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Justice 4 ALL Madeleine McCann Family
You need to be a member of this forum in order to view its entire contents.
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Full Transcript of Q&A session at press conference

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Full Transcript of Q&A session at press conference Empty Full Transcript of Q&A session at press conference

Post by Tinkerbell43 Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:06 am

Some of the questions are not in full as it was difficult to hear the muffled voices over the clacking of camera's, but you should get the gist.

Q. You stated in the past that you would welcome some kind of reopening of the case or at least a review by Portuguese or British police can you explain what exactly you want and how that would work.

GM - I think the obvious thing is that its a very serious case and there's lots of information thats being held currently by different law enforcement agencies, the information isnt even on a single database capable of being searched. We dont think theres been a systematic review of all the information and the leads and thats something that would be automatically done in the UK and I think for a missing British Citizen, thats what we are looking for.

We want the authorities to work together, it is an international case, it always has been and we feel thats it fundamental to try to find Madeleine for a systematic review to take place.

Q. When you ask LP to do that, what is their response ?

People are reluctant to undertake a review because its been difficult sensitive issues, but Madeleine rights should be put first, shes missing, shes innocent and whoever has taken her is still out there and that has to be of paramount importance the search for Madeleine and thats what we want we want the best possible search.

If you look at since the file is closed what has actually been done its next to nothing and thats for probably the highest profile missing child case in Europe ever, so goodness knows what happens to other families who get put in this situation.

Q. Its quite clear during the court case just gone, how much evidence wasn't looked at because Amaral focused all his attentions on proving your "guilt" do you believe now if another policeman was in charge do you think she may have been found by now or at least there would be a clearer view of what happened.

KM - Its very difficult to say isnt it, obviously that would be speculating.

GM - Clearly the thesis, Amarals thesis was very much followed around the time of summer 2007 when no evidence was found to support it, but when Paola Rebelo came in, if anyone has read the files then a lot of good work was done and clearly we've said this on many differ occasions our aim isnt to identify criticisms and mistakes that were made, everyone knows that mistakes were made what we are interested in is identfying new leads or areas for further investigation which have not been followed or followed to lets say an adequate conclusion

There will be lessons learned from a review that could be
applied in the future and I think that is important but we want to focus, Kate and I's focus is on the search for Madeleine but there may be benefits from such a review if a case like this happens again in particular the travel throughout the European Union.

Q. Some confusion about whether or not you are able to ask Portuguese Police to reopen case. What have you been able to do to ask for that and what has been their response and has it been adequate ?.

GM - I think Keir, that whether the files opened or not really is a technical issue. What we want to ensure is that new information and leads are followed up appropriately and not just put in a cupboard and filed away. So, it doesn't really matter to us whether the files open or not, what is important is that the authorities follow up leads and obviously we would like the systematic review performed, so yes if the files open and the police follow up leads then thats great but they still have the potential to follow up leads with the file not being open as such, so these are techincal issues.

KM - Most important thing is for a search to take place and continue, really so.

Q. What leads have your own private investigators ??????

GM - Well they have received lots and lots of information and all of that information is assessed, if it is deemed not to be credible then it may just go onto our system and no further action will be taken but they have interviewed and spoken to 100's of people, its lead to multiple additional enquiries and there are several lines of enquiry which have been passed onto the authorities and in that situation usually its given to LP and sent to Portugal. We are not going to comment on any of the specifics but obviously you know they appealed about information regarding Barcelona in the past and following the documentary last yeat there has been lots of additional information that came in and has been followed up and we'll continue to do that and from our point of view as parents, at least if we know it comes into us we know it will be actioned and will be assessed using tried and testing formula by police standards.

KM - Our investigators obviously can only carry out investigations to a point, they cant go banging on doors and asking people in portugal to speak to them so obviously they will do as much work as they can then obviously they have to hand it on to the pj and then.........

Q. Are leads you are generating not being adequately actioned ?

GM - There is certainly instances where we think the information is very credible and worthy of further investigation has not been actioned.

Q. How do you feel about that ?

GM - We're gutted, its absolutely shocking and difficult. We are trying our absolute best, Madeleine is still missing and as we say the perpertrators still out there. We are not saying they are the leads that will result in us fnding her but if you dont investigate information that comes in you'll never solve it

KM - Its certainly that the information that has been handed on has been deemed to be very credible and worthy at the very least of elimination, so its important stuff, its heartbreaking to be honest to know that thats where it seems to end.

Q. Do you have any idea why they look at it like that, why they do nothing ? we know why Amaral did but its 2 years on why are they still behaving that way ?

KM - I think you have to make it a little bit of a line really
because obviously theres Mr. Amaral and his group of supportive police officers, I do believe we have met very good police officers, within the PJ aswell, I think it depends who that information is being given to as to whether it will be acted on.

Q. Are you saying there is a division ?

KM - I'm not saying they've made a dvision but obviously Mr. Amaral has his group of supporters but I don't believe he reflects every police officer in Portugal, no I dont.

GM - I think it is fair to say that when Mr Rebelo was in charge and subsequently even when the file was opened there was some dialogue and we had more confidence that credible leads were followed.

You obviously heard what Isabel Duarte said last week. She's obtained a lot of information that which has clearly not been actioned.

We haven't seen translations of everything yet, but we know there is alot of information there that is just literally filed away and that is unnacceptable and you also heard Detective Paiva testify in court that despite the lack of evidence he still believes in Mr. Amarals thesis and now we have to question whether he can perform duties objectively if thats what he's prepared to stick by.

Q. When talking about leads are you talking about new leads produced ?

KM - No no these were other leads.

We obviously only just acquired that information recently
its the leads that have been passed onto the PJ were prior to her to having access to that file.

Q. Have your PI had a chance to look at the new evidence ?

GM - Not yet they are still in the process. Obviously a lot of information goes to the police and we dont get sight of, that is another issue there is information that is held by many different sources and some of it is passed on. You would hope that all of it is in one data base within portugal. Obviously what Isabel Duarte has obtained we will get translated and it will go onto our system.

Q. Would you like to see a situation where the British Police force that have some connection with yourself and the enquiry be able to go over almost like cold case and review the evidence and be able to action and look at it as at the moment it seems very territorial.

GM - I think what we would like to see is ongoing close co-operation. It was fairly unqiue situation in 2007 the fact that British Police officers did go over to the Algarve and we thank the Portuguese Authorities for allowing that in the first instance, but I think, we do believe that more can be done and a systematic review that would have to involve both the Portuguese and British law enforcement because both have been involved and there are multiple agencies within the UK that have been involved and we want all of them together thats one of the problems, is the fragmentation thats been seen.

KM - I think ideally a closer working together would be beneficial and I think there needs to be openess aswell.

Q. I know you have made a few trip to USA would you say USA system is more like that, the law enforcement and different agencies work together ?

GM - I think its easier when its a Federal case there are many many small law enforcement agencies within the USA, 18000 county police forces so there are elements of very small forces fragmentation. There is within the national
centre a team called team Adam which review missing children cases and they are made up of usually recently retired FBI Officers who have got specific expertise in missing children and child abduction. There is obviously expertise within the UK and CEOP and within Europe and this is something that we need cross border agencys working close together

Q. Why do you think the British Authorities are so reluctant to do what you are suggesting ?

GM - You'd have to ask them really.

Q. When you asked them what did they say, you talked to Stuart Prior at LP ?

GM - I dont think Stuart has the power to make the decision, it has to come from higher up than that. My feeling is that they think its quite difficult and

KM - It is difficult but personally I dont think that is a reason not to do it to even carry out a review there are going to be difficulties but I dont think thats adequate really to say well theres going to be problems so we wont do it, I think you have to find solutions.

Theres a little girl missing, STILL missing and you just cant write her off and say oh well we tried, too bad. Its just not good enough.

GM - There are sensitivities and there is territorial elements
and theres patches and these need to be put aside and
these are not insurmountable barriers and if people put Madeleines interests first then it can be done and thats what they need to do. We all hold our hands up in our walk of life we are all open to peer review and we all make mistakes, what you should be is big enough to accept that other things can be done, other things can be done differently and thats what we are asking for.

KM - taking responsibility personal responsibility, individual people can actually do something.

Q. What you are saying is forget the politics, forget the different country and all work together for Madeleines sake ?

GM - Absolutely

Q. How do you think decision is going to affect your Private Investigation ?

GM - I think Rita it is very important with taking that action because we believe that with the amount of publicity that this thesis has generated through and through the sales of the book that there would be a large proportion of Portuguese population who believe that Madeleine was dead and in that situation will not come forward with leads. If you have seen whats in the file and also information that has come to us, there is very little information in the file that has come from Portuguese who live around the Algarve, whereas, theres lots and lots of information from expats and tourists who were there so we still feel we have to try and reach out to them as a potentially untapped source of information.

The people who live in and around PDL are the ones who are most likely to have seen something suspicious, someone out of character who knew someone who lived there. We believe and certainly Dave edgar and other police officers we have talked to that almost certainly someone else knows and its about unlocking that information.

KM - I think yesterday, I think we are all a little bit inherently lazy and I think it is much easier to listen to somebody actually telling you something then to actually look it up and research it and think about it yourself and problem with Mr. Amaral and his team bombarding population particularly in Portugal with his thesis which for us has just been horrendous not to be able to counteract that really and I'm hoping now that the Portuguese people in particular aswell as everybody else will suddenly open their their minds and think hang on a minute his theory has been disproved, he said there is evidence, there is no evidence what does that say about him and I'm going now to try and use my judgement and open my mind to the fact that there is a little girl still missing.

It might be that people have information and they
didnt realise it was relevant because all they have heard everyday is that oh well you know shes not alive anymore and now that info might be very very relevant and I just say
please please open your minds and come forward and help us

Q. How was it to face Portuguese public again ?

GM - We dont think we were really truly facing the Portuguese public in that sort of situation, obviously we have media, we are there, we feel it is very important that information is presented and debated in an objective way and I think that is done in court.

It was very very difficult during the injunction because obviously that was Mr. Amarals appeal against the injunction, so it was one sided information, very selective and there was a lot of distortion in it. But we've managed to sit through that and there there has now been 3 seperate judicial processes all of which agree that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead and thats there no evidence that we were involved in any crime and thats the message we need to get out there, Madeleine is missing whoever is responsible for the crime is still missing and at large and at danger of it happening again and thats what we really want to put out there particularly to the Portuguese people that
we are asking them to help and to think again and to please come forward with information.

Q. Judge found very moving and agreed with you, can you give some idea of your message to her what did you tell her that Amarals thesis and book had done to you and the twins

GM - You dont have to delve very far into the internet to see some of the abuse that has been directed at us, the most damaging thing though for Kate and I is the fact that if people believe what is said there is no search for Madeleine and that is the hardest thing when we were made arguido aswell. Around that time there were submissions from ourselves and obviously from Dave Edgar and our family which have seen effect of this thesis and the other material published which is hard and it is hard enough to be given that the fact that your daughter has been taken and you are trying to search for her and other people for whatever reason are trying to derail that.

KM - We've worked incredibly hard over the last fews years day in day out and its just so hard when somebody is doing their utmost to stop your efforts to stop the search, I just, to me its inhumane and hopefully now our efforts will have more affect then they were allowed to have before.

Q. Given the legal restrictions that have been placed on you at various times, do you still feel even today you cant speak your mind about what you really feel re Portuguese investigation and the way they investigated ?

GM - I think what you've got to realise is, obviously we've probably had the biggest missing child search ever in Portugal thats the first thing to say so there were clearly mistakes made, we are not dwelling on those but I think quite after the
first 24/48 hours the portuguese authorities made signifcant efforts so we have to be thankful for that but clearly we cant rest until we find Madeleine and who took her.

Q. Have you or are you intending to talk to somebody like GB or somebody in the Home Office about what you would like, have you had chance to do that ?

GM - We have had contact with the Home Office and there is an ongoing dialogue and we hope we make some progress but there has to be endenchment bilaterally to be effective, I think, by that, I mean Portugal and the UK not just one side.

Q. Do you feel thats not appening ?

GM -No KM it could be better

GM - I think, I mean, I would probably point out that we did ask about review right back in 2007 and within the Portuguese system there isnt a process in the legal framework that says at this stage is where you review, so it would be a novel thing I would suspect but its not again I dont think its insurmountable and its good practice.

Q. I thought Portugal was Uks biggest oldest Ally. It bizaar 2 countries cant get together and solve the biggest child missing case, you must be astonished that thats not happening ?

GM - I think we were surprised that lets say the red tape that could be put in the way of the most effective search but I think you will find some of the authorities will argue that there was more cooperation than ever before, so you know we cant have it both ways, but its not perfect.

KM - Theres still a lot more that can be done.

Q. Can you put pressure to get a review ?

GM - I think there has to be a dialogue thats the first thing we have to get them working together with the police officers involved on both sides and try and get them round the table and the diplomatic aspects can play a role in achieving that.

KM - Its sad that we are even having to have this conversation isnt it when theres a little girl missing, thats life!

GM - You would hope that the parents of a missing child shouldnt have to here begging for such assistance and that the authorities would actually do everything in their power in the first place, I mean we've had tremendous help in resources given to us to allow us to campaign in this way so we just managed to keep our head above water.
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Post by Sabot Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:53 am

Thanks, Tinkerbell.

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Post by vee8 Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:35 am

Reading that has made me feel angry, sad, sympathetic and helpless, all at the same time.
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Post by christabel Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:57 am

Thanks Tinks,

that must have taken you ages to do.
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Post by Tinkerbell43 Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:09 am

vee8 wrote:Reading that has made me feel angry, sad, sympathetic and helpless, all at the same time.

You and me both Vee. You could actually hear the exasperation in Kates voice at times, its outrageous that they have effectively been left to their own devices to try and piece all the information together, then to find a lot of it has been hidden away marked irrelevant is soul destroying, this is a little childs life for christ sake!.
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Post by Pedro Silva Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:47 am

I agree with you both Vee and Tinkerbell.

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Post by dianeh Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:53 am

Thanks Tinks, much appreciated.

The whole situation really is heartbreaking, and Madeleine is still out there, still missing.
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Post by Rosie Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:45 am

Thank you for this Tinks, it is so important to have this transcript for when the anti-Madeleine's start putting their own words into the mouths of the McCanns, now whatever nonsense they spout can be refuted by referring back to this transcript.

GM - I think, I mean, I would probably point out that we did ask about review right back in 2007 and within the Portuguese system there isnt a process in the legal framework that says at this stage is where you review, so it would be a novel thing I would suspect but its not again I dont think its insurmountable and its good practice.


This statement by Gerry is a case in point, how many times have we heard the antis going one about the McCanns never wanted a review of the case, never wanted the case to stay open etc etc? Yet here we have Gerry McCann stating that as far back as 2007, the parents were asking for a review of the case.

Gerry McCann is correct, just because a review has never happened before is no reason to suggest that it should not happen now, the truth must be known about why certain police detectives acted the way they did. It is good practice and it may just turn up that one vital clue that has so far been missed, I refuse to think in all those thousands of pages of information given the Portuguese police and are now sitting in the files, that there isn't the one vital lead that would take investigators to where Madeleine is now. I think the information s in there somewhere and it will be found, it may have bee found already and is now sitting in Paiva's dossier marked "Irrelevant To The Investigation"!
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Post by Sabot Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:07 pm

I seem to remember that The Portuguese didn't do reconstructions.
But they managed to change their minds on that one, when it was far too late and would no longer serve any purpose in finding Madeleine.

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Post by Rosie Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:03 am

Sabot wrote:I seem to remember that The Portuguese didn't do reconstructions.
But they managed to change their minds on that one, when it was far too late and would no longer serve any purpose in finding Madeleine.

Exactly Sabot! Remember the exact day they decided to ask for this reconstruction and make it public that they had done so?

It was announced on exactly the same day as the McCanns were in Europe lobbying for an Amber alert, they and the Amber alert was received very well by MEPs, so the PJ promptly announced about this reconstruction and also put the boot in and leaked part of the statement about Madeleine saying they were crying the night before she was abducted.

Paulo Rebelo and a couple of others were also in the UK at the time after travelling to attend a meeting with John Lowe of the Birmingham FSS.

Paulo Rebelo cut short this interview apparentl he was acutely embarrassed about the leaks, he apologised to the Leicestershire police and they returned to Portugal early,
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Post by Pedro Silva Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:09 am

Exactly, I agree with you Sabot. Good point Rosiepops.

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Post by Sabot Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:15 am

So even Paulo Rebelo couldn't control the leaks.

Whoever it was doing the leaking was obviously leaking to Amaral as well. And they must know who it was.

What would have been the point of a reconstruction with no press present and only leaks from The PJ.

And beside, Rebelo would not give an undertaking for the safety of the people attending. What were The PJ going to do? Arrest them all? Most of the people apart from The Tapas Group, weren't even invited.

Some Reconstruction.

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Post by May Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:20 am

Thanks for all your hard work Tinks.
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