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The DCCB got wind of the possible arrival of certain Englishmen
from an information gathering organisation (CRG) supposedly with
an assignment to clean places and things associated with the
family. Looking into this possibility, the following data was
obtained:
- The 'flower' villa was occupied by the family from 2 July
through 9 September 2007; the contract was effective from 1 July
and the key was returned to the letting agent on 10 September by
the wife of an Anglican 'pastor' who practised in Luz.
- That lady later confirmed the delivery of the key and that
while in her possession no-one had asked for it nor had she seen
anything abnormal at the villa.
- A female journalist from ITV (UK) wished to rent the villa to
make some films; her request was declined, the Dutch property
owner, present in the property on 11 September, had already
permitted Dutch friends of his to live there, and had authorised
new shrubs to be planted in the garden.
- It would seem that the new work was not done as the Portuguese
gardener and the owner had some difficulty in communication, due
to the language barrier.
- On 10 September the house cleaner performed her usual chores
and placed two or three boxes of 'dossiers' in the garage, which
boxes were later collected by the same lady who had returned the
key. When the family were in residence the cleaner was always in
the company of a friend or family member.
- The Scenic was rented on 27 May with an additional driver,
Cameron, and, at the end of August, Wright was added to the
contract. It was returned to the rental offices on 23 September
by an unnamed person described as six-foot, short grey hair,
60-65 years, whose signature on the delivery note is illegible.
- The odometer on return was 14,443 km; it had been 3,114 at the
start, so the vehicle had travelled 11,229km. [NOTE:
Arithmetically, that should read 11,329km]
- At the Ocean Club, apartment 5A had been booked for the nights
of 28 April through 4 May (vacating on 5th); the family stayed
in apartment 4G from 4 May through 2 July (vacating on 3rd)
- Apartment 5A was subsequently let between 12 and 19 June (to
friends of the owner); 28 June to 12 July (to three people with
Irish names); 12 to 19 July (to an English couple) and 19 to 26
July (to a family with Southern Asian names).
- On 20 September, two men and a women, claiming to be from "Sky
News", attempted to force open the external blinds of the front
bedroom of apartment 5A and were asked to leave the area; on 25
September a three Spanish persons - again two men and a woman -
were found with cameras on the patio balcony of apartment 5B.
Having no identification, but being in possession of film
equipment, they were believed to be journalists.
- Cleaning staff in Ocean Club were persistently accosted by
journalists, often with offers of money, to provide access to
apartment 5A. They were always refused but the personal
particulars of the pests were not noted.
- With respect to possible sightings of the father at two
buildings near/next to the Luz cemetery, various apartments were
available in those buildings; it could not be ascertained which,
if any, apartment may have been of interest.
- With respect to the property Vila D'Arte, at which the father
had been reportedly seen at some time during July, and to which
the family (adults and two children) had travelled in a Citroen
C3 or Renault Clio, it had been the permanent residence of
persons originating from Holland and/or UK for some 4 to 5
years; the (then-)present occupants hired it through an Internet
site from 24 to 29 September.
- The local informal agent for that property had always
understood that only friends or family of the owners were
granted access to it.
- Back at 5A of the Ocean Club, on 26 September someone forced
up the external blinds of the front bedroom to an oblique angle.
There appeared to be no attempt to force open the window. The
security guard stated between 21:00 and 21:05 he had done the
'rounds' of the block, then walked down to the supermarket and
back again whereupon he found the damage which he called in
immediately.
- He and a colleague from the same security detail had conversed
shortly before 21:00 noting that neither had seen any strangers
other than two Canadian television journalists, a man and a
woman, who had been seen at a nearby bar.
- Given the limited damage and that there had been many people
at that location [presumably during the previous days and all
authorised] there was no attempt to retrieve fingerprints, but
inquiries were made of TV crews and journalists in and around
Luz and Lagos, without result.
Processos Vol
XI Pages 2945 - 2952
Letter from DCCB (Direccao Central de Combate ao Banditismo )
To: The Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation, Dr Amaral
Date 27 September 2007
Information
The undersigned, accompanied by Inspectors Ramos, Ricardo,
Brigantim, and Dordonnat, in compliance with superior orders,
and following information related to the possible arrival in
Portugal of individuals of British nationality belonging to a
private company linked to various activities, mainly the
gathering of information, a company called Control Risks Group,
who supposedly have the objective of cleaning spaces/objects
related to the McCann family, the following inquiries were
carried out in order to check the truthfulness of the facts
referred to in continuation:
1. With help from the Winkworth Estate Agency in Lagos, it was
established that the residence occupied by the McCann couple in
Rua da Flores, lot 27 - Vivenda Vista do Mar, P da L was
effectively occupied by them on 02-07-2007, whilst the contract
shows that the hire period began on 1st July, according to the
copy of the contract we were given.
- The McCanns' departure took place on 09-09-2007 and the keys
to the house were returned the following day (10-09-2007) to the
Winkworth office in Lagos by an English woman named Susan who
was the wife of the Anglican vicar who celebrated mass in the P
da L church.
- With the help of P**** C***** from the Winkworth agency it was
established that after the McCanns left the villa the agency was
contacted by a female individual called M***** C++++ from ITV,
who claimed she wanted to rent the villa for a few days with the
aim of making some films, her request was denied.
- In contact with the owner of the villa, Mr A***** M***** of
Dutch nationality he said that at the moment the villa was being
occupied by some friends of his, of Dutch nationality, surname
S************, the husband named R********, the wife J*****, R
being the director of the Museo de Arte Antiga.
- The owner of the villa said that he had been in the villa
after the departure of the McCanns and that it seemed to him
that there were new plants at the bottom of the garden, without
being able to indicate exactly which plants, a fact that he
commented on with the gardener F**** Do S*****.
- When the gardener was contacted that in spite of the fact that
he does the maintenance of the garden, he had not detected
anything abnormal in it, namely the existence of new plants,
saying that he had some difficulty in maintaining a dialogue
with the owner, because of the language barrier.
- From the cleaner who worked in the residence occupied by the
McCanns, it was found out that on the previous Monday
10-09-2007, she carried out her normal cleaning routine without
noticing anything abnormal, just remarking that two or three
boxes with dossiers were in the garage and which were later
collected by a friend of the McCanns, Susan.
- She says that whenever she went to the house occupied by the
McCanns she always found them to be accompanied by friends or
family.
- On the 11-09-2007, the Dutch owners of the residence were also
present at the property.
- When they (PJ) contacted Susan, they found out that she was
Susan Harboard (sic) and it was confirmed that she had returned
the key to the estate agency after the McCann's departure.
- During the period that the key was in her possession, it was
not requested by anyone, nor does she remember seeing anything
abnormal at the residence.
2. As regards the Renault Grand Scenic, number plate 59-DA-27,
it was hired by Gerry from Rent a car AA. Castanheira, with
offices in Lagos, on 27-05-2007 and was delivered to the McCann
couple at the apartment they were occupying in P da L, from
which time it was noted in the contract that a friend of the
McCanns, Alexander Cameron, was noted as an additional driver.
- At a later date, at the end of August, another additional
driver was added to the contract, Michael Terrence Wright.
- The return of the car to the rental agency, was done at the
agency's offices on 23-09-2007 by a Caucasian individual, who
appeared there alone, speaking English, about 1.80 cm tall, with
short grey hair, about 60-65 years old, who signed the delivery
document for the return of the car, but whose signature is
illegible.
- When the car was delivered to the McCanns it had 3.114 km on
the clock and when it was returned it had 14.443 km on the
clock, thus 11.227 km had been travelled during the period the
car was in their possession.
3. In relation to the McCanns stay at the OC, the following was
checked: Date of occupation of apartment 5 A 28-04-2007 and the
departure date was registered on 05-05-2007, being certain that
from 04 - 05 they did not stay in the apartment. They entered
apartment 4G on 04-05-2007 and left on 03-07-2007.
- After the disappearance apartment 5 A was occupied by the
following individuals: 12-06-2007 - 19-06-2007 by R and F.
F****** (friends of the owners), from 28-06-2007 - 12-07-2007 by
SR, W & CF, 12-07-2007 to 19-07-2007 by BSP and JFP, 19-07-2007
- 26-07-07 by MMS family.
4. It was stated by Silvia Batista that on 20-09-2007, during
the morning, three reporters from Sky News, two men and a woman,
were seen on the patio of apartment 5 A and that they had forced
the external blind to the bedroom that Madeleine had disappeared
from, probably with the intention of filming inside, and she
told them to leave. But she said that yesterday 25-09-2007 a
security guard was asked to come to the same apartment as there
was a group of three journalists - two Spanish men and a woman,
who had set up cameras on the patio next to Apartment 5 A which
was occupied at the time. Their identification was not noted,
but given the fact they had filming equipment, they were assumed
to be reporters.
- With regard to journalists, it was reported by cleaners
working in the block containing apartment 5 A that they are
often bothered by journalists trying to get access to the
apartment, which has always been denied them, the journalists
often tried to persuade them or offer money in exchange for
access.
5. With regard to the possible sighting of arguido Gerry McCann
next to a pink coloured block of apartments at a site opposite
the Luz cemetery, we can inform you that this an establishment
called 'St James Portuguesa Lda', lots 1 and 2 being situated in
the positions mentioned, from the outside the spaces
corresponding to Lot 1 can be seen of a total of apartment
designated as follows: 101-104, 111-114, 121-124, 105-109,
115-119, 125-129.
- In Lot 2 there are some apartments with T3 typology.
- The buildings in question have 3 pavements, whose access to
the different areas is visible from the outside, as they consist
of an open perimeter and there are several commercial
establishments at ground level.
- In view of the number of buildings and given the scarce
information provided it does not seem to us to be viable,
immediately, to take measures to prove or disprove the elements
provided.
6. As concerns the information provided by F***** J**** with
regard to a sighting of the McCanns at a residence called Vila
d'Arte, in the Melody Urbanisation in Espiche, during the month
of July, it was possible to determine which residence this was
and that the building is the permanent residence of some
citizens from NL or the UK for the past 4 or 5 years.
- As regards the sighting itself which occurred at 20.30 - 20.45
on dates that it was not possible to determine more than that
this was in July of the current year and that the couple and
their two youngest children were transported in small car, that
the witness thought to be a dark coloured Citroen C3 or Renault
Clio.
- Upon contacting the current inhabitants of the residence it
was established that they were Dutch citizens who had made their
reservation during the days 24-09-2007 and 29-09-2007 via the
portucasa.nl website and who were from Amsterdam.
- The contract was signed through an intermediary from Winkworth
who said that the McCanns never had any relationship with the
residence in question because it was always let to friends or
family members of the Dutch owners.
- The action of the intermediary was informal, there was no
register of contracts with the occupants.
- The property is normally rented out, the owners do not live
there on a permanent basis.
7. Reference is made that with some of the OC employees an
attempt is made to obtain information about any strange
movements surrounding the apartment initially occupied by the
McCann family and we were told that apart from the journalists,
they did not notice anything unusual. However, they would like
to clarify that given the endless insistence on the part of
these journalists, the employees did not really pay attention to
details, neither did they register their identification of
physical characteristics, limiting themselves to refusing access
to the building and not answering any questions about the events
that occurred there.
- Yesterday at 21.16 the Portimao DIC received a phone call from
a security officer who worked for the OC to say that a few
minutes ago somebody had forced up the shutters of the window of
the bedroom Madeleine had disappeared from. The undersigned,
together with two of his colleagues went to the scene, where
they saw the shutter was hanging obliquely in front of the
window and noted that it had been effectively forced open from
the outside. However, there were no signs of anyone trying to
breach the window.
- These facts were reported by the security guard.
- The guard said that the incident happened between 21.00 and
21.05, when he was making his 21.00 round of the block
containing Apartment 5 A and then walked down the die of 5 A,
down the road to the Baptista supermarket and then returned up
the same road, returning to the surroundings of Apartment 5 A
and saw that in that short space of time, someone who he cannot
identify as he saw nobody around, had approached the window and
forced the shutters. At about 21.06 he alerted reception and the
GNR.
- Immediately before he had been talking to a colleague,
opposite 5 A and 5 B and neither of them had seen anyone
strange, but a few moments earlier they had seen two journalists
- a man and a woman - near the bar, with logos from a Canadian
media channel stuck on their camera.
- Given the scenario, as well as the way the shutter had been
raised as well as the limiting factors that other people had
already been at the site and there was no guarantee of its
preservation, the procedure to examine for fingerprints was not
activated by the Portimao DIC.
- Some trips were made to Lagos in order to attempt to identify
journalists and TV stations, as well as any other persons
suspected, but this activity had negative results. Signed. |
