'Investigator' Van Wyk Turns On 'Investigator' Birch

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/maddie-search-shrouded-in-controversy-1.1341247

SA Time: Sat Jul 14 2012 12:30:27 GMT+0100 (GMT Daylight Time)

Maddie search shrouded in controversy

July 14 2012 at 11:59am
By Kowthar Solomons and Kashiefa Ajam
Comment on this story

The Saturday Star can today reveal for the first time the scan that Cape Town property developer Stephen Birch handed over to British and Portuguese authorities, which he claims proves that Madeleine McCann’s tiny body was buried on the property of former suspect Robert Murat.

A video showing Birch using a georadar machine, allegedly in Murat’s garden at Casa Liliana, is now circulating on the web, including on YouTube. In the interview with Portuguese TV station, Expresso TV, he said: “Maddie died on May 3, 2007 and she was put into the ground that same day.”

This comes as a heated row has erupted between Birch and two Cape Town private investigators amid allegations that all three are in the hunt for the sake of the R35 million reward.

Last week the Saturday Star reported claims by the property developer that he may have found the grave of missing Madeleine McCann less than 200m from the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal, using the radar scanning device. Now private investigators Martin van Wyk and his sister Bernice Manson have accused Birch of stealing their research and passing it off as his own.

But Birch didn’t respond in detail saying he had been advised by his attorneys not to comment on the case further.

This may be because Murat, in Portugal, is adamant that he will sue Birch. Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, told the Algarve Resident on Wednesday: “We are suing Mr Stephen Birch for the unlawful entry into private property.”

In an interview with newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM) Birch admitted that while in Praia da Luz, he monitored the property “24 hours a day”, with the help of two “collaborators”, and when the house was vacated he would enter and search the backyard with the georadar equipment.

And on an Express TV news clip, Birch can clearly be seen operating the georadar on Murat’s property, hunched under hanging tree branches in the dead of night. He said he had entered the property four times.

“There is a big driveway on Casa Liliana. But I believe that Maddie is buried beneath a second driveway, a less important driveway, which was constructed over the ground. The driveway is small and one cannot even turn a car in it. I don’t believe it serves any purpose. It is covered by pebble stones.”

Birch further said he was aware that there was a good chance that he would be prosecuted for trespassing. He said he had hired two law firms – one in SA and one in the UK to protect his interests.

“I hope and will plead with the Portuguese police to investigate my claims and excavate the property. If they are successful, I will have no problem assisting them with their investigation,” Birch said.

Madeleine, 3, disappeared from the Praia da Luz resort five years ago while her parents dined with friends nearby. It is not known if she is still alive. When contacted for comment on Van Wyk and Manson’s claims, Birch said he was aware of them, but denied them.

“The claims are false but under the legal advice of my lawyers I will not comment on the matter at this point.”

He was speaking to the Portuguese police and the McCann family about having the remains in the grave disinterred, and had passed the scans on to the Portuguese police.

“Many people don’t believe my story, and you can’t blame them because I don’t have definite proof. I want the site to be dug up so we can confirm if it indeed holds the remains of Madeleine McCann,” Birch said.

Van Wyk, meanwhile, said Birch was solely motivated by the reward and was willing to resort to illegal means, such as trespassing, to get it.

He feared Birch may have destroyed years of research by going public with his findings.

“Our investigation is incomplete and is still ongoing. By revealing the location without any substantial proof for the police to act on, he has given the person behind the disappearance a chance to cover his tracks. Not to mention his illegal activities in obtaining his ‘evidence’. It was utterly reckless and may have let a murderer walk free.

“I’ve had authorities in the UK call and ask me what he’s trying to pull and tell me that he may have destroyed any hopes of solving the case.”

Van Wyk, a former military police investigator, who has specialised in missing children for the past 28 years, said he was drawn to the McCann case and visited Portugal in October 2007 and in September 2009.

He sold his shares in a bar he part-owned to fund his investigation. Van Wyk said he had made contact with Madeleine’s relatives and received their “blessing” to investigate the case.

They passed on descriptions of Maddie and any new information that came to them. Although the information they were able to provide was limited, it was very useful.

He also gave interviews with local newspapers on his findings.

Van Wyk said he had been in touch by e-mail with the police in Portugal and the UK. He had collected thousands of documents on the case – e-mails, newspaper articles, notes, and hundreds of photographs. The photographs included pictures of the possible grave site.

Just over a year ago, Birch approached the siblings and asked to join them on the case. Manson described him as an acquaintance and loner.

“We’d see him socially sometimes but we wouldn’t call him a close friend.

“Then about a year ago he found out about our research and approached us as a partner,” said Van Wyk. They had agreed to the partnership.

Van Wyk said: “Initially, things went well. Birch was good with ideas and he was very inquisitive about all the role players and our theories. But at some point, he began to obsess and called us several times in the middle of the night for information.”

Van Wyk claims Birch insisted on keeping Van Wyk’s passport, ID and case files to prevent him from travelling to Portugal without him.

Manson said Birch became furious when he was unable to access their photographs last year.

“The documents were stored at a relative’s place who was away for the weekend. When I told him we could only get the photos in a few days he lost it and said ‘you people aren’t interested in the case or the money’ and ‘how useless’ we were.

“We had decided to wait until September to go to Portugal and confirm our theories. But Birch was impatient, so using our research and theories went on his own, using his underground radar device. He only joined us to get the photos and location of the possible grave site. He left as soon as he got what he came for.”

Van Wyk added: “I have worked on this day and night for the past five years, reading through articles from the media and reports from law enforcement intelligence. And for Birch to claim it was his work was just too much.”

He admitted that he was interested in the reward but said he had deeper motives. “The reward is without a doubt a factor, but having worked on missing children cases for so long I wanted to establish a global network to help find missing children. The money and renown for solving the McCann case would go a long way to realising this dream.”

Van Wyk said they still intended going to Portugal in September. -Saturday Star

a heated row has erupted between Birch and two Cape Town private investigators amid allegations that all three are in the hunt for the sake of the R35 million reward.

At last - the truth.



PS - if they are such hot shot 'investigators', why haven't they noticed that that ISN'T a driveway, it's the path from the back gate to the swimming pool?

Van Wyk, a former military police investigator

Would that be under apartheid, with such a good old Afrikaans name?

Van Wyk claims Birch insisted on keeping Van Wyk’s passport, ID and case files to prevent him from travelling to Portugal without him.

So, why did the ex-military police, bar-owning, hotshot PI give Birch his passport, etc, in the first place?

Doncha just love it when these people start and ?

ETA,

PS, anyone who believes that bullsh*t about Van Wyk having been given the McCanns' blessing needs to take themselves off to a nice, safe place and let the grown-ups look after them.

They passed on descriptions of Maddie and any new information that came to them. Although the information they were able to provide was limited, it was very useful.

He's had the standard acknowledgement from their people and done that nutter thing where they spin it into some kind of personal contact.

his sister Bernice Manson

That's the one who left the comments on YouTube, which were hastily deleted, but not before Bren nabbed them.



She is also an active member of Stevo's site.

I think we have just about the whole picture now?

Maybe Birch put money into their operation, and demanded the passport as a safeguard.
But what was Van Wyk going to do when he got to Portugal? Search The Murat's garden?
And which one sent The Houndation the information 15 months ago?

Let us not forget - none of them should have been doing it in the first place, as private investigations are seemingly illegal in Portugal.

And seeing what this shower have been up to, I begin to understand why...

Been watching too many reruns of Magnum, have they?

Is The Truth for Madeleine Site Pro or Anti? Sorry for my ignorance but I can't keep up with them all.

bb1 wrote:Let us not forget - none of them should have been doing it in the first place, as private investigations are seemingly illegal in Portugal.

And seeing what this shower have been up to, I begin to understand why...

Been watching too many reruns of Magnum, have they?

Perhaps The PJ can get birch on that one. Carrying on an illegal business.

Sabot wrote:
Is The Truth for Madeleine Site Pro or Anti? Sorry for my ignorance but I can't keep up with them all.

Hardline anti - Stevo is admin. Which is why it is covered in ads for his dire 'book', and also proudly boasts that hilarious piece about the Queen being IN IT.

It's even got a hotlink to his ONLINE DOGGIE SHOPPE

A reminder of Van Wyk's dealings with Stevo:

http://truthformadeleine.com/2009/12/another-south-african-madeleine-finder-arrives-in-portugal/

Stevo:

For many months of this year, a South African – Martin van Wyk has been corresponding to this website to explain that he knows where Madeleine McCann is buried and how she died.

bb1 wrote:

Sabot wrote:
Is The Truth for Madeleine Site Pro or Anti? Sorry for my ignorance but I can't keep up with them all.

Hardline anti - Stevo is admin. Which is why it is covered in ads for his dire 'book', and also proudly boasts that hilarious piece about the Queen being IN IT.

It's even got a hotlink to his ONLINE DOGGIE SHOPPE

And The Van Wyks were doing this with the blessing of The McCanns? Right. And they were in contact with The Houndation. Bunch of Vultures.

Actually, originally, I think that they decided The McCanns were guilty, that Jane Tanner's sighting was a friend of The McCanns, and that Robert Murat was somehow involved. So they put this mish mash together and led it all to Murat's garden because The McCann's friend wouldn't be seen burying the body their.
What Bennett and Co hoped to do with this isn't entirely obvious to me as yet, unless Bennett hoped the body would be found before his September Trial. Which would account for Bennett trying to get The Trial delayed.

They may well have contacted, say, findmadeleine or similar and got the standard polite response to nutters, Sabot, and decided to hype it up from there.

I have noticed that IRONSIDE aka magnolia is trying to whip up interest in some tale about him contacting Philomena McCann; I have been trying to find ORIGINAL material about this, but all I have found so far is Bennett's version, so that can be discounted.

This is, of course, a perfect example of what happens when ghouls and fakes chasing rewards get entangled with haters and hounders.

What Bennett and Co hoped to do with this isn't entirely obvious to me as yet, unless Bennett hoped the body would be found before his September Trial. Which would account for Bennett trying to get The Trial delayed.

I would be surprised if they had even thought that far ahead, Sabot - they may just have seen a way to, in their sick heads, hurt Madeleine's family, and the likes of them wouldn't care about the Murats.

The Gonc Cult are trying to sweep it under the carpet, but don't let us forget there should be a very important verdict on the 17th of this month; this may simply have been a last-ditch effort to distract from that?

Whatever the case, isn't it odd that the Houndation is right the way through this saga?

God spare us, now Reis has turned up on Bennett's home forum - I assume that is him, as it is the same as his blog entry on the subject.


Did Mr. Birch had formal contacts with Portuguese authorities?
Paulo Jorge Reis Today

Did Mr. Stephen Birch made any formal contact with the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’ Office (http://www.pgr.pt), the Judiciary institution that directs any crime investigation (PJ is under the authority of PPPO) or with "Polícia Judiciária" (http://www.pj.pt), to inform any of those institutions about his findings?
As far as I know, neither the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office of PJ received any formal contact from Mr. Stephen Birch, with evidence of his discovery.
As it happens in any country ruled by Law, in Portugal only the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office and "Polícia Judiciária" have legal power to take specific actions about a crime investigation. But they only can do that after they receive (or find) evidence about a crime...

Paulo Reis

Though it could, of course, just be someone using his name and copying the post....

Know something?

I have had more than enough of this disgusting circus. Have they no respect whatsoever for Madeleine McCann - you know, the child they all pretend to care so much about?

I think this is Team Gonc's Last Stand.

They don't care that none of it makes sense, as long as it gives them an excuse to spread the LIE that she has been dead, and under Murat's garden path, since May 3rd.

It's disgusting and sick, and the people involved in it should be ashamed of themselves - if they were capable of such a thing.

What possible point could there be in The McCanns being involved in this farce? It wouldn't accomplish anything of any benefit to them, no matter what one might think of them. Surely the Morons can see that.
But it could have benefited both Amaral and Bennett if it had been handled in a dignified and legal fashion, but then that wouldn't have been at all sensational.
This has done nothing for their cause except to make them look even more mad and vicious. And I can hardly believe that they could be so stupid. They never think beyond the sensation of the moment, which always falls flat on it's face.

Just a reminder for the forkers, hounders, haters and ghouls of what is happening in a few days:

http://justice4mccannfam.5forum.biz/t4122-gonc-loses-court-case-against-marcos

The Court of Faro scored for July 17 the sentencing of this case.

Oh, and I know they have poor comprehension skills, so I will just stress the important bit.

THE MINISTERIO PUBLICO CAME OUT IN SUPPORT OF MARCOS CORREIA AND PROFESSOR DORES.

I wonder, who could be wanting to take attention off events in Faro? It's a puzzler, isn't it?

Oh, what a surprise! Another one's crawled out of the woodwork on Bennett's home forum:

Open minds
Gizmosgirl Today
I have been reading this forum's messages for a while and was delighted to see:
1. Stephen Birch's posts appearing
2. Verification from Admin that his profile links to his business email....
3. Previously constructive discussion about recent events

Like many others this case disturbs me, because it appears the guilty are not just getting away scot-free but profiting from the death of Madeleine. Even worse, their social power appears to increase with each successive year.

Let's face facts:
Madeleine's death was becoming a cold case with every year that passes, while everyone bitches and moans about the fact the media and parents seem to be obstructing any chance of it being reactivated.

Until Stephen Birch did what he did, there was next to zero chance of this case being reactivated this decade!

Now, can we all just get on with focusing constructively on recent events with open minds and stop whining and bitching about grammar and fame seekers? It's really negative.

For those who keep harping on about Birch's posts being fake will you kindly READ the post from Admin where they state his IP is South African and his profile links to his business email address!


I'm really disappointed in most of you fellow posters. This is a good forum but it's deteriorating into a whiny, narrow-minded, bitchy place to read things. And for goodness sake get over the man's grammar. In South Africa the English language gets obscured somewhat by the fact Afrikaans is predominant - a form of Dutch for those who don't know. Many English-speaking South Africans have learned English as a second language, not their home tongue!

I have a degree in English literature, have been an editor for several years and am South African. I see it all the time. But I spent a year living in an apartment on Fulham Rd, Chelsea with British flat mates who couldn't spell to save their lives. So really, what's the difference. Information is important here, not a man's grammar!



I'm really disappointed in most of you fellow posters. This is a good forum but it's deteriorating into a whiny, narrow-minded, bitchy place to read things.

'Fellow posters'? Really?

Gizmosgirl

Posts: 1
Join date: 2012-07-14

Next!

I'm really disappointed in most of you fellow posters. This is a good forum but it's deteriorating into a whiny, narrow-minded, bitchy place to read things.

'Fellow posters'? Really?

Gizmosgirl

Posts: 1
Join date: 2012-07-14

Quite, Lily. Who they think they are fooling - besides themselves - I do not know. Mind you, I don't greatly care, either

There's another new one now. They must be queuing up to join.

They seem to be so taken up with this new intake of trolls, they didn't even notice that 'Reis' has apparently joined them.

They are such a continuous source of hilarious entertainment.

bb1 wrote:They seem to be so taken up with this new intake of trolls, they didn't even notice that 'Reis' has apparently joined them.

Yer, they are ignoring him, poor soul. Don't they like him?