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."
Labels:
2008,
Brian Kennedy,
Clarence Mitchell,
Find Madeleine Fund,
Leicestershire Police,
Madeleine McCann
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