Madeleine McCann: Amaral’s Diamond, Dead In A Dream And Four Theories
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Maddie ‘died’ in the family apartment; Maddy was lying on a hillside, Kate McCann’s “agony” and Amaral’s wearing a diamond earring…
Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects
Goncalo Amaral says any ban on his book, Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, is against his freedom of speech. The book says Madeleine McCann died in the family apartment. The McCanns says this is not so – she was abducted. She want libel damages.
The news:
Daily Express (front page): “MADDIE ‘DIED’ IN APARTMENT”
Portuguese police chief’s amazing claim to court ion £1m McCann libel case
Claim. Not fact. Do the police deal in claims? Do the courts?
MADELEINE McCann died in her family’s holiday apartment as the result of a tragic accident and her parents concealed her body, a police chief told a court in Portugal yesterday.
So they were made “arguidos”. But the McCanns are no longer arguidos. Because – get this – the above was a theory. No fact.
One officer even claimed that Portuguese police changed their inquiry from a missing person search to a murder investigation after Kate told him she had a nightmare and had seen Madeleine’s body lying on a hillside.
The Sun calls it a “sick claim” delivered in a “courtroom outburst”. Back in the Express:
He said: “The conclusion that was arrived at was that Madeleine McCann died at the apartment and the McCann couple simulated the abduction to hide the fact that they had not taken care of their children.
Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida told the court that he believed the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were directly involved in Madeleine’s disappearance – a theory he said was shared by Portuguese and British officers working on the case.
“There was a tragic accident in the apartment that night and they neglected the care of their children. It was the conclusion of both Portuguese and British police. We have always spoken of a tragic accidental death. There was no homicide.”
Adding:
Asked if he thought Madeleine was dead, Mr de Almeida replied: “Yes. She is dead. It was not only the police who believed this but the public prosecutor. The McCanns did not kill her but they concealed the body.”
(He told the court the main evidence for this was the findings of British police sniffer dogs sent to Portugal to examine the flat. The McCanns’ lawyer, Isabel Duarte, challenged this claim, arguing that the sniffer dog results did not constitute proof and were not allowed as evidence.)
Let’s stick to the facts:
After a tense opening, their spokeswoman confirmed that the couple found listening to the allegations very painful. She said: “I think it is hurting them. They can feel hurt by these things being repeated again and again and again. However, they know what really happened so they are confident. They just want to find their daughter.”
Daily Mirror (front page): “MADDY DREAM MAKE KATE A SUSPECT”
Just weeks after Madeleine McCann vanished, sobbing mum Kate rang the Portuguese detective appointed to look after her to tell of a horrific dream in which she had seen her daughter’s dead body.
Distraught Kate said Madeleine had been lying on a hillside overlooking the beach at Praia da Luz. She begged Inspector Ricardo Paiva to search the spot.
And..?
Astonishingly, rather than inspiring pity at a desperate mother’s plight, the incident sparked only suspicion in the minds of the officers who were supposed to be hunting Madeleine and her abductor.
Is that astonishing? The Star calls it a “Kate’s murder dream.” The Sun is astonished:
KATE McCann had a dream in which she saw the body of missing daughter Madeleine on a hillside above their holiday resort, a court heard yesterday.
And after she told Portuguese cops of the nightmare, they became convinced the little girl had been KILLED rather than abducted.
That might be because Kate McCann “had seen her daughter’s dead body.”
The McCanns’ Portuguese police liaison officer Inspector Ricardo Paiva is on the stand:
But the detective admitted the police had been suspicious of the McCanns from the start – simply because they had tried to give the stalled hunt for Madeleine some much-needed momentum.
So it wasn’t the dream that make Kate McCann a person of interest to the Portuguese police – it was the fact that she was the moth of the missing child.
He added: “They disobeyed our request to keep quiet about the details of their daughter’s disappearance while we conducted our investigation. Instead, they turned it into a media circus.”
They didn’t do that alone – someone who worked on the case actually wrote a book.
Let’s stick to the facts:
Kate regularly shook her head in frustration. Gerry remained grim-faced.
Kate. Gerry. Not Mr and Mrs McCann. We are not looking at a trial in a foreign country – a trial that investigates whether freedom of speech has its limits. We are just watching the parents of the missing girl.
The Sun (front page): Maddie is dead and you hid her
Antonella Lazzeri delivers “His smiles, their pain”, telling readers that Kate McCann is
“Stroking a photo of Maddie tied to her handbag, Kate McCann”. She looks “tearfully down to the floor, horror-stricken… she flinched when the cop said of Madeleine in a loud and stark voice ‘She is dead’
Goncalo Amaral “smiled”.., “he diamond in his left ear glittering in the courtroom’s lights.”
Daily Star (front page): “Madeleine died inside apartment’”
Kate inched closer to her husband in the public gallery of the Palace of Justice in Lisbon as the officer gave his verdict.
A verdict? It was a claim not long ago.
District Attorney Jose Menezes, who handled the case, said there had been no evidence to charge the McCanns with any crime.
But he believed they neglected their children, and lied about how often they checked on them during a meal with pals at a tapas bar the night Madeleine disappeared. He said four possibilities of what happened to the youngster remain – kidnap, child-trafficking, homicide or her body was hidden after an accidental death.
Now we’re getting somrwhere. Only four theories.
Meanwhile in court:
Mrs McCann wearing a dark coloured floral dress sat impassively in the front row of the court room beside her husband. The pair held hands and exchanged occasional whispers and nods as they were passed notes by interpreters informing them of court proceedings, which were carried out in Portuguese.
Mr Amaral, dressed in a dark suit and purple tie, was seated at the bench beside his legal team, fifteen feet away from the couple. He spent much of the proceedings with his eyes closed avoiding the direct gaze of the McCanns.
More fact sin the Mail, where Kate’s “agony” is headline news. And we learn that, “Mr and Mrs McCann [are] both doctors”.
A child is missing. One fact.
Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects
Posted: 13th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann Comments (30) | TrackBack | Permalink
