Joana Cipriano

2:48pm UK, Monday May 12, 2008

Alex Watts, Sky News Online

The family of a girl who vanished just seven miles from the Portuguese resort where Madeleine McCann disappeared are convinced the cases are connected.

Joana was last seen near church

On the day of Madeleine's fifth birthday, Joana Cipriano's relatives have urged detectives to investigate links between the two disappearances - saying there are too many disturbing similarities for the evidence to be ignored.

Joana, eight, was sent to buy some groceries from a village store near her home in Figueira, at around 8pm on September 12, 2004.

She bought a tin of tuna and some milk from the Ofelia store, and was last seen by a neighbour walking back near the village church, some 200 yards from her home.

Joana never returned and, like the McCanns, her mother Leonor mounted a campaign to find her. Like them, she and her brother Joao became suspects.

The case, which ended with the pair being sentenced to 21 years, made Portuguese legal history - it was the first murder trial where a body was never found.

Police officers are due to go on trial later this year for allegedly beating and torturing Leonor to make her confess.

Joana's relatives told Sky News Online the pair are innocent and believe whoever took the girl is also behind Madeleine's disappearance, seven miles away in Praia da Luz.

The family, who do not want to be named, said: "This sort of thing doesn't happen in Portugal - child abductions are very rare.

"Whoever took Joana took Madeleine too, the distance is too small. And the police ignored everything we told them, they just wanted to solve the case quickly.

"They didn't look at any of the things we told them about."

They said the most crucial bit of evidence was a white and brown camper van, parked near Joana's home in the days before she was abducted.

The vehicle, with German number plates, disappeared around the time she vanished.

They added: "There was a man living in there, but he hardly left the van. A week later the van was found abandoned in farmland in Praia da Luz. We told the police to investigate it, but they didn't listen to us."

She said the man had short, curly brown hair and was about 40 years old.

A suspect in the Madeleine case, spotted acting suspiciously near the apartment where she vanished on May 3 last year, was described as between 35 and 40, with long, straggly hair.

Criminologist and child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas believes there are far too many similarities between the two cases for it not to be a strong line of police inquiry.

He says that because of the huge doubts over the Cipriano convictions, whoever abducted Joana is more than likely to be behind Madeleine's disappearance.

Like Madeleine's case, the police investigation got off to a bad start, with officers failing to seal off the house where she was last seen.

Leonor alleges police beat her to make her confess. A photograph of her heavily-bruised face was published in Portuguese newspapers.

Goncalo Amaral, a senior detective who was sacked from the Madeleine case, is one of the five officers charged in connection with extracting the confession.

The indictment reportedly alleges that they kicked her, hit her with a cardboard tube, put a plastic bag over her head, and made her kneel on glass ashtrays.

Amaral faces charges of negligence and perjury, another officer is accused of fabricating a document, and the three others are charged with torture.


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I have always thought this little girls mammy to be the victim of goncs twistedness. I might be wrong...but i like going with my gut instincts.

Amaral was the same cop to say that both Madeleine' mam and joanas mum killed their baby girls and hid their bodies in a fridge freezer in order to stop them from decomposing quickly in Portugal's heat.

Part of me wonders if when they find madeleine they are going to strike it lucky and find this little girl to.

I hope im right.

god bless you joana,and madeleine XXXX

There is third link between Joana Cipriano and Madeleine-cases. (Two others are Amaral and Encarnação).

third link is.............................
Ex-Chief Inspector PAULO PEREIRA CRISTOVAO


THE top cop in the Madeleine McCann case has been accused of covering up evidence that police tortured the mother of another missing girl into confessing to murder.

Leonor Cipriano later recanted her confession, but is serving 16 years’ jail for the murder of her daughter, who vanished in Portugal’s Algarve region three years ago.

The body of Joana Cipriano, 8, has never been found.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, who heads the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao — the nearest town to Praia da Luz, from where Madeleine vanished — could appear before a secret criminal hearing as early as next month.

He is accused of concealing evidence over allegations that three of his colleagues tortured Cipriano, over 48 hours’ continuous interrogation, to secure a confession.

All four — and a fifth accused of fabricating evidence — deny the allegations. They say Cipriano was injured when she tried to kill herself by throwing herself down police station stairs.

Portugal’s police have faced increasing criticism of their handling of the McCann case. Cipriano was unable to pick out any assailants from among the accused officers. Sources say the prosecutor is now investigating the allegation that police paid outside thugs to beat her up.

One of the police officers accused of involvement in torture in the Cipriano case is recently retired chief inspector Paulo Pereira Cristovao.

He has been writing a daily column on the Madeleine case for a Portuguese newspaper that has been reporting sensational stories leaked by sources close to the police inquiry, some of which have later proved untrue. He makes it clear he considers the McCanns are probably responsible for Madeleine’s death or disappearance.

Like Chief Insp Amaral, he denies all wrongdoing in the Cipriano case."

So Chief Inspector Paulo Pereira Cristovao, who writes for a Portuguese newspaper Diário de Noticias false stories about the McCann case, is alleged to have been one of the torturers in the Cipriano case. And after that he DARED to write a book about Joana Cipriano (very sensational of course, full of propaganda against Joana's mother just like these columns he has written against McCann's)


"Also book tells of the generosity and commitment of these police that behind the apparent bluntness and irony that mark their bonds of companionship, show its deep humanity." (Google-translation)

Don't know what to say when I´m reading this kind of rubbish.

And now (since December 2007) he's a HEAD of Portugal's new foundation for missing children (Portuguese Association for Missing Children)???

I don´t know what to say again.... I feel there is no justice left in Portugal, just corruption, nothing else.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=501093&in_page_id=1770

Article above is very insulting and aggressive and it shows how disgusting (this is my opinion of him) guy he really is, full of lies and hate against Madeleine's parents.

I believe and I'm sure Joana's mother was a victim of terrible miscarriage of justice. PJ attacked to her to cover the truth about Joana's disappearance and Joana's mother had no chance to defend herself against this huge lynch and propaganda machine, because she is portuguese. Amaral has been accused of covering up evidence in her case. So what were these evidence Amaral covered up? Proved they Joana's mother innocence?
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here is the link where you can see the pictures of this third guy who wrote the book and articles in the newspapers etc.
http://minnea.blogspot.com/2008/01/third-link-between-joana-and-madeleine.html

Seems these guys have a habbit of blaming parents for mysteriously successfully hiding their little ones....then they go on to write a book about it....a book about joana ...and a book about madeleine?????these books must be like twins...exactly the same apart from the names etc.All the rest seems pretty much the same....

1)little girl goes missing mysteriously

2)Mammy gets the fault

3)they were killed and hid in freezers

4)bodies disposed of but never ever found

5)exact same cops in on the hunt?

6) hours of interviews and bribes for kate(tell us you killed her on accident and we will guarantee a light sentence!!)Hmmmmmm

7)hours of interviews for joanas mammy accompanied by beatings to make her talk

8)Rumour of corruption by cops in both cases

9) and a nice little story book to end it all by the one and only PAULO PEREIRA CRISTOVAO

god they like something dragged from out of a kinder surprise egg aint they....full of sh#t

both these little girls are still lost out there somewhere...I believe they are both alive. I must admit there was a time when i though madeleine was dead and that she had maybe died not long after being taken...but if that was the case her body would have showed up by now. The person who took her wouldn't have had much time to hide her away..with the worlds media watching the only way someone could be so sure of keeping her hidden well without anyone seeing her was if the whole thing was ignored and covered up from the start.
The only people capable of that would be the ones in charge. And like it or not the people in charge of both madeleine and joana is the people who took them...they are the ones who calls the shots back then...... and i believe they are still calling the shots now...

No real sightings(hmmmm)...

no evidence(hmmmm)

no dna..(hmmmm)..

no trace of them(hmmmm)...

no leads(hmmm)...

Fridge freezer stunt again(hmmmmm)

Sounds like the perfect crime...BUT is there such a thing as the perfect crime?? I don't think so...not in this day and age with all the forensics and fantastic tech we have......not unless the one who took her is the one who is suppose to be collecting the evidence.

Would you incriminate yourself???(nahhhhhhhhhh)

Would you want the worlds best sniffer dogs to come and help out ??(nahhhhhhhh)

Does a criminal usually try to blame someone else??(yep)

and im not accusing the pj or Portugal's cops...im well aware there are some lovely men and women out there fighting for their country's laws...but just like we have seen here recently in the children's home etc...I think portugal as something going on out there.It was said the casa pia case rocked portugal...I think the Madeline mccann case will shake hell out of them.

I hope when this is sorted joanas mammy can also get some comfort back with her family and friends ...............not sit in that stinking cell they have her shut up in pondering on the whereabouts and wellbeing of her little girl.

Also..one thing bothering me about the fridge freezer malarkey...the sad cop who announced that these two children were hid in the freezer was gonc!!He claimed that joana was chopped up by her mammy(excuse me while i throw up)) so she fitted in the fridge freezer.But he didn't claim that madeleine was chopped up???And the only fridge freezer available to the mccanns was in the kitchen of their apartment.And we all know how small these fridge freezers are when your away..you can only get two items in them and the fridge only hold the most basic of items needed.

If she had been treated that way im sure they would have found a lot more that a poxy spec of so called blood..the place would have been riddled with her blood and death scent no matter how much they scrubbed.....they also claimed they found Madeleine's blood in between the wooden flooring in the lounge.But there is no wooden flooring ???

hmmmm no wonder they didn't want those sniffer dogs coming in in the early stages hey...Took them weeks and weeks before they allowed uk cops to go in with those dogs...and when they did....BINGO..up pops all the evidence that should have been staring them in the face......Hmmmm wonder how that got there???

and for a case that has got no leads... no evidence... no sightings... no nothing.. i find it amusing that some crocked cop can write a book about it all...fascinating isn't it. I wonder if a top psychologist has got a copy to analyse...I hope so.

no wonder so many missing childreen,what can any one expect when there was no law on child abuse untill 5 years ago...................disgusting true fact..............how sad

As I told you, there has been a program on RTP1 (Em reportagem, 15/10/2008) documenting Joana's investigation. Only today has the video been made available on

http://tv.rtp.pt/programas-rtp/index.php?p_id=20716&e_id=&c_id=1&dif=tv

Clairesy made the correct summary.

So, I've decided to translate that video for you as I dont know how to put subtitles. It will take a loooooong page, I guess.

Without trace of Joana

Last time Joana was seen was when she was heading home after making some shopping for her mother. She had bought a pack of milk and two tuna tins. What happen after that was never determined. At first Joana has been classified as ‘missing’.

GNR soldier – "We received a radio communication to go to Figueira village, near the church. The girl’s mother was already there with her partner, Leandro. The objective was to gather the most information to identify the little girl: age, height, how dressed, etc. After that and with these elements, we carried a search through the village.”

The night of 12th September were the village’s festivities, the traditional ‘Festival do berbigão’ [berbigão is a kind of small seafood clamp, TN]. On this amateur video, Joana isn’t seen, but her stepfather António Leandro can be seen there. Next days Portimão GNR widens the searches around the village. Posters were distributed but no trace of Joana. The mother started giving interviews:

“Everybody down there at the coffe shop says there is a story very badly told. The young girl disappeared suddenly, as there were these festivities, it was someone from outside who grabbed her and took her in the car.”

Four days later the case is handled to the PJ from Portimão and four days later [another four days] to PJ of Faro. PJ inspectores hardly knew they were facing one of the most complexes investigations ever.

Guilhermino Encarnação – “During this investigation 50 000kms of ground were walked, 2100 processual acts were produced, about 40 inspectors were used, and requested to LPC [Scientific Police Laboratory] and INML [Forensic Medicine National Laboratory] around 40 examinations and analysis”

Leonor Cipriano went on giving interviews. She doesn’t know if Joana is dead or alive, but asks for her to be returned.

PJ finds a clue: the statements issued by the mother, the family, the uncle did not match.

Gonçalo Amaral: - “The initial statements given to GNR showed a badly told story and several contradictions between people, witnesses belonging to the family circle. Based on these statements and contradictions, it was decided at a given point in time for a new take of statements from these individuals, all at the same time at police headquarters so that they couldn’t contact with each other. The main objective was to determine if the child could have not come back home. There it was proved that she had came back home, it was a lie, there was a simulation of a disappearance, and after that was to understand what happened.”

Leonor is detained by PJ on Sptember 21st, 11 days after the disappearance of her daughter. The child’s uncle, João Cipriano, is jailed next day, on suspicion of homicide. The following days, João takes the inspectors to dozens of different places to indicate where Joana’s body was, but no success, her body wasn’t found.

Gonçalo Amaral: - “At the beginning, it was said that he was kidding us, not exactly. He was probably trying to tell us that the body was spread out or that there was no body. But on the other hand all those dilligencies were proofs and we should porsue them so that we could talk about them in court. We were not talking about arguido’s statements, we were talking about our dilligences. On the other hand it could also happen that he really told us where the body was or remains or parts and we could not go, we couldn’t afford it. We had to go always where he told us, and that’s what happened.”

PJ’s thesis is that the child’s body was fed to the pigs, a thesis later not proved in court. Shocked with this macabre story, hundreds of people invaded the village looking for answers. The same answers PJ also was looking for, why was Joana murdered and where was her body.

Guilhermino Encarnação: - “At the beginning it is a disappearance and this ‘crime’ is not defined in law, may have behind it a series of crimes, namely abduction, people trafficking, criminal association, all these crimes may be behind a disappearance. Complexity starts there.”

Both Leonor and her brother confessed the crime to the police. João Cipriano agreed to tape a reconstruction where he explains using a kitchen stool how his niece was killed by slappings and where she hit her head against the wall. The images taken by PJ were shown during the trial under the protest of the defense lawyers.

Sara Rosado(João Cipriano’s lawyer): - “I can understand that all the pressure developped on this process has lead to these and other statements in the same sense, on the reverse sense, with different details, different facts, the version showed in that video is not even the accusation thesis. So, only the pressure put on the interveening people, this process suffered several vicissitudes, a strong pressure over everybody including the arguidos who were in jail and so on.”

RTP sought authorisatition from the Portimão Court to air a small excerpt of the video but the presiding judge denied , invoking the right to image of the people intervening in the video. João Cipriano also agreed to make another photographic reconstruction where with the help of a doll he explained how he sliced Joana’s body in three parts. According to the Public Prosecutor's accusation all three body parts were kept in black plastic bags in a small deep freezer for the first couple of hours. Several exams made by the LPC experts at Joana’s house, traces of human blood were found in one of the deep freezer drawers. DNA analysis did not confirm it was Joana’s blood.

Gonçalo Amaral: - “That is one of the versions given and that we believe as viable. There is a drop of blood on a drawer, not as if anyone opens it and drops a bit of blood, no the blood dropped down the drawer and it was clean, that why only the bit on the bottom was there, in a place of difficult cleaning. The explanation was necessary in these circumstances where the homicide occurs as there is not a prepared, planned homicide, it just happens, it occured the way everybody knows it did. João hid the body, its viable its possible they tried on a first phase to think what to do with the body”

It was also proved during trial that the different parts of the child’s body could only fit into the freezer if the drawer where the human blood was was removed.

Sara Rosado: - “The doctor who attended that dilligence told the court that the body would fit in the limit, being correct that from his statement is highlighted that only removing the drawer. The blood was found in the rear of the drawer so one should remove the drawer. The doctor said that the arguido was astonished by that which means he never thought about it. So, it is unlikely that something similar had occured.”

Many more residues of blood were found in the house. With ultra-violet light, the experts detected blood on the walls near the outdoor, hand and facial impressions of a child. Also, not proved it was the child’s blood. Behind a lampswitch next to the outdoor more light residues were found but the DNA coincided with the one of Ruben Cipriano the younger child living in the house.

João Grade(Leonor Cipriano lawyer): - “There was no blood in these many different areas, there were residues of blood, human, animal, which is normal if you think of a housewife peeling potatoes while watching the soap, she might made a cut and bled onto the floor, it is enough that she cleaned the same way any one of us would do, with the exams we are able to make today it is possible to reach the conclusion that there was blood there and that that is a blood residue but that isn’t enough for anything. In any of our houses there may be blood for different reasons.”

On the house floor and on a mop there were residues of a mixture of human and animal blood. Exams results again were not conclusive. Alledgedly the analysis made to the residues were inconclusive because Leonor cleaned the house with ‘domestic petrol’ as the house was infested by ticks, something PJ inspectors doubted as they found the house filthy and with dirty dishes, only a few walls had been cleaned. As soon as the first suspicions arose, the house should have had been secured.

Gonçalo Amaral: - “It was noticeable that the house had been washed, that area where the blood is had been washed, with ‘petrol’ Leonor bought the day she left the police premises in Portimão, so there was an attempt that resulted ok, one may say, of preventing any laboratorial result. The possible residues were collected under the circumstances and we concluded that it was human blood. As the court says in the final report something happened in that house that day. And that’s what we tried to determine and reached the conclusion it was a homicide.”

Another proof found has been a pair of red shoes that the child alledgedly was wearing the day she disappeared. For the PJ, the mother and uncle forgot to hide the shoes unlike the shoppings that never were found.

Sara Rosado: - “Nobody knows what she was wearing , specially the shoes.”

February 2005 pictures of Leonor badly bruised were published. The trial is starting soon. Four inspectors charged of torture and Gonçalo Amaral charged with preverting the course of justice and omiting facts.

Guilhermino Encarnação: - “This is extremely difficult because in 30 years of criminal investigation I don’t see the confession of a crime of this seriouness without the arguidos saying that they were victims of torture or ill treatment. This for us, police forces, starts being normal, usual, natural. So I don’t give much importance to that.”

Leonor and João chose to keep silent through the whole trial. In December 2005 they were sentenced for the crimes of murder and body concealment. Leonor was sentenced to 20 years and 4 months in jail, João to 19 years and 2 months. The court of three judges and four jurors considered that the brothers did not have intention of killing the child but accepted as proved that the little girl was dismembered although did not conclude that the body had been kept in the freezer as it was not proved that the child was killed because she unexpectedly found the mother and the uncle having sexual intercourse. Both the defense lawyers and public prosecutors appealed and the Supreme Court reduced the terms. With many doubts still standing, Leonor’s lawyer presented another appeal to the HREC.

João Grade: - “It is frustating, at least, that we don’t even know what happened. We have the story of that 10 year old girl who disappeared 8 years ago and that reappeared now at 18. We do not know if Joana will reappear in twenty, in four years, alive, dead, I don’t know.”

RTP tried to talk to Leonor and João Cipriano currently serving jail sentences. Leonor sent us a signed declaration accepting the interview. Two days after the request was put to the direction of the prison services, the same services sent us another declaration where Leonor annulled the first one alledgedly because of lack of clear knowledge. João Cipriano accepted to give his first interview, a written interview where he states his innocence: “I didn’t harm my niece Joana Guerreiro. I’m innocent. I was threatened with beatings to make the video tape shown in court but it is all lies. PJ went almost everyday to Olhão prison where I was to ask me where Joana was and, afraid of the beatings, I went on saying it was here and there but it was all lies. It was my sister Leonor who told me that Joana was well, she told me she had sold her to foreign couple.”

Joana’s fate is not clear yet

Maria,

what a great article.
How many of Gonc's statements in that ring a bell?
I watched that video you put up too, and watching Gonc's eyes was more than enough for me.

That was the idea. As I couldn't translate on the video or subtitle it I decided to write the translation, so you can watch and read in a somewhat async way but...

Yes, anyone knowing these two stories and the books and everything else, will easily come to the conclusion that a) Amaral has a very limited imagination and b) Amaral has a very limited (portuguese) vocabulary, therefore c) Amaral has a lower than average IQ.

I'm trying to take this very lightly, but it isn't light nor do I feel any amused. This report is the proof that his man is completely insane.

But what worries me even more is the attitude of Encarnação relatively to the abuses against detainees. I had an article published a couple of weeks ago where a guy taken to PJ by mistake was released the same day with a couple or two of broken ribs, some heavy bruises, all done by two of the officers now on trial (this was up in Lisbon), but I can't find it.

And have you read the court findings? I knew there were no proofs, etc, but I was simply bemused by that 'report'.

Thanks for taking the time to translate that Maria,

God bless you.