# 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:

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?

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.

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'.”

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 is still withheld (date: 20. Oct. 2014, which means for 7.5 years) on the McCann →official search page.