here we go again daily wail blames portugal

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330660/Madeleine-McCann-Was-Maddie-snatched-monster-killed-little-lookalike-British-detectives-uncover-dramatic-new-lead--Portuguese-refusing-investigate.html


Was Maddie snatched by the monster who killed this little lookalike? British detectives uncover dramatic new lead... so why are the Portuguese refusing to investigate?

Scotland Yard detectives have a list of 30 potential suspects
One of them is peadophile and child murderer Urs Hans von Aesch who killed himself in woodland
Von Aesch murdered five-year-old only five months after Maddie disappeared
But Portuguese police STILL dragging heels over investigation

By Paul Bracchi and Stephen Wright

PUBLISHED: 22:46 GMT, 24 May 2013 | UPDATED: 02:50 GMT, 25 May 2013

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Have you seen me? asks the little girl in the poster. The youngster is Madeleine McCann; not the Madeleine we all remember, but Madeleine as she might look today as a ten-year-old.

Her once-blonde hair is darker, the button nose has gone, along with those babyish chubby cheeks, and while the distinctive black ‘flash’ in her right eye — where her pupil runs into the iris — is still visible, it is not nearly so distinctive.

Behind this latest digitally created picture of Madeleine, now being circulated on the Continent, is renewed hope: that one day Madeleine’s parents will find out what happened to her, and so end perhaps the most enduring and haunting mystery of modern times.
Five year old Ylenia Lenhard from Appenzell in Switzerland who was killed by Swiss man Urs Hans Von Aesch just months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Undated file handout photo of missing girl Madeleine McCann

Linked? Five year old Ylenia Lenhard (left) from Appenzell in Switzerland who was killed by Swiss man Urs Hans Von Aesch just months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (right)

That hope, if truth be told, had been all but extinguished, such were the shortcomings of the original Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance on the Algarve a few days short of her fourth birthday in May 2007.

Only now, with the intervention of an elite team of detectives from Scotland Yard which has been carrying out a review of the case on David Cameron’s orders, has evidence been properly accessed and analysed. It may be six years late, but at least this basic groundwork is finally being tackled.

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The 30-strong squad working on the inquiry — codenamed Operation Grange — has identified 20 potential suspects, among them several Britons, as the Mail reported last week.

But who are they?

One of the 20, the Mail has learned, was a notorious paedophile who kidnapped and murdered a five-year-old girl in his native Switzerland less than three months after Madeleine vanished from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz.
Secrets: Could child-killer Urs Hans Von Aesch, the Swiss man, who lived in Spain, have played a part in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?

Secrets: Could child-killer Urs Hans Von Aesch, the Swiss man, who lived in Spain, have played a part in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?

Urs Hans von Aesch, 67, shot himself dead after poisoning and sexually abusing Ylenia Lenhard.

Like Madeleine, Ylenia was blonde and blue-eyed. At the time Madeleine vanished, von Aesch was living in Spain, but he had visited the Algarve in the past and was known to have friends there.

Interpol twice contacted the Portuguese authorities about von Aesch, but information supplied by the Swiss about possible links with Madeleine was not followed up because senior officers in the Policia Judiciaria — the Portuguese CID — were wrongly convinced that Madeleine’s parents were implicated in their daughter’s disappearance.

The ‘very urgent’ messages from Interpol are there, in black and white, printed in publicly available documents in Portugal.

Unlike the Policia Judiciaria, however, detectives from Operation Grange did rigorously pursue this line of inquiry. Last year, they flew to Switzerland to probe von Aesch’s movements. He is still believed to be a ‘person of interest’.

Two other convicted child abusers — including one believed to be from Britain — who were on the Algarve at the relevant time, are also understood to be on the Scotland Yard ‘list’, together with a number of hotel workers and lorry drivers.

Detectives are now ‘actively’ examining mobile phone traffic in the Praia da Luz area on the day Madeleine was last seen.

Although the Policia Judiciaria had this information at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, they did not find out who the phones were registered to, even though ‘cell-site’ analysis is now a crucial investigative tool and the catalyst for solving countless crimes.

Had standard police procedures been followed back in 2007, it is conceivable that you would not be reading this article now, for the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance may have been solved.

Nevertheless, Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are said to be encouraged both by the progress of Operation Grange, and recent events in the U.S., where three women who had been missing for a decade were found alive and well in Cleveland, Ohio.
Kate and Gerry McCann have never given up hunting for their daughter

Hope: Kate and Gerry McCann have never given up hunting for their daughter

Kate and Gerry, both doctors, still refer to Madeleine in the present tense.

‘She lives in the village of Rothley in Leicester with her mummy and daddy and little brother and sister, Sean and Amelie,’ is how they introduce her on the ‘Find Madeleine’ website.

‘Madeleine is a very happy little girl with an outgoing personality’ . . . like most girls her age, she likes dolls and dresses (and anything pink and sparkly).’

Madeleine was wearing pink pyjamas, with an Eeyore motif, on the night she was taken from apartment 5a on the ground floor of the Waterside Gardens at the Ocean Club complex.

Her parents were at a tapas bar with friends a few hundred yards away, taking it in turns to return to the flat every 30 minutes to check on the children.

It was Kate who made the final, fateful check at around 10pm. She found the twins were asleep inside but Madeleine’s bed was empty, a moment Kate would later relive in her book, Madeleine.

‘My heart lurched,’ she wrote, ‘as I saw now that, behind them, the window was wide open and the shutters on the outside raised all the way up. Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear, icy fear. Dear God, no! Please, No!’

Experts will tell you that what happens in the immediate aftermath of a child going missing — the so-called golden hour — is critical. Yet Portuguese police took four days to even issue a description of Madeleine.
The Ocean Club in Praia da Luz where Maddie disappeared. Portuguese police refuse to reopen the case

Time to act: The Ocean Club in Praia da Luz where Maddie disappeared. Portuguese police refuse to reopen the case

They failed to ‘lock down’ the resort or set up road blocks because they assumed she had just wandered off. The apartment itself was not taped off until 10am the following morning, by which time dozens of people had traipsed through the ‘crime scene’.

Ash from policemen’s cigarettes would later be found among contaminated forensic samples from the flat. Not all the staff and guests at the Ocean Club were traced and interviewed. Those who were interviewed were not always properly eliminated.

And a photofit picture of an early ‘suspect’ consisted of nothing more than the sketch of a face with hair parted on one side but with no actual eyes, nose or mouth.

The catalogue of mistakes and official complacency is almost endless and culminated in a shameful shadow of suspicion over Kate and Gerry McCann, who were treated as suspects themselves until their ‘arguido’ (suspect) status was removed in 2008, the same year as the inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance was formally suspended.

There were, declared the Portuguese police, simply no more leads to pursue.

Within months of Operation Grange being set up in 2011 — after Mr Cameron received a direct appeal for help from the McCanns — dozens of fresh leads had been identified.

The only British involvement in the case before this was that of Leicestershire police, the McCanns’ local force, who were responsible for collating all the investigation work carried out on behalf of their Portuguese counterparts, such as interviewing British witnesses.
Gerry McCann and Kate McCann take their twins Sean and Amelie to the creche at the Ocean Club Resort in 2007

Gerry McCann and Kate McCann hold their twins Sean and Amelie at the Ocean Club Resort in 2007

All this evidence was later made available to officers from Operation Grange, drawn from the Met’s highly skilled Homicide and Serious Crime Command.

Two detectives first visited Praia du Luz in October 2011 and spoke ‘informally’ to staff at the Ocean Club. Colleagues are understood to have returned there up to ten times over the past two years.

Of particular interest were the numerous holiday flats, some of which were sub-let at the time the McCanns were staying at the resort. They have spoken to residents on the phone in recent months as well as emailing them questions.

‘When I spoke to the police they were asking about other crimes happening in the area at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance,’ said expat Christie Jones, who works for her family’s villa management company.

Two private detectives employed by the McCanns, Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, have also been interviewed.

‘They [detectives from Operation Grange] came to see me late last year about specific people who were of interest to them,’ said Mr Cowley, a retired detective sergeant, who lives in Holywell, North Wales.

One of those people, of course — according to a source close to Operation Grange — is the aforementioned Urs Hans von Aesch.

His exact whereabouts when Madeleine was abducted on May 3, 2007 are unclear. He was living near Alicante in Spain with his wife, but border records show that, driving a white van, von Aesch re-entered Switzerland on July 10.


Madeleine in an Everton football shirt before she disappeared. British officers face difficulty in breaking down resistance in Portugal to reopening the case
Madeleine McCann is seen how she may look as her ninth birthday approached in this computer-generated handout photograph released in 2012

Still out there? Senior Met Police officers believe Madeleine (pictured left, and in an artist's impression of how she may look aged nine, right) may still be alive and said the Cleveland kidnappings show there could still be hope

Less than a month later, he used this vehicle to abduct Ylenia as she left her local swimming pool in Appenzell. The day after she vanished, von Aesch was discovered in woodland with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

Ylenia’s bicycle helmet, rucksack and a scooter were found nearby. All of the items contained von Aesch’s DNA. Shortly afterwards, the remains of Ylenia were found in a shallow grave in nearby Oberbueren, a 20-minute drive from the spot where she was abducted.

At von Aesch’s home in Spain, police seized diaries — in English — revealing his dark sexual fantasies about children and computer discs containing evidence that he had frequently visited child sex websites and forums on the internet.

Swiss police officers were immediately struck by the physical similarities between Ylenia and Madeleine, who had both gone missing within weeks of each other. They alerted Interpol which, in turn, contacted the Portuguese authorities about its suspicions on August 17.

When it did not get a response, it contacted them again on September 3. Again, there was no response, we were informed by sources in Interpol.

We now know why.

Just four days later, on September 7, Kate and Gerry McCann were named as arguidos in the Portuguese investigation. On September 11, police submitted a summary of their case against them to prosecutors.
Of course, there is a possibility she is still alive

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell

In his report, Chief Inspector Tavares da Almeida concluded — without a shred of hard evidence — that Madeleine had died in the flat, her parents had hid the body, then faked an abduction and got their friends to lie to the police.

‘Kate McCann and Gerald McCann are involved in the concealment of the cadaver of their daughter Madeleine McCann,’ he wrote.

Could a police officer have made a more catastrophic misjudgement?

Meanwhile, Ylenia Lenhard’s heartbroken mother Charlotte believes her daughter was not von Aesch’s only victim.

‘I am convinced that my little girl was not the only one,’ she told the Mail. ‘I simply cannot believe that a man, at the age of 67, suddenly chooses to become a killer. It was in him all the time and I am certain he has struck before.’

Indeed, after von Aesch’s death, Swiss police re-opened inquiries into the disappearance of five girls who disappeared from the area in the Eighties, before he moved to Spain.

These include five-year-old Sarah Oberson, whose neat features and bobbed-hair are also reminiscent of Madeleine McCann, and who went missing in September 1985 when cycling to her grandmother’s house 50 meters away; doe-eyed seven-year-old Loredana Mancini, who vanished in April 1983 and was found dead in September of the same year: and eight-year-old Rebecca Bieri, who disappeared in March 1982 and was found dead five months later.

The police were unable to prove links between von Aesch and the missing girls.

Under Portuguese law, a case can be reopened only if there is new evidence.

Yet the senior Scotland Yard detective who oversaw the two-year-review of the evidence before he retired says it is ‘perfectly probable’ that information that could identify the suspect responsible for Madeleine McCann’s disappearance was already in the Portuguese files.

‘Of course, there is a possibility she is still alive,’ said former Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. ‘But the key is to investigate the case and, dead or alive, we should be able to try to discern what happened.’

It is the very least Kate and Gerry McCann, indeed any parent of a missing child, deserves.

Additional reporting: Neil Sears in Praia du Luz

I have responded to this article on the DM comments page, would not be surprised if I win the "red arrow" contest and possibly get barred from DM, I have set the record straight and directed person to the mccannfiles.com site!

Kate and Gerry McCann should go back to Portugal and ak for this to be opened, rather than having a pink pimp get this rubbish printed.

Go back, shout, beg, scream, call the Portugese A.G. A "fu***** tos***" as only you can Kate. The pink spin articles will not work and IMO this is exactly what this piece of garbage is. They are really reaching rock bottom with this. I don't think even the DM would print this without their ok, otherwise CR would be on the phone with dollar signs in their eyes.

I despair, I truly do. The only aim of this article is to piss the Portugese off so much, not only will the file remain shelved, they will probably burn it, shelf and all. I would not blame them.

besides he died in july 2007!!!

This is an old story and was talked about ages ago....

kitti wrote:This is an old story and was talked about ages ago....

so why is the daily mail bringing it up again??

the press are printing this shite - but you have to ask yourself - they keep printing - portugal wont open the case on and on - bloody home goal for the pinks if they have already said to sy - we open the case only if and when everyone has been reinterviewd - failing that portugal should make their own statement - the case is closed - because we are not looking for anyone else connected to this case - we believed that madeleine never left portugal - so these sightings are false -- thats the end report and let joe public believe what they want

Here's your answer folks

Below is a selection of fees journalists have reported being paid per thousand words by national and local newspapers and magazines from 2011:

National Newspapers:

Daily Mail 400-word article
£750

News of the World TV page lead
£750

Weekly Telegraph
£220

mossman wrote:Kate and Gerry McCann should go back to Portugal and ak for this to be opened, rather than having a pink pimp get this rubbish printed.

Go back, shout, beg, scream, call the Portugese A.G. A "fu***** tos***" as only you can Kate. The pink spin articles will not work and IMO this is exactly what this piece of garbage is. They are really reaching rock bottom with this. I don't think even the DM would print this without their ok, otherwise CR would be on the phone with dollar signs in their eyes.

I despair, I truly do. The only aim of this article is to piss the Portugese off so much, not only will the file remain shelved, they will probably burn it, shelf and all. I would not blame them.

The McCanns are never going to ask for the case to be reopened, because according to Goncalo Amaral, they asked for the case to be closed. If Goncalo Amaral was speaking the truth and I have no reason to believe he wasn't, when he made that statement, why haven't the PJ made a statement stating that fact, if it is a fact?

In my opinion, the PJ are doing themselves and more importantly Madeleine, no favours, by remaining silent. Madeleine will never receive justice, until someone within the PJ, grows a spine as well as a pair of 'you know what's' and starts to speak out.

It's no good Goncalo Amaral saying he will reveal all, when the forthcoming court case against him, by the McCanns begins, if it begins. He can reveal as much as he wants, but until the McCanns face justice, the only people who are likely to see what he has to say, will be the people on the internet. Whatever the press print, will be twisted to make him look like a liar.

Here's when the story (as in fiction) first surfaced in 2007.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-473543/Madeleine-Police-parents-picture-child-snatcher-suspect-killed-himself.html

I'm ashamed to admit that I used to be an avid Daily Mail reader! It was a long time ago though.

I'm surprised this excellent comment made it through.

Think we need to be more realistic, no monster involved in her death, just Kate and Gerry.

- Liam R , Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 25/5/2013 07:48



been red arrowed -126

I really resent this piece in the Mail. There are horrors going on all around the world, not least the poor guy hacked to death in Woolwich this week. The time for made up Madeleine stories is long gone. The poor little girl is long dead, of that I am convinced. This is an insult to the others in this world who are living through really terrible times right now.

The Daily Mail isn't all bad today though. In Amanda Platell's column there is a headline "Remembering Maddie" and then she says "Two weeks ago, the McCanns were all over the newspapers after UK police revealed new leads for their daughter Madeleine. So isn't it sad they are among a group of people who have complained about the royal charter proposed by a newspaper industry that has done so much to publicise their daughter's plight? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you."

Isn't this a u-turn for Amanda Platell? Good for her!

squeaker wrote:The Daily Mail isn't all bad today though. In Amanda Platell's column there is a headline "Remembering Maddie" and then she says "Two weeks ago, the McCanns were all over the newspapers after UK police revealed new leads for their daughter Madeleine. So isn't it sad they are among a group of people who have complained about the royal charter proposed by a newspaper industry that has done so much to publicise their daughter's plight? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you."

Isn't this a u-turn for Amanda Platell? Good for her!

I saw that squeaker and it is certainly a u turn for Amanda Platell because she would not have one wrong word said about the McCanns. When I saw this I could hardly believe it! Maybe other things will start to niggle at her and she may start looking at the case with her eyes open. Lets hope so we will see.

kathybelle wrote: The McCanns are never going to ask for the case to be reopened, because according to Goncalo Amaral, they asked for the case to be closed. If Goncalo Amaral was speaking the truth and I have no reason to believe he wasn't, when he made that statement, why haven't the PJ made a statement stating that fact, if it is a fact?

In my opinion, the PJ are doing themselves and more importantly Madeleine, no favours, by remaining silent. Madeleine will never receive justice, until someone within the PJ, grows a spine as well as a pair of 'you know what's' and starts to speak out.

It's no good Goncalo Amaral saying he will reveal all, when the forthcoming court case against him, by the McCanns begins, if it begins. He can reveal as much as he wants, but until the McCanns face justice, the only people who are likely to see what he has to say, will be the people on the internet. Whatever the press print, will be twisted to make him look like a liar.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons for the latest media hype? I don't know when the Amaral trial begins but it seems to me they're preparing for something negative to hit the headlines soon. When I looked at the comments section early yesterday every single one was anti Portugal.

I would really like to know who is writing the Anti Portugal comments and wonder if they are part of the Group of people who are employed to try and influence the population by writing certain things in a certain way. jimo.

pennylane wrote:I'm surprised this excellent comment made it through.

Think we need to be more realistic, no monster involved in her death, just Kate and Gerry.

- Liam R , Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 25/5/2013 07:48



been red arrowed -126

Have you noticed how the doubters comments always get red-arrowed in the Mail - in fact far too many times to be realistic, that it has to be the Mail tampering with the arrows.

Oldartform wrote:

pennylane wrote:I'm surprised this excellent comment made it through.

Think we need to be more realistic, no monster involved in her death, just Kate and Gerry.

- Liam R , Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 25/5/2013 07:48



been red arrowed -126

Have you noticed how the doubters comments always get red-arrowed in the Mail - in fact far too many times to be realistic, that it has to be the Mail tampering with the arrows.

I've only recently been allowed to post again on the Mail, but their mods wouldn't allow my post comparing 'Kates refusal to answer the 48 questions with.':-

Quote from article
‘We’d like Mr Verran to explain these omissions from his interviews with us, and say when he was in Portugal.’

"She lives in the village of Rothley in Leicester with her mummy and daddy and little brother and sister, Sean and Amelie,’ is how they introduce her on the ‘Find Madeleine’ website"

So she is alive! Living with her parents and siblings all along! This overkill to stick to the present tense is an outright lie! It would be more appropriate for them to say that before going missing, Madeleine lived with her parents and siblings. They really do try too hard.

Of course this article is total rubbish. No comments from the McCanns. What could they say really? Perhaps "This lead gives us new hope that Madeleine was taken by a paedophile and killed."? It doesn't exactlly support their new hope that Madeleine was taken as a sex slave and kept alive for many years as the 3 women in the USA. Unfortunately for the McCanns, most of the missing people found after many years were in their teens when they went missing. Sadly, most toddlers are found dead.

jinvta wrote:"She lives in the village of Rothley in Leicester with her mummy and daddy and little brother and sister, Sean and Amelie,’ is how they introduce her on the ‘Find Madeleine’ website"

So she is alive! Living with her parents and siblings all along! This overkill to stick to the present tense is an outright lie! It would be more appropriate for them to say that before going missing, Madeleine lived with her parents and siblings. They really do try too hard.

Of course this article is total rubbish. No comments from the McCanns. What could they say really? Perhaps "This lead gives us new hope that Madeleine was taken by a paedophile and killed."? It doesn't exactlly support their new hope that Madeleine was taken as a sex slave and kept alive for many years as the 3 women in the USA. Unfortunately for the McCanns, most of the missing people found after many years were in their teens when they went missing. Sadly, most toddlers are found dead.

Good post Jinvta.

The PJ state that cadaver scent was found on clothing belonging to Madeleine and Kate McCann. This can only mean one thing, that Madeleine is no longer alive.

However, if the evidence was flawed and Madeleine was abducted, there is no way on God's earth that Madeleine would be alive, if she had been taken by a paedophile and I'm amazed the McCanns insinuated that Madeleine had been taken by a paedophile.

You don't need to be a doctor, to know what paedophiles do to children and no child of Madeleine's age could withstand the abuse they would have been given, for very long. Yet Kate McCann publicly stated that although she believes Madeleine was taken by a paedophile, she is alive and well.

Kate McCann, also stated in her book of 'sex and lies' how she imagined Madeleine's tiny genitals, being violated. The fact that Kate McCann has stated this in her book, means that she knows Madeleine could never stand treatment meted out by a paedophile. Yet she keeps comparing Madeleine's disappearance, with those who as children, were abducted by paedophiles and found years later. Those children, were either approaching puberty or had reached puberty when they were abducted.

Is paedophilia the reason behind Madeleine's disappearance?

What do the McCanns know, that make them imply Madeleine was taken by a paedophile?

Why did the McCanns not look for Madeleine?

Why did Gerry McCann and David Payne, not sue Katherine Gaspar, when she alleged David Payne made paedophilia gestures about Madeleine to David Payne?

Why did Gerry McCann and David Payne, not sue the European newspaper group, whose newspaper printed Katherine Gaspar's allegation?

The McCanns took a lawsuit out against Tony Bennett and won their case. Whatever Tony Bennett said, was not as bad as the allegation Katherine Gaspar made.

I can only assume Katherine Gaspar was telling the truth, when she made that allegation and that's why Gerry McCann and David Payne, haven't sued her.

If an allegation was true, it wouldn't stop some people from suing the person who made it! As far as I'm aware, Tony B didn't say anything that wasn't being said elsewhere. Perhaps he might know something he hasn't published but wouldn't he just be dismissed as usual as a vile internet troll if he did?

The McCanns aren't stupid - I can think of other words to describe them - and would know that shutting him up wouldn't make every other sceptic shut up too.

I would like to make this the 49th question to Kate: to whom were you referring when you said in your best gutter English that the effing b*stards had taken her? I'm asthmatic so won't hold my breath for a reply!

I think it interesting that those sued to date have all printed paper documents. The uk press, Amaral and Bennett all had documents in physical form.

These documents cannot be dismissed as rubbish typed by lonely Internet nutters. They are documents that could end up anywhere, easily seen and read by people even in doctors waiting rooms !

There is a certain acceptance that if it is in hard copy print it must be at least partly true. If it is in the Internet it is written by a nutter.

They cannot control the Internet, all they can do is limit the damage by publishing their own version in a bewk and criticising nutters.

The only way to stop the hard copy written form is by suing the authors.

Mossman, you are spot on there.
The McCanns resort to law when the cause is taken to a wider audience - when the scepticism is spread further than the WWW.
Betcha if someone new started a leaflet campaign, the writs would be flying in faster than two arguidos on EasyJet.

almostgothic wrote:Mossman, you are spot on there.
The McCanns resort to law when the cause is taken to a wider audience - when the scepticism is spread further than the WWW.
Betcha if someone new started a leaflet campaign, the writs would be flying in faster than two arguidos on EasyJet.

Remember they tried through the courts to get their hands on the with held police files too. Again written documents, again legal proceedings. The pros often claim the translation of the released files is flawed, claiming they were translated by people with an agenda to make them look guilty. Arguido is arguido no matter what.. That is all they can do to negate that part of the files. The files not released must worry them greatly.