GEORGE BURKE BROOKS LAGOS MARINA SIGHTINGS
| ||||||
|
It all seems to start with this email from a helpful resident although it isn't at all clear from these files when exactly the Leicester Police received this information 'from the family'. Below at least dated information:
5 -1 Apensos V, Vol 1 Page 4 to 5
apenso5_vol_1_Page4
Email
To: DIC Portimao
Sent: 8th May 2007, 11.28
Subject: Fwd Madeleine McCann
From: M. Martins (sapo.pt email address)
Date: 8th May 2007, 10.14
To: DIC Portimao
Subject: Madeleine McCann
I have followed the case in the press as I live in the Algarve. However my attention has been drawn by the news that an English citizen (George Burke) who returned to the village in the morning from Lagos and who says that he saw a couple with a child at about 06.00. Would this person not be suspicious due to being from the village and be returning 7 seven hours after the events? Please excuse my boldness and if I am bringing false accusations due to lack of information, I apologise again but feel that I have to share my preoccupation. I hope this does not make you lose time.
Good luck MM
To: DIC Portimao
Sent: 8th May 2007, 11.28
Subject: Fwd Madeleine McCann
From: M. Martins (sapo.pt email address)
Date: 8th May 2007, 10.14
To: DIC Portimao
Subject: Madeleine McCann
I have followed the case in the press as I live in the Algarve. However my attention has been drawn by the news that an English citizen (George Burke) who returned to the village in the morning from Lagos and who says that he saw a couple with a child at about 06.00. Would this person not be suspicious due to being from the village and be returning 7 seven hours after the events? Please excuse my boldness and if I am bringing false accusations due to lack of information, I apologise again but feel that I have to share my preoccupation. I hope this does not make you lose time.
Good luck MM
5 -1 Apensos V, Vol 1 Page 4 to 5
Date: 2007/12/04
Place: Lagos Marina, Lagos.
Responsible Officer: Inspector Joao Carlos
Description and Result of Inquiry:
On this date I went to the abovementioned place with the purpose of gathering elements related to the previously mentioned information about a supposed sighting of Madeleine McCann, by a British individual named George Brooks in the early morning of 4th May 2007.
Once I arrived at the scene, I checked that there was effectively a restaurant establishment on the first floor of the complex, called Pizza Hut. This establishment was closed, because of the opening hours. However, in order to collect information, I went to another establishment called Lite Bites which is next door and where there was an employee, who identified herself as GS, of British nationality.
During our conversation, she said that she has worked there since May of this year, the owner of the space being George Brooks, identified by the enclosed photocopy of his passport, which she provided.
She said that the whereabouts of the owner were unknown since the 21st September 2007. On this date he collected....(following page 8 is missing)
Place: Lagos Marina, Lagos.
Responsible Officer: Inspector Joao Carlos
Description and Result of Inquiry:
On this date I went to the abovementioned place with the purpose of gathering elements related to the previously mentioned information about a supposed sighting of Madeleine McCann, by a British individual named George Brooks in the early morning of 4th May 2007.
Once I arrived at the scene, I checked that there was effectively a restaurant establishment on the first floor of the complex, called Pizza Hut. This establishment was closed, because of the opening hours. However, in order to collect information, I went to another establishment called Lite Bites which is next door and where there was an employee, who identified herself as GS, of British nationality.
During our conversation, she said that she has worked there since May of this year, the owner of the space being George Brooks, identified by the enclosed photocopy of his passport, which she provided.
She said that the whereabouts of the owner were unknown since the 21st September 2007. On this date he collected....(following page 8 is missing)
From the rogatory interview of Michael Wright on 16/5/2008:
‘As for additional information I would like to add that on Sunday, 6 May I went to the pizzaria in PdL and bough a large quantity of pizzas. I was attended by a girl from Liverpool. I explained to her my relationship to the McCanns and she told me that her father ‘George’ had seen a man carrying a child in his arms in the early morning of 4 May in the resort. I asked her if her father would speak about this to the Portuguese authorities. I don’t know if the information was ever investigated.’
On the 23rd of april 2008, Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire Police sends the following email:
Email from Stuart Prior on 23 April 2008 to Ricardo Manuel Gonçalves Paiva
‘Michael further stated that on 6th May he purchased a large quantity of Pizza's from the pizza shack on the beach at Praia da Luz. The girl serving him was from Liverpool and after introductions she said her father "George" had seen a man carrying a child in the early hours of 4th May in the resort. He is unaware if "George" has ever spoken to the authorities.’
This event seems to be of some importance to Michael Wright, however it does not appear that he informed the PJ of this sighting. Instead a concerned citizen alerts the PJ two days after Michael Wright has been given this potentially important news.
16-Processos Volume 16 Pages 4201 to 4202
16_VOLUMEXVIa_Page_4201
SERVICE INFORMATION
To: Paulo Rebelo
From: Ricardo Paiva, Inspector
Date: 2008/04/24
Re: Various Activities Regarding the Investigation NUIPC 201/07.0GALGS
Regarding the content of the attached email from British Authorities, with particular focus with respect to the statement by Michael Terrence Wright, in the international letter of request which is being implemented by the Leicestershire Police, on the 6th of May, 2007, in Praia da Luz, a pizza kitchen worker, of British nationality and originally from Liverpool, commented to that witness that her father, George, had seen a man carrying a child, in the early hours of May 4th of 2007. He does not know if George contacted the authorities about this. This testimony was recorded by Inspector Joao Carlos and myself as follows:
--Yesterday, after heading toward Praia da Luz late, we located the pizzeria shop (PIZZA REAL) mentioned by that witness. It is situated in a kiosk on Rua da Praia. Even though it was closed at the time, we obtained the telephone number ********* of said pizzeria which is open from 18H00. This same night, we contacted the manager, C*******, using that telephone number and she immediately identified the employee as Amy. She told us that Amy was no longer in Portugal and that she had returned to the U.K. She was requested to contact Amy and ask her to contact this police force.
--Today, at 11.37, the signatory received a telephone call from *******, from a woman who identified herself as J***, mother of Amy, and who told me that as soon as possible, George, her husband, and Amy's father, would contact us. Around 17H16, we were contacted by George, Amy's father, from telephone no. *********. Regarding the facts in question, he states that he had already contacted the OH in May of 2007 and at this time relayed to the police that at around 06H00 in the morning on the 4th May, 2007, he saw a couple passing the Marina de Lagos. The man was carrying the child. It was ascertained at that time that the aforementioned situation would not be of interest to the investigation.
Signed, Ricardo Paiva
So there we are. We have a sighting at the Lagos marina. The description is very similar to that of Jane Tanner who in her witness statement on the 10th of May 2007 said ‘that, indeed, there had passed in front of her a man carrying, in his arms, a barefoot child.’ https://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JANE-TANNER-10MAY.htm
As is well known, there was another sighting that night, a man carrying a child was seen by an Irish family in Praia da Luz around 10 pm that evening. But this sighting was - once it emerged by the end of May - not seen as important by Team McCann. On the contrary they ere very much against this sighting to be taken seriously. Whereas it seems that Jane Tanner's man carrying, in his arms, a barefoot child.' would connect quite well with yet another man carrying a child in his arms in Lagos Marina. On the way out of the country possibly via the Lagos marina. Where Kate may have been taking photographs as early as the morning of the 4th of May if not before. What is certain is that on or before the 4th of May, the psychic Diana Lazarus was still in South Wales and could not have pointed out any particular boat in the marina.
It can be argued that the man seen by the Smith family intended to turn left at the end of the road, which would take him towards the beach and he would probably have been noticed by some of the customers of the various establishments he'd pass on the way. It can also be 'purported' that - the Smith family having been too close and too observant, this event had to be dropped from the script and alternative sighting needed to point well away from Praia de Luz, where it was possible that the police would instigate a thorough house to house search. So a sighting in Lagos was either accidental, or not. What seems a little strange is the fact that both sightings mention particularly 'a man with a child in his arms'. It seems a little scripted, moreover Michael Wright simply asked the girl from Liverpool to get 'George' to mention it to the police. Surely such a close friend of the family would have done so himself? Instead, he mentions it in his rogatory almost a year later.
Whether Kate spent enough time in the marina to take the photographs isn't clear from the pings listed in the previous post. It depends on how the various masts catchment areas overlap. The PJ did conclude that Kate's phone had not left Praia da Luz during the holiday week.
But it does seem that sightings passed on to the police pointed firmly to the sea, away from Praia de Luz. The psychic also pointed to the sea, in particular to a vision of a man on a boat. Kate provided the police with an impressive batch of photographs of the marina as can be seen in this link:
https://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/BOATS_VISION.htm
Although as late as November 2007 the tale was retold by Martin Fricker of the Daily Mirror:
Martin Fricker 28/11/07
A Britsh ex-pat insists he saw Madeleine McCann hours after she vanished,cruelly dragged towards a MARINA by a couple.George Burke said a small girl who bore a remarkable resemblance to Madeline, was being hauled along by a "vicious-looking man and a woman he added:" It was dark and they were hurrying towards the Marina.There was no-one else around at that time and they looked very suspicious".
George saw the couple and the child while driving past LAGOS MARINA and the rail station at 6am MORNING of MAY 4th. unquote
Well, it grew in the telling no doubt. We now have lots of detail which had not surfaced before. One wonders how light it might be at that time in the morning since it was only just light enough at 7.00 AM for the McCanns to try and search for Madeleine. Not only that, where we first had a man carrying a child in his arms, the child is now being hauled along. Most important question arising is that this appeared in November, when the first we hear from Michael Wright about it is in the rogatory of the 16th of May 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment