New suspect emerges in Madeleine McCann search

[strollingbones]

LONDON (AFP) – Investigators probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal have identified a paedophile as a possible suspect, press reports and a spokesman for the girl's parents have said.

Raymond Hewlett, a 64-year-old Briton, was reportedly living near the resort of Praia da Luz when three-year-old Madeleine went missing in May 2007, The Daily Mail said.

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, who launched a global media search for their daughter, confirmed in a statement that Hewlett was "of interest" to investigators working for the couple.

"We are aware of Raymond Hewlett and the claims that have been made about him in some newspapers," spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

"The investigators searching for Madeleine are currently looking into the circumstances surrounding these claims.

full article:

New suspect emerges in Madeleine McCann search - Yahoo! News

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dem Gypsies'll steal yer baby girls...

'MARIA' CASE RAISES FEARS OF BOOMING BABY FRAUD
Oct 22,`13 -- Prosecutors across Greece were ordered Tuesday to conduct emergency checks of birth records from the past six years, after the arrest of a Gypsy couple on suspicion of abducting a little girl triggered fears of widespread welfare fraud.

The blond-haired, fair-skinned girl, known as Maria and believed to be 5 or 6, drew the attention of police during a raid on a Gypsy camp last week because she looked unlike the couple raising her. DNA tests showed they were not her biological parents as claimed on her birth certificate. The mystery of the girl's identity has attracted the interest of investigators and parents involved in missing-child cases around the world. The case has also raised concern among human rights groups that Europe's Roma, or Gypsy, community is being unfairly targeted.

The Gypsy camp suspects, Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, and Christos Salis, 39, received more than 2,500 euros ($3,420) in monthly welfare payments after declaring they had 14 children, eight of whom are unaccounted for and presumed not to exist, authorities said. They were jailed on charges of abduction and document fraud. They deny the abduction allegations, claiming they received Maria from a destitute woman to raise as their own.

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Christos Salis, 39, right, and his companion Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, or Selini Sali — as the woman has two separate sets of identity papers. pose with the little girl only known as "Maria" in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Police in Greece have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified.

A Supreme Court prosecutor ordered a review of thousands of birth certificates issued after Jan. 1, 2008, amid growing criticism that the country's birth registration system is wide open to abuse. Families cheating the welfare system typically declare the same birth in multiple cities or produce false birth certificates for children who may not exist. Up until five months ago, there was no central national registry, so births declared in different municipalities were not cross-checked. "The case of the underage girl Maria does not appear to be an isolated one," the order signed by prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani said. Benefit fraud has become a powerful issue in Greece, which is suffering through its sixth year of recession and has an unemployment rate of nearly 28 percent. Most Greeks have seen their income and pensions drastically cut since the country was bailed out in 2010.

Police spotted Maria during one of dozens of raids they have carried out on Roma camps in the past few weeks in a crackdown on drug smuggling and burglary gangs. Police said Maria's birth was falsely declared in Athens by Dimopoulou in 2009, but they did not elaborate. A charity in charge of the girl's temporary care said a dental examination indicated she is 5 or 6, not 4 as originally thought. It is not even certain the child was born in Greece. Her DNA has been entered into an Interpol database to check for matches. On Monday, the mayor of Athens suspended three officials in charge of record-keeping after an emergency review revealed multiple instances of birth certificates issued without proper documentation.

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Roma couple charged with abducting 'blonde angel'
21 Oct.`13 - A Roma couple were charged in Greece on Monday with abducting a young girl dubbed the "blonde angel", whose discovery has prompted thousands of calls from parents of missing children.

The couple -- a 39-year-old man and his 40-year-old wife -- were ordered detained by a court in Larissa, central Greece on charges of abducting the child, their lawyer Konstantinos Katsavos told AFP. They face a sentence of between 10 and 20 years in prison if convicted. Police found the blonde-haired, green-eyed girl named Maria in a Roma camp in the central town of Farsala on Wednesday, and the couple was arrested after DNA tests showed they were not related. The girl's discovery has struck a powerful chord with parents of missing children around the world, including those of Briton Madeleine McCann who vanished in Portugal in May 2007. Though first described as a four-year old, dental checks suggest Maria is actually five or six, the head of the Greek charity Smile of the Child, which has been caring for her, told local media.

While police believe the girl may have been abducted at birth, the couple claims she was given up by her biological mother, who they say is Bulgarian, because she could not raise her. "We're talking about a woman who could not raise this child and who gave it to the couple in 2009 through a third party shortly after her birth," a lawyer for the couple, Marietta Palavra, told AFP over the weekend. "There has been no kidnapping, no robbery, no trafficking," insisted her colleague Konstantinos Katsavos, who also represents the couple. "They did not buy the child," he said. "We know the (girl's) parents are from Bulgaria," Marios Sainopoulos, a representative for the Roma community in Greece, told Skai TV on Monday. "The mother gave the child away because she could not raise it... the child was not kidnapped," he insisted. 'It has given hope to so many parents'

Illegal adoption, in some cases involving trafficked children, has flourished in Greece, where birth rates are low and official adoption procedures grueling. Intermediaries can charge 15,000-20,000 euros ($20-27,000) per child according to police data, the state-run Athens News Agency said Monday. Impoverished Roma families in Bulgaria are approached by traffickers who offer to pay 3,000 euros for a boy and 2,500 euros for a girl, the agency said. Smile of the Child say they have been inundated with calls and emails in response to international media coverage of Maria's discovery. "Until Sunday evening, we had received more than 8,000 calls and thousands of emails," charity spokesman Panagiotis Pardalis told AFP.

He said the organisation's site had received more than 200,000 visits and its Facebook page about half a million. "It is either families (of missing children) or even unrelated persons (who contact us from abroad), sending us photographs and other information. We forward all the information to the police," he said. "We even have calls from Japan and South Africa now," Stefanos Alevizos, a psychologist for the organisation, told Skai TV. "This case has caused a huge international interest. It has brought to the surface the subject of child trafficking and has given hope to so many parents whose children are missing," Pardalis said.

More Roma couple charged with abducting 'blonde angel'

 

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Hunt for Maria's mother leads to Bulgaria...

Bulgarian woman in DNA test in 'Maria' case
Oct 24,`13 -- A Roma woman in remote town in central Bulgaria has undergone DNA testing as authorities investigate if she is the mother of a suspected abduction victim in neighboring Greece known as "Maria" whose case has triggered a global search for her real parents.

Sasha Ruseva, 35, had been tested for a match and served with preliminary charges of child selling, but was not detained, Bulgarian authorities said Thursday. Ruseva appeared on Bulgarian television after being questioned at a police station in the town of Nikolaevo, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of the capital, Sofia, and admitted she once left a baby behind in Greece while working there, but was not sure if Maria was her daughter. "I don't know if it's her. How would I know that? I didn't take any money. I just didn't have enough money to feed her," Ruseva said speaking on TV, which showed pictures of her and her family outside her mud-floored village home outside the town. Several of the children seen at the village were barefoot or looked poorly cared for. "I intended to go back and take my child home, but meanwhile I gave birth to two more kids, so I was not able to go back," Ruseva said.

Bulgarian Interior Ministry chief secretary Svetlozar Lazarov said Ruseva had told police she had seen televised pictures of a Greek Roma couple who had looked after Maria and recognized them as the same people with whom she left her child. A blond-haired and fair-skinned girl aged 5 or 6, Maria, was discovered last week near Farsala in central Greece during a police raid on a Gypsy settlement. DNA tests on the Roma couple revealed they weren't her parents and the two were charged with abduction and document fraud. They insist they were looking after Maria with their own five children after an informally-arranged adoption.

The girl was placed into the care of a children's charity and her DNA details were provided to Interpol which has so far failed to match her to any missing children declared in its records, from Poland to the U.S. But the global interest has also raised concerns that news coverage of Maria and actions taken by authorities in the high-profile case are fueling racist sentiment against the Gypsy minority, who number around 6 million in the European Union. "The long-standing problem of negative media reporting on minorities has vehemently re-emerged with the cases of the children found in Roma families ... propagating age-old myths portraying Roma as child-abductors," the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks said in a statement.

In the central Romanian town of Sibiu, Dorin Cioaba, an influential Gypsy community leader widely known as the king of the Roma, said the Greek couple's story sounded plausible. "Roma families love their children very much. They would give their lives for their children," Cioaba told Associated Press Television News. "What I think (happened) is that young woman who abandoned the child gave her to this family knowing that if she leaves her on the street, she will end up in a state orphanage or even taken by someone, sold and trafficked ... Maybe this girl did not grow up in a the best environment. But I don't believe what I have heard that this little girl was traumatized."

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[waltky]

Granny says he did it - ya can tell by the look on her face she was afraid of him...

Prime suspect in Madeleine McCann abduction was quizzed about sex assaults now being linked to her disappearance
May 05, 2014 ~ Euclides Monteiro, who died in 2008, was questioned about a spate of sex attacks on female Brits at Algarve holiday villas from 2004 onwards

The prime suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann was quizzed about a string of sex assaults now being linked to the British girl’s disappearance. Former junkie and convicted burglar Euclides Monteiro, who died in a tractor accident in 2008 at the age of 40, was questioned about a spate of sex attacks on female Brits at Algarve holiday villas from 2004 onwards. But his widow Luisa Rodrigues claims Portuguese detectives ruled him out because his DNA did not match any from the crime scenes.

British police heading a separate probe into Madeleine’s disappearance are also trying to identify the serial sex attacker who has struck at least 18 times at local resorts. Cape Verde-born Monteiro, known as Toni, worked at the Ocean Club holiday complex when Madeleine vanished in May 2007. Phone records place him near the flats at the right time.

Attacks: Monteiro (left) has been linked to the disappearance of Maddie (right)

Portuguese cops claim he is still a key suspect. But Luisa insists they never even asked him about the missing girl when they arrested him in 2008. “I know Euclides had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappear(*)ance,” she said. “It’s impossible he had a double life. I knew everything about him. “Police never mentioned Madeleine McCann. And until the day he died they never contacted him again.”

She says her late husband had an alibi because his computer files show he wrote a poem on it at 9pm on May 3, 2007, an hour before the McCanns found Madeleine missing.

Madeleine McCann investigation: Prime suspect in Maddie's abduction was quizzed about sex assaults now being linked to her disappearance - Mirror Online

 

[waltky]

Another search for Madeleine McCann...

Police prepare for search in Madeleine McCann case
2 June`14 — Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann on Monday cordoned off scrubland near the resort where the British girl vanished seven years ago.

Officers placed yellow-and-white police tape around the waste ground, which is larger than a soccer field and covered in bushes and some trees. They were expected to conduct a forensic examination of the area in coming days. Officials have previously said detectives may use excavators, dogs and ground-penetrating radar as they scrutinize the terrain. Police kept watch over the area from an adjacent low hill. Officials made no immediate comment on Monday's developments. Cases that are under investigation in Portugal are covered by a judicial secrecy law, which forbids the release of information.

The scrubland is about 300 meters (330 yards) from the Praia da Luz resort in southern Portugal where Madeleine vanished from her family's vacation apartment in May 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday. The area was searched in the days following her disappearance. Authorities in Portugal and Britain said recently they would conduct new searches in coming weeks after reviewing the case file and a new public appeal for information.

Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 because authorities had detected no crime. The public prosecutor's office in Lisbon last year reopened the investigation, saying new leads emerged during the case review though it did not elaborate. British police launched Operation Grange in 2011 to try to find out what happened to Madeleine. British detectives have been sifting through the Portuguese case files and say they have identified new avenues of investigation. Among other things, they have compiled a record of cases involving sexual assaults on children in the area between 2004 and 2010.

Police prepare for search in Madeleine McCann case

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - somebody snatched dat darlin' lil' girl an' stole her from her family...

Madeleine McCann's parents lose Supreme Court libel appeal
January 31, 2017 — Portugal's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that missing British girl Madeleine McCann's parents can't sue for libel a former Portuguese detective who published a book alleging they were involved in their daughter's disappearance.

A court official told The Associated Press that Portugal's highest court ruled the allegations are protected by freedom of expression laws. Also, the judges decided his claims weren't abusive and "were within acceptable limits in an open and democratic society." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hadn't yet been published.

A Lisbon court in 2015 ordered Goncalo Amaral to pay Kate and Gerry McCann 500,000 euros ($540,000) in compensation. The McCanns had sought 1.2 million euros. An appeals court last year overturned that conviction, but the McCann's lawyers turned to Portugal's top court.

Former detective Goncalo Amaral poses with his book whose title translates as "The Truth in the Lies", during its launch in Lisbon. Portugal's Supreme Court has ruled that missing British girl Madeleine McCann's parents can't sue for libel a former Portuguese detective who published a book alleging they were involved in their daughter's disappearance. A court official told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017 that Portugal's highest court ruled the allegations are protected by freedom of expression laws and weren't abusive​

Madeleine disappeared from a vacation home in Portugal's Algarve region in May 2007, days before her 4th birthday. Amaral had argued in his defense that the claims in his 2008 book "The Truth of the Lie" stemmed from the police investigation. He also noted that Portuguese media had already reported the possibility that the parents might have played a role in Madeleine's disappearance.

Portuguese police closed the investigation after detecting no evidence of a crime, but British police are still looking into it. Madeleine's disappearance sparked global interest as pictures of her and her grieving parents were published around the world.

Madeleine McCann's parents lose Supreme Court libel appeal