View transcript

Main appeal transcript pdf  

We have a further appeal today to come back to the public in relation to 12 offences that we're investigating whereby a man has entered the holiday homes or apartments of English families between the period of 2004 and 2010. These offences have taken place mainly clustered in areas known as Carvoeiro or Praia de Gale Vale de Parra which sit about 30km away from Praia de Luz and indeed there are 2 offences within this that are in this linked series that are in Praia de Luz themselves, itself. Now the offences involve a man, as I say, entering holiday apartments or holiday homes.

On the whole, in the majority of these cases, there is no forced entry and neither is there any property taken. Whilst the man is inside, in four of the most serious cases, he has sexually assaulted young white female children whilst they're in their bedrooms. These children are between the ages of 7 and 10 years of age and obviously this is a serious matter that we need to understand more about, particularly in relation to its possible connection to Madeleine McCann's disappearance. And the offender we know is described as being a male, with dark hair, who has got dark brown tanned skin. He often speaks to the victim's with a foreign accent, in English, which is, with his voice being rather slow or possibly slurred. We know that in two occasions, the man was wearing a distinctive burgundy top, one of the families describes this top as having a white circle on the rear of it.

In two of the occasions, we know that when the public have come out on to the street, they've heard binmen in the nearby area so possibly this could have something to do with who this offender is. These matters are very serious and its very important primarily for us to understand and identify who this offender is. Firstly, because clearly nobody has been prosecuted for these horrible offences against these young people. And secondly, once we've identified this offender, we need to be able to prove or disprove whether these offences and that offender is connected to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. So if you believe you know who the offender is, then please make the call today, it's really important you let us know. We do have the ability in the most serious case, that if a name is put forward, we can prove or disprove whether that person is indeed responsible for that offence. Secondly, is, on the basis of how this information about how these offences have taken place, it's really important that if you think you've been affected by them, if you've been a victim of them, then please phone in today so that my officers can speak to you. An extra part to that is, even if you have reported it to police in Portugal, then please do not assume that we'd know that this offence has taken place, so do come forward so we can possibly cross check against what we know, but equally as we know from our appeal last October, identifying new matters that have not previously come into our investigation.

Update on Previous appeal

Update on Previous appeal transcript pdf version 

The appeal that we did to the public last October was very successful, we've received many thousands of calls which has given us some very interesting new information. What I would like to say particularly today as we come back to the public is that what we are not saying is the appeal that we did before is now no longer relevant because it very clearly is for us. The sighting of the man walking down towards the centre of Praia de Luz at 10 o clock on the 3rd May with the child that looked like Madeleine McCann, we still have not identified who that man is and so if it is you and there's an innocent explanation then please come forward. Some of the other e-fits that we put into the public domain are also still unidentified so that October appeal is still very much live.