Disappearance of Madeleine McCann: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:29, 14 October 2013

Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Left, Madeleine, in 2007 aged three, and right, how she may have looked in 2012 aged nine (see here for the full-size age-progressed image)[1]
Name	Madeleine Beth McCann
Born	(2003-05-12) 12 May 2003 (age 13) Leicester, England[2]
Parents	Kate and Gerry McCann
Date of disappearance	3 May 2007 (aged 3)
Place of disappearance	5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, Praia da Luz, Portugal
Coordinates	37°05′19″N 8°43′51″W / 37.0886565°N 8.7308398°W / 37.0886565; -8.7308398Coordinates: 37°05′19″N 8°43′51″W / 37.0886565°N 8.7308398°W / 37.0886565; -8.7308398
Distinguishing features	Straight blonde hair; blue-green eyes; right eye has a distinctive spot on the iris; small brown mark on the calf of the left leg[2]
Investigating forces	Polícia Judiciária Leicestershire police London Metropolitan Police/Scotland Yard
British case review	Operation Grange[3]
Reward	£2.5m ($3.8m)[4]
Campaign and contact details	Findmadeleine.com Crimestoppers UK 0800 555 111[5] Operation Grange (Scotland Yard).

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann occurred on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007, in Praia da Luz, a resort in the Algarve region of Portugal.^[2] Madeleine, from the UK, was on holiday there with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, her twin siblings, and a group of seven family friends and their five children, when she went missing from her parents' holiday apartment nine days before her fourth birthday.^[6]

Madeleine and her siblings had been left at 20:30 in a bedroom in the ground-floor apartment, while her parents ate with their travelling companions in the resort's tapas restaurant 50 metres (54 yards) away.^[7] The parents or friends checked on the children throughout the evening; Madeleine's mother discovered she was missing at 22:00. The Portuguese police at first assumed she had wandered off or had been abducted, but after misinterpreting a DNA analysis conducted by British forensic scientists they came to believe she had died in the apartment, which placed a cloud of suspicion over her parents.^[8] The McCanns were named as suspects (arguidos) in September that year, but were cleared in July 2008, along with a local resident also named as a suspect, when Portugal's attorney-general closed the case.^[9]

Over the years unconfirmed sightings of Madeleine were reported around the world. The McCanns continued the investigation using private detectives, and in May 2011 Scotland Yard launched a case review, called Operation Grange, at the request of the British Home Secretary. The officer in charge said in July 2013 that the team was collaborating with Portuguese police, had drawn up a list of 38 persons of interest, including 12 British nationals, and believed Madeleine may still be alive.^[5]

The disappearance generated sustained international attention from traditional and social media.^[10] Because named as suspects, the McCanns were subjected to intense scrutiny, particularly by the British tabloids, and false allegations of involvement in their daughter's death.^[11] They and their seven friends were awarded substantial damages against the Express Group in 2008, which they donated to the Find Madeleine Fund, and front-page apologies from the Daily Express, Daily Star and their Sunday sister papers.^[12] The local resident named as a suspect and two others were also awarded damages.^[13] The McCanns testified in November 2011 before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in the UK.^[14] The case was described as a wake-up call for journalism in Britain.^[15]

Family and friends

Madeleine McCann

Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003, in Leicester, England) lived with her parents and younger twin siblings, brother Sean and sister Amelie, in Rothley, Leicestershire.^[2] She has straight blonde hair, blue-green eyes, and a small brown mark on the calf of her left leg. Her right eye has a distinctive mark, known as a coloboma, on the iris: the pupil runs into the iris in the form of a dark strip from the pupil to the edge of the white.^[16] Several age-progressed images were released in 2009 of how she might have looked at age six, and Scotland Yard released another in 2012 at age nine.^[17] The McCanns applied to have her made a ward of court in 2007 so that the court's statutory powers can be used on her behalf.^[18]

Kate and Gerry McCann

Kate Marie McCann (née Healy; born 1968 in Allerton, Liverpool) is a general practitioner (GP). Before the disappearance she worked as a part-time GP in Melton Mowbray. Kate studied medicine at the University of Dundee, qualifying in 1992, and specialised in gynaecology before moving into general practice.^[19] Gerald Patrick McCann (born 1968 in Glasgow) is a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He attended Holyrood Secondary School and studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, qualifying in 1992 and obtaining his MD in 2002.^[20] The couple met in 1993 when Gerry was working at Glasgow's Western Infirmary, and were married in 1998. Both are practising Roman Catholics.^[21]

Tapas Seven

The McCanns were on holiday with a group of friends from the UK and eight children in all, including the McCanns' three.^[22] The group consisted of Dr Russell O'Brien, a physician, and his partner Jane Tanner, a marketing manager; spouses Rachael Oldfield, a lawyer, and Dr Matthew Oldfield, a physician; and spouses Drs David and Fiona Payne, both physicians, as well as the latter's mother Dianne Webster. O'Brien, Matthew Oldfield and the Paynes had studied medicine together at the University of Leicester.^[23] The nine adults met up at 20:30 every evening during the holiday in the resort's tapas restaurant, including on the evening of the disappearance, as a result of which the friends came to be known in the press as the Tapas Seven.^[23]

Disappearance

5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva

Ocean Club resort, Praia da Luz

The apartment the McCanns were staying in, 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, was on the ground floor of the fifth block of Waterside Village Gardens, part of the Ocean Club resort run by the holiday company Mark Warner Ltd.^[24]

In the days leading up to the 3 May disappearance, there had been several sightings of men behaving oddly near apartment 5A. One girl, whose grandparents used to own 5A, told police after the disappearance that on Monday, 30 April, she had seen a man – described as Caucasian, mid-30s, wearing a black leather jacket and sunglasses, and "ugly" with spots – leaning with his palms against the wall near the apartment. She said she had seen him again on 2 May near the car park by the resort's pool and tapas restaurant, apparently watching 5A.^[25]

A second witness saw a man on 29 April hanging round not far from the block of apartments, and saw him again on 2 May across the road from 5A. She remembered him because his appearance made her uneasy: she described him as "ugly," with pitted skin and a large nose.^[25]

That day or the next, a third witness saw a man standing by a wall near the car park next to the swimming pool and tapas restaurant. She said he was staring at the McCanns' apartment block, where a white van was parked. On 3 May a fourth witness saw a man walk through one of the access gates leading away from the 5A block of apartments; she said she noticed him because he seemed to be trying to close the gate quietly, with both hands, and was looking around him as he walked away.^[25]

Thursday 3 May 2007

Efit images of a suspect released by Scotland Yard on 13 October 2013. Both images are believed to be of the same man, who was seen in the area at the time and who has not stepped forward despite appeals.^[26]

Thursday 3 May was the sixth day of the family's week-long holiday. The children spent the morning in the Kid's Club while the parents went for a walk, then the family lunched together at their apartment before heading to the pool.^[27] The last known photograph of Madeleine was taken by the pool at 14:29 that day, sitting next to her father and two-year-old sister.^[28] The children went back to Kid's Club and at 18:00 Kate returned with them to the apartment, while Gerry went for a tennis lesson.^[27]

The McCanns put the children to bed around 19:00. All three were sleeping in a bedroom overlooking the car park and garden area, near the back door of the apartment and the street, the opposite side of the apartment from the swimming pool.^[29] The twins slept in travel cots and Madeleine in a single bed, with her princess blanket and a pink soft toy, Cuddle Cat, next to her. She was wearing a pair of short-sleeved, pink-and-white Marks and Spencer's Eeyore pyjamas.^[30] There was one, shuttered, window on the opposite side of the room from Madeleine's bed, looking onto the car park.^[27]

The parents left the apartment at 20:30 to dine with their friends at the resort's open-air tapas restaurant, which was a 50-metre (160 ft) walk to the other side of the pool from their apartment; according to Kate, from the apartment to the restaurant was a walk of 30–45 seconds.^[31] They left the apartment's sliding patio doors closed, but not locked; the doors faced the swimming pool, but also led to a small set of stairs and a gate, which in turn led to a public road on the other (non-resort) side of the apartment.^[32]

The staff at the tapas restaurant had left a note in a staff message book asking that the same table – which overlooked the apartments – be block-booked for 20:30 every evening for the group the McCanns were travelling with. The message said the children were asleep in the apartments; Kate has wondered whether the abductor saw this note in the staff book, which was left at the swimming-pool reception area.^[33] The McCanns and their friends left the table throughout the evening to check on their children. At around 21:05 Gerry entered 5A to carry out the first check. All was well, except that he recalled having left the bedroom door only slightly ajar and now it stood almost wide open; he said he pulled it back to a five-degree position before returning to the restaurant.^[34] The McCanns believe the movement of the door may mean that the abductor had been in the apartment.^[35]

Possible sighting of the abductor

Artist's impression of the man seen by Jane Tanner, commissioned and released by the Find Madeleine Fund in October 2007

Another member of the group, Jane Tanner, left the restaurant to check on her own daughter. She passed Gerry on Rua Dr Gentil Martins – on his way back to the tapas restaurant from his 21:05 check. He stood chatting to Jeremy Wilkins, a television producer he had met at the resort. Neither man noticed Tanner as she walked past them.^[36]

At around 21:15 she noticed a man cross the road in front of her, walking quickly along Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, the road the McCanns' apartment was on, heading out of the resort.^[36] She said he was carrying a child who was wearing white or light-coloured pink pyjamas with a floral pattern, and cuffs or turn-ups on the pyjama bottoms; the child, whose feet were bare, was lying horizontally and limply in the man's arms. Tanner assumed the child was a girl because of the style of the pyjamas.^[37]

She described the man as white, dark-haired, of southern European or Mediterranean appearance, 35–40 years old, wearing gold or beige trousers and a dark jacket, and said he did not look like a tourist.^[37] His height was given as 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).^[38] Kate McCann believes this was the abductor carrying Madeleine. According to Kate, Tanner passed the information to the police as soon as Madeleine was reported missing, but the description was not given to the media until 25 May.^[37]

Fifty minutes later, at around 22:00, an Irish family saw a man on Rua da Escola Primária carrying a young girl and walking in the direction of Rua 25 de Abril. They described the girl as four years old, wearing light-coloured pyjamas, with blonde hair and pale skin. They said the man was mid-30s, 1.75–1.8 m in height, with a slim-to-normal build, short brown hair, wearing cream or beige trousers. They said the man did not look like a tourist – a point Jane Tanner had also made – and that he had not looked comfortable carrying the child. The family later said the man could have been Gerry McCann, but this was ruled out by investigators, as several witnesses placed Gerry in the tapas restaurant at that time.^[39]

Madeleine reported missing

Map showing Portugal and Galicia in green

Kate had intended to check on the children at 21:30, but Matthew Oldfield offered to do so when he checked on his own children. He entered the McCanns' apartment, and later said he noticed the children's bedroom was open, but after hearing no noise from the room he left without seeing Madeleine. He was also not able to recall whether the window was open at that point. Early on in the investigation the police accused him of being involved because he had offered to do the check instead of Kate.^[27]

When Kate went to check at around 22:00, she entered through the patio doors at the back, and noticed the bedroom door was open wider than they normally left it. When she went to close it, it slammed shut, suggesting a window was open. She opened the door and saw that the bedroom window and its outside shutters were open; they learned later that the window could be opened from outside. Madeleine's Cuddle Cat and princess blanket were still on the bed, but Madeleine was missing. After briefly searching the apartment Kate ran back toward the restaurant, screaming "Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her!"^[40]

As soon as Jane Tanner learned Madeleine was missing, she told Matthew Oldfield's wife that she may have witnessed the abduction.^[27] At around 22:10 Gerry sent Matthew to alert the resort's 24-hour reception desk and to call the police, and at 22:30 the resort activated its missing child search protocol.^[41] The resort's manager said that 60 staff and guests continued searching until 04:30, at first assuming that Madeleine had wandered off. One of those involved told Channel 4's Dispatches that from one end of Luz to the other, you could hear people shouting her name.^[42]

The police said that officers arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted, and an investigation unit began work within 30 minutes.^[43] Kate wrote in 2011 that two officers from the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) first arrived at 23:10 from Lagos, a town five miles away.^[44] By midnight, according to Kate, the GNR had contacted the Polícia Judiciária, the criminal police, who she said arrived at 1 am from Portimão, 20 miles away.^[45] According to Kate, a police officer placed tape across the doorway of the children's bedroom when they arrived, but she said they left for the night at around 3 am without securing the rest of the apartment.^[45] Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa of the Polícia Judiciária, who worked on the case, said that around 20 people had entered the apartment before it was secured, which may have destroyed forensic evidence.^[46] According to the Portuguese police, two patrol dogs were brought to the resort at 2 am and four search-and-rescue dogs at 8 am.^[47]

Friends of the McCanns' friends contacted the media in the UK, and by early morning they were carrying the news. Gerry's sister in Scotland alerted the British Consulate in the Algarve, the British Embassy in Lisbon and the Foreign Office in London.^[45] Kate wrote in 2011 that the British police told her roadblocks were first put in place at 10 am. Interpol issued a global alert known as a yellow notice five days later.^[48]

Portuguese investigation (2007–2008)

Gonçalo Amaral

Praia da Luz in the Algarve

The officer in charge of the case from May until October 2007 was Gonçalo Amaral, head of the regional Polícia Judiciária. On 10 June 2007 Amaral was charged, along with four other officers, with offences related to the 2004 disappearance of Joana Cipriano, an eight-year-old Portuguese girl who had gone missing from Figueira, a village seven miles (11 km) from Praia da Luz. The police assumed she had been murdered, although her body was never found. The girl's mother and the mother's brother were convicted of murder after confessing during a police interview, although the mother retracted her confession two days later, saying she had been beaten by police.^[49] Amaral was not present when she was allegedly beaten, but was accused of having covered up for others.^[50]

In October 2007 Amaral was removed from Madeleine's case and from his post by Alípio Ribeiro, Portugal's national police director, after the former criticized British police in an interview. Amaral told a Portuguese newspaper that the British police were only following leads helpful to the McCanns.^[50] He went on to publish a book about the case in July 2008 (see below).^[51] He was found guilty of perjury in May 2009 for having falsified documents in the Joana Cipriano case, and received an 18-month suspended sentence.^[52]

First arguido

The police organized searches of local sewers, waterways, wells, caves and ruins, although at least some of the searches were conducted by volunteers, including staff from the resort during the first night. The Polícia Judiciária later requested help from the SIS, the Portuguese secret service, in case it was an abduction organized by an international group.^[53]

On 14 May police searched a nearby villa, Casa Liliana, belonging to the mother of Robert Murat, a British-Portuguese property consultant.^[54] Murat had apparently come to the attention of Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, who told police he had expressed interest in the investigation; he had offered to translate witness statements for the police, and said his interest in the case stemmed from his loss of custody of his own three-year-old daughter.^[55] In addition, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne – members of the Tapas Seven – said they had seen Murat in the resort on the evening Madeleine disappeared. He said he had been at home, and his mother corroborated his statement.^[56]

Murat was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May; arguido status gives people additional rights, such as the right to remain silent.^[57] His cars, computers, mobile phones and video tapes were taken and examined, and Casa Liliana was searched again in August. Police also questioned an IT expert who had set up a website for him, as well as a friend of that person.^[58] No evidence was found that linked him with the disappearance, and he was cleared of any involvement on 21 July 2008 when the case closed.^[59] As with the McCanns, Murat found himself at the centre of numerous allegations in the media, particularly the British tabloids. He and his two associates sued 11 newspapers for libel, in relation to 100 articles published by Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, Mirror Group Newspapers, and News Group Newspapers (News International). According to The Observer, it was the largest number of separate libel actions brought in the UK by the same person in relation to one issue.^[60] Murat was awarded £600,000 in July 2008 and the others $100,000; all three received public apologies. The British Sky Broadcasting Group, which owns Sky News, paid Murat undisclosed damages in a separate libel action in November 2008, and agreed that Sky News should host an apology to him on its website for 12 months.^[61]

McCanns as arguidos

British sniffer dogs

Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, Praia da Luz, where the McCanns attended services after Madeleine went missing

Matt Baggott, chief constable of Leicestershire police when Madeleine disappeared, told the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 that Leicestershire police were asked on 8 May to co-ordinate the British response on behalf of the British government and the Association of Chief Police Officers. They laid down that it was a Portuguese-led inquiry, and that British police would comply with Portuguese law and its Judicial Secrecy Act. It was this decision that tied the hands of British police when the police in Portugal began briefing reporters against the McCanns.^[62]

Experts from the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre arrived in Portugal on 9 May to help develop a psychological profile of a possible abductor.^[63] In July officers from the UK arrived to help with a ground search, bringing equipment for underground detection, ultraviolet instruments and two Springer spaniel sniffer dogs, Keela and Eddie. Keela was a crime-scene dog trained to alert her handler to traces of human blood, even if the area had been cleaned or the blood was decades old, and Eddie was an enhanced victim recovery dog (EVRD), who alerted to the scent of human cadavers. According to the Observer, the dogs were brought in at the request of the McCanns.^[64]

In late July the dogs were taken to several apartments and areas connected to the investigation. Both dogs gave alerts at several spots in the apartment from which Madeleine had disappeared, including behind the sofa.^[64] On 2 August Portuguese police arrived at the villa the McCanns had recently rented and removed Madeleine's Cuddle Cat and the couple's clothes; they also took diaries Kate had started after the disappearance and a Bible she had borrowed, also after the disappearance. Kate wrote in 2011 that the police would only say an "anomaly" had arisen in the investigation. On 6 August the police impounded a Renault Scenic the couple had hired 24 days after the disappearance.^[65] The cadaver dog gave an alert outside the car and inside the boot; one or both dogs gave alerts at Cuddle Cat, Kate's clothes and the Bible.^[64] John Barrett, a retired Scotland Yard dog handler, dismissed the cadaver-dog claim at the time, telling journalists the dogs could only detect the scent of a cadaver up to 28 days after a death.^[66]

British DNA analysis

Material, including hair and other fibres, was collected from the areas in the apartment and car that the dogs had reacted to, and was sent to the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham for DNA profiling.^[67] The FSS used a technique known as low copy number (LCN) DNA analysis, which they had developed in 1999.^[68] LCN DNA is used when only a few cells are available for testing; it is viewed as controversial because the test is more sensitive than other techniques, and therefore more vulnerable to contamination and misinterpretation.^[69] On 3 September John Lowe of the FSS emailed Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire police to say that a sample from the boot of the car contained 15 out of 19 of Madeleine's DNA components. He wrote that the result was "too complex for meaningful interpretation":

LCN [low copy number] DNA profiling is highly sensitive, it is not possible to attribute this DNA profile to a particular body fluid. ... A complex LCN DNA result which appeared to have originated from at least three people was obtained from cellular material recovered from the luggage compartment section ... [of the hired car]. Within the DNA profile of Madeleine McCann there are 20 DNA components represented by 19 peaks on a chart. ... Of these 19 components 15 are present within the result from this item; there are 37 components in total. There are 37 components because there are at least 3 contributors; but there could be up to five contributors. In my opinion therefore this result is too complex for meaningful interpretation/inclusion. ...

[L]et's look at the question that is being asked: "Is there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?" It would be very simple to say "yes" simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample. What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine ... because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance. The individual components in Madeleine's profile are not unique to her; it is the specific combination of 19 components that makes her profile unique above all others. Elements of Madeleine's profile are also present within the profiles of many of the scientists here in Birmingham, myself included. It's important to stress that 50% of Madeleine's profile will be shared with each parent. It is not possible, in a mixture of more than two people, to determine or evaluate which specific DNA components pair with each other. ... Therefore, we cannot answer the question: Is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.^[70]

The email was translated into Portuguese on 4 September. Portuguese police nevertheless told Gerry McCann on 7 September that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the car and behind the sofa in the apartment.^[71] Both Kate and Gerry were named as suspects that day.^[72]

Journalists in Portugal were told that the DNA evidence was a "100 percent match."^[73] A British tabloid published the front-page headline, "Brit Lab Bombshell: Car DNA is 100% Maddie's," while another reported that "a clump of Maddie's hair" had been found in the car.^[74] Jerry Lawton, a reporter with the Daily Star, a British tabloid, told the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 that the leaks came directly from the Portuguese police, and caused a "sea change" in the way the case was viewed by the media.^[75] Matt Baggott told the Leveson Inquiry that it was this misinterpretation of the DNA evidence by the Portuguese police that led them to conclude that Madeleine had died in the apartment, and that the McCanns had faked an abduction to cover up the death. Baggott was aware at the time that the DNA evidence was being wrongly interpreted, but because the Portuguese were in charge of the inquiry, he decided not to correct reporters who were being briefed by Portuguese police that the McCanns had been implicated.^[8]

On 5 September, according to Kate writing in 2011, the Polícia Judiciária proposed that, if she were to admit that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and that she had hidden the body, she might only serve a two-year sentence; Gerry would not be charged and would be free to leave.^[76] The McCanns' lawyer said in September 2007, when Kate's family first discussed this with the media, that there had been no such proposal, but that it was a misunderstanding that occurred during the interview.^[77]

McCanns return to the UK

Tributes in Rothley, Madeleine's home town, 17 May 2007

Despite their arguido status, the McCanns were allowed to leave Portugal and arrived back in England on 9 September 2007.^[78] On 11 September the case file, consisting of 10 volumes of evidence, was handed to the local prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, who passed it to the appointed judge, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias.^[79] On 12 September the judge authorised the seizure of Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop, thought to be at the McCanns' home in England.^[80]

In an effort to rebut allegations that Kate had been on medication at the time of the disappearance, her hair was tested in November. Toxicology tests showed no evidence that she had taken drugs in the past eight months. The twins were also tested for sedatives; no traces were found.^[81] On 29 November four members of the Portuguese investigation – reportedly including Francisco Corte-Real, vice-president of Portugal's forensic crime service – were briefed at Leicestershire police headquarters by the Forensic Science Service. The British scientists reiterated that the DNA analysis had been inconclusive.^[82]

Investigation closed

The Tapas Seven were interviewed by Leicestershire police in England in April 2008, with the Policia Judiciária in attendance.^[83] The Portuguese police planned the next month to hold a reconstruction of the night of Madeleine's disappearance, and asked the McCanns and their friends to attend, but it was cancelled when the friends declined to participate; they were reported to have concerns that it was not going to be televised, which they said rendered it of questionable value.^[84] Also in April 2008, on the day the McCanns were in Brussels promoting a child-welfare initiative, transcripts of the McCanns' interviews with Portuguese police were leaked to Spanish television. These included information Kate had given to police about a comment Madeleine had made the day of her disappearance, when she asked why Kate had not come to her the night before when she cried. Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesperson, called the leak a "deliberate smear"; the Polícia Judiciária denied that material from the investigation had been leaked.^[85]

Alípio Ribeiro resigned as the national director of the Policia Judiciária in May 2008, citing media pressure from the investigation; he had publicly said the police had been hasty in naming the McCanns as suspects.^[86] A judgment released on 29 May by Judge Fernando Ribeiro Cardoso of the Tribunal da Relação de Évora revealed that investigators were examining abduction, homicide, abandonment of a child, and concealment of a corpse.^[87] Two months later, on 21 July, Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Portuguese Attorney General, announced that the McCanns' and Robert Murat's arguido status had been lifted, and that the case was closed.^[9]

Also in July 2008 excerpts from Kate's diary, which she had handed to the Policia Judiciária in August 2007 for the sniffer dogs, were published without her permission by a newspaper in Portugal, translated into Portuguese; on 14 September a British tabloid also published them, again without permission and now translated poorly back into English.^[88] On 4 August 2008 the police released what they said at the time was their entire case file, 11,233 pages, to the media on CD-Rom.^[89]

Gonçalo Amaral book

In July 2008, just as the McCanns were cleared by the Portuguese attorney general, Gonçalo Amaral, the officer in charge of the Portuguese investigation from June until October 2007, published a book about the case, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira ("Maddie, the Truth of the Lie"). The book alleged that Madeleine had died in the holiday apartment and that the McCanns had invented the abduction.^[51] A Portuguese judge issued an injunction in September 2009 that stopped further publication or sales, and banned Amaral from repeating his claims.^[90] The McCanns also sought 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million) in damages for defamation.^[91] In December 2009 Amaral responded to the publication ban by publishing a second book, A Mordaça Inglesa ("The English Gag").^[92] Amaral lost an appeal against the injunction in February 2010, but in October 2010 the Court of Appeal in Lisbon overturned the ban, stating that it violated Amaral's freedom of expression.^[93] Amaral and the McCanns failed to reach an out-of-court settlement in the defamation suit, and the proceedings were continuing as of February 2013.^[94]

Criticism of the police

Yellow ribbons in Rothley

There was extensive criticism of the Portuguese police in the British media. The first police officers to arrive acted as if Madeleine had wandered off, which resulted in a failure to secure the crime scene. Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddle Cat, was with her in bed on the night she disappeared, and was found still on the bed after she disappeared, but police failed to secure it or check for DNA the abductor might have left on it.^[95] Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after she vanished, and officers did not appear to have made extensive door-to-door inquiries.^[96] The police failed to ask for surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz at the time of the disappearance, or of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border.^[97] Another mistake was misreporting the height of the man Jane Tanner and the Irish family saw carrying a child on the night of the disappearance. This was given in a Portuguese press release as 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), but mistakenly appeared in the English version as 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m).^[38]

Reported sightings

From 4 May 2007 onwards there were thousands of reported sightings in Portugal and elsewhere, including Spain, Morocco, Indonesia and Singapore. A police report noted that sightings had been reported 4,000 km apart on the same day.^[98] The McCanns gained access to police files about possible sightings in July 2008, when Leicestershire police agreed to share 81 pieces of information about sightings from early on in the inquiry; the McCanns were forced to go to the High Court to obtain the material.^[99] In August 2008 most of the Portuguese police files were released to the public; among the 11,223 pages of information were 2,550 pages of reported sightings in a 14-volume annex.^[89] In 2009 the McCanns' lawyer learned of the existence of other, unreleased, Portuguese police files, and obtained a copy of a further 2,000 pages describing 50 reported sightings. A British tabloid newspaper, The Sun, applied successfully to have the 2000 pages released in 2010.^[100]

Campaign

Madeleine's Fund

Timeline
Tributes in Rothley, 17 May 2007
2007–2014 2007 28 April: McCanns arrive at apartment 5A. 3 May: 20:30: McCanns, Tapas Seven go to dinner. 21:05: Gerry checks on children. 21:15: Tanner sees man carrying child. 22:00: Smiths see man carrying child. 22:00: Kate reports Madeleine missing. midnight: Polícia Judiciária alerted. 9 May: British police arrive in Portugal. 15 May: Robert Murat made arguido. 16 May: McCanns set up Madeleine's Fund. end May: McCanns hire private detectives. 30 May: McCanns meet Pope. July: Sniffer dogs react to 5A. 2 Aug: Polícia Judiciária remove items, including Kate's diary. 6 Aug: Polícia Judiciária impound McCanns' car. 6 Aug: Dogs react to McCanns' car, other items. 7 Aug: Material sent to British lab for DNA tests. 3 Sept: British scientist says DNA tests inconclusive. 7 Sept: McCanns made arguidos. 7 Sept: Kate and Gerry interviewed; Kate declines to answer questions. 9 Sept: McCanns return to UK. 3 Oct: Gonçalo Amaral removed. 23 Nov: Kate, twins drug-tested; results negative. 2008 March: McCanns receive damages, apologies; hire Oakley International; Smith e-fits produced. 8 April: Tapas Seven interviewed in UK; Polícia Judiciária attend 21 July: Polícia Judiciária investigation closed. 24 July: Gonçalo Amaral publishes book. July: Robert Murat and others receive damages. July: Kate's diary published in Portugal. 4 Aug: Polícia Judiciária files released. 14 Sept: Kate's diary published in UK. 2009 1 May: McCanns release age-progressed image. 9 Sept: Injunction against Amaral book. 2010 March: British Home Office considers review. 19 Oct: Lisbon court overturns Amaral book ban. 2011 March: Polícia Judiciária begin case review. May: Scotland Yard set up Operation Grange. 23 Nov: McCanns testify to Leveson Inquiry. 2012 25 April: Scotland Yard releases age-progressed image. 2013 12 Sept: McCanns v Amaral libel hearings begin. 14 Oct: Scotland Yard/Crimewatch reconstruction; Smith e-fits released. 24 Oct: Polícia Judiciária reopen their inquiry. 2014 19 March: Scotland Yard issue another appeal. June: Detectives dig in wasteland in Praia da Luz. July–December: Suspects and witnesses interviewed in Portugal.
v t e

Nicola Rehling writes that, within weeks of the disappearance, the "Maddification" of Britain had taken place, similar to the "Dianafication" in 1997. Her photographs became some of the most reproduced images of the decade.^[101] According to Julia Kennedy, there were 3,700 videos on YouTube in June 2008 under the search term "Madeleine McCann," and over seven million posts.^[10] Around 500 million people watched an appeal screened at the FA Cup Final in 2007.^[101] Rehling writes that some British tabloids had Madeleine in the headlines every day for almost six months; Sky News had her appear as a menu option.^[101]

Her parents made a decision early on to interact with the media, and set up a campaign to raise awareness and funds, Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd.^[102] The Fund's directors decided in September 2007, when the McCanns were made arguidos, that no money from the Fund would be used to pay the couple's legal costs or mortgage; there was criticism that it had been used to make two mortgage payments early on when neither of the McCanns were able to work.^[103]

The campaign organized appeals from political leaders and celebrities, including David Beckham, and over £2.6 million was raised, with donations from J.K. Rowling and Richard Branson, and a reward of £1.5 million from the News of the World, a News International tabloid. The McCanns had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in May 2007, and visited the United States and certain key European and North African countries.^[104] The owner of Everest Windows, Brian Kennedy, offered to fund the salary of Clarence Mitchell, director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit until September 2007, who became a spokesperson for the McCanns. Kennedy himself travelled to Morocco to check one of the sightings.^[105]

Madeleine appeared on the cover of People magazine, and in 2009 the McCanns were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey to publicize the first age-progressed image.^[106] The British poet Simon Armitage wrote The Beacon in 2010, a poem to mark the 1,000th day of her disappearance.^[107]

Private detectives

The McCanns or their supporters hired at least five firms of private investigators, the first at the end of May 2007, a British firm, Control Risks.^[108] Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows paid for private investigators to search in Morocco, and went there himself to look into one sighting.^[109] Spanish agency Método 3 were also engaged.^[110] US-based Oakley International was hired for six months in 2008; the owner, Kevin Halligen, was arrested in November 2009 in connection with an unrelated fraud allegation.^[111] Another, unnamed, US organisation was engaged in August 2008, also on a £500,000 six-month contract. Método 3 continued to follow up information from Spain and Portugal.^[112]

Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia paid for the Barragem do Arade reservoir, 35 miles (56 km) east of Praia da Luz, to be searched by divers in early February 2008. He said he had received intelligence from underworld sources that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in a lake.^[113] The search resumed in the middle of March, funded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia e Construção. Nothing of significance was found.^[114] Stephen Birch, a South African property developer, said in July 2012 that ground radar scans he had made showed digging and what could be human bones below a gravel driveway in Praia da Luz. The Polícia Judiciária declined to excavate the driveway, a decision supported by the McCanns.^[115]

There were suggestions of links to two known paedophiles. Urs Hans Von Aesch had been on holiday in the area at the time of the disappearance. A Swiss citizen and resident of Benimantell, Spain, Von Aesch was implicated by Swiss police in the abduction and murder of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard in July 2007; he committed suicide shortly after she was taken.^[116] In May 2009 Briton Raymond Hewlett, who had been jailed for sexual offences against young girls, became a person of interest. He denied any involvement and died of cancer in Germany in December 2009.^[117]

Dave Edgar, a retired detective leading the private investigation for the McCanns, held a press conference in August 2009 to release an efit picture of a woman with short spiky hair, described as a Victoria Beckham lookalike. Edgar said that two British men had been approached by the woman in Barcelona, Spain, 72 hours after Madeleine disappeared; they said she had asked them, "Are you here to deliver my new daughter?" She was described as 30–35 years old, slim, about 5 ft 2in, with short brown hair, and had an Australian accent, although she also spoke fluent Spanish or Catalan.^[118]

Media attention

British tabloids, social media

The overwhelming interest inevitably turned a harsh spotlight on the McCanns. Rehling wrote that the disappearance had all the ingredients the media and public could latch onto: a whodunnit involving a white, middle-class, nuclear family caught up in a nightmare of evil abroad.^[119] While the News of the World offered a reward of £1.5 million for Madeleine, another News International tabloid, The Sun, offered just £20,000 for information about Shannon Matthews, who had gone missing from a British council estate in February 2008 and whose mother had seven children by five men.^[120] But after a volte face by the tabloids, the McCanns' middle-class status, at first protective, became a weapon against them: they were transformed into suspects, the "monsters lurking behind the façade of middle-class respectability."^[119] Deborah Orr wrote that, "[i]n a widespread act of collective counter-prejudice, it was decided that it was precisely because the couple were middle-class, educated, respectable, and in vocational careers that one had to be careful not to be influenced by such thumpingly giant signs of their previous good character."^[121]

Even before the allegations of involvement, they were criticised for having left their children alone, despite the availability of a babysitting service and crèche; an online petition in June 2007 asking Leicestershire Social Services to investigate gathered 17,000 signatures. Rehling wrote that parents distancing themselves from the McCanns became a form of magic, feeding into the tabloid obsession in England with good versus bad parenting.^[122]

Kate came in for particular criticism. Caroline Bainbridge wrote that she was not mumsy enough, was too attractive, too thin, too well-dressed, too intense, too controlled, did not cry enough. The media referred to her old nickname, "Hot Lips Healy," because she had partied at university.^[123] Cristina Odone wrote: "Kate McCann is guilty. Madeleine's mother has been charged with looking composed and controlled, pretty and slim. ... It's not murder, but it's a crime: robbing the public of what it wants.^[124] Nicola Goc saw in the treatment of Kate elements of the Death of Azaria Chamberlain in Australia in 1980, where the baby's mother, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, was deemed to have responded to her child's disappearance inappropriately, and as a result spent three years in prison for a murder that had not occurred.^[125]

Rehling argues that the case was paradigmatic because of the extent to which social media shaped the narrative.^[126] Posters on Twitter and other websites – Twitter was just one year old when Madeleine disappeared – were criticized for spreading "poisonous fantasies." Eilis O'Hanlon wrote that the campaign to indict the McCanns "was fought largely over the internet," and that the case "could almost stand as a metaphor for the rise of social media as the predominant mode of public discourse."^[127]

The McCanns responded to the allegations of involvement by bringing libel actions, and obtained an injunction in the UK against one man who continued to spread the claims.^[128] The Daily Express, Daily Star and its sister Sunday papers published front-page apologies in March 2008 and agreed to pay £550,000 in libel damages, money that was donated to the Find Madeleine Fund.^[12] The Tapas Seven also sued; they were awarded £375,000 against the Express Group, again donated to the Find Madeleine Fund, along with a published apology in the Daily Express, after the newspaper suggested they had misled detectives to cover up for the McCanns.^[12]

Leveson Inquiry testimony (2011)

The McCanns testified for two hours on 23 November 2011, as core participants, before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in the UK.^[14] They told the inquiry that the British tabloids had declared "open season" on them. Kate described how photographers would lurk every day near her home and bang on her car as she left with her two-year-old children, most likely to obtain a startled expression.^[129] The stories that Madeleine was dead and that they were implicated damaged the search for their daughter, in their view; certain myths developed (for example, that Madeleine's "body fluids" had been found in their hired car) that became difficult to counter because they were constantly repeated. In addition, the McCanns were warned that they were not allowed, under Portuguese law, to reveal anything they knew to be in official files; if they did, they faced a two-year jail sentence. This included the DNA analysis, which they knew – because they had seen it – was being wrongly reported as a result of leaks from the Portuguese police.^[130]

In September 2007 the McCanns' solicitor and their campaign manager met the editors of the major newspapers and explained that there was no evidence to support what they were reporting. The solicitor also asked Leicestershire police to write to the news organizations; Matt Baggott, then chief constable, wrote to them twice in September and October 2007 urging restraint.^[131] The Express Group newspapers were identified as the worst offenders. The inquiry heard that the Daily Express editor had become "obsessed" with the McCanns; Lord Justice Leveson told the inquiry the newspaper had published "complete piffle" about Madeleine's disappearance.^[132]

The Daily Star (another Express Group newspaper) published a headline that the McCanns had sold Madeleine: "Maddie 'Sold' By Hard-Up McCanns".^[133] Other headlines included "DNA puts parents in frame: British experts insist their tests are valid," and "Parents' car hid a corpse."^[134] The British newspapers cited Portuguese newspapers, which in turn referred to unnamed sources.^[135] Jerry Lawton, a Daily Star reporter, told the inquiry that the leaks had come directly from the Portuguese police.^[75] The News of the World, later closed by Rupert Murdoch, published Kate's personal diaries in September 2008, after they were apparently leaked by Portuguese police via the Portuguese media.^[136] The Polícia Judiciária had seized the diaries in August 2007, but a Portuguese judge ruled that the seizure had been a privacy violation and ordered that any copies be destroyed. A Portuguese translation, in turn translated back into English, nevertheless made its way to the media.^[137]

Operation Grange (2011–present)

Case review

Scotland Yard's investigative review, Operation Grange, began in May 2011.

The British Home Office began discussions in March 2010 about setting up a new investigation.^[138] In connection with this, the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre sought input that month from the West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Inquiry Team, which had found nine-year-old Shannon Matthews in March 2008.^[139]

At the request of Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard launched a review of the case, called Operation Grange, in May 2011. According to BBC Panorama, the review – which had cost ₤5 million by June 2013 – was financed by a government contingency fund at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, reportedly after News International persuaded the government to have the British police look into Madeleine's disappearance. In or around April 2011, Portuguese police in Porto also began a review of the case. The officer in charge of Operation Grange, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command (SCD1), said that the British and Portuguese teams were working collaboratively.^[140] He said he rejected the "conspiracy theories" about the parents' involvement and was focusing on "a criminal act by a stranger."^[141]

In April 2012 Redwood said he believed there was a possibility that Madeleine was alive. His team of 28 detectives and seven civilians had by then reviewed 40,000 pieces of evidence – the equivalent of 100,000 pages – and identified 195 items for investigation within the files, as well as new leads. They also released an updated age-progressed image of Madeleine.^[142]

New investigation

In July 2013 Redwood said the inquiry had moved from "review to investigation." He told a press conference that 38 persons of interest from several European countries had been identified, including 12 British nationals.^[5] An earlier report said detectives were interested in tracing 12 casual manual workers who were at the Ocean Club resort when Madeleine disappeared, including six British cleaners in a white van who were offering their services to British expats.^[143] It was also reported that Alison Saunders, senior crown prosecutor for London, and Jenny Hopkins, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's complex casework unit in London, had travelled to Portugal to discuss new leads with the police there.^[144] British detectives made a formal request for assistance to the Portuguese police.^[145]

Scotland Yard and the BBC's Crimewatch collaborated to stage a reconstruction of the kidnapping to be broadcast in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands on 14 October 2013. The appeal for information will include the release of a new efit of a suspect. Journalists reported that police had by then identified 41 persons of interest, including 15 from the UK, but were particularly interested in one man. Investigators may have obtained the new information by checking mobile phone records around the time of the disappearance.^[146]

Notes

References

News sources are listed in the Notes section only

Books, papers and testimony

External links

• Find Madeleine, investigation@findmadeleine.com
• Operation Grange (Scotland Yard), operation.grange@met.police.uk