Madeleine book sheds light on mystery predator

Sky news going to town on the new book this weekend!!
There is a Martin Brunt 'special' report on there too but I don't know how to copy videos.

http://news.sky.com/story/1331466/madeleine-book-sheds-light-on-mystery-predator

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
A bogus charity collector was suspected of planning to abduct a young British girl hours before Madeleine McCann vanished, a new book reveals.

The intruder fled when he was caught in a villa close to the apartment from where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.

Author Anthony Summers told Sky News that a British mother answered her door to a stranger asking for donations to an orphanage.



olice search for evidence of Madeleine McCann at Praia da Luz
A mystery sexual predator is being investigated by Scotland Yard
"She soon realised he wasn't really looking at her, but was staring intently at her young daughter of three or four who was standing at her side, holding on to her skirt.

"She later saw that man watching her place during the afternoon. The next day she went upstairs to fetch something for a moment and as she started to come downstairs she saw what she thinks was the same man in the room where her child was and as soon as she started to come into the room he scarpered."

The woman was convinced the man intended to take her daughter and has been interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance, said Mr Summers.



Madeleine McCann book Looking For Madeleine
The revelations has been made in the new book Looking For Madeleine
The incident in the Praia da Luz resort is recounted in Looking For Madeleine, published next week, by Mr Summers and his co-author Robbyn Swan.

The authors spent two years studying Portuguese police files and British documents for what they claim is the first objective book on the Madeleine case. They did not interview Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

The book also reveals how another intruder got into the bed of a young girl in the nearby resort of Carvoeiro three years earlier.

The man fled after the girl and her sister woke up and asked if he was their daddy or uncle, said Ms Swan.



Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of looking for Madeleine
Authors Robbyn Swan and Anthony Summers
She said: "What they noticed about this man was that he was wearing what seemed to be a surgical mask and he had wound laundry around his feet, seemingly to keep from making prints or leaving marks.

"He disappeared without interfering with the two girls."

A mystery sexual predator and three burglary suspects are the focus of the current Scotland Yard investigation.

The authors claim that the McCanns' holiday apartment, no 5a at the Ocean Club complex, was being watched in the days leading up to Madeleine's disappearance.



Madeleine McCann's apartment
A man was seeing behaving oddly in a lane close to the McCanns' apartment
Ms Swan said: "Two separate witnesses apparently saw a man, whom both described as very ugly or with a spotty or pimply face, staring fixedly at apartment 5a. They both described him being in the same position in the street.

"That's combined with the fact that on the very day Madeleine disappeared, a lady visiting the apartment upstairs saw from her balcony a man behaving very oddly in the lane between the apartments and the pool.

"The man was going out of an adjacent gate, closing the gate repeatedly to see if it was creaky. He seemed to be looking around and generally acting very peculiarly before leaving."

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished. She was sleeping in a room with her younger brother and sister in the apartment while her parents were dining with friends in the complex's poolside tapas bar nearby.

The McCanns said they had left the sliding patio door unlocked, while checking on the children every 30 minutes.



Trial of former police chief Mr Amaral has been suspended
Kate and Gerry McCann were not interviewed for the book
The authors say that Mrs McCann has said she was told by the then British consul Bill Henderson that before Madeleine vanished he was aware of a spate of child sex assaults along the Algarve coast and had discussed it with holiday companies.

Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."

The McCanns' tour operators Mark Warner Ltd said its policy was not to comment. The Foreign Office told the authors it had no information to give them.

The authors of the book appeared, Brunty appeared, Jackie Hames: the acceptable face of policing (30 years a cop and now one no longer, and she still looks good!) and reasonable, but in some aspects very 'odd', discussions went on.

One key point was that Hames did discuss the dogs, and did not dismiss their findings in 5a and elsewhere per se. What she said was that they were indicative, and needed to be backed up by other evidence and they were not. (True) She said that their results were oversold to the PJ, and that that was why the McCanns were made arguidos. She did NOT say that indicative evidence is important in that it tells you where to look! She did not point out that the dogs were shown around lots of flats and allowed to look at lots of cars and ONLY reacted to the McCanns'.

Much was made of ugly spotty man 'watching the flats' and a charity collector (one and the same?) visiting someone with a three to four year old and 'staring' at the child, and later hanging around, and even coming into her place and then running away when disturbed. She did not see his face the second time, so it may not have been the same person. (!) A silly remark IMHO ensued where it was said that if the McCanns had known about this, they would have ensured that back door was locked shut! What with the children inside and them not around?! How daft! Better to have said that the children would never have been left in the flat whilst their parents were out 'dining'! We also heard tell of the creep who, some while ago, got into children's beds with them... little white English girls beds, natch. The relevance of this seemed dubious even as it was being put forward.

American evidence was quoted to show that the number of children around Madeline's age who disappeared was very small indeed: less that 4%, and that 56% of those who went missing were found safe and well. This was felt somehow to be cheering news, but I could not see why. Madeleine's disappearance happened over 7 years ago! Moreover, we kept being shown the poolside supposed 'last picture' of Madeleine as she was THEN, and not, if the finding of a live child was genuinely believed to be possible, the best of the age-increased photos which might have had at least a bit of plausibility.

So... overall... despite the billing of this book, and its measured and non-sensational analysis... IMHO we are no further on at all.

Sorry wjk... We posted on the same topic almost at the same time. I take ages to type anything in and yours was not up when I began. Yours has PICTURES! Splendid!

A great summing up of the discussion, agree with you 100% especially, "we are no further on at all"

ps, I shall not be buying this book!!

So now he's wearing a surgical mask, and has cloth wound round his feet.  I think I might know who that is, AND he has a history of abducting young women too!

His name is Boris Karloff, so he should be easy to track down and arrest. Where do I claim my reward?

The book is already discounted to £10 from £18.99 on Amazon and is not released until Sept. 11th.

This comment beggars belief!!
'Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."


OMG!! So these authors are saying MW should have left notes to parents to make sure they locked their children IN! Not the parents should never have left the children alone night after night!!
NO ONE ever says they SHOULD NOT have left the children alone!It makes my blood boil!!

You don't need a note to tell you that when you go out you LOCK the damn door....


Do the mccanns leave their front door unlocked when they go out....we know they lock the back door, Gerry couldn't get into his own house in the documentary.

Do you think that serious journos/reporters/TV link persons etc (if any there still be!) think that at the very best all this is of dubious relevance: a 'going through the motions' of sensible reassessment of the case with out genuinely doing so?

well we all know its near damages trial don't we. wonder what else will be coming to media near you very soon.

I've only read the first line, "A bogus charity collected was suspected........"  There were/are bogus charity collectors but that was after Madeleine went missing.  The McCanns were quick off the mark to set up their bogus fund to help find Madeleine.  I agree with "tanszi", the book being released just prior to the damages trial has become part of their long term strategy.

Highly likely!

'Kate and Gerry McCann were not interviewed for the book'
Why not? Surely, if they read the files and the inconsistencies, the first first people they'd want to interview would be the McCanns? Unless they went in with an agenda!

Isn't this the same Martin Brunt who reported in 2007 that police found "firm' DNA evidence that Madeleine's body was in the trunk of the rented car.

The McCanns may not have been interviewed face-to-face or phone-to-phone but, as with newspapers, these things are sometimes done indirectly through a third party so as to be non-attributable. Think 'source' ...

In any case, without the approval of the McCann lawyers this book would never have seen the light of day.

wjk wrote:This comment beggars belief!!
'Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."


OMG!! So these authors are saying MW should have left notes to parents to make sure they locked their children IN! Not the parents should never have left the children alone night after night!!
NO ONE ever says they SHOULD NOT have left the children alone!It makes my blood boil!!

Imagine:
Mark Warners leaving a note: we have in the area lots of 'sexual bulglars', please lock the door when you go out and leave your kids alone.

(bulglars don't need open doors, their job is to break in)

Why is this author famous FFS?

Haven't we heard all this crap before though.


Even though the pj discounted everything, all this book is doing is disputing the discounting....


Secretly bashing the pj and insinuating that they didn't follow up these leads.

weissnicht wrote:

wjk wrote:This comment beggars belief!!
'Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."


OMG!! So these authors are saying MW should have left notes to parents to make sure they locked their children IN! Not the parents should never have left the children alone night after night!!
NO ONE ever says they SHOULD NOT have left the children alone!It makes my blood boil!!

Imagine:
Mark Warners leaving a note: we have in the area lots of 'sexual bulglars', please lock the door when you go out and leave your kids alone.

(bulglars don't need open doors, their job is to break in)

Why is this author famous FFS?

Exactly, weiss! What a ridiculous thing to say!

Why after 7 years of following this case have i only just heard of a man in a mask with laundry round his feet, hope its not the mcscams dirty washing

kitti wrote:Haven't we heard all this crap before though.


Even though the pj discounted everything, all this book is doing is  disputing the discounting....


Secretly bashing the pj and insinuating  that they didn't follow up these leads.

This book, from what we have seen, is purely an opinion piece!
Its not full of anything other than old stories and the authors opinions on them!

chrissie1 wrote:Why after 7 years of following this case have i only just heard of a man in a mask with laundry round his feet, hope its not the mcscams dirty washing

And we are supposed to take this seriously!!

I have absolutely no doubt that these 'Authors' are going to get absolutely slaughtered on the Amazon comments page...

chrissie1 wrote:Why after 7 years of following this case have i only just heard of a man in a mask with laundry round his feet, hope its not the mcscams dirty washing

Because after 7 years and a million suspects, they have exhausted all usual descriptions, so this is the latest makey uppy description.

No mention of him wearing gloves though.....maybe he has no finger prints.

wjk wrote:This comment beggars belief!!
'Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."


OMG!! So these authors are saying MW should have left notes to parents to make sure they locked their children IN! Not the parents should never have left the children alone night after night!!
NO ONE ever says they SHOULD NOT have left the children alone!It makes my blood boil!!

Next on the "to sue" list will be Mark Warner.

interested wrote:

wjk wrote:This comment beggars belief!!
'Mr Summers said: "Had there been a warning note in the apartment, do we think the McCanns would have left the patio door unlocked on the night they went to the other side of the pool to have dinner away from their children?

"One would be tempted to think they would make sure everything was firmly locked up."


OMG!! So these authors are saying MW should have left notes to parents to make sure they locked their children IN! Not the parents should never have left the children alone night after night!!
NO ONE ever says they SHOULD NOT have left the children alone!It makes my blood boil!!

Next on the "to sue" list will be Mark Warner.

I wouldn't be surprised, interested, I really wouldn't.