New turn in Madeleine case?

http://theportugalnews.com/news/new-turn-in-madeleine-case/30497


New turn in Madeleine case?

by Brendan de Beer, in News · 30-01-2014 14:52:00

The search for Madeleine McCann took an interesting turn this week when it emerged on Thursday that police have now shifted their focus onto three former employees of the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz from where the British girl went missing almost seven years ago.

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A number of reports in Portugal indicated that contrary to information contained in British tabloids in the past fortnight suggesting police were hot on the trail of a group of burglars, police were actually interested in speaking to three staff members who were at the resort the night Madeleine disappeared.

Sources close to the case told The Portugal News on Thursday that these individuals were of particular interest as they had made “an abnormally high number of mobile phone calls to areas outside the resort the night she went missing.”

The source explained that these calls were domestic, but unlike their colleagues who called each other as the search proceeded, the trio made domestic calls to areas of no geographical interest in the ensuing search.

The Portugal News was also told that the UK Metropolitan Police have made a formal request for Portuguese authorities to obtain access to the bank accounts of these three people who are so far classed as “persons of interest” and are not viewed as suspects.

House searches are also said to have been asked for by Scotland Yard. This procedure could take several days, if not weeks, and can be challenged by the targeted individuals.
Police were not willing to disclose the nationalities of the three former workers.

It is estimated that at the time of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance on 3 May 2007, the Ocean Club was employing 130 Portuguese nationals and 30 Britons, though most of the latter group are believed to have left the country following the economic downturn and negative publicity Praia da Luz received at the time.

This information is amongst that contained in the second international letter of request sent by Scotland Yard to the Attorney-General’s Office in Lisbon.

The document is thought to have arrived at the Portimão Court on Monday, where prosecutors will have the task of instructing local PJ police detectives in the city to carry out the requests contained in the letter, should they be in agreement.

The next step will be for these three individuals to be contacted by PJ police for an interview at their earliest convenience.

It also appears that detectives at the PJ headquarters in Lisbon have not yet received a request from the team of British investigators to sit in on the questioning.
Without authorisation, the teamof British police officers, which includes fluent Portuguese speakers, will not be able to attend questioning.

These interviews will preferably take place at the PJ police stations in either Portimão or Faro, but can also be held at a local PSP or GNR police station should it suit the person of interest to do so.

Four Scotland Yard detectives, including Chief Inspector Andy Redwood paid a fleeting visit to Faro this week in a repeat of what has become a regular monthly meeting to discuss latest developments with their Portuguese colleagues and future joint plans of action.

They returned to Gatwick airport on Wednesday afternoon having been delayed in Faro for an hour due to industrial action by Portuguese air traffic controllers.

The four officers had met with Faro PJ chief Mota Carmo and Portimão PJ chief Ana Paula Rito. The four British detectives were never seen publicly with their Portuguese colleagues and enjoyed meals in their own company.

Portuguese authorities ordered the re-opening of the case into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann last October and immediately excluded the possibility of Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, of having had any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.

A statement sent to The Portugal News explained: “The Public Prosecutor’s Office has determined the re-opening of the inquiry relating to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann following a proposal by the Polícia Judiciária and due to the presentation of new elements which justify the continuation of the investigation.”

While a case review has been underway in Portugal since January 2012, spearheaded by leading missing persons detective Helena Monteiro and her team in Oporto, official lines of inquiry were closed in the summer of 2008 by the Attorney-General’s office. At the time, the office said that the case would only be re-opened “should new evidence emerge.”

While Oporto detectives have been working on a review of existing evidence, six detectives from the PJ’s branch in Faro have been assisting their colleagues from Scotland Yard in the ambit of an international co-operation request based on the issuing of rogatory letters and international letters of request.

Reports late last year indicated that the PJ Police, perhaps as a result of headway made following a Crimewatch programme on the BBC, felt they had enough new evidence to initiate an official line of enquiry that could include the questioning of persons of interest and possible suspects.

It is believed the PJ team in Oporto uncovered shortcomings in the initial investigation conducted by their counterparts in the Algarve and were now actively pursuing the theory that Madeleine McCann was abducted from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Helena Monteiro and her four-man team of detectives, who were reportedly handed the case due to their expertise and neutrality, having never worked on it before, are also reported to be keen on speaking to a number of people who were never questioned during the first investigation led by inspectors in the Algarve.

At the time, sources close to the case in Portugal told The Portugal News that they support the Portuguese review in that they hope it will conclude “an investigation which was ended while still in its infancy.”

PJ police in Lisbon recently stressed in comments to The Portugal News that at this stage of the review, the PJ branches in Oporto and Faro are “working independently.”

So if this report is correct the three "prime suspect" burglars in danger of imminent arrest are no more than three employees (presumably with no obvious criminal connections) with no other evidence of involvement beyond that they happened to make a few phone calls on the night in question. Is this really the best SY have come up with after coming on three years and £6 million plus and climbing?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/457128/Newspaper-round-up-Amanda-Knox-Madeleine-McCann-and-Luisa-Zissman

Newspaper round-up: Amanda Knox, Madeleine McCann and Luisa Zissman

I don't know about a "new turn" but reading this rubbish at this hour of the morning will give me a bad turn.

100% Agree Mossman !! This Farce bySupposed "Proffesionals" at SY has gone on far too long !! Why are British Taxpayers standing for THIS ...? And MSM making a fortune !!

It is just possible one or more these people were asked to do a job, like removing a sports bag from the flat, having been called in by phone. They could be peripheral persons connected to the main shebang, paid to do a specific removal or cleaning task. I am interested that their bank accounts are being scrutinised for payments in. Can you trace easily from whom a payment has come, from what source, whose bank etc? If we assume this investigation is NOT a whitewash (big assumption, I know) then SY are working from the outside in... from the minor characters inwards to the main players. It should be fairly easy to see if there is any connection. Surely such Ocean Club employees will sing like canaries. A bit of occasional wallet or money removal from rooms is one thing, but a major crime like this is quite another. I heard the word 'kidnap' being used for the first time on Sky a day or so back!

comperedna wrote:It is just possible one or more these people were asked to do a job, like removing a sports bag from the flat, having been called in by phone. They could be peripheral persons connected to the main shebang, paid to do a specific removal or cleaning task. I am interested that their bank accounts are being scrutinised for payments in. Can you trace easily from whom a payment has come, from what source, whose bank etc? If we assume this investigation is NOT a whitewash (big assumption, I know) then SY are working from the outside in... from the minor characters inwards to the main players. It should be fairly easy to see if there is any connection. Surely such Ocean Club employees will sing like canaries. A bit of occasional wallet or money removal from rooms is one thing, but a major crime like this is quite another. I heard the word 'kidnap' being used for the first time on Sky a day or so back!  

Not if it was a cash payment, if the payer gave a false identity.  In circumstances as described, I don't think anyone would be accepting a cheque  

True, True.

well I don't know about anyone else but if I was working somewhere and there was a situation where a child was missing, I would be contacting all my family and friends to let them know, probably to enlist their help, or just let them know/

tanszi wrote:well I don't know about anyone else but if I was working somewhere and there was a situation where a child was missing, I would be contacting all my family and friends to let them know, probably to enlist their help, or just let them know/

I assume you mean those in the immediate vicinity ?

not necessarily, I have family and friends who are quite close and others who would expect to be advised in such a situation who live some distance away.

And you would tell them that the child had been abducted, would you?



I wouldn't, I would search first and then if he/she hadn't been found in the vicinity THEN I would ring, I wouldn't ring straight away and worry elderly grandparents unnecessarily , he/she could turn up , my priority would be to go searching first and not waste valuable time ringing multiple people.

Heck even Robert Murat gave his alleged past acquaintance, Sergei Malinka, a jingle on that ill-fated night!

kitti wrote:
I wouldn't, I would search first and then if he/she hadn't been found in the vicinity THEN I would ring, I wouldn't ring straight away and worry elderly grandparents unnecessarily , he/she could turn up , my priority would be to go searching first and not waste valuable time ringing multiple people.

Me too.

That's what is wrong with their story. They say it felt so safe they never considered abduction a possibility, thus they went on their merry way to the Tapas. That is how far off the possibility radar abduction was, they say.

Then the very first thought and only possibility to be considered, they again tell us, was abduction. From the very second the alarm was raised, abduction. My first reaction would be to ask my husband was he sure he closed the gates after his check. He never closes doors......but this is no place for marriage issues  

The story fits with arriving back and finding shutters broken of course. Without the broken shutters though, it opens up all of the normal possibilities with children, and the last thing you want to do is ring home from abroad and scare the life out of your family. Kate's dad in particular was not well. Gerrys mother on her own. I would delay it for as long as possible, only being forced into it if I knew it could be publicised in the media.

Who was supposed to break the shutter that night and why didn't they ? That's what went wrong. Panic, fear and distress did not allow them to change the original story once the alarm was raised. So it was not bad planning in the overall scheme of things, the original story might have worked. There was one small glitch, the shutters. Who did not do their job and why ?

mossman wrote:

kitti wrote:
I wouldn't, I would search first and then if he/she hadn't been found in the vicinity THEN I would ring, I wouldn't ring straight away and worry elderly grandparents unnecessarily , he/she could turn up , my priority would be to go searching first and not waste valuable time ringing multiple people.

Me too.

That's what is wrong with their story.  They say it felt so safe they never considered abduction a possibility, thus they went on their merry way to the Tapas.  That is how far off the possibility radar abduction was, they say.

Then the very first thought and only possibility to be considered, they again tell us, was abduction. From the very second the alarm was raised, abduction.  My first reaction would be to ask my husband was he sure he closed the gates after his check.  He never closes doors......but this is no place for marriage issues    

The story fits with arriving back and finding shutters broken of course.  Without the broken shutters though, it opens up all of the normal possibilities with children, and the last thing you want to do is ring home from abroad and scare the life out of your family.  Kate's dad in particular was not well.  Gerrys mother on her own.  I would delay it for as long as possible, only being forced into it if I knew it could be publicised in the media.

Who was supposed to break the shutter that night and why didn't they ?  That's what went wrong.  Panic, fear and distress did not allow them to change the original story once the alarm was raised.  So it was not bad planning in the overall scheme of things, the original story might have worked.  There was one small glitch, the shutters.  Who did not do their job and why ?

I think that perhaps it was Gerry's role to "jemmie" the shutters, but he was disturbed in the task when Jez Wilkins came along. Too late to change the plan since it was Thursday and they were due to go home on the Friday. It had to be Thursday.

kitti wrote:And you would tell them that the child had been abducted, would you?



I wouldn't, I would search first and then if he/she hadn't been found in the vicinity THEN I would ring, I wouldn't ring straight away and worry elderly grandparents unnecessarily , he/she could turn up , my priority would be to go searching first and not waste valuable time ringing multiple people.

I wasn't talking about my child, I was talking about a child who was missing  in an area where I was working.  My family and friends, as did many of the people in PdL and in the UK when children are missing, would willingly help anyone search for a missing child.

tanszi wrote:

kitti wrote:And you would tell them that the child had been abducted, would you?



I wouldn't, I would search first and then if he/she hadn't been found in the vicinity THEN I would ring, I wouldn't ring straight away and worry elderly grandparents unnecessarily , he/she could turn up , my priority would be to go searching first and not waste valuable time ringing multiple people.

I wasn't talking about my child, I was talking about a child who was missing  in an area where I was working.  My family and friends, as did many of the people in PdL and in the UK when children are missing, would willingly help anyone search for a missing child.

I remember the night when Moira Anderson disappeared in Coatbridge in Scotland, although it was so many years ago. I was just a child, but I remember my Uncle Richard coming home from a football match. He came in and said he was going out to help look for a girl who was missing. We all went out to the front gate when he left and there were people running up and down the street, shouting Moira's name. Moira had disappeared after leaving her granny's house, which was just round the corner from my granny's house where we would be every Saturday. The local people searched into the night.

But the mccanns didn't look for their own child....other people looked.