Duarte Levy
16 December 2008
Justine McGuinness and the Vascão river
Justine McGuiness, spokesperson for the McCanns who accompanied them in fleeing to England immediately after they were made arguidos, left various documents in the apartment that served as the couple's headquarters, including photographs, establishing a possible connection between Madeleine's disappearance and the banks of the river Vascão, near the Spanish border. Today, 19 months after Madeleine's disappearance, the trail left by Justine McGuiness resurfaces.<!--"''"-->
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| This picture is to give an indication of the general area, rather than define a specific spot |
It is September 9th 2007, the day that Kate and Gerry take flight to England, four months after Madeleine McCann's disappearance that the PJ get their hands on a series of documents left in the Vista Mar villa, until then occupied by the couple, where photographs and even a sketch are found, indicating the detailed location of a place on the border between Alentejo and the Algarve, 20 km from Almodovar, crossed by the Vascão river. The PJ inspectors went into the house immediately after the McCanns left for the airport, thus taking advantage of the fact that the journalists were accompanying the couple.
The documents left there by the McCanns' spokesperson, Justine McGuiness, were found under a sofa. In addition to the identification of a clearly defined geographic area, were numerous inscriptions which the PJ have never succeeded in interpreting. According to sources close to the investigation, nothing was done in this direction and the PJ employees who allegedly regarded the documents as being the work of an esoteric group, did not even take the trouble to visit the place indicated, considering the lead as being of no value to the case.
The McCanns' spokesperson, who was with them throughout the time when they were constituted arguidos under Portuguese law, ended up being dismissed on her arrival in England, this in spite of the fact that she might prove to be one of the most embarrassing witnesses for the couple and the English authorities. The fact is that Justine McGuiness has never been questioned by the PJ and thus it is that the exact significance of the documents and photographs has never been explained. <!--"''"-->
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| Ribeira do Vascão satellite picture (click to enlarge) |
In statements recorded recently in London, sources close to the former Liberal Party candidate and specialist in public relations, confirmed that Justine McGuiness was even allegedly the target of various pressures, notably in the legal field, meaning, for her, that she should keep quiet about everything she saw and heard during the time she worked for Kate and Gerry McCann.
What is certain is that the former spokesperson and her employers, the McCanns, were already at odds, particularly with Kate, on the day they left Portugal together and their "divorce" on arrival in England did not surprise anyone. Justine had always directed very harsh criticism towards Madeleine's mother, sometimes in the presence of journalists. And the poor relations between the two women were not limited to financial matters, on which Justine always demanded settlement for her work and for numerous extra hours spent with the couple, but also in meetings and dinners with journalists and representatives of the British authorities.
Today, all this might have been forgotten if it were not for the results of an investigation into records of the McCanns' telephone calls and of all the people who were in contact with them, an investigation led by journalists, in collaboration with former operatives of the information services.
While investigating the calls received and made on the McCann's mobile phones during their stay in Portugal, the investigators found a report from inspector Paulo Dias of the PJ where it is confirmed that Kate received, on the 2nd of May, at around 11h21, a call from Swansea (UK) which, later, she would justify to the PJ as being a mistake. A sufficiently important "mistake" that Madeleine's mother guarded the register of this call in her mobile, in spite of having deleted all the details of other communications.
More interesting, the investigators - some Britons, used to dealing with sensitive cases - also found the register of a phone call made on the same day, after lunch, between a mobile phone in Praia da Luz and the same number in Swansea that had contacted Kate McCann. The mobile from which the call was made does not belong to either of the McCanns or to the group of friends who were accompanying them and, up to today, the Judiciary Police, despite several requests to the English authorities, has never been able to identify the owner of that mobile nor have they obtained from the English support or willingness so that they can question whomever it was regarding these calls.
Now, while cross-referencing the results obtained next to the mobile telecommunication operators in Portugal and in Spain with the reports of the Judiciary Police - in particular the excellent work of the inspector Paulo Dias - investigators and journalists found a new element worthy of interest: the mobile phone used in Praia da Luz to call the number in Swansea, who had contacted Kate on May 2, was used to make and receive calls in the area indicated in the documents and in the photographs that the McCann's spokeswoman left under the sofa on the day of the return to England.
According to the records now known, the mobile phone was used near the Ribeira do Vascão on several occasions, namely between the days 12th and 15th of May, 2007 but equally in June and July of the same year. Those phone calls were always made to England or to Praia da Luz, except for one, which was made to the British embassy in Lisbon.<!--"''"-->
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