Daniel "Danny" McCann (30 November 1957–6 March 1988) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was killed by British Army Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers in Operation Flavius.

Background

McCann was born into an Irish republican family from the Clonard area of west Belfast. He was educated at primary level at St Gall's Primary School, Belfast, and at secondary level at St Mary's Grammar School on Belfast's Glen Road. McCann did not finish his education as he was arrested after becoming involved in rioting. He was charged and convicted of "riotous behaviour" and sentenced to six months in prison. Later that year McCann joined the Provisional IRA. He was also convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for the possession of explosives.

Gibraltar

According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1987 Seán Savage and Daniel McCann killed two Special Branch officers in Belfast docks.

In 1988, along with Mairead Farrell, they were sent to the British overseas territory of Gibraltar to plant a bomb in the town area targeting the British military band which paraded weekly in connection with the changing of the guard in front of the Governors' residence (see Operation Flavius).

The SAS team was informed—incorrectly—that the IRA had already placed their bomb and were ready to detonate it. The three conspirators were stopped as they walked near the Shell filling station in Winston Churchill Avenue, the busy main road leading to the airport and the frontier with Spain. McCann was then shot as the SAS claimed he made an 'aggressive move' towards a bag he was carrying. They stated that he was intending to trigger a car bomb using a remote control device.After McCann was killed, it was claimed that Farrell made a move towards her handbag and was shot on similar grounds. SAS members again claimed that Savage moved his hand to his pocket and the SAS killed him also.

McCann was shot five times, Farrell eight times, and Savage between 16 and 18 times.All three were subsequently found to be unarmed, and without any kind of remote trigger. Materials for a bomb, including 64 kg of Semtex, were later found in a car 36 miles away in Spain, identified by keys found in Farrell's handbag.

No radio or other detonating device was found on the bodies, nor was there any bomb in the car in Gibraltar which had been identified as belonging to the bombing team. A car used by the bombers was found two days after the killings containing of Semtex with a device timed to go off during the changing of the guard.

A controversial British television documentary, Death on the Rock, was produced about the events surrounding McCann's death.

Funeral

At the funeral of the 'Gibraltar Three', three mourners (including one IRA member) were killed in a gun and grenade attack by loyalist Michael Stone in the Milltown Cemetery attack.

See also

Mairéad Farrell

Sean Savage

Death on the Rock - documentary about the shootings.

References

References

Gerry Adams, Hope and History: Making Peace in Ireland, Brandon Books, 2003. ISBN 0863223303

External links

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/deathonthe/deathonthe.htm

http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/larkin_pubs/older/motr/motr_all.htm

Category:1957 births Category:1988 deaths Category:People from Belfast Category:People killed by security forces during The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Category:Provisional Irish Republican Army members Category:Republicans imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict Category:Deaths by firearm in Gibraltar

Name	Samuel Barber
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Samuel Osborne Barber II
Born	March 09, 1910West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	January 23, 1981
Occupation	composer

Samuel Osborne Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, for his opera Vanessa and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. His , a work for soprano and orchestra, was an acclaimed setting of prose by James Agee.

Biography

Early years

Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Samuel LeRoy Barber. At a very early age, Barber became profoundly interested in music, and it was apparent that he had great musical talent and ability. At the age of nine he wrote to his mother:

He wrote his first musical at the early age of 7 and attempted to write his first opera at the age of 10. He was an organist at the age of 12. When he was 14, he entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied piano, composition, and voice.

Barber was born into a comfortable, educated, social, and distinguished Irish-American family. His father was a physician, and his mother was a pianist. His aunt, Louise Homer, was a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera and his uncle, Sidney Homer, was a composer of American art songs. Louise Homer is known to have influenced Barber's interest in voice. Through his aunt, Barber had access to many great singers and songs.

Barber began composing seriously in his late teenage years. Around the same time, he met fellow Curtis schoolmate Gian Carlo Menotti, who became his partner in life as well as in their shared profession. At the Curtis Institute, Barber was a triple prodigy in composition, voice, and piano. He soon became a favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok. It was through Mrs. Bok that Barber was introduced to his lifelong publisher, the Schirmer family. At the age of 18, Barber won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his Violin Sonata (now lost or destroyed by the composer).

Middle years

From his early to late twenties, Barber wrote a flurry of successful compositions, launching him into the spotlight of the classical music world. Many of his compositions were commissioned or first performed by such famous artists as Vladimir Horowitz, Eleanor Steber, Raya Garbousova, John Browning, Leontyne Price, Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. When Barber was 28, his Adagio for Strings was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini in 1938, along with his first Essay for Orchestra. The Adagio had been arranged from the slow movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. Toscanini had only rarely performed music by American composers before (an exception was Howard Hanson's Second Symphony, which he conducted in 1933). At the end of the first rehearsal of the piece, Toscanini remarked: " Semplice e bella " (simple and beautiful).

Barber served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, where he was commissioned to write his Second Symphony, a work he later suppressed. (It was released in a "Vox" recording by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Schenck). Composed in 1943, the symphony was originally titled Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces and was premiered in early 1944 by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Barber revised the symphony in 1947, which was published by G. Schirmer, and recorded the following year by the New Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by the composer, but Barber subsequently destroyed the score in 1964. It was reconstructed from the instrumental parts. According to another source, however, it was precisely the parts to the symphony that Barber had torn up. Hans Heinsheimer was an eyewitness, and reported that he accompanied Barber to the publisher's office where they collected all the music from the library and Barber "tore up all these beautifully and expensively copied materials with his own hands" Doubt has been cast on this story, however, on grounds that Heinsheimer, as an executive at G. Schirmer, would have allowed Barber into the Schirmer offices to watch him "rip apart the music that his company had invested money in publishing".

Barber won the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1958 for his first opera Vanessa, and in 1963 for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Later years

Barber spent many years in isolation (eventually diagnosed with clinical depression) after the harsh rejection of his third opera Antony and Cleopatra (which he believed contained some of his best music. "This was supposed to have been my opera!" he said) . The opera was written for and premiered at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House on 16 September 1966. After this setback, Barber continued to write music until he was almost 70 years old. Barber's music in his later years would be lauded as reflective and contemplative, but without the morbidity or unhappiness of other composers who knew they had a limited time to live. The Third Essay for Orchestra (1978) was his last major work, and critics received it as having all the vigor and imagination of his earlier works.

Barber died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70. He was buried in Oaklands Cemetery in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Achievements and awards

Barber was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Rome Prize (the American version of the Prix de Rome), two Pulitzers, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Barber was initiated, as a full collegiate member, into the Zeta Iota chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at Howard University in 1952.

In addition to composing, Barber was active in organizations that sought to help musicians and music. He was president of the International Music Council of UNESCO, where he did much to bring into focus and ameliorate the conditions of international musical problems. One of the first American composers to visit Russia (which was then a constituent republic of the Soviet Union), Barber was influential also in the successful campaign of composers against ASCAP, helping composers increase the share of royalties they receive from their compositions.

Music

Orchestral music

Barber played and studied the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and was an adherent of Johannes Brahms, from whom he learned how to compress profound emotions into small modules of highly charged musical expression (Cello Sonata, 1932).

In 1933, after reading the poem "Prometheus Unbound" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Barber composed the tone poem Music for a Scene from Shelley, Op. 7. In 1935, when the work was premiered at Carnegie Hall, it was the first time the composer heard one of his orchestral works performed publicly.

Barber's compositional style has been lauded for its musical logic, sense of architectural design, effortless melodic gift, and direct emotional appeal. This was evident in the Overture to The School for Scandal (1931) and Music for a Scene from Shelley (1933). These were characteristics of his music throughout his lifetime.

Through the success of his Overture to The School for Scandal (1931), Music for a Scene from Shelley (1933), Adagio for Strings (1938); (First) Symphony in One Movement (1936), (First) Essay for Orchestra (1937) and Violin Concerto (1939), Barber garnered performances by the world's leading conductors — Eugene Ormandy, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Bruno Walter, Charles Münch, George Szell, Artur Rodziński, Leopold Stokowski, and Thomas Schippers.

His compositions later included polytonality (Second Symphony, 1944); atonality (Medea, 1946, Prayers of Kierkegaard, 1954); Twelve-tone technique (Nocturne, 1959 and the Piano Sonata, 1949); and jazz (Excursions, 1944; and A Hand of Bridge, 1959).

Among his finest works are his four concertos, one each for Violin (1939), Cello (1945) and Piano (1962), and also the neoclassical Capricorn Concerto for flute, oboe, trumpet and string orchestra. All of these works are rewarding for the soloists and public alike, as all contain both highly virtuosic and beautiful writing, often simultaneously. The latter three have been unfairly neglected until recent years, when there has been a reawakening of interest in the expressive possibilities of these masterpieces.

Barber's final opus was the Canzonetta for oboe and string orchestra (1979/1981).

Piano

The four-piano "bagatelles" Excursions, Op. 20, (1942–44), was his first and only venture into Americana music. Its elements of boogie-woogie, blues, theme and variations on a cowboy song, and hoedown are not typical of Barber's generally more classical style. In 1949, Barber wrote his keyboard masterpiece Piano Sonata, which has maintained a prominent position in the concert repertoire since its premiere. The Nocturne for Piano (Homage to John Field), Op. 33, is another respected piece which he composed for the instrument.

Opera

Barber's life partner Gian Carlo Menotti, whom he had met at Curtis, supplied the libretto (text) for Barber's opera, Vanessa. Using his vocal training, in 1956 Barber played and sang the score to the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager, Rudolf Bing, who accepted the work. It premiered in January 1958. The title role was written for Sena Jurinac but she cancelled six weeks before the opening, to be replaced by Eleanor Steber, with whom the role has become closely identified. Vanessa won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize and gained acclaim as the first American grand opera.

Menotti also contributed the libretto for Barber's chamber opera A Hand of Bridge. Barber's Antony and Cleopatra was commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966. The elaborate production designed by Franco Zeffirelli was plagued with technical disasters; it also overwhelmed and obscured Barber's music, which most critics derided as uncharacteristically weak and unoriginal. The critical rejection of music that Barber considered to be among his best sent him into a deep depression. In recent years, a revised version of Antony and Cleopatra, for which Menotti provided collaborative assistance, has enjoyed some success.

Vocal

Barber's background, deeply rooted in singing (including studies with Emilio de Gogorza), his love of poetry, and his intimate knowledge and appreciation of the human voice, inspired his vocal writing. Barber's most famous vocal compositions, (to words by James Agee) and Dover Beach (to words from a Victorian poem by Matthew Arnold), were greatly successful. Their critical acclaim has made a powerful case for Barber as one of the twentieth century's most accomplished composers for the voice.

In honor of Barber's influence on American music, on October 19, 1974, he was awarded the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit. This award was established in 1964 "to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year who has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."

In September 1992, soprano Cheryl Studer, baritone Thomas Hampson, the preeminent Samuel Barber pianist John Browning and the Emerson String Quartet recorded the complete songs of Samuel Barber (with the exception of Knoxville: Summer of 1915) at the Brahms-Saal of the famous Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. The Deutsche Grammophon (catalogue 435 867-2) set has become a classic of American song on record.

Violin

In 1939 Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for Fels' ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year as Barber, 1934. The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of the violin concerto's commission and subsequent year leading up to the first performance. Heyman interviewed Briselli and others familiar with the history in her publication. In late 2010, previously unpublished letters written by Fels, Barber, and Albert Meiff (Briselli's violin coach in that period) from the Samuel Simeon Fels Papers archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania became available to the public.

Notable compositions

For a full list of works with opus number and some without, see List of compositions by Samuel Barber

Dover Beach (Medium Voice and String Quartet) (Op. 3, 1931)

The School for Scandal (Overture) (Op. 5, 1931)

Cello Sonata (Op. 6, 1932)

Music for a Scene from Shelley (Op. 7, 1933)

(First) Symphony in One Movement (Op. 9, 1936)

Adagio for Strings (arr. of String Quartet, mov’t 2) (Op. 11, 1938)

Essay for Orchestra (Op. 12, 1937)

Violin Concerto (Op. 14, 1939)

Reincarnations for mixed chorus, (Op. 16, 1939–1940); words by Antoine Ó Raifteiri in translation by James Stephens

Second Essay for Orchestra (Op. 17, 1942)

Excursions (Op. 20, 1942–44)

Capricorn Concerto (Op. 21, 1944)

Cello Concerto (Op. 22, 1945)

Medea (Ballet) (Op. 23, 1946)

(Soprano & Orchestra) (Op. 24, 1948)

Sonata for Piano (Op. 26, 1949)

Hermit Songs (Op. 29, 1953)

Prayers of Kierkegaard (Soprano, Choir & Orchestra) (Op. 30, 1954)

Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Op. 31, 1956)

Vanessa (opera) (Op. 32, 1957)

A Hand of Bridge (Chamber opera) (Op. 35, 1959)

Toccata Festiva (Organ and Orchestra) (Op. 36, 1960)

Piano Concerto (Op. 38, 1962)

Antony and Cleopatra (Op. 40, opera, 1966, rev. 1974)

Popular culture

Adagio for Strings is a string-orchestra version of the slow movement from Barber's only string quartet, in response to a commission by Italian conductor, Arturo Toscanini. It was broadcast as part of a radio tribute following the death of US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt and at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. It was used by French film composer, Georges Delerue, as part of his score, in the opening and various other passages of Platoon (1986), a film directed by Oliver Stone about the Vietnam War. It is the soundtrack of the movie The Elephant Man (1980) directed by David Lynch. During its depiction of the final moments of Merrick's (The Elephant Man) life, the film uses "Adagio for Strings". It has also been remixed quite popularly by electronic dance artist DJ Tiesto and a choral version served as the theme to the real-time strategy game Homeworld. Barber's choral arrangement, setting the text of the "Agnus Dei" from the Catholic mass ordinary, was used in the film, Lorenzo's Oil, starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon.

Notes

Reference and further reading

Broder, Nathan. 1954. Samuel Barber. New York: G. Schirmer. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985. ISBN 0313249849.

Heinsheimer, Hans W. 1968. "The Composing Composer: Samuel Barber". ASCAP Today 2:7.

Heyman, Barbara B. 1992. Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195090581.

Lee, Douglas A. 2002. Masterworks of 20th-Century Music: The Modern Repertory Of The Symphony Orchestra. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93846-5

Mostovoy, Marc. 2010. "Iso Briselli, Samuel Barber, and thbe Violin Concerto, op. 14: Facts and Fiction". Iso Briselli website. (Accessed 6 December 2010)

Schenck, Andrew. 1988. Booklet notes. Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 2; Music for a Scene from Shelley; Overture to The School for Scandal; First Essay; Adagio for Strings. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Schenck, cond. CD recording. Stradivari Classics SCD 8012. Hackensack, NJ: Special Music Company.

Simmons, Walter. 2004. Voices in the Wilderness: Six American Neo-Romantic Composers. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810848848. Paperback reprint edition, Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8108-5728-6.

Staubrand, Jens. 2009. Kierkegaard International Bibliography: Music Works and Plays: Appendix: About The Seducers Diary and the Illness and Death of Søren Kierkegaard, new edition. Copenhagen: Eget Forlag; i kommission hos Forlaget Underskoven. ISBN 978 87 92259 91 2

Warrack, John Hamilton, and Ewan West. 1992. The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-869164-5

Wright, Jeffrey Marsh II. 2010. "The Enlisted Composer: Samuel Barber's Career 1942–1945". PhD diss. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

External links

Biography

Heyman, Barbara B (1992). Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195090586

Wittke, Paul. Samuel Barber. G. Schirmer Inc.

Homepage of Capricorn, the French Samuel Barber Society. (In English and French)

Article "Barber, A Composer Between Two Worlds", by the Capricorn Society on American Center France

Samuel Osborne Barber. IHAS. PBS.

Smith, Patricia. Barber, Samuel. glbtq.com

"Samuel Barber", Fyne Times

Other

Frédéric Chopin and Samuel Barber – ArtsEditor.com opinion article, 2010.

Audio and Video

Anne Akiko Meyers performs the Barber Violin Concerto

Cheryl Studer sings Samuel Barber in recital, 27 November 2003

Art of the States: Samuel Barber

Video of Erika's aria from Vanessa, "Must the Winter Come So Soon?", sung by Mary Gayle Greene

In the BBC Discovering Music: Listening Library

Category:20th-century classical composers Category:American composers Category:Opera composers Category:Pulitzer Prize for Music winners Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:1910 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Grammy Award winners Category:LGBT composers Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni

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 away. After further investigation, the PJ stated that there was a strong hypothesis that she might have died in her room.

Robert Murat, a local resident, was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May 2007. 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. 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.

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

Madeleine disappeared from a ground floor apartment, where the family was staying, on the evening of 3 May 2007. The apartment 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.

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. 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. 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. At 21:30 Matthew Oldfield went to check the children but saw only the twins through the open bedroom door.

At around 22:00, Kate returned to check on the children and found Madeleine's bed empty and the bedroom window open. 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!". Kate said that the police were called within 10 minutes of finding her daughter gone. Gerry said it was one of their friends who alerted the resort manager and the police.

The GNR’s spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Costa Cabral, said that the first call to the police (PJ) was at 23:50. According to the Portuguese police's missing person notice, the disappearance had occurred "by 22:40". The police stated that officers arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted, and an investigation unit began work within 30 minutes.

Official investigation

Early stages

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. The Portuguese police Polícia Judiciária (PJ) said they were unsure whether Madeleine was still alive. They also examined photographs taken by holidaymakers to see if any suspects could be identified. 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. 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.

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. On 18 October 2007, British forensic scientist Professor David Barclay of Robert Gordon University was reported as saying the layout of the complex made it 'a pervert's paradise'.

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.

Murat and Malinka

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. Police and scientific teams sealed off the house, and at 16:00 the swimming pool was drained.

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. Murat's former classmate Gaynor de Jesus said: "I do know that he has been the official translator for the police." 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. 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.

Robert Murat was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May; before being given this status persons 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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". 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

Police, including British detectives, resumed searching Casa Liliana on 4 August. 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. Murat had his computers and other possessions returned to him by the police in late March 2008. He was cleared of any involvement in the disappearance, and his arguido status was lifted on 21 July. 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." During this interview Kate used her right to remain silent. After questioning, Kate was released from the police station just before 16:00 without being charged. 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. 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".

The UK Foreign Office is providing the McCanns with assistance. 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." Despite the ongoing investigation, the McCanns flew home on 9 September via Faro and East Midlands airports. 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. 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. The judge appointed was Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, Portimão's 'juiz de instrução criminal'.

In addition to Meneses, a district prosecutor, Luis Bilro Verão, was appointed on 11 September 2007 to oversee the investigation. 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.

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. Social workers visited the McCanns on 13 September, at their request. Anjos Frias ruled on 19 September that the McCanns would not be reinterviewed for the time being.

The McCanns have been quoted as believing that their phones have been tapped from fairly early in the investigation. Clarence Mitchell, on 17 September, resigned as director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit to become the McCanns' media spokesman. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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".

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. A judge in Portugal, on 15 May, extended the secrecy on the prosecution files for a further three months. 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". 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.

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.

A mystery sample 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. 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.

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.

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. Subsequently, he claimed to have seen Madeleine before her disappearance but required payment if he was to help the investigators. He did, though, voluntarily give police in Germany a DNA sample. Hewlett died, of natural causes, in December 2009.

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. An E-fit picture was released showing a woman with short, spiky hair.

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. A 36-year-old man told a newspaper that he had informed police that McCann was taken by a Portuguese pedophile ring that hunts children in the Algarve region then proceeds to smuggle them out of the country. McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told media that the pedophile ring lead had to be taken with caution.

Other aspects of the investigation

On 7 June, 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".

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. Then, on 28 June, Toscano claimed that Madeleine was alive and well in Europe but Madeleine's parents refused to meet with him. 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.

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.

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.

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. Samples of blood, hair, and fibres were sent to the UK Forensic Science Service in Birmingham for DNA analysis. Examination of the scientific evidential material is continuing and initial findings, described as "significant", were sent to Portugal around 4 September.

Following the publicising of the discovery of the blood spots, Sousa stated "The family are not suspects. This is the official position." Then on 11 August, Sousa added that new evidence had given "intensity" to the possibility Madeleine had been killed. 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. 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. 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.

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. Paulo Rebelo, an assistant national director of the Polícia Judiciária, took over responsibility for the case on 8 October.

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. 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. As part of the preparations, Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, of Leicestershire Police, flew to Portugal for discussions with his counterparts, in early March. The interviews, carried out by Leicestershire Police and attended by the Portuguese Police, began on 8 April.

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." Luis Antonio, the estranged husband of Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, was questioned by police for a second time in early February.

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. However, the reconstruction was cancelled after the friends declined to participate.

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

Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Portuguese Attorney General, said on 1 July that prosecutors had received the final police report. 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 will still be periodically reviewed and could be reopened if new evidence emerges.

External assistance

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 experts and Leicestershire Police sent family liaison officers to help the McCann family. 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. 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. 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.

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.

The Home Office started a secret scoping exercise, in March 2010, to decide whether a new investigation is necessary. 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.

Unofficial investigations

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. It was announced on 29 September that tycoon Brian Kennedy was paying for private investigators to search in Morocco. Spanish agency Método 3 were engaged with the enquiries led by Francisco Marco. 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. 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. Oakley International owner Kevin Halligen, in November 2009, was being sought by the FBI on an indictment for fraud. Allegations included the suggestion that he failed to pay over to investigators £300,000 that he had received from the McCann fund. 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.

Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia paid for the Barragem do Arade reservoir, 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. The initial search was unsuccessful but it resumed in the middle of March, funded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia e Construção. Several items were found in the reservoir. Initially discovered were several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white, cotton sock. Then two plastic bags, one containing small bones, were found on 14 March, but the bones were confirmed to be those of a small animal and Correia gave up the search for lack of funds.

Sightings of Madeleine McCann

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. The McCanns gained limited access to police files, concerning possible sightings, on 7 July 2008. 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. 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. A grouping of British newspapers settled with Murat for a £600,000 payout and issued a public apology. Sergey Malinka and Michaela Walczuch accepted more than £100,000 each. The friends of the McCanns, known as the Tapas Seven, were awarded around £375,000 in damages and secured printed apologies from Express Newspapers.

Criticism of the parents

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. 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. 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."

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. 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.

On the 10 Downing Street website a petition to the Prime Minister was started on 12 June 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. The petition was rapidly rejected, with the reason given being the language it contained.

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. The family said the calls to prosecute the McCanns were hurtful and unhelpful.

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. 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. 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. 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). The McCanns are also asking Amaral for 1.2 million euros in compensation for defamation. 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."

Criticism of the police

There has been extensive criticism of the Portuguese police in the British media. 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.

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. 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.

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. Since then Gonçalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers have been charged with offences. 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.

The height of the man being sought by the police was given on the Portuguese press release as but it mistakenly appeared as the English version. 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. 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. 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.

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." 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." 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". Amaral returned to his post in the PJ branch of Faro, the seat of the district. 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.

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.

Family

Madeleine McCann

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. Mrs Justice Hogg has effectively been Madeleine's legal guardian since then.

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.

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.

Kate McCann

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

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.

Gerry McCann

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.

Friends

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. The group of friends, alone, have sometimes been called the Tapas Seven. 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. All nine attended a private meeting, at a Rothley hotel, in late November 2007.

Notes

External links

Official site for finding Madeleine McCann

Final police report

Category:Crime in Portugal Category:2007 in Portugal Category:2007 crimes Category:2000s missing person cases Category:Missing people Category:Algarve

Name	Kevin Brady
Image name	Kevinbrady.jpeg
Date of birth	April 11, 1955
Place of birth	Vermillion, South Dakota
State	Texas
District	8th
Term start	January 3, 1997
Preceded	Jack Fields
Succeeded	Incumbent
Party	Republican
Spouse	Cathy Brady
Religion	Roman Catholic
Residence	The Woodlands, Texas
Alma mater	University of South Dakota
Occupation	public affairs director

Kevin Patrick Brady (born April 11, 1955) is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes a large swath of suburban and rural territory around Houston and Beaumont.

Early life, education and career

Brady was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, one of five children of William and Nancy Brady. His father, a lawyer, was killed in 1967 in a courtroom shooting in Rapid City when Brady was 12 years old. Brady graduated from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he also became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

A chamber of commerce executive who also served on the Rapid City Common Council, Brady moved to Texas to work for the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and later the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce.

Texas House of Representatives

Brady began his political career in 1990 when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, representing The Woodlands and other parts of Montgomery County.

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee assignments

Committee on Ways and Means

*Subcommittee on Trade (Ranking Member)

*Subcommittee on Social Security

'''Joint Economic Committee (Ranking House Republican)

Brady has been a reliable conservative. He has advocated victims' rights and free trade, and called for replacing the income tax with a federal sales tax. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, in 2004 he restored the sales tax deduction, which had been eliminated in 1986. Recently, Brady acted as the point man for President George W. Bush to steer the Central America Free Trade Agreement through the House. However, he is best known for supporting a federal "sunset" law that would require every federal program not specifically written into the Constitution to justify its existence to taxpayers within 12 years or face elimination. He has introduced this bill at the beginning of every Congress. It was approved overwhelmingly by the House as an amendment in 2004 but did not progress further. In 2006 it passed the Government Reform Committee but did not reach a floor vote.

As the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, Brady and his staff developed the "Organizational Chart of the House Democrats Health Plan", the complex chart that showed the creation of at least 31 new federal agencies, commissions and mandates included in the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. He has also called on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to step down, citing rising unemployment, exaggerated stimulus job claims, unsustainable debt and "failed economic policies" of the Obama administration.

Brady's district was hit hard by Hurricane Rita and again by Hurricane Ike, and he has helped lead the Texas recovery effort in the House for both disasters.

Political campaigns

Congressman Jack Fields chose not to run for re-election in 1996, and Brady ran in the Republican primary to succeed him. Brady faced fellow Republican Eugene Fontenot four times in 1996 due to court-ordered redistricting. Fontenot led Brady in the primary in March, but Brady won the runoff election in April and two subsequent elections that stretched into December. Brady has won reelection six times without serious opposition and serves as a deputy minority whip.

Personal life

Brady lives in The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston.

On October 7, 2005 Brady was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol while in South Dakota. He faced a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail. He pleaded no contest. Upon his misdemeanor conviction on November 8, he was fined $350, and his right to drive in South Dakota was suspended for 30 days. Before his sentencing, Brady had stated that "no one is above the law" and he would accept "every consequence" of his actions, even if that meant a jail sentence. "To me, regardless of how this turns out, what it says is that you don't get behind the wheel." Conroe (Texas) Courier.

References

External links

U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady official U.S. House site

Profile at SourceWatch

Category:Living people Category:1955 births

Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Members of the Texas House of Representatives Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Category:Politicians convicted of alcohol-related driving offenses Category:Texas Republicans Category:University of South Dakota alumni