MARTIN SMITH ASKED "IS SHE ASLEEP" ??

Hi all,

As further reports emerge concerning the Irish witness Martin Smith and his family who saw a man matching Gerry McCann on 3 May I thought it would be helpful to post this very interesting article I found posted by Paulo Reis from Sol on 5 August, last year.

As you will know, it has always been my belief that Gerry McCann carried Madeleine off that night and realising he had been spotted got Jane Tanner to make up the sighting where she gave a description matching Gerry, initially saying he was Northern European and had short dark hair but then when Gran Cooper came up with her e-fit stating, well actually, yes he was just like that..he has morphed into the distinctly swarthy man with long hair and frightening teeth. I have read that thanks to Gran Cooper the PJ were forced to investigate this and wasted a huge amount of time and resources upon it. It really is heartbreaking that the McCanns and their team have quite deliberately given them so much wasted work which was clearly never going to find Madeleine.

When reading through this however what really upset me is the thought of just why would Jane Tanner state that the man was carrying the child in what she confessed on Panorama was a very odd way limply in open arms across the body..this is how you would carry a dead child, because if you held the child up against your body in the normal way the head would flop down. As will be seen in this report Martin Smith even said to this man, is she asleep, but the man put his head down and ignored him. Hardly friendly holiday behaviour!

Also, I had not previously realised that the GNR had deployed their own dog for several hours in the McCann apartment just before the arrival of the British dogs and this dog also marked Madeleine's death in that apartment and the British dogs confirmed this. Not long back I reported that this dog had passed out as a fully trained dog (I am assuming it is the same one judging by the description of it). We now have it confirmed that death was marked in the McCanns bedroom, behind the sofa in the living room and in the flower bed. As will be seen here, back in August 2007 it was realised the body had been moved in the apartment. I suppose the question is where did she die? It would seem to me to be in the McCann's bedroom and then perhaps moved to just behind the sofa near the patio door for removal. Gerry has even remarked how quiet it was normally and he you would not expect to bump into anyone, but unfortunately for him he bumped into Wilkins and I believe he also bumped into Martin Smith and his family. The fact that there are other members of Mr Smith's family who have given evidence will corroborate his evidence and make it much more powerful. If Madeleine was carried openly like this by Gerry then it would seem she did not have serious and visible injuries which again would seem to point to over-sedation. I recall there were early reports of a syringe being found in the McCann's bedroom but do not know whether that is accurate. When taken with the fact that two nights before Madeleine was reported crying by Mrs Fenn and her young visitor and the night before Kate even admits Madeleine and Sean were crying, the fact that they went and left them again can only lead to one conclusion IMO. They made sure none of the children would interrupt their fun again, fatally for Madeleine. It is simply heartbreaking and I am appalled at what a wicked liar Jane Tanner is, she can sue me if she wants, it will not stop me saying it!!

This report also confirms the factual basis for the claims made by Portuguese detectives that little Madeleine was dumped at sea. Such wickedness is very hard to comprehend. That little Madeleine could not even have a decent burial, she was just dumped. Truly terrible. For Leicester Police to go and interview Martin Smith and family and for them to then fly out to Portugal it says it all really as to how seriously they viewed his evidence and he has no reason to lie about such a serious matter. They have his evidence and I feel this talk of the PJ failing to re-interview him as though it was somehow fatal to their investigation is just pure propaganda!

Viv x

The investigations have returned to their initial course.
Portuguese and British police search for the body of the child in the surroundings of Praia da Luz.
By Felícia Cabrita (felícia.cabrita@sol.pt) and Margarida Davim (magarida.davim@sol.pt)Weekly "Sol" (Original version, in Portuguese)Translated by: Mark
“There are strong signs” that Madeleine, the English child that disappeared from Praia da Luz almost one hundred days ago, “is dead”, police sources have told Sol. The 180º turnaround that the investigation by the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) from Portimao seems to have done in the past few days, even led the Attorney General, Pinto Monteiro, to postpone the making of an interview that had been requested by British media chain BBC – an interview that would be focusing on the fact that, so long after Maddie’s disappearance, the authorities still remain without real clues concerning her whereabouts.Although an official source from the PGR justified the postponing of the interview with “agenda issues”, the moves by the PJ and some elements from the British police during these last days – accompanied by two dogs, in Praia da Luz – seem to indicate that the investigation is now centred on the McCann family and their group of friends. Sol could find out that the English dogs are trained for different tasks. One, to detect human remains originating from dead flesh, and the other one to detect human blood or fluids. A specialist that was contacted by Sol explains that the technique of these animals rests on scientific bases, and that while “one of the dogs can distinguish between natural death or death by accident that does not involve bloodshed, the other one can diagnose whether someone died a violent death, with bloodshed or other spilled fluids”.Tuesday night, a black and white cocker spaniel that is trained to detect death, spent several hours in the apartment that the McCann family occupied in the Ocean Club resort, and from where Maddie disappeared on May 3. According to sources within the investigation, the dog marked the death of the child inside the apartment.On the dogs’ trailThe English dogs do not contradict the clues that were detected by the sniffer dog that GNR sent to the location, on the day following the English girl’s disappearance. It’s an animal that only follows odours, and that “detected the movement of the child from the room to another point inside the apartment”, according to a source with the Guarda. The same source said that “based on that signal, it was not possible to conclude whether the child was alive or dead – because a sniffer dog will smell both the living and the dead”. Yet, outside the house, both through the windows that faced the Tapas restaurant – where the McCanns had dinner with their seven friends – and through the main door, “the dog lost the trail, as if the child had exited, for example, rolled up in a blanket”, that source said. A team from Sol, on the terrain for the last two weeks, could observe the work of the cocker spaniel from the British police, performing several diligences along the water in Praia da Luz and in a nearby valley.The animal’s path, on Wednesday night, seemed to test the deposition from several witnesses that were heard by the PJ in late May – namely an Irish family that have been living in Luz, and who, on the day that Maddie vanished, reportedly crossed ways with a man that carried a child that seemed to be asleep. According to their deposition to PJ, Martin Smith, his wife and his children, after leaving the Kelly bar, which is located approximately 400 metres from the Ocean Club, around 9.50 / 10.00 pm, saw an individual described as Caucasian, measuring 1.70 – 1.75 m, walking towards the beach. The Irish man told Sol that he knew Robert Murat (the only arguido in the process) visually for years – and also remembered seeing the Anglo-Portuguese man in a bar that evening, “already a bit intoxicated”. Therefore, the Irish dismissed the possibility that the person he saw carrying a child could be Murat: “If it was him, I guarantee to you that I would have recognized him”.Concerning the clothes the man he saw on that night was wearing, Smith only refers the “beige trousers”, given the fact that his upper body was hidden by the child’s body, which was not covered. It is curious that one of the elements that formed the group of Maddie’s parents’ friends, guaranteed to PJ several days before Smith was heard, that - at a moment when she left the table to check on the group’s children - she had crossed ways with a man that was wearing trousers that fit the description that was also made by the Irish man. That individual was also carrying a sleeping child. And the witness, who even managed to see what pyjamas the child was wearing, just “thought it was strange that the child was barefoot and uncovered”. This witness said it would be 9.15 pm.Direct access to the PMAccording to the course the PJ from Portimao is now conducting the investigation, and considering the trail that the British police’s cocker spaniel tracked along the sea shore, the individual would have descended to Praia da Luz, where he could have disposed of Maddie’s body. Sol knows that the English team contacted João Alveirinho Dias, a professor at the University of Algarve and a specialist in oceanography, in order to collect information about the sea’s dynamics and the beach area where everything may have happened. The investigator, who was not briefed about the context of the police inquiries, told “Sol" that he was consulted on “the sand movements, where they come from and where they go to”. The police investigation has therefore, and according to our sources, returned to its initial course, and it becomes increasingly clear, as Sol had reported previously, that there is no proof against Murat.Yet, the British media continue to point a finger at the Anglo-Portuguese man, although the criminal investigation has returned to clues that relate to the group of friends of Madeleine’s parents. A journalist with the Daily Express – who has repeatedly contacted Sol searching for new information on this case – recognized this week that it is “difficult for an English newspaper to adopt a critical tone concerning Madeleine’s parents”. The Daily Express cited, in one of its last reports, the news that have been published by Sol, describing them as a “hate campaign” against the McCanns.The same journalist ended up confessing that “it’s the only way we can transmit your data”. Sol knows that Gerry McCann has regular contact with Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister. Clarence Mitchell – who was the first spokesman for the McCanns and is now in the press cabinet at Nº 10, Downing Street – confirms those contacts. “I know there is a communication line between Gerry and Gordon Brown. I know they talk. But I don’t know what they talk about, because those are informal conversations”, he clarified, further adding: “The Madeleine case is treated whenever there are bilateral meetings between Portugal and the United Kingdom. Gordon Brown is sensitive to the case and wants it solved quickly”.Translated by: Mark 04.08.2007
Posted by Paulo Reis at 22:29:00