Friday 12 May 2017

Woman-in-Purple


1. Introduction

One of our blog readers in Nov 2013 aptly defined Praia da Luz as the VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, due to the many negative peculiarities that have been attributed to this village because of the Maddie affair – the latest being a nanny saying that it was also a rape-haven location – it has, or so it seems to have, a very positive peculiarity related to the case: the elderly who live there, their memory improves with time.

But only the elderly.

First we had Mrs Fenn who only remembers almost 4 months after it happened that she heard a child crying in the McCann apartment for one and quarter hours.

Now we have Jenny Murat remembering things she saw on May 3 2007, first in 2009, then in 2015 and now ten years after Maddie disappeared.

2. The Mystery woman

In the Madeleine case we should never be surprised to be surprised but we were on this occasion. Out of the blue comes the Woman-in-Purple again.

We addressed this sighting in our post “Very pertinent question” way back on March 8 2012.

It refers to an article in the Express, written on May 10 2009, by James Murray “Exclusive: Who was the woman outside Maddie’s flat?

Here we have a description of a woman acting suspiciously outside the McCann apartment just two hours before Maddie was allegedly abducted.

She’s described as a slim, Portuguese-looking woman, wearing a plum-coloured top and white skirt, long, dark swept-back hair, spotted at 20:00 standing under a street light at the crossroads 40 feet away from the apartment.

The Express was informed by a mystery woman who has lived in Praia da Luz for more than 30 years and was speaking from her villa near the Ocean Club. That night she went to the supermarket just before it closed at 8pm and besides seeing the Woman-in-Purple, she almost collided with a small, brown car with an English–looking man driving.

(How does one decide a driver is English- looking as opposed to German, French!?)  

At the time of writing, we asked whether this mystery woman who wished to remain anonymous was Mrs Fenn or Mrs Murat.

Readers’ comments seemed to agree with us that she was more likely to be Mrs Jenny Murat and time has proved us to be correct.

The first comment we received was to point out what was obvious to those who had studied the PJ files carefully. “Sounds like Jane Tanner. Wilkins said he saw her outside the apartments in a purple top. Hair sounds right, she looks swarthy could be Portuguese.”

We agreed with that comment but one thing we did wonder: could Jane Tanner be described as slim?

She certainly wasn’t fat but maybe better described as well-built in comparison to the other women in the group? We’ll return to this point later.

What distinguishes this article from more recent reports of the Woman-in-Purple is the link to “the pockmarked prowler seen several times outside the apartment in the day leading up to the kidnap.”

The recent press reports make no mention of Pimpleman (also known as Spottyman) in relation to the Woman-in-Purple.

Can we now expect him to be named as the most recent suspect or have things moved on since 2009?


3. Jenny Murat, the mystery woman

The recent reports, all this month, clearly identify Jenny Murat as the witness to the Woman-in-Purple.

She had already been revealed in 2015 by James Murray in his Express article we have already mentioned; “Maddie libel detective ruined: Retirement retreat seized to cover McCann payout”:

“Jenny Murat, 78, the mother of wrongly accused Robert Murat, has potentially breakthrough evidence but no one has spoken to her. At 8pm on May 3, 2007, she went to a supermarket and then drove past Apartment 5a and saw a woman hanging around. Her notes from the time say: “There was a woman standing on the corner under a lamp post.

“I don’t remember much of her other than she was of slight build and was wearing a plum coloured jacket. She moved around the lamp post as if trying not to be noticed.”

The Sun article by Tracey Kandohla on May 1 2017, “MADDIE MYSTERY WOMAN, Madeleine McCann cops ‘hunting mysterious Woman-in-Purple seen loitering near Portuguese apartment just TWO hours before three-year-old went missing’”, says:

“A mysterious ‘woman in purple’ is the prime suspect British cops are thought to be searching for in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.”

Jenny Murat claims she saw a mysterious Woman-in-Purple on the night Madeleine and “told how she remembers seeing the female loitering outside the very apartment from which Maddie was snatched just TWO HOURS before the child’s distraught mum Kate discovered she was missing in 2007.”

The article continues:

“The woman in purple, whose name is being withheld by police, has become the latest focus of Scotland Yard’s high profile operation to find the girl’s kidnapper.

Met Police believe the woman is a prime suspect and may hold the key to Maddie’s fate – but incredibly they are thought to have never quizzed potential witness Mrs Murat.

But they did talk to Brit holidaymaker Jeremy Wilkins, a tennis playing holiday pal of Maddie’s dad, who had also spotted a woman lurking in the area.”


4. The Woman-in-Purple and Jez Wilkins

Wilkins made his rogatory statement on April 8 2008

“I left the apartment around 20.30. I calculate I met Gerry on the road between 20.45 and 21.15. I am aware of the importance of this hour and am also aware that the media announced our meeting time as 21.05. Even if this were correct, I have no idea where such information originated. It is not possible to give you a more exact time… I left my apartment pushing my son’s pram so that he could sleep... looked to the building block where the McCann apartment was situated and saw a woman dressed in purple clothing. I referred to this woman in relation to the questions asked by Jane Tanner… I do not remember having seen her when I spoke with Gerry, but I believe I saw her when I first ventured out. She was stopped on the street in front of one of the group’s apartments when I passed her down towards the exit to my apartment. I do not know if it was her apartment or not. I remember she was wearing the colour PURPLE.” (our caps)

Can we deduce from this: the police know the name of the woman if they are able to withhold it and that they consider her a suspect, even though they haven’t interviewed Mrs Murat?

Is it possible that they considered Jeremy Wilkinson’s rogatory interview more reliable, when he describes seeing Jane Tanner outside the McCann apartment around 8.30 wearing purple?

Why would his rogatory interview be more reliable than Jenny Murat’s, made on May 15 2007?

Perhaps because then Jenny made no mention of seeing a Woman-in-Purple or a near collision with a small car driven by a British- looking man in her PJ interview.


4. Woman-in-Purple and the Ocean Club

Says Kandohla, in her article:

“It is understood from sources close to the investigation that the woman had a connection to a worker at the resort where the McCanns were staying.

A police insider yesterday said they were ready to “move in” and arrest the woman, who is not currently living in Portugal, in the latest “hugely significant line of inquiry.””

This seems to be contradictory information; having interviewed Wilkins, who saw Jane, they are now looking for a suspect connected to an Ocean Club worker, not CURRENTLY living in Portugal, which doesn’t appear to describe Jane.

And as they haven’t interviewed Jenny Murat, we are certain it can’t be believed she saw ANOTHER Woman-in-Purple around the same time.


5. Slim v slight

Jenny’s description of the Woman-in-Purple varies from 2009 where she’s described as “slim” but in 2015 she tells James Murray that “I don’t remember much of her other than she was of SLIGHT build and was wearing a plum coloured jacket. She moved around the lamp post as if trying not to be noticed.” (our caps)

“Slight”, which is not the same as slim. Slight implies both small in stature and build, which is not a good description of Jane, in our opinion.

In that 2015 Express article:

“Jenny Murat, 78, the mother of wrongly accused Robert Murat, has potentially breakthrough evidence but no one has spoken to her. At 8pm on May 3, 2007, she went to a supermarket and then drove past apartment and saw a woman hanging around. Her notes from the time [oddly not included or mentioned in PJ interview] say: “There was a woman standing on the corner under a lamppost.

I don’t remember much of her other than she was of SLIGHT build and was wearing a plum-coloured jacket. She moved around the lamppost as if trying not to be noticed [she would need to be slight to hide behind a lamppost!]

Another case of LP failing to pass information on to OG?


6. The 2009 Jenny’s Murat route, by Murray in 2009

This is the route Jenny Murat must have driven to the Baptista supermarket:


Above, are the distances (every red marker is 50 metres) between the Murat’s property and the Baptista supermarket and the street lights that exist on Rua Dr. Professor Gentil Martins:

There are two pieces of information that the reader has to be aware of, and that is the distances that are involved and the fact that Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins is a one way street.

On May 10 2009, the mystery woman – who we now know to be Jenny Murat said the following:

“A WOMAN was seen acting suspiciously outside Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment just an hour before their daughter Madeleine was abducted.

The slim, Portuguese-looking woman in a plum-coloured top and white skirt with long, dark, swept-back hair acted furtively when she was spotted at 8pm on May 3 in 2007 near the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex.

She was standing under a streetlight at a crossroads only 40 feet from where Madeleine was sleeping with her brother Sean and his twin sister Amelie.

Investigators are being urged to find her to see if she was in any way connected to a pockmarked prowler seen several times outside the apartment in the day leading up to the kidnap.

Details of the mystery woman have only just become known after a Sunday Express investigation into the baffling case was alerted by an elderly British woman who has lived in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve for more than 30 years.

Speaking from her villa near the Ocean Club, the woman, who has asked not to be named, recalled: “On that night I went to the supermarket at the bottom of the road just before it closed at 8pm.

“As I drove past the entrance to the Ocean Club I saw a woman standing opposite Apartment 5A the McCanns were staying in.

“Even at that time of night the streets were deserted, so I was surprised to see someone there. I remember thinking it was unusual because it is just not the sort of place you would hang around.

“As I drove up to the junction she stepped around to the other side of the street lamp as though she didn’t want me to look at her. She was not carrying a bag or a mobile phone. I thought she might have been waiting for a lift but no car came along while I was there.”

We are not certain which street light she’s referring to, is #1 or #2:


Street light #1 doesn’t look like it to be on a crossroads, as it’s clear it’s an access to a parking area but is around 40 feet from 5A.

Street light #2, does look to be on a crossroads but is much further than the 40 feet.

But it seems to be under this one as Jenny only sees the woman when passing the Ocean Club entrance and “as I drove up to the junction she stepped around to the other side of the street lamp”

Quite remarkable to notice the colour the woman was dressed in, that she didn’t have a mobile or a handbag and that she moved to the other side of the street lamp and she was looking at Apartment 5A. This last observation must have been through the rear-view mirror.

We find it strange she was looking at 5A as we have been told she tried to avoid being seen by Mrs Murat, so would be looking at her and not at the apartment in this very short encounter.

We would think she would be looking at Mrs Murat, trying not to be seen by her. Remember Jenny was going “to the supermarket at the bottom of the road just before it closed at 8”, so we suppose, in a hurry.

She continues:

“I turned right and could see quite clearly she was looking at Apartment 5A”

“As I approached another junction a small, brown car, with just one English-looking man in it swung round and nearly hit mine.”

As we will later see, it’s very important that she says she turns right and then on the next junction and she almost has an accident with an English-looking driver.

She can only turn right on these two locations:

Turning right on A, there’s no next junction, so it wasn’t there, confirming that the Woman-in-Purple was under street light #2.

Turning at B, at Rua Joaquim Teixeira, means that she is clearly stating the accident almost happened at the entrance to the Baptista supermarket parking area, the next junction after turning right.

Please note that Rua Joaquim Teixeira is a one way ONLY way AFTER the junction to the entrance of the parking lot.

Between that junction and the Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins it’s a two-way street.

So, in this route, the only one-way street she drives in is Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins.


7. The Jenny Murat route, by Kandohla in 2017

“She told how she had driven to get some shopping when she was on her way home at around 8pm and saw a woman standing by a lamppost.

Mrs Murat added: “It was the middle of the evening and I saw the woman standing on the corner of the street just watching intently.

“I don’t know who she was but she caught my eye because she was dressed in purple-plum clothes.

“It struck me as strange because it’s so unusual for anyone, particularly a woman, to be standing alone on the street in our resort, just watching a building.

“The next morning we heard that a little girl had gone missing and I later told police about the woman I’d seen right outside.

“It was unusual to see a woman standing alone. I didn’t recognise her and don’t have a clue who she is but is seems a bit suspicious.”

Here she only sees Woman-in-Purple after she leaves the supermarket.

As we said it is important to remember that Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins is a one way street.

This means that for Mrs Murat to return to her villa from the supermarket she has to go the following way:


As we said now she can only have seen the woman when returning home when in 2009 it was on the way to it.

So for her to see the Woman-in-Purple it can only be in the T-Junction between Rua Agostinho da Silva and Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins, very, very near apartment 5A and nowhere near any Ocean Club entrance she spoke so clearly of in 2009.

No mention of any near accident with another car.


8. The Jenny Murat route, as per Fruen in 2017

On May 3, the Sun published the article by Lauren Fruen “MADDIE CAR MYSTERY, Madeleine McCann witness ‘saw car driving wrong way down one-way street towards apartment where tot was sleeping before seeing mystery woman in purple waiting outside’ 

“She said she also remembers seeing a mysterious “Woman-in-Purple” loitering outside the apartment from which Maddie went missing.

Jenny told how she was struck by the “bizarre behaviour” of the stranger staring at the flat.

Mrs Murat added: “It was the middle of the evening and I saw the woman standing on the corner of the street just watching intently.

"I noticed her there and she kind of looked as if she was trying to hide from me. I do remember she was wearing a plum-coloured top.”

This seems to confirm the Kandohla 2017 version contradicting the Murray 2009 one, as in the last the woman was not on a corner but near the Tapas complex entrance.

But what is interesting is what she says about the car:

“A BRITISH gran claims she saw a car driving the wrong way towards the apartment Madeleine McCann disappeared from ten years ago.

Jenny Murat, who lives 100 yards from the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns were staying, said the vehicle looked like a rental motor driven by a “British looking man”.

(…)

Speaking about the sighting for the first time, Mrs Murat told BBC Breakfast the car was driving the wrong way down a one-way street.

She said: “It was one of the small cars, like the rental cars – the normal, everyday sort of rental cars.

“I saw the driver, I was beside the driver. Both of us looked at each other. I think he had a very British look about him.”

As we saw, the only one way road she went in in the 2009 version was Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins, and whoever would be driving the wrong way would be going up it and not down.

And if it was on this road, then she first almost collides with this car, and then only sees the Woman-in-Purple when returning home.

Basically in the opposite order of what she stated in 2009.

Was the one-way street the Rua Joaquim Teixeira, after exiting the supermarket and turning right?


Current Google Maps shows clearly that only one car at a time can pass it, but even if it were so, how on earth would she know he was driving towards apartment 5A there?


9. Murray 2015 v Murray 2009

We have already seen in 2009 Jenny says her near car accident was near the Baptista supermarket.

But in 2015 she says the crash was when arriving home after going to the supermarket:

“As she turned into the driveway of her home, Casa Liliana, she was nearly hit by a car going the wrong way. “When I stopped to open the gates I could not see the car but the woman was in the road looking in my direction.””


10. Jane Tanner as the Woman-in-Purple?

Is Jenny trying to deflect attention away from Jane Tanner as the Woman-in-Purple? Is it really feasible that 2 Women-in-Purple were seen in the same place, at the same time? We don’t think so.

Whoever the Woman-in-Purple is, the police, according to the Sun report, “want to know exactly where she was on the night that Madeleine was taken from the apartment.” (note, “taken”)

If Woman-in-Purple was Jane Tanner, she was seen by Jenny at 20:00.  She was then seen by Wilkins around 20:30 when she also made a phone call to her friend Charlotte Gorrod, before leaving for the alleged dining at the Tapas restaurant at 20:30.

Note that Jez Wilkins in his first statement to the police does not mention the Woman-in-Purple.

He says “that yesterday, between 20:30 and 21 pm, when he was at the bar "TAPAS"”, which means it was after he crossed with the Woman-in-Purple.

Please note that Jez Wilkins goes straight from his apartment to the Tapas Bar area toilets, and the reason why we called the post “The Bladderman”, the one in which we show the various contradictions between his statements.

This means that the Woman-in-Purple he sees cannot be where he sees her and at Tapas at the same time.

For example in his second statement he says “Our son was awake and unable to sleep. I decided to take him for a walk in his pram. I left about 8:15 to 8:30 pm.”, taking 15 minutes off his initial assessment.


11. Jane Tanner v Woman-in-Purple


It’s evident that a significant effort has been made, especially recently, to dissociate Jane Tanner from the Woman-in-Purple, to downplay the importance of the character.

Jenny Murat who when giving a statement to the PJ in 2007 remembers hearing sirens in the distance, which a fact absolutely irrelevant to the fact a girl had disappeared from an apartment 100 yards from her villa but forgets to mention what she saw: a suspicious woman that evening looking at that same apartment.

And, apparently she had that in her notes!

Maybe it was because the difference between 2007 and 2009 was the fact that the files were released in 2008 and only then was it public that Jez had placed Jane Tanner where and when she was not to be supposed to be and so another Woman-in-Purple was created.

By saying that she didn’t know who the Woman-in-Purple was Jenny Murat is stating quite clearly that Jez’s Woman-in-Purple was not Jane Tanner but some other woman who happened to be half an hour earlier wearing the same coloured clothing and standing not where Jez says he saw Tanner

It is quite surprising that Tanner’s defense comes from the mother of the man the group made sure the bus went over.

To be very clear, it was NOT the T9 who threw Murtat under the bus.

Mr Amaral, by sheer coincidence when being in Luz one evening, happened to see Murat drive into his property and asked a fellow PJ officer about the man and what he heard for an answer made Mr Amaral be suspicious of him and ordered he be put under surveillance.

Murat had already indicated on May 5 that things were going wrong his way, so we think he very quickly realised he was under surveillance soon after Mr Amaral ordered it.

The other side seeing the opportunity to have someone to throw under the bus seized it and made sure that the bus went over the man, backed up over him again and over him again it went by ordering the T9 to do just that.

Ten years later, Jenny Murat comes in defense of Jane Tanner. Go figure.


12. Conclusion

The Woman-in-Purple frightens the other side. So does Euclides Monteiro-

Robert Murat is again quoted on something he has said before:

“I think everybody who was around at the time, holidaymakers and people at the Ocean Club, should be interviewed again.

The timeline needs to be made crystal clear because there is still so much confusion, such a mess.”

Goncalo Amaral would surely agree with the latter statement? We certainly do.


Post Scriptum in response to Doug D’s comment:


These pictures from the South end of Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins clearly shows that it’s a one-way street, from North to South.

Note in the last picture the no-way sign is turned for drivers approaching it from Rua Joaquim Teixeira, or as we said when exiting the Baptista supermarket and turning left.
 
When we visited Luz a couple years ago we drove in Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins twice.

52 comments:

  1. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/361930/Jenny-Murat-Kate-McCann-printed-such-awful-things-about-my-Robert-in-her-Madeleine-book/amp

    What happened to her book?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Probably not particularly relevant, unless it can tie JM down to where she was when she met a car going the wrong way, but is the Rua Professor Dr Gentil Martins in fact one way?

    There are ‘no entry’ signs outside the Baptista Supermarket to stop people turning into the road from there, up the hill, but nothing to say ‘turn right’ for cars coming away from the OC tennis court turning, or ‘turn left’ from either of the two turnings opposite.

    In the roads around, all the other turnings into one-way streets, including coming out from the Baptista car park seem to be well signposted.

    Doug D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doug D,

      Please check our Post-Scriptum.

      Delete
    2. I agree that it's no entry turning into the road by the Baptista, but they don't make the road 'one-way' as there is nothing to stop people turning left up the hill coming out from the tennis courts, or turning right up the hill from the two apartment roads opposite.
      Also there is a turn right sign coming out of Baptista car park, so you shouldn't be turning left from there.
      (I've taken screen shots but it won't let me post them here)

      Delete
  3. Are you saying you believe Jenny M and Fenn??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure how to respond to that question...

      No, we thought it was obvious from this post we were being ironic about memory improvement of elderly ladies.

      By showing the inconsistencies of what Jenny Murat has said in different occasions, we think obvious that we don't believe what she has said.

      About Mrs Fenn, being the only blog who has repeatedly said we don't believe in her, like in our post "All paths lead to Rome" among many others, we can't honestly understand your question.
      http://textusa.blogspot.pt/2010/11/all-paths-lead-to-rome.html

      Delete
    2. Hi textusa,Was JT with Russell on the morning 4 May 2007 looking for Madeleine,when Russell took(RM)to meet Gerry?
      (JT)Bob Small,Goncalo Amaral,have JT hidden in a van,where they have RM walk past and JT identifies Robert Murat as the abductor?
      Prior to JT being placed in the van. JT was with Russell,Bob Small close to Casa Lilanna,actively seeing the Portugal PJ,have RM in custody,casting aspersions on the Identification of the Lead Suspect?
      Then we have the"Mystery DNA"from the Burgau Apartments,possibly being connected to JT,RM?
      now throw into the Mix JM Alibi for her Son on 3 May 2007?
      Purple Woman,I would say Rachel Oldfield,as per looking like a Portuguese Woman if we are going for a simulation plan(JM)Identification?

      Delete
  4. I think its clear as the day is long that JM has been lying ..she was required to after the release of the Police files. For her not to mention either Purple lady nor the car incident in 2007 tells us it didnt happen. But in 2009 after it was known that JW had identified JT in purple, outside 5A at that time, someone had to come forward to avert disaster ( anon then ). Who better than RM Mum...she wld be least suspected of lying to support JT afterall that had happened to her son. So JM is under instruction to lie ( as you have clearly shown she has done in this post)...Shes doing as shes been told to for a reason, my guess is she was knowingly involved in the concealment of the body. If she wasnt she has no reason to lie. JW placing JT couldnt be erased its in the files...so confusion tactics required once more. How they must wish JW hadnt responded so fully to the question of seeing JT that evening?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent read, as always, and so much detailed research. Thanks, Textusa. Very unreliable statements from Mrs Murat in my opinion and all part of the great cover up, no doubt. I'm not sure about Mrs Fenn as didn't Kate McCann 'speak' to her to allegedly frighten her off? I thought I read that somewhere. In any case, one always gets 'witnesses' coming forward who take sides very early on in a crime and 'modify' their knowledge/observations to favour guilty or innocent. Looking forward to Textusas' next posting. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/39885655

    A whistleblower.
    This is why OG can never be confident if they produce a whitewash or archival report.
    There is always the potential for a retired or serving officer to blow the whistle.
    This is without even considering that one of the many people involved in the events of PdL could do exactly the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and one of the reasons why they reduced numbers of officers to minimum. If you compartmentalise you can keep secrets for a very long time...

      Delete
  7. Thanks for this post it's really interesting and detailed.

    Also, you and people like you are making a difference writing blogs, brave Amaral, people on Facebook digging for the truth, brave Colin Sutton speaking out, people on Twitter and people on YouTube speaking out all those things are really making a difference. The truth of this case will eventually come out and once that happens loyalties will change.

    As a separate issue I've just watched the latest documentary on Jon Bennett Ramsey which is similar to the McCann case as it was implied in the doc that there was political interference from the start, the sibling is suing CBS which could open a can of worms in this case.

    Anyway thanks for the time you spend researching I enjoy reading your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous in the post "Why" at 14 May 2017, 12:23:00 because s/he was unable to submit it in current post:

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3557063/disgraced-portuguese-ex-cop-kicked-off-madeleine-mccann-probe-is-still-advising-officers-on-the-case/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bringing it over to the blog:

      MADDIE COP PLEA
      Disgraced Portuguese ex-cop kicked off Madeleine McCann probe is still advising officers on the case

      Goncalo Amaral has called for Maddie's parents to be questioned again into the youngster's disappearance

      Exclusive
      By Alex Diaz
      14th May 2017, 3:16 am
      Updated: 14th May 2017, 6:10 am

      THE disgraced ex-cop kicked off the Madeleine McCann probe is still advising officers on the case, it is claimed.

      Goncalo Amaral, 57, who botched the initial stages, wants former colleagues to question Maddie’s parents again.

      A source said: “He is still a respected face in the Portuguese police community.

      “He continues to meet with pals who are part of the Portuguese side of the investigation.

      “He boasts that he knows the case inside out and that it would be foolish not to listen to his advice.

      “He has told them what he knows and begs them to look into the ‘first line of inquiry’ to solve the case.”

      Top cop Pedro do Carmo said earlier this month that Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leics, were not suspects.

      The deputy director of the country’s judicial police declared: “The parents are not suspects. Full stop.”

      Scotland Yard have also ruled out the McCanns as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance.

      Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “That was dealt with at the time by the original investigation by the Portuguese.

      “We’re happy that’s completely dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen that or start rumours that’s a line of investigation.”

      Their daughter was three when she vanished from their holiday flat in Praia da Luz, the Algarve, in May 2007.

      Delete
    2. At 15.49 s/he. ;-)

      Delete
    3. [quote]A source said: “He is still a respected face in the Portuguese police community.[/quote]
      Couple that with the PJ saying it matters not if OG close the PJ is not dependent on them,there you have reasons why OG cannot and will not close,they no not what the PJ are up to.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous 14 May 2017, 19:31:00,

      Pudgy fingers with smart phones do cause some strange effects. :)

      Our apologies.

      Delete
  9. http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/14/controversial-detective-still-advising-on-madeleine-mccann-case-6636211/amp/


    Kate and Gerry McCann recently spoke on the tenth anniversary of Madeleine’s death (Picture:Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Copied this from Twitter and just had to lol

    I understand the #McCann$ are to appeal the result of the #Eurovision  .

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous 14 May 2017, 10:42:00,

    Do be careful who you praise in this case.

    As we've shown before, there are a lot of Pied Pipers around in this case.

    Don't forget that a wolf in sheep's clothing is not just some wolf wearing a cheap Halloween costume but one that details his disguise to the point that all the other sheep think he's one of them.

    Mr Sutton forgets that there are people with memory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder whether Mr Sutton is aware that some people know much, much more than him about the MC case (and surely more than OG, due to their ludicrous remit).

      Delete
  12. The more the British tabloids are shouting 'innocent parents, bad cop', the more the meaning of 'innocence' is discredited. Madeleine's face as a three year old, that's innocence. How can you continue to sell it without shame?
    If I was Mrs Kate McCann, that face would chase me day after day. What a devastating choice she made after the disappearance of her daughter. If you are innocent, you don't have to tell it, time after time, year after year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How Kate and Gerry McCann presented to the world was created for them by a PR firm who wanted to keep the focus on them and away from what was going on in PDL.
      I worked in an airport when a celebrity family were coming off a plane, their advisors where arranging them to walk in a line, the baby was taken through separately as she was unsettled, makeup and hair was touched up, baseball caps were provided for the boys and fixed in a super cool way. No doubt the photographs taken by waiting photographers showed a super unstressed family casually strolling through the airport looking gorgeous and relaxed despite the long journey.
      People buy into these false images as a lot of people did with the McCanns and thus you create a large fan base of support which focuses on them and away from the reality of this case. If they had hid away pretty soon people would have started ask question but throw the public a celebrity family and that kept them occupied.
      The image created for Clarence Mitchell was the opposite but had the same effect give the public a face that they would never get tired beating and they will focus on that and away from what really matters. Look at him last week looking at the camera and saying how ludicrous it was that 2 DOCTOR’S would kill their daughter. Instead of ignoring that for the pretentious statement it was and focusing on what that program was really telling us it started a frenzy about people’s perception of doctors and led to discussions like Doctor Shipman.
      Remember people you were being manipulated by skilled PR firms who know how to work you which is why programmes like big brother attract such high rating. Kate and Gerry McCann are unique people in that they played their part to a tee. You have to wonder about the mentality of people able to pull that off given the circumstances but I don’t think they will ever have a minute’s peace over it all. Even in the case of the celebrity family the mother did put a bit of a protest up because the baby was upset and the photo shoot was delayed for a time until she was ready to let them take her.

      Delete
  13. Is it bad news that we are now back to hearing about the "disgraced cop" rather than Mr Amaral?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr Alex Diaz is an isolated case.

      It seems he has graduated from the Lazzeri-Kandohla-Couzens School of journalism with flying colours.

      Delete
    2. The Sun article minus the insults, in Portuguese:

      https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/794225/goncalo-amaral-continua-a-aconselhar-inspetores-diz-jornal-britanico

      Delete
  14. http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/05/15/12/03/uk-police-guilty-of-flawed-tunnel-vision-in-hunt-for-maddie-mccann-answers

    Crime
    2:05pm May 15, 2017

    UK police guilty of flawed tunnel vision in hunt for Maddie McCann answers, former top cop says

    By
    Mark Saunokonoko

    Scotland Yard's six-year investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance was a poisoned chalice laced with critical errors because of a high level agenda to not interrogate the child's parents, according to a former UK detective.

    The explosive revelations were made by retired Metropolitan Police homicide cop Colin Sutton, who at one time was touted as a possible candidate to lead Operation Grange and the search for Maddie, now missing for 10 years.

    Operation Grange's narrow remit to focus only on the theory that the four-year-old was abducted from the family's holiday apartment in Portugal was unusual and a "missed opportunity", Sutton told nine.com.au.

    In 2010, with planning underway to launch Operation Grange, Sutton received a phone tip off from "a very senior Metropolitan police officer", warning him about the looming investigation and how it would be handled.

    The insider told Sutton, who served 30 years with London's Met before retiring in 2011, that the dozens of murder detectives assigned to Operation Grange would be instructed where they could and couldn't look.

    "I immediately assumed that what was meant was that the [McCann] family and Tapas 7 [the group of seven friends on holiday with the McCanns] were a no-go area," Sutton said.

    In May 2011, when Operation Grange was launched, the detective's instincts were proven correct.

    The "crucial phrase", as Sutton calls it, in the Operation Grange remit was a line stating the review would be carried out "as if the abduction occurred in the UK".

    That meant Kate and Gerry McCann, despite several concerning inconsistencies in their witness statements, were not to be looked at, Sutton said.

    "It was almost this unspoken elephant in the room," he told nine.com.au.

    "The rest of [the remit] is really of little consequence after that because that's sort of saying … we are only treating this as an abduction and we are not looking at any other scenario."

    Sutton also hit out at Scotland Yard claims that the McCanns, who have always denied any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine, had been cleared by Portugal's police force, the Policia Judiciaria (PJ).

    Portuguese authorities shelved the investigation in 2008, 14 months after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, and in doing so lifted arguidos (formal suspect) status from the McCanns.

    "The PJ have never cleared anyone," Sutton said.

    Ceasing the investigation "just meant they couldn't find enough evidence to proceed against them. Their view is that the parents are certainly not eliminated".

    Sutton, who led more than 30 successful murder investigations, said it was well-rehearsed, best police practice in cases such as Madeleine McCann to eliminate those closest to the child first.

    "Also any kind of investigation of murder or akin to murder the other place you need to eliminate early on is those that last saw the victim alive.

    (Cont.)

    ReplyDelete
  15. (Cont.)

    "In this case you've got essentially the same group of people who are both close to the victim and the last to see her alive. I'd always want to start with that.

    "I don't understand why that hasn't been done [by Operation Grange], because it would appear to be in everyone's interest."

    Earlier this month, Assistant Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley denied Scotland Yard had a closed mind to the possibility of Kate and Gerry McCann’s involvement.

    "The involvement of the parents, that was dealt with at the time by the original investigation by the Portuguese," Asst Com Rowley said during a media briefing.

    "We had a look at all the material and we are happy that was all dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen that or start rumours that was a line of investigation."

    When asked if Kate and Gerry McCann had ever been questioned as potential suspects by Scotland Yard detectives, Asst Com Rowley replied: "No."

    Sutton said he disagreed with Asst Com Rowley's assessment. He said inconsistencies in some of Kate and Gerry's statements, Kate's 2011 book madeleine and also some of the witness accounts of the Tapas 7 disturbed him.

    The Portugal detective who oversaw the original investigation, Goncalo Amaral, wrote a book theorising Maddie had died in apartment 5A, that Kate and Gerry had disposed of the body and the parents had faked their daughter's abduction.

    After police found no forensic evidence in the apartment to back up claims of a break in, Gerry's statements to police detailing what doors he and Kate had used while checking on their three sleeping children changed.

    Portugal's police also had some doubts over the accuracy of timelines provided by Kate and Gerry, and the Tapas 7, in the critical hours either side of Maddie being reported missing at 10pm.

    Specialist cadaver and blood dogs were brought to Praia da Luz from the UK, and signalled hits inside apartment 5A and a hire car rented by the McCanns 25 days after Madeleine disappeared. DNA swabs were taken but ruled inconclusive.

    "There was a part of me that always had this hope in the back of my mind that actually there was lots of busy and important covert work going on in the background of Operation Grange, that there was going to be some kind of bombshell announcement.

    "I fear that is not going to be the case now. I fear it will just peter out and probably this thing will never get resolved."

    It was "entirely possible" that some of Operation Grange's remit was forced upon Scotland Yard by government officials who rubber stamped the multi-million-dollar funding of the investigation, Sutton said.

    In March Operation Grange was injected with an additional $150,000 to cover the investigation through to September, 2017.

    FOLLOW: Mark Saunokonoko on Twitter for more McCann news and analysis

    READ MORE: Scotland Yard investigation blasted as 'ridiculous': US crime expert

    READ MORE: How the systematic discrediting of Goncalo Amaral helps shut down damning death theories

    © Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2017

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In our comment at 14 May 2017, 21:18:00 we have already given our opinion about Mr Sutton.

      Please note the difference between what he says in this article and in the one by the Mail that gave him visibility.

      In this one he says:

      "In 2010, with planning underway to launch Operation Grange, Sutton received a phone tip off from "a very senior Metropolitan police officer", warning him about the looming investigation and how it would be handled.

      The insider told Sutton, who served 30 years with London's Met before retiring in 2011, that the dozens of murder detectives assigned to Operation Grange would be instructed where they could and couldn't look.

      "I immediately assumed that what was meant was that the [McCann] family and Tapas 7 [the group of seven friends on holiday with the McCanns] were a no-go area," Sutton said."

      While on May 3 he said this:

      "A detective tipped to head up the Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was abducted and ignore other leads.

      Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010.

      The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims.

      Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he said: 'I did receive a call from a very senior met police officer who knew me and said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to head investigation on the basis that I wouldn’t be happy conducting an investigation being told where I could go and where I couldn’t go, the things I could investigate and the things I couldn’t.

      Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: 'The Scotland Yard investigation was going to be very narrowly focused and that focus would be away from any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the McCanns or the tapas friends.'"

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4467832/Met-interested-proving-McCann-parents-innocent.html

      Delete
    2. https://mobile.twitter.com/colinsutton/status/864118967836848130
      Some scepticism about his motives.

      Delete
    3. "A detective tipped to head up the Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was abducted and ignore other leads.
      Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010.
      The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims."

      But this is no quotation of CS's words, just interpretation of what he said to MB.

      Delete
    4. Should I have said "abusive interpretation" or is it pleonastic concerning the Daily Mail ?

      Delete
    5. Am I missing something. In both does it not imply that he was told not to touch it because SY were intent on proving abduction regardless of the evidence

      Delete
    6. Agree totally Anne.

      Delete
    7. On May 3 the Daily Mail article states: "Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010. The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims."

      On May 15 he says: "The insider told Sutton, who served 30 years with London's Met before retiring in 2011, that the dozens of murder detectives assigned to Operation Grange would be instructed where they could and couldn't look.
      "I immediately assumed that what was meant was that the [McCann] family and Tapas 7 [the group of seven friends on holiday with the McCanns] were a no-go area," Sutton said."

      On May 3 he says the "high-ranking friend in the Met" told him that OG was going to be biased in favour of the Mcs. On May 15, he says it was his immediate assumption from the words of his "high-ranking friend in the Met" and not what his friend said.

      The words from the Daily Mail are not quotations but it written clearly that he said them.

      Mr Sutton, as far as we know, did not complain about being misquoted, misrepresented or misinterpreted in the Daily Mail article. In fact he praised the article on Twitter as per anon comment to our last post "Why?":

      "Anonymous 9 May 2017, 15:42:00

      Interesting comments on Twitter from Colin Sutton, ex-London DCI, re McCann case. https://twitter.com/colinsutton/with_replies
      One of his Tweets: 1- I hoped Grange was doing other work in the background; 2- When I decided to speak it took a while to find an MSM outlet who would listen."

      Delete
    8. The last ex SY expert they had on panarama said they were innocent because he said they were. What better way to back that up with someone who publicly announced that he thought SY was a farse but now on reviewing the evidence is convinced of the parents innocence. Is there another panarama on the horizon.

      Delete
    9. The Panorama program is a sort of ball of fools. Those eccentrics have all in common an extraordinary faith, the kind that moves mountains. Fact checking is not necessary, belief will more than do, belief prevails, belief overrules everything. One of them is supposed to be a PO, when asked how he knows that the MCs aren't involved, he answers that it's obvious, and isn't obvious they're innocent since they weren't there when the child vanished ? A PO ! (Note that the MCs share the same post-truth logic as they blamed themselves for not having been there when the child was abducted...).
      Leading the ball there's Richard Bilton. Oh, how attentive he listens to the impervious Pedro do Carmo, how much he hopes to pull the truth out of the backstreets of PDL, how knowledgeable he is, as JG, about dogs, in particular about those lamentable, though British, Eddie and Keela, how he does swiftly mention the STJ ruling only in order to destroy it bit by bit of plausibility, the jewel in the crown being Mr Janosh abducting a pillow and proving to the planet the inanity of the PJ.

      Delete
    10. I don't agree with you, Textusa, about the Daily Mail. It wouldn't be the first time they make up false quotations that just suit them. I find it hard to believe that CS would say openly that OG's task was to prove the MCs' innocence. Had the "high ranking friend" to be explicit, as if CS wouldn't understand what was at stake ? If those quotation is genuine, then better be careful !

      Delete
  16. http://whois.domaintools.com/findmadeleine.com

    Find Maddie updated to 2018.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another year, another 'pick a pocket or two'.

      Delete
    2. The page still shows a blank when you try to open it.
      I don't know if this means that it's in the process of being updated.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous 16 May 2017, 10:37:00,

      Anyone by now still willing to give them any of their hard earned money, deserves to lose it.

      Delete
    4. The site selling tat still works!
      But not the webpage

      Delete
    5. http://findmadeleine.com/home.html
      Site is back!
      Purchase our book features
      That will help to find her!

      Delete
  17. ..."spotted at 20:00 standing under a street light at the crossroads 40 feet away from the apartment."

    I guess that someone with bad intentions would not stand right under a street light! If that woman had any ill intentions she would have kept in the shadows, careful not to show herself so clearly.

    ReplyDelete
  18. After ten years of confusion I doubt very much that the whole truth will ever emerge.

    ReplyDelete
  19. One wonders why Jenny Murat would offer such observations to UK journalists most recently (if she did at all) or back in 2007/2008 when the case was warmer, about a woman in purple (Tanner) who accused/fingered her son, Robert, as a possible abductor/murderer and almost 'ruined his life.' If she could have incriminated Tanner in in the early stages when the evidence was still ripe -- spilled it all to the PJ in the very early stages and exonerated her son? Perhaps she's been harbouring a deep seated hatred of Tanner since 2007 and offers these nuggets of information to MSM at intervals? Or is she just doing what's she's been required of her but by those controlling the McCanns, and what is the reward for her, and for her son? Has she been told to, or offered to, construct a narrative that sets up a smoke screen as to the involvement of her son, Robert, and indeed herself. "Don't look there - look here!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had got the impression, possibly wrongly, that she had been brought in by 'the other side' to add extra details to the purple woman such that it couldn't have been JT.. i.e. woman now slight, its a purple jacket and a skirt.... so she is doing as she is told. She has always been on the other side..

      Delete
  20. Just my opinion, but having recently been looking at pictures of those involved again, do you think that Rachel Oldfield is more 'Portuguese looking,' than JT?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Does anyone else think that the uproar over Allegation of Trump interfering in a FBI investigation will make Theresa May think before she try's to create a whitewash over the SY investigation. I also think that even if she allows the whole truth to be outed now she still has a lot of explaining of why it has taken this long which will be met with allegations of interference

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Theresa May's lack of concern for the MC case put Jim Gamble into a state of utter fury. Though TM had nothing to do with JG's now famous report, he couldn't imagine that she didn't read it first thing when she substituted Alan Johnson, who ordered the report after having been lobbyed by JG himself. When TM finally let him know that she had a look on the report, JG didn't believe her, because she didn't immediately ordered an inquiry. Having a look had likely made TM wonder whether the best was to let time do its work and build slowly indifference or to ask the Yard to review the files as common interest was at stake, as she later claimed. Then pressure was put on Cameron by Medusa Brooks who only admitted, in front of the Leveson Inquiry, to have "persuaded" him (how cute !).
      If Theresa May's eyes ever fell on Mark Rowley's interview, just imagining her face makes me laugh.
      http://news.met.police.uk/documents/transcript-of-interview-with-ac-mark-rowley-66743

      Delete

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