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Lawsuittrial >
McCann v Gonçalo Amaral - Day 1 Witness No 3
The testimony as it happened...
(12.09.2013, 5pm) David Edgar (Former RUC
detective) hired by the McCanns as a private
investigator from October 2008 to October 2011. Has
only a professional relationship with the McCanns.
1) McCann family lawyer, Isabel Duarte, is the first
to question the witness.
ID – After explaining the purpose of the trial, she
asks what DE’s function was.
DE
answers he tried to discover where Madeleine was.
ID – Have you previously worked with Portuguese
people in the exercise of your functions ?
DE
says he did.
ID – Do you know the legal process in Portugal?
DE
just knows the investigation was closed. He had
contacts with Portuguese lawyers.
ID – Did the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) go on
investigating after the case was filed?
DE
says yes.
ID – Between 2008 and 2011, was much information
relating to the case received by the PJ?
DE
says yes, but not much information originated from
Portugal. He thinks that Madeleine can be in
Portugal and therefore the Portuguese information is
important. But adds that the Portuguese public
believed Madeleine was dead.
ID – You interviewed people. Did you feel the impact
of that belief or not?
DE
says it is difficult to say in terms of volume of
information and of facts. He thinks there was less
information being received by the time he got
involved in October 2008.
ID – Did the interest of the public increase or
decreased after the publication of the (Amaral)
book?
DE
says it's difficult to say. He says there was a lot
of information when he started to work on this case.
2) Defence lawyers.
a) TVI lawyers’ questions.
TVI – The curiosity of the public in a case of a
disappearance without a trace is normal. Does the
anonymous and spontaneous information decrease with
time?
DE
says it depends on the investigators, each case is
different. There's a decrease.
TVI – Does the interest of the newspapers and the
public also diminishes?
DE
doesn't know.
b) Guerra & Paz's lawyer's questions
GP – Did you have access to the criminal process?
DE
answers that he read parts of the files in the
translation that the McCanns asked to be done.
GP – How did you manage to conduct an investigation without
analysing all the process? Whom did you contact in
Portugal?
DE
says he contacted an informant who passed
information to both the UK and Portuguese
authorities. He doesn't want to say to whom he
spoke, but says he spoke to someone from the PJ.
GP – Do you know that the McCanns initiated a
private investigation?
DE
knows.
GP – Was there private investigators before you?
DE
says yes but adds he was the first professional one.
Neither the Valentim de Carvalho lawyer nor Gonçalo
Amaral lawyer had questions.
Continues...
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