McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent'

Title: McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent'
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TinLizzy
Rank：Diamond Member Score：1787 Posts：1787 From：Canada Register：11/07/2008 1:17 AM	Date Posted：05/09/2010 12:50 AMCopy HTML HiDeHo Sept 30 2012 This is a Daily Mail article from November 2007 using one of the T7 lawyer's quotes. (indicating his comments are true) Many of the comments are curious but in particular the comments regarding not calling the PJ immediately. I know there have been questions about the proof they were not called until the time claimed in the GNR log. One could 'suppose' that he confirms at least some timeframe delay in response. Although old info about T7 changing story...does this article 'explain' why the T7 have not spoken up (and why McCann's have managed to prevent any comments from them)? Link seems to have changed..this article possibly deleted. T7 Nov 12 07 - McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent' Daily Mail McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent' Last updated at 15:04pm on 12th November 2007 Madeleine McCann's parents faced fresh allegations today that they are pressurising their friends into keeping silent over the events surrounding their daughter's disappearance. One of the "Tapas nine" who was dining with the couple on the night Madeleine vanished is said to feel "obliged to keep silent". Respected Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted an un-named lawyer, said to represent the friend, criticising the McCanns' advisers. The lawyer told the newspaper: "My client feels obliged to keep silent about what he can do to help the investigation, and not because of the Portuguese secrecy laws. "This is very revealing about the strange circumstances surrounding this case. "It's not that he is scared of the McCanns, but the economic and political lobby surrounding the couple is truly frightening to anybody. "What my client wants is to reveal the whole truth, but he does not mean to accuse or blame anyone, as that is the job of the police. "The only thing he wants is to help the police discover the truth about what happened before, during and after that dinner on May 3." Last week El Mundo reported that lawyers acting for two of the McCanns' friends have contacted Portuguese police to say they wish to "correct" certain parts of their statements. Gerry and Kate McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell denied the report and said it was not true that any of the couple's friends want to change their stories. But the British lawyer, who has an office in London, told El Mundo: "If you take into account all of the pressure that has been placed on my client and on other people, it is perfectly natural and understandable that my client has not told Clarence Mitchell of his decision to hire his own lawyer to co-operate more closely with the police." Four of the Tapas Nine: (clockwise from top left) Fiona Payne, Jane Tanner, Russell O' Brien, Rachael Oldfield. Not pictured are Matthew Oldfield, David Payne, and Dianne Webster The lawyer also claimed that on the night of May 3 the McCanns did not call the police until they had discussed the possible implications for them of having left their three children alone in the holiday apartment. The lawyer said: "The police were only informed after the group in question analysed the problems they could face for having left the children alone, and until now, my client has not had the opportunity to talk for himself about it all." The lawyer, who is said to have been hired by the friend in September, was also critical of the help the McCanns have been given by the British authorities. He said: "I understand perfectly that our government is legally obliged to help the McCanns. "What I can't understand is that they have received help which goes far beyond what would be considered normal in a case like this. "However, from the very beginning it has been clear that the Madeleine case is not a normal police case. "It's not my job to have to explain why and how certain politicians have intervened in this case, but I'm afraid these interventions have been prejudicial not only to my client, but also for determining the truth. "My client has not received any personal support from the British authorities, only that which has come through the McCann couple. "I don't want to accuse anyone, but there are people very close to the McCanns who are not helping them at all. "The intention of my client is to bring to light the truth of this sad story, without any concern for who might be implicated." Four of the Tapas Nine, the name given to Gerry and Kate McCann and the seven friends they were dining with on the night Madeleine disappeared from the holiday complex in the Algarve, have reportedly brought in their own lawyers as they prepared to be named as official suspects. Missing: And, at the centre of it all, four-year-old Madeleine McCann, who has been missing for six months A Sunday newspaper named the four as Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield and Dr David Payne. It claimed they had been warned they would join the McCanns and Robert Murat as "arguidos" after the discovery by Portuguese investigators of inconsistencies in key statements made immediately after Madeleine vanished. Dr Payne, a 41-year-old cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine at the Ocean Club resort on May 3. Gerry asked him to check on his wife and children while he having a tennis lesson at about 6.30pm. Attention has also focused on Jane Tanner's claim she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' ground floor apartment at about 9.15pm - when another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man. Mr Oldfield, 37, from south London, has said he entered the McCanns' apartment to check on the children about 30 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing by her mum. He told police that although he had seen the McCanns' two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, their sister's bed was out of his sight-line. Dr O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the group for up to 45 minutes between 9.30pm until 10.15pm while he tended to his own child who was sick in his apartment. He told police he had changed her bedlinen, but staff at the Ocean Club were said to have denied any change of sheets was requested. The McCanns and their friends have always denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance - and insist she was kidnapped. They are barred by strict Portuguese secrecy laws from speaking about the events of May 3 but recently issued a statement denying they had a "pact of silence" or that they were covering up a secret. Portuguese police are preparing to send a three-man team led by chief investigator Paulo Rebelo to the UK to reinterview the Tapas Nine. British detectives will ask questions put to them by their Portuguese counterparts. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=493208&in_page_id=1811
TinLizzy	Share to: #1
Rank：Diamond Member Score：1787 Posts：1787 From：Canada Register：11/07/2008 1:17 AM	Re：McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent' Date Posted：10/02/2012 11:29 AMCopy HTML beachy Sept 30 2012 HiDeHo, the Daily Mail was probably correct, in the main, in describing El Mundo as a "respected newspaper," but I'm not sure they acted respectably in this case. I can read Spanish and the day this article appeared I was reading it in the on-line version of El Mundo. I was assuming, as one ought to be able to do, that the presence of quotation marks around the alleged statements from the lawyer meant that El Mundo knew that those words had come out of his mouth, most likely when speaking directly to a reporter for that paper, as no one else was mentioned in the article as having conveyed the information second-hand. When I posted on 3A that I believed the quotation must be authentic for that reason, a Spanish-speaking poster PMed me with a warning that the article had been removed from El Mundo's web site. Some other newspapers ran with the story to the extent of reporting what El Mundo had printed, but El Mundo never followed up on the article (though to my knowledge they never retracted it, either). It's hard to believe that any reporter would write an article containing supposedly direct quotations that he made up out of whole cloth, but I'm afraid that may be what happened in this case. HiDeHo Thanks beachy. I appreciate you knowledge and recollection of this article. Since we have 'discovered' that a good portion of the articles have substance (many of which are confirmed by the files) and, according to David Pilditch testimony, the £550,000 was more because of unnamed sources, rather than incorrect information (he continued to stand by his articles and claimed they knew they may be sued) I feel that some of the information should be evaluated on it's own merit as POSSIBLY of a 'true' origin. Could it have been that El Mundo chose NOT to risk the libel of not having a named source? I may be totally wrong but although I am aware of some of the more outrageous comments made (even those with an attributable source, like the 'swinging') some of the comments made in the articles may very well have substance and should not be discarded, but should also not be used alone and as a 'fact' unless corroborated. (and even then only as a possible guideline) They may very well be some of the 'puzzle pieces' that could contribute to the understanding of the information in the files. There was not a lot of information in the files that surprised us. Sol was reporting 'correct' details long before it was confirmed to be true. (I have them saved in my old MSN group. I couldn't find them in MCF. Maybe you could direct me to the link Jilly? ) <!-- m -->http://msngroup.aimoo.com/madeleinemcca ... 782096.htm<!-- m --> I sometimes wonder about the information that the police have notes on that we will never know. The 'informal' chats, particularly on the night it happened and on subsequent. Goncalo Amaral has mentioned many details from 'conversations' with witnesses. He mentions the cleaner telling him she cleaned the blinds on Wednesday morning. That information was not in her statement, but is of 'relative' importance imo...One has to wonder the percentage of information that they 'know', never mind the details that they are uaware of. I have always felt that for Tavares de Almeida to have written his report, directly accusing the McCanns of hiding her body and simulating her abduction, he was basing that on some kind of proof that we are not privy to. We could hold a similar opinion, but we do not have the 'proof' to make such a statement, using information from the files. IF the article has some substance then it would help explain the T7 silence. It may also explain the Rothley meeting a couple of weeks later, at the end of November. Preparation for the Rogatories? We don't know, of course, but that article has the potential to change a lot of what we believe IF it is based on the truth! Once again, your input is invaluable. (and your memory!)