Casa Pia - Portugal's elite paedophile ring

[TonyGosling]

Could the Algarve police be looking in the wrong country? This article from 2002 appears to have vanished from the Guardian website... why?

Portugal's elite linked to paedophile ring
http://www.prisonplanet.com/portugals_elite_linked_to_paedophile_ring. html

Abuse was reportedly going on at Lisbon orphanage for 20 years

Giles Tremlett in Lisbon
Wednesday November 27, 2002
The Guardian

A scandal over a paedophile ring run from a state orphanage gripped Portugal yesterday as it threatened to engulf diplomats, media personalities and senior politicians.
Photographs of unnamed senior government officials with young boys from Lisbon's Casa Pia orphanage were among the evidence reportedly available to police after they arrested a former orphanage employee called Carlos Silvino.

A number of former residents, and the mother of one boy who is still there, have denounced sexual attacks on children at what is known as Lisbon's most famous orphanage.

Mr Silvino, it was claimed, abused children himself and procured boys for a powerful group of clients.

He has publicly denied the allegations and was expected to repeat that denial at a closed-door bail hearing in Lisbon yesterday.

What has most shocked the Portuguese have been the revelations that systematic sexual abuse of children at the home had allegedly been going on for more than 20 years and had been known to police and other authorities for most of that time.

A former president, General Ramalho Eanes, was allegedly among those who knew about abuse at the home but failed to stop it.

The identity of the mysterious group of powerful paedophiles remained a secret yesterday, with only one person prepared to admit she knew at least some of the names.

Former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, said she had sent a dossier containing photographs and testimonies from children to the police 20 years ago but they had done nothing about it, while she was subjected to a campaign of threats.

"He [Silvino] was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country," Mrs Costa Macedo explained in a newspaper interview. "It wasn't just him. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media."

The material sent to the police, which yesterday appeared to have been lost, was damning proof of the activities of the paedophile ring, Mrs Costa Macedo said.

"There are photographs, an account of the methods used to spirit children out of the orphanage and testimonies of a number of children," she explained.

Mrs Costa Macedo said that many of the photographs were found at the house of a Portuguese diplomat in the town of Estoril, 20 miles from Lisbon. Four children who had gone missing from the orphanage were discovered at the house, where they had spent several days allegedly under lock and key.

President Eanes was introduced to five boys who told him of the abuse occurring at the orphanage in 1980 but failed to act on it, according to Mrs Costa Macedo.

There was no suggestion that General Eanes, a popular and respected figure who did not comment on the allegations yesterday, was involved in the paedophile ring.

Portuguese police insisted yesterday they had no record of the documents sent to them by Mrs Costa Macedo.

She said she had been the target of a campaign of intimidation to make her stop investigating the case.

"I received anonymous threats, by phone and post. They said they would kill me, flay me and a lot of other things," she said.

That campaign had started again yesterday, she said, with threatening phone calls made to her home.

Portugal has increasingly been under the scrutiny of anti-paedophile groups who have denounced its lax laws and uninterested courts for creating a paedophiles' paradise in Europe.

Belgian and Dutch paedophile groups are reported to have operated in Portugal, with foreigners travelling to the island of Madeira to seek out young children.

Investigators from the Swiss-based Innocence in Danger group, which claims children regularly disappear from the poorer streets of Portuguese towns and cities, say they too have been harassed and threatened.

Mr Silvino claimed his accusers were making up their allegations. "It is all lies," he said.

The orphanage's director and deputy director were sacked on Monday as the government pledged to clear up the case as soon as possible.

[chek]

Shades of the infamous Kincora Boys Home scandal in Belfast.

"The scandal first came to public attention on 3rd April 1980, when three members of staff at the home, William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains, were charged with a number of offences relating to the systematic abuse of children in their care over a number of years. All three were later convicted.

Allegations later emerged that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been informed of the goings-on at the home for years previously, but had not moved to prevent it, because the manager of the home, William McGrath, was also the leader of an obscure loyalist paramilitary group, called Tara, and was being blackmailed by MI5 into providing intelligence on other loyalist groups.

A "private inquiry" was set up in 1982 by James Prior, the Northern Ireland secretary to deal with these allegations, but it collapsed after three of its members resigned."

Move along - nothing to see here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kincora_boy's_home

[Wokeman]

I have an uneasy feeliing that there is a lot we are not being told by our illustrious MSM.

[Pincher]

[Mark Gobell]

Does anyone else think that the Local Election coverage was particularly low key ?

[MagsUK]

[Pincher]

Poor old Robert Murat: that'll learn him for helping hacks out with the lingo and for whipping out his glass eye in public.

Any road up m'ducks at least we now know that paedo rings are off the menu. That Commander Thingymabob said so on Sky. He said it must be someone local wot done it because the police sniffer dogs picked up Maddie's scent and followed it to the local supermarket - meaning she must have left the appartment by herself before being snatched as there was no sign of forced entry at the flat.

Can someone help me out here? I thought it was Maddie's parents who brought in the dogs several days after she vanished. Could they really have picked up her scent after so long?

And if it must have been someone local how comes the Algarve police were reported during the weekend as winding down their search in the area?

Of course the final nail in the coffin for the paedo ring theory was the rounding up and eliminating from their enquiries of the suspicious threesome reported photographing Maddie on the beach and escorting a girl matching her descrption at a local filling station.

Strange how the Portuguese plod switch their funny little law of operational silence on and off when it suits them. 'We don't let on when we nick someone but we make sure the world and his wife knows when we let 'em go' sort of thing.

Except everyone seemed to know that the local Brit/Port busybody Murat had been hauled off (but not arrested you understand) to the regional capital for questioning and then Portuguese media reported he had been 'released' from er... the state of not being under arrest. Bit of a larf this operational silence law don't you think?

Almost as big a larf as our anti terror law - now that's what you call a real hoot!

[Mark Gobell]

Seems like Mirror hack Lori Campbell is the source of suspicion of Robert Murat:

http://www.anorak.co.uk/news/tabloids/173352.html

[mediadisbeliever]

Tony, as usual excellent research work, thanks for digging out the Guardian 2002 piece.

Funny how the guardian have managed to hide this in so timely a fashion.

Cheers

Ian

[Mark Gobell]

The Guardian still has the story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,848412,00.html

[TonyGosling]

thanks Mark,

when I did the original Google search for the headline the prisonplanet version was the only one that came up,

maybe it was altered?? But one hopes that some of the Portugese and British police have picked up on this elite child abuse ring over there. It doesn't appear to have been shut down and clearly has some very high powered members - possibly even withhin the top echelons of the Portugese government, law enforcement and judiciary.

Could that help explain why there seem to be so few leads and thius has turned into something of a gory TV spectacle.

[Mark Gobell]

I'm Madeleine scapegoat, man says

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6660009.stm

Robert Murat has worked for the police as a translator

The man being treated as a suspect in the search for missing Madeleine McCann says he has been made "a scapegoat for something I did not do".

Briton Robert Murat, 33, told Sky News the situation had "ruined" his life.

Police have searched his mother's Algarve villa, which is close to where four-year-old Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, was last seen on 3 May.

However, officers said they did not have the evidence to formally arrest or charge anybody.

Meanwhile, Madeleine's uncle and aunt, John and Philomena McCann, from Glasgow, are to visit the House of Commons in an effort to keep the search in the public eye.

Stressed

Glasgow MP Mohammed Salwar, who will accompany them, said the McCann family had "the full support of the British government".

Philomena McCann told BBC's Breakfast Gerry and Kate, Madeleine's parents, remained upbeat and positive, although "extremely tired, stressed and worried".

We are hopeful that this case will be over in the near future

Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa

Mr Murat, who previously lived in Hockering, Norfolk, has recently been living with his mother Jenny, 71, in Praia da Luz.

Speaking off camera after it emerged he was being treated as a suspect, Mr Murat reportedly told Sky News: "This has ruined my life and made my life very difficult for my family here and in Britain.

"The only way I will survive this is if they catch Madeleine's abductor."

Members of Mr Murat's family have insisted he had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance and say he was having dinner with his mother on the night it happened.

On Tuesday, Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa told a news conference he could not confirm whether Madeleine was alive or dead.

He said police had searched five houses on Monday and seized "various materials" from the properties which were undergoing forensic tests.

It is believed two cars used by the Murats have been examined, and computers, mobile phones and several video tapes were taken away.

Two other people - a German woman and a Portuguese man - have been questioned as witnesses.

ARGUIDO STATUS

Officially a suspect
Bestowed by police or requested by individual
Right to remain silent
Right to a lawyer
Must report to police every five days

Mr Murat has not been formally named by police as their suspect.

Mr Sousa confirmed the suspect had assisted police in the early stages of the investigation by working as a translator.

The suspect has signed an identity and residence statement that prevents him from moving house or leaving Portugal, and requires him to report regularly to police.

Mr Murat may have been designated a suspect by police, or he could have chosen to take the status himself to gain additional protections under Portuguese law.

An arrest can be made once someone is a suspect, but only if there is sufficient evidence.

Madeleine McCann disappeared on 3 May

Mr Murat, a former property developer who has a four-year-old daughter, had become well known to journalists during the search for Madeleine.

Police began questioning him and searching his mother's property, known as Casa Liliana, after Sunday Mirror journalist Lori Campbell spoke to the British Embassy and the police about him.

Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom 13 days ago as her parents ate dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.

The international number for Crimestoppers is +44 1883 731 336. People with information about Madeleine can call anonymously.

[TonyGosling]

This whole business stikes me as a psyop. A test to see if the Portuguese elite can keep their paedophile ring secret and concurrently use the mass media to spread fear throughout the world. The Portuguese authorities could be cynically covering their own culpability. Has anybody bothered to tell Madelaine's distraught parents about Casa Pia, the establishment ring that should be prime suspects in this case?

'Ironically, calls for changes to this legislation first gained prominence with apparent flaws that were highlighted throughout the Casa Pia child abuse case in Lisbon.'

'Despite being enmeshed in its own paedophile scandal at the state-run Casa Pia orphanages, where senior members of the country's establishment are alleged to have been involved in organised sexual abuse, the Portuguese are convinced that the monster comes from outwith their borders......'


Secrecy law explained
http://google.the-news.net/display.aspx?id=907-2
12/5/2007

Much to the British medias disapproval, authorities have repeatedly cited a Portuguese legal principle to support the minimum amount of information being trickled through to the press.

The legal constraint, known as the secret of justice, stretches back to the 19th century, and emanates from Roman law. But it was markedly influenced by the principles of freedom and liberty resulting from the French revolution that altered modern legal systems such as those found in the United States and here in Portugal. In effect, this legal constraint was designed to protect suspects not only from being tried and convicted by the press, but also from lynch mobs while also safeguarding the presumption of innocence of a suspect.

Similar secrecy laws are also similar across Europe. In addition to the legal systems of Portugal and France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Spain also impose restrictions and minimal information supplied to the public during investigations.

Ironically, calls for changes to this legislation first gained prominence with apparent flaws that were highlighted throughout the Casa Pia child abuse case in Lisbon.

Sources directly involved with this case revealed to The Portugal News that areas most likely to experience change would be to grant accused more information concerning investigations, while penalties for committing the crime of violating the secret of justice could be drastically reduced.


‘‘On this, Madeleine's birthday, please keep looking, please keep praying, please help bring Madeleine home"

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1394845.0.on_t his_madeleines_birthday_please_keep_looking_please_keep_praying_please _help_bring_madeleine_home.php

By Torcuil Crichton
in Praia da Luz, Portugal

GERRY MCCANN'S voicewas strong last night as he spoke publicly of the "tidal wave" of devastation wreaked by the abduction of his daughter Madeleine. At a special Mass he assuredworshippersinthe Igreja da Senhorra da Luz that he and his wife Kate remained positive and were looking forward to the day their daughter Madeleine would be returned alive.

"We have spoken to other people and told them of our hope that joyous day comes soon," he said. "There was a vigil in Liverpool on Thursday and last night here in Praia da Luz, they gave us strength, they prayed for Madeleine and took our strength and made things happen. They made Madeleine's disappearance more public and showed we are doing everything we can to get her back."

It was clear that the couple had drawn comfort from Friday night's vigil when women came into the 16th century seaside church in the heart of the old village bearing olive branches and ferns, green being the symbol of hope, of life and good fortune in Portugal. At the end of the service the 300 worshippers applauded Gerry and Kate McCann as they left the church and they sang, in Portuguese and broken English, to demonstrate their compassion for the distraught couple.

advertisementRecalling the service, Gerry McCann added: "After last night's vigil our spirits were lifted, we walked out of the church thinking we will see Madeleine soon and we will get her back safe."

Last night the theme of the vigil was, as it had been at every service for a week, hope and prayer. It was a determined show of support in what is becoming, witheachpassingday,ahopelesssituation.But prayer and hope is what the parents of Madeleine McCann cling too.

Yesterday was Madeleine's fourth birthday and across Britain and the southern Mediterranean coast people tied yellow ribbons to celebrate and commemorate the little blonde girl who this morning will have been missing from the Algarve holiday resort of Praia da Luz for 10 days.

For her parents, each hour of their lives, not just each day, will be an anniversary of anguish. They will be haunted forever by their decision to leave their three children alone in their holiday apartment because they did not want a stranger to babysit. They will be wracked by the pain of not knowing where their beloved child has been taken.

Trapped in a resort that has become her torture garden, the gaunt, dwindling frame of Kate McCann appears to be nearing physical collapse as the strain of losing her daughter becomes too much to bear. She has comforted herself with Madeleine's favourite soft toy and drawn succour by attending church services among the distinctly British colony in Praia da Luz. But when she comes before the media, pain radiates from her stone-set features.

Since his child was snatched from her bed 10 days ago, Gerry McCann has remained,accordingtohisfamily, positive.OnFridaythe38-year-old cardiologist from Glasgow looked ashen but hisvoiceremainedstrongashe renewed his trust in the Portuguese police and their ability to solve the crime and find his daughter.

Yesterday the couple marked their daughter'sbirthdayawayfromthe cameras, only issuing a brief statement to the media, asking: "Please keep looking,pleasekeeppraying,pleasebring Madeleine home."

In Britain, Chancellor Gordon Brown and SNP leader Alex Salmond also issued pleas for her safe return while footballers wore yellow ribbons during matches to stet their support, and extra reward money poured in from entrepreneurs including Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green, taking the total for information leading to Madeleine's return to close on £3 million.

Last night, Madeleine's aunt and uncle, Diane and John McCann from Glasgow, issued an appeal poster highlighting her distinctive right eye where the pupil runs into the blue-green iris.

Meanwhile, members of a Portuguese motorcycle club plan to travel from the north to the south of the country to comb it for evidence of Madeleine.

Most parents will look upon the McCann's horrendous circumstances, recall occasions they have left children unattended, and whisper "that there but for the grace of God".

Among the large British expat community on the Algarve, the McCanns are blameless victims of a despicable crime. No-one in Praia da Luz has put the McCanns under judgement, but local Portuguese are genuinely mystified why parents would choose to leave three children, Madeleine and her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, alone in a room while they dined elsewhere.

PedroSoles,whosewaiterstake delight in entertaining the children of diners in his restaurant, is used to seeing British holidaymakers leaving their children at home in the evenings. "As a father myself I would never leave a child alone," said Soles. "I do not understand whytheydidthis,theyareagood couple, both doctors."

If faith is the theme that can unite communities in Portugal and Glasgow, where 800 prayed for the girl on Friday night,thenSoles'scommentsare indicative of the deep cultural fractures runningthroughthe case.

If the Portuguese are surprised by British habits, they have also become very defensive over accusations in the British media that their police have bungled the investigation, losing the vital "golden hours" after the child disappeared by failing to seal the crime scene or close the borders with Spain and the rest of Europe. Added to that is thefirmlyheldbeliefamongstthe PortuguesepressthatMadeleine's abduction is the work of a British paedophile ring working the Algarve .

Reports of CCTV footage showing a blonde woman and two men with a distressed little girl in a British registered car at a petrol station near Praia da Luz on the night that Madeleine went missing have reinforced this suspicion. The garage is the first stop on the A22 motorway that cuts across the Algarve to neighbouring Spain.

The CCTV images are being linked to eyewitness reports of a man and a woman taking photos of young children at a beach not far from Luz in the days before Madeleine was abducted.

OnApril30,threedaysbefore Madeleine went missing, a Portuguese holidaymaker, Numo Lourenco, chased a man he had spotted taking photos of his four-year-old daughter at a beach near Sagres. Lourenco took an obscured mobile phone photo of the man who fled in a car driven by a woman.

The McCann family were on the beach, some 20 miles west of their resort, on the same day - an eerie coincidence that indicates to Portuguese police that this was the co-ordinated kidnapping of a preselected child.

Thepossibleinvolvementofa woman in the abduction gives a chilling twist to the case. The Portuguese are already shocked that British liaison police arrived in Portugal with a list of over 130 registered British sex offenders known to have holidayed in Portugal in the last month. Unlike Britain there is no register of sexual offenders in Portugal and this is not a surveillance society with CCTV cameras on every corner.

Despite being enmeshed in its own paedophile scandal at the state-run Casa Pia orphanages, where senior members of the country's establishment are alleged to have been involved in organised sexual abuse, the Portuguese are convinced that the monster comes from outwith their borders.

THROUGH the prism of hindsight and the camera lens, it is easy to ask what the couple were doing leaving three sleeping infants in an apartment while they dined at a poolside bar. In the short time they were at the resort the McCanns and their friends, three other couples who are doctors, established a routine of tucking in their children before taking the stroll down the street, through the doorway of the Ocean Club resort and across the poolside to tables at the tapas bar.

Now, in an atmosphere of paranoia, it is also easy to surmise that while they had no direct view of their apartment their daily habits could have been monitored by someone in the same block or by an observer looking over the wall that separates the leisure complex from the accommodation at the resort.

Even from the reception door of the complex to the gate of the McCann's corner apartment now seems like 30 steps too far. But before May 3, Praia da Luz could not have been regarded as anything but a place of safety.

Thewhitewashedmodernapartments and villas that have swallowed up the old fishing village of Luz are home to many semi-retired Britons and thousands of young families who come for short breaks. The language on the streets is English, the pace of living under the hot sun is slow and secure, people stop to chat to neighbours they recognise, although this week there is only one topic of conversation.

Once there was a Roman bath house and a fish curing factory next to the beach at Luz and in living memory there was a fishing industry. Now there are more pedalos than octopus boats on the glittering Mediterranean Sea.

Since the early 1990s a fierce property building boom has spread a rash of planning blight across what was a barren and wild coastline of southern Portugal.

In mediaeval days, when Henry the Navigator stationed himself on Cape St Vincent to plot the uncharted oceans, this was the least known place in the Mediterranean world. Now 70,000 Britons have found a new life in the sun here.

Further west along the coast are the Germancolonies,whereGeorge Galloway has his holiday villa, and to the east are the Dutch, but Luz has been claimed by the British as their own. The resultisasurrealfacsimileofan England that never existed. The town is an air-conditioned version of Torquay.

Butinthelastweekhorrorhas descended on holidayland. Now mothers, coming and going from the local supermarket and walking the beach promenade, are paranoid and fearful for their children, waiting for news of which there is little.

Constrained by the triple-duplicate bureaucracy bequeathed to the country by years of dictatorship, the police believethattheyarepushingthe boundaries of the law in giving what little information they have.

As a result, the British media, usually a well-fed instrument of law enforcement in a domestic case of a missing child or a murder hunt, are left frustrated and empty handed. At his chaotic press conferences, now abandoned after he declared that the physical search for Madeleine has been called off, the man in charge of the investigation, chief inspector Olegario Sousa, has looked hounded and exposed in front of a bank of microphones. The lack of solid information has not prevented new theories ontheabductionemerginginthe Portuguese press on a daily basis.

Police are already working on the strong possibility that a vehicle was involvedintheabductionandyesterday there were several reports that a man had been seen hanging around the resort apartments in a small white vanonthedayMadeleinewentmissing.

Police have produced an e-fit of the suspicious man and at the same time there are reports of a North American resident of the town who has been missingsincethedayMadeleine disappeared. The man, in his 30s, owns a white van and is reported to have recently lost a custody case involving his four-year-old-son.

It is just another lead, typical of the many thrown up in a criminal inquiry of this scale, but without a break the media interest and public, however compassionate, will turn elsewhere.

With no arrests, and the physical search called off, there are already signs that Praia da Luz is getting on with its life. The whitewashing of the apartments goes on.

With no arrests, soon the McCanns will be left with only hope, and their faith and family to give them a direction home.

Yesterday they pleaded for people to redouble their efforts to find Madeleine on her birthday, sensing that without fresh leads the media attention will soon fade.

[Cruise4]

The media are reporting over 50 million have have looked at the Madeline
Portugal story. Its got to be a lead in to chipping kids, and I bet they all think its a great idea.

[mason-free party]

Madeleine had a very unusual iris/pupil...hope this wasn't a planned psyop to get us to have our kids eyes scanned...makes you wonder?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23396128-details/Madeleine: +priest+flies+out+to+comfort+parents/text/article.do

This photo clearly shows her
distinctive right eye, where
the pupil runs into the
blue-green iris.

[TonyGosling]

Nice one Cruise 4 - you got it!
THESE PEOPLE MAKE THE NAZIS LOOK LIKE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS

[kookomula]

Conspiracy of Silence, a documentary listed for viewing in TV Guide Magazine was to be aired on the Discovery Channel, on May 3 1994. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies. Many children suffered the indignity of wearing nothing but their underwear and a number displayed on a piece of cardboard hanging from their necks when being auctioned off to foreigners in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Toronto, Canada. At the last minute before airing, unknown congressmen threatened the TV Cable industry with restrictive legislation if this documentary was aired. Almost immediately, the rights to the documentary were purchased by unknown persons who ordered all copies destroyed.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7725966698433381712&q=Conspir acy+Of+SIlence&hl=en

[Pincher]

[paul wright]

[Emmanuel]

Its totally rediculous. I saw a newspaper headline about a minute silence to be respected. There are thousands of people going missing every year.
I think there is sommthing totaly sinister about it all. Also the place of capture was Praiea de Luz ( Beach of Light)
Illuminati signature or what...

[Mark Gobell]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1913175.ece

From The Times
June 11, 2007

Madeleine officer charged over another missing girl

David Brown in Tangier

The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was in chaos last night after the detective coordinating the hunt for her abductor was charged with criminal offences over another notorious missing child case.

Goncalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers were charged over the weekend with offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano from a village seven miles from where Madeleine was abducted.

The nine-year-old girl has not been seen since her disappearance three years ago but her mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering Joana because she caught them having an incestuous relationship. Joana’s mother, Leonor, has alleged that she was beaten into a confession during a police interrogation that took place without her lawyer or the knowledge of the public prosecutor.

Portugal’s Ministerio Publico, the district attorney, confirmed last night that it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents. It did not reveal who had been charged with which offence.

When an unspeakably awful thing happens, compassion is more appropriate than judging

Despite the charges, Mr Amaral, the co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, has not been suspended from working on the Madeleine investigation, which started 39 days ago.

Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were informed of the charges by a Foreign Office representative yesterday. A spokesman for the family said: “They do not remember meeting Goncalo Amaral face to face but naturally they were concerned to hear of the charges.”

Police sources said that Mr Amaral was “very angry” about the allegations and was considering taking action against the Ministerio Publico. “He is very professional and has had a lot of success in solving cases,” the source said. “He is very upset because reporters never speak of these successes.”

In echoes of the Madeleine case, the investigation into Joana’s disappearance got off to a false start when the Republican National Guard failed to seal off the house where Joana was last seen. Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have also expressed frustration at delays in the early stages of the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

Last night it emerged that a witness who claims to have seen Madeleine days after she disappeared had still not been properly interviewed by police even though detectives had assured Mr and Mrs McCann that they had fully investigated the sighting.

Mari Olli says that she saw the girl at a petrol station on the outskirts of Marrakesh in Morocco on July 9. Despite contacting Portuguese, Spanish and British police, she has still not been formally interviewed and no statement has been taken. Portuguese police admitted last week that they were still waiting for footage from the CCTV camera at the petrol station.

A McCann family source said: “We had got the impression that they had sat down with her and gone through her statement in detail, which is not the case. The Portuguese police have complained about the lack of cooperation from the Moroccan authorities. None of it fills you with confidence.”

Madeleine’s family reacted with disbelief to the claims against Mr Amaral. The missing girl’s aunt Philomena said: “Just about every country in the world is watching this. What do you think the [Portuguese] government would do? Would they have some kind of rogue policeman there? I doubt it. I find it highly unlikely. No way would they have him on such a high-profile case.”

=============================================

Joana Cipriano disappeared on 12.9.4 from the nearby village of Figueira.

[rodin]

Nothing to add to this except to say this thread is very on the ball

[Mark Gobell]

Dutch paper tipped off about Madeleine McCann by Sebastiaan Gottlieb

13-06-2007

Leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has received an anonymous letter containing clues regarding the whereabouts of the missing British girl Madeleine McCann. Police are taking the letter very seriously, because it was apparently written by the same person who last year sent a letter providing the exact location of the two murdered Belgian girls Stacey and Nathalie.

Missing since 3 May 2007

The recent letter says Madeleine can be found in Portugal, not far from the hotel room she was abducted from on 3 May this year. It says that she lies buried "north of the road under branches and rocks, around six to seven metres off the road" in a barren and deserted hilly landscape.

Crosses on a map that came with the letter show the location of her body. De Telegraaf has handed the letter over to Dutch police who will hand it over to detectives in Portugal.

A spokesperson for the McCann family is eager to show the letter to Madeleine's parents. The couple was in the Netherlands only last week to ask for the assistance of holidaymakers who may have seen Madeleine's abductor near Praia de Luz.

The McCann family has enjoyed broad public support following the abduction of their four-year old girl. A British businessman has offered a reward of 1.5 million euros for the golden tip on Madeleine. The famous football players David Beckham and Cristianao Ronaldo have appeared on television to appeal for her release.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/mcC070613nws

[Mark Gobell]

Madeleine McCann went missing exactly 1 month and the 19th day preceeding the Summer Solstice.

[TonyGosling]

...journalist Felícia Cabrita, who first wrote about incidences of child abuse at Casa Pia, the largest state-run orphanage in Portugal, gave a stirring lecture showing confidential government reports about the case.

Child abuse debate: Portugal under fire
http://www.jornalregional.com/?p=cfcd208495d565ef66e7dff9f98764da&dist rito=&concelho=&op=noticia&n=044079eef054777f7133e831176e7df7
ALBUFEIRA CÂMARA organised a two-day conference on ill-treatment and abuse of children in Portugal, on May 29 and 30. More than 500 people, many of whom were investigators and specialists in that particular field, attended the event held at the Espaço Multiusos.

Paedophilia

Esteemed journalist Felícia Cabrita, who first wrote about incidences of child abuse at Casa Pia, the largest state-run orphanage in Portugal, gave a stirring lecture showing confidential government reports about the case. Members of the GNR in the audience became enthusiastically involved in a debate about the relationship between the media and the police. Felícia Cabrita said the police do not tend to want to work alongside the media. She said it was necessary for the media and the authorities to work more closely and to develop a symbiotic relationship. The following day, presentations kept the mainly feminine audience interested, with three institutions sharing their experience in the field....

Rape

Child psychologist, Eduardo Sá, said: “Portugal still isn’t a child friendly country” and expressed his shock at a recent Supreme Court decision to uphold a judge’s ruling in a rape case of a 13-year-old boy: “He said it was not as bad as the rape of a fi ve-year-old because, in his opinion, if the boy had an erection, he felt pleasure!” Armando Leandro, a professor at Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, who studies family relations, appealed for a more responsible community to care for children. He urged families to return to a more central role in a child’s development and parents should adapt to deal with the challenges of “modern kids”...

[outsider]

[Mark Gobell]

I am almost speechless at reading these posts.

If ever the public need awakening to the sick, pyschpathic state of mind of our ruling elites, this information is proof positive that we are in deep trouble.

Another child is reported to have been abducted, last night (Weds 20th June) in Redditch, but so far, nobody has reported a child as missing.

http://www.westmercia.police.uk/press/missingboy.htm

It will be interesting to see if the CEOP PR machine will be invoked for this case also.

[gareth]

For what it's worth my nearest Superdrug supermarket now has a 100cm x 40cm double sided poster in the front window asking for information of her whereabouts. It has a number for CrimeStoppers and the signature picture of her face with the split iris. You can't avoid seeing it on the way in and again exiting.

[Mark Gobell]

Casa Pia is Portuguese for Pious House.

[Mark Gobell]

Police 'find blood on walls of Madeleine abduction flat'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_ article_id=473408&in_page_id=1811

Last updated at 17:19pm on 6th August 2007

Traces of Madeleine McCann's blood have been found at the flat where she was last seen, according to reports in a Portuguese newspaper today.

It was also reported that attempts had been made to wipe out any sign of the blood.

The dramatic discovery of forensic evidence comes three months after the four-year-old disappeared as her parents Gerry and Kate McCann dined nearby.

Last week British sniffer dogs were called in to search the apartment in the resort of Praia de Luz.

There is now a growing belief among Portuguese police that Madeleine will not be found alive.

However, in recent weeks, some elements of the Portugese media have been conducting what appears to be a smear campaign against the McCanns, in an apparent attempt to distract attention from the police's failure to crack the case.

As of this morning there had been no official corroboration of the latest find.

The garden of Robert Murat's villa has been combed by police

Police are said to believe the discovery of blood points to Madeleine dying at the flat, possibly in the course of being abducted. The newspaper Jornal De Noticias reported:

"This evidence locates Madeleine's death inside the apartment, but the investigators are still not certain it was murder, despite the fact that forensic experts have revealed that somebody did try to erase the blood traces.

"The theory most favoured by detectives to explain Maddy's death - now taken as almost certain - is that it involved an accident.

"The investigators are convinced that the blood belongs to Madeleine, but they are still holding back the detailed results of the tests until their suspicions are confirmed."

The latest discovery has re-focused the investigation on the McCann's apartment and the group of friends with whom they were holidaying at the time of Maddy's disappearance.

Today forensic experts returned to the room to carry out extensive tests using ultra-violet lights to scan the room for further clues.

The British sniffer dogs are trained to detect tiny blood traces, and can distinguish whether blood come from a living or dead person.

Portuguese police called in the specialist help after admitting they lacked the resources to carry out these searches.

A Portuguese police spokesman said: "These are very highly trained animals - we just do not have anything like this in our country yet."

Police are also investigating the potential link between the Madeleine case and a Swiss child abductor - who committed suicide last week - and who was in the Praia de Luz area when Madeleine went missing.

In the recent flurry of activity, police in the case are also investigating a third man.

Police are said to be keeping the new suspect under surveillance. He is believed to match the description of a man seen carrying a child wrapped in a blanket shortly after Madeleine disappeared .

The development came as a search of official suspect Robert Murat's garden was called off after officers failed to find any fresh evidence.

Up to 12 police officers, including two from Britain, searched inside and outside Mr Murat's Praia da Luz villa on Saturday and yesterday.

Mr Murat, who was in the house at the time with his lawyer, was not arrested.

The new suspect has been identified after police re-examined witness statements. A source close to the Portuguese police investigation said: "Murat is not the only person in the frame.

"Another man has been under surveillance for a period of time but has no idea that he is involved."

Mr Murat's friend and spokesman, Tuck Price, said he hoped there would now be a "quick resolution" so the search could be re-focused on finding Madeleine.

He added that Mr Murat, 33, was "doing fine" and that police had been "polite and professional".

The search began with officers investigating the land surrounding the property, clearing undergrowth and cutting down trees. Yesterday, their search extended inside the property.

He added that Mr Murat had been told that the house search was now complete, but that it was unclear if police needed to carry out other investigations.

Police are also following up a grim new theory that Madeleine was killed inside the apartment and then her body dumped in the sea.

A professor from the University of Algarvem, Joao Alveirinho Dias, is reported to be working with police to work out where tides may have taken her body.

==============================================

Just waiting for some timely news.

3 months and 3 days since Madeleine disappeared.