'I saw eye-mark girl.. weeks ago'

'I saw eye-mark girl.. weeks ago'
Secrets of the Madeleine dossier
The Sunday Mirror
10 August 2008
Lori Campbell

A little girl with Madeleine's unique eye blemish was seen in the Caribbean just 12 weeks ago.

The sighting is being treated as "high priority" by Kate and Gerry's private investigators as it is the first to mention the distinctive mark in her right eye.

Briton Trevor Francis, captain of a charter yacht, is convinced he saw Maddy on the island of Margarita where he was moored.

The marina is on a direct shipping route from Portugal - where she was snatched. He saw three women in a restaurant on May 16 with a girl he is "85 per cent certain" was Madeleine.

Mr Francis has told British police: "I noticed that the little girl was white with fair hair.

"There are sometimes white children in Venezuela but not as fair as this child.

"She really stood out. She was the absolute image of the missing Madeleine McCann. She was very sullen-looking and refused to eat. She looked unhappy and out of place."

He added: "I shuffled in my seat so I could see 'Madeleine' clearly.

"I was about four or five feet away from the little girl. Her eyes met mine as I walked past and that's when I saw the little blemish in her right eye - it was like a little fleck."

British police advised Portuguese police to treat the sighting as "very high priority", but the files do not say what, if any, action was taken. The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "It is very encouraging that Mr Francis got close enough to see the mark, which we believe is unique to Madeleine.

"Our investigators will be speaking to him."

In another new sighting, Angolan Marco Ventura claimed he saw a girl identical to Madeleine in Portugal, in a Dutch-registered BMW, five weeks after she disappeared.

Two other witnesses have said they saw her in Holland.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Clarence Mitchell, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

Tapas 7: Why we feared the police would frame us

Tapas 7: Why we feared the police would frame us
Exclusive Friends felt invite would be a trap to nail the McCanns
The Sunday Mirror
10 August 2008
Lori Campbell

Kate gets DIY policing guide to help investigation 
Cop liaison 'irritated' by Gerry emails on case leads

Secrets of the Madeleine dossier

KATE and Gerry McCann's "Tapas 7" friends refused to return to Portugal because they feared they were pawns in an elaborate plot to frame the couple.

And the group of friends believed they too could be made suspects if they returned to the country.

As police files into Madeleine's disappearance are opened, we can also reveal how:

Kate McCann was given a Do-It-Yourself guide to policing by UK cops after Portuguese police failed to find any clues themselves.

Local cops accused the McCanns of shedding crocodile tears just hours after their daughter was snatched.

The Portuguese police officer assigned to them as a family liaison officer criticised them for "reacting negatively to the work of this police force" and became irritated by Gerry's frequent emails.

The 30,000-page dossier reveals how the Tapas 7 decided not to go back to Portugal for a "reconstruction" in May this year because Portuguese police would not give them reassurances they would not be arrested.

The group were baffled as to why police were calling them back for the re-enactment a full year after Madeleine went missing, and demanded to be told how it would help the inquiry.

In an email to police chief Paulo Rebelo in April, the McCanns' friend Rachel Oldfield wrote: "We are still very uncertain of the motives in organising such a re-enactment.

"We feel we would be making ourselves and our families extremely vulnerable by returning."

The friends also hit out at Portuguese detectives' aggressive questioning when they were re-interviewed in the UK.

An email from Russell O'Brien and his wife Jane Tanner said: "The thrust of the... questions seemed only to focus on Kate and Gerry's culpability.

"After a year of lies, accusations and intrusion, I am sure that Mr Rebelo can appreciate our revulsion at what Kate and Gerry have been forced to endure."

The shocking state of the Portuguese investigation is laid bare in the police files, which reveal that British authorities gave Kate a police manual when she became increasingly desperate for ideas to find Madeleine. The technique book gives step-by-step instructions on solving crimes and was handed to the McCanns by British experts.

She desperately bombarded Portuguese police with suggestions on how to further their investigation. The GP even had to tell detectives to take blood samples from the twins in case they had been drugged by Madeleine's kidnapper - something Portuguese police had not thought to do. But they dismissed her ideas as "bizarre".

In his own statement, Inspector Ricardo Paiva, the Portuguese family liaison officer assigned to Kate and Gerry, said: "I noted certain strange behaviour on the part of the couple who were gradually reacting negatively to the work of this police force.

"I was repeatedly told by Kate - three months after Madeleine's disappearance - that the police should do blood analysis on the twins." Insp Paiva also said he became irritated by Gerry who would email him every lead the family received in the hunt for Madeleine.

He said: "Mostly they contained information of little credibility."

Inspector Jose Roque also accused frantic Kate and Gerry of faking tears in the first few hours of the hunt.

He said: "After the search I noticed an unusual situation. The parents were kneeling in their bedroom and they were crying. However, I did not see any tears despite the fact they were making sounds identical to crying."

 

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

I spotted Maddie's tell-tale eye / I was too afraid to grab her

I spotted Maddie's tell-tale eye
Exclusive
Ross Hall
10 August 2008
The News of the World

New sighting brings hope to Gerry & Kate

A VITAL new witness in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has told cops: "I saw Maddie. I know it was her-I saw the unique blemish in her eye."

Businessman Trevor Francis is certain he spotted the missing five-year-old in Venezuela just WEEKS ago. Because of the remarkable eye detail, Gerry and Kate McCann regard this as one of the most significant sightings.


********************************


I was too afraid to grab her
Exclusive
Ross Hall
10 August 2008
The News of the World

Witness was sure restaurant girl was missing; Maddie but was fearful of causing a scene

THE British businessman who swears he spotted Madeleine McCann in the Caribbean just weeks ago has told of the haunting moment he saw the tell-tale blemish in her eye.

In a dramatic statement to police back in the UK yacht skipper Trevor Francis, 64, said the girl was with three women in a restaurant on the Venezuelan island of Margarita.

He recalled: "Her eyes met mine as I walked past and that's when I saw the little blemish in her right eye-it was like a little fleck."

And he added: "I wanted to grab her or shout out her name and see what reaction I would get.

"But I was afraid to do anything and cause a scene... a huge ruckus would have erupted and it could have made things worse.

"I decided to get a good look to make sure it was her so I could come back to England and report it."

Unlike all other reported sightings, fresh witness Trevor is the FIRST to get a clear view of the unique blemish matching Madeleine's eye.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell last night said the detail of his description was very significant.

He added: "The investigation team are looking into this seriously. The eye makes it potentially more serious than other sightings."

Our revelation climaxes a week in which the Portuguese police case files
were released, highlighting reported sightings across the world since Madeleine went missing from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz a year ago. Many have already been discredited or ruled out.

Pretty

But now the McCanns' private investigators are making urgent enquiries into the Margarita connection. Caribbean islands are on a regular sailing route from Portugal

Divorced dad of two Mr Francis, 64, built and owns a nursing home in Worthing, West Sussex, but spends most of his time on his five-bedroom yacht Northern Seas based in Margarita.

On a recent trip home to check on business interests he made a detailed hand written statement to Sussex cops revealing he's certain he saw Madeleine on May 16 this year in the Lugar de Equenter restaurant in the town of Porlamar.

"I was in there having some lunch," said Trevor. "There was lots of light and nothing to obstruct my view.

"The door opened and three females with a little girl came in. They sat down at a table opposite me about 20 feet away. At first I did not take any notice as I was having trouble with my order. Then I glanced back and noticed the little girl was white with fair hair.

"There are sometimes white children in Venezuela but not as fair as this child. She really stood out. I was transfixed.

"She was the absolute image of the missing Madeleine McCann with chin-length straight fair hair, about four years old, a pretty girl.

"What I noticed most prominently were her eyes-they were big and staring. I shuffled in my seat so I could see 'Madeleine' clearly. I didn't pay much attention to the three women because I was concentrating on the little girl.

"However from what I saw I would say that they were all of Spanish/South American origin.

"Female '1' I can describe as being heavily built, dark short bobbed hair. Female '2' had bleached platinum blonde hair, with a slim build.

"The third had long black hair, she was heavily built. They were late 30s to early 40s. They weren't very pretty. They seemed to be local women as they didn't hesitate at finding a table when they came in and they seemed to know the waiters. One of the women was trying to feed the girl what looked like some sort of pasta dish.

"Although the girl looked healthy and well cared for, she was very sullen looking and refused to eat anything. Something just didn't fit. She looked unhappy and out of place.

"The women were talking amongst themselves and at the little girl. I couldn't understand, they were speaking in Spanish.

"The little girl wasn't saying anything, I watched her for about 20-30 minutes and decided to get a close look as I left the restaurant. Then I was four to five feet away." That was the dramatic moment Trevor spotted the tiny eye blemish. He said: "I haven't been in England for all of the press coverage and updates about Madeleine McCann but I have seen photos of her on the news. From what I saw that day I am about 85 per cent certain that it was in fact Madeleine McCann."

The eye blemish - often referred to as the "mark of Madeleine"-has formed a key part in the campaign to highlight her disappearance. It is played up prominently on posters and videos. It is actually what doctors call a coloboma-or defect-of the iris. Figures suggest it occurs in only about 0.007 per cent of the population.

Witness Trevor's son Ben, 22, of Worthing told us last night: "My dad is a very serious, credible and intelligent man. He's not the sort of person who would make things up. And he'd certainly never lie about something like this." Meanwhile, dozens of specialist police were drafted into Brussels yesterday after a bank security guard reported he saw a girl resembling her on Monday. He spoke out after case files revealed Scotland Yard had warned the child could have been stolen to order for a Belgian paedophile gang.

As detectives studied the CCTV pictures from the KBC bank in the rundown immigrant Molenbeek district, other officers trained in search techniques joined the hunt.

A spokesman said: "We're taking this very seriously. House-to-house searches have started, and numerous people are being spoken to. We're determined to establish exactly who the little girl in the CCTV images is."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Clarence Mitchell, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

Wear couple told police: We saw Maddie

Wear couple told police: We saw Maddie
Sunderland Echo   
07 August 2008
Tim Booler

A Sunderland couple told police they saw Madeleine McCann 28 hours after she disappeared.

Richard and Susan McCluskey reported seeing a "lifeless" child of about Maddie's age being carried by a drunk-looking man who was with a distressed woman, who they were "almost certain" was her mum Kate.

The Portuguese case files, released this week more than a year after the youngster disappeared, showed that dad-of-three Mr McCluskey made the claims in a second statement a number of months after the alleged sighting in the Algarve.

Portuguese police investigated the claim, and believed the couple were Ukrainians with a blonde daughter of Maddie's age.

Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry, from Leicestershire, denied having any involvement in the disappearance, and had their "arguido" official suspects status lifted last month.

The potential sighting of Maddie by the McCluskeys, from South Hylton, was one of many reported to Portuguese police.

They were all investigated but came to nothing.

However, Mr and Mrs McCluskey said they have never had any response to the information provided in their statements, and would like to have been told it had been eliminated to give them peace of mind.

Their account of what they saw and said in police statements has never been published.

The Sunderland holidaymakers were in the resort of Alvor, about 20 minutes drive along the coast from Praia la Luz, where the McCann family was stating.

Mr and Mrs McCluskey were on their way back to their apartment from an Irish bar in the early hours of May 5, 2007, when they saw a white Transit-style flatbed truck stop in the middle of the road.

Mr McCluskey, 62, said a man got out and staggered about 200 yards to a gate, carrying a child of about three to four years old over his left shoulder, and that there was "no movement at all" in the youngster.

They were aware a child was missing in the area and thought the situation was strange so took down the van registration, with Mrs McCluskey, 50, writing it on her hand before they found some paper.

As they were doing so a woman ran towards the van, "clearly in distress".

Mr McCluskey told the Echo she looked like actress Faye Dunaway and added: "She was white as a ghost and shaking", and did not reply when asked if she needed help.

In a police statement he said a Portuguese couple came by and said the man and woman acting strangely had earlier been in an argument.

He reported the van's details to police in Portugal, and only made a statement after being contacted by Northumbria Police after getting home to Sunderland.

Mr McCluskey said he was also contacted by Interpol to provide a drawing of the area as described in his statement.

On September 12, he gave a second statement at Farringdon Hall Police Station, which read: "The events of the past week or so, with the McCanns being very much in the news, have triggered my memory in relation to the incident.

"In my original statement I described a distressed female who ran down a road towards a white van I had described.

"Having viewed news footage of Mrs McCann I am now almost certain she is the female I described as being in a distressed state.

"I say this because of her slight build, high cheekbones and her eyes and hairstyle."

He added: "I've agonised for days over whether or not to contact police about this because it is a terrible thing to accuse somebody of.

"It had just not crossed my mind that the child's parents could in some way be involved in her disappearance."

Also in his second statement, made after watching news coverage of Kate and Gerry McCann returning to Britain from Portugal, Mr McCluskey added: "Another thing which has played on my mind is the coverage of Mr McCann walking off the aeroplane holding one of his young children.

"The way he was holding the child over his left shoulder reminded me of the man carrying the child from the white van in Portugal.

"Although I could not describe the male I'd seen in Portugal because he had his back to me, it was the particular way Mr McCann held the child that made me think."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Madeleine McCann, McCluskey

I saw 'Maddie' too

7 August 2008
The Sun
Lucy Hagan in Amsterdam and Veronica Lorraine in Praia Da Luz
Additional reporting: Antonella Lazzeri


HER EYES TOLD ME IT WAS HER SAYS HANNIE
SECOND SIGHTING OF TOT IN AMSTERDAM

A second possible sighting of Madeleine McCann in Amsterdam was revealed last night.

Pensioner Hannie Weichmann said she saw a little girl with an anxious woman near her home in the Dutch city days after Maddie vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal.

Hannie, 71, believed a crude attempt had been made to disguise the child by cutting and dyeing her hair, giving her a badly-trimmed fringe and some red locks. But she said: "Those eyes...I knew it was her."

Hannie spoke 24 hours after released police files revealed Amsterdam party shop worker Anna Stam spoke to an English girl who called herself Maddie.

She was with an odd couple and told 41-year-old Anna: "They took me from my holiday." She said of the woman with her: "She is not my mummy."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Antonella Lazzeri, BBC, Madeleine McCann, Robert Murat

5,000 Number of doors knocked on by British cops

5,000 Number of doors knocked on by British cops hunting missing Shannon Matthews ..
433 Number of doors knocked on by the Portuguese cops... Madeleine McCann
Exclusive
The Sunday Mirror
27 July 2008
Lori Campbell

Portuguese police knocked on just 443 doors in the failed hunt for missing Madeleine McCann.
Their investigation was last night branded "pathetic" by her parents Kate and Gerry, who are furious police did not do more to find their daughter.

There are 7,000 homes in Praia da Luz, the resort where four-year-old Madeleine was snatched - but police went to fewer than one in 10 doors, says a report into the investigation.

In stark contrast, British police probing the disappearance of Shannon Matthews earlier this year knocked on 5,000 doors and searched 2,000 houses.

Nine-year-old Shannon was found in 24 days, whereas Portuguese police have stopped looking for four-year-old Madeleine after 14 months.

A friend of the McCanns said: "The 443 doors would barely cover 500 yards from the apartment where Madeleine was taken. That is shocking and unacceptable."

Police didn't even bother to go out of the resort to question residents in neighbouring towns.

The McCanns expect to see the full police report this week and their team of private investigators will go through every shred of evidence.

The source added: "They will analyse exactly what has and hasn't been done. If it means going back to the very basics of knocking on doors in Praia da Luz, then they will do it.

"The report shows Portuguese police clearly didn't do a thorough job from day one. It is immensely frustrating for Kate and Gerry." Former chief superintendent Dai Davies, who was head of the Royal Protection Squad, slammed the Portuguese detectives' efforts as shameful.

He said: "It is simply ridiculous they only knocked on 443 doors. That would take just a few hours.

"In the UK, officers go to thousands of doors and don't give up until they have a lead. That is basic policing, especially in an abduction case when the child could still be nearby."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

Is this the best way to help Maddie?

Is this the best way to help Maddie?
26 July 2008
Daily Mail
Amanda Platell

Excerpt:

...Few who saw Kate and Gerry McCann's press conference can fail to have been deeply moved as they responded to the news they had been cleared as suspects in their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.

With a face like stone to hide a breaking heart, Gerry sat clutching his wife's hand under the table. 'It has been devastating to witness the detrimental effect being named as suspects has had on the search for Madeleine,' Kate said.

But there was more than sorrow behind those tear-filled eyes. For the first time since their daughter went missing, there was bitterness, too.

'It is hard to describe how utterly despairing it was to be portrayed as suspects,' she said.

One can understand her anger at being falsely named as 'arguidos', but surely this should have been the end of that part of their torment. Finally they have been exonerated, and at last they are free to pursue their search.

Instead, the McCanns seem set on revenge. Revenge against the Portuguese police who launched the biggest missing child investigation in its history. Revenge against the former head of the investigation, Goncalo Amaral, over his book about Madeleine, even though he has already been sacked, discredited and disgraced.

And revenge against the media -- yes, the same media that with the help of hired PRs they used ruthlessly, relentlessly and understandably to try to keep their daughter's face in the public eye. How sad.

Their PR Clarence Mitchell insists: 'The only thing they care about now is finding Madeleine.'

So surely this is the time to go up a gear in that quest and not allow themselves to become bogged down in lengthy compensation cases.

How does that help to find Madeleine?

Little wonder so many ordinary people -- the very ones they rely on in the search for their daughter -- are asking if this quest for retribution is in Madeleine's best interests.

It wasn't just their precious daughter that was missing at Monday's press conference, but also any reference to their own behaviour on that dreadful night when they went out wining and dining and left their beloved children untended in an unlocked holiday flat.

My own view has always been that the McCanns deserve the greatest sympathy for their loss, but the public increasingly is not so understanding.

If the couple were now to spend as much time campaigning against the dangers of parents leaving children alone as they are apparently spending trying to seek financial recompense, then the nightmare of Madeleine's disappearance might have one positive legacy...

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Carvi Scandal, Gonçalo Amaral

Donegal welcome for dropping of suspect status

23 July 2008
Belfast Telegraph
Anita Guidera

Friends and relatives of the McCann family in Donegal yesterday welcomed news that the Portuguese authorities are no longer treating the parents as suspects in the disappearance of toddler Madeleine over a year ago.

Joe Peoples, who runs a pub in the east Donegal village of St Johnston which Madeleine and her parents Kate and Gerry visited just weeks before her disappearance in Portugal, said: "It doesn't surprise me at all that they are in the clear."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Donegal, Joe Peoples, Madeleine McCann, McCann pub, St Johnston

BBC Video Interview with Goncalo Amaral

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7517883.stm
BBC
21 July 2008
VIDEO

The former lead detective on the Madeliene McCann case Goncalo Amaral has defended making her parents official suspects.

Mr Amaral was removed from his post in October 2007 after reportedly criticising his British counterparts.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, BBC, Gonçalo Amaral, Madeleine McCann

We'll savage bungling cops on Oprah show

We'll savage bungling cops on Oprah show
20 July 2008
People
Nick Dorman

CLEARED McCANNS VOW TV ONSLAUGHT

Madeleine McCann's parents will savage bungling Portuguese cops in a tell-all interview with chat queen Oprah Winfrey when they are cleared as suspects tomorrow.

For 317 days fuming Kate and Gerry have been gagged by their status as arguidos.

But at noon tomorrow a judge will formally lift the cloud of suspicion - as exclusively revealed in The People in April.

And the McCanns will finally be free to speak about the investigation into three-year-old Maddie's disappearance.

They are set to launch a stinging attack on US star Oprah's TV show - although her rival Barbara Walters is also vying to secure the first interview with the couple. The doctors, both 40, will either go to the States or speak from their home in Rothley, Leics.

Pals expect them to highlight more than a dozen basic errors by police in the four weeks after their daughter's disappearance on May 3 last year.

These include: FAILING to immediately seal off the crime scene in Praia da Luz, allowing vital forensic evidence to be lost in and around the McCann holiday apartment.

FAILING to inform Spanish border cops until the next morning.

WAITING more than 48 hours before house-to-house inquiries began.

DELAYING the decision to bring in child abduction specialists and ISSUING a baffling series of different descriptions of suspects - including one primitive e-fit picture which resembled a "boiled egg with hair".

The McCanns will also round on cops for leaking details of the case to the Portuguese press in a bid to incriminate them.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: "Kate and Gerry will talk about the police inquiry once their arguido status has been lifted.

"They want to get their side of the story across. They want the weight of guilt by association lifted from their shoulders. And they will make it clear that they will continue to search for Madeleine, come what may."

The couple are likely to focus their fury on top cop Goncalo Amaral, who was kicked off the Madeleine case last October following allegations of incompetence and attacks on his British police counterparts.

Moustachioed Amaral, 48, sometimes worked little more than four hours a day and enjoyed long, boozy lunches.

He was also overheard telling of his suspicions that the McCanns killed their daughter.

Police still have NO idea what happened to Madeleine, who disappeared from her bed while her parents were eating out.

A friend said yesterday: "Kate and Gerry are furious. They've kept their thoughts private - because the Portuguese legal system left them no choice. It's been incredibly frustrating.

"They know the police have given up looking for Maddie, so they've nothing to lose. A string of mistakes were made. And police leaked things that were totally untrue. When it was reported that Maddie's DNA was found in their car, Kate and Gerry could only conclude someone was trying to frame them.

"Being suspects has put an appalling strain on them. Kate hasn't been able to go out without thinking people may be pointing a finger of blame.

"As soon as they're free to talk about the appalling way they have been treated, they will."

  

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Carvi Scandal, Gonçalo Amaral