It turns out that
Kate and Gerry McCann suppressed for five years ‘critical evidence’ that became
the centrepiece of the recent BBC Crimewatch programme on the disappearance of
their daughter Madeleine.
Findings by ex-MI5
agents long kept under wraps by the McCanns included the two e-fit images described
in the Crimwatch programme by Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Andy
Redwood as of “vital importance.”
The images are of
a suspected kidnapper seen by an Irish family in Praia da Luz the night
Madeleine went missing.
They were given to the McCanns by a handpicked team of investigators from Oakley
International hired by the McCanns’ Find Madeleine fund in 2008.
Henri Exton, an MI5’s
former undercover operations chief who led the team, told the Sunday Times he
was “utterly stunned” when he watched the Crimewatch programme and saw the
evidence he had passed to the McCanns presented as a new breakthrough.
He said the fund had
silenced his team with a lawyer’s letter binding them to the confidentiality of
a report they had compiled that contained controversial findings. Mr Exton said the
legal threat had prevented them from handing over the report to Scotland Yard’s
investigation until detectives had obtained written permission from the fund.
The Oakley
International report, delivered in November 2008, gave little credibility to
Jane Tanner’s 9.15pm sighting and focused instead on the 10pm sighting by the
Irish Smith family. The investigators recommended that their e-fit images be
released without delay.
For some reason
the images were not published even in Kate McCann’s 2011 book Madeleine, though
it devoted a whole section to eight “key sightings” and carried e-fits on all
of them except the Smiths’.
In its Insight
report, the Sunday Times quoted one of the Oakley International investigators
as saying: “I was absolutely stunned when I watched the programme . . . It most
certainly wasn’t a new timeline and it certainly isn’t a new revelation. It is absolute
nonsense to suggest either of those things . . . And those e-fits you saw on
Crimewatch are ours.”
The hushed-up
report is said to have questioned parts of the McCanns’ evidence, contained
sensitive information about Madeleine’s sleeping patterns and raised the highly
sensitive possibility that she could have died in an accident after leaving the
apartment herself from one of two unsecured doors.
The Sunday Times
quoted a source close to the Find Madeleine fund as saying the report was
considered “hypercritical of the people involved” and “would have been
completely distracting” if it became public.
In fact, the
Portuguese lead detective Gonçalo Amaral considered the Irish sighting to be
very important back in May 2007 when the Smith family first reported it to the
Policía Judiciária. Details of the sighting and ‘hypercritical information’
were in the public domain early in January 2008, three months before the Oakley
team arrived on the scene.
Ebullience at the
huge response to their Crimewatch programme turned to embarrassment in certain
quarters when it was revealed yesterday that the BBC had cast a
porn star in the ‘reconstruction’ of events the night Madeleine disappeared.
With such films as ‘Tight
Rider,’ ‘Dr Screw’ and ‘From Dusk Till Porn’ on his CV, the actor Mark Sloan
was engaged by the BBC to represent one of the McCanns’ holidaying friends with
whom they dined each night, Dr Matt Oldfield.
“How could the
casting director not know of his background when they picked him? It’s all over
Google. Did no one check? It is unbelievably stupid,” an agent, who did not
wish to be named, told the Daily Star.
Meanwhile,
although a new Portuguese police investigation only became official last week,
a PJ team in Oporto in the north of Portugal has been reviewing the case for
some time, and another PJ team in Faro in the Algarve has been assisting Scotland
Yard with their inquiries. It is believed that the new Portuguese investigation
will be conducted by group of PJ detectives working independently of Scotland
Yard.
Things seem to be
hotting up, though there is still no end to the mystery in sight.
* The
Sunday Times published the following apology to Kate and Gerry McCann
and Madeleine's Fund on 28 December 2013.
“In
articles dated October 23 ("Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years"
and "Investigators had E-Fits five years ago", News) we
referred to efits which were included in a report prepared by private
investigators for the McCanns and the Fund in 2008. We accept that
the articles may have been understood to suggest that the McCanns had
withheld information from the authorities. This was not the case. We
now understand and accept that the efits had been provided to the
Portuguese and Leicestershire police by October 2009. We also
understand that a copy of the final report including the efits was
passed to the Metropolitan police in August 2011, shortly after it
commenced its review. We apologise for the distress caused.”