Intersting information on alleged Maddie suspects

[Magda Hassan]

Madeleine McCann: police target 38 suspects

British detectives open new investigation after reviewing all evidence into disappearance of three-year-old from Portugal

• Sandra Laville, crime correspondent
  
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 July 2013 23.09 AEST
  

Gerry and Kate McCann hold a picture of what their daughter Madeleine may look like six years after she disappeared in Portugal. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

British detectives are targeting 38 potential suspects from five countries as they open a new criminal investigation into Madeleine McCann six years after she went missing from her family's holiday apartment inPortugal.
A formal request for assistance has been sent to the Portuguese authorities as officers from the Metropolitan police pursue what senior detectives involved say are "new theories and new evidence" about what happened to the three-year-old.
Detectives are preparing to be based in Portugal once the authorities there approve, as anticipated, the request to provide assistance to the British investigation.
Officers are also working with police and authorities in three other European countries where potential suspects are based with the aim of asking for their future assistance in carrying out inquiries and arrests.
Scotland Yard asked for media restraint in the coming weeks and months as they began what is being seen as the last chance to discover what happened to Madeleine. Officers believe there is a possibility she is still alive.
The 38 individuals who have emerged as "persons of interest" during a two-year review of the evidence by Met officers come from five countries, including Portugal and the UK. They include 12 British nationals, some of whom are based in Portugal and some in the UK.

Madeleine McCann on the day she disappeared.Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who leads the inquiry, has spent the past two years reviewing the vast amount of evidence from the Portuguese criminal investigation, Leicestershire police the McCanns' home force and information from seven private detectives hired by Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry.
He said the Met team was in a unique position, having put all the evidence, amounting to 30,500 documents, together, and the criminal investigation would now pursue thousands of leads and key persons of interest.
"I believe that there is a possibility that Madeleine is alive," he said. "The review has given us new thinking, new theories, new evidence and new witnesses to pursue. It is a positive step in our hunt for Madeleine that our understanding of the evidence has enabled us to shift from a review to an investigation."
It is understood that the review has also thrown up forensic opportunities to examine.
A spokesman for the McCanns, Clarence Mitchell, said: "Kate and Gerry warmly welcome this shift in the Metropolitan police emphasis. They see it as a huge step forward in establishing what happened and hope that it will lead to bringing to justice whoever was responsible for Madeleine's abduction."
Detectives are at an early stage of the new investigation, known as Operation Grange, and arrests are not expected in the immediate future.
The original Portuguese investigation was shelved in 2008 but, after a request from the McCanns, David Cameron asked the Metropolitan police to carry out a review, which began in 2011.
The £5m review which is being paid for by the Home Office involved getting access to and translating tens of thousands of documents, and has created 3,800 leads which detectives will pursue.

The Ocean Club in Praia da Luz where the McCann family was staying when Madeleine disappeared. Photograph: Linda NylindOfficers who are two-thirds of the way through completing their review have been to Portugal 16 times and shared their findings with the police and the judicial authorities as new information emerges. Prosecutors from London have also travelled to Portugal as part of negotiations to pave the way for the opening of the British investigation.
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 as her parents dined with friends nearby.
The 38 potential suspects being examined are understood to include known child offenders who were in the Algarve at the time of her disappearance.
Redwood said none of the individuals was connected to Madeleine's family or friends who were with her parents on holiday at the time.
The Met team's work leads them to believe Madeleine was abducted in a criminal act by a stranger.
Redwood said: "We remain in close contact with Kate and Gerry McCann and they are updated on our current position."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/j...CMP=twt_fd

[Jan Klimkowski]

For the record:

Madeleine McCann News: Home Office 'To Fund Full Scotland Yard Investigation Following Two-Year Review'

Huffington Post UK | By Sara C Nelson Posted: 17/06/2013 12:36 BST | Updated: 17/06/2013 13:39 BST


Scotland Yard is to take control of the Portuguese investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, according to reports.

The decision comes following a £5m two-year review of the case, says the Daily Mail, adding a formal announcement is due in weeks.

The newspaper claims Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to fund a full-scale inquiry into the little girl's disappearance.

[David Guyatt]

Maddie abductors German or Dutch say Yard?

EXCLUSIVE: German Crimewatch to widen hunt for 'suspects' in Madeleine McCann search

TWO German sounding men are being sought by detectives trying to solve the Madeleine McCann mystery, we reveal today.

By: James Murray
Published: Sun, October 13, 2013

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Raymond Hewlett, 64, is alleged to have been staying near the McCanns' holiday flat [PA]
The focus of the hunt for the missing girl, now aged ten, will dramatically switch to Germany later this week when Kate and Gerry are expected travel there to make an urgent television appeal to run with new e fit pictures of potential suspects.
On Wednesday the German television channel ZDF will feature the BBC Crimewatch reconstruction in their programme, called Aktenzeichen XY, which means File Number XY.
Presenter Rudi Cerne will interview Kate and Gerry in the studio, allowing them to directly appeal to millions of Germans for help in identifying the men.
A blurb for that programme says detectives are now going on the "offensive," suggesting the Yard investigation is rapidly gathering pace.

It says the trawl through existing documents has produced new information which leads to Germany for the first time.
The blurb adds: "This is the reason why XY will show sketches of two men who appear to speak German and who have so far been paid little or no importance."
Programme makers say this is the reason why Scotland Yard approached the programme's producer and asked for a similar appeal on Dutch television on Tuesday night.
In Europe the Dutch and German accents sounds similar so the Yard felt it was vital to appeal to people in the Netherlands, where viewers will see the BBC Crimewatch reconstruction.
Earlier-issued e-fit image of suspect [REUTERS]
Police are searching for new information over Madeleine McCann's disappearance [EPA]

This is the reason why XY will show sketches of two men who appear to speak German and who have so far been paid little or no importance.
Blurb for the German TV channel ZDF's programme on the case

ZDF says Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood will travel to Holland to appear on that separate programme.
Scotland Yard has already made inquiries into potential suspects in Germany.
British child abuser Raymond Hewlett was staying on the Algarve when Madeleine went missing in 2007 and also stayed in Germany.
He says he was at a flea market 30 miles away when Madeleine was taken, but declined to speak to the McCann's private investigators.
He told people gypsies had been looking to buy children, but could never be pinned down on details.
Hewlett died from cancer in Germany in 2010 aged 64 without making any admissions.
The Yard also liaised with their German counterparts on the movements of serial child killer Martin N, who is serving a life sentence in jail in Germany for abducting and murdering three boys.
The charming youth worker targeted children at beach holiday resorts and broke into their homes to snatch them.
In 2011 the Sunday Express published a picture of him alongside an e fit of a man seen acting suspiciously around apartment 5 a in Praia da Luz, just hours before Madeleine was taken.
Ney looked uncannily like the e-fit, but has told German police he was not in Portugal and had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

Sunday Express

[Magda Hassan]

Just found this too.

Madeleine McCann: disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007. Photo: Reuters

London: British police have reportedly arrested a man after he boasted at a party of having recently seen Madeleine McCann on a Mediterranean island.
However, it appears he was arrested for reasons unrelated to the child's disappearance from her family's's holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007.
Britain's Sunday Mirror newspaper reported a week ago that a barrister had given a detailed statement to police after attending a party in Manchester where the man made the extraordinary claim.
The man boasted that he had been introduced to Madeleine on the island this summer. She was in the company of another adult.
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The barrister said he took the claim seriously because of the level of detail.
The Sunday Mirror reported that the man making the claims was arrested during the week, and computers were seized.
In a statement, Greater Manchester Police told the paper "a man was arrested … on suspicion of possession of drugs and conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children."
He was bailed pending further inquiries.
Madeleine's disappearance is being investigated by Operation Grange.
A spokesman from London's Metropolitan Police told Fairfax Media: "We are not providing a running commentary in relation to this."
If any arrest was made by Operation Grange it would be confirmed by the Met, he said.
Police from Operation Grange, along with the McCann family, are due to make a new public appeal for help in the case on a British TV program on Monday night.
The program will also present a fresh timeline of events surrounding the disappearance of the British girl just a few days before her fourth birthday.
It will include a new, 25-minute reconstruction as well as interviews with Gerry and Kate McCann, who launched a global media campaign to find their daughter and still hold out hope she is alive.
Portuguese authorities closed their investigation in 2008, but London's Metropolitan Police spent two years reviewing the evidence and opened their own probe in July this year.
Last week, the Met said analysis of mobile phone data from thousands of people who were in the resort of Praia da Luz when Madeleine disappeared could provide a new lead.
The detectives have interviewed 442 people in the past couple of years and have identified 41 potential suspects, although no arrests have been made.
In the BBC Crimewatch program on Monday night, e-fits of men seen in and around Praia da Luz at the time will be published in a bid to identify the men and eliminate innocent sightings.
Primarily what we sought to do from the beginning is try and draw everything back to zero,'' the chief investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, said in a clip from the program released to the media. Try and take everything back to the beginning and re-analyse and reassess everything, accepting nothing.''
He said detectives were focused on the time between 8.30pm on May 3, 2007, when Kate and Gerry McCann left the apartment to dine at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends, to when Kate McCann found Madeleine was missing at 10pm.
Our work to date has significantly changed the timeline and the accepted version of events that has been in the public domain to date,'' Inspector Redwood said.
The appeal will be shown in Germany and the Netherlands after Monday's British broadcast, in a bid to widen the search for new information.
Last week the McCanns said they were greatly encouraged by new information coming to light'' and that they hoped the BBC appeal would take them closer to finding Madeleine.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/man-arrested...z2hb85sp6o

Madeleine McCann: British man arrested in the hunt for missing girl

13 Oct 2013 08:48Suspect held in a swoop by Greater Manchester Police after the Sunday Mirror revealed that a man bragged about seeing Madeleine alive just weeks ago







Video link hereThe dramatic arrest of a Brit in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has been described as "potentially highly significant".
It has boosted the hopes of the missing youngster's anguished parents Kate and Gerry.
A source close to the couple said: "The arrest only happened as a result of a claim that Madeleine may still be alive."
The suspect was held in a swoop by Greater Manchester Police after the Sunday Mirror last week revealed that a man bragged about seeing Madeleine alive just weeks ago.
A respected barrister told us the man boasted to him that he had met the child on a Mediterranean island. It was claimed Maddie was "introduced" to the man this summer.
It is understood that the Manchester officers who made the arrest also seized computers from a private address and sent them for forensic examination.
Scotland Yard's Operation Grange team have been handed the barrister's detailed statement, which is rated as "high up on the credibility scale".
The Yard officers had reopened the probe into the disappearance of Madeleine, then aged three, from the McCanns' holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
The dramatic twist in the inquiry comes as Kate and Gerry, both 45, prepare to appear in a Crimewatch appeal on BBC1 tomorrow night.
It is understood they are being kept fully briefed on developments.
We told last week how the barrister went to police after being told of the Maddie sighting.
Tourist resorts popular with Brits are now thought to feature in the active inquiry. A family source confirmed last night: "This is high up on the credibility scale.
"The barrister did the right thing by going to police. His information has gone into the Operation Grange system and I know they are working on it.
New hope: Madeleine McCann

PA

"The fact that he was prepared to risk his reputation by making the statement does suggest that it is credible. There are tip-offs and sightings all the time and many of them can be ruled out immediately as either complete fantasy or because there is no credibility to the source.
"This one is more credible because of the nature of the man who brought it to the authorities' attention."
The Sunday Mirror can reveal that the arrested man was at a party attended by the barrister at a private home in an upmarket suburb of Manchester on August 17.
During the evening, the lawyer had a conversation with the man, who told him he had met Madeleine on the island in the Med this summer.
The barrister, shocked and distressed by what the man said about the alleged encounter, contacted his local police force the next day then gave a formal statement.
The barrister, who agreed to speak to us but who we are not naming at his request, refused to comment further on the arrest.
He explained: "I cannot risk compromising the investigation or the search for Madeleine. If she is alive but now *disappears again, I would never be able to forgive myself."
But a separate source close to the arrest said: "A guy at the party told the barrister he had been introduced to Madeleine on the island in the summer.
"The barrister took that to mean that she was with another adult at the time but doesn't know who it was or anything about them."
It is unclear whether the barrister was able to give officers the name of the man he spoke to at the party.
Police have not released any details about the man they have arrested.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said in a statement: "A man was arrested in September on suspicion of possession of drugs and conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children. He has been bailed pending further inquiries. An investigation is ongoing into this matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
New appeal: Gerry and Kate McCann

PA

Last week we revealed how the barrister broke down in tears as he explained what he had been told.
Speaking to us as he walked his dog in a park near his large home in the North West of England, he said: "I can't tell you exactly why I believe what I was being told. It was just a gut feeling.
"I knew that by reporting it, it would compromise me in all sorts of ways.
"But it was something I couldn't ignore. If I hadn't said anything I couldn't have lived with myself."
Asked what it was about the *description the man at the party gave him of the girl he said was Madeleine, the barrister said: "I have told the police everything that I was told about her. They know what that was and that is why they have acted."
Meanwhile Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leics, are set to speak of their hope that their daughter will be found finally thanks to new evidence uncovered by a UK police probe.
Former GP Kate and consultant *cardiologist Gerry will appear live on BBC1's Crimewatch at 9pm tomorrow.
Detectives will appeal for help in solving the six-year mystery of what happened in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was on holiday with her parents and younger twin siblings.
The programme will feature a new reconstruction of events, with Madeleine played by a three-year-old girl.
The programme will also be screened in Holland and Germany.
Before this week's arrest, officers had spoken to 442 people since Operation Grange began. The team had identified 41 "persons of interest", including carers, residents and workers at the resort.
Det Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior investigating officer, said: "I truly believe there are people out there
who hold the key to Madeleine's disappearance."
A Scotland Yard spokesman refused to comment on the arrest and said: "We are not providing a running * commentary on the case."



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