Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown, Sr. (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967, and the father of current Governor of California Jerry Brown.

Background[link]

Brown was born in San Francisco, California, one of four children of Edmund and Ida Schuckman Brown. His father was an Irish Catholic, his mother a German Protestant.^[1][2] He acquired the nickname "Pat" during his school years; the nickname was a reference to his Patrick Henry-like oratory. When he was 12 and selling Liberty Bonds on street corners, he would end his spiel with, "Give me liberty, or give me death."^[3]

He was a debate champion as a member of the Lowell Forensic Society at San Francisco's Lowell High School, from which he graduated in 1923. Brown skipped college and worked in his father's cigar store while studying law at a local night school. He graduated from San Francisco College of Law in spring 1927, passed the California bar exam the following fall,^[4] and started a law practice in San Francisco.

Brown ran as a Republican for the State Assembly in 1928, but lost; he joined the Democratic Party in 1932. He waited until 1939 to seek public office again, this time running for District Attorney of San Francisco, a race he lost to Matthew Brady.^[1]

He ran again for District Attorney in 1943, and this time won. He served in that position for seven years, and made his name attacking bookies and underground abortion providers^{[citation needed]}. In 1949, he raided Sally Stanford's elegant San Francisco bordello.^[5]

In 1946, as the Democratic nominee, Brown lost the race for Attorney General of California to Los Angeles County District Attorney Frederick N. Howser. Running again in 1950, he won election as Attorney General and was re-elected in 1954. While he was Attorney General, he was the only Democrat to win statewide election in California.

Governor of California[link]

In 1958, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California. He defeated Republican U.S. Senator William F. Knowland by a near 3/5ths supermajority of 59.75% to 40.16%, and an outright majority with over 1 million more votes out of just over 5.25 million. He was re-elected in 1962, defeating former Vice President Richard Nixon by 52% to 47%. He lost the 1966 election to another future Republican President, Ronald Reagan. Following the turbulance of the Watts Riots, the Vietnam War Protests, and Death Penalty politics, a law-and-order Reagan dramatically unseated Brown, who had pledged only 2 terms, with 58% to 42%, winning another similarly huge majority as Brown's '58 gubernatorial success over Knowland, with some 990,000 more votes.

Brown's two terms were marked by an enormous water-resources development program. The California Aqueduct built as part of the program now bears his name. He also presided over the enactment of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, fair employment legislation, a state economic development commission, and a consumers' council. He sponsored some forty major proposals, only five of which failed to pass in the Legislature.

On April 14, 1960, Governor Brown signed the Donahoe Higher Education Act, more informally known as the “Master Plan.” This was actually composed of three parts. There was the statutory bill, which set the functions of the various public institutions. Next there was a constitutional amendment creating a Board of Trustees for the state college system. And finally, there were dozens of general agreements never officially sanctioned by law, including admissions guidelines, maintaining a nontuition policy for California residents other than "incidental costs," and beginning a policy of charging tuition for out-of-state students.^[6] During Brown’s two terms, enrollment in higher education in California, including junior colleges, approximately doubled. Spending for the University of California system more than doubled, and for the state colleges more than tripled. Four new state colleges were opened, and three new campuses for the UC system were built.^[7]

During his two terms in office, Brown commuted 23 death sentences, signing the first commutation on his second day in office.^[8] One of his more notable commutations was the death sentence of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, whose execution in the gas chamber for first-degree murder had been postponed some hours before it was to take place because of an attempted suicide. After recovering, Walker's execution was postponed again while he was being restored to mental competency. After Walker was declared sane in 1961, Brown commuted Walker's death sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Walker would later be paroled anyway after the California Supreme Court held that Governor Brown could not legally deny a prisoner the right to parole in a death sentence commutation. Another prisoner whose death sentence was commuted by Brown committed at least one murder after being paroled.^[8]

In contrast, Governor Brown allowed 36 executions, including the highly controversial case of Caryl Chessman in 1960 and Elizabeth Duncan - the last female put to death before a national moratorium was instituted.^[8] Though he had supported the death penalty while serving as district attorney, as Attorney General, and when first elected Governor^[9], he later became an opponent of its use.^[10] While Governor, Brown's attitude towards the death penalty was often ambivalent, if not arbitrary. An ardent supporter of gun control, Brown was more inclined to let convicts go to the gas chamber if they had killed with guns than with a knife or (in one actual case) with a bowling pin.^[11] He later admitted that he had denied clemency in one death penalty case principally because the legislator who represented the district in which the murder occurred held a swing vote on farmworker legislation supported by Brown, and who told Brown that his district "would go up in smoke" if the governor commuted the man's sentence.^[8]

During the Chessman case Brown proposed that the death penalty be abolished, but the proposal failed.^[8] His Republican successor, Ronald Reagan, was a firm death penalty supporter and oversaw the last pre-Furman execution in California in 1967.

Brown was a relatively popular Democrat in what was, at the time, a Republican leaning state. After his re-election victory over Richard Nixon in 1962, he was strongly considered to be Lyndon Johnson's running mate in 1964, a spot that eventually went to Hubert Humphrey. However, Brown's popularity began to sag amidst the civil disorders of the Watts Riots and the early anti-Vietnam war demonstrations at U.C. Berkeley. His decision to seek a 3rd term as governor (after promising earlier that he would not do so) also hurt his popularity. His sagging popularity was evidenced by a tough battle in the Democratic primary - normally not a concern for an incumbent. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty received 38% of the primary vote while Brown barely received 52%, a very low number for an incumbent in a primary election.

The Republicans seized upon Brown's sudden unpopularity by nominating a well known and charismatic political outsider - actor Ronald Reagan. With Richard Nixon working tirelessly behind the scenes and Reagan trumpeting his law and order campaign message, Reagan received almost 2/3 of the primary vote over George Christopher, the moderate Republican former mayor of San Francisco, and went into the general election with a great deal of momentum. At first Brown ran a low key campaign, stating that running the state was his biggest priority. As Reagan's lead in the polls increased, Brown began to panic and made a gaffe when he told a group of school children that an actor, John Wilkes Booth, had killed Abraham Lincoln^[12]. The comparison of Reagan to Booth did not go over well and led to a further decline of the Brown campaign. By election day, Reagan was ahead in the polls and favored to win a relatively close election. However, Reagan won in a landslide; his nearly 1 million vote plurality surprised even his staunchest supporters.

Personal life[link]

Brown and his wife, Bernice Layne, the daughter of a San Francisco police captain, were childhood sweethearts. They married in 1930 and had four children (all born in San Francisco):

• Barbara Layne Brown [Casey] (born July 13, 1931)
• Cynthia Arden Brown [Kelly] (born October 19, 1933)
• Edmund Gerald ("Jerry") Brown, Jr. (born April 7, 1938)
• Kathleen Lynn Brown (born September 25, 1945)

In 1958, as governor-elect, Brown appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "What's My Line?"

Pat Brown died at age 90 in Beverly Hills and is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. His funeral was the most recent gubernatorial funeral to be held in the state of California to date.

Presidential and vice presidential candidate[link]

Unlike his son, Jerry, Pat Brown never seriously ran for President of the United States, but he frequently was California's "favorite son." At the quadrennial American national political party conventions, a state delegation sometimes nominates and votes for a candidate from the state, or less often from the state's region, who is not a viable candidate. The technique allows state leaders to negotiate with leading candidates in exchange for the delegation's support. The technique was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Since nationwide campaigns by candidates and binding primary elections have replaced brokered conventions, the technique has fallen out of use.

During the 1952 Democratic primaries Brown placed distant second to Estes Kefauver in total votes (65.04% to 9.97%),^[13] losing California to Kefauver.^[14]

During Governor Brown's first term (1959–1963), the national census confirmed that California had become the nation's most populous state.^[15] Brown's political popularity, multiplied by the state's population, would contribute to the following two national Presidential victories, when he pledged his votes to the national candidates, (Kennedy in 1960, and Johnson in 1964), at the Democratic conventions.

While Governor, Brown was again California's favorite son in 1960, winning his home state with a large margin to his only opponent George H. McLain.^[16] Brown joined favorite sons Ohio's Albert S. Porter, Governor Michael DiSalle and Florida Senator George Smathers.

More serious primary candidates were Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson II and Stuart Symington in 1960, with the nomination going to John F. Kennedy. Brown ran only in the California state primary. Yet his popularity with the largest state electorate in the nation gave him second place in the national Democratic primary vote, just behind Kennedy.^[17] Thus he repeated his 1952 state and national rankings. However, only one delegate cast his vote for Brown for President at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.^[18]

During the 1964 primaries, by running again only in California, the nation's largest state electorate vote^[19] led Brown to place first this time in both the California and the Democratic national primary total,^[20] besting the eventual nominee. Brown, as well as over a dozen other candidates except George Wallace, was a stalking horse for incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, whose nomination was assured.

As for the Vice Presidency, he briefly sought nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, winning one vote.^[21]

Political party identity in California[link]

Prior to 1959, loyalty to a political party was not important in California. Through a practice known as cross-filing, a person could run in both the Democratic primary and the Republican primary at the same time. As indicated in the article on the California Democratic Party, Governor Earl Warren did so in 1946 and 1950. Cross-filing was abolished in 1959. Thus the fact that Brown first ran for office as a Republican and later as a Democrat was not, at that time, as significant in California as it would have been elsewhere.

Bibliography[link]

• Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, Reagan and Reality: The Two Californias (NY, 1970)
• R. Rapoport. California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown, Berkeley: Nolo Press (1982) ISBN 0-917316-48-7
• Rarick, Ethan (2006), California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown, Berkeley, California, United States: University of California Press, http://books.google.com/books?id=vo99tTE2lDcC 

See also[link]

• Membership discrimination in California social clubs

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Biography and portrait from State of California
• California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown
• Brown family of California at The Political Graveyard
• Shows off his custom license plate [1]
• Find a grave Edmund Brown

v t e Governors of California Pre-statehood de Portolà Fages Rivera de Neve Fages Roméu Arrillaga Borica Alberní Arrillaga J. Argüello Solá L. Argüello Echeandía Victoria P. Pico Zamorano / Echeandía Figueroa Castro Gutierrez Chico Gutierrez Alvarado Carrillo Alvarado Micheltorena P. Pico Flores A. Pico Ide Sloat Stockton Frémont Kearny Mason Smith Riley Statehood Burnett McDougall Bigler J. Johnson Weller Latham Downey Stanford Low Haight Booth Pacheco Irwin Perkins Stoneman Bartlett Waterman Markham Budd Gage Pardee Gillett H. Johnson Stephens Richardson Young Rolph Merriam Olson Warren Knight P. Brown Reagan J. Brown Deukmejian Wilson Davis Schwarzenegger J. Brown Pre-Statehood list Statehood list Statehood list by time in office Statehood list by age

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Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007. She was on holiday with her parents and twin siblings in the Algarve region of Portugal. The British girl went missing from an apartment, in the central area of the resort of Praia da Luz, a few days before her fourth birthday, and has still not been found. Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have said that they left the children unsupervised in a ground floor bedroom while they ate at a restaurant about 120 metres (130 yards) away.^[1]

The initial investigation by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), the Portuguese criminal investigation police, was based on the assumption that the child had been abducted.^[2] After further investigation, the PJ stated that there was a strong hypothesis that she might have died in her room.^[3][4] During the investigation there were a number of unconfirmed sightings of Madeleine in Portugal and elsewhere, and additional scientific evidence was obtained. The investigation involved the co-operation of the British and Portuguese police and demonstrated the differing methodologies employed by each, with regard to such aspects as the amount of information released to the public and the legal status of those involved in the case.^[5][6]

Robert Murat, a local resident, was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May 2007.^[7][8] Kate and Gerry McCann were also named as arguidos on 7 September, but were allowed to fly back to the United Kingdom on 9 September.^[9][10][11] All three were cleared, with their arguido status lifted, on 21 July 2008. The Portuguese Attorney General archived the case, also on 21 July, but the case can be reopened if new evidence emerges.^[12]

The disappearance and its aftermath were notable for the breadth and longevity of the media coverage. This was initially due to the active involvement of the parents in publicising the case and to several awareness-raising campaigns by international celebrities and, latterly, to the interest that arose from the parents being named as suspects. The event generated international media attention with controversy surrounding the Portuguese-led police investigation and the actions of Madeleine's parents. There has also been criticism of the extent and nature of the publicity and of the reporting of the disappearance in both the Portuguese and British media.

Disappearance[link]

Madeleine disappeared from a ground floor apartment, 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, Praia da Luz, on the evening of 3 May 2007.^[13] The apartment, where the family was staying, had been rented by the holiday company Mark Warner for the summer season as part of its Ocean Club. The layout of the Ocean Club may have contributed to the disappearance of Madeleine as its buildings are spread out across the village, such that anyone can wander in and out of the holiday areas.^[14]

Her parents reported to the police that they had taken Madeleine to their holiday apartment at 18:00 Western European Summer Time, to prepare Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings for bed.^[15] Then they left at 20:30, leaving the apartment unlocked, to dine with friends approximately 130 yards (120 metres) away at a tapas bar within the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club.^[1][16] The McCanns said that they were taking turns checking on their children. At 20:55, one of the McCanns' dinner companions, Matthew Oldfield, approached the bedroom window of the children to check if he could hear any noise in the room and at approximately 21:05/21:15 Gerry checked on the children. At 21:20 Jane Tanner noticed a man carrying a child going down the road next to the apartment of the McCanns. Slightly further down the road, Gerry was chatting to Jeremy Wilkins, whom he had met at the resort, and neither noticed Tanner as she walked past them to join the rest of the group at the tapas restaurant.^[17] At 21:30 Matthew Oldfield went to check the children but saw only the twins through the open bedroom door.^[18]

At around 22:00, Kate returned to check on the children and found Madeleine's bed empty and the bedroom window open.^[19] An Ocean Club nanny, Charlotte Pennington, who was one of the first people to arrive at the apartment, said that Kate screamed both "They've taken her, they've taken her!" and "Madeleine's gone!".^[20] Kate said that the police were called within 10 minutes of finding her daughter gone.^[21] Gerry said it was one of their friends who alerted the resort manager and the police.^[22]

The GNR’s spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Costa Cabral, said that the first call to the police (PJ) was at 23:50.^[23][24] According to the Portuguese police's missing person notice, the disappearance had occurred "by 22:40".^[25] The police stated that officers arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted, and an investigation unit began work within 30 minutes.^[18] Staff and guests at the complex searched until 04:30 while police on the Spanish border and all airports in Portugal and Spain were notified.^[26]

Official investigation[link]

Early stages[link]

Following the disappearance, police carried out a search of the surrounding area with sniffer dogs, but it was called off on 11 May having produced no results.^[27] The Portuguese police Polícia Judiciária (PJ) said they were unsure whether Madeleine was still alive.^[28] They also examined photographs taken by holidaymakers to see if any suspects could be identified.^[29] The Maritime Police searched the coast including the caves. In the countryside, possible places of concealment were explored. The City Council helped the investigation by searching sewers and waterways. On 6 May it was revealed that the PJ had asked for the help of the SIS, the Portuguese secret service.^[30][31] On 7 May, it was reported that the PJ was looking for a 1.7-metre tall man with short brown hair and wearing a blue coat with a whitish collar.^[32]

The Portuguese media reported that the PJ were pursuing two lines of investigation: an abduction by an international paedophile network or an abduction by an adoption network.^[33][34][35] On 18 October 2007, British forensic scientist Professor David Barclay of Robert Gordon University^[36] was reported as saying the layout of the complex made it 'a pervert's paradise'.^[37]

On 17 June, after Madeleine was found to be missing, Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa said that the presence of so many people in the apartment from which she disappeared, had complicated the work of the scientific team. He added that this could have destroyed all the evidence and could prove to be fatal to the investigation.^[38]

Murat and Malinka[link]

At 07:00 WEST on the morning of 14 May 2007, searches began at Casa Liliana, a villa owned by Jennifer Murat, a British citizen, near the apartment where Madeleine disappeared.^[39] Police and scientific teams sealed off the house, and at 16:00 the swimming pool was drained.^[40]

Three people, including Jennifer Murat's son Robert Murat, were questioned at the main police station in nearby Portimão. Robert Murat, a frequent visitor to the villa who has dual British-Portuguese nationality, had drawn the suspicion of Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, who informed the police.^[7][41] Murat's former classmate Gaynor de Jesus said: "I do know that he has been the official translator for the police."^[42] Murat had said that he was deeply concerned about the case because he had recently lost custody of his own three-year-old daughter, who looked like Madeleine.^[43] Subsequently, speaking at a Cambridge Union debate on 5 March 2009, Murat accused a journalist of trying to convince the Portuguese police that he was acting suspiciously, in order to break the story.^[44]

Robert Murat was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May; before being given this status people are treated as witnesses. It was not clear if Murat or the police asked for the arguido status which gave extra rights such as the right to remain silent.^[8] However, a factor in Murat being made a suspect was three members of the Tapas Seven, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien, and Fiona Payne, saying that they saw him in the Praia da Luz complex during the evening Madeleine disappeared.^[45] Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa told a news conference that an unnamed 33-year-old (believed to be Murat) had been interrogated, but not enough evidence was found to justify arresting him. Sousa said police had searched five houses on Monday and seized "various materials" from the properties which were being subjected to scientific tests and had questioned two other unnamed people as witnesses. Murat stated that he was being made a scapegoat so that the police could be seen to have found a suspect.^[46]

It was reported on 16 May that two cars used by the Murats had been examined, and computers, mobile phones and several video tapes were taken from their villa.^[47] It also emerged that a British architect, who built the villa in 1993, was ignored when he called police about a hidden basement within the property.^[48][49]

The police were understood to have taken in for questioning Sergey Malinka, 22, a man of Russian origin, from whose property officers also took away a laptop computer and two hard drives. Malinka had set up a website for Murat and the two exchanged frequent phone calls since Madeleine's disappearance – the reason the authorities started suspecting him.^[50][51] Chief Police Inspector Olegário de Sousa reiterated there was insufficient evidence to make any arrests. Police said that Malinka had been questioned as a witness for approximately five hours, which did not, having regard to the "dynamic" nature of the investigation, mean that he could not become a suspect.^[52]

Malinka spoke negatively of the coverage of the case in the Portuguese media, which had alleged that he was a convicted sexual offender. He denied he had contacted Murat, and said he was "completely innocent".^[53] Inconsistencies in his account of his relationship with Robert Murat emerged: he had said he had not contacted Murat in a year but Murat’s mobile phone records allegedly show he called Malinka at 23:40 on the night Madeleine vanished.^[54][55] On 19 May, Portuguese detectives flew to England to interview Dawn Murat, the estranged wife of Robert Murat, and detectives re-interviewed other witnesses connected with Murat.^[56][57]

Murat was interviewed for a second and third time on 10 July and 11 July to clarify what detectives described as details and possible contradictions from his previous statement in the light of new information.^[58] On the second day detectives from the Polícia Judiciária questioned three friends of the McCanns who were dining with them at the time of the disappearance, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne, "to go over their accounts of events on 3 May". The three were also brought face to face with Murat.^[59] As a result of the interviews, police examined discrepancies between statements from the three friends and that from Murat, in particular claims from the friends that they saw Murat outside the holiday complex on the night of the disappearance when he had stated that he was at home with his mother.^[59] Murat's mother, Jenny, subsequently corroborated his alibi.^[60]

Police, including British detectives, resumed searching Casa Liliana on 4 August.^[61] Vegetation was cleared and the grounds were searched but despite the use of hi-tech scanning equipment and a British sniffer dog, no evidence was found that linked Murat with Madeleine.^[62]

Reports in the Portuguese press suggested that Murat had met Gerry whilst the latter was campaigning for the Labour Party. Murat denied this on 13 September, describing the reports as "absolutely ridiculous" and saying "I’ve never met the man before".^[63] Murat had his computers and other possessions returned to him by the police in late March 2008.^[64] He was cleared of any involvement in the disappearance, and his arguido status was lifted on 21 July.^[12]

McCanns as suspects[link]

The Polícia Judiciária (PJ), on 6 September, officially interviewed Kate for a second time, at the police station in Portimão with the McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, present. The family’s spokeswoman Justine McGuinness said, "Kate will answer every question put to her – she has nothing to hide."^[65] Pinto de Abreu made a formal application for the couple’s status to be changed from 'witness' to 'assistant' in the investigation. This is a technical move which would allow the McCanns to have more information about the progress of the investigation.^[65] When Pinto de Abreu emerged with Kate from the police station in the early hours of 7 September, after more than 10 hours of questioning, he said Kate "was interviewed as a witness and she still remains a witness. The investigation is ongoing and we cannot say any more."^[65]

Kate returned for further interview later on 7 September and was formally declared a suspect by the Portuguese police.^[66] During this interview Kate used her right to remain silent.^[67] After questioning, Kate was released from the police station just before 16:00 without being charged.^[9] Gerry was interviewed at the same police station during the afternoon and evening of 7 September and afterwards Pinto de Abreu announced that Gerry had also been named as a formal suspect.^[9][10] Before she became a suspect Kate said "The police don't want a murder in Portugal and all the publicity about them not having paedophile laws here, so they're blaming us," and Gerry said "We are being absolutely stitched up."^[68] Pinto de Abreu said that claims by relatives that police had offered Kate a plea bargain if she admitted to accidentally killing her child were wrong and the result of "a misunderstanding".^[69]

The UK Foreign Office is providing the McCanns with assistance.^[70] Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on 9 September "I am clear that the Portuguese police have the objective of solving this crime, and most importantly finding Madeleine, and that is what we in our support of the McCanns have tried to do as well."^[71] The McCanns flew home on 9 September via Faro and East Midlands airports.^[11]

During the evening of 10 September, Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt, commenting on the analysis of samples returned from the Forensic Science Service, said that "According to police, it shows the presence of Madeleine's body in the boot of the family's hire car five weeks after she disappeared."^[72] Shortly afterwards, however, the national director of the Polícia Judiciária, Alípio Ribeiro, cautioned that the tests had not been conclusive and forensic science experts pointed to the dangers of contamination.^[73] Earlier, McGuinness had said that Kate told detectives there was "no way" Madeleine's blood could have been found inside the car, which they had hired some 25 days after the disappearance, and continued to protest her innocence.^[9] To enable the McCanns to carry out independent scientific tests, the car was being kept in the garage of tycoon John Geraghty at his villa near Praia da Luz.^[74]

Sousa stated that at the end of the investigation the case file would be handed to the public prosecutor.^[69] The papers were given to the local prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, on 11 September. Meneses decided that there was sufficient evidence to pass the case to a judge, who had the power to approve any charges and also decide, within 10 days, on other actions that could have included placing the McCanns under house arrest in the Algarve, ordering further interrogations and authorising further searches.^[75] The judge appointed was Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, Portimão's 'juiz de instrução criminal'.^[76][77]

In addition to Meneses, a district prosecutor, Luis Bilro Verão, was appointed on 11 September 2007 to oversee the investigation.^[78] On 12 September Attorney General Fernando José Pinto Monteiro said that further police action was necessary after which there could be a reassessment of possible bail conditions for the suspects.^[79]

Anjos Frias authorised, on 12 September, the seizure of Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop, thought to be at the McCanns' Rothley home, and other items. Leicestershire Police are expected to visit the McCanns, to attempt to implement this warrant.^[80] Social workers visited the McCanns on 13 September, at their request.^[81] Anjos Frias ruled on 19 September that the McCanns would not be reinterviewed for the time being.^[82]

The McCanns have been quoted as believing that their phones have been tapped from fairly early in the investigation.^[83] Clarence Mitchell, on 17 September, resigned as director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit to become the McCanns' media spokesman.^[84] In his first media appearance, the following day, he said that there was an innocent explanation for any potentially incriminating evidence the police may have found.^[85] Then Gerry said that he believed his daughter's kidnapper had been hiding behind a door in their holiday apartment as he checked on his children.^[86]

In an effort to rebut accusations that she was on medication at the time of the disappearance, hair from Kate was tested in November. Toxicology tests showed no evidence that she had taken drugs in the past eight months. The twins were also tested for sedatives. No traces of sedatives were recorded.^[87] A team of four Portuguese detectives and scientists were briefed by the Forensic Science Service, at Leicestershire Police headquarters in Enderby on 29 November, about the forensic tests that the Birmingham laboratory had carried out. The results were understood to be inconclusive.^[88][89] In early February 2008, Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the PJ, said that there "perhaps should have been another assessment" before the McCanns were declared arguidos.^[90]

It was reported on 10 April that parts of the McCanns' interviews with the Portuguese police had been leaked. These were reported to include a statement that Madeleine had remonstrated with her mother for leaving the children unattended when they had been crying the previous night. Clarence Mitchell said that the leak was a "deliberate smear" and commented that it was curious that this should emerge on the day that the McCanns were in Brussels promoting a child welfare initiative.^[91][92] The Polícia Judiciária said that it was entirely false that the contents of the report included material from the inquiry. They also regretted Clarence Mitchell's "unfounded comments".^[93]

In the judgement from the Tribunal da Relação de Évora, by Judge Fernando Ribeiro Cardoso on 29 April, it was revealed that the McCanns were being investigated for allegedly neglecting their daughter and that the police inquiry covered the possibilities of homicide, abandonment, concealment of a corpse and abduction.^[94][95] A judge in Portugal, on 15 May, extended the secrecy on the prosecution files for a further three months.^[96] The McCanns were cleared of any involvement in the disappearance, on 21 July, and their arguido status was lifted "due to lack of evidence that any crime was committed by the persons placed under formal investigation".^[12]

Other suspects[link]

The Portuguese police disclosed information, on 25 May 2007, about another possible suspect: this was a reference to a middle-build Caucasian, approximately 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) tall. However, the height of the man was subsequently corrected to that given on the Portuguese press release as 170 cm (5 ft 7 in). The man, aged between 35 and 40, was seen at 21:30 on 3 May, by a close friend of the McCanns, but this information was only made public two and half weeks later.^[97][98][99] According to Chief Police Officer Olegário de Sousa, the man was carrying a child, or something which might have resembled a child. He fitted the description of a suspect being hunted by Spanish police for the kidnappings of Sara Morales, 14, and 7-year-old Yeremi Vargas, in the Canary Islands.^[100]

Detectives tried to trace a British man who left the harbour in his yacht shortly after the disappearance, after having moored there for two years. A witness reported seeing a man carrying a child in his arms down to the marina, hours after Madeleine disappeared. On 29 May, detectives questioned four boat owners, three of them English, whose vessels were moored at the marina in Lagos, a town about five miles (8 km) from Praia da Luz.^[101]

A trace of DNA was found, on 1 June, in the bedroom from where Madeleine disappeared. The DNA did not match that of the McCanns, their three children nor that of Murat. The PJ handed the sample over to the national forensic science laboratories, the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal, and stated that there is a new suspect.^[102] In early August there was a suggested link with Urs Hans Von Aesch who had been on holiday in the area around the time that Madeleine disappeared. Von Aesch, a resident of Benimantell, Spain, who was implicated by Swiss police with the disappearance of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard from Appenzell, Switzerland, had recently committed suicide.^[103][104]

The occupants of the flat above that from which Madeleine disappeared reported an intruder who apparently had entered with a key. There had been a similar burglary in the complex some weeks earlier. On 17 August, search warrants were signed for the home of a new suspect.^[105]

Briton Raymond Hewlett, who had been jailed for sexual offences against young girls, was, in May 2009, a person of interest. Hewlett denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and agreed to meet investigators working for the McCanns.^[106][107] Subsequently, he claimed to have seen Madeleine before her disappearance but required payment if he was to help the investigators.^[108] He did, though, voluntarily give police in Germany a DNA sample.^[109] Hewlett died, of natural causes, in December 2009.^[110]

In August 2009 it emerged that, 72 hours after Madeleine disappeared, two British men were approached, in Barcelona, by a woman who reportedly asked "Are you here to deliver my new daughter?" The woman, who was described as a 'Victoria Beckham lookalike', had an Australian accent and spoke fluent Spanish or Catalan.^[111][112] An E-fit picture was released showing a woman with short, spiky hair.^[113] Two detectives from the Metropolitan Police flew to Spain, in November 2011, it is thought to investigate that incident.^[114]

In February 2011, a private investigator said he had identified two key suspects in the Madeleine disappearance and believed she had possibly been taken to the United States.^[115][116] A 36-year-old man told a newspaper that he had informed police that McCann was taken by a Portuguese paedophile ring that hunts children in the Algarve region then proceeds to smuggle them out of the country.^[117] McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told media that the paedophile ring lead had to be taken with caution.^[118]

Other aspects of the investigation[link]

On 7 June, 2007, Spanish police received a phone call from a man claiming to know the whereabouts of Madeleine, using a mobile phone registered in Argentina. The call was described as "credible".^[119]

In June, Spanish investigative journalist Antonio Toscano claimed that the four-year-old was abducted by a French sex offender, as part of a Europe-wide paedophile network.^[120] Then, on 28 June, Toscano claimed that Madeleine was alive and well in Europe but Madeleine's parents refused to meet with him.^[121] Determined to leave no stone unturned, police also examined hundreds of reports from psychics and clairvoyants claiming to know the location of Madeleine. The police said that they decided to check them all in case they might contain a message from the kidnapper.^[122]

The investigation was thrown into confusion on 10 June when the detective coordinating the hunt, Gonçalo Amaral, head of the regional Polícia Judiciária, and four other Portuguese police officers, were charged with alleged offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano, from a village seven miles (11 km) from where Madeleine disappeared.^[123]

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, on 13 June, received a letter that suggested that Madeleine was buried on a hillside, near Arão, nine miles (14 km) north-east from Praia da Luz. After a search of the area, however, the Portuguese police abandoned this lead on 15 June.^[124][125]

In early August, the British police team brought in to assist found microscopic traces of blood on the wall of the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared and that had not been detected by the Portuguese police. Using specially trained sniffer dogs and ultraviolet technology they discovered the blood despite the apartment having been cleaned and reoccupied.^[126][127] Samples of blood, hair, and fibres were sent to the UK Forensic Science Service in Birmingham for DNA analysis.^[128] Examination of the scientific evidential material is continuing and initial findings, described as "significant", were sent to Portugal around 4 September.^[128][129]

Following the publicising of the discovery of the blood spots, Sousa stated "The family are not suspects. This is the official position."^[4] Then on 11 August, Sousa added that new evidence had given "intensity" to the possibility Madeleine had been killed.^[130] Sousa confirmed on 15 August that the sniffer dogs, which could only pick up the scent of a body which had been in situ for more than two hours, had detected the scent of a dead body.^[131] John Barrett, a former Scotland Yard dog handler, said that the dogs used to detect a 'death smell' on Kate's Bible and clothes were brought in too long after Madeleine vanished since the crucial scent lasts for no longer than a month.^[70]

The position of the police was clarified on 16 August by Alípio Ribeiro, national director of the Polícia Judiciária, who said that although there was a strong hypothesis that Madeleine was dead, this could not be confirmed and the investigation was nowhere near a breakthrough.^[3][132] António Cluny, president of Portugal's public prosecutor's service, said on 24 September that "Without the little girl's body everything is extremely complicated". He went on to stress that all options from abduction to Madeleine's death were still open.^[133]

The Portuguese police investigation team was reduced in October 2007. Following the removal of Gonçalo Amaral as investigation coordinator, other departures decreased the number of people working on the case from a peak of 200 to just six detectives which, with holidays, could mean as few as three working on the case at any one time.^[134][135] Paulo Rebelo, an assistant national director of the Polícia Judiciária, took over responsibility for the case on 8 October.^[136]

Ribeiro confirmed, during October, that Portuguese police officers were planning to fly to the United Kingdom to assist in the re-interviewing of the friends who dined with the McCanns at the time of the disappearance.^[137] To prepare for the re-interviewing, Joannes Thuy, a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor, said on 15 January 2008 that Eurojust had been asked to be the go-between for the Portuguese and the UK authorities.^[138] As part of the preparations, Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, of Leicestershire Police, flew to Portugal for discussions with his counterparts, in early March.^[139] The interviews, carried out by Leicestershire Police and attended by the Portuguese Police, began on 8 April.^[140]

Alberto Costa, Portugal's Minister of Justice, told a parliamentary committee hearing in Lisbon, on 13 February, that Portuguese police were "at a stage now where we are approaching the conclusion of the process."^[141] Luis Antonio, the estranged husband of Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, was questioned by police for a second time in early February.^[142]

The Portuguese police planned to hold a reconstruction, of the events of the night of Madeleine's disappearance, in May 2008. They asked the McCanns, their friends, and holidaymakers to attend.^[143] However, the reconstruction was cancelled after the friends declined to participate.^[144]

Alípio Ribeiro resigned as the national director of the PJ on 7 May, citing media pressure. His replacement was José Maria Almeida Rodrigues, a senior detective based in Coimbra.^[145]

External assistance[link]

Throughout the investigation, support has been provided by the British authorities for the Portuguese police. Immediately after the disappearance, experts from Britain were flown out to assist the Portuguese police and Leicestershire Police sent family liaison officers to help the McCann family.^[146] On 9 May, Interpol released a yellow notice, issued to help locate missing persons who are not able to identify themselves, to all member police forces.^[147] A team of mobile phone experts flew to Portugal on 29 May 2007 to analyse mobile phone data from the area at the time of the abduction. They used triangulation techniques to track mobile phone movements down to a couple of yards.^[148]

More experts, this time from the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, flew into Portugal on 31 July to assist the local detectives, for whom all leave had been cancelled, by developing a psychological profile of a possible abductor.^[149] In early August, British detectives again flew in to assist. They were accompanied by specially trained sniffer dogs and equipment for underground detection and ultraviolet instruments for identifying blood.^[62][126]

The Home Office started a secret scoping exercise, in March 2010, to decide whether a new investigation was necessary.^[150] In addition, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre sought help from West Yorkshire Police's major inquiry team, which found missing Dewsbury nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, in March 2008.^[151] Following the review, on 25 April 2012, which to that date had cost British taxpayers £2 million, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command said that they believed that there was a possibility that Madeleine was alive. Scotland Yard urged the Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for her because of new "investigative opportunities". An updated age progression image, of Madeleine, was also released.^[152]

Suspension of the official investigation[link]

Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Portuguese Attorney General, said on 1 July 2008 that prosecutors had received the final police report.^[153][154] He announced, on 21 July, that the case would be closed due to lack of evidence that any crime was committed by the persons placed under formal investigation. However, the files would still be periodically reviewed and could be reopened if new evidence emerged.^[12] The police files, running to 17 volumes comprising over 11,000 pages, were made public on 4 August.^[155][156]

Unofficial investigations[link]

At least five firms of private investigators have been engaged to make enquiries. At the end of May 2007 the McCanns hired Control Risks Group.^[157] It was announced on 29 September that tycoon Brian Kennedy was paying for private investigators to search in Morocco.^[74] Spanish agency Método 3 were engaged with the enquiries led by Francisco Marco.^[158] It was disclosed in January 2008 that Hogan International, headed by Noel Hogan, former Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent, was carrying out a cold case review, in conjunction with Método 3.^[159] US-based investigation firm Oakley International was hired for six months in 2008 but it was decided in August not to renew their contract. Brian Kennedy, who underwrites the Fund, thought that their fees of around £500,000 were not value for money.^[160] Oakley International owner Kevin Halligen, in November 2009, was being sought by the FBI on an indictment for fraud.^[161] Allegations included the suggestion that he failed to pay over to investigators £300,000 that he had received from the McCann fund.^[162] Another, unnamed, US organisation was engaged in August 2008, also on a £500,000 six-month contract, to lead the investigation. Método 3 were to continue to follow up information from Spain and Portugal.^[163]

Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia paid for the Barragem do Arade reservoir, 35 miles (56 km) east of Praia da Luz, to be searched by divers in early February 2008. He claimed to have received intelligence from underworld sources that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in a lake.^[90] The initial search was unsuccessful but it resumed in the middle of March, funded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia e Construção.^[164][165] Several items were found in the reservoir. Initially discovered were several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white, cotton sock.^[166] Then two plastic bags, one containing small bones, were found on 14 March,^[167] but the bones were confirmed to be those of a small animal and Correia gave up the search for lack of funds.^[168]

Sightings of Madeleine McCann[link]

The last confirmed sighting of Madeleine was in the early evening of 3 May 2007, by Miguel Matias, manager of the beach-side Paraíso restaurant, who saw Gerry dancing with his daughter while the family ate a meal on the terrace.^[86] Since then there have been many reported sightings of Madeleine both in Portugal and elsewhere in the world, but none have produced any firm leads. However, several reports have not been conclusively eliminated. The Portuguese police, on 9 July 2007, said that they believed that, if still alive, it was likely that the missing girl was still being held in Portugal.^[169] The McCanns gained limited access to police files, concerning possible sightings, on 7 July 2008.^[170]

Response to the disappearance[link]

Tributes in Rothley on 17 May 2007

Over the subsequent months Madeleine's parents implemented a publicity campaign that kept the disappearance in the public eye in many countries though there was criticism that the media attention was excessive and lacked objectivity. The disappearance led the news in the UK for over a week with subsequent daily coverage of events. There was regular coverage in Portugal and periodic coverage in other countries.

An official site for the search was set up and a fund-raising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched. The directors of the company subsequently decided that no money from the Fund would be used to pay the McCanns' legal costs.^[171] There were appeals from many political leaders and sporting personalities and over £2.6 million of rewards were offered. The parents had an audience with the Pope and embarked on a tour of key European and North African countries, together with a visit to the United States, to raise and maintain awareness.^[172] The publicity spawned attempted scams with fake websites set up, people collecting money on false pretences and others falsely claiming to have information on Madeleine's whereabouts.

Following accusations in the media the McCanns, their friends, and Robert Murat instigated libel actions. The Daily Express and the Daily Star published front-page apologies and agreed to pay the McCanns £550,000 in libel damages.^[173] A grouping of British newspapers settled with Murat for a £600,000 payout and issued a public apology.^[174] BSkyB also paid him damages in a separate libel case.^[175] Sergey Malinka and Michaela Walczuch accepted more than £100,000 each.^[174] The friends of the McCanns, known as the Tapas Seven, were awarded around £375,000 in damages and secured printed apologies from Express Newspapers.^[176]

Criticism of the parents[link]

The parents have been criticised for leaving their children alone while they ate at a nearby restaurant despite the availability of a babysitting service and a creche.^[177][178] There has also been criticism of the parents in the Portuguese media. Diário de Notícias insisted that the McCanns were suspects and claimed that on the night Madeleine disappeared they had not checked on the children, contrary to what they told police.^[179] The Daily Telegraph has reported "Portugal has been stung by suggestions that the investigation has been handled ineptly, and while there is much sympathy locally for the McCanns they have also been criticised for leaving their children alone."^[180]

Police questioned the couple on 10 May 2007 about why the three children were left alone in an apartment, with the patio doors unlocked, while they dined at the restaurant.^[29] In an interview with the BBC on 25 May, the McCanns acknowledged the criticism, and spoke of the guilt they felt.^[181] In reply to questions posed to them on 6 June at a press conference in Germany, when radio reporter Sabina Müller suggested that their behaviour was not normal for people whose child had been abducted, they denied involvement in any abduction of their daughter.^[182]

On the 10 Downing Street website a petition to the Prime Minister was started on 12 June 2007 requesting that Leicestershire Social Services fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to Madeleine and her siblings being left unattended in an unlocked, ground floor hotel room. In response, Leicestershire County Council said it was "discharging [its] duties in... a full and professional manner" but the family has declined to comment on the petition.^[177] The petition was rapidly rejected, with the reason given being the language it contained.^[183]

Following criticism in the Portuguese media of the behaviour of the McCanns, on 21 July 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service lawyers held "informal discussions" to consider whether any offence may have been committed under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which deals with ill-treatment, cruelty, neglect and abandonment of children under 16.^[184] The family said the calls to prosecute the McCanns were hurtful and unhelpful.^[185]

The lawyer of Robert Murat, Francisco Pagarete, criticised the McCanns in late November. He said that they "deserve to be cursed" for leaving their children alone.^[186] Gonçalo Amaral, who had originally headed the police investigation, criticised the parents in his book Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), published on 24 July 2008.^[187] A Portuguese judge issued an injunction, on 9 September 2009, that stopped further publication or sales of the book and also banned Amaral from repeating his claims.^[188] The McCanns travelled to Portugal for Amaral's libel trial, but on 11 December 2009 it was postponed for a month due to his lawyer falling ill. The trial had originally coincided with the publication of a second book by Amaral, A Mordaça Inglesa (The English Gag).^[189] The McCanns are also asking Amaral for 1.2 million euros in compensation for defamation.^[190] On 19 October 2010, it was announced that the Court of Appeal had overturned the ban on Sr Amaral's book, which has now been returned to sale, stating that the ban had broken "a constitutional and universal right: that of opinion and freedom of expression."^[191]

Criticism of the police[link]

There has been extensive criticism of the Portuguese police in the British media.^[192][193] It was reported that there were delays in obtaining and analysing forensic evidence, neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after she vanished, and officers had not been seen making extensive door-to-door inquiries. Critics allege that the scene had not been secured as tightly as it would have been in the UK and the lack of appeals for help and information has surprised British police experts.^[194]

It has emerged that the police failed to ask for surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance nor of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António, on the Spanish border.^[195] Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey detective and now a child protection expert, on 6 August described the initial forensic tests as "inept" and criticised the three-month delay in the Portuguese acceptance of the British offer of expert help. He said that the police should have sealed the apartment immediately, on day one, and then conducted a thorough forensic examination.^[126]

The Portuguese police have, however, been working under legal restrictions. For instance, they cannot release information because they are constrained by Article 86 of the Portuguese penal code that says information must not be released, apart from in exceptional circumstances, while the criminal investigation is still taking place.^[194]

Several Portuguese news media and opinion makers have criticised the massive police and law enforcement efforts, comparing it with the efforts used to help national victims in past similar affairs. Taking part were up to 180 Portuguese police officials and civil protection helicopters together with hundreds of villagers and holidaymakers, an effort never seen in the search for other child disappearances in the country.^[196][197]

Parallels have been drawn with the case of disappearance of another child, Joana Cipriano, who disappeared on 12 September 2004 from her home in the village of Figueira, seven miles (11 km) from where Madeleine was last seen. Chief investigating officer Guilhermino da Encarnação was also involved in that investigation, in which no body was found, but which ended with the conviction of Leonor and João Cipriano, Joana's mother and uncle.^[198] Since then Gonçalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers have been charged with offences.^[199] A judge decided, in February 2008, that Amaral will stand trial accused of falsifying evidence and covering up for the other four who are accused of torture.^[200]

The height of the man being sought by the police was given on the Portuguese press release as 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) but it mistakenly appeared as 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) the English version.^[97] Madeleine took a favourite toy to bed with her on the night she disappeared, on which an abductor could have left some trace of DNA evidence, but police did not check it.^[201] Then on 1 June 2007, June Hughes, from Glasgow, who had stayed in the apartment the previous week with her husband, expressed surprise that the police had not made any contact with them.^[202] Family members, on 9 June, complained of harassment by the police when they tried to put up 'missing' posters at Lisbon Airport. There were suggestions that the Portuguese authorities wanted to prevent these posters being displayed over concerns about damage to their tourist industry.^[203]

There was criticism that, on 6 June, two of the senior police officers involved in the case, Olegário de Sousa and Gonçalo Amaral, the head of the regional Polícia Judiciária, took a leisurely lunch and an observer commented that they laughed at what seemed to be an in-joke as the McCanns appeared on a television news broadcast. Olegário de Sousa defended their actions: "It is very, very sad but a person’s free time is for lunch," he said. "The persons are in charge in the day, they are working in the day but they must eat and drink, it is normal. I drink what I want to drink when I can drink."^[204] Gonçalo Amaral, in an interview given to the Diário de Notícias in October, said "The British police have only been working on that which the McCann couple want them to and which is most convenient for them."^[205] Subsequently the PJ's national director, Alípio Ribeiro, told journalists at a conference in Lisbon on 2 October, that Amaral's "commission of service has ceased".^[134] Amaral returned to his post in the PJ branch of Faro, the seat of the district.^[206] Tavares de Almeida, the deputy head of the inquiry, asked to be put on unpaid leave shortly before it was announced that he had been indicted over the alleged torture of a suspect in an unrelated investigation.^{[207][208][209]}

Richard Branson stepped into the debate on 15 October 2007. Branson, who has contributed £100,000 to the McCanns' defence fund, criticised the Portuguese police and press for 'overstepping their mark' by accusing the McCanns of involvement in the disappearance.^[210]

Family[link]

Madeleine McCann[link]

Before the family holiday to Portugal, Madeleine Beth McCann, daughter of Kate and Gerry McCann, born 2003 in Leicester, was living with her parents and younger twin siblings, brother Sean and sister Amelie, in Rothley, Leicestershire.^[147] Madeleine was made a ward of court, during summer 2007, on application by her parents because they wanted the court's statutory powers to act on her behalf in legal disputes.^[211] Mrs Justice Hogg has effectively been Madeleine's legal guardian since then.^[170]

A notable identification feature is a coloboma of her right eye where the pupil runs into the iris in the form of a black radial strip reaching from the pupil out to the edge of the white at the '7 o'clock' position, about 30° clockwise from the bottom.^[212][213]

The McCanns released an image, on 1 May 2009, two years after the girl's disappearance, of the projected appearance of a 6-year-old Madeleine.^[214]

Kate McCann[link]

Kate Marie McCann (née Healy; born 1967), Madeleine's mother, is a general practitioner.^[215] Before the disappearance she worked as a part-time GP in Melton Mowbray.^[216] However, she has said that she will not return to work as a GP.^[217]

Born in Allerton, Liverpool, Healy studied medicine at the University of Dundee. Initially she specialised to become a gynaecologist, but later became an anaesthetist. She first met her husband Gerry McCann while employed at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow.^[218] They were married in 1998. Like her husband, McCann is a practising Roman Catholic.^[219]

Gerry McCann[link]

Gerald Patrick McCann, Madeleine's father, is a cardiologist. He currently works at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester though he was on unpaid special leave following the disappearance. On 1 November 2007 he returned to work on a three half-days per week basis, initially with no patient contact.^[217] Born in Glasgow, he attended Holyrood Secondary School and studied medicine at Glasgow University.^[218]

Friends[link]

The McCanns together with their seven friends, with whom they were dining on the evening of the disappearance, have been collectively referred to in the British media as the Tapas Nine.^[220] The group of friends, alone, have sometimes been called the Tapas Seven.^[221] The friends are Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Dr Matthew Oldfield and his wife Rachael Oldfield, David Payne with his wife Dr Fiona Payne and his mother-in-law Dianne Webster.^[222] All nine attended a private meeting, at a Rothley hotel, in late November 2007.^[223]

Notes[link]