Bad Day at Black Rock/Dr Roberts

Bad Day at Black Rock

07 February 2012

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
07 February 2012


BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

Thursday 3 May, 2007


Parental duty

"Yeah, I mean, I was saying this earlier, that at no point, other than that night, did I go stick my head in. That was the only time, because the door was like that. I mean, I knew how I'd left it." (Gerry McCann, in 'Madeleine Was Here.')

"Part of the reason we ended up coming through the back was the noise coming through the front door. We didn't want to disturb them." (Gerry McCann to Matthew Oldfield, in 'Madeleine Was Here.')

"...on the whole, people checked their own children. Erm, and, again, on the actual night Madeleine was taken, that was, was very much different, I think, to, to previous nights, in that, there was probably more cross checking that night." (Fiona Payne - Rogatory Interview).

"...on the first few nights it all seemed, erm, fairly well spaced... Erm, whereas, again, that differed on the Thursday night, in that, it seemed more, erm, out of, people were more out of synch." (Fiona Payne - Rogatory Interview).

4078: "Was that the first time that you had taken it upon yourself to check on somebody else's child?"

Matthew Oldfield: "Yeah, I'd not done it before, (Rogatory Interview)

Precautions

"I know there was a conversation about, oh we've started nipping in that way rather than going the long way round. Erm, so, I suppose, at that point, that's when they, because you couldn't lock the French doors from outside, that's when they weren't locking it." (Fiona Payne - Rogatory Interview).

"No, as I say, it came up at that, that conversation, which I think was on the, on the, on the Thursday night, about, erm, you know, whether I would feel happy leaving, leaving a door unlocked, but that was the only time I'd heard Kate sort of almost saying, question whether they should do it or not." (Fiona Payne - Rogatory Interview).

Photography

"I haven't been able to use the camera since I took that last photograph of her." (Kate McCann to Olga Craig, writing for the Sunday Telegraph of 27 May, 2007. The photograph in question is said to have been taken mid-afternoon on 3 May).

All these 'first time of asking' decisions taken, before Madeleine, on the Thursday.

Not since the sinking of the Titanic have so many coincidences formed the prelude to a catastrophe. Even the elements conspired. Gerry McCann left the door to the children's bedroom in a 'slam shuttable' position. He must have done, because that's what the door did on Kate's arrival into the apartment at 10.00 p.m. that Thursday night apparently. Matthew Oldfield, who, like Kate, was oblivious to the cold night air entering through the open bedroom window, was frightened to touch it. It was perhaps a blessing in disguise therefore that the door waited fully three-quarters of an hour before closing in Kate's very presence, otherwise she might just have turned around there and then and Madeleine's absence would not have been noticed until breakfast the following morning. As Kate herself has said:

"I just stood, actually and I thought, oh, all quiet, and to be honest, I might have been tempted to turn round then, but I just noticed that the door, the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping, was open much further than we'd left it." ('Madeleine was here').

Was Rocha Negra ever mentioned in the holiday brochure?

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id399.html

Hunt at Black Rock News of the World (article no longer online)

Ross Hall & Carole Aye Maung in Praia da Luz, Portugal
6 May 2007

POLICE hunting for missing Maddie McCann have dramatically widened their search to an extinct VOLCANO, the News of the World can exclusively reveal.

Teams of officers with sniffer dogs were last night scouring what one called a "sinister" area called Black Rock near sea cliffs just over a mile from the resort where the youngster was snatched on Thursday.

The search was widened as the detective leading the hunt claimed they had a good idea who the kidnapper was - and that he believes Maddie may still be ALIVE.

A source close to the Portuguese investigation also told the News of the World that the abductor is believed to have spent days watching Maddie and staking out the McCann family's apartment at the Ocean Club resort in the seaside village of Praia da Luz.

Meanwhile more than 500 British tourists, expats and locals have joined in the ongoing search for the blonde youngster along a six-mile stretch of the coastline.

Last night - 48 hours after Maddie was snatched - that search shifted to Rocha Negra - a remote area feared by the local community and an ideal hideout.

Furriel Louis Costa, one of the policemen involved in the search, told us: "You would call it Black Rock. It is a very scary and chilling place. The local Portuguese people do not like to go up there. They are too frightened.

Captive

"It is very big and extends high up above the sea which makes it seem very threatening. You can go up there. But no one ever does. It's not a nice place. It is sinister."

He spoke as hopes rose that Maddie might be alive and held captive following a statement earlier in the day from the head of the investigation, Director of the Judicial Police Guilhermino Encarnacao who hinted that they KNOW the kidnapper's identity.

He said: "There is a prime suspect and we have a portrait sketch of the suspect.

But I am not going to reveal it because it may put the girl's life in danger. We believe that she is still alive and still in Portugal."

More than 150 police officers have been drafted into the area-and yesterday British detectives from the McCann's home county of Leicestershire flew in to join the hunt which also took in the Boavista golf course, again a mile from where she was abducted.

All ports, airports and borders have been put on high alert for any sign of the missing tot.

Maddie disappeared from the Ocean Club in the Praia da Luz resort of Portugal as her doctor parents Gerry and Kate McCann, both 38, ate in a restaurant 50 yards away.

They had chosen not to use the babysitting service provided by holiday company Mark Warner and instead were checking on her every half hour as she slept between her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Shaun and Amelie. A police source last night told us the kidnapper must have KNOWN there was no babysitter in the apartment-and could have been watching the family's movements for days.

He said: "It wasn't just coincidence that this person took her while her parents were out. They would have been watching and waiting and picked the ideal time to take her without disturbing anyone or raising any attention.

"They were only yards away and could see the balcony to the apartment but whoever took Maddie went through the front window which would have been out of sight."

Some sources in the area suggested last night that Maddie may have been snatched by a Russian or Eastern European gang to be sold for up to Pounds 250,000. Police are also investigating a British businessman's revelation that he spotted a couple carrying a young child just hours after Maddie disappeared.

Liverpool-born George Burke told cops he saw a couple carrying a young child at around 6am, seven hours after the abduction, as he drove home from nearby Lagos.

When his headlights lit them, he said they "scurried down a side road and out of sight".

Yesterday the News of the World joined the search for Maddie by putting up and handing out large posters calling for help in tracing the youngster to the masses of volunteers turning up to join the hunt.

Manchester man Dave Shelton, 38, who lives in the village and is co-ordinating the local searchers, said: "People have just been coming and coming. The response has been fantastic." Last night Maddie's distraught extended family gave us a series of loving pictures of the happy tot - who was conceived with the help of IVF treatment - at her home in Rothley, Leicestershire, as they prayed for her safe return.

Her aunt Philomena McCann, 54, said: "It's great to have some hope from the police-but we need something to happen. We want her back. We need to keep strong, for everybody's sake."

Maddie's great uncle Brian Kennedy (pictured left), who lives in the same village as the family, told how Gerry and Kate had already planned her fourth birthday party next Saturday before leaving for Portugal.

"We asked a friend to make her a Dr Who cake. We've told her to carry on making it. We have to think for the best."

"I just stood, actually and I thought, oh, all quiet, and to be honest, I might have been tempted to turn round then, but I just noticed that the door, the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping, was open much further than we'd left it."
[/quote]


Again, this is a strange remark :we=she and Gerry when they left at about 8. But she knew that 2 people, in the meantime entered the room and probably pushed or closed partly the door. And I d'ont suppose they told her , after, the precise angle of the door. So, either she says a lie and why if she has nothing to hide, or the others ( Gerry and Matt?)are lieying and why if they have nothing to hide. Most probably all are liars and there in no coïncidence possible, it was a conspiracy.

The reconstruction that will probably take place, will, hopefully underline all the obvious lies in their testimonies.

frencheuropean wrote:


"I just stood, actually and I thought, oh, all quiet, and to be honest, I might have been tempted to turn round then, but I just noticed that the door, the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping, was open much further than we'd left it."

Again, this is a strange remark :we=she and Gerry when they left at about 8. But she knew that 2 people, in the meantime entered the room and probably pushed or closed partly the door. And I d'ont suppose they told her , after, the precise angle of the door. So, either she says a lie and why if she has nothing to hide, or the others ( Gerry and Matt?)are lieying and why if they have nothing to hide. Most probably all are liars and there in no coïncidence possible, it was a conspiracy.

The reconstruction that will probably take place, will, hopefully underline all the obvious lies in their testimonies.[/quote]

Frencheuropean, I think one of the most valuable things that SY can do is order a reconstruction. This would be unlikely to help find Madeleine. It would probably not even show what happened to her, but it could show what didn't happen to her: abduction!

"I haven't been able to use the camera since I took that last photograph of her." (Kate McCann to Olga Craig, writing for the Sunday Telegraph of 27 May, 2007. The photograph in question is said to have been taken mid-afternoon on 3 May).

Why isn't this photo in the list of photos the PJ retrieved from their cameras?

Why did it take 21 days for this photo to be released to the public which is a lifetime in a missing child case, this photo taken 8 hours previous which would have given vital information to the public as to what exactly Maddie was looking like when she was taken, rather than an old one from a year previous. Kids change a lot in a year and the public needed to know exactly who they were looking for. And why was this photo released after gerrys return from the UK & then 3 days later the airport bus footage released? Philomena mccann said he went back to the UK to look at old photos and videos and then we have this when he gets back...

"...on the whole, people checked their own children. Erm, and, again, on the actual night Madeleine was taken, that was, was very much different, I think, to, to previous nights, in that, there was probably more cross checking that night." (Fiona Payne - Rogatory Interview).


Why more cross checking that particular night.......

I really can't add anything to this thread other than to state my utter incredulity regarding the Tapas group statements. Too contrived by half - a set of co-incidences and happenstances that read like a nonsense story. What is even more amazing is that these people have not been allowed to be questioned fully to test the veracity of what they said. It is unlikely that so much primary material from an investigation has been cast before the public and of course writers and journalists in such a high profile case at any other time in modern history - certainly not in the UK. The fact that most of it has been unreported, to borrow a Clarrieism, "speaks volumes".

JD16 you are quite right about the slowness to release the holiday snaps - was there a pressing need to alter or delete items on the card? Who knows. With hindsight the PJ should have confiscated all of their cameras - although as with watches, mobile phones and Gerry's credit cards they would have said that they didn't own one.