Police identify three prime suspects for abduction of Madeleine McCann following analysis of mobile phone data

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533510/Police-identify-three-prime-suspects-abduction-Madeleine-McCann-following-analysis-mobile-phone-data.html

Police identify three prime suspects for abduction of Madeleine McCann following analysis of mobile phone data
Data suggests a burglary gang was operating near time of disappearance
Suspects made an 'unusually high' number of calls hours after Maddie was reported missing
Police believe thieves carried out one raid in resort, disturbing a baby
Portuguese police attached no significance to the break-in days before
British detectives described oversight as a 'disgrace'
'Main line of inquiry' suggests burglars panicked and kidnapped Maddie

By STEPHEN WRIGHT
PUBLISHED: 22:31, 3 January 2014 | UPDATED: 22:31, 3 January 2014

Three prime suspects for the abduction of Madeleine McCann have been identified by Scotland Yard officers.
Analysis of mobile phone data suggests a burglary gang was operating very near to where she vanished in Portugal in May 2007.
The three men made an unusually high number of calls to each other in the hours after Madeleine was reported missing from her holiday flat in the Algarve.
Police believe the thieves, including at least one Portuguese man, had already carried out one raid in the resort of Praia da Luz, disturbing a baby.
That child’s parents, who had been drinking outside the property, rushed inside to find the intruders had fled.
During their bungled investigation Portuguese police attached no significance to the break-in, which came a few days before Madeleine disappeared.
British detectives said this oversight was a ‘disgrace’.
Following the Yard phone breakthrough, informal discussions have taken place about arresting the three burglars and searching their homes and other sites.

It is believed background checks have taken place into their criminal history, their circle of friends and relatives and the vehicles they have used.
British detectives believe the burglars may have panicked after they woke Madeleine up by mistake and decided to take her away with them.

An informed source said: ‘After all the far-fetched theories about what may have happened to Madeleine, there may be a far more simple explanation: that a burglary went horribly wrong.
'It is the main line of inquiry for British police.’

But Scotland Yard’s hopes of early arrests have been thwarted by the reluctance of the Portuguese authorities to agree to a formal joint investigation.
Because none of the burglars is British, the Met cannot arrest them in Portugal and will need the full cooperation of local police to pursue the inquiry.
Behind the scenes, highly sensitive diplomatic discussions are taking place to resolve the issue so that British detectives can be based in Portugal. Home Secretary Theresa May is being briefed regularly.
'
Yard detectives have dismissed the idea that a local man who died in a tractor accident four years ago was responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance.
Portuguese police regard the 40-year-old, a former employee at the Ocean Club holiday complex the McCanns stayed at, as their prime suspect.
Met officers disagree with their reasoning and are concentrating on the burglars.
The compelling mobile phone ‘cell site analysis’ – which has helped solve a number of major crimes – has strengthened suspicions about the gang.
A major appeal based on ‘substantive’ new information – including descriptions of possible suspects – was broadcast on the BBC1’s Crimewatch in October. Days before the appeal, senior detectives revealed mobile phone records may hold the key to solving the case.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the inquiry, said officers were examining data from thousands of mobiles thought to belong to people who were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Police are trying to identify the owner of each phone to build up a picture of exactly who was in the area.
More than 3,000 people live in Praia da Luz, while holidaymakers and seasonal workers visit from around the world. ‘This is not just a general trawl,’ said Mr Redwood. ‘It’s a targeted attack on that data to see if it assists us to find out what happened to Madeleine at that time.’
Mr Redwood said officers had been unable to identify, six years on, a large number of mobile phones, especially those bought on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The records also contain information on which numbers were dialled and when. It is thought some numbers might appear on police intelligence systems, or be linked to criminals.
According to Scotland Yard, the phone records were looked at by the Portuguese police investigation but in no detail. Scotland Yard announced it was launching an investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance in July – after spending two years reviewing the case under the codename Operation Grange.
Madeleine, whose parents Gerry and Kate live in Rothley, Leicestershire, was days away from her fourth birthday when she was abducted.
Earlier this week it emerged that the bill for the Yard’s probe has topped £6million. The total is now likely to exceed £10million, with £88,000 having gone on travel costs so far.

Emma Shaw I hope this is a cover so sy can get closer t mcanns and they think they gt away with it. the wrlds gne mad

Mike Hardy
Get your comments in while they're still accepting them....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533510/Police-identify-three-prime-suspects-abduction-Madeleine-McCann-following-analysis-mobile-phone-data.html

Shoota! ‏@CaroleShooter
The fact that the Fail is running that crap tells us that #mccann are desperate.

Re: Police identify three prime suspects - Daily Mail
Post ann_chovey Today at 9:40 am

comments....

cherry berry ‏@cosyring 2h
@w_nicht @JillyCL @mailwright how would burglars leave cadaver scent in the apartment then, mail is ignoring findings of the dogs

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-01-10/madeleine-cops-formally-request-portuguese-help/

UK Madeleine cops formally request Portuguese help
Last updated Fri 10 Jan 2014

British detectives have formally requested help from Portuguese authorities as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

It is believed investigators from Scotland Yard want police in Portugal to question three burglars operating in the resort where the McCanns were staying at the time of her disappearance in 2007.

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic21675.html?sid=0240d7448b1d95adecbf3869efa43f54

The Times

Madelaine McCann: three prime suspects identified


Graham Keeley Madrid
Published 1 minute ago [10-01-14]

Scotland Yard detectives investigating the abduction of Madeleine McCann last night formally requested help from the Portuguese authorities after British detectives identified three prime suspects.

In a significant move, the Crown Prosecution Service sent an International Letter of Request to Portuguese authorities.

The Scotland Yard investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine has revealed a gang of burglars were operating near to where she was abducted in May 2007.

Analysis of mobile phone calls indicates three men made a large number of telephone calls to each in the hours after Madeleine was reported missing from her holiday flat in the Algarve.

Days before Madeleine’s disappearance, the gang carried out a bungled burglary of another holiday flat in the Praia da Luz resort, disturbing a child.The child’s parents interrupted the burglars who fled.

However, Portuguese police attached no significance to the burglary when they were investigating the disappearance of Madeleine. Scotland Yard detectives described this oversight as a “disgrace”.

British detectives believe the same burglars may have raided the flat where Madeleine was staying and woken her up by mistake. In the panic, they might have taken her away with them.

Following the breakthrough by Scotland Yard, discussions have been under way about the possibility of arresting the burglars and searching their homes.

However, until now Scotland Yard has not been able to arrest the men because they need the agreement of Portuguese authorities, who have been reluctant to agree to a joint investigation.

None of the burglars is British so Scotland Yard officers cannot act without the agreement of the Portuguese. Sensitive diplomatic discussions are under way to try to secure this agreement so British detectives can be based in Portugal.

Portuguese police have said their prime suspect for Madeleine’s abduction is a 40-year-old former employee at the resort where the McCann’s stayed at who later died in a tractor accident. However, British detectives have privately dismissed the theory.

Woofer wrote:
canada12 wrote:
Woofer wrote:
tiny wrote:
bobby18 wrote:
debs wrote:
do burglars of holiday apartments really operate in threes? and wouldn't it make them a bit visible?
2 in the apartment, 1 being a lookout is possible, I would say.

P.S. I am not a burglar!

Why would you take a dead child

Maybe because they were the agents requested to do so.

This has occurred to me also. IMO Gerry was in quick need of someone to dispose of M's body. He asked around, and through some "connections" was able to secure the services of three individuals who could get the job done?

Hi canada12 - I wonder if its an agency he already knew about and was in contact with and knew they would be monitoring the apartments. Something went wrong so the agency men had to remove MBM and they have never told him where she is.

Not sure what you mean by an agency... I was just thinking that three local "burglars" could be part of a shady underworld known to people that IMO Gerry might have consulted in a hurry for help. And that SY might have tracked them down and now wishes to have a quiet word with them.

Sykes wrote:e: 3 Prime Suspects Identified!!
bobby18 Today at 11:57 am

Cristobell wrote:
I'm struggling to understand how SY can identify 3 suspects in PDL, from their base in central London. They have no knowledge of the language, the area or the population. To identify petty criminals operating in the area, they would need the co-operation of the local underworld, tip offs etc, from those on the periphery of society.

If we imagine the crime having occurred in a British seaside town, we can begin to see the major obstacles faced by SY. Would a team of Portuguese detectives be able to operate effectively in Butlins Skegness, for example?

Hi

As in my original post, if PJ and SY are working together, PJ could have fed info to SY to gain credibility with the negative MSM. For it to look like an SY finding only.

Nothing directly from PJ will never have credibility amongst mainstream public in UK due to press coverage.

Again, just a potential theory and fully accept that other members have FAR more knowledge in case thanks. Like all members I'm sure, wejust want this case resolved, with the true perpetrators brought to justice, whoever they maybe.

Zora McCartney I've just written to SY asking them to confirm whether or not the 'inquiry source' quoted in this article is in fact connected to the investigation and if not, why won't they refute it and all the other bullshit that's appeared in the papers over the weekend and the last few months. Will post the response here (if any).

Sykes wrote:

Zora McCartney I've just written to SY asking them to confirm whether or not the 'inquiry source' quoted in this article is in fact connected to the investigation and if not, why won't they refute it and all the other bullshit that's appeared in the papers over the weekend and the last few months. Will post the response here (if any).

Zora McCartney I just don't get it Nez. I can understand them not printing the truth due to possible superinjunctions and previous libel actions but I cannot understand why they don't tell the McCanns/Mitchell to f*ck right off whenever they're asked to print blatant lies that suggest there should be innocent people in the frame

Lisa Loopsylise Allan just a thought, but maybe the police are actually trying to trace these "burglars" as witnesses rather than suspects?
5 hours ago · Like · 3

Leanne Baulch Lisa I agree! Phone records may show they were in the area so potential witness'. I don't believe they will be scape goats! It's far to bloody obvious.

Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine McCann case move a step closer to making arrests with official bid to interview three suspects
Portuguese Attorney General received formal request for access
UK prosecutors have asked to interview three prime suspects
By GERARD COUZENS
PUBLISHED: 17:09, 23 January 2014 | UPDATED: 17:43, 23 January 2014

The prospect of arrests over Madeleine McCann's disappearance moved a step closer today after Portugal's Attorney General's office confirmed it had received a formal request for help from UK prosecutors.
A spokesman for the country's top law officer confirmed it was in receipt of an International Letter of Request thought to ask for access to three 'prime suspects' - but declined to discuss its contents.
The spokesman said the letter would now be forwarded to a court in the Algarve resort of Portimao tasked with investigating the newly-reopened case in Portugal.
Authorities declined to give a timescale on when the letter would be sent or actioned.
Scotland Yard are understood to want to question three local burglars blamed for a string of break-ins in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was snatched in May 2007.
Portuguese detectives acting on a first International Letter of Request sent by Britain last July discovered the men were very close to the scene of Madeleine's disappearance and made an unusually high number of calls to each other in the hours after her abduction.
Portugal's Attorney General's office announced last October the Madeleine McCann inquiry, shelved nearly six years ago, was being reopened at the request of police in Porto who have spent the past three years reviewing the case.

Jose Magalhaes e Menezes, the public prosecutor in charge of the original investigation, is overseeing the reopened inquiry.
He was damning of the original probe pointing the finger at Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry and claimed officers under disgraced former police chief Goncalo Amaral achieved "very little" during their 15 month investigation.

Amaral has claimed in a book which is the subject of an on-going libel trial that the McCanns covered up their daughter's death in their holiday apartment.
Scotland Yard detectives are conducting their own separate criminal inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance called Operation Grange.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the Met operation, has said he continues to believe Madeleine is still alive.
Operation Grange was first launched as a review in 2011 following the intervention of David Cameron in the case.
A spokesman for Madeleine's parents has described the International Letter of Request as a significant development.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544750/Scotland-Yard-detectives-investigating-Madeleine-McCann-case-step-closer-making-arrests-official-bid-interview-three-

Pamela Longhurst Playing Devil's Advocate here. Bear with me... Three suspects, men, who used their phones. Could they be part of the Tapas group as no mention of Burglars!!!!!!!! Also a few forum's have stated Libel case resumes tomorrow 24th.