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Acheronta movebo
Meanwhile…
We referred briefly elsewhere to the fact that a number of the Bureau’s claims against the McCanns dating back to 2009, and once considered as speculative, have been confirmed by judicial or investigative evidence as time has passed. How are the McCanns’ various stories faring these days?
Here's a very small selection, some of which have been dealt with in detail in recent Bureaus. They only cover May-September 2007!
The Abduction
Claim: Apartment found with shutters forced open (“jemmied”) and intrusion by shuttered window by the parents when they returned from restaurant.
Nature of claim: Public, to the media. First week in May 2007.
Source: Healy/McCann family members, including Kate McCann’s father and Trish McCann, stating that Gerry McCann had given them that information by phone on the night May 3/4.
Confirmation/rebuttal: None.
Present status: Claim abandoned.
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Claim: Madeleine McCann's safety and welfare was being checked every half hour between 8.30PM-10PM by parents or members of the group.
Nature of claim: Police statements.
Source: Parents and Tapas 7.
Confirmation/rebuttal: refuted by Archiving Summary Section G ("... they didn't check on them like they afterwards declared they did"; refuted by evidence from Archiving Summary author Menezes at Lisbon libel/HR trial 2009/10; refuted by case files. In fact Madeleine McCann was only checked once at the most, supposedly at 9.05 PM by Gerry McCann ("by his watch".)
Present status: Untrue
Confirmation/rebuttal: refuted by Archiving Summary Section G ("... they didn't check on them like they afterwards declared they did"; refuted by evidence from Archiving Summary author Menezes at Lisbon libel/HR trial 2009/10; refuted by case files. In fact Madeleine McCann was only checked once at the most, supposedly at 9.05 PM by Gerry McCann ("by his watch".)
Present status: Untrue
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Claim: An abductor was seen carrying the child away from the apartment at around 9.15-9.20.
Nature of claim: Public.
Source: Kate McCann, Madeleine. "There was little doubt in my mind then, nor is there now, that what Jane saw was Madeleine’s abductor taking her away."
Confirmation/rebuttal: Public statement from Grange discounts JT evidence as an "abductor sighting" on timescale and identification grounds.
Present status: No supporting evidence. Scotland Yard "almost certain" after investigation that it was not an "abductor" carrying a child.
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Claim: Material evidence of an intruder in the apartment between 8.30 - 9.05PM and 9.10-10.00PM.
Nature of claim: Public plus police statement. Otherwise inexplicable movements of child's bedroom door.
Source: Gerry and Kate McCann.
KM in Madeleine: "What we do now believe is that the abductor had very probably been into the room before Gerry’s check." GM noted "strange" position of bedroom door at 9.05PM in May 10 statement - not in May 4 statement.
Confirmation/rebuttal: Unconfirmed.
Present Status: Like the dogs' results: No supporting evidence.
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The Investigation
Claim: Gerry McCann disabled by a virus on August 2 2007.
Nature of claim: Solely public.
Source: Gerry McCann, Kate McCann.
Confirmation/rebuttal: Untrue.
Present status: Admitted lie.
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Claim: Unexplained visit to apartment by police on August 2 2007.
Nature of claim: Solely public.
Source: Kate McCann.
"Something to do with forensics, they’d said. Great timing. And forensics? What was that all about?" and "When you are innocent, it doesn’t occur to you that you could be considered in any other light. Whatever the case, difficult as it is to believe, I still didn’t smell a rat."
Confirmation/rebuttal: Case files: Search warrant issued to search suspects' ("suspeitos") apartment, presented and executed. Both suspects questioned by detectives in connection with disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Present Status: Untrue.
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Claim: Police offered the parents a deal: a lighter sentence if she would plead guilty to disposing of the child.
Nature of claim: Public.
Source: Kate McCann. On the morning of 7 September KM, the person who insists that she always abided by the Portuguese secrecy rules, gave a "green light", as she described it, to family members peddling a line to the UK media about the police having offered an illegal "deal" the previous day to intimidate and incentivize her into a false confession to disposing of the child's body. She spent two hours spelling out the stories. Her press spokesperson contacted editors so they were ready for them.
The reports dominated the media for more than a day. The Telegraph reported: "In an interview which Mrs McCann gave hours before being declared a suspect, which was published on Sunday, she said: "They want me to lie - I'm being framed."They are basically saying, if I confess Madeleine had an accident, and that I panicked and hid the body in a bag for a month then got rid of it in a hire car, I'd get a two or three years' suspended sentence.""
Confirmation/rebuttal: At no time has KM asserted - rather than implied - that any police officer made any such suggestion, or anything approaching one, or ever spoke to her about deals. The police and justice department gave a comprehensive denial that any such offers had been, or could have been, made. That just leaves her lawyer, who KM, claimed, had acted as messenger for the claim. The lawyer, whose assistant was present when the alleged "message" was delivered, has rebutted her story, stating that the "deal" was a "misunderstanding" on KM's part. No supporting evidence has ever been provided; KM has taken the matter no further.
Present status: It's up there with the jemmied shutters, which also featured intensive phone-calling to family members. Like the shutters claim it has been abandoned.
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See a pattern yet?
More to come.
