DCCB Report to Gonçalo Amaral

Processos Vol XI



Pages 2945 - 2952



Letter from DCCB (Direcção Central de Combate ao Banditismo )


To: The Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation, Dr Amaral

Date 27 September 2007

Information

The undersigned, accompanied by Inspectors Ramos, Ricardo, Brigantim, and Dordonnat, in compliance with superior orders, and following information related to the possible arrival in Portugal of individuals of British nationality belonging to a private company linked to various activities, mainly the gathering of information, a company called Control Risks Group, who supposedly have the objective of cleaning spaces/objects related to the McCann family, the following inquiries were carried out in order to check the truthfulness of the facts referred to in continuation:


1. With help from the Winkworth Estate Agency in Lagos, it was established that the residence occupied by the McCann couple in Rua da Flores, lot 27 – Vivenda Vista do Mar, P da L was effectively occupied by them on 02-07-2007, whilst the contract shows that the hire period began on 1st July, according to the copy of the contract we were given.

- The McCanns’ departure took place on 09-09-2007 and the keys to the house were returned the following day (10-09-2007) to the Winkworth office in Lagos by an English woman named Susan who was the wife of the Anglican vicar who celebrated mass in the P da L church.

- With the help of P**** C***** from the Winkworth agancy it was established that after the McCanns left the villa the agency was contacted by a female individual called M***** C++++ from ITV, who claimed she wanted to rent the villa for a few days with the aim of making some films, her request was denied.

- In contact with the owner of the villa, Mr A***** M***** of Dutch nationality he said that at the moment the villa was being occupied by some friends of his, of Dutch nationality, surname S************, the husband named R********, the wife J*****, R being the director of the Museo de Arte Antiga.

- The owner of the villa said that he had been in the villa after the departure of the McCanns and that it seemed to him that there were new plants at the bottom of the garden, without being able to indicate exactly which plants, a fact that he commented on with the gardener F**** Do S*****.

- When the gardener was contacted that in spite of the fact that he does the maintenance of the garden, he had not detected anything abnormal in it, namely the existence of new plants, saying that he had some difficulty in maintaining a dialogue with the owner, because of the language barrier.

- From the cleaner who worked in the residence occupied by the McCanns, it was found out that on the previous Monday 10-09-2007, she carried out her normal cleaning routine without noticing anything abnormal, just remarking that two or three boxes with dossiers were in the garage and which were later collected by a friend of the McCanns’, Susan.

- She says that whenever she went to the house occupied by the McCanns she always found them to be accompanied by friends or family.

- On the 11-09-2007, the Dutch owners of the residence were also present at the property.

- When they (PJ) contacted Susan, they found out that she was Susan Harboard (sic) and it was confirmed that she had returned the key to the estate agency after the McCann’s departure.

- During the period that the key was in her possession, it was not requested by anyone, nor does she remember seeing anything abnormal at the residence.

2. As regards the Renault Grand Scenic, number plate 59-DA-27, it was hired by Gerry from Rent a car AA. Castanheira, with offices in Lagos, on 27-05-2007 and was delivered to the McCann couple at the apartment they were occupying in P da L, from which time it was noted in the contract that a friend of the McCanns, Alexander Cameron, was noted as an additional driver.

- At a later date, at the end of August, another additional driver was added to the contract, Michael Terrence Wright.

- The return of the car to the rental agency, was done at the agency’s offices on 23-09-2007 by a Caucasian individual, who appeared there alone, speaking English, about 1.80 cm tall, with short grey hair, about 60-65 years old, who signed the delivery document for the return of the car, but whose signature is illegible.


- When the car was delivered to the McCanns it had 3.114 km on the clock and when it was returned it had 14.443 km on the clock, thus 11.227 km had been travelled during the period the car was in their possession.

3. In relation to the McCanns’ stay at the OC, the following was checked: Date of occupation of apartment 5 A 28-04-2007 and the departure date was registered on 05-05-2007, being certain that from 04 – 05 they did not stay in the apartment. They entered apartment 4G on 04-05-2007 and left on 03-07-2007.

- After the disappearance apartment 5 A was occupied by the following individuals: 12-06-2007 – 19-06-2007 by R and F. F****** (friends of the owners), from 28-06-2007 – 12-07-2007 by SR, W & CF, 12-07-2007 to 19-07-2007 by BSP and JFP, 19-07-2007 – 26-07-07 by MMS family.

4. It was stated by Silvia Batista that on 20-09-2007, during the morning, three reporters from Sky News, two men and a woman, were seen on the patio of apartment 5 A and that they had forced the external blind to the bedroom that Madeleine had disappeared from, probably with the intention of filming inside, and she told them to leave. But she said that yesterday 25-09-2007 a security guard was asked to come to the same apartment as there was a group of three journalists – two Spanish men and a woman, who had set up cameras on the patio next to Apartment 5 A which was occupied at the time. Their identification was not noted, but given the fact they had filming equipment, they were assumed to be reporters.

- With regard to journalists, it was reported by cleaners working in the block containing apartment 5 A that they are often bothered by journalists trying to get access to the apartment, which has always been denied them, the journalists often tried to persuade them or offer money in exchange for access.

5. With regard to the possible sighting of arguido Gerry McCann next to a pink coloured block of apartments at a site opposite the Luz cemetery, we can inform you that this an establishment called “St James Portuguesa Lda, lots 1 and 2 being situated in the positions mentioned, from the outside the spaces corresponding to Lot 1 can be seen of a total of apartment designated as follows: 101-104, 111-114, 121-124, 105-109, 115-119, 125-129.

- In Lot 2 there are some apartments with T3 typology.

- The buildings in question have 3 pavements, whose access to the different areas is visible from the outside, as they consist of an open perimeter and there are several commercial establishments at ground level.


- In view of the number of buildings and given the scarce information provided it does not seem to us to be viable, immediately, to take measures to prove or disprove the elements provided.

6. As concerns the information provided by F***** J**** with regard to a sighting of the McCanns at a residence called Vila d’Arte, in the Melody Urbanisation in Espiche, during the month of July, it was possible to determine which residence this was and that the building is the permanent residence of some citizens from NL or the UK for the past 4 or 5 years.

- As regards the sighting itself which occurred at 20.30 – 20.45 on dates that it was not possible to determine more than that this was in July of the current year and that the couple and their two youngest children were transported in small car, that the witness thought to be a dark coloured Citroen C3 or Renault Clio.

- Upon contacting the current inhabitants of the residence it was established that they were Dutch citizens who had made their reservation during the days 24-09-2007 and 29-09-2007 via the portucasa.nl website and who were from Amsterdam.

- The contract was signed through an intermediary from Winkworth who said that the McCanns never had any relationship with the residence in question because it was always let to friends or family members of the Dutch owners.

- The action of the intermediary was informal, there was no register of contracts with the occupants.

- The property is normally rented out, the owners do not live there on a permanent basis.

7. Reference is made that with some of the OC employees an attempt is made to obtain information about any strange movements surrounding the apartment initially occupied by the McCann family and we were told that apart from the journalists, they did not notice anything unusual. However, they would like to clarify that given the endless insistence on the part of these journalists, the employees did not really pay attention to details, neither did they register their identification of physical characteristics, limiting themselves to refusing access to the building and not answering any questions about the events that occurred there.

- Yesterday at 21.16 the Portimao DIC received a phone call from a security officer who worked for the OC to say that a few minutes ago somebody had forced up the shutters of the window of the bedroom Madeleine had disappeared from. The undersigned, together with two of his colleagues went to the scene, where they saw the shutter was hanging obliquely in front of the window and noted that it had been effectively forced open from the outside. However, there were no signs of anyone trying to breach the window.

- These facts were reported by the security guard.

- The guard said that the incident happened between 21.00 and 21.05, when he was making his 21.00 round of the block containing Apartment 5 A and then walked down the die of 5 A, down the road to the Baptista supermarket and then returned up the same road, returning to the surroundings of Apartment 5 A and saw that in that short space of time, someone who he cannot identify as he saw nobody around, had approached the window and forced the shutters. At about 21.06 he alerted reception and the GNR.

- Immediately before he had been talking to a colleague, opposite 5 A and 5 B and neither of them had seen anyone strange, but a few moments earlier they had seen two journalists -–a man and a woman –near the bar, with logos from a Canadian media channel stuck on their camera.

- Given the scenario, as well as the way the shutter had been raised as well as the limiting factors that other people had already been at the site and there was no guarantee of its preservation, the procedure to examine for fingerprints was not activated by the Portimao DIC.

- Some trips were made to Lagos in order to attempt to identify journalists and TV stations, as well as any other persons suspected, but this activity had negative results.

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