Madeleine McCann case ~ Kate cries like a poker player

Correio da Manha 

26.10.07

(No longer available online)

The key to the mystery lies "certainly with Kate, a very special and disturbed woman", guarantees to CM Jose Cabrera Fornero, a forensic psychiatrist who has been following the case since the beginning. The Spanish man attentively watched "the staged interview" that the couple gave to Antena 3, and its purpose was "to have the Spanish people on their side". But 70 percent of the viewers who called the channel believes the McCanns are lying, and the psychiatrist sides with them - "by crying without moving a single muscle, Kate looked like a poker player".

A specialist in facial expressions, Cabrera says that "the face of Kate is always the same, except for the tears - the first ones over the last five months and curiously only after having been criticised for not crying". Now she did it but her face "doesn't express any emotion or feeling. When one cries, one's face muscles move, and she didn't move a single muscle, just like poker players. That is highly significant", says the Spanish psychiatrist, and "brings us the certainty that she is hiding something".

Cabrera says the 30 minutes of conversation ended up being "a non-spontaneous interview, perfectly ordered in terms of the questions that were asked by the journalist. And it gives us the impression that the entire stance was staged by the couple".

The Spanish man even remembers Gerry's last sentence and even considers it "genial": "Don't talk until they take the microphone off you". This only proves that all of it was just a big theatre play, the entire interview was staged. That is clear".

José Cabrera noticed that "during half an hour of interview his only concern was to control her. It's extraordinary. Whenever she opened her mouth to speak, he squeezed her hand - and all of this because the key to this mystery certainly lies with her, she is a very special woman..."

Kate McCann "had psychiatric problems for a long time", the specialist guarantees, and "now they have become worse". Cabrera retained an interview that Maddie's grandparents gave to the Spanish television recently: "In their innocence, they said that Kate had told them, some time before the disappearance, that the little girl was looking increasingly like herself, which from a psychiatric point of view means a lot..."

For the Spaniard, the origin of a bad relationship between mother and daughter - that was reflected by the writings about Madeleine in Kate's personal diary - "which is highly significant" for all the specialists that have been following this case since early May".

Gerry's greatest concern has been "to control his wife's impulses in public - and that was once again well demonstrated throughout this interview", says José Cabrera Fornero. "He is the one who dominates the entire situation, he knows everything and he knows he must control her and her problematic personality, so she does not exceed herself in front of the cameras and talks too much..."

All the gestures and facial expressions "become fatal for someone who has something to hide" - this is dictated by the experience that was collected over the years by this specialist in forensic psychiatry. "And there is no way to avoid that."

Nothing moves Jose Cabrera "against this couple", whom he does not know, but he defended the McCanns' guilt in the 'Pros & Contras' show on RTP, when the Policia Judiciaria confirmed their suspicions on the couple - and yesterday he reinforced his theory to CM, one day after Kate and Gerry chose Spain for their first interview after becoming arguidos.

The English press itself confirmed yesterday that "70 percent of viewers that called Antena 3 believe the McCanns are lying", the online edition of the 'Daily Mail' announced.

José Cabrera was not surprised: "Any English person is cold, but there is something more to her - her personality is not normal. And he makes an impression by only worrying about her answers..."

(...)

"The interview was a circus act": Moita Flores, criminologist, considers the interview was another act from the McCanns.

Correio da Manha - What is your opinion about the McCanns during the interview they gave to Spanish television?

Moita Flores - The whole thing looked like a circus act to me, duting which the couple repeated the usual commonplaces, once again escaping the essential. And once again they revealed that they have a lot to tell, but they don't want to...

- During this interview to Antena 3, Kate shows herself a lot more emotional that usual.

- But the curious thing was that even before this interview was made, it was known the lady was going to cry, which then happened. And she even managed to play the part well...

- Do you believe there was image staging during this interview?

- One should notice that it was known beforehand that the couple would take the opportunity to compliment the Portuguese police, which then happened...

- Gerry looks confident that the DNA tests cannot incriminate them.

- When he mentioned the tests, it was a silly reply to a docile interviewer. Everybody knows that DNA tests identify people, and they don't lie. But they do not condemn anyone on their own. That was miserable.

- How can the couple's statements be defined?

- It was an act that nobody believes in. After the kidnapping theory, now they insist on their innocence. An innocent person does not need this...

Graphic: Courtesy Of Only In America Blogging

Maddie’s Blanket Missing from the Ocean Club

1 July 2009 


Could it have been used in a funerary ceremony at the Luz chapel? Gonçalo Amaral doesn't dismiss that as possibility.

The issue was brought to light, in an enigmatic approach, during the interview given by the McCann couple to Oprah Winfrey. What had happened to the blanket that Maddie used to be covered with – almost as if it was a protective and comforting safeguard – and that was photographed by the PJ, in the day of her disappearance from the Ocean Club apartment, on the bed of the English girl? Gerry and Kate gulped in silence and were unable to answer in a consistent manner to the mediatic TV show host.

Gonçalo Amaral, the former inspector who coordinated the investigations on the case, in declarations to the «SP» recalls to have seen the blanket in the Ocean Club apartment, on the evening of the 3rd of May, close to cuddle cat (the plush toy), that the child usually carried with her. The former inspector thought that it was odd that that blanket went missing in the immediate days that followed, when searches where made to locate the child. And he highlights, that incidentally, textile fibres (in connection with the cadaver odour scented by the British dogs) were detected in the Renault Scenic that the McCann Couple rented in the Algarve and which was used in a long and mysterious trip that they made to Spain.

As a result of the investigations that have been made by own account after he was removed from the case, Gonçalo Amaral does not dismiss the possibility that the said blanket was used as a funeral blanket in a secret funerary ceremony made in the church of Luz, sustaining that illation in depositions from sources that he believes to be credible, between them, the one of Father José Manuel Pacheco from the Luz chapel [see previous post].

Still according to the former inspector, the Catholic Church knows about that secret which might be, supposedly, known to high positioned figures inside the clergy. In fact, one poorly clarified point in this strange story is the fact that the couple had access to the church keys, which were handed to them by the Anglican priest, who has justified that fact with the necessity of praying for their daughter, away of the media spotlights.

Gonçalo Amaral sustains that the key to the discovery of Maddie’s disappearance is in the Village of Luz and that, if this new clue is duly followed by the authorities, may become decisive to unravel the mystery.

Paulo Sargento: «Public Ministry Cannot Dismiss the Blanket’s Disappearance»

Paulo Sargento, the psychologist which usually comments on the TV aspects related to the Maddie case, explained to «SP» the importance that this blanket had to the British child : “The blankets, toys, and other objects acquire a special meaning for children at early stages of their lives.  Dr. Winnicot, a famous paediatrician, conceived a designation of transitional objects (most times, plush toys, small blankets, diapers, etc...) which attain some special characteristics to children. Has I have been saying, this objects that the paediatrician adjectived of transitional, are invested of a particular passion by the children, even some addiction (in the sense of affective dependency), since they possess symbolic characteristics of security, comfort, care and other qualities which emanate from the maternal figure.”

For Paulo Sargento, the thesis that Gonçalo Amaral revealed at first hand to «SP» that the blanket could have been used in a funerary ceremony at the Luz chapel “is very interesting”.

And he adds: “In reality, when the McCanns went to Oprah’s Show [ video excerpt here], the blanket was mentioned. At a given moment, when Oprah tells Kate that she heard her mention a blanket several times, Kate argued that a mother who misses a child always wants to know if she is comfortable, if she is warm, and added, referring to Maddie, that sometimes she asked herself if the person who had taken her would cover her up with her little blanket (but the blanket was on the bed after Maddie, supposedly, disappeared!!!). 

Well, that blanket is missing. Nobody knows where it is. But, this brief dialogue between Oprah and Kate is bizarre and looks like a slip. It seems that blanket is a word that shouldn’t have emerged under that circumstance because it didn’t find a meaning that would fit into the conversation, and the justification was very confusing”.

For Paulo Sargento, this piece of data should have been investigated without any prejudice, taking into view the possibility of someone within the Church keeping a prudent silence about the matter: “The Catholic Church follows a divine saying, that is sometimes applied to Zeno of Cyprus: “If God gave us two ears and one mouth, it was because we are meant to listen twice as much as we talk.” 

The Catholic Church has had the capacity to remain silent, to keep secrets and to transform them into myths”. The psychologist has no doubts: “The disappearance of one object from the frame of a crime scene cannot be dismissed this lightly. The decisions lie in the hands of the Prosecutor and the Public Ministry”.


in Semanário Privado, 1 July 2009 - Paper Edition Only


Courtesy Of Joana Morais

The pink blanket comments by Goncalo Amaral

Madeleine's pink blanket and cuddle cat

Hunt for Gerry’s missing tennis bag which ‘could have been used to carry Madeleine away’

25 December 2007 
By VANESSA ALLEN - Last updated at 19:03pm on 25th December 2007

Police want to trace a tennis bag allegedly taken from Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing, it was claimed yesterday.

Detectives think the blue holdall could have been used to carry Madeleine away, or even to transport her body.

It belonged to Mr McCann but has not been seen since the night of May 3, according to the Sky News documentary.

Tony Rogers, who reviews unsolved cases for British police and worked on the Soham investigation, said: “If it’s a bag of a size that could be used to take a child away from the flat, that would be of great interest to the investigating officer.”

But Mr McCann told friends yesterday that he did not take any tennis equipment to Praia da Luz, and did not own a blue tennis bag.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell flatly denied that Mr McCann had lost a bag during the family’s holiday.

He said: “As far as Kate and Gerry are concerned, there is no missing tennis bag. They came back from holiday with everything except of course, tragically, Madeleine.”

 Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz on May 3

Sky News stood by its story, which it said came from sources who had traveled to the resort after Madeleine’s disappearance Police want to trace a blue tennis bag allegedly taken from Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.

At the time of the disappearance maritime police told fishermen and boat owners to watch out for anything unusual they spotted in the sea around the coast, including any black bin liners which could have been thrown into the water containing potentially vital evidence.

Portuguese police worked for several months on the theory that Madeleine died in her parents’ holiday apartment and that her body was somehow transported to a hiding place after her death, but have been unable to find sufficient evidence to prove such a claim.

Forensic samples which they hoped would prove her body was transported in her parents’ Renault Scenic, hired 25 days after she went missing, proved inconclusive.

Her parents have always denied any involvement in her disappearance and Mr Mitchell called the theory “ridiculous”.

Sky News: New lines in Madeleine McCann Hunt

Gonçalo Amaral - There's an information here, in the police, that mentions that. That in a night, three figures were seen carrying a bag, entering the church...

Related article: Gerry McCann's tennis bag 'is focus of inquiry'