Just five hours in May

What really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann?

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Suspect Number One E-fits Public Reaction

The Number One Suspect from Operation Grange, which are the E-Fits 1A and 1B, is the suspect which stems from the Smith’s Sighting. They were made by Oakley International detectives engaged by the Find-Madeleine-Campaign in 2008 but then hidden to the public for five years by intervention of the Find-Madeleine Fund. After being presented in 2013 by TV-Show Crimewatch those efits got some remarkable reactions from the public:

Number One Suspect - Operation Grange See: Article on DailyStar →Sick internet trolls target Kate and Gerry McCann after Crimewatch special.

THE new investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance has been hit by vile trolls. By Rick Lyons/Published 20th October 2013: “Scores of people are thought to have made nuisance calls to the inquiry following a fresh appeal for information on the BBC's Crimewatch show. Many boasted on Twitter about their time-wasting stunts, with some claiming they told the police new e-fits released on the programme looked like Madeleine's father Gerry, 44. Twitter user LadyReeve wrote: “Awks when the e-fit is Gerry McCann! I'm going to ring in and name him just in case the police haven't got it yet #Crimewatch.” Another user called KCAEC said: “Who's gonna be the 1st person to phone in and say they recognise the e-fit……its Gerry McCann!” Someone called Jont-o'-Lantern Gore also tweeted: “Chain smoking pack after pack of cigarettes to change my voice so that I can prank call Crimewatch.” Others on Twitter confirmed that police had been sidetracked by a spate of misleading calls. Trevor Allman, a former London councillor, said: “Apparently a lot of people have pointed out to the police that the e-fit photo on last night's Crimewatch looks like Gerry McCann.” So far the Crimewatch appeal has generated 2,400 calls and emails to police with information. The sick phone calls emerged amid growing support for hate-filled opponents of Gerry and Kate McCann, 45. Detectives are monitoring the internet for vile messages about the couple after a Facebook group targeting the pair attracted 11,000 members.”


Can E-Fits been taken as prove or evidence?

Twitter sample of false identification Well, e-fits are paintings made by artists and/or software to produce pictures after the memories of witnesses. They are not photographs and thus will never be a prove on their own. A witness always will remember something more or less of the viewed suspect depending on the special circumstances in the situation of the sighting. Such memories may be side effected by a lot of incalculable things, just as lighting, the angle of view, how many time the viewing took, distance from the suspect and so on. Also such memories may be side effected by events happening in the time after the sighting until the interview with the police and the efit artist. So e-fits can and will always give not much more than hints to a promising suspect which then must be found and interviewed by the police. Although the appearance of human individuals has a pretty large variability, there are always to find people which are looking, even on photographs, very much similar. A nicely sample was also found by one of the alleged “trolls” on twitter 16.Oct.2013 “This pretty much just happened on national television #GerryMcCann #Crimewatch pic.twitter.com/wA70mBwnfX“.

Thus an efit will give evidence only if the found suspect can be linked to the crime after interviewing also by other evidences and/or confession. In principle it says always that the then found suspect CAN be attached to the alleged suspect, but it is never a must. The vica versa but is seemingly true: If he cannot be attached to the efit, as the difference is to much, he CANNOT be the alleged suspect of the sighting.


Can E-Fits 1A and 1B eventually both be attached to Gerry McCann?

Taking this facts always in mind, we shall now make a comparison between known pictures of Gerry McCann and the efits. From the Smith’s Sighting we know, that the two eye-witnesses who saw the face had different angles of view, one from the front and one from the side.

If we attribute this to pictures of Gerry McCann we see at once that the seemingly different e-fits 1A, 1B are indeed very suggestive. Remarkable is always the eye’s-region of such e-fits, as typically humans are very fixed on eye-contacts and thus will make good descriptions of such details. From this comparison we can say indeed, that Gerry McCann CAN be related to those e-fits seemingly with no doubt. But of course, it is as explained above, not a prove on its own anyway.

We may compose the two e-fits to one and compare it with an original Photo of Gerry McCann. The similarity is striking again. We also may compose the efits to just one and compare it to a Frontview of Gerry McCann:

The seemingly disturbing fact of two different e-fits but can be seen not as a contradiction but as another proof of likeliness: As definitly Gerry McCann has, much other like most people, a very different side- and front look, two independent witnesses seeing him from different angles indeed should give different testimony and thus efits:


Two more samples from the Files

Another fine example of E-Fits is the one from testimony of Mr. Flack which was found to be the innocent Britsh Mr. Norton: In this sample we see the goods and bads of such e-fits. While the overall view seems to be odd, as the man was much younger in the memory of Mr. Flack and thus appeared something different in his e-fit. But looking at the very details one can see the not so bad fit: The melancholic eyes and mouths region, the nose and ears.

The testimony of Mr. Flack was (extract): “On the 2nd or 3rd May during the day (he does not remember exactly, but thinks it was during the afternoon), accompanied by his wife and when he was going to the Baptists supermarket, he observed an individual (about 1.70 in height, dark apparently Portuguese in appearance, with one day stubble, with short dark hair, cut long at the back, which extended to his shirt collar, wearing a yellow T ? shirt) who was standing at the corner of the path watching (this being the reason he found him suspicious) in the direction of the apartment that Madeleine would later disappear from. He adds that near to where the individual was watching, on the other side of the road, was a parked vehicle, van type, white, with a person (he does not remember whether the person was inside or outside the vehicle). He cannot describe that person.”

The testimony of Mr. Norton was (extract): “Since the beginning of April 2007, he has been living inside his vehicle, a white Ford Escort van, licence plate no. S677 YWP, as he is currently looking for a place to establish his residence as well as a music school. When confronted with the fact that his presence has been frequently noticed during the past days in the immediate vicinity of the OC, the witness admits that since the disappearance of Madeleine which was reported on the night of 3rd May, he had often gone to the place in order to find out from the British journalists whether there was any news about the girl's whereabouts. When asked, he said that the reason for his special preoccupation with this fact was because of the circumstance of the victim being a British girl and the fact that she was 'of a very tender age'.”

Another example of E-Fits may be found at →Daily Mail, Revealed: 'Madeleine photofit man was jailed for raping British girl' source: dailymail Again we may see: E-fits are never Photos, they are just more or less good hints to find a suspect to question him. The last but LP/SY never did.


Is Russel O'Brien the E-Fit mystery Pimple-Man?

There is one Witness Statement stating that she saw an “ugly” man sometimes suspicious looking around Apartment 5A. The statement is not in the PJ Files, but seemingly was given (years) later. From this we can assume that the witness didn't remember all details very well, →but see:

A young mum, on holiday in the resort, twice saw a pock-marked man acting suspiciously. The first time was around 8am on April 29 2007, the second time was on May 2 2007. She said: “I was walking along the road with my daughter. I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards me because for some reason the man unnerved me. He was standing on the opposite side of the road to the apartment. I would describe him as very ugly, pitted skin with a large nose.”

Verdict: It has not been possible to locate this witness statement in the PJ files which were issued to journalists. It may be contained in files that the McCanns' lawyers have gained access to, which are still under judicial secrecy, or possibly from information they have received direct from the public or through Método 3.

Update: The Sun's article of 11 May 2009, 'Scarface' witness, 'police ignored me', states that this witness reported the sighting to her local police in Wiltshire, two years ago, who then forwarded it to the McCanns' local force in Leicestershire; from whom she heard nothing. Was it ever forwarded to the PJ? If not, in which files did the McCanns' new detectives find it 'hidden'?

So far what we know today about Pimple-Man.

The obviously precarious statement but could indeed tell us, that the woman saw Russel O'Brien on 3rd May eve (confusing it with the 2nd). With the typical aberrations known with E-Fits (see samples above, even smart people are sometimes made “ugly” from witness's prejudice) we clearly see striking similarities: Nose, Ears, Mouth, Eyes region, characteristic Cheekbones, receding Hairline, Adam's Apple, Shirt…close to being perfect in terms of an Efit made long time after the event.

For possible criminal background see also Where is Maddie? at his possible complicit role in hiding Maddie.


Who is the killer of Jill Dando?

The unclosed case of Jill Dando may have a subtle connection to the McCann-Case via Spokesman Clarence Mitchell. In the 90ies Jill Dando, Jimmy Savile and Clarence Mitchell all three were close journalists and entertainer at BBC. Dando was killed by a high professional hit team – seemingly three professionals consisting of a driver, a watcher and the hitman – who was described roughly as a man closely fitting the then Clarence Mitchell.

Innocent Barry George - jailed for years until cleared - source: mirror.co.uk See →wikipedia: “As Dando was about to put her keys in the lock to open the front door of her home in Fulham, she was grabbed from behind. With his right arm, the assailant held her and forced her to the ground, so that her face was almost touching the tiled step of the porch. Then, with his left hand, he fired a single shot at her left temple, killing her instantly. The bullet entered her head just above her ear, parallel to the ground, and came out the right side of her head.” Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9 mm calibre automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a surprised cry from Dando “like someone greeting a friend” but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a 6-foot (1.83 metre) tall white man aged around 40, seen walking away from Dando's house.

As with every E-fit this alone will tell nothing – as any e-fit is just a hint for the police to question those close to the crime scene matching at least roughly the description. Of course Mitchell was never questioned. The preferred suspect but was a “lonely low IQ loser” Barry George, not fitting the description and forced to confess by a →female honeytrap cop. The leading DCI at the scene was Hamish Campbell, who in May 2011 got the first leader of Operation Grange as a supervisor of DCI Redwood to reinvestigate the Maddie-case.

But from the CV of Clarence Mitchell we know that the suspicion that Mitchell is in duty of MI5 has a really high probability, seemingly chosen by PM Thatcher as “Savile's Shadowman”. Also Mitchell at BBC invented the famous Serbian Connection “News”, blaming a serbian killer command send by Prs. Milosovic to kill Dando, as she “could have affronted him” in one of her Crimewatch shows. Again we see a seemingly striking similarity in term of regular e-fits with Mitchell, the man send from Downing Street to “help” the McCann Parents at the scene in Praia da Luz in 2007, set in duty shortly after the Gaspar-Statement would have related Gerry McCann and his best friend David Payne to pedophilia.


Further readings

On 27 October 2013 The Sunday Times published the article 'Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years', in which it states that the Oakley report, which contained the E-fits, had been supressed for 5 years by the McCanns. Full article here: → themaddiecasefiles. See also →Daily Mail: “Why were Maddie suspect E-fits kept SECRET for five years? Images and evidence of sighting uncovered by private detectives were suppressed.”. Also in →Huffingtonpost: “Madeleine McCann Suspect E-Fit 'Produced By Former Spies In 2008 And Suppressed By Parents'.”

Latest News (19 Sept. 2014)PressGazette, Sunday Times sued by McCanns over story which wrongly claimed evidence was withheld from police: “…The Sunday Times published the following apology on 28 December: In articles dated October 27 (“Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years” and “Investigators had E-Fits five years ago”, News) we referred to efits which were included in a report prepared by private investigators for the McCanns and the Fund in 2008. We accept that the articles may have been understood to suggest that the McCanns had withheld information from the authorities. This was not the case. We now understand and accept that the efits had been provided to the Portuguese and Leicestershire police by October 2009. We also understand that a copy of the final report including the efits was passed to the Metropolitan police in August 2011, shortly after it commenced its review. We apologise for the distress caused.”…“

Remark: This means that the crucial information was withheld at least for about 2.5 years (until time investigations had already ended). The crucial e-fit where withheld (date: 20. Oct. 2014, which means for 7.5 years) on the McCann →official search page. Latest: Official suspects where hidden until early July 2015, now including Operation Grange E-Fits available but since Oct. 2013