Burglary files to aid hunt for Madeleine McCann

Burglary files to aid hunt for Madeleine McCann

A SECRET dossier on burglars on the Algarve in Portugal is being shown to Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

By: James Murray and Tracey Kandohia
Published: Sun, February 23, 2014

Portuguese police have kept the confidential file for years following a spate of break-ins in and around Praia da Luz, the resort from where Madeleine disappeared when she was three in May 2007.

Children were abused during some burglaries.

A businesswoman renting villas in the area confirmed: “Police have a special file on burglars operating in the area. Most of them are Portuguese and Romanian gypsies.

“Burglars go anywhere and ­everywhere in Luz and normally break in during the middle of the night when you’re asleep.

“Burglars come in and steal your stuff and sometimes you don’t know about it until you wake up in the morning.”

The woman, who does not wish to be named, said from her office in Lagos, four miles from Luz: “It’s been going on for years, well before Madeleine disappeared. Police here are aware of the problem but the public aren’t aware.” Yard detectives to whom the Portuguese break-ins dossier is being made available are reported to be focusing on three burglars who targeted people in Luz.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe disclosed last week how his officers and Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria are moving towards a joint investigation team and have the names of suspects.

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, believe their daughter, who would now be aged 10, could still be alive.

Former GP Kate, 45, revealed in her book about Madeleine’s abduction that she had discovered five cases of British children being sexually attacked in their beds while on holiday.

She wrote: “It broke my heart to read the terrible accounts of devastated parents and the experiences of their poor children.

“British tourists in holiday accommodation were being targeted. It is so hard not to scream from the rooftops about how these crimes appear to have been brushed under the carpet.”

One British mother claims kidnappers may have tried to take her own young daughter just six weeks before Madeleine disappeared.

She claims that while she was staying at Montechoro, near Albufeira, 30 miles from Luz, a scruffy migrant from the former Soviet Union spiked her drink then tried to take her one-year-old blonde daughter to a getaway car.

The 30-year-old woman said: “It was terrifying, like something out of a film. I’ve given a statement to Scotland Yard and they are arranging to interview me again.

“I’ll do anything I can to help. I can’t be the only mum who has had a near-miss.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/461320/Burglary-files-to-aid-hunt-for-Madeleine-McCann

Re: Sunday Express - Burglary files to aid hunt for Madeleine McCann
Post Cristobell Today at 5:51 pm

We have all seen enough movies to know that when someone is 'Wanted' there is literally no place to hide blah blah blah blah blah

Hope for Madeleine McCann case as cops are given vital clues

A SECRET dossier on burglars who operate near where Madeleine McCann vanished has been handed to police.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/search/Jerry+Lawton

The file is understood to catalogue a spate of break-ins in and around the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Portuguese police believe it may hold the clue that will provide a breakthrough in the case.

And they have handed the file to Met investigators in the hope their new inquiry may finally crack the case.

The dossier is full of details about burglaries and break-ins just before the three-year-old disappeared in 2007.

Many were committed by gypsies, according to locals.

One 30-year-old Brit mum claims a scruffy migrant from the former Soviet Union tried to snatch her one-year-old blonde daughter from her holiday apartment 30 miles away in Montechoro six weeks before Madeleine vanished.

She has given a statement to Scotland Yard detectives and is waiting to be interviewed again.

"I'll do anything I can to help," she said.

“Locals claim the burglary file had been kept confidential to avoid scaring off tourists”
"I can't be the only mum who has had a near-miss."

Locals claim the burglary file had been kept confidential to avoid scaring off tourists.

But Portuguese detectives are now said to have shared it with Met officers who are convinced Madeleine was kidnapped after disturbing raiders.

Last week Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said his officers know the names of their prime suspects.

Mobile phone data analysis has placed three possible intruders near the apartment around the key time.

Sir Bernard, 56, admitted the probe was being hampered because Portuguese police were pursuing a different line of inquiry.

But the handover of the burglary file to their UK counterparts may be seen as a breakthrough in cooperation between the two forces.