# Leicestershire Police

The home police constabulary for the McCann's case in England. Partner of the PJ in 2007/2008.

Homepage →Leicestershire Police

LP Information regarding the Maddie-Case →op task publication strategy (pdf)

“Anything in relation to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will not be released whilst it remains ongoing. Consideration may be given to releasing certain material, ie. that which would not reveal police tactics, when the circumstances surrounding Madeleine’s disappearance are fully known and the person/people involved have been brought to justice and a suitable period for any appeal has elapsed. Anything that discloses policing tactics or investigation strategies during the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will not be released.”

See also Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior from the special operations unit of Leicestershire Police

Wikipedia →Leicestershire Police

## Year 2007

Date: 16 May 2007

On 16th of May 2007, two doctor friends of the McCanns and the Paynes, made a statement to Leicestershire Police (LP) in which they expressed their concern over sexually suggestive gestures made by David Payne/Gerry McCann in 2005 which is considered by one of the witnesses to be consistent with acts of paedophilia. This very important and disturbing statements are but not sent from the British home police LP to the Portuguise Policia Judiciária (PJ) at once, like it is usual done in comparable cases.

The files on the "Payne-Allegation" were not sent to PJ until 24 October 2007 (arriving on 26 Oct.), 24 days after Gonçalo Amaral had been removed from the investigation.

Besides: Same day →Philomena McCann Relatives Launch Fighting Fund, 16 May 2007 “A relative of the McCann family has launched a fighting fund to allow Madeleine's parents to remain in Portugal until the missing girl is found. Phil McCann, has taken the campaign to Westminster where she was touched by the level of support. Philomna McCann: Errr… well, personally I… I'm heartened by the support I've received today in Parliament. There have been lots of suggestions; from the top, to some of the lesser, but as much appreciated, individuals within the Parliament. I have been galvanised by their support and I take on board some of their ideas which I have found very helpful, thank you. Q: Could you give us an idea of what the Chancellor offered you in advice? PM: Well, the Chancellor, more than anything, gev [gave] me some moral support and his advice I'd like to firstly share with my brother before I share it with the rest of the country and keep him in the loop rather than, errr… the media and people, errr… I'm sure at some point you will be made aware of the suggestions that have been made but for now I'd like to mull them over with my family because they deserve to hear them first, quite frankly. Q: Were you moved by the mood of the house during Prime Minister's question time? PM: What, the light-hearted mood when there was much of the jocularity? Or the support for the family? I presume you mean the second. Yes, it was very, errr… heartrending. It, errm… it really does help you to know that so many people support you and my family. It, errr… it is really, really nice.

Date: 21 of May 2007

McCann's Spokesman Clarence Eden Mitchell in his Statement (28th April 2008): –> PJ Files. ”… In relation to how I met Gerry and Kate McCann and what my relationship with them is: I met Gerry at the end of May 2007 when he returned to the UK after his daughter's disappearance. It was a circumstantial meeting at Leicestershire Police station. At the time I was working as part of the Consular Assistance Group, representing the foreigners department. As regards my travel to Portugal; I travelled on the 22nd May 2007 and remained in Portugal until the middle of June. Since then, there was no need to return.“.

Gerry McCann: Travelled back to Rothley 20/21 May 2007, see →Gerry's 1st Trip Home. From this the 21 May 2007 is confirmed as the only possible date of the “circumstantial meeting”, as Mitchell (and →also Gerry) after then went (back) to Portugal on 22 May. Interestingly, on →the same day Gerry's best friend and also accused David Payne left Portugal back home as the last one of the Tapas 7.

Disturbing is: “I met Gerry and Kate McCann at a circumstantial meeting at Leicestershire Police station end of May 2007”. Mitchell was at the time PM Tony Blair's (who was followed by Gordon Brown as PM on 27 June 2007) PR-Manager as the Director of the Downing St Media Monitoring Unit. What could have been the sense of such a high-level political “circumstantial meeting” with the McCann's at the British home police which at this time had just got the disturbing information regarding the "Payne-Allegation"? And but why then Leicestershire Police didn't do any questioning of the McCanns/Tapas 7, nor any house searches nor any own investigation nor did the Leicestershire Prosecutor do anything adequate and effective regarding the obvious criminal case in their own jurisdiction? Was David Payne ordered back on 22 May to UK to not risk that the PJ got aware of the Payne-Allegation and would eventually question him? In this circumstance see also Oddities-Vers.2-Sample 9. Also disturbing is that on the press photo →21/→22-May-2007 he is already accompanied by one of the most expensive libel and PR Lawyers in the UK Adam Tudor from Carter Ruck. It is then obvious that Gerry was accompanied by Adam Tudor on 21-May at the Leicestershire Police meeting. Obviously he contacted Carter Ruck as he was secretly informed of the Payne-McCann-Allegation already on/after the 16th of May 2007. The also disturbing question arises, who in the Leicestershire police force was the unlawful ”whistleblower“ to Gerry McCann?

In her diary, Kate McCann wrote regarding the following day: “Wednesday, May 23 [2007]: Gordon Brown (then Chancellor and PM in waiting) called and spoke with Gerry - very kind and giving encouragement. Feeling a bit emotional afterwards.”

On the next day, 24 May 2007, the McCann's released the The last Photo of Madeleine, allegedly taken on the 3rd May 2007. Disturbing again is, why does it take three weeks to “find” the last photo just after his first visit back in the UK? This photo but was altered and found to be at least in crucial parts a deliberate fake.

Date: 11. Sept. 2007

After getting the status of “arguidos” the McCann's fled from Portugal back to UK on the 9th of September 2007. Just two days later PM Gordon Brown visited the otherwise not very prominent Beaumont Leicestershire Policestation. located close to Rothley and prime station involved in the Madeleine McCann case. See →Nationalarchives.gov.uk, (date of article and video 12.Sept.2009),: PM and Jacqui Smith visit Beaumont Leys Police Station “Gordon Brown visited a police station in Leicester to see first hand how the police are tackling crime. Accompanied by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the PM travelled to the Beaumont Leys police station in the north west of the city. During a tour of the station Mr Brown discussed neighbourhood policing and engagement with local residents and police officers.”

Disturbing fact is: As PM he could have visited any Police Station in UK, for convenience e.g. in London, for “to see first hand how the police are tackling crime” . Why he chooses Beaumont Leicestershire Policestation responsible to take charge of the McCann's, at the time officially the main suspects in the Maddie Case, where the whole world was looking on? From common sense this definitely cannot be seen as just pure chance.

Date: 02. Oct. 2007

PJ accuse English police of favouring the McCann couple - Diário de Notícias (Article by P.MARTINHEIRA, J. M. OLIVEIRA, on 02. Oct. 2007)

“The British police have only been working on the issues that the McCann couple wants, and which are convenient to them.” It was with an explosive and rebellious tone that the coordinator of the investigation into the Madeleine case, Gonçalo Amaral, commented in brief statements to DN the news that was published yesterday in several English newspapers. This news was about an anonymous email that was sent to Prince Charles' official site, which accuses an ex-employee of the Ocean Club of kidnapping the four-year-old girl, as an act of revenge against the resort's administration, after having been dismissed.

“That situation is completely set aside, and it has no credibility whatsoever for Portuguese police”, the leader of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Portimao told DN, considering that his English colleagues “have been investigating leads and information that were created and worked by the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are suspected of the death of their daughter Madeleine”.

“That story of a kidnapping for revenge is another fact that was worked by the McCanns”, Gonçalo Amaral accused, stressing that the Ocean Club “is located in Praia da Luz and not in London, which means that everything that concerns the resort and its employees (present or former) was already, or is being, investigated by the Policia Judiciaria. It's not an email, even less an anonymous one, which is easy to track, that is going to distract our investigation line”, he said. Gonçalo Amaral, before entering the CID in Portimao, was at the PJ's Directory in Faro, having been mainly responsible for fighting drug traffic.

The position of the coordinator of CID in Portimao comes to meet the statements that were made to DN by the president of the Union of Criminal Investigation Employees (ASFIC), Carlos Anjos, who accuses Gerry and Kate McCann of “trying to distract and confuse the investigation by announcing a new fact on a daily basis”. For him, as DN could report, “the McCanns have launched a campaign to discredit the Portuguese police when it presented the theory of the girl's death, substituting that of an abduction, which was very convenient to them. As long as the theory of the disappearance because of a suspected abduction subsisted, the PJ were very pleasant company for the couple. When things changed and the death theory emerged, there was a radical change in the stance of the McCanns, who by the way never helped or facilitated, since the beginning, the investigation”.

In late August, early September, a few days before Gerry and Kate were constituted arguidos, for suspicions of the negligent death of their daughter Madeleine, a top member of staff of Judiciaria commented the following: “After buying ourselves a war with British media, we are now buying one with English police.” Over the last few weeks, the Policia Judiciaria has been silent, which was helped by the fact that the spokesman of this force for that case, Olegario Sousa, has left that function, which he occupied since the child's disappearance.

Date: 13. Dec. 2007

The signing of the →Treaty of Lisbon took place in Lisbon, Portugal, on 13 December 2007.

Allegedly Gordon Brown relayed signing of the Treaty until Portugues PM José Sócrates assured, that Goncalo Amaral was dismissed from the Maddie McCann case.

See e.g. →The Daily Mail, (25 July 2008): “A copper without shame: Maddie's top detective blames everyone but himself for the lack of answers”

”…We cannot go into the allegations he makes against the McCanns, as they have indicated they will take legal action if the charges are repeated. In any case, most of them are already known….He says he was a victim of international politics. He claims the British media sided against him, and that their portrayal of Portugal as a 'Third World country' hampered the investigation.

He says the British police, the Diplomatic Service, the MI5 and even the NHS were blocking his path to the 'material truth'. He even hints that Prime Minister Gordon Brown delayed signing last year's Lisbon Treaty until it was confirmed that 'this humble Portuguese employee' was removed from the McCann investigation. ….On the night of May 3, 2007, Amaral - who had been brought up in Lisbon - was the head of the CID in the Algarve town of Portimao, a few minutes down the coastal highway from the resort village of Luz. He says he was informed by phone of Madeleine's disappearance that evening, at midnight. The National Guard - a junior branch of the police services - had been on the scene. But before specialised detectives arrived, he says, Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club complex had become the scene of a virtual 'arrial' - a party.

A host of National Guard personnel, dogs, resort staff, members of the McCann family and friends and other people had trampled through it, damaging potential evidence. Even at this early stage, he began to see conspiracy theories: 'We had to wonder if that kind of contamination was unconscious or intentional.' The next day Amaral seemed appalled that the police were visited first by the British Consul in Portimao and then no less a person than the British ambassador. 'It was not normal,' he exclaims. 'Who was this couple? Who were their friends? We did not need diplomats. We needed quick answers to the questions' - particularly from the English police whose tardiness he was already critcising. He complained that, from the start, ' politics and diplomacy seemed to be shaping the initiative'.

In particular, he felt he was not being helped as much as he could by the British authorities. …..It seems extraordinary, for example, that it was not until July that specialist forensic sniffer dogs were brought in, and from the UK. By that stage, Amaral admits in his book, the case had reached a 'dead end'. But while the dogs' findings - they are said to have detected spots of blood in the apartment from which Madeleine had disappeared and other matter in the boot of the McCanns' hire car - appeared to confirm his own well-advanced theories, the development also led to the final, fatal split with his British colleagues. When a British police superintendent arrived and declared himself 'disappointed' at the inconclusive nature of results from the UK Forensic Science Service, Amaral could see only two possibilities. One, that the British technician responsible was incompetent. The other that there was deliberate obfuscation. He writes conspiratorially of the subsequent 'nervousness of British police… who wanted to know everything that was going on'. ….On September 7 last year, the McCanns were made official suspects. Soon afterwards, they left for the UK. Amaral was astounded by the alleged reaction of the British police who maintained their links with the couple.

He argues that after Kate and Gerry were made suspects, the British police should have severed their links with the couple. 'It happened with the Portuguese police. But this rupture did not occur between the couple and the British police.' The point is that the British force was still pursuing the possibility of a kidnap. Tension between the two police forces had been growing for some time and in that month when the McCanns were declared suspects, it erupted. When a tourist picture taken of a woman in Morocco with a blonde child on her back appeared in the UK Press, Amaral was furious. 'I asked a colleague to contact the English police to ask what was happening,' he writes. 'The answer could not have been more unreal and absurd . . . They had received the photo and showed it immediately [to the McCanns and the media] without consulting us, who were in charge of the criminal investigation.' His frustration was perhaps understandable. The child was almost immediately shown not to be Madeleine. And Amaral's team was being overwhelmed by both well-meaning and malicious reports of sightings from all over the world. In the following month, October, Amaral was removed as co-ordinator of the investigation. He claims it was not because of 'incompetence, but because of an inconvenient outburst'.

In a terse exchange, he had accused British detectives of chasing leads only that Gerry and Kate McCann wanted following up. ….He says his dismissal was 'orchestrated by the British media'. The strategy was simple: 'Attack the investigation and portray Portugal as a Third World country with a judicial system that is completely obsolete.' But he also writes, astonishingly, that higher powers were at work. 'The British Prime Minister had spoken to (the UK police) asking to confirm my resignation. We didn't know the reason for such an interest in such a humble Portuguese public employee. We didn't know what happened backstage of the Lisbon Treaty negotiations, before the signing of the Treaty.' But he adds, darkly: 'For first time in Policia Judiciária history, an employee lost his job due to external influences.' …The McCann case was the most high profile of Amaral's career - the pressures were enormous - and the only one, it is said by supporters, that he failed to crack.“

## Year 2008

Date: 9 Jan. 2008

→Mirror, Kate and Gerry: We fear police will charge us: “Gerry and Kate McCann fear they face charges over daughter Madeleine's disappearance as Portuguese prosecutors finally send a dossier of demands to British police. The dossier contains a list of more than 40 key questions and means the couple will be officially quizzed by police for a second time. And the McCanns, formal suspects in the case, could be visited by detectives within days. The move comes as another blow to the couple, both 39, who want Portuguese investigators to “see sense” and drop the case against them. A family friend revealed last night: “Gerry and Kate are desperate for the case to be dropped…” ”

Date: 5 Apr. 2008

→British already know all about PJ's mission in England; Jornal de Noticias

Marisa Rodrigues - Kate and Gerry will not be questioned by the Judiciary Police - April 5, 2008

The Judicial Police (PJ) will not have an easy job in England where, as of Monday, the letter rogatory in the case Madeleine McCann will be put in force. The plan for the action, as well as the content of the document, which should have remained a judicial secret, reached the hands of the British press, even before the departure of Portuguese researchers.

According to what JN found yesterday, British journalists were informed by sources, they say from the police, of the steps that will take place next week. When, where and who will be heard were some of the data that was accessed. Even the hotel where the PJ will be housed was reported to them. What, in the opinion of source connected to the research, “is the evidence that the leakage of information of the police departed from Leicester, that shows not being interested in cooperating in the investigation, damaging it by making public the intentions of PJ.” This means that the group of three detectives, led by the coordinator of PJ of Portimão, Paulo Rebelo, will not surprise the 24 people that will be interviewed. Most - 14 - will be determined by the Portuguese authorities. This number includes the group of friends of the couple McCann, now known as "Tapas 7". The other interrogations were requested by parents of Madeleine. This is the case of Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the couple, Justine McGuiness, who held the same job, and the psychologist who has followed Kate.

The arrival of PJ is scheduled for 12.20 pm on Monday. That same day there will be some interrogations, none of them considered very relevant to the investigation. The next day, the “Tapas 7” will begin to be interviewed. Jane Tanner, which guarantees having seen a man carrying a child in his arms that she believes was Madeleine, will be the first. The McCann, as the JN already said, will not be questioned by decision of the prosecutor, who considered the investigation a “waste of time”. The couple will be traveling on Thursday to Brussels, where they will meet with MEPs involved in the creation of an alert system for European missing or abducted children. “Pure coincidence,” ensures the spokesman of the couple.

Date: 08 July 2008

→Kate and Gerry win battle, 08 July 2008; 24horas

Leicester police gives in to McCanns in a decision of the British High Court - Maddie's parents will be able to access 81 files from the English police with the contacts of people who offered clues about sightings of their daughter

It was a victory for the McCanns. During a session that was held at the British High Court yesterday, the Leicestershire police agreed to deliver 81 files out of a total of 11 thousand that are in their hands to Kate and Gerry's lawyers. Those are documents that are part of the English inquiry only and that “are related to clues and information about sightings of Maddie that were delivered by people from various parts of the world to the police in Leicester, by telephone, email or letter”, the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, clarified to 24horas. “This is information that was advanced to the police during the early stages of the case, that is, until three weeks after Madeleine's disappearance”. Each one of those 81 files contains the name of a witness, his or her contact and a summary of the information that was given. Since yesterday, the McCanns' lawyers and the private detectives at the couple's service can contact those witnesses and again follow leads that were already investigated by the English police. It was judge Justice Hogg, from the Family section of the British High Court, who managed this compromise between the police and the McCanns.

The police didn't want to

Due to the fact that Kate and Gerry place their daughter's case under the guardianship of the High Court, judge Justice Hogg ordered, one month ago, for any relevant information to locate the little girl should be made available to the McCanns, including documents from the English police. The Leicestershire police defied the judge's order and did not comply. Thus, yesterday's session was scheduled. A deal was reached. According to Mitchell, the couple's lawyers said in court that “this decision does not affect the Portuguese law”. Judge Justice Hogg “expressed during the session that Maddie may still be alive and her solidarity towards the parents”, Mitchell reported. “Whoever holds information concerning her whereabouts should look into his conscience and into his heart”, the magistrate referred. Kate and Gerry received the yielding from the English police with pleasure.

(“While one or both of them may be innocent, there is no clear evidence that eliminates them from involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.” - Said by the Assistant Chief Constable of Leicestershire, in an official submission of Leicester Police to the Family Division of the High Court, in July 2008, regarding their appeal.)

“It just goes to show their power”

“The decision from the British justice says a lot about the power and the influence that the McCanns hold”, a source from the Polícia Judiciária commented to 24horas. The same source remembers that the secrecy of justice is not at issue “because the files that were released by the Leicestershire police were not shared with the PJ at the level of judiciary cooperation and are not very relevant”. The Leicestershire police even created a “special unit to investigate the case and has its own ongoing process”. “With a parallel process at the British police and the diligences that were made by the private detectives, one feels like asking: What about results? The PJ is the only entity that is criticised and the truth is that the only advances that were made in the case were within the Judiciária's investigation”, the source concludes. The McCanns are only waiting for the judicial secrecy to be lifted.

Date: 21 July 2008

The Mirror's crime correspondent British Journalist Jon Clements demands by →FoI Law three in principle simple questions to be asked by Leicestershire Police:

1. How many applications has Leicestershire Police made on behalf of the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) from 4th May 2007 until 21 July 2008?
2. On what date where such application made, where they granted or not, and under what →RIPA Regulations?
3. Please describe the nature of the surveillance/investigatory power used.

Note: All these question are simple cursory questions which demand no disclosure of professional confidentiality.

## Year 2009

Date: 13 Feb. 2009

Leictershire police refuses to give any informations as the McCann-case is regarded as a question of “National Security”. See →The Mirror, blogs Leicestershire Constabulary paper, Ref. No.1092/09: ”…the duty in s1(1)a of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following excemptions: Sect. 23(5) Information relating to the Security bodies, Sect. 24(2) National Security, Sect. 30(3) Investigations, Sect. 31(3) Law enforcement.“ The term “Security bodies” factually means the involvement of the secret services MI5/MI6, as it cannot refer by virtue of the freedom of information act to the LP themselves.

see also →Who was listening to Kate and Gerry McCann?, By The Mirror's crime correspondent JON CLEMENTS on Feb. 18, 2009:

“A few days ago I received an interesting letter from Leicestershire police about the Madeleine McCann investigation. I had asked them, in July, if they had got any warrants (under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) to use surveillance powers - such as phone tapping and email interception on behalf of the Portuguese police. The force initially stalled saying it needed to “consult other Agencies” before replying. After a six month delay, Leicestershire has now claimed it is exempt from Freedom of Information laws in this case due to “national security”. I've put in dozens of FoI requests to police forces over the years, some you get and some you don't but “national security” is a new one on me. To make matters even murkier, Leicestershire claimed a second exemption because the information I requested could relate to “the Security bodies”. A quick look at the FoI Act reveals “Security bodies” are MI5, MI6, GCHQ, special forces (such as the SAS) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Hmm. Despite claiming these exemptions, Leicestershire seem at pains to neither confirm nor deny they hold any information relevant to my request anyway. Check out (slowly I suggest) the tortuous conclusion to the three page letter explaining their stance. “It is our decision that the Leicestershire Constabulary must maintain a position of neither confirming nor denying that any relevant information is held and that this response, which neither confirms nor denies that information is held, should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you have requested exists or does not exist”. Thanks, but I think that is a rather long-winded way of saying Foxtrot Oscar. However, it does beg the question just who was bugging the McCanns after they returned from Praia da Luz? And what has the answer got to do with national security?”

see also →Madeleine McCann: Key files into probe kept top secret to avoid Portugal row, CRUCIAL files relating to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are being kept secret by the Government to avoid a diplomatic war with Portugal. on July 1, 2012:

“They contain discussions between Home Office officials and the Met over vital information on the case. But Home Secretary Theresa May and her staff have spent the past nine months preventing the Daily Star Sunday from obtaining the papers. They said there would be “specific detriment to the UK’s relationship with Portugal” if the four files were released. Ms May also claimed disclosure of three of the documents would “stifle discussion” between officials. But we understand the papers may show a difference of opinion between the Home Office and Met officers, who are reviewing the files on Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance in Praia da Luz. The Met review was ordered last year after pressure from the Home Office and David Cameron. …Our first request for the documents [FoIA] was made last September but the Home Office turned us down. We appealed but again the Home Office decided secrecy was more important. Last week, after more than five months’ deliberation, the Information Commissioner ruled in the Home Office’s favour but informed us we can now appeal to an Information Tribunal. Its response said: “The documents contained information provided to the UK in confidence by Portuguese officials and internal discussions between the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police Service of such information.”…”

Another link to the involvement of MI5 is a →report by The Independent dated 10 September 2007:

The eyes of the world might have been on their homecoming, but the end-of-holiday mundanities were the same as any when Kate and Gerry McCann tried to put Portugal behind them on their return to Leicestershire yesterday. First, there were their two-year-old twins to stir from half-sleep after the drive home from the airport. It was left to Kate to unbuckle Amelie and carry her to the oak front door which the GP had last passed through joyfully, with three children in tow and a beach holiday in sight, on a spring day more than three months ago. There was some help with their four large black suitcases from the →Special Branch officers who had chauffeured them the 16 miles from East Midlands airport to Rothley. But only Mr McCann seemed to have the know-how to unfasten the two child seats from the unmarked police car. ….But the short drive from airport to house was full of dreadful reminders for mrs McCann, returning to Rothley for the first time. From her seat behind the driver in the Special Branch Ford Galaxy, she might well have seen the image of her child in the local newsagents' window advertising Madeleine “bands of hope”. …

Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in Ireland and the Royal Thai Police. A Special Branch unit acquires and develops intelligence, usually of a political nature, and conducts investigations to protect the State from perceived threats of subversion—particularly terrorism and other extremist activity.

The disturbing fact is: The questions are just cursory and demand no secret details of police work to be answered. Swept up the question in principle was just simply “did, and if, how and when did, the Leicestershire Police help the Portuguese investigation in anyway?”. Although that cursory simple the answer is denied as to be of “National Security”. How can this be? As from other sources we know that indeed there was no much help, the sole secret behind the denial seems to be the fact that LP did no appropriate help. So why was this the case and why does the sole fact of idleness endanger “National Security” ?

Informations about the FoI-Act is provided by Wikipedia →Freedom of Information Act 2000.

FoI is not convenient for everybody. So there are a lot of Government proposals to restrict the FOI Act. See →Campaign for Freedom of Information: Improving FOI.

The disciplanary “Regulation 15 notice or a 163 Form” (see notice at Scotland Yard→Danger data) is regular used on different issues against officers in the police. It but may be easily misused to silence officers.

See also →Mirror, Paedo MP cover-up claim: Top cop removed from sex abuse probe after naming politicians as suspects (26 Mar. 2013) “Tasked with flushing out paedophiles preying on vulnerable youngsters at children’s homes, Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll relished the challenge. But the officer suddenly found himself booted off the case and put on a disciplinary after revealing politicians were named among the suspects. … Mr Driscoll, who has had a distinguished career in the Met for three decades, told how disciplinary proceedings – known as a regulation 15 notice or a 163 form – were started against him after he named the politicians in a confidential meeting with council officials in the late 90s….He said the action followed a complaint by an executive on the council. The officer was also moved from Lambeth. The detective was investigated and questioned under caution by other officers. Mr Driscoll added: “I was handed a 163 form. It was revoked after they moved me and all disciplinary action was dropped.”…”

The press and media are addressed regularly with a “D-Notice”. See further information on →DA-Notice: A DA-Notice or Defence Advisory Notice, called a Defence Notice or D-Notice until 1993, is an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security. The system is still in use in the United Kingdom. See there also official →DNotice site.

See also D-Notice Press Top Officers at →Chairman:

Chair: Jon Thompson Organisation: Permanent Under Secretary of State Ministry of Defence; Vize-Chair: Simon Bucks Organisation: Associate Editor Sky News; followed by prominent Government Members and Press and Broadcasting Members.

Secretary: Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance; First Deputy Secretary: Air Commodore David Adams; Second Deputy Secretary: Brigadier Geoffrey Dodds( see →Child Abusers on D Notices/DA notices).

See also →Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee at Wikipedia:

The media representatives regarding D-notices are nominated by the following organisations:

1. BBC
2. ITV
3. ITN
4. Sky TV (Murdoch)
5. Press Association (shareholder: Murdoch)
6. Scottish Daily Newspaper →Society (associated e.g. with Murdoch and Labour Party)
7. Society of Editors
8. The Publishers Association
9. Google

(Remark: there is also another disturbing →denial of FoI regarding the British Ambassador in Portugal.)

See also special article Disclaimer on Conspiracies.

## Year 2010

Date: 13 Feb. 2010

see →Joana Morais blog: Maddie Case: British Cop invokes state secrets privilege to refuse to testify

Trial on book about Maddie without key witness from the English investigation side, by Nuno Miguel Maia in →Jornal de Notícias

A detective sergeant from Scotland Yard invokes “State immunity” and obligation of secrecy on the investigations of the Maddie case to refuse to testify tomorrow, Tuesday, at the beginning of the trial that opposes the McCann couple to the former coordinator of the PJ, Gonçalo Amaral.

The hearing of witnesses tomorrow at the Civil Court of Lisbon, will be limited to the elements that were requested by the former head of the Judiciary Police of Portimão, most of which also collaborated in the investigation to the English girl's disappearance. The case concerns the order to withdraw from the market all the books "The Truth of the Lie", on which is defended the thesis of Maddie's death and the parental involvement in hiding the cadaver.

The English cop, incidentally with a Portuguese name José de Freitas, was the liaison officer between the Portuguese and English authorities and the McCann couple. On several occasions he accompanied Kate and Gerry, who would be constituted as arguidos, after being confronted with evidence of human blood and cadaver odor in the apartment at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, Lagos. The traces - remember - were detected by the English dogs “Eddie” and “Keela”.

As an usual standard in the procedures of the British, all the contacts and signals expressed by the McCanns were registered, including those that contributed to support the decision to constitute them as suspects. And it's relating to that, and to other data, that Gonçalo Amaral seeks a statement.

“Any potential evidence [testimonial] that I can give may be subject to confidentiality and Immunity of the English Public Interest. Furthermore, since all the services that I performed were official, it is applied the principle of State immunity and it will be necessary the consent of the United Kingdom authorities to waive that State immunity before I could be subject to the jurisdiction of the Portuguese courts and to be able to give any evidence, whether relevant or not. The State immunity covering my official acts is that of the United Kingdom and not mine, and can not be renounced by me, but only by the United Kingdom”, wrote José de Freitas to the judge of the Civil Court of Lisbon after having been notified, in a letter that JN had access.

The police officer suggests that his witness statement should be instead requested through a letter rogatory or through the British Ambassador [Mr. Alexander Ellis] in Portugal. But subjected to a prior authorization by the English authorities, who have just set a tight regime of secrecy of the process in England.”