A McCann of Worms...

We all knew it was a huge can of worms.  But the news over the last few days is showing what a mixed up state of affairs the missing Madeleine McCann case is proving to be.  At the start of the week, I was really hopeful that the case would be reopened in Portugal, now I find myself disheartened and fearful that the real truth may never be known.

It all started with BBC Panorama and its claim that the News International, The Sun newspaper and the McCanns pressured the Prime Minister to instigate the review...

Downing Street sources have revealed to the programme that influence was being exerted on Number 10 by News International and by The Sun newspaper, as well as by the McCanns.  Within 24 hours of the front page appeal Mr Cameron announced a review could be paid for out of a contingency fund run by the Home Office, reserved for special cases.

Bizarre...

Also from BBC's Panorama, we have DCI Andy Redwood claiming that...

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.  Our drive on both scenarios is of equal measure.

The British media sensationally interpretted this as...

Police reveal Madeleine may still be alive

The Mirror

Madeleine McCann : She is alive

Express

195 Leads and she is still alive

Scotsman

In a complete turnaround, the Portuguese authorities denied all knowledge of new leads and quickly rebutted Scotland Yard's claims with...

There are no new elements at the moment that would allow for the reopening of the inquiry.  We have received no formal request for the reopening of the inquiry.

On the day that the McCanns and Isabel Duarte finally returned 7500 copies of Goncalo Amaral's book 'Truth of the Lie' to their rightful owner, publisher Guerra & Pas as ordered...

Goncalo Amaral appeared on Portuguese television and claimed that...

The British police wanted to impose the theory of abduction and the innocence of the parents.

Even more bizarre is DCI Redwood's apparent sole reason for the belief of abduction hinges on the parents and friends timeline...

Evidence that she is alive stems from the forensic view of the timeline, that there was the opportunity for her to be taken. Investigations show there do appear to be gaps. 

Forensic view of the timeline?  This timeline?...

I'm all for a chink of hope, but it beggars belief that Scotland Yard and the media have appeared to dismiss the findings of the British cadaver dog brought onto the case at the recommendation of our very own British police.  A skilled dog who marked the scent of death in apartment 5a and the McCanns' hire car.  And on Mrs McCann's clothing, a child's t-shirt and Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddlecat.  How can the scent of death simply be glossed over  and ignored when it was found on McCann related items only and nowhere else in Praia de Luz?  So what if the forensics were degraded and contaminated, it's the scent of death for goodness sake.

A battle of words, court cases and desire for power and money seems to have dominated this case.  Most importantly, at the core of all of this is Madeleine, who seems almost forgotten in the crossfire.  She doesn't deserve the fate she has been dealt or all this PR crap being bandied in the media.  The truth has to be know.

That Doggone Maddie McCann Review...

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Force have today released a statement via the officer in charge, DCI Andy Redwood about the current progress of the investigative review into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The team, consisting of 30 odd officers have approached the investigation with an open mind and are working on two possibilities - one that Madeleine is alive and secondly that she is sadly dead.  Work of the team involves close collaboration with a senior investigating officer from the Policia Judiciara and the object is to bring closure to the case, starting with the reopening of the investigation in Portugal.

In accordance with the former line of enquiry, the Met have released an age progressed picture of what Madeleine might look like if she was nine years old...

Please remember there are lots of little girls worldwide who look very similar to this idea of a girl and it would be a very bad idea to accost or grab any child in public.  Many lives have been disrupted by wrongful accusations in the past 5 years.  Children and parents have been extremely traumatised and in one Moroccan episode, a father pitifully thrust his daughter's birth certificate into the faces of parasitic news crews.  Another child grappled with was a boy.  So... please contact the local police in the first instance and watch from afar if you are crazy enough to think that the child in front of you may be a nine year old Madeleline.  Especially if she's really only five, six or seven years old.

Maybe one day some crackpot will get it right and it will be Madeleline. However after reading and watching the cadaver dogs involved in the McCann case, I have very serious doubts that this will ever happen. Amongst the many niggles that I still have, I wonder why the team running Operation Grange seem to have overlooked the fact that a British cadaver dog alerted to the scent of death in apartment 5a, in the hire car, on Kate McCann's clothing, on Sean's t-shirt and Madeleine's apparent favourite cuddly toy, Cuddlecat.  All subject to strict test conditions where several cars and items were analysed.  The dogs alerted only to McCann related items, nothing else.

Are the Met dismissing their own £500 a day cadaver dogs?  If so, what about all the other cases where these dogs have alerted to the scent of death.  Such as the Suzanne Pilley and Kate Prout murder cases.  Both perpetrators of these heinous murders were convicted without a body being discovered and are thankfully behind bars.

DCI Redwood says the team are only one quarter of the way through the extensive pile of information pooled by them.  Perhaps they just haven't reached the dog chapter yet...

And if they can perhaps explain away the scent of death then I may come around.  In the meantime... here's hoping Scotland Yard can encourage something the parents have never shown an interest in... the reopening of the case in Portugal.

The new farce of Maddie...

Days ago it was Lehja vu, today it's Mayja vu.

Despite what would be Madeleine's ninth birthday in two weeks, today's papers show what she might look like at the age of (eighty) eight.  The latest image was created by a crack computer team that (apparently) helps police forces across the States find missing people.

Crack team?  Or just on crack?

Using forensic age-progression techniques also employed by the FBI, they believe Maddie would by now have lost the wide-eyed, chubby-cheeked appearance when she vanished without a trace.

And be the image of Theresa May.

Police are expected to release their own age-progressed image this week as they renew attempts to solve the case.

Well that's another one to look forward to.

This case turned into a farce long ago, today they've gone a step too far.

Maddie in Malaga... another hoax sighting?

What a shame that the latest 'sighting' of Madeleine appears to be another hoax.  I have deja vu... or should that be Lehja vu?  In quotes and reports echoing many previous sightings, we have in the Express what we can assume is Clarence Mitchell on and off the record...

I'm sure it's news to both the Judicial Police and Scotland Yard that the 'hermetic Spanish police' have total autonomy in this particular inquiry and that these officers may stray onto their 'patch' without informing them!  These so-called hermetic Spanish plods must also be climbing the walls that their plans and procedures are in the public domain.  Oh, that source was paid to blab, and blab he does.

However, in all of the above, the crux of the matter is not what Mr Mitchell offers us, but what the official investigative teams have to say...

A spokesman from Scotland Yard declined to comment.

A spokesman for Spain's National police also refused to comment.

Nothing... we can probably assume for the reasons below...

Renascenca 17/4/12

Metro 18/4/12

A categoric denial from the Portuguese and the Spanish authorities... where are these false reports originating?  With the fifth anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance fast approaching and a new paperback to plug, many have said that this apparent hoax was expected.  A complete waste of everybody's time.  Perhaps we should go back to school and read again 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'.  The culprit/s should be found and punished and hope that the police meant business when they stated that the source and route of the initial report was being investigated.

The questions put to Kate McCann...

Below are the questions put to Kate McCann during her interrogation by the Portuguese police in September 2007.  She refused to answer all questions but the last.  Many people excuse Kate's silence on the advice of her lawyer, however Mr McCann did answer questions put to him. 

1. On 3 May 2007 at around 2200, when you entered the apartment what did you see and do, where did you look, and what did you touch?
2. Did you look inside the wardrobe in the bedroom? She said she wouldn't answer.
3. (Shown two photographs of the wardrobe) Can you describe its contents?
4. Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (a photograph of which was shown to her), been disturbed? Had someone passed behind this sofa?
5. How much time did you spend searching in the apartment after realising that your daughter Madeleine had disappeared?
6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted?
7. Assuming that Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins alone at home to go to the Tapas to raise the alarm, not least because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment?
8. Why did you not ask the twins at that moment what had happened to their sister, or why did you not ask them later?
9. When you raised the alarm in the Tapas what specific words were used?
10. What happened after raising the alarm at the Tapas?
11. Did you have a mobile phone with you at that moment?
12. Why did you go to warn your friends instead of shouting from the balcony?
13. Who contacted the authorities?
14. Who took part in the searches?
15. Did someone outside the group learn, in the moments that followed, of Madeleine's disappearance?
16. Did any neighbour offer you help after the alarm was raised about the disappearance?
17. What did the expression "we let her down" mean?
18. Did Jane tell you that she had seen a man carrying a child that night?
19. How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted?
20. During the searches after police arrived, in which places were Madeleine searched for, and in what way?
21. Why did the twins not wake up during the search or when they went upstairs?
22. Whom did you telephone after the discovery?
23. Did you call Sky News?
24. Did you know of any danger of calling the media alerting them of the abduction, since this could influence the abductor?
25. Did you request the presence of a priest?
26. In what way was the face of Madeleine, in photographs or by other means, released?
27. Is it true that during the search you remained seated on Madeleine's bed in your room without moving?
28. What was your behaviour like during that night?
29. Did you manage to sleep?
30. Before the trip to Portugal did you make a comment about a bad feeling or premonition about it?
31. What was Madeleine's behaviour like?
32. Did Madeleine suffer from any infirmity or take medication?
33. What was Madeleine's relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and fellow pupils?
34. Regarding your professional life, in how many hospitals and in which ones did you work?
35. What was your speciality as a doctor?
36. Do you work shifts in emergency wards or other departments?
37. Do you work in the daytime?
38. Why did you stop working at a certain point?
39. Is it true or not that the twins have difficulty falling asleep, that they are restless and that this upsets you?
40. Is it true or not that at certain times you felt desperate at your children's attitude and that this upsets you a lot?
41. Is it true or not that in England you went so far as thinking about handing over Madeleine to a relative to look after?
42. At home (in England) did you give medication to your children and what kind of medication?
43. (Various films had been shown to her of the inspection by forensic dogs, where one can see their signalling indications of the scent of a human corpse and traces of human blood as well as the comments by the expert overseeing the exercise.) Having seen the film and after the scent of a corpse was signalled in her bedroom near the wardrobe, and behind the sofa by the window in the sitting room, Kate McCann said she could not explain anything more than she already had.
44. She was asked about the sniffer dog that signalled human blood behind the above-mentioned sofa. She said she could not explain anything more than she already had.
45. She was asked about the scent of corpse which was signalled in the vehicle she hired about a month after the disappearance, with number plate 59-DA-27. She said she could not explain anything more than she already had.
46. When the presence of human blood was signalled in the boot of the same vehicle Kate McCann said she could not explain anything more than she already had.
47. Confronted with the result of the sample of Madeleine's DNA, whose analysis was carried out by a British laboratory, found behind the sofa and in the boot of the vehicle, as previously described, Kate McCann said she could not explain anything more than she already had.
48. Did you have any responsibility or involvement in the disappearance of your daughter Madeleine?
49. Are you aware that the fact of your not answering the questions put to you jeopardise the investigation that was aimed at finding out what happened to your daughter, she answered: "Yes, if the investigation thinks that."
50. Do you have anything to add? She said: "No."
51. Her lawyer was asked to comment. He said he had nothing to state or request.

Please note... you do not need to have been physically in Portimao police station with Kate McCann to have knowledge of the above questions. You do not need to have been a tiny fly on the wall to know that she did not answer any of them.  This information is well known and has been freely available online for many years - it is still available to view on many news websites, click here to view on BBC News.

If you didn't know this, why not?  Maybe reading the translated official police investigation files would be a good start... McCann PJ Files.