are hoping that the detailed questioning will help them to build up a clearer picture of events before and after Madeleine’s disappearance. A fourth man questioned is believed to be Russian national Sergey Malinka, who ran an internet firm in Luz at the time. He has always denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance and, like the others, was reluctant to speak to journalists.
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