Kate 'fell silent' in police quiz, 04 August 2008

Kate 'fell silent' in police quiz The Sun   By VERONICA LORRAINE in Praia da Luz Published: Today   KATE McCann refused to answer 48 questions when probed by Portuguese cops over her missing daughter Madeleine, it was revealed yesterday.   The devastated mum replied to some at the start of the interview on September 7 last year.   But she exercised her rights and fell silent once she was made an "arguido" in the case, leaked police files show.   Two weeks ago Kate and her husband Gerry, both 40, of Rothley, Leics, were officially cleared of any involvement in Maddie's disappearance.   Details of the Portuguese police probe are due to be opened to the public today.   The police files from the exhaustive inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, are being made available to journalists after the shelving of the case a fortnight ago.   Included in the mammoth dossier - said to run to 20,000 pages - are witness statements, transcripts of interviews with the McCanns and details of the lines of inquiry detectives pursued.   Holiday   Maddie vanished in May 2007, days before her fourth birthday.   She had been left alone with her twin siblings at a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.   Yesterday Portuguese newspaper Correio de Manhas said Kate was quizzed over why she said from the start Maddie had been abducted.   Cops also asked whether she gave the children medication and if it was true that she sometimes despaired of their behaviour and had considered handing custody of Maddie to a relative.   McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: "Kate was well within her rights not to answer if she didn't want to."

Madeleine Evidence Pics Released, 04 August 2008

Madeleine Evidence Pics Released Sky News   BREAKING NEWS 6:58pm UK, Monday August 04, 2008   Thousands of pages of evidence from the Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance have been made public. A previously unseen official photo of the room Madeleine stayed in The documents include forensic details as well as interviews with Kate and Gerry McCann. There are also previously unseen official pictures from inside the apartment where the family was staying when Madeleine went missing - including a photo of the bed in which she had been sleeping. The police files from the exhaustive inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, were made public this afternoon after the shelving of the case a fortnight ago. The mammoth dossier - said to run to 20,000 pages - includes details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the little girl's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann. The files were released under Portuguese law after the period of judicial secrecy in the case was lifted. Lawyers for the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the files last week. They are studying the dossier for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter. The McCanns are keen not to give "a running commentary" on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today. And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents. Mr Mitchell said: "The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files. "A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. "We will not be commenting on any of this. "Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos (formal suspects). The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context. "All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be." Until now Portugal's strict "segredo de justica" - or secrecy of justice - laws have limited the flow of information about the Madeleine inquiry. The legislation is supposed to ban anyone linked to an ongoing police investigation from speaking about it, but has not stopped a series of leaks. The McCanns repeatedly complained about restricted information being made public, and the couple believe there was a concerted smear campaign against them. Concerns were also raised at the top level in Portugal, with the country's justice minister, Alberto Costa, describing the leaks as "worrying" in February.

Pictured: The bedroom which Madeleine McCann vanished from in Portugal, 04 August 2008

Pictured: The bedroom which Madeleine McCann vanished from in Portugal Daily Mail   By VANESSA ALLEN and DEBRA KILLALEA Last updated at 7:46 PM on 04th August 2008   A British scientist warned Portuguese authorities that DNA tests on a sample from Kate and Gerry McCanns' hire car were inconclusive just days before the couple were made suspects in their daughter's disappearance.   In an email dated September 3 2007 John Lowe, from the major incidents team at the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), said it was impossible to conclude whether the material definitely came from Madeleine.   The email, released as part of the 20,000 page case file into the disappearance of the three-year-old in May last year, follows the emegence of details surrounding Kate McCann's eight-hour interrogation by prosecutors. The bedroom where Madeleine McCann disappeared from in Portugal last year The long-awaited files also reveal how: Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, when it was clear the direction of the questions were designed to implicate her. Portuguese authorities told Gerry that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the family's hire car, which was rented 25 days after the three-year-old vanished. The couple were made official suspects in Madeleine's disappearance despite authorities being warned there was no conclusive DNA evidence against them. Madeleine was staying in this apartment in Praia Da Luz at the time of her disappearance Portuguese authorities named the couple as arguidos on September 7, just days after the independent Forensic Science Service laboratory in Britain warned officers they had found no conclusive traces of Madeleine's DNA. Journalists were handed DVDs containing copies of thousands of pages of evidence from the case outside the courthouse in the Algarve town of Portimao. The police files were released this afternoon under Portuguese law after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case. The dossier includes details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, forensic reports, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the McCanns. Among the files is the email written by Mr Lowe to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation. In it the scientist reported that a sample from the boot of the McCanns' Renault Scenic hire car, which they rented 24 days after Madeleine went missing, contained 15 out of 19 of the young girl's DNA components. But he cautioned that this result - based on the controversial 'low copy number' DNA analysis technique which uses very small samples - was 'too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion'. Mr Lowe wrote: 'Let's look at the question that is being asked: "s there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?" 'It would be very simple to say "yes"simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample. 'What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine - because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance.' The expert noted that the components of the missing girl's DNA profile were not unique to her - in fact some of them were present among FSS scientists, including himself. He concluded: 'We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.' Mr Lowe also stressed that low copy number analysis could not determine when or how the DNA was deposited, what body fluid it came from and whether a crime was committed. The stairs leading up to the veranda and the apartment where Madeleine McCann was sleeping Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the documents last week. They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter. The McCanns are keen not to give 'a running commentary' on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today. And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents. Mr Mitchell said: 'The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files. 'A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. We will not be commenting on any of this. 'Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos. The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context. 'All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be.' Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year as her parents dined with friends nearby. Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, she has not been found. On July 21 Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light. At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer arguidos in Madeleine's disappearance. According to the files, Portuguese authorities told Gerry  that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the family's hire car, which was rented 25 days after the three-year-old vanished. The interviews were not recorded but an unidentified police officer's notes of the questioning were included in the dossier. The officer wrote that Mr McCann was told his daughter's DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic, and behind a sofa in the family's holiday apartment. But an FSS email sent four days earlier on September 3 said analysis of the DNA samples was inconclusive. It said the traces had some elements which matched her profile but warned they would also match huge sections of the population, including those of several of their scientists. The dossier also showed that Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, when it was clear the direction of the questions were designed to implicate her. The devastated mother fell silent after police told her she was being made an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Mrs McCann, a GP, was subjected to 11 hours of interrogations at Portimao police station on September 7 last year. The case files showed she faced a barrage of questions over her relationship with her oldest child. Both she and husband Gerry have denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance. Last month the Portuguese attorney general formally cleared them as suspects in the investigation and said police had found no evidence they had committed any crime. McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: 'Kate was well within her rights not to answer if she didn't want to. THE 48 QUESTIONS KATE DIDN’T ANSWER 1. On May 3 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch? 2.  Did you search inside the bedroom wardrobe? (she replied that she wouldn’t answer) 3. (shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents? 4.  Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (whose photo was shown to her) been tampered with? Did somebody go behind that sofa? 5. How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected your daughter Madeleine’s disappearance? 6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted? 7. Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the ‘Tapas’ and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment. 8. Why didn’t you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn’t you ask them later on? 9. When you raised the alarm at the ‘Tapas’ what exactly did you say and what were your exact words? 10. What happened after you raised the alarm in the ‘Tapas’? 11. Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah? 12. Who contacted the authorities? 13.  Who took place in the searches? 14.  Did anyone outside of the group learn of Madeleine’s disappearance in those following minutes? 15. Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance? 16. What does 'we let her down' mean? 17.  Did Jane tell you that night that she’d seen a man with a child? 18.  How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted? 19. During the searches, with the police already there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way? 20. Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs? 21. Who did you phone after the occurrence? 22. Did you call Sky News? 23. Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor? 24. Did you ask for a priest? 25. By what means did you divulge Madeleine’s features, by photographs or by any other means? 26. Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving? 27. What was your behaviour that night? 28. Did you manage to sleep? 29. Before travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling? 30. What was Madeleine’s behaviour like? 31. Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication? 32. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister? 33. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates? 34. As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked? 35. What is your medical specialty? 36. Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services? 37. Did you work every day? 38. At a certain point you stopped working, why? 39. Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness? 40.  Is it true that sometimes you despaired with your children’s behaviour and that left you feeling very uneasy? 41. Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative? 42. In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication? 43.   In the case files you were SHOWN CANINE forensic testing films, where you can see them marking due to detection of the scent of human corpse and blood traces, also human, and only human, as well as all the comments of the technician in charge of them. After watching and after the marking of the scent of corpse in your bedroom beside the wardrobe and behind the sofa, pushed up against the sofa wall, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 44.   When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 45.  When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 46.  When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 47.   When confronted with the results of Maddie’s DNA, whose analysis was carried out in a British laboratory, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had? 48.   Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter’s disappearance? A QUESTION SHE DID ANSWER Q.  Are you aware that in not answering the questions you are jeopardising the investigation, which seeks to discover what happened to your daughter? A.  'Yes, if that’s what the investigation thinks.' * The following pictures were later added to the article: Last updated at 9:10 PM on 04th August 2008 Door B shows entrance to children's bedroom and door A points to the entrance to the apartment. Outside the holiday apartment and (circled) the window to the children's room

Madeleine police files go public, 04 August 2008

Madeleine police files go public BBC News   Page last updated at 18:34 GMT, Monday, 4 August 2008 19:34 UK   Thousands of pages of evidence gathered by Portuguese detectives in the case of Madeleine McCann have been made public.   The papers make clear the girl's parents - no longer suspects - came under suspicion following a visit to Portugal by UK detectives last August.   They show a sniffer dog detected the apparent odour of a body in their hire car and apartment, but tests on a sample from the car were inconclusive.   Madeleine vanished, aged three, on a holiday in the Algarve, on 3 May 2007.   The police inquiry into her disappearance was wound up because of a lack of evidence last month.   Kate and Gerry McCann and a third British national, Robert Murat, were declared to be no longer formal suspects when the police closed the case. The McCanns and Mr Murat, 34, always strongly denied having had any involvement in what happened to Madeleine.   Lawyers for the McCanns, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were given access to the documents last week.   They are studying the papers for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives could follow up.   Police questions   Some 20,000 pages of evidence were released on Monday to journalists who had made a formal request to prosecutors, including the BBC.   The sniffer dog's apparent detection of the odour of a body was followed by a second dog detecting what was thought to be blood in the same locations.   The BBC's Steve Kingstone said the documents showed an initial report from Britain's forensic science service saying the samples indicated some compatibility with the components of Madeleine's DNA.   However the laboratory did not draw firm conclusions and stressed that the samples contained the DNA of more than one person.   In an e-mail dated 3 September 2007, John Lowe of the major incidents team of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) said it was impossible to conclude whether the material taken from the car came from Madeleine.   The e-mail was translated into Portuguese the following day and four days later Portuguese detectives named the McCanns arguidos - formal suspects - citing DNA evidence as grounds for their suspicions.   In his message to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the inquiry, Mr Lowe said a sample from the boot of the McCanns' hire car, which they rented 24 days after Madeleine went missing, contained 15 out of 19 of her DNA components.   But he cautioned that this result - based on the controversial "low copy number" DNA analysis technique which uses very small samples - was "too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion".   The expert said the components of the missing girl's DNA profile were not unique to her - in fact some were present among FSS scientists, including himself.   "We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match," he wrote.   Subsequent interview transcripts reveal that Kate McCann was asked directly: "Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of your daughter?"   She refused to answer this and dozens of other questions, as was her legal right.   The family's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said their private investigators would follow up any potentially significant leads that emerged from the police files.   He said earlier the McCanns were keen not to give "a running commentary" on their legal team's trawl through the files.   "The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files," he said.   *   Update/rewrite:   McCann DNA sample 'inconclusive' BBC News   Page last updated at 21:17 GMT, Monday, 4 August 2008 22:17 UK   A UK expert warned DNA in a car hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann was "inconclusive" before they became suspects, it has been revealed.   Forensic scientist John Lowe said the sample contained 15 out of 19 components of Madeleine's DNA which were not "unique to her".   His e-mail was in thousands of pages of evidence gathered by Portuguese detectives which have been made public.   Madeleine vanished, aged three, on a holiday in the Algarve, on 3 May 2007.   Lack of evidence   The papers make clear the Kate and Gerry McCann - no longer suspects - came under suspicion following a visit to Portugal by UK detectives last August.   Portuguese police cited DNA evidence as grounds for their suspicions.   Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said police had told Mr McCann during interrogation that his missing daughter's DNA had been found in the boot of the car - hired 24 days after her disappearance.   The investigation papers show a sniffer dog detected the apparent odour of a body in their hire car and apartment, but tests on a sample from the car were inconclusive.   The police inquiry into her disappearance was wound up because of a lack of evidence last month.   Kate and Gerry McCann and a third British national, Robert Murat, were declared to be no longer formal suspects when the police closed the case. The McCanns and Mr Murat, 34, always strongly denied having had any involvement in what happened to Madeleine.   Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were given access to the documents last week.   They are studying the papers for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives could follow up.   Clarence Mitchell, told the BBC: "One of the great frustrations for Kate and Gerry, through all this, was that they just didn't get any information from the Portuguese of any real note at all.   "Now there is a chance to analyse this, and if there's anything that needs priority action in terms of finding Madeleine.   "Such as was this area searched or not? Was there another sighting in a certain place, or not?   "All of that will be moved on quickly. But Kate and Gerry themselves are not fully aware of the mass of detail yet, they're waiting for the lawyers to tell them in due course."   (article then continues from 'Police questions' as above)

Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions from Portuguese police, 04 August 2008

Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions from Portuguese police Telegraph   After Kate McCann was told that she would be made an arguido, she was asked 48 questions about her daughter's disappearance – all of which she refused to answer.   By Caroline Gammell in Portimao Last Updated: 8:15PM BST 04 Aug 2008   A transcript of her interview on September 7 last year was included in the extensive police files released to the public on Monday.   Mrs McCann, 40, was questioned in detail over an 11 hour period about the night Madeleine went missing.   She was interviewed by Policia Judiciaria (PJ) inspectors Paulo Ferreira, Joao Carlos and Ricardo Paiva at Portimao police station.   She was asked about Madeleine's relationship with her younger twin siblings, her method of parenting, and if she medicated her children.   The GP was then questioned about the blood apparently found in the car and why she had not been able to explain its presence more clearly.   Mrs McCann was also asked why she had said she had "let Madeleine down" after she vanished and why she left the twins to raise the alarm.   The mother-of-three took her daughter's favourite stuffed toy Cuddle Cat along as mascot, a talisman she carried throughout the first months of Madeleine's disappearance.   Here are some of the questions she was asked: • On May 3 2007, around 10pm, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch? • Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted? • Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the 'Tapas' and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment. • Why didn't you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn't you ask them later on? • Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs? • Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Madeleine's bed without moving? • In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication? • When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? She finally spoke after being told that by not answering did she realise she was jeopardising the investigation. "Yes," she replied. "If that's what the investigation thinks."

Madeleine McCann: Portuguese detectives knew there was no case against parents, 04 August 2008

Madeleine McCann: Portuguese detectives knew there was no case against parents Telegraph      Portuguese detectives knew there was no conclusive evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann three days before they interviewed them and made them suspects, official files have disclosed.   By Caroline Gammell in Portimao Last Updated: 8:27PM BST 04 Aug 2008   Officers had been told in an email from the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham that no conclusive traces of Madeleine's DNA had been found in the family's hire car.   But detectives went on to tell Mr McCann, during an eight hour interrogation, that his daughter's DNA had been found in the boot of the vehicle, which was rented more than three weeks after she vanished.   This was one of the main areas of suspicion and the cardiologist was made a suspect or "arguido" into Madeleine's disappearance, along with his wife, immediately after being questioned at Portimao police station on September 7.   The release of the police files came 15 months after Madeleine vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 last year.   The police investigation had been shrouded in rumour and speculation because of Portugal's strict secrecy laws, but once the case was formally closed the restrictions were lifted.   Mr and Mrs McCann, both 40, and their lawyers were given access to the information last week and their private investigators are poring over the information for any new clues.   The files, thought to stretch to more than 30,000 pages, detail the enormous manhunt carried out by the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) – as well as witness accounts, possible sightings and false leads.   Certain information – such as the details of suspected and known paedophiles in the area – has been removed, while video tapes of the reaction of the sniffer dogs to the McCann's hire car will be released in due course.   The transcripts of interviews with Kate and Gerry McCann came from notes made by a police officer because the sessions were not recorded.   According to the files, Mr McCann was told on September 7 that Madeleine's DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic, and behind a sofa in the family's holiday apartment.   "Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be," the officer wrote.   But an email written by John Lowe of the FSS four days earlier on September 3 said the analysis of the samples in the car had proved nothing.   The message - written to Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British part of the investigation and forwarded to the PJ - concluded that there were some elements which matched the little girl's profile.   But the email, which was translated into Portuguese on September 4, warned that the samples could match huge sections of the population, including himself.   He said the result was "too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion".   The files also included details of the 48 questions Mrs McCann was asked during her time at Portimao police station as well as information about Robert Murat, the only other formal suspect in the case.   The British expat, along with the McCanns, was cleared by the Attorney General last month.   The McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the files showed the police were making the wrong assumptions.   "The Portuguese Attorney General made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form," he said.   "A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption.   "Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos. All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be."   There is an estimated £500,000 left in the Find Madeleine fund which was set up after the three-year-old vanished to help pay for the private detective work.   Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were dining with friends at a tapas bar 40 yards away when Madeleine's empty bed was discovered last May.   Despite Portugal's biggest missing person's inquiry, no trace of the little girl has ever been found.   The case was closed on July 21 after Portuguese prosecutors announced there was insufficient evidence, but said the case could be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light.   Last month, ex-police officer Gonçalo Amaral published his own version of events in a book which maintained that Mr and Mrs McCann were involved in their daughter's disappearance.   *   The following report is a variant of the above with added quotes at the beginning:   Madeleine McCann: Portuguese detectives lied to Gerry McCann about DNA evidence Telegraph   Portuguese police tried to force a confession from Gerry McCann by lying to him about crucial DNA evidence in the investigation, a friend of the couple has said.   By Caroline Gammell in Portimao Last Updated: 8:54PM BST 04 Aug 2008   Portuguese detectives knew there was no conclusive evidence against the McCanns three days before they interviewed them and made them suspects, official files disclosed.   Officers had been told in an email from the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham that no conclusive traces of Madeleine's DNA had been found in the family's hire car.   But detectives went on to tell Mr McCann, during an eight hour interrogation, that his daughter's DNA had been found in the boot of the vehicle, which was rented more than three weeks after she vanished.   A friend of the couple said: "It was pretty clear they were seeking a confession and were prepared to do this (put forward false information) to achieve that.   "Serious questions need to be asked about why this was put to Gerry as fact. It was sloppy at best and deliberately manipulative at worst.   "A number of senior officers went down the route of making assumptions and suppositions and trying to force a confession to something that didn't happen."   This was one of the main areas of suspicion and Mr McCann was made a suspect or "arguido" into Madeleine's disappearance, along with his wife, immediately after being questioned at Portimao police station on September 7.   The couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "There was never any 100 per cent match with Madeleine's DNA. Caution was expressed from the very start.   "Police were wrong to pursue this line so vigorously, and the Portuguese legal system has now accepted that there was no evidence to support it.   "I can confirm that the Portuguese police put it to Gerry as a fact that Madeleine's DNA had been found in both the apartment and the vehicle when it is now clear that the initial FSS report had made no such claim.   "You have to ask yourself what the police were trying to achieve by overstating evidence that they didn't have, nor could claim to have.   "One wonders, under those circumstances, what the motivation was."   The release of the police files came 15 months after Madeleine vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 last year.   (article then continues as above)

How Portuguese police tried to force Gerry to confess with a DNA trap, 04 August 2008

How Portuguese police tried to force Gerry to confess with a DNA trap Daily Mail      By VANESSA ALLEN and MICHAEL SEAMARK Last updated at 11:33 PM on 04th August 2008   Portuguese police tried to force a confession from Gerry McCann by confronting him with false DNA 'evidence', it was revealed last night.   Detectives told the devastated father they had found incriminating DNA from his missing daughter Madeleine.   They said it was in the family's holiday apartment and, crucially, the boot of their hire car, rented 25 days after the little girl vanished.   British scientists had already warned the Portuguese that the forensic evidence was far from conclusive and the DNA could have come from almost anyone.   Yet they still made Gerry and his wife Kate official suspects and staged gruelling interrogations last September.   The police tactics were revealed as the mammoth, 20,000-page 'Madeleine File', detailing all aspects of the 14-month Portuguese investigation, was opened to the public.   The dossier includes lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, forensic reports, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the McCanns.   Kate was subjected to an 11-hour interview in which she faced a barrage of questions about the DNA evidence, her relationship with Madeleine and whether she ever sedated her children to make them sleep.   The Leicestershire GP angrily refused to answer a total of 48 questions.   Her husband, in an eight-hour interrogation, had to deny police suggestions that his wife suffered from depression and had wanted to give Madeleine to relatives to look after because she could not cope.   Police even asked him if the couple had taken out life insurance on three-year-old Madeleine.   A source close to the McCann family said last night that serious questions should be asked about the police tactics with the DNA 'evidence'.   'It was pretty clear they were seeking a confession and were prepared to do this to achieve that.' said the source.   'It was sloppy at best and deliberately manipulative at worst. A number of senior officers went down the route of making assumptions and suppositions and trying to force a confession to something that didn't happen.'   The Portuguese had been warned not to rely on the DNA evidence in an email from British scientist John Lowe, part of the major incidents team at the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service.   It was sent on September 3, 2007 to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation, and translated into Portuguese the following day.   Mr Lowe said a sample taken from the McCanns' Renault Scenic hire car had contained 15 out of 19 of Madeleine's DNA components.   But he warned that the result  -  based on the controversial 'low copy' DNA analysis technique which uses very small samples  -  was 'too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion'.   The scientist wrote: 'Let's look at the question that is being asked: "Is there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?"   'It would be very simple to say Yes simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample.   'What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine  -  because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance.'   Mr Lowe then pointed out that components of the missing girl's DNA were not unique to her  -  in fact, some were present among FSS scientists, including himself.   He also stressed that low copy analysis could not determine when or how DNA was deposited, what body fluid it came from and whether a crime had been committed.   He concluded: 'We cannot answer the question: Is the match genuine, or is it a chance match?'   Despite the warning, the McCanns were made arguidos, official suspects, in a blaze of publicity three days later.   The police files were released yesterday under Portuguese law after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case.   Details of Mr McCann's lengthy interrogation were among the documents. His interview was not recorded but an unidentified police officer took notes.   They read: 'Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain how this would be.'   Mr McCann was asked: 'Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter Madeleine's disappearance?'   The notes do not record his reaction saying only that he categorically denied it.   Describing his frantic search for his daughter, the hospital consultant said he looked under 'every bed and inside every cupboard' in the apartment.   The notes recorded: 'He said that from the very start, after the first unsuccessful searches, he thought that Madeleine had been abducted and that was the information he gave to everybody he spoke to.   'He reached that conclusion because he did not think it was possible for her to have walked out or opened the shutter herself.'   Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the documents last week.   They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter.   Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the couple were keen not to give 'a running commentary' on their legal team's trawl through the files.   Mr Mitchell said: 'Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos. The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context.   'A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who, quite wrongfully, were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption.   'We will not be commenting on any of this. All that matters is the search for Madeleine.   'Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be.'   Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year as her parents dined with friends nearby.   THE OMAGH FACTOR AND A CONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE   THE Portuguese police evidence was based on the controversial 'low copy number' DNA technique.   More established methods of DNA matching rely on the presence of bodily fluids or significant amounts of skin or hair.   Forensic experts can then be sure they have a reliable DNA sample of a suspect or someone else involved in an investigation.   However, low copy number profiling relies on a much smaller sample - and claims to produce an accurate 'genetic fingerprint'.   A cell of sweat or skin, left by a mere touch, is all that is needed.   The tiny DNA fragment is then copied many times to provide a big enough sample to match with other profiles.   The Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, which pioneered the technique, claims it is just as reliable as standard DNA testing.   However, it was called into question after the collapse of the Omagh bombing trial last year.   In the trial of Sean Hoey, the prosecution used the technique to link him to some of the explosive devices in the case.   But its accuracy was brought into question when a sample taken from a car bomb in Lisburn, Co Antrim, was wrongly linked to a 14-year-old boy in Nottingham.   The judge at Belfast Crown Court pointed out that the process is only admissible as evidence in two other countries in the world - New Zealand and the Netherlands.   The Crown Prosecution Service has since ordered a review into dozens of other cases that rested on the same type of DNA evidence.

Pictured: The bedroom where Madeline McCann met her fate, 05 August 2008

Pictured: The bedroom where Madeline McCann met her fate Daily Mail      By SAM GREENHILL Last updated at 12:33 AM on 05th August 2008   This is the first glimpse inside the bedroom at the heart of the Madeleine McCann mystery.   It was here the little girl slept on her holiday, next to the cots of her baby brother and sister, twins Sean and Amelie.   Until now, nobody has been allowed to see the police photographs taken inside Apartment 5a of the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz. The room: Madeleine's bed, left, the twins' cots and an empty bed under the shuttered window On the face of it, they depict mundane scenes - the clutter of the family dining table; the cramped bedroom shared by the three children; and the patio doors which would have kept the flat cool in the Portuguese summer. In one photo Madeleine's favourite toy Cuddle Cat - which her mother has since carried with her constantly as a reminder of her daughter - appears to be on the bed where she was sleeping. It is easy to imagine the excited chatter and children's laughter that filled the room as the McCanns put their children to bed every night until the fateful evening of May 3, 2007. But over the past 15 months the exact layout of the bedroom and its infamous window shutter have become the stuff of endless debate and conspiracy theories. Memories: Madeleine at 2.29pm on the day she disappeared View: What Matthew Oldfield saw when he checked on the children. Their room is off to the left The pictures show Madeleine's bed on the left. An abductor would have had to squeeze between the two netted cots, taking care not to wake the twins, and then stepped on to the second bed - which was unoccupied - to climb through the shutter. The McCanns fear that Madeleine's abductor was already in the flat when Gerry McCann left his dinner companions to check on her and the twins at 9.05pm. They believe the kidnapper had a full ten seconds to hide himself after hearing Mr McCann open the patio doors. He could have concealed himself in the bathroom, the main bedroom, the children's roomy wardrobe, or even behind the bedroom door. The images will also serve as a haunting reminder for family friend Matthew Oldfield, one of the so-called Tapas Seven who were eating with the McCanns that night. Escape route?: The McCanns believe Madeleine's abductor left through these sliding patio doors He went to check on the children at 9.30pm when the group were at the resort's tapas restaurant. His innocent error was to assume that all was well when he popped his head around the patio door - but from this angle, he would have seen only the bottom corner of Madeleine's bed. The twins' travel cots were beyond on the floor in full view and, seeing them sleeping soundly, he probably assumed that all three youngsters were there. Heartbreakingly, if he had ventured in further, police might have started the manhunt 30 minutes earlier. Madeleine's disappearance was discovered at 10pm by Kate McCann when she checked the apartment. When she opened the patio doors, she is said to have been alerted to something amiss by the children's bedroom door slamming shut in the wind - indicating that the window shutter there had been opened. She ran out to the rest of the party screaming for help. Clutter: The photos show the exact state of the flat when she disappeared

First pictures of Madeleine's bed, 05 August 2008

First pictures of Madeleine's bed The Sun   By VERONICA LORRAINE Published: Today, 05 August 2008   Click here for slideshow   MADELEINE McCann's bed lies empty hours after she vanished — her beloved "Cuddle Cat" abandoned forlornly on her pillow.   The photo was released yesterday in the wake of Portugal's cops scrapping a 15-month hunt for the holiday tot, whose anguished mum Kate, 40, was seen clutching the toy.   Other photos show the interior of Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment just hours after their anguish at finding daughter Maddie had vanished.   The snaps, taken by cops and now published for the first time, were among almost 30,000 pages of police evidence released yesterday.   The dossier also contained a photocopy of missing Maddie's passport — and it can be seen that, by a grim coincidence, it expired yesterday.   In one shot of Maddie's bed, her beloved soft toy Cuddle Cat rests on her pillow and the duvet is pulled back.   The cot occupied by her baby twin sister and brother Amelie and Sean now lies empty and the window is closed.   Blood   Another picture shows Kate and Gerry's bedroom, with two single beds pushed together.   There are photos of a table, chairs and TV in the lounge.   Cops claimed this room contained the "smell of death" and traces of Maddie’s blood — allegations scientists found completely unfounded.   A view through a French window looks on to the family's verandah in the Portuguese Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.   Another picture looks down the steps leading from the apartment.   This is the route the McCanns believe their daughter's abductor must have taken after snatching the little girl — nearly four at the time.   Police arrived at the scene at midnight last May 3.   Next day the apartment was closed and the inside was left untouched for months.   *   Bloody disgrace The Sun    From VERONICA LORRAINE IN Portimao Publsihed: Today, 05 August 2008   SHOCKING bungles by the Portuguese cops probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were finally exposed yesterday — by their OWN files.   The shambolic investigation — which saw the missing youngster's parents wrongly named suspects — was laid bare in 17 volumes of "evidence" made public for the first time.   The sensational police dossier — released a fortnight after clueless cops gave up the 15-month hunt for the youngster — revealed how a top Brit forensic expert told investigators in the Algarve there was NO DNA evidence against the McCanns.   At the time anguished Kate and Gerry were the target of callous police "leaks" — including that their daughter's blood was found in their holiday apartment and hire car.   Samples had been sent to the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service, yesterday's files confirmed.   But the police dossier also revealed that John Lowe, of the FSS major incidents team, declared it was impossible to conclude the material was even blood — let alone whether it came from Madeleine.   He said some DNA components could just as well have come from his own lab staff.The expert's email verdict was sent on September 3 last year.   Four days later the McCanns were shattered to be named "arguidos" — official suspects — with police citing DNA evidence.   Detectives went on to lie to Gerry that his daughter's DNA had DEFINITELY been found in the family's hire car — despite it having been rented long after three-year-old Maddie vanished from the family’s holiday flat in the resort of Praia da Luz.   Last night a furious pal said: "It would appear they were seeking to apply pressure by overstating the evidence they had. Frankly it's a scandal." The police notes said: "Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be."   A spokesman for the McCanns — both doctors aged 40 from Rothley, Leics — said: "You have to ask what the police were trying to achieve by over-presenting evidence they did not have."   Madeleine was days from her fourth birthday when she vanished on May 3 last year as her family holidayed with friends.   Last night lawyers for her parents, who have never given up hope of finding her, were poring over the 30,000 pages of evidence — copied on to CDs and handed to journalists outside a court in Portimao, 30 miles from where Maddie vanished.   Kate and Gerry hope their own investigators can now follow up leads — after the Portuguese two weeks ago admitted their probe was a flop and formally gave up the search for their daughter.   The couple were officially cleared as suspects along with expat Robert Murat.   *   48 queries... but no answers The Sun   Published: Today, 05 August 2008   KATE McCann refused to answer 48 questions from cops after being made an arguido, police files show.   It is thought she did not want to answer in case officers concocted false allegations.   And under Portuguese law she was within her rights. The questions included:   WHEN you entered the apartment, what did you see?   WHY had the curtain in front of the side window been tampered with?   HOW long did your search of the apartment take?   WHY did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted?   WHY did you leave the twins alone to go to the Tapas and raise the alarm?   WHEN you raised the alarm what exactly did you say?   WHY did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah?   DID anyone outside the group learn of Maddie's disappearance in those minutes?   WHAT does "We let her down" mean?   DID Jane tell you that night she’d seen a man with a child?   DURING searches, with the police already there, how did you search for Maddie?   IS it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie's bed?   BEFORE travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling?   IS it true that sometimes you despaired with your children’s behaviour and that left you very uneasy?   IS it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative?   WHEN the sniffer dog marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn't explain more than you already had?   WHEN the dog marked the scent of a corpse coming from the vehicle you hired, did you say you couldn't explain more than you already had?   DID you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter's disappearance?