10 years ago, the
disappearance of Maddie MC
in "l'Heure du
Crime" - Jacques Pradel's radio RTL program – 27.04.2017
This summary focuses on
the participants' statements and leaves out archival materials that
do not provide anything new (broadcast in collaboration with "Le
Parisien").
Jacques Pradel introduces
his guests:
- Timothée Boutry, a "Le
Parisien" journalist who has been following the case for a long
time (he was twice in Praia da Luz) and
- Georges Moréas,
Honorary Commissioner, former Head of the OCRB (Office central de
lutte contre le crime organisé, a sort of French equivalent of SOCA,
Serious Organised Crime Agency), currently a lawyer at the Paris Bar,
novelist, scriptwriter and author of columns about the Maddie McCann
case on his blog POLICEtcetera.
http://moreas.blog.lemonde.fr/
-Anne Guedes, Professor
of French in the Lisbon University Luis de Camoes, who devoted a lot
of time to this particular case. All that is related to it is
exhaustively recorded in her blog, Madeleine etc.
https://madmyst.blogspot.fr/
JP says he will aks AG
why she is so interested in this case, apart from the fact that it
happened in Portugal where she lives.
TB brings to mind a short
retrospective of the Scotland Yard review of the case, decided by
David Cameron in 2011. He talks of a recent SY release (note: Martin
Brunt's interview with the assistant commissioner Mark Rowley on
April 25) alluding to a critic lead among others but remaining
blurred, as always since the beginning of Operation Grange.
JP points out that SY
never questioned the McCann family.
GM, who read the alluded
interview, finds it amazing that the commissioner seems very
embarrassed and does not actually answer the journalist who has to
repeat questions several times. He reckons that SY definitively ruled
out the thesis of an accident, of a sedative overdose ... an
hypothesis also plausible. In France, there are similar cases of
children who are reported "abducted" by their parents
whereas they died accidentally. He refers to the alleged "kidnapping"
in 2008 of little Antoine Brugerolle (note : he has never been found)
whose mother has recently been arrested with her partner because
according to the latter's fellow prisoner the child died of an
accidental ingestion of drug when he was alone at home.
In England, the police
adopted a political position, it was considered at once that the
parents were victims and that the Portuguese police had not done the
job.
JP recalls that Gonçalo
Amaral's book sums up his thesis and that he finally and definitively
won at the High Court the lawsuit against him, hence will not have to
pay the half million euros to the McCanns.
GM emphasises that the
High Court judges’ ruling reminds that the parents had not been
cleared (by the filing order of July 2008), even if there was not
enough evidence to charge them. The case was dismissed and the
McCanns came out neither guilty nor innocent.
TB speaks about the
layout of the premises in PDL. The apartment was accessible from the
outside, on the ground floor.
JP : The room was on the
ground floor which would have allowed to go in through the window,
but there was no evidence of breaking and entering and it seems that
the mother said she had closed the shutters ... another unanswered
question.
TB : According to him,
the parents, in the restaurant, were not far away, visual contact was
possible from the restaurant ... the parents were criticized for
leaving the children alone .. but people are free to have their own
opinion. He talks about the Algarve.
JP, after having
highlighted that Robert Murat (note : the first formal suspect) had
been cleared, speaks of the concrete elements of suspicion against
the parents, in particular the "cadaver" dog and the
"blood" dog.
GM talks about the alerts
of the dogs in the McCann apartment and the car, mentions swabs
collected in the car related with Madeleine's DNA. He recalls that
the samples were sent to the UK (note : FFS of Birmingham) , the
results were said to be inconclusive as (components of more than two
contributors) were mixed. Then strangely the samples disappeared and
the counter-expertise was impossible.
JP : There were 15
markers matching MMC's DNA profile, it is at least disturbing (note :
it means that 15/19 components of MMC’s DNA profile were also in
the reference sample) .
GM : In France 15 markers
would have sufficed for a parents' indictment.
TB : The McCanns put
forward the thesis of the kidnapping which imposed itself in U.K,
they overplayed it, even if they are probably innocent. SY might have
evidence, may be we'll know it some day.
GM : At first the
apartment was not considered as a crime scene, there was no test made
to begin with. It is a pity but it also happens sometimes in France
because the first concern is to find the child.
TB reports that Gonçalo
Amaral told him he regretted that the crime scene was not preserved
(the police was called only at 22h41) and moreover not to have being
able to make a re-enactment that would have allowed to assess the
parents' (statements') inconsistencies.
JP asks GM's opinion
about the updated e-fits of missing children.
GM says that it can be
eventually useful for adults but that e-fits have never proved to
help in the case off missing children.
JP asks GM what, as a
policeman, has disconcerted him in this case.
GM : The behaviour of the
parents was disturbing. They opposed the re-enactment demanded by
Amaral and erased all the sms of their cell phones which is rather
typical of criminals attempting to escape the police and not the
first reaction of parents who are searching for their three-year-old
child. This suggests that they wanted to hide something about the
recipients of their calls. The police could not go further because
the McCanns refused to answer the questions as soon as they became
relevant and as they refused to take part in the re-enactment (note :
actually being arguidos they couldn't refuse, but their friends and
acquaintances could and that was enough) , their contradictions could
not be examined.
JP : If it had happened
in France, what would have outcome ?
GM : With the evidence
gathered by the police, the parents would have been taken into
custody, a judge would have ordered the re-enactment and they could
not have countered it. But in Portugal, the system of justice
protects more individual freedoms.
JP is now on the phone
with Anne Guedes :" Why did you get so passionate about this
case that of course takes place in Portugal, but you have been doing
an incredible job that one can see on your blog " Madeleine
etc." and for a long time ?"
AG says the media circus
could not be ignored and she had a neutral position, living in
Lisbon, neither Portuguese nor British but at ease in these two
languages. Besides she was gobsmacked by the way the tabloids treated
the Portuguese police and the Portuguese people, even going so far as
to ask the ambassador of Portugal in England to "just keep his
stupid sardine-munching mouth shut".
There was a lot of
contempt and also misunderstanding right from the start. This is
clearly highlighted in the recent interview with the commissioner
Mark Rowley. Scotland Yard's primary mission was to review the case,
and a review must start from the very beginning and question the main
protagonists, here the parents and their friends or acquaintances.
This was not done because the British assumed that the Portuguese had
cleared the parents. In fact they probably only read the last page of
the Public Ministry filing order of July 2008 which says that the
McCann's status as arguidos (formal suspects) are lifted.. (note: it
was wrongly taken for granted that it was a certificate of innocence)
.
JP asks AG if she
believes like Amaral that the abduction covered up an accident.
AG refers to her blog
about her opinion on that matter. She thinks that "this little
girl no longer exists". There is no indication of kidnapping, it
seems unlikely where it (the disappearance) occurred, the parents did
not answer the questions asked by the police (note : the mother, not
the father), refused a re-enactment, a behaviour that didn't make
sense, even for some tabloids' editors.
JP (question from
listeners) : Concealing the body was difficult since they did not
know the area.
AG firmly disagrees but
does not want to exhibit her thought on the phone, on the air. She
thinks the McCanns made a terrible and wrong decision and soon could
not go backwards anymore. Asked, she says she thinks the friends were
not aware of what happened, she does not believe there was any
complicity.
JP asks whether it was
"behind closed doors" and AG answers yes, that's what she
thinks it was.
AG : The McCanns made a
bad choice and it would have stopped there, had they not told
incredible tales like for instance the abduction through the open
window without trace of break-in, etc.
JP : Do you think that
the body of the child will be found one day ?
AG : The answer is no. I
think that Madeleine has stopped existing materially for a very long
time.
As JP encourages everyone
to go and have a look at her blog, AG points out that this blog
mainly establishes facts so that people, after reading, will be able
to make their own opinion. There were many fake news in this story.
And so it ended.
