Seven more....... By Joana - 10/11/14 PLUS UK Press articles

Joana Morais

10 November 2014

Seven more Portuguese and British Arguidos in the Maddie case


by Marisa Rodrigues

They know Praia da Luz. They know each other. They made phone calls on the night of the disappearance. Some have a record for petty crimes. Others are former workers from the Ocean Club. Seven Portuguese and British nationals fit in this profile, and are now, for Scotland Yard (SY) the new suspects of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

The group is going to be constituted as arguido [formal suspect] and interrogated by the Judiciary Police (PJ), who are also going to question four witnesses at the request of the British authorities. In the list of the eleven people there is at least one woman.

The proceedings are scheduled for the last week of November, at the PJ's South Directorate in Faro. They appear in the fifth rogatory letter and were authorized by the new prosecutor at the Public Ministry of Portimão, Inês Sequeira, to whom the process was assigned.

These new seven arguidos will join the other four men constituted as arguidos and questioned in July. The British investigation now has eleven suspects.

The Scotland Yard thesis remains unchanged. On May 3, 2007, there was a failed robbery at the apartment 5A where the McCanns left their three children alone to go to dinner. Madeleine, then aged three years old, woke up and was abducted so she wouldn't recognize and accuse the intruders - a crime that may have been committed by one of the arguidos or by several, in association. This was one of the theories followed by the PJ at the time [2007] and eventually dismissed due to the lack of evidence that a burglary had ever taken place at the apartment.

The new phase of the SY investigation comes at a time when the British press reported that Andy Redwood's team was scaled back and now has fewer people working on it.

The English detectives will have to request the permission of the National Directorate of the PJ to be able to follow the inquiries and interrogatories in Faro, as it happened in July.

in Jornal de Notícias, Nov. 10, 2014 (paper edition)

Daily Mail's latest...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2828316/Madeleine-McCann-investigators-questioning-Britons-new-official-suspects-girl-s-disappearance-Portugal.html

One line from the Daily Mail article:

'The fact they are set to be questioned as arguidos show the Operation Grange officers probing Madeleine's disappearance are still focusing on the theory she was killed during a bungled break-in.'

Umm, no it doesn't.

Interesting that British nationals are claimed to be among those being questioned. I'm certain it won't be any of the Tapas 9 ... not yet.

I fail to see how British nationals would be involved in a bungled break-in.

ITV News says that the British nationals are a man and a woman.

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-11-10/two-brits-among-seven-new-suspects-in-madeleine-mccann-investigation/

This also from Express.........


Daily Express ‏@Daily_Express 4 mins4 minutes ago
Madeleine McCann suspects 'all knew each other and exchanged calls on night of vanishing' http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/533815/Madeleine-McCann-suspects-police-probe-exchanged-calls … #mccann

Madeleine McCann suspects 'all knew each other and exchanged calls on night of vanishing'

BRITONS will be questioned as new suspects over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, it was claimed today.

By: David Pilditch and Gerard Couzens
Published: Mon, November 10, 2014


The British nationals are among a group of seven people due to be quizzed as arguidos, leading Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported.

Four more will be interviewed as witnesses towards the end of the month at a police station in Faro.

The seven suspects reportedly know each other and exchanged phone calls on the night Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007.

They are also all familiar with Praia da Luz - the Algarve holiday resort where Madeleine was staying with her family.

Some are also said to have criminal records and others are ex-workers of the Ocean Club holiday complex where Madeleine vanished from.

It is not known how many of the group of seven, which also include Portuguese nationals, are British.

At least one of the 11 people set to be quizzed later this month is thought to be a woman.

       

British police are now in the process of formally asking for permission to sit in on the interviews, which will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf.

An official request was made in a fifth international letter sent by British police to the Portuguese authorities.

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have never given up hope that their daughter will be found alive.

They are being kept informed of developments by police.

Members of Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange squad visited Portugal a month ago.

A small team of three officers including Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood met Policia Judiciaria bosses in Faro.

They also travelled to the university city of Coimbra - a five hour drive north - to visit a laboratory where many of the DNA samples collected after Madeleine’s disappearance are held.

PA
Kate and Gerry McCann have never given up the search for their daughter Madeleine
British police told bosses at Portugal’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences they want to retest some of the samples to try to crack the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance.

They are yet to send a sixth international letter of request which Portuguese prosecutor Ines Sequeira will have to authorise before Metropolitan Police forensics experts are allowed access to the lab or given permission to take samples to Britain to analyse them.

The forensic material includes hairs and pieces of the curtains that hung in apartment 5A where Madeleine was staying with her family.

Last month it emerged nearly 100 strands of hair tested during the original Madeleine McCann investigation were never DNA-matched.

The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May - more than five years after the investigation was officially shelved.

One of the suspects questioned in July was a former Ocean Club worker and another a 51-year-old schizophrenic drug addict. They both denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Portuguese police believe Madeleine was snatched by a foreigner no longer living in Portugal.

However they have still not formally ruled out the involvement of junkie burglar Euclides Monteiro, whose widow they questioned last year, despite the fact DNA tests have put him in the clear.

Scotland Yard said it would not give a “running commentary” on the investigation.

The Home Office has defended the rising cost of the £10 million probe, saying: “The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann.”



http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/533815/Madeleine-McCann-suspects-police-probe-exchanged-calls

Would someone be able to tell me how reliable Jornal de Noticias is as a newspaper? Is it the equivalent of an English red-top?

It seems to me that as this article filters through various news reports Chinese Whispers become apparent.

I thought NSY and PJ were not giving updates, nor keeping the public informed ? If this is the case, where has this latest story originated from? Any ideas?

I wonder if ITV News has information that the other media outlets don't - they also give specific dates for the questioning, November 24th - 28th. Might just be joining up the dots though.

I've said before that if I was allowed to interview anybody, top on my list would be the Tapas staff in an attempt to confirm Gerry's 30 minutes absence.  Svetlana Starikova Vitorino is one of the two staff members who mentioned the absence - the PJ files say that she is a Russian citizen.  Female of eastern/central european origin?

Female of eastern/central european origin

One name that came to mind: Michaela Walczuch - she is of Polish/German stock.

There were some inconsistencies in her account of attending a Jehova's witnesses meeting, if memory serves.

I think it's quite possible SY is re-interviewing the OC employees who were on duty that night, not to establish whether they had a motive to kidnap Madeleine, but to try and narrow down the times they stated in their first interviews, and to ask them more detailed questions, or perhaps the same questions, but in a different way. ie, how many men and how many women were seated at the table at 9.30pm? At what time exactly did you hear shouts coming from the apartment? etc

canada12 wrote:I think it's quite possible SY is re-interviewing the OC employees who were on duty that night, not to establish whether they had a motive to kidnap Madeleine, but to try and narrow down the times they stated in their first interviews, and to ask them more detailed questions, or perhaps the same questions, but in a different way. ie, how many men and how many women were seated at the table at 9.30pm? At what time exactly did you hear shouts coming from the apartment? etc

Aye, I agree that may just be what they are doing. It's definitely what I'd do. The Tapas staff statements in the PJ files don't satisfy me at all, they are too ambiguous. But I'm not sure how much more information they'll get now that seven years have passed. Although I imagine those staff members have mulled over what happened in May 2007 ever since.

Tristar wrote:Female of eastern/central european origin

One name that came to mind: Michaela Walczuch - she is of Polish/German stock.

There were some inconsistencies in her account of attending a Jehova's witnesses meeting, if memory serves.

Yes, could be her too.

wlbts wrote:I've said before that if I was allowed to interview anybody, top on my list would be the Tapas staff in an attempt to confirm Gerry's 30 minutes absence.  Svetlana Starikova Vitorino is one of the two staff members who mentioned the absence - the PJ files say that she is a Russian citizen.  Female of eastern/central european origin?

***
Putin, quite some years ago, explained the totally stupid mayor of Brussels, that actually Moscow was at the centre of "Europe" ... Sorry cannot find the vid anymore ...

wlbts wrote:

canada12 wrote:I think it's quite possible SY is re-interviewing the OC employees who were on duty that night, not to establish whether they had a motive to kidnap Madeleine, but to try and narrow down the times they stated in their first interviews, and to ask them more detailed questions, or perhaps the same questions, but in a different way. ie, how many men and how many women were seated at the table at 9.30pm? At what time exactly did you hear shouts coming from the apartment? etc

Aye, I agree that may just be what they are doing.  It's definitely what I'd do.  The Tapas staff statements in the PJ files don't satisfy me at all, they are too ambiguous.  But I'm not sure how much more information they'll get now that seven years have passed.  Although I imagine those staff members have mulled over what happened in May 2007 ever since.

I'm left dissatisfied by many of the original statements too. I'd have asked far more specific questions and asked for far more specific answers. You never know, fresh eyes, fresh brains... I know this isn't a cold case, it's an ongoing case, but often when you get new minds working on cold cases, they get solved because of fresh perspectives and different approaches. I'm hopeful that's what is going on here.

canada12 wrote:
I'm left dissatisfied by many of the original statements too. I'd have asked far more specific questions and asked for far more specific answers. You never know, fresh eyes, fresh brains... I know this isn't a cold case, it's an ongoing case, but often when you get new minds working on cold cases, they get solved because of fresh perspectives and different approaches. I'm hopeful that's what is going on here.

Any you'd certainly try, just in case. I hope we find out more information when the interviews go ahead.

I am trying to put myself into the shoes of an ex OC employee - especially one of those who got unceremoniously
sacked by MW shortly after the disappearance.

Even if I had revisited the night in question and had remembered a tiny but important detail - would I now
spill to the plods?

I would have observed over years how the propaganda machine of TM has dealt with dissenters and detractors.

I'm probably on a zero hour contract in a seasonal profession - even if the 'machine' does not get me - my name would
be mud in the hospitality industry - for grassing on guests.

Nah, sod this - I'll keep stumm.

Tristar wrote:I am trying to put myself into the shoes of an ex OC employee - especially one of those who got unceremoniously
sacked by MW shortly after the disappearance.

Even if I had revisited the night in question and had remembered a tiny but important detail - would I now
spill to the plods?

I would have observed over years how the propaganda machine of TM has dealt with dissenters and detractors.

I'm probably on a zero hour contract in a seasonal profession - even if the 'machine' does not get me - my name would
be mud in the hospitality industry - for grassing on guests.

Nah, sod this - I'll keep stumm.  

.... Or you could become a worldwide hero for standing up to said machine with co-operation in assisting the 2 police forces in providing enough information to assist in securing the necessary right and honest convictions...

I would anyway....

Andrew wrote:
.... Or you could become a worldwide hero for standing up to said machine with co-operation in assisting the 2 police forces in providing enough information to assist in securing the necessary right and honest convictions...

I would anyway....

You could also make a lot of money selling your story to the papers after the trial.

wlbts wrote:

Andrew wrote:
.... Or you could become a worldwide hero for standing up to said machine with co-operation in assisting the 2 police forces in providing enough information to assist in securing the necessary right and honest convictions...

I would anyway....

You could also make a lot of money selling your story to the papers after the trial.

Exactly and I think there will be people queuing up to do just that...

Hi guys,

I'd love to share your optimism and idealism - and I hope you prove me wrong.

Tristar wrote:Hi guys,

I'd love to share your optimism and idealism - and I hope you prove me wrong.

I have to be optimistic when it comes to all this Tristar.

I hope I'm proved right.

Off topic somewhat - but just been watching Corrie and noticed there was a Panarama programme on bbc1 which just finished about 'the girl who vanished' or something....

Anyone know what or who that was about.....

Hope dies last.

But IF there is something substantive and new coming from the next round of interviews - I expect this
to come from the more principal players.