Networked Knowledge - Media Reports

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

Madeleine McCann homepage
DNA homepage
Go to: A state of Injustice - table of contents
Go to: Losing Their Grip - The Case of Henry Keogh - table of contents

On 19 March 2008 the Daily Express reported “McCanns welcome papers' apology” See the Defamation homepage

On 4 August 2008 Vanessa Allen of the Daily Mail reported “At last, secrets of Maddie police search are unlocked as secrecy laws are lifted”.  

She said the contents of the Madeleine McCann case files will be unlocked today, ending 15 months of leaks, smears and innuendo. The secrecy of justice laws surrounding the Portuguese police investigation will be lifted, allowing public access to the documents. Every witness statement, tip-off and lead followed by detectives since Madeleine's disappearance on May 3 last year is contained in the mammoth file, along with the transcripts of interviews with her parents and British ex-pat Robert Murat.

The Maddie dossier is due for release following pressure from the McCanns after a painful 15 month wait. Kate and Gerry McCann's legal team has had access to the 11,000-page file since last week, after the Portuguese attorney general formally shelved the inquiry and cleared them and Mr Murat as suspects. The McCanns, both 40, are desperately hoping the file contains a missed clue which could lead them to their daughter. The couple have several teams of detectives on standby ready to travel across the world to check any potential leads. Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: 'Our lawyers have begun looking at the files. They are discovering what was done - and crucially what was not done - in the investigation to find Madeleine.

The McCanns are desperately hoping the files contain an overlooked clue which could lead them to their missing daughter. 'All previously unknown leads will be passed to our investigators, who are poised to check them out.' Until now the only people to have seen the case files are the McCanns' lawyers, the detectives who led the inquiry, and the public prosecutors and judges overseeing the inquiry. But at 2pm today an edited version of the dossier will be released to more than 1,000 journalists who applied to the prosecutor for permission to view it. Demand to see the case file has been so great that court officials have scanned the pages into a computer and compiled them on DVDs.

A version of the dossier will be released to more than 1,000 journalists. Some information has been edited out, including a list of known and suspected paedophiles who were living in the Algarve at the time Maddie disappeared from her family's holiday apartment. The video of the specialist sniffer dogs reacting to alleged traces of blood and the 'scent of death' in the apartment and the McCanns' hire car will be released at a later date. The release will finally expose the controversial investigation to the full glare of public scrutiny.

Issues that may be highlighted are the failure to alert border patrols in the first 12 hours, and any missed leads or queries over forensic evidence. Strict secrecy laws supposedly protected the investigation until it was archived last month. Under Portuguese law any police officer, witness or suspect who spoke about the inquiry risked a two-year jail sentence for breaking the secrecy code. But in practice officials within the investigation regularly briefed selected Portuguese journalists with details from the inquiry, in apparent attempts to pressure Mr and Mrs McCann into confessing their alleged involvement. Later these seemed aimed at poisoning public opinion against them.

The couple believe the decision to name them as suspects, or arguidos, could have set back their own search for their daughter, as vital witnesses might not have contacted them with information if they believed the pair were involved. Much of the leaking was blamed on the former head of the police inquiry, Goncalo Amaral, who last month published a book containing many of the same vile smears against the couple and their friends. He was removed from the investigation in November after an angry outburst against British police, and his successor Paulo Rebelo successfully clamped down on the leaks.

Top of Page