Wendy Williams
EXCLUSIVE By Jon Clarke in Huelva
A NIGHTCLUB doorman has revealed to the Olive Press that he knows the key figures behind a paedophile gang that kidnapped missing Maddie McCann.
Marcelino Jorge Italiano, 36, has told Spanish police that a group of high-ranking lawyers, based in Faro and Albufeira on the Algarve, are linked to a paedophile ring that abducts children.
The Angolan, who worked in club security on the Algarve for ten years, claimed that he is “terrified” for his safety after confronting the gang.
“I think there have been over a dozen children kidnapped,” he told the Olive Press.
“They prey on the weak and vulnerable.
“They are ruthless. I have been attacked twice for trying to investigate it and even lost my front tooth.”
The six foot four inch bouncer – who has now fled across the border to Spain – gave his dossier of information to the Policia Nacional in Huelva this week.
His lawyer, who was present during the hour-long interview, told the paper: “He seems credible and believable and he does not trust the Portuguese police.
“He also seems pretty convinced that Maddie may have been taken from Portugal to the US.”
Italiano, a former semi-professional Basketball player, claims the key figures include two businessmen both based on the Algarve.
He insists that the group has high level contacts in Portugal’s judiciary and links to a legal practice in London.
He told detectives that he got much of the information from the ex-wife of one of the businessmen and has photographs of the group.
“I know these people were involved and I have been told that Madeleine may now be in America,” he said. “I can’t say how, but I have known these people and believe they can get away with anything.”
In particular he wants to give the information to the family of Maddie, who went missing while on holiday in the Algarve in 2007.
A spokesman for the family Clarence Mitchell told the Olive Press: “We are taking this seriously and want to talk to him.
“We are aware of one of the names mentioned and are already investigating.
“We plan to come over to talk to him.”
He confirmed that a possible link to the high-level ‘Casa Pia’ paedophile ring was not being discounted.
In September six men including a solicitor, a former ambassador and a TV presenter were jailed for sexually abusing 32 children living at Casa Pia homes across Portugal.
According to the main witness Pedro Namora, who is now a lawyer, there were many wealthy members on the Algarve and they regularly used houses down there.
Why shouldn’t we be expected to believe this ?
We have been expected to believe that shutters had been forced, that Madeleine had been abducted, that Tanner had seen a faceless man going to the left, AND to the right, that Madeleine was taken to Barcelona on a hyper-fast yacht, and is at present in Australia, and simultaneously that she is in a hellish lair within 10 miles of PdL.
And that although she was taken to order by a pae*** ring, she has come to no harm.
All of this has been stated as incontrovertible fact by the McCanns themselves, or by their mouthpiece, or by their No 1 Private Detective.
In short we have been asked to believe ludicrous nonsense, but most importantly we have been exhorted to give generously to a fund which is supporting the family, and funding very expensive libel lawyers in their attempt to keep people from asking the important questions about what actually happened.
Strange that the list of ‘sightings’ and theories always coincides with another fund raising campaign. .
And how odd that he wants to give the information to the Private detectives, rather than the proper authorities.
I hope you got the opportunity to ask Mitche££ some penetrating questions when you spoke to him.
More drivel, suprised the media bother to print this rubbish. PR stuff as there is a book out soon!
Any lead, no matter how tenuous, should be followed until it can be discounted. What else would any parent or any responsible member of society want? And what on earth would motivate people with no stake in this to dismiss a theory until it has been disproved? Someone did this and it should not be swept under the carpet and forgotten about until the guilty are exposed.
Why on earth would he wait so long? To build his “case”? His credibility? If one is “terrified” would one call a press conference? Hmmmm…
Ben “Any lead, no matter how tenuous, should be followed until it can be discounted. What else would any parent or any responsible member of society want? And what on earth would motivate people with no stake in this to dismiss a theory until it has been disproved? Someone did this and it should not be swept under the carpet and forgotten about until the guilty are exposed.”
Indeed so. The main leads which should be followed up include an examination of why the parents repeatedly lied on the night they reported her missing, about the shutters, the window, the half hourly checks; why they lied about the blue tennis bag; why the creche records were forged; why both McCanns diligently erased their mobile phone memories so that no one now can trace who made the many text messages to Gerry the previous evening, and why he refuses to say where they were from; why Kate refused to assist the police; why they were so dismissive of the dog’s alerting to human blood and cadaverine; and why, above all, they still insist that they KNOW that Madeleine was abducted, when there is not a shred of evidence which would lead anyone else to that conclusion.
Obviously they have to keep saying she is alive and well, even though they say at the same time she is in the hands of a pae**** ring, to allow money to flow in their direction, or the Fund would have been a massive fraud.
They can of course ask the Portuguese authorities to re-open the case at any time. But they are not doing. Why ?
PM
He did go to proper authorities last week in Spain (after fleeing the Algarve) who reportedly passed the information onto Portugal
Pull the other one Jon. Everyone jumps on this unfortunate kid’s story for money or publicity. These frauds are bad enough but the media is worse for going along with it. If there was any credibility to this tale the Portuguese police would reopen the case.
I see the usual conspiracy theory nutters are out in force again. every time this torn families story is in the news they crawl out from under their slimy rocks, spreading their lies and filth. NO PM, they can NOT just breeze over to Portugal and ask to have the case reopened. So why do you lie?
I wish to congratulate the reader PM for her/his excellent and well informed comments! Surely she /he has read the police files, which are widely available online, just google for it. It is nice to see that more and more british peole are seeing through the McCanns web of deception and lies, despite the lack of accurate and balanced reports on this case by the british media and all the “professional” spin.
WELL DONE, dear PM!
I can not believe all the nasty coments. OK they should not have left Maddy alone but my God they have paid the price. I own a house in Luz and was there when this all happened and if you could have seen the face of that poor mother you would not make it worse by all the negative comments about the Mc Canns. Surely if they were guilty they would have let it go quiet by now but no they desperatly want to find their little girl at any cost as any decent parents would. Give them a break and help that poor family in any way possible instead of just slagging them off. My heart goes out to them. I can not think of anything worse than what has happened to them.
Roseanne, you have GOT to be kidding! PM has clearly NOT read the files, he/she has relied on the discredited ramblings of a disgraced and now proven incompetent cop. If you REALLY want to know the truth, try reading this blog,
http://amaralfiction.blogspot.com/
They prove beyond any doubt, with incontravertable and verifiable documentary PROOF that Amaral is a liar, and that his book is about as close to the official files as chalk is to cheese.
Well done Carol! Someone with a kind heart and a good dose of common sense! Why indeed would they kick up so much fuss continually if they had something to hide? No, they are completely innocent, as the Portuguese Atorny General concluded. He said, and I quote, there is no evidence whatsoever they committed any crime.
PM said:
…’They can of course ask the Portuguese authorities to re-open the case at any time. But they are not doing. Why ?’
Indeed, this is the last thing Team McCann wants.
Portuguese Judiciary:
Reopen the case and put an end to this circus!
@ William Adams:
Please read the official files!
You can try to spin and spin, but you won’t ever be able to discuss f.e. the dog’s findings away.
They found the scent of death in McCann’s holiday apartment, on Mrs. McCann’s and a child’s clothes and outside and in the rental car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EHJjpXii9o
“You can try to spin and spin, but you won’t ever be able to discuss f.e. the dog’s findings away.
They found the scent of death in McCann’s holiday apartment, on Mrs. McCann’s and a child’s clothes and outside and in the rental car”
Did they Cody? Did they really? I think not! Best you read this my friend, and then explain why Grime HIMSELF said that Eddie, that’s the cadaver dog, NOT the blood dog, WILL react to dried blood from a LIVING person! That’s Grime HIMSELF who said that, not the McCanns, not Mitchell, not one of their supporters but the dog’s own handeler.
http://amaralfiction.blogspot.com/2011/01/cadaver-scent-proof-of-death-or-walking.html
And THAT is why it is VITAL to get proper forensic backup which, as you and I both well know, came back as inconclusive. Or are you now going to hit me with that old government coverup bull?
Oh, and who died half way up the car park wall? Eddie seemed to be far more interested in that than the McCanns car by a long chalk!
well i wont comment on the comments but with regard to the reported story i have a few points
1. fled to portugal ….. its a drive of two hours or so
2. in fear of his life …. a broken tooth….real hard these bouncers not
3. couldnt speak out in portugal the police are corrupt …. so he comes to probably the most corrupt country in the western world -as wriiten about in this paper often enough
4.he wants to speak to the mcanns ….. has he heard of phones he could have rang ages ago if he had anything of value to say
Thank God we have people like William Adams and Carol Hawkes who support the McCanns as much as I do. Cody and PM just venture onto the Find Madeleine website and you will see there is information about a petition which the McCanns have set up requesting the Portuguese/British Governments to review the case. They need 100,000 signatures, so put your signature where your mouth is, get onto the site and sign the petition. This couple just want their child back, they have gone through hell this past four years, with absolutely no help from people such as you. Every piece of so called ‘evidence’ you have come up with has no creedance whatsoever. Just say they did ‘kill’ Madeleine, where on earth would they hid a body before the world and his wife descended upon Praia da Luz? How would they preserve a body for 28 days before they transported it to heaven knows where in the hire car? Mr Grimes dogs dug up a coconut shell in Jersey, and the ‘experts’ thought it was a skull! The dog in the car park was running about like a headless chicken until Grimes pulled it towards the McCanns hire car, and then it was shown what the sniff at! (I’ve seen the video). My last question to you all is, if you had ‘done away’ with your daughter, and you had been ‘let off’ by the Portuguese police, and you had flown home, what would you do? If I had committed such a heinous crime, and I was a heart surgeon, and my wife was a GP, I would have sighed with relief that I had managed to get away with it, and put my head down, and carried on with my life. No way would I still be searching for my precious little girl four years on. You doubters make me sick!!
Thank you Jean! As I said, it has been made abundantly clear, though not it seems clear enough for people like Cody and PM, that the case will NOT be reopened UNLESS new evidence is brought forward. So it doesn’t matter WHO demands it reopened. The McCanns, David Cameron, Barak Obama, Ghengis Khan or Krypto the Wonder Dog, NONE of them can just waltz in and ask for it to be reopened unless they have new evidence.
From the Portuguese Police Files released July 2008
Madeleine McCann
A report by Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida to the Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation
NUIPC-201/07.0 GALGS
Intercalary report
For the attention of the Criminal Investigation Coordinator
EDITED
From everything that is exposed, the process files result in the following:
A) the minor Madeleine McCann died in apartment 5A at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, on the night of the 3rd of May 2007;
B) a simulation of an abduction took place;
C) in order to render the child’s death impossible before 22H00, a situation of checking of the McCann couple’s children while they slept was made up;
D) Kate McCann and Gerald McCann are involved in the concealment of the cadaver of their daughter, Madeleine McCann;
E) at this moment, there seem to be no strong indications that the child’s death was not the result of a tragic accident, yet;
F) from what has been established up to now, everything indicates that the McCann couple, in self-defence, doesn’t want to deliver the cadaver immediately and voluntarily, and there is a strong possibility that it was moved from the initial place of deposition.
This situation may raise questions concerning the circumstances in which the death of the child took place.
On the tenth of September, two thousand and seven
Even though I don’t like what I am hearing from the doorman I hope that this may at last be a breakthrough in the search for Madeleine. Surely, if the evidence he has is found to be believable, the Portuguese police will have no alternative but to reopen the case. Although, from their past performance, they don’t seem to be able to conduct any semblence of an enquiry.
“From the Portuguese Police Files released July 2008
Madeleine McCann
A report by Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida to the Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation
NUIPC-201/07.0 GALGS
Intercalary report
For the attention of the Criminal Investigation Coordinator”
The INTERIM report, based on the now wholey discredited ramblings of a proven corrupt and incompetent cop. The FINAL report, as released by the Portuguese Attorny General, concluded that there was NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that the McCanns commited ANY crime.
Read here for the full final report.
http://amaralfiction2.blogspot.com/2010/11/innocence-of-mccanns-definitive-word.html
And to add to the fact that there was NO EVIDENCE against the McCanns – this is a piece from The Guardian dated 21/2 interview with Peter Hill the ex-editor of the Express …..
‘He is contrite about the sad episode that ended with Express Newspapers being landed with one of the most expensive legal bills in newspaper history – the coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Hill’s paper and its three other titles, the Daily Star, Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday. He says: “I did too much on the story. I accept that.”
Too much wasn’t the only problem though. There were also the stories that suggested Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, might have been complicit in her disappearance, which in its apology Express Newspapers admitted were “seriously defamatory”.
Asked whether he regretted libelling the McCanns, he replies: “Of course I do. And I insisted on apologising on the front of the newspaper when it became clear that it was a complete fabrication. We gave them £500,000. It doesn’t redound to my credit but it did help them to continue the search.”
Leaking stories
So why did it happen? “It was a huge story, and every adult in the country had an opinion on it. I admit it helped to sell the paper. There were many factors involved, such as the way Maddy’s parents sought publicity in an unprecedented way.
“All the way through, our principal focus was on ‘what’s happened to Maddy?’ The Portuguese police and British legal sources were leaking stories that implied the McCanns were guilty in some way. We were not to know that the Portuguese police were ineffectual and, in some cases, corrupt.”
I rest my case!!
“The Portuguese police and British legal sources were leaking stories that implied the McCanns were guilty in some way. We were not to know that the Portuguese police were ineffectual and, in some cases, corrupt.”
And THAT should be banner headlines on every paper, every website that has anything to do with the case.
One big yawn, every six months this case rases its head for more free publicity and more cash rolling into the fund. what about the many other poor children that have gone missing in that time ?
What about the European Amber Alert system, FOR all those other missing kids, that would never have been adopted if it hadn’t been for the tireless campaigning by the McCanns to have it introduced? Conveniently forgot that, didn’t you, rodent brain. As for yawn, I pity anyone who finds the plight of missing or abducted kids boring.
MICKEY MOUSE
Has someone got a gun to your head Mickey? If not why on earth do you read all this ‘boring stuff’. If it was your child that was missing I’m sure you do everything humanly possible to find her. If you helped by signing the petition asking the Portuguese police to review the case, there may be a chance that Madeleine would be found and you wouldn’t have to be bothered reading about her again!! Perhaps, if Madeleine was found, other children may be found as a result of the police enquiries. Madeleine may be the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
I’m sorry Jean, but to people like that Madeleine is just not important. It’s just one big game to them. Like the scum who desecrated that Facebook page for that poor girl who threw herself under a train because she could no longer stand the bullying. Same mentality.
I am so glad that those sort of people are in the minority. The majority of people are exceptionally kind and want to do anything that they can to help find Madeleine and all missing children. Try as I do, I will never understand how people can be so callous about her parents, who have made the biggest mistake of their lives, are living through hell, and are doing what any normal, caring parent would do, and that is to continue searching for their child, forever if necessary. It really does go beyond comprehension.
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
From the moment that Madeleine McCann went missing on 3rd May 2007 her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have had to completely and utterly rely on the kindness of strangers.
Evidence now shows that the Portuguese police spent precious little time searching for a missing little girl and considerably more time searching for evidence to implicate her parents in her murder. They have failed miserably on both counts and left many parents world-wide wondering if Portugal is indeed the family holiday haven we previously believed it was.
From that first desperate plea made by Madeleine’s family on early morning television, our hearts went out to the little lost girl and her family. We watched and prayed as news reports updated us of the continuing search, new leads, new theories and new suspects. All of which came to nothing.
As donations started flooding in, an official fund was set up. More and more of us contributed, in the desperate hope that the amount that we donated could actually make that little bit of difference, could actually mean that Madeleine was finally found. And although raising money and donating to the fund is essential to help the continuing search for Madeleine, sadly there isn’t a magic number that will bring Madeleine home.
We held our own children tightly and watched in disbelief as Madeleine’s parents were made arguidos and we wept as we watched Kate’s lonely walks along the beach, clutching her daughter’s precious Cuddle Cat.
Finally, as they arrived back in England and stepped off the plane without their beloved eldest daughter, our throats burned with sadness as we listened to Gerry’s heart-rending pleas to the world to help them find their lovely little girl.
It has been an emotional rollercoaster for all of us following the case but for none more so than Kate and Gerry McCann. Their misjudged decision to leave their children in the hotel room that night has changed their world forever, and in turn it has changed all our worlds. Who now would even consider leaving a child unattended, even for five minutes? I am now more suspicious of strangers and far more vigilant with my children than I ever was before Madeleine went missing. My children will never have the freedom to play out of my view, even in the garden or in the street, the way I did when I was their age. I wouldn’t dream of letting them go for bike rides to the park without me or their father, or letting them run errands to the shop or to the letterbox without me. All freedoms and adventures that my younger brother and I experienced and relished in our childhoods and all so very much part of growing up and learning to be independent.
A generation of mothers will now hold their children closer far longer than we probably should and we make no excuse or apology for this. It is quite simply because anything could happen, anyone could be out there and I would far rather my children tell me I am mean and unfair to them, than the unthinkable happen and they not be around to tell me at all.
How Kate and Gerry have coped is beyond me. I am certain I would have died from the pain and grief they undoubtedly feel. But it is in the complete and utter belief that if they work hard enough to find her, if they do enough to make up for that mistake and keep on searching for her, then one day Madeleine will be home again. Madeleine’s parents have to believe this. Not to believe it, to give up hoping and trying would be to give up on their daughter and no parent could ever contemplate doing that.
However, Kate and Gerry are very well aware that it is almost impossible that they will be the ones to spot their missing daughter in a crowd, or find the vital clue that brings their daughter home. With no police force in the world out there actively looking for Madeleine her parents have to both rely on and have complete faith in the kindness of strangers. This is why they must keep Madeleine’s beautiful little face and her heartbreaking story in the forefront of our minds. All hope really will be lost if we forget about Madeleine.
Recently, while attending to my four year old daughter in a toyshop, my two year old daughter took the opportunity of pushing the doll’s pram she was playing with the full length of the shop, out of the shop door and down a busy road. Now I accept that she was completely and utterly my responsibility but not one person stopped her on her little adventure. In this age of false accusations, not one person stopped my little girl as she pushed the pram through the shoppers and along the pavement. Yet as I ran after her I saw people look at her, turn and nudge each other but not one bent down to ask where her mummy was. Would they have stopped her if she had tried to cross the road? I really don’t know. Sadly, this is exactly what the McCanns are up against. People just don’t want to risk getting involved or making a scene. Why else would there have been so many ‘sightings’ of Madeleine where action was not taken immediately?
Mr and Mrs McCann now have to pray that a stranger, who sees a little girl a lot like Madeleine, doesn’t just stare, wonder, walk away and recount their story to friends and family several days later, but that they do the right thing. That they call the police and hotline number immediately, whilst they have the child in their sights.
They have to pray that a stranger, suspicious of a neighbour or odd behaviour, reports this immediately, rather than years later when it could be too late.
Better a well meaning mistake than a lost opportunity to reunite a family and rebuild a little girl’s life.
Somebody out there knows exactly what has happened to Madeleine McCann and the likelihood is that more than one person knows where she is now. It is going to take a very brave, decent individual to break a trust and pass on the details of a secret, but that person could end this nightmare for Madeleine and her family in one short telephone call.
Recently, I met Kate McCann for the very first time. She looks very different to the tanned, healthy young woman we saw in those first reports from Portugal. She is extremely thin, tired and understandably carries an enormous sadness in her eyes. She held herself with gracefulness and poise but she is without doubt a woman who is incomplete.
As we said goodbye I wished her well in the search for her daughter and I am ashamed to say that in my sadness for her situation and the knowledge that it could so easily be me, I filled up with tears. This thoroughly decent and kind woman, who has lost so much, put her arms around me and comforted me. How could I possibly understand what she has gone through, is still going through and will continue to go through until her daughter is back home? Losing my daughter for a few moments in a busy town centre is just a nasty taste of what she has endured every single day for almost four years. Yet she was kind enough to comfort me.
How can we not wish the McCanns well in their search? How can we not feel that it is all of our responsibilities as fellow human beings to do what we can to help them find their daughter? We have all made mistakes with our children, we wouldn’t be human if we hadn’t, but few of us with such life changing and terrible results.
If I walked in Kate McCann’s heavy shoes, I would beg every family member, friend, neighbour and stranger to help me in any small way they could and in my utter desperation I wouldn’t stop asking and asking until my daughter was home. We shouldn’t turn away because the McCanns keep asking for help and reminding us of our own fears. A million people on the lookout are so much better than two. They need our help and they need our basic human kindness to understand and empathise with their nightmare ordeal.
I defy anyone to say that they would behave any differently. In their shoes, each and every one of us would rely on the kindness of strangers.
PDA
Jean I read every word of your long entry and agree with every word. Everything I would want to say. I ended your letter with tears running down my face.I,like you, feel close to all this because I have a home in Praia Da Luz and as I said before was there when it happened. Please God bring an end to all this pain soon.
Hi Carol – Can you tell me how the residents of Praia da Luz are treating this tragedy four years on? Are they very bitter about the whole affair or do they have some compassion for the McCanns? I really do hope the latter, because I still have that feeling that Madeleine is only a stones throw away from where she was taken, and it would be terrible if someone saw her and did nothing about it.
Jean,
Nicely copied and pasted from several other sites and originally dated 17th Feb. Why would you do that without acknowledgment ? Unless you are yourself PDA.
Actually it’s dated the 16th PM, but I wouldn’t expect a dim-witted anti-Madeleine like you to worry about such a simple detail! Maybe Jean was just trying to spread the word a little further, and simply forgot to put an acknowledgement up. You anti’s see suspicion everywhere. So sad, what a way to live!
Dated 17th on some of the sites it is on, perhaps even earlier on others, who knows.
All the witness statements collated so far put this now as the most stupid ‘kidnap’ ever. These are all on the Internet.
The issue is that many are and have been looking for Madeleine, and not for the reward either. One man is dead who paid to search in strange circumstances, did he take his own life at his failure to find her?
It is now some days since this claim of knowing that this child, a female child in contrast to male children in the cases he has pursued; is stated to be as we are led to believe a change of gender victim. Pillow talk, old cases of a different orientation, and accusations are not evidence as any PI should know. Nor is comparing cases of boys being used as sex objects from the fabric of the society they live in prior. My thoughts go out to those past victims of such crimes, and prayers also for peace of mind.
What is evidence is that the two Warner employee’s state they were driving up and down, and parking at the very time of this kidnap. Yes, right there. It is in the files. Parked and local. Yet a chance team of crooks did not choose the many nearby seen insitu. Why? How did this happen when at the time of 20.30 hours to 21.30 hours there was as recorded the greatest amount of activity at this very small ‘corridor’ of time and place. Please explain?
A man describes himself as being in the same locality and doing what is said to be done by a ‘sinister man’. Yet this is not dismissed as not a sinister man, or did he have a shadow watching him, replicatiing at the very same time, this normal routine?
Two workers in cars by the location, and a family with a three year old being carried in the manner Jane Tanner describes. I want and demand to know how this kidnap was done and by whom, the world wants to know. Why?
Who is responsible for this then three year old to be missing, then and now. The reward is very specific.
I trust the editor of this news item will seek the answers to these questions from Marcelino as to the ‘window of opportunity’. How did these men get information on a few days visit when there are hundreds yards away every day to choose. None have been. How, Mr Italiano was she choosen and why? Please tell us why?
Correction, ‘chosen’.
Jean, the children were never resident in any hotel room. You know that. They were as with other children also resident as holiday makers then from Saturday to Thursday in apartments, not hotel serviced accommodation. It is quite different to be in a hotel with children than in multiple units that are not serviced by staff as security in a contained place.
Plus, Jean I found the people then and now very concerned as you know. I know they searched as I saw them,and heard them. They search still.
Jean. I too suspect, not believe, that this child is as you state not a stone’s throw away. I would like to know how you have this same thought as many others seeing the location from the inside, and the many other children.
Yes, I am still sure that the route to the Pyramid is suspect and around due to the nature of cover this afforded adjacent.
But also Jean. I would like you to explain why you think this. Very interested in your reply.
Jean…. A lot of the residents are now getting angry that tourists are now thinking Luz is not a safe place to take children on holiday and the tourist trade is way down because of this. But there are also the people like myself who continue to care. They still talk about it all the time. I can not believe that she is a “stones throw away” A body would have been found by now and if she was alive she would have been seen as everyone looks still. We have all searched in the past for other people that were missing. A young man went missing on his last day of his holiday. He was eventually found on a ledge having fallen from the cliff with broken legs and jaw. Sadly died of exposure. So we have all been there before in Luz but never without answers for so long.
There are a lot of letters with very strong views on here and I do not want to get into any arguments. I am just a mother myself who feels really sad that this happened in the beautiful little village where I spend five months a year. The wonderful Portuguese people love children and this has rocked their world.
But with respect she has not been seen outside the complex and as stated a witness statement shows to police a man that was carrying his own child from the Tapas Bar is stating he did so at the very point that a man was seen from a distance. How do you explain that? It is and always will be my view that she hid and someone took her, or she hid and as yet a suitable chance find has not been had.
Cold cases can take a very long time. It depends on a chance bit of information. I would hate to think that I was there and in the breath of men who are sexual predators of any gender, or any person. I saw no evidence of this and as yet I still think if a door is left open a child walks out of it. Where I do not know.
But due to the fact no other sighting in the three years at all of factual information has come in the matter is that she is missing. That is still at the point last seen.
Where is the conjecture for many as proof of her identity as traces are left where she is. But as you know locals still look for her in the resort and stay vigilant. I do not say a body or a cadaver, as in all children missing sometimes God or fate takes a hand many years later. I am sure that all of us feel that in any tourist honeypot a child could and has gone missing.
A child under four is not able to summon help. That is different than a ten year old. There are cases that are taken up by forensic archaeologists who have a scene to inspect. Yet there is also men who say unfairly and with no evidence that Praia da Luz is as you say a dangerous place. If so the many people who go to the resort would give a man who looked at their children a bloody nose. You know that.
There is no exclusivity on caring. It is done as an act of humanity. Not for involving those who are sensation-seekers of banner headlines in the chip paper. Remember it was not the children you see every day, it was one with her brother and sister that could have been a bit too adventurous. Just as she might have been under the same conditions at Butlins, Disneyworld or the Benidorm as a packaged holiday for a group. Let us pray that she is not and has not been in the hands of sexual predators. Amen.
That is and always has been my prayer and why I continue to listen to logic of what is common sense. She was last seen in the apartment of flat 5A and has not been seen or heard of since. Now where can she be? Maybe a place so simple it is overlooked.
Please if you are there do not think the most difficult. Think how a child might hide and be stuck, or taken and kept by some person for some emotional reason other than male predators. Pray if so those or that person has the grace to say so to Interpol or Portimao Police who can and do have powers of arrest and extradition. No less will do.
Carol thank you for your reply, it has restored my faith in the residents of Luz. I can understand why they are getting angry with the fact that tourists think it is unsafe to take their children on holiday there. But you can’t get away from the fact that Madeleine was taken from an apartment there, and unfortunately, due to all the publicity, it seems as though there are a great many British paedophiles who reside in Portugal because it is a safe haven due to the lack of laws. Together with the fact that little Joana went missing a few miles away four years before Madeleine, and has never been seen again.
No PM I’m not PDA as my name begins with J not P!! As far as putting the entry onto this blog I want as many people to read it as possible, because it shows a great deal of compassion. But apparently it has no effect on you, and because I sense this I feel so very sorry for you because you must have a very sad life.
Thank you Melody – I completely agree with your last statement. I sincerely hope that she has been taken by someone who was desperate for a child, and is caring for her. Unfortunately, by now she will most probably speak a different language, and because she was so young when taken may have very distant memories of her previous life. In reply to your question, how do I know she is not so far away from where she was taken. Well, I don’t, but I just have a very strong feeling.
Jean, are you saying for a fact you know a man who was a predatory sexual monster of infant and under five girl children took as a premeditated act an IVF child who was with two others? Is that the thinking of who is undesirable, as if so the men so far exposed show no kind of planning of that ilk. As in the case of Robert Black in England he targeted such children by waiting for them to be isolated. To isolate is the main way of taking.
But as you know where there is a large saturation of people and much uncertainty it is the greatest weapon to outwit such monsterrs. Uncertainty of their own fate.
A great deal of commotion was made over the fact a child cried for over an hour and was known as you know in the local only quarter of the unit of the village. Vocal outrage ensued on this, as it would anywhere in the world. It is a simple emotion of a child in distress. That is why whoever has or had this child in contrst to the ones yards away playing everyday out of camera lens view is a mystery that will be solved. No two cases are alike in who is missing, unless you have a confession, or facts to say they are connected. Again, an open patio door and a child that had fit legs to walk.
Running off when not observed is a childhood habit and not unusual. Where she ran and why, if she did and to whom we do not know. But in time such facts are known of who has a motive and hidden her and why.
That is all we can know factually until as I said God takes a hand. To me it is no strange fact that a chance word or a chance clue lands at a set time. Many children are missing still.
Where they are will perhaps never be known. Maybe with some of these a person who feels he or she can do better and has this need has such children.
Maybe as you say the haven of paedophiles that invade all our towns and cities internationally in every walk of life did find a way of taking this one child, this in contrast to all the hundreds of others yards away seen everyday. Maybe.
Joana’s fate is known and the perpetrators. Where her body is will be very nearby to the person who did this. Here is a book on it reviewed by a former policeman. Joana was not the victim of a predatory monster, no, it was a person closest to her. A certain victim has a special effect on her attagonist and hence why that child, This explains the case of Joana better than I could.
‘I am reading and translating Paulo Pereira Cristovao’s non-fiction book about the Joana Cipriano case, A Estrela de Joana; at present I’m about 2/3 through it.
It’s in Portuguese, so it’s going slowly. There were some things that I had read about what happened to Leonor Cipriano that I had never seen sourced that are explained in Cristovao’s book. So, what actually happened to Leonor Cipriano inside the Faro Directorate of the PJ on that October night in 2004? I will be posting about this case throughout the week, but just a few things that I think are important and worth mentioning:
(1) Both Leonor and Joao Cipriano had already confessed to killing Joana before the three PJ inspectors from Lisbon (Cristovao, Marques Morgada Leonel and Paulo Marques Bom) ever arrived in the Algarve. The problem was that Joao Cipriano, Joana’s uncle, kept leading the PJ on wild goose chases around the countryside, claiming that he could not remember where he had put Joana’s body. Cristovao, Leonel, and Marques Bom were not sent to Faro to find out whether or not Joana was dead or alive; they already knew she was dead. They were sent to see if they could do anything to help the local police find her body.
(2) A forensic specialist named Teresa Magalhaes testified at the trial that the bruises on Leonor Cipriano’s body appeared to have been made on at least two different occasions, and that the most recent ones appeared to have been no more than two days old when they were photographed. She also said, “Those lesions [in the photographs of Leonor’s body] are not caused by a fall from stairs. It would be very difficult for lesions on the face and in the abdominal area to occur if this was a fall from the stairs.”
But Cristovao says that Leonor was not trying to throw herself down the stairs, as one might automatically think; she was trying to throw herself over the banister on the second floor and, in effect, launch herself into oblivion. And the three inspectors from Lisbon who are accused of allowing Leonor to be “aggressed” had been in Faro for only two days when the alleged beating happened. So who or what would have been responsible for the older bruises?
On the night when Leonor says she was beaten, Cristovao had just finished interviewing her and had confronted her with some of the forensic evidence that had been found in a search of the Cipriano home. There were pictures of Joana in the interview room, and Leonor broke down crying and began apologising to her daughter.
Cristovao concluded the interview and turned Leonor over to another inspector to take her to another room whilst he wrote up one of the “Service Information” memos (which we have also seen in the Maddie McCann case) that the PJ uses to record some types of information other than witness statements.
About an hour later he heard hysterical screaming coming from the hallway and ran outside to find two PJ inspectors, Antonio Cardoso and Paulo Marques Bom, holding onto Leonor on the landing of the stairway. They had allowed her to go to the bathroom by herself, there apparently being no female officer on duty, and when she came out of the bathroom, she ran towards the stairway and tried to throw herself over the banister. This does not appear to have been mere histrionics on Leonor’s part: Cristovao looks over the banister and realizes that, since they are on the second floor and there is also a basement, it might very well have been a fatal fall had Leonor succeeded.
Think about it: The forensic expert testified that one would not expect lesions on the face and in the abdominal area to occur from a fall down the stairs. But that isn’t what Cristovao says happened. If you launched yourself full tilt at the banister of a stairwell, intending to throw yourself OVER it and into thin air, where would you be bruised? Almost certainly on the abdomen, and it would seem to me that it would not be at all surprising if, whilst being wrestled away from the stairway, you might also hit your head.
(3) Cristovao also says in his book that after the incident on the stairwell, Leonor was driven back to the women’s prison at Odemira by PJ inspectors Antonio Cardoso and Carlos Praxedes. En route, they call Cristovao and say that Leonor’s head is swelling and ask what to do. He tells them to take her to the medical center in Odemira before going on to the prison, which they do. A doctor sees Leonor about 20 minutes later, tells Leonor to rest, and that gravity should make the blood in her bruises drain harmlessly into her neck. He gives her a prescription for painkillers, and the two PJ inspectors, with Leonor in the back seat of the car, drive around Odemira till they find an open pharmacy where they can get the prescription filled before returning Leonor to the prison.
I have not seen a medical record from the clinic, but there should be one, and this would be so easily checked that Cristovao would be crazy to lie about it.
One thing is for sure: His story makes more sense than Leonor’s tale of having a bag put over her head and being beaten for more than an hour by unknown individuals (she could not identify her alleged assailants in a line-up). I simply do not see how that would be possible without breaking the victim’s teeth, splitting her lip, bloodying or breaking her nose, or leaving bruises below the level of her cheekbone’.
But you are assuming she is alive?
No one has proof of life, then or now, or illness, or alive or captive.
Or taken by someone who has a mental illness that due to factors believes a ‘certain’ child belongs to them.
That is a case not researched in who steals children due to many reasons of insanity or belief of ownership.
Women steal and have children from hospitals and prams and are in need of help. Men in contrast would not see this view at all.
Missing is a term for unknown destination or place of a person last seen.
As in the case of missing cook (she chose to work in a cafe in the university, not a hotel, hence chef is a role for hotels, not campus, why did she choose to downgrade)Claudia Lawrence who is also missing and an adult in UK there is this mystery of point last seen.
Due to many cases of missing children it is sad that in my view if Shannon Matthews had not been found as a captive she would have met her death.
If you read the sad case of Angela Bugay in Stalemate where it is stated one thing that I continued to tell the author of a difference you will see how interpretations from ‘experts’ can be misguided.
The missing children were then disclosed by the vile man who killed Xiana Fairchild. This child is always on my mind due to the time I spent on the book and reliving it in US and debating it in US and on screen the actions described in the book of a suspect. I disagreed due to the manner the man acted out as to the purpose of his actions.
It did not fit at all. Due to that all those years ago I learned that a voyeur is not a class of killer, but an unstable man or a person who makes visits seem sinister. A role-playing person who cannot enter the full action. Much like a sensation-seeker, he or she invites the media to film them. It makes them ‘stars’ you see whilst it lasts. They enjoy the camera, the press, and the reading of themselves you see.
Like he (the voyeur) was unlike the vile Curtis Dean Anderson engaged in predation/killing and that of Evander Cuey. Both men were not of the ilk of the small time sexual predator that you are hearing is a perceived specimen unique to the small resort where old men challenge newcomers as to behaviours.
Most men there I saw and challenged were very ‘breadwinner’ types of moral dignity that took and take umbridge with the sort of immorality and behaviour accepted in larger places. This indignity is perhaps why this microcosm of migrants from England/Scotland and Wales has relocated decades ago as to pensions worth more there and a better quality of life than the cold frozen North?
Plus investment in rural ideals of business seen only in the sixties of local trade.Perhaps that is the magic of the small resorts there? I think it is.
The hotels in the main are in the hands of well-to-do English/European persons of very strict standards, and would pass any inspection from the famed ‘Hotel Inspector’. I would invite her if I were the embassador soon to be in office.
On the whole the area reminded me of the old seaside resorts for the populations of families working in the 50’s and 60’s with greater attributes of grandness. Not a Benidorm but a secret garden for grannies to sunbath without being mugged whilst by the pool sipping cool drinks by well trained staff, but also for their families with children who share their retirement.
A very lazy, dazy day for all I found. No wild shouting of children from lazy parents, but a calm officialdom of what is and is not accepted. I found this trait in the village-type setting a very controlled one. It had a unique atmosphere akin to a military camp where discipline and cleanliness are enforces by matriarchal rules. Do you agree?
Therefore if anyone has ever known in anyway, not read of in tabloids these vile creatures that inhabit fringe societies they will know they seek the edges of society. Not the core of it.
An eye that is under a sunhat and the man with the beer is not sleeping, he is listening. It is what the cat does, it is curious. Once in a while the hat will move and it will talk to you. But if you are a nuisance the man behind the hat will get assistance and sort out the pest.
It is all to futile to examine society from the booze and nightclub culture from a male point of view, or from a sole female point of view.
Experience in life and again being the face behind the hat that has perhaps done Aden, or other conflicts and needs survival instincts still is my view of the crinkly-faced men and some women in the resort called Praia da Luz.
Like you I have this gut-feeling due to the seen hazards, and the then two weeks later corrugated fencing adjacent to the sign ‘children’. June 2007.
Here is the ‘pyramid’ and where children hid under the gap and men playing tennis watched. It would be here I would hide or be hidden as the very time of exposure could be seconds away were I that person to take a child, to the left and not the right out of vision at this time of night. I rest my case. It is here a child during the day may follow later to find the children seen to play with. She has only to turn left and to where she knows, to the park and cross the road. Did she do this. No one can say she did not. Or she did. But they could as logic is to play where they know and want.
Police have checked they said this building site and they have checked the discarded house to the South of it. I wonder if locals could check it again please as to the locations. A cat can do strange things in crawling into places, and so can a child. With greatest respect, anyone can search and should do if they have arms and legs fit to do so, and in an ethical legal manner. Please let a ray of sunshine find her that is logical to any mother if that is how she is to be found.
Beyond belief. When I said of a ray of sunshine and of mothers something strange happened.
I went in for the first time a Catholic Church since 2007 and there I sat unintended as invited.
There to my right high up in the stained glass window a ray of sunshine at 1 pm on Sunday did shine right down to me. On the prayer book so I had to use it to cover my eyes.
The ray of sunshine blazed in the last but one window in the cuppola to the right of the Cross.
It’s rays went straight onto the mothers in front with baby and infants, not to the right, but like an arrow. To this side in a separate cuppola was Gothic ancient font akin to a tomb-like cavity as crypt area. Here the last song was taken when the sun moved and the rays were in the last window as this was somewhere in England.
I was and am in a state of grace. I am awed and very shocked as my words here then were strange do you not think. What would you think if this happened to you?
What made the sun’s rays do this to me can only be a message of my faith in Jesus and in God. But what and why I am still awed by my words spoken as unscripted.
Melody – I don’t know, but perhaps this was a message to you, to let you know that Madeleine is still alive somewhere, and she is waiting to be found. What made you go into the church, especially since you have not visited one since 2007? A lot of sceptics could make a great deal of this, saying that what happened was just a coincidence, but to me it seems very very strange.
Melody – Do you mind if I ask you which church you were in? Is it one in England, or perhaps in Europe somewhere?
I am a Catholic and always from my childhood do the sign of the cross and kneel at the Altar or entry. It is what a Catholic is programmed to do as to reverence. No Catholic would not perform these acts taught. It is unthinkable to think so. Due to many factors I had not attended Church. My priest comes to me.
I visited and did the same when attending the church on the 5th of June, 2007 as any visitor does of that religeon.
Jean, to both questions. Faith is not for skeptics as this is not a psychic event. It was and is a strange phenomena.
I was in church at the very same time Kate McCann was in church some hundred miles from me. I did not know that and neither did she know I was in church. At the very same time.
I was in church for a baptism and did not know it to be in such a church, nor of the events that I relayed on this board to you.
So it is not a paranormal event that is for skeptics.
I cannot explain it, can you?
It does not tell me that a child is alive or dead.
It does mirror that I found yesterday of the church at Praia da Luz that also is said to have had a ‘miracle’. That light did on the right come in and flood the Church from the Priest side and side to the beach.2008?
The only thing I can do and am doing is sending this to the Pope as this is a strange set of uncontrived use of light by a none camera, as light is from the Sun.
In one place I am lighting a candle unaware of what I said here of rays of light and of mothers sometime before as to something intuitive, not psychic. I just knew it. Do not know how.
Then, both Kate and I were in two churches lighting a candle at ceremonies within the North of England unknowing of the extracts on the church and phenomena of light by others.
I honestly do not know. But God has always been there for all of us. So if there is a sign and I have relayed it in faith as a good Catholic then there is a reason.
What that is will be soon revealed, or that correlation of events would not have happened. Do you agree?
Kate in her own words 2008 as her diary.
SATURDAY, JULY 21: I continue to feel very low. I miss Madeleine so much. It’s as if a ‘ray of light’ has disappeared from my life. There’s no doubt that Madeleine is that ‘ray’ and I miss her more than words can say.
To Carol Hawkes,
I am currently researching the Madeleine McCann case to write an article for my university studies. I found this information on the impact of Luz, regarding the media and damaging allegation of a “paedophile gang” operating in the popular resort, very devastating. I was wondering, would you object to me using your opinion in my story quote below:
QUOTE: Carol Hawkes
“I own a house in Luz and was there when this all happened and if you could have seen the face of that poor mother you would not make it worse by all the negative comments about the McCann’s.”
“A lot of the residents are now getting angry that tourists are now thinking Luz is not a safe place to take children on holiday and the tourist trade is way down because of this.”
“I am just a mother myself who feels really sad that this happened in the beautiful little village where I spend five months a year. The wonderful Portuguese people love children and this has rocked their world.”
This guy could be telling the truth. He could have even been part of it all in some way but doesn’t want to tell those looking into it so he doesn’t go behind bars.
It’s seems he must have had a falling out with the gang he mentioned but the falling out probably had nothing to do with the gang abducting Maddie.
It’s worth the authorities looking into it even the sighting from a few days ago is worth looking into.
I don’t know Maddie at all but last week was watching her parents in an Interview and a few days ago I had a dream that she was still alive I beleive and hope for the childs sake she is. I think they should listen to this guy but at the same time have him understand that even if she is found and what he is saying is true he will not get not one dime because in all honesty if what he says is true he should have spared the girl from torture and helped her the day she so called went missing not years later so he would be as much to blame as those others he says are involved.
Universities do not take kindly to media resources as you cannot say if the source has the information they say. Some are not who or what they say they are.
Another psychic then who dreams. If you have those hallucinations then I suggest that you are on medication, or are putting a case together for a none existent reward.
The News of the World is gone pal. So no reward as the paper does not exist. The ‘guy’ has fled and never could have known of Madeleine or he would have known of the others ripe for taking as a ‘batch’ lot. None of it is true, he was a bouncer that is all.
I am a mom and God forbid something like that ever happens to me… but if it would, I would be destroyed all the way. I wouldn’t care if people would doubt my word NOR if the police would make me a suspect. I would even go to prison voluntarily in exchange that everybody stops talking (focusing) about me (wasting precious time) and keep searching for my child.
This couple always seem so… how to put it… “rehearsed” to me that it does not click. AND Oh my God, SO READY to FIGHT and to SUE!!! …that I sincerely wonder HOW on EARTH they have energy (and money) for that instead of being DEVASTATED with head ONLY to focus on searching for their child!!!!
On top of that they cared about paying their mortgage with money from their child search fund??? Are they heartless??? Moreover, why on earth would one care about one’s house when a pervert could be raping your child every day? No way…
Me? I would sell my house, go live with my parents, uncles, sister, the neighbor, under a bridge!!! and use that money to keep on searching!!! Heck, I would sell EVERYTHING material to keep on searching…
I don’t know if they are involved on their poor daughter death or disappearing, but I do think they know something and are too afraid to tell.
Hopefully God will give them the strength to do what is right…
Does any one know how to find out what privates jets flew out of Faro airport in the following days after the disappearance?
And I mean the real flight records!
Air Traffic Control cannot fake a flight plan. This is not a wealthy public school group that had one of the eight children go ‘missing’. So why a child that did not have an inheritance or trust fund, and a posh voice?
19 privates planes on the plane park last time I went through Faro, a flight plan may not be faked but who checks what is loaded, Im sure each suitcase is not searched. I don’t understand the 2nd sentence from Pegasus, it has no context. Who did fly out of Faro the week after the disappearance?
We all miss the point originally, that they missed jail when returning to the uk, where the truth may have come out, but upper middle class Doctors in the UK, Trust Me I’m a Doctor, I don’t lie, How much money have they made on such a tragedy of there Daughter, If its true the child was abducted, what regrets on leaving their child alone (which when I heard on the radio the first time. I assumed she was left with 2 older children! wrong!)They should have had more sense then to leave such young children by themselves. That Portuguese Policeman Knows the real Truth and is being hounded, still by the Mccanns to keep his mouth shut!I do believe Mum lied to police about the cat on the shelf in the bedroom.
There is no legal age limit for leaving a child on their own, but it is an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk. Parents can be prosecuted if they leave a child unsupervised ‘in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health’ (Children and Young Person’s Act).uk.gov
In 2005, Kelly Ann Rogerson received a six-month jail sentence, suspended for one year, after taking a two-week holiday in Turkey and leaving her three children with a teenage ‘babysitter’ (County Durham case).
Thanks virginia, I also agree with your comment
Hello Tel – I always thought doctors were intelligent – not so as far as you are concerned. You should really take time reading through what you have put before you post it!! This Ms Rogerson who left her children for TWO WEEKS deserves to be locked up – the McCanns left their children for half an hour at the most!! Amaral – the Portuguese policeman has lied and slandered the McCanns and deserves everything he gets.
I think it’s about time that the portugese police gave all the reverent information on Maddie maccan .to the British police. So they can pursue the investigation in an orderly manner.
To find Maddie.
Thanks Janet – I agree. It is about time the Portuguese police gave the Metropolitan police every scrap of information and gave them the power to go into Portugal and do what they are good at, which is to re-open the case into the disappearance of Madeleine and carry out an in depth investigation. No matter what the Portuguese do to try to dismiss the fact that they made a botch of the whole affair, the situation will never go away until someone discovers either what happened to Madeleine or where she is now so that she can be returned to her family. Her parents, together with their supporters, will see that Portugal will never forget what happened on 3 May 2007 until a conclusion has been reached.
To Jean, where was this other child taken from 5 years earlier? I had some evidence and tried to report it on mccans website but never heard back. Where could I contact someone. I have lived near Luz for 10 years. To all the people who think MCCans are guilty, don t forget this is a very corrupt country.Dont believe what you read in the papers. Did they leave doors unlocked or children alone? How often did they check on children? You were not there so do not assume these facts.