PRIVATE MEETING ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Home Office launches secret review into Madeleine McCann's disappearance


The Home Office has secretly begun a review that could lead to a fresh police inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.





By Robert Mendick
Published: 9:00PM GMT 06 Mar 2010
Missing Madeleine McCann Photo: PA



The move follows the release of 2,000 pages of evidence last week which Portuguese detectives are accused of having failed to fully investigate.
According to sources close to the McCanns, Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, has ordered officials to examine the 'feasibility' of British or Portuguese detectives looking afresh at all the evidence.

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Kate and Gerry McCann met with Mr Johnson last year to plead for help in their search for Madeleine, who vanished without trace in May 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
The couple have also met with John Yates, the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, who has headed up a number of high profile inquiries in recent years.
He is said to be "sympathetic" and to have made "general offers of assistance".
The source said: "The latest we have heard from the Home Office is officials are undertaking a 'scoping exercise' to look into the possibility of a review of the case.
"They are looking at all the options. It is basically a feasibility study.
"Kate and Gerry met with Alan Johnson to request a review is done. Hopefully any political intervention can unlock obstructions that might be in the way."
Pressure is now being put on Portuguese authorities to agree in the first instance to a three-day review of the case that could be held at Interpol's headquarters in Lyon in France.
The McCanns will hope the Home Office can persuade their Portuguese counterparts to co-operate in a case review.
The review – were it to go ahead – would involve British police working with Portuguese counterparts as well as experts in child abduction across other European forces.
The Portuguese police have been heavily criticised for their handling of the case which led to detectives naming the McCanns, both doctors from Leicestershire, as arguidos – or suspects – in the case and accusing them of involvement in her disappearance.
Their arguido status was subsequently lifted and the police investigation shelved.
But with the senior officer in charge Goncalo Amaral now widely discredited and facing financial ruin after being sued for libel by the McCanns over a book he wrote, it may become harder for the Portuguese to refuse the request for a thorough review.
The revelation that possible leads – many passed to Portuguese police by the McCanns' own private detectives – had apparently been ignored will add to the clamour.
Last week, details emerged of a series of possible sightings of Madeleine, who was just three when she vanished.
A further obstacle was removed with the death from stomach cancer two weeks ago of Guilhermino Encarnacao, who was in charge of the Policia Judiciaria in the Algarve.
Mr Encarnacao was convinced Madeleine had died in her parents' apartment and was a major source of a series of off the record briefings to journalists against the McCanns.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Home Secretary had a private meeting with Kate and Gerry McCann.
"Leicestershire Police stand ready to co-ordinate and complete enquiries if further information comes to light in the UK; or if requested to do so by the Portuguese authorities, who continue to lead on the overall investigation."
The spokesman refused to discuss what talks took place at the meeting or whether there was the chance of a review of the evidence at Interpol.
The spokesman added: "We are not going to comment on the outcome of any private meeting with the McCanns."
Mr Yates was unavailable for comment. He led the cash for honours investigation and was also involved in a new inquiry into the murder of Julie Ward, who was murdered in Kenya in 1988.

If it's 'secret'......?

But, in the face of it, it looks heartening.

Vee it looks like this spokesman has not given away anything that we do not not already know, we know they had a meet with Alan Johnson, they also met with David Cameroon around the same time.

I just hope and pray that what has been intimated here is the truth, it is everything we have been calling for and it is everything we have said needs to happen, in order to move this case on.
Madeleine MUST be found and her abductors caught and punished.
If this is true then Amaral and Paiva are going to be spending rather along time on their toilets!

I have also had a reply to my email to my MP today regarding this, I only sent it this morning, he said he will raise this with David Hanson secretary for State again and I asked him to instead, try and raise it with Alan Johnson himself and I am awaiting his reply.

I have written many letters asking for the measures that have been mentioned in the above post and I know others on here have also done this, let's keep the pressure up now, more than ever.

Also I doubt very much if this would have got to this stage had the newspapers not applied pressure like they did last week, (apart from showing pictures of innocent children and a couple of other things), I think they done well.

Not much of a secret if its in the papers.

But this is much more important.

A further obstacle was removed with the death from stomach cancer two weeks ago of Guilhermino Encarnacao, who was in charge of the Policia Judiciaria in the Algarve.
Mr Encarnacao was convinced Madeleine had died in her parents' apartment and was a major source of a series of off the record briefings to journalists against the McCanns.

So now we know the source of the leaks that caused so much heartache and grief to the McCanns, and to Madeleine herself. And now he is dead and unable to defend himself. Was he also a ghost write for Amaral's book?

A little to convenient for my liking.

If there is going to be a review it would explain why the McCann's have publically distanced themselves from the press releases this week. They are going to need the support and cooperation of the Portuguese authorities, and not least, unfortunatly, the PJ. They need to keep them on board, and any press critisicm may make that job harder.

Maybe our letters and emails helped this time..I know of at least 20 that went to Johnson...who originally seemed uninterested.......

This latest report looks promising.

dianeh wrote:Not much of a secret if its in the papers.

But this is much more important.

A further obstacle was removed with the death from stomach cancer two weeks ago of Guilhermino Encarnacao, who was in charge of the Policia Judiciaria in the Algarve.
Mr Encarnacao was convinced Madeleine had died in her parents' apartment and was a major source of a series of off the record briefings to journalists against the McCanns.

So now we know the source of the leaks that caused so much heartache and grief to the McCanns, and to Madeleine herself. And now he is dead and unable to defend himself. Was he also a ghost write for Amaral's book?

A little to convenient for my liking.

I thought this was convenient too, but we all knew that there was someone else besides Amaral leaking to the press!
I wonder Diane, is Amaral going to blame the Felicia Cabrita leak on him also? You know Ms Cabrita, the journalist who will do "anything" for a story! Then she miraculously gets hold of highly confidential and classified information, such as witness statements, names and addresses and telephone numbers!

vee8 wrote:If there is going to be a review it would explain why the McCann's have publically distanced themselves from the press releases this week. They are going to need the support and cooperation of the Portuguese authorities, and not least, unfortunatly, the PJ. They need to keep them on board, and any press critisicm may make that job harder.

Maybe Vee, but I honestly feel the press were unfairly criticised. There were several reports last week that I thought could have been held back, but overall, I do think they done a good job, because they applied the pressure that none of us are in the position to apply.

Maybe they do need to keep the Portuguese on side, but the Portuguese police and government have to realise that they allowed Amaral to swan around his country and Europe causing this crisis.

Personally, I hope the press carry on exposing the wrongs of this investigation, I just hope they use some sense when it comes to publishing little girl's pictures who plainly and obviously are not Madeleine.

I am also quietly confident about this report, the home secretary and I do hope it is true that we will see a Portuguese and British team operating a new investigation.

Jesus, if the corruption went as high as The Chief of The Juduciaria for The Algarve then Portugal's problems are worse than I thought.

But why did they put Amaral in charge of the case in the first place, Rosie? They must have known what he was like, so I can only assume that they approved of his behaviour. They knew jolly well that he was in trouble over The Cipriano Case, and yet they still put him in charge.

Didn't they have anybody else who could have done the job?
Didn't Sofa write : "My husband's holiday was supposed to start the day after your daughter disappeared."
May isn't exactly High Season, when everybody wants to book his/her Holidays, is it?

Perhaps he needed the overtime.

For shagging and things.

Sabot wrote:Perhaps he needed the overtime.

For shagging and things.

My friend, Sabot, that is a question I put since the first second of sweet Madeleine´s abduction.

Pedro Silva wrote:My friend, Sabot, that is a question I put since the first second of sweet Madeleine´s abduction.

Great minds, Pedro. He doesn't seem to have done much actual investigating, so he must have been up to something when the lovely Sofia thought he was working.

Yup, all those late night meetings must have served something, Sabot.
They certainly didn't serve finding Madeleine.
Btw the requests about the Polish Couple (late in the evening) weren't signed by dear old GA, they were sent and signed by João, who seems to be a honest, hard working, dedicated Police Officer.
Unless I'm mistaken other (kind of similar) requests were signed by higher ranked officers, like Tavares, or GA himself. But then those probably weren't sent late in the evening.

If he was the coordinator in Portimao, if Praia da Luz was on his patch, then, one more reason to do things right, one more reason to know that what was immediately needed was experts in child abductions.

Sabot wrote:But why did they put Amaral in charge of the case in the first place, Rosie? They must have known what he was like, so I can only assume that they approved of his behaviour. They knew jolly well that he was in trouble over The Cipriano Case, and yet they still put him in charge.

Also why was his friend Paulo Cristovao, who was also an arguido and awaiting trial over the alleged torture of Leonor Cipriano, allowed to be in charge of the newly set-up Association for Missing Children in Portugal. Why would you put an arguido on charges of harming the mother of a missing child in charge of such a bureau.
They seem to have had it 'all sewn up' between them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-501093/McCanns-arrested-abandoning-Madeleine-missing-childrens-boss-says.html

Why indeed Jack and to add insult to injury I believe they never listed Madeleine on there!

Rosiepops wrote:Exactly Pedro, I agree with everything you have said, Goncalo Amaral was experienced enough to know what needed to be done immediately, even if they did think Madeleine had "wandered"off, she was a minor and little more than a toddler, Amaral should never have just assume (if that is what he did and I do not believe it was), an abduction alert should have gone out immediately, notdays later! There is no excuse for it. In my opinion this is why Kate and Gerry got such a hard time because Amaral for whatever reason did what he did, the rest of the PJ knew Amaral was wrong and knew they were wrong, so they looked for a scapegoat and Kate, Gerry fitted the bill, it is almost like a replica of the way Amaral handled the Joana Cipriano missing child case.

Tinks, Sabot, Cath and JakF, what you both have said is the reason why I think the level of corruption does not stop with Amaral, it actually goes higher and the onloy way this can be sorted out is if Portugal holds a full and open public Inquiry headed by an indepedent judge from outside Portugal. I think the gravity of the situation Portugal is now in is at last and finally beginning to hit home, it is now dawning on them that they will actually have to do something to stop serious damage being done to the reputation of Portugal, damage that Goncalo Amaral and Ricardo Paiva and others have brought about!

AGREE ....