|
MADDIE: PORTUGUESE POLICE ‘CAME WITHIN AN INCH OF JAILING KATE MCCANN‘
The Daily Mail, 15/12/2007
Suspect: Portuguese police reportedly came within an inch of
jailing Kate McCann Police came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann
over her daughter‘s disappearance, a new book has sensationally claimed.
Detectives questioning the mother allegedly wanted to charge her with
"homicide with eventual intent" – a crime that allows a suspect to be
remanded in custody until their trial.
But the night before she was interrogated for the second day, the public
prosecutor in the case advised the detective then in charge – Goncalo
Amaral
– that they did not have enough evidence, it was claimed. The revelation
comes as one of Portugal‘s top crime reporters states that if the
McCanns were Portuguese they would be in jail by now.
Hernani Carvalho suggested that the couple, who are suspects in their
daughter‘s disappearance, only escaped custody as they were given
privileged treatment because they are British.
He said: "Many people are up in arms with the privileged treatment that
was given to the McCann couple. If they were Portuguese they would have
been in jail by now." His comments follow the publication of a new book
called A Culpa dos McCann
– the guilt of the McCanns. It claims that police were torn over whether
to accuse her of "negligent homicide" – the equivalent of involuntary
manslaughter – which does not allow police to remand a suspect in
custody, or the more serious "homicide with eventual intent" –
manslaughter.
Scroll down for more ... Kate McCann has sworn she had nothing to do
with her daughter‘s disappearance Read more...
‘I‘m relaxed about leaving the children alone‘: What Gerry McCann said
the night Madeleine disappeared The author, Manuel Catarino, editorial
chief of Portuguese daily newspaper, Correio da Manha said Kate was "one
step away from prison" on the eve of her interrogation on September 7
when she was officially named as an arguido.
He wrote: "The coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, and the
prosecutor Magalh';es e Meneses, discussed the possibility of serving
Kate up to the criminal instruction judge for him to apply for her to be
remanded in custody.
"But both men were consumed by doubts on the telephone: they did not
know whether it was a case of ‘negligent homicide‘ which did not allow
remanding in custody, or whether to accuse her of ‘homicide with
eventual intent‘, a more serious crime, enough to remand the suspect in
custody while they await trial.
Scroll down for more ... Happy family: A young Madeleine with her
parents, Kate and Gerry McCann "The prosecutor, with little trust in the
solidity of the arguments they had to convince the instruction judge,
preferred to wait for better evidence." Goncalo Amaral, who was later
sacked as head of the inquiry, brought Kate McCann in for questioning
after sniffer dogs detected specs of blood in their apartment and the
scent of a corpse on Kate McCann and in the hire car they rented after
Madeleine vanished.
Kate McCann denied any involvement in her daughter‘s disappearance,
claiming that the stains were caused by a nose bleed and she said that
any scent of death may have come from her work as a family doctor in
Rothley, Leicestershire.
Madeleine has been missing since May 3 No charges were ever brought
against the couple who were allowed to leave Portugal days later.
Mr Catarino also claims that police and the McCanns had a heated row
about whether to release photographs of Madeleine after she disappeared.
Police were said to fear that distributing the images may put her life
in danger as any abductor would panic and kill her, but the McCanns
insisted a publicity campaign was their best hope of finding their
daughter.
But yesterday the McCanns‘ spokesman Clarence Mitchell dismissed any
suggestion of a row and he hit out at the new book.
He said: "This appears to be another shameful attempt to make money out
of the situation.
"I would refer any fair–minded person to the fact that neither Kate or
Gerry have been charged with any offence and there is one good reason
for that – there is no evidence because they are not involved in any
shape or form in their daughter‘s abduction |
