Posted by Last updated at 16:19pm on 11th April 2008
Kate and Gerry McCann have launched a counter-attack against Portuguese police as the row over leaked statements about their daughter’s disappearance escalated into a war of words.
Police were warned by the couple’s official spokesman that the “gloves are off” after what he claimed was a “cack-handed” smear campaign timed to disrupt a new appeal by the couple in Brussels.
The McCanns are said to be furious about the release of their statements yesterday, which revealed for the first time that Madeleine had been left sobbing for her mother the night before she vanished.
And today, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell signalled a distinct change in tactics for the couple by lashing out at police and calling on the Portuguese government to stop any leaks to the press once and for all.
Heartbroken: The McCanns, seen here in Brussels yesterday, left Madeleine sobbing on the night before she vanished
Mr Mitchell told Sky News: “This is a blatant and timed attempt against Kate and Gerry to try to deflect attention in the headlines from the success they had at the European Parliament… to try to divert attention onto negative headlines questioning their suitability as parents.
“It is shameless, brazen and very cack-handed and the Portuguese government must now get as grip on whatever element it is in the Portuguese police that is responsible for these leaks and smears.
“They have continued since last summer and when the officer in charge of the inquiry, the man brought in to sort it out, is visiting here, off they go again.
“Its the same old game. We know what they’re up to, it is ridiculous and must stop.”
He added: “Someone in the police does not want Kate and Gerry to widen the agenda for whatever reason. It is wrong, it is illegal and the Portuguese government needs to stop this from happening in the future.”
Mr Mitchell spoke out as chief investigator Paulo Rebelo was returning to the Algarve for a crunch meeting with the private prosecutor who holds the future of the McCanns in his hands.
Mr Rebelo was due to give Portimao public prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes a detailed run-down of his three-day trip to Britain to sit in on fresh interviews with the couple’s holiday friends.
The meeting is expected to be crucial in determining whether Madeleine’s parents remain official police suspects.
Madeleine: Missing for almost a year
An investigating judge is expected to life a secrecy order on the case on May 15 unless prosecutors ask for a three-month extension.
The McCanns could then demand they are either charged or cleared.
Mr Mitchell had earlier claimed that it seemed to be no coincidence the leak had occurred while Rebelo was in the UK interviewing witnesses in the case.
He said: “It is beyond curious this leak has occurred while Rebelo is in the UK.
“It is outrageous and illegal and Portuguese government needs to look at what elements in its own police force are capable of. We are not happy and the gloves are off.”
The statements, which have been confirmed as genuine, revealed how Kate and Gerry McCann had left their daughter, then three, and twins Sean and Amelie, two, crying in their bedroom and did not respond to their tears.
Mrs McCann told detectives that Madeleine had scolded her the next morning – the last they were to spend together.
It also emerged that Mr McCann said Cuddle Cat, his daughter’s favourite toy, was “almost in the same place” as where he had last seen it.
The couple had previously said that it was found high on a ledge, at adult height, which is how they were so certain that Madeleine had been abducted.
Mrs McCann told police: “While we were having breakfast, Madeleine said, ‘Mummy, why didn’t you come when we were crying last night?’
“Gerry and I spoke for a couple of minutes and agreed to keep a closer watch over the children.”
But, just hours later, the McCanns left the three alone in their unlocked holiday apartment to have dinner with friends.
They have faced furious criticism over the decision, and have spoken of their guilt that an abductor could have watched them leave and then snatched Madeleine.
Mr Mitchell said today that they had listened to Madeleine and had a serious discussion about it but insisted the toddler had been laughing and happy.
The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell has come out all guns blazing against the Portuguese police
“They wanted to question her about it. She just walked off, laughing and happy. She was a child so she [Kate] dropped it,” he said.
“They decided to check more thoroughly the next night and that is what they did.”
Mr and Mrs McCann had told police about the incident because they feared someone could have been in the room the night before and run off when Madeleine began crying, he added.
The row yesterday overshadowed their visit to the European Parliament, where they made an impassioned appeal for a Europe-wide alert system for abducted children.
A friend of the couple said they were “angry and disappointed” about the leak.
He said: “The minute that you talk about Madeleine crying is the minute that the vultures will move in and this is why this has been leaked.
“It is a blatantly cynical attempt to smear them.”
Portuguese police have so far refused to comment about the leaked statements.
But detectives have been infuriated by the couple’s political influence and by Gordon Brown’s interest in the case.
There has also been criticism of the McCanns’ decision to spearhead a campaign while they remain official suspects in the 11-month investigation.
Message of hope: Kate McCann smiles at she heads to Brussels
The police statement from Mrs McCann, 40, said she and her husband spoke on the night of May 3, before they went out for dinner, and said what a wonderful holiday they had enjoyed.
Just two hours later, their lives were to be shattered when she returned to the apartment and discovered Madeleine’s bed was empty.
In her statement she said she screamed: “Maddie isn’t there. Someone’s taken her.”
In Mr McCann’s police statement he said: “I thought it couldn’t be and ran towards the apartment along the same route as always. I looked everywhere.”
Madeleine has not been seen since that night, despite scores of unconfirmed sightings.
On a mission: Kate and Gerry McCann board the Eurostar on their way to meet MEPs
Her parents have always denied any involvement in her disappearance and any suggestion that they neglected their children.
Yesterday they addressed MEPs in Brussels about a proposed European alert system for abducted children.
They want a similar system to the Amber Alert scheme in the U.S. which sees details of missing children and potential suspects circulated within hours of a disappearance.
Mrs McCann told the Euro MPs of the anguish they had been through.
“Madeleine was an incredibly happy, confident and loved little girl,” she said. “This time last year we were a very happy family.
“I am unable to convey to you just how totally devastating Madeleine’s abduction was. It’s been totally awful.
“If anyone wanted to inflict the maximum amount of pain on us they have certainly achieved that.”
She said she clung to the possibility that Madeleine was alive, saying: “We certainly still have hope.”
December 5th, 2008 at 1:43 am
it makes people wonder how many times more the selfish parents have they left there children on there own before maddie was supposeley kidnapped due to neglect
December 14th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I hate to point an accusing finger at her parents. If the map I saw was accurate, the restaurant they were eating in was not close enough for them to have left the door unlocked. I wonder why their other children never seem to have been questioned about what they might have seen. I really hope they don’t come out 20 years from now and expose one or both of their parent’s as killers.
If they didn’t actually kill her, it looks a little suspicious that they thought leaving the door unlocked was acceptable. Like they were allowing someone to enter the place and do the job for them.
It really is far more likely that they felt they were in a safe place, like the millions of people who still stupidly leave their car engines running while they run into stores. There are scum lurking everywhere, we no longer live in a lovely world filled with honest people.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:39 am
It’s so sad. BUt exactly. Why did they leave the door open? But i’m soo sad for madeleine..
June 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Nobody seems to remark on what for me is the most suspicious aspect of this case. Kate says that she `knew` Madeleine had been abducted. So what did she do ? She left her other two children alone in the flat while she ran to the Tapas bar. I do not believe any mother would leave their children alone if they truely believed that one of their children had just be stolen. The abductor could still be around. Ask yourself what would you do ? There is also the fact that the other two children did not wake up during the following commotion. Is this because they had been drugged ?
July 5th, 2010 at 5:39 am
It’d make me laugh if it didn’t make me so furious; Kate says they left the door unlocked so the kids could get out in an emergency…but when someone pointed out Maddie could easily have left the apartment under her own steam, they say ‘oh but she wasn’t strong enough to open the unlocked door’
it’s s sad state of affairs when practising DOCTORS can’t even get their lies straight.
And I agree with Brenda, while Kate may have been in shock over finding Maddie gone, was it really such severe shock that she willfully left her even younger and more vulnerable babies alone?
I dont know if the kids where drugged because two of my brothers, on separate occasions, slept through loud armed robberies in our house, during which people were screaming, shouting, and quite roughly moving them around.
One was asleep in a bassinet which invaders moved to block the bedroom door with while they went through the bedroom for jewellery and cash.
Another slept through us being held hostage in our house for two hours, then being carried next door, then the police turning up, all of it. When he woke up, it was for his night time feed.
Babies really can sleep through the end of the world so the other two not waking isn’t THAT suspicious.
What’s odd is that they think an abductor may have been in the room with Maddie the night she was crying, before she was taken.
Why the fuck, if the kid cried for near enough 90 MINUTES without response, wouldn’t he have taken her then?!
Just admit you made a mistake and left vulnerable children alone. If nothing else, you’re selfish, irresponsible parents who made fatal errors on that holiday.
If it’s the ONLY thing you admit to, stand up and do that.
I might not even suspect the McCann’s if not for their refusal to shoulder ANY of the blame for their actions.
Let’s just assume Maddie was nabbed by some random predator who had been following the family and figured out their habits of leaving the kids alone- Ever since, the McCann’s have blamed the Portugese police, the media, the public, leprechauns, bigfoot, spiderman and my aunt fucking sally for Maddie vanishing.
Not ONCE have they said ‘we made a horrible, horrible mistake, we allowed our daughter to be left alone and taken, we are in that sense, entirely to blame’
They’ve blamed everyone but themselves.
That, to me, is odd, and why I began to suspect them in the first place.
That and they totally did it.
July 8th, 2010 at 8:15 am
5 Curious
Actually – Kate’s is right in that Madeleine would not be able to open the patio door herself because they are so HEAVY- but that’s by the by – an adult could so it was really as you say a false security system!
Yes – the fact that she used the ‘crying episode’ to maybe say someone was doing a trial run is ludicrous – if she thought that then why did she not think the same when Madeleine asked where they were when she was crying. This is just another anomaly in her evidence and why some of the questions she won’t answer were asked of her.
I was, at the time that this ‘abduction’ took place, fully convinced that the McCanns were the innocent parents of an awful crime – it has taken this long for me to have my doubts. It is because of too many inconsistencies in the events surrounding this ‘abduction’ that I am now inclined to think something is not right – I don’t know what it is that’s not right but I am reserving my judgement – because who can say who is guilty or innocent until we have the truth.
July 13th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Kate ‘We spoke for a couple of minutes’ – Mitchell ‘They had a serious discussion’. A couple of minutes speaking does not constitute a serious discussion. The result being K an G decided to pay closer attention to the checking of their children, which obviously didn’t work. Had my child been in that situation (which I can tell you, it wouldn’t) I would have felt so disgusted with myself and guilt ridden, that I’d not go out in the evening at all for the holiday’s duration. Why did they go out anyway, why not all go to different apartments to eat, with a meal and wine carryout, easily affordable, and watch the kids playing together? If they nodded off fine just put them in bed when you returned to your own apartments, they were all very close together. But they appeared to want to do the least things possible with the kids. It seemed there wasn’t much parent/child fun during the day either, I wonder why they bothered bringing the kids at all
As for the witless Mitchell, ‘The minute that you talk about Madeleine crying, is the minute that the vultures would move in’ Definition of Vulture – Big Bird lives on carrion (dead flesh)! No pun intended – BUT COULD ALSO DESCRIBE YOU CLARENCE. They’re not vultures moving in though Clarence, they are ordinary people, unable to come to terms with the fact that these people (who are, at least guilty of Madeleine’s neglect, facilitating her Disappearance/Death, one way or another) HAVE TOLD SO MANY LIES AND INCONSISTENCIES, and have (due to the influence given by upper echelons) never been challenged. These people are aghast, disgusted and angry at the fact that, so far, this couple who, seriously neglected their children’s welfare and safety, and probably caused her death, are being involved in projects for the safety and welfare of……..Yes you’re right, children!!
The little snippets of Gerry ‘I looked at Madeleine and thought how beautiful she was, and how happy I was to be a father of 3′ and Kate, that night in bed she Madeleine told me ‘Mummy, This has been the best day ever’ a little too contrived for me. Seems they are over-stressing the fact that Maddie was alive and well then. Hmmmm…..
The only shameless and brazen ones here the McCanns. The only reason Clarence is aboard to keep McCanns from contradicting themselves more, because they’re lying. Gerry’s new marketing ploy -Keeping Madeleine alive = £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££’s. Madeleine dead = 000.
This pair makes me sick, right down to my soul, if they are so clever and educated they’d know that the majority of the public don’t believe them or like them. They need a crash course in humility. Had they, from the beginning, showed deep shame and remorse, and, maybe if they’d actually physically put one foot in front of the other, crawl, on their knees if necessary, and go out of the door to search alongside hotel staff, police, holday-makers, local folk, kids (), _FOR THEIR OWN MISSING 3 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER!! But they didn’t. It’s the total lack of normal actions, reactions, all smiles after on Maddie’s 5th birthday, a few days after she disappeared People perceive them as weird, their actions aren’t the normal actions of a couple whose daughter has been aducted, it’s an act and they’re getting it all wrong. They don’t act like parent’s whose daughter has been abducted because they’re not!
Madeleine is dead, we know it, they know it, and despite all their attempts to stop us finding out, more and more will read it (and now in places where they have no influence).
The truth cannot be silenced, not even if your egos are as big as the McCanns and their odious family. We wont be silenced until justice for Madeleine prevails and the perpetrators of her death, by accident or design, are brought to book.
God Bless Little one.
July 13th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Sorry, for 5th birthday read 4th.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:30 am
~Liz Y
I think your comment is near the mark – it is just that we can’t prove it one way or the other.
As regards your last paragraph – unfortunately the truth can be silenced and is being silenced. The question is – why. On MCCANN UNRAVELS – THENTHEREWERE4 – the most recent blog is about the silencing of John Redwood. The death of a local MP David Taylor in Rothley is slightly suspicious. Or are we all reading too much into these events to try and cobble together some all encompassing cover-up for what was just the simple disappearance of a child.
December 24th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Children don’t ‘simply’ disappear.
On this I speak from experience.