Mail: Is Maddie's legacy the real reason this little girl was taken into care?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203504/Is-Maddies-legacy-real-reason-little-girl-taken-care-Portuguese-police-say-British-parents-drunk-look-explanation-sinister.html

Is Maddie's legacy the real reason this little girl was taken into care? Portuguese police say her British parents were too drunk to look after her but the explanation could be more sinister
By TOM RAWSTORNE
PUBLISHED: 23:59, 14 September 2012 | UPDATED: 23:59, 14 September 2012


Not far from the Portuguese apartment where Stephen Street and Colette McPartland live, their parked grey Skoda has two stickers in its rear windscreen.
One reads: Protect My Baby — Drive With Care, the other: Baby on Board — Please Don’t Speed.
It’s a noble sentiment, but for the best part of a fortnight, there has been no child — baby or otherwise — anywhere near the vehicle.


And if the Portuguese authorities get their way, that could remain the case for a very long time.
On September 4, the married couple’s two-year-old daughter, Scarlett, was taken into care.
On that day, local police claim, the two English teachers — who have lived in Portugal for the past five years — had been drinking so heavily that Ms McPartland could not stand.
Their child, meanwhile, had been left to run wild. At one stage, it is alleged, it was only the intervention of a passer-by that prevented Scarlett from running on to a busy road nearby.
As a result, Scarlett was taken from the couple, bundled into a police car and driven to the local police station, where she was found to be wet, hungry and thirsty.


‘The parents were also taken to the police station, but they were too drunk to speak properly,’ a police spokesman said. ‘They showed absolutely no concern for her welfare, so she was taken into care.’
Police later announced that it could take up to six months to reach a decision about the girl’s future, during which time she would remain separated from her parents.
The story inevitably made headlines in Portugal and here in Britain — a shocking tale of parental negligence.
But, according to 42-year-old Mr Street and Ms McPartland, 37, it is just that: a ‘tale’. And a tall one at that. They claim the police version of events is a ‘fabrication’ and that not only were they not drunk, but that at no stage did they abandon their child.
‘Our daughter is the centre of our lives and her welfare is what we are devoted to,’ they said in a statement. They went on to blame everything that happened on ‘needless interference from an over-zealous police officer’.



Accused: The toddler's parents Stephen Street and Colette McPartland, who have denied allegations that they abandoned their two year old daughter on a Portuguese street while they went drinking


They added: ‘All parents will understand that what was a happy family life has become a nightmare for us.’
While some might be sceptical about their claims, a Mail investigation has raised a number of serious questions about the sequence of events that led to Scarlett being taken into care. Questions that may mean an innocent child has been taken from her parents for no good reason at all.
Witnesses from that night say the child was never on her own — that she was by her parents’ side in Carcavelos, a small seaside town 15 miles west of Lisbon, when the police arrived.
Further, a number of sources have confirmed that Ms McPartland is pregnant with her second child — casting doubt on suggestions that she had been drinking heavily.
Portuguese social workers investigating the child’s background are also understood to have received glowing reports about the family from those who know them.

'The police here don't like British families with kids'

So what could explain the reaction of the police that night?
The answer is certainly surprising: the unsolved mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in 2007.
A leader article published in Correio Da Manha, Portugal’s largest-selling daily newspaper, days after little Scarlett was seized pulls no punches in linking the two cases.

It also highlights the sense of bitterness many Portuguese people feel at the way its police force was denigrated in the wake of three-year-old Maddie’s disappearance from the apartment in which she slept while her parents, doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, ate in a restaurant nearby with friends.
The article reads: ‘The Portuguese police, this time, didn’t “lose” a little English girl, they found one dying of hunger and thirst, in Carcavelos, while her parents, British and middle class, continued to drink merrily until they were legless — so much so that they forgot their two-year-old tied to her pushchair in the sun. The PSP (Portuguese police) rescued her from death.’
The article continues: ‘What would the legendary British “snobs” say if this had happened with a Portuguese couple in London?
‘They would refer to us again as a Third World country — and how the Portuguese authorities, through laziness or incompetence, were incapable of resolving the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance.
‘The devastated McCann couple would once again be remembered as martyrs to this strange Portuguese attitude towards abandoning one’s children while enjoying oneself. The courage to abandon children appears to be a characteristic English mania.


‘This couple abandoned their defenceless child — and the McCanns did the same. The difference is slight. The girl in this story was left in her pushchair: Maddie was left asleep while her parents enjoyed dinner out.’
While it is tempting to interpret these words as tabloid grandstanding, some people argue that the depth of the wounds left by the Madeleine McCann case should not be dismissed lightly.

Indeed, sources close to Mr Street and his wife are adamant the fallout from the case has influenced the way they have been treated. As one relative put it: ‘The Portuguese police do not like British families with young children.’
It is a point echoed by a Portuguese waiter who witnessed the events.
‘Seeing what I saw and reflecting on what’s happened, I do wonder if the police haven’t been a little over-zealous because of what happened with Madeleine McCann,’ he said.
‘Then they were accused of doing too little too late. Maybe now they want to be seen to be strict with parents they feel have neglected their kids and have over-reacted.
‘I’m sure that if they had been Portuguese and they were drunk, as the police say, someone would have got hold of them and taken them back home, and all this could have been avoided. It’s very unfortunate.’
From the couple’s point of view, that is something of an understatement. They moved to Portugal more than five years ago, after meeting in 2002 while working in Indonesia.
Mr Street, the son of a retired police sergeant, had travelled to Indonesia to indulge his passion for surfing, funding his trip by teaching English. By chance, he ended up at a school in Jakarta — the same one to which Colette McPartland had also applied for a job.

For her, teaching ran in the blood. Her father, John, had taught for 30 years in the family’s home town of Middlesbrough, where he is a well-respected Labour councillor.
Mr Street is from South Wales, but prior to travelling abroad had also been living in Middlesbrough.
‘I remember we were talking outside the school and I couldn’t place Colette’s accent,’ recalled Mr Street of that first meeting in the Far East. ‘I asked where she was from and was completely taken aback when she said Middlesbrough.’
Within a year, the couple were planning their wedding and they married on September 4, 2004. The plan thereafter was to move to Portugal, where Mr Street could surf and the couple could enjoy the Mediterranean climate.

They settled in Carcavelos, a town close enough to Lisbon to find work teaching English, but which also offers world-class surfing.

They had their daughter Scarlett soon afterwards, and the couple’s relatives say they doted on her.
‘They are a lovely couple,’ said Mr Street’s father, Ray, from his home in South Wales. ‘They are wonderful parents who idolise their daughter.’
He said his son was not ‘a drinker’ and his daughter-in-law does not drink ‘for reasons I’m not prepared to say’. Those reasons are understood to be that Ms McPartland is four months pregnant — news she shared with friends on Facebook on August 27.
Yet little more than a week later, if the Portuguese police are to be believed, this mother-to-be was drinking herself to the point of collapse.
The day in question was the couple’s wedding anniversary when, according to eyewitnesses, they arrived at a cafe called the Manhas do Chocolate in a tree-lined square in the village at about 5pm.
Once there, the Mail has been told, they were served three glasses of white wine each, though in their statement the couple deny drinking at all. The police version of events is that while her parents relaxed in the cafe, Scarlett was allowed to play by herself by a busy road. A passer-by saw this, ‘rescued’ the child, then called police.
Rui Vasconcelos was one of the police officers called to the scene.
He said: ‘Before our arrival, the child was playing alone and a witness said the girl was almost hit by a car. They placed the child in a baby carrier and the girl started to cry, but the parents were in a “big discussion”.

‘I spoke to them. The lady could not get up from the chair. She tried several times, but always fell.
‘The gentleman apologised and said that everything was OK. Then they shouted expletives.’
While the couple’s condition is open to dispute — neither of them was blood-tested or breathalysed — those in the vicinity that evening have insisted the child was at no point abandoned by her parents.
Francisco Fonseca, a waiter at a seafood restaurant 50 metres from the cafe, said: ‘I saw the dad shortly before police arrived and he was with his daughter trying to calm her down.
‘I had heard her crying at the cafe and I believe he came across to where I was working because the crying was upsetting customers there.
‘It was a bit of a strange situation, but the dad didn’t look drunk.
‘He sat on the pavement outside the restaurant and stayed there, trying to calm the little girl down while she remained in the pushchair. He didn’t take her out of the pushchair, but he put his face close to her and was caressing her face and hair as if he was trying to get her to stop crying.
‘He must have sat there with her for about 30 minutes, and it was shortly after he went back to the cafe that the police arrived — probably about 8.15pm.’
Having been removed from her parents by the police, Scarlett was photographed being spoon-fed some soup by a female officer.
This image, with the child’s face obscured, was subsequently released on the police website with a report about what had happened.

She was then taken to a nearby emergency care home, where she has been ever since. The youngster’s future now rests with a child protection unit, of which Esmeralda Ferreira is in charge.
‘We’re working as quickly as possible to decide whether she’s to remain at the home,’ she said last night.
To this end, social workers have conducted interviews with the creche where she is cared for when her parents are working, and with the family doctor and others who know the family.
According to sources close to the case, the feedback on Scarlett’s parents has so far been favourable.
Indeed, they are said to be optimistic that the case will not drag on for the six months that was initially suggested, and that the family could be reunited in a matter of days.
In the meantime, the couple have been paying daily visits to their daughter, all of them supervised and observed. On one occasion they were seen on the way there carrying a giant teddy bear.
‘The trauma of the past few days has been unbearable,’ the couple said. ‘We are praying that it will soon be over, and that normality will return.’
And so, no doubt, is their young daughter.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203504/Is-Maddies-legacy-real-reason-little-girl-taken-care-Portuguese-police-say-British-parents-drunk-look-explanation-sinister.html#ixzz26UTFcnfg

I have thought for some time that The Portuguese Police are doing this sort of thing on purpose to get their own back. UK Tourists and Expats are being targetted, such is the mind set of The Police.

Oh dear, I see a problem, the child is only 2, and the parents have been in Portugal for 5 years - so, if the child was born in Portugal she has dual nationality, and I think the place of birth takes precedence over the nationality of the parents, in which case, the Portuguese may well decide that she is Portuguese and therefore she will remain in the care home for a very long time while lawyers fight out the finer points of the case. If, however, she was born in the UK, despite her parents' domicile abroad, she is a UK citizen and they cannot hold her. LL

Does Portugal really want to attract this sort of attention, LL? The Police don't automatically get believed in Court these days, so all holy hell could break loose if The British Media take this up in ernest.

Sabot wrote:
Does Portugal really want to attract this sort of attention, LL? The Police don't automatically get believed in Court these days, so all holy hell could break loose if The British Media take this up in ernest.

I don't know, ma petite, does anyone know? Another punch-up with Portugal like the one over Madeleine is not conducive to good relations, is it? But I feel Portugal will be the loser, as Brits buying property there sell up and move elsewhere, and the tourists stop going there and go to Spain or South France instead. And there are other countries, such as Croatia which are beckoning, lovely weather, sandy beaches .... LL

Lamplighter wrote:

Sabot wrote:
Does Portugal really want to attract this sort of attention, LL? The Police don't automatically get believed in Court these days, so all holy hell could break loose if The British Media take this up in ernest.

I don't know, ma petite, does anyone know? Another punch-up with Portugal like the one over Madeleine is not conducive to good relations, is it? But I feel Portugal will be the loser, as Brits buying property there sell up and move elsewhere, and the tourists stop going there and go to Spain or South France instead. And there are other countries, such as Croatia which are beckoning, lovely weather, sandy beaches .... LL

Not sure about the South of France, LL, because it is expensive, but Spain is lovely and the people are really friendly and trusting. Croatia is new but people will go there because it is cheap.

But re. Portugal. Much as the Nasties think that The UK Media is waiting to pounce on The McCanns, it is more likely that The UK Media is waiting to pounce on Portugal and the leaks that got them into so much trouble, albeit well earned. And this will sell newspapers. Portugal has been attracting far too much attention of late, due to what is obviously a Vendetta against The UK. Brits don't like it when their own get picked on.

I don't know what the truth is, I wasn't there. But as we said at the time, Why do things like this keep happening to Brits in Portugal, when logically, it should happen regularly in Spain, especially on the Costas?

But it doesn't.

A few things stand out - not least that the couple were NOT breathalysed. I would have thought that would have been automatic under the circumstances, but seemingly not.

Eye-witness reports bear little resemblance to the police version of events.

And that photo - I saw it un-pixillated at first, which was shocking in itself. It struck me at the time as anti-British propaganda.


Oh look, here is the kindly police woman feeding the cute, starving child whose evil Brit parents were too drunk to look after her!

As for the garbage in CdM - nothing in that rag is to be taken seriously; it makes the Star look intelligent, and panders to the terminally thick and stupid. Yesterday, it was gloatingly carrying the handiwork of the French Peeping Tom.

The timing was also suspect, as it happened right before Gonc's trial was first scheduled.

The whole business smells bad.

I hope the child doesn't have dual nationality, LL, as the Casa Pia scandal is STILL being swept under the carpet....

IMO, the child's family are going to have to pull out the stops to get her back as quickly as possible, and, unfortunately, leave Portugal, or the police will keep targeting them.

The very fact that the couple were not breathalysed makes a nonsense of the police claims.

They managed to stick the child's photo in facebook, but not to make sure her parents really were drunk? Not really good enough, is it?

ETA, CdM is STILL carrying the handiwork of the French Peeping Tom. Which says everything that needs to be said about CdM and its readership.

neither of them was blood-tested or breathalysed

Then anything the police claim, is bogus and unproven.

The Police probaly didn't breathalyse the parents because they knew they weren't drunk. And anyway, they do have a nasty habit of losing evidence that doesn't suit them.

And that article in CdM is an appalling example of prejudice against Britain. What do they think they are doing? But keep it up, I say. That article is exactly what The UK Media needs to show them up. Starving? Dying of Thirst? Wonderful Bollox.

bb1 wrote: neither of them was blood-tested or breathalysed

Then anything the police claim, is bogus and unproven.

Ah, but, The Courts believe The Police. Well, they used to. Things they are achanging.

Here's the thing; millions of Brits go to Spain every year, far more than go to Portugal.

And they really do get drunk; there have been a spate of mishaps involving hotel balconies.

But there isn't this endless hassle with the Spanish police; if Brits are crime victims, then the Spanish police treat them as such, instead of trying to blame the victim.

There isn't this targetting of British families; there aren't home invasions, and if tourists are mugged in Spain, then the police do something about it instead of shrugging their shoulders.

If Portugal doesn't want British tourists, then Portugal should come out and say so. Or do they expect tourists to hand over their money and smile gratefully while they are being hassled by the police?

Spain is a democracy, a constitutional monarchy democracy, Portugal is still a fascist state, that is the difference. They may have an elected parliament but it does appear to me that it is still a one-party set up. You cannot have a democracy until you have purged all levels of the ruling elite of all its old members and ideas. And even now, after over 20 years since Salazar, Portugal is still no freer of those old ideas than it was then, especially with regard to the police and the judiciary. One can see the same situation in Russia - did you see Putin has been forced to admit that the Action Man pics of him riding bare-chested, finding treasure on the ocean floor etc were all staged for the benefit of the media? I forecast no changes for the better in Portugal, which is a pity, as all peoples, whatever their origins, religion etc deserve the best lives possible. LL

Tis The Fascist mind set again, Bonny. All Brits are Wealthy, Capitalist Pigs while the Poor Downtrodden Portuguese Peasants suffer. The likes of Amaral and Cristovao being responsible by their Corruption and Non Payment of their Taxes is neither here nor there.
They are reacting so predictably. They are really furious because they are being exposed.
Little did we know when this all began, of how much good we could do. But it ain't finished yet. There is a way to go. We now know that The Hierarchy of The PJ are seeking to deprive certain Fascist elements of The Police, of their Pensions. When this actually happens, and when the likes of Amaral and Cristovao are in Prison, then I will feel that my time has been well spent.
I have never liked confrontations, and often avoid them to my own detriment. But not this time. It is never a good idea to push any Brit too far. As History should tell The Portuguese Fascists.

Lamplighter wrote:Spain is a democracy, a constitutional monarchy democracy, Portugal is still a fascist state, that is the difference. They may have an elected parliament but it does appear to me that it is still a one-party set up. You cannot have a democracy until you have purged all levels of the ruling elite of all its old members and ideas. And even now, after over 20 years since Salazar, Portugal is still no freer of those old ideas than it was then, especially with regard to the police and the judiciary. One can see the same situation in Russia - did you see Putin has been forced to admit that the Action Man pics of him riding bare-chested, finding treasure on the ocean floor etc were all staged for the benefit of the media? I forecast no changes for the better in Portugal, which is a pity, as all peoples, whatever their origins, religion etc deserve the best lives possible. LL

Have you read about the transition from The Revolution to some three years later, LL?
A large number of The Secret Police were seconded into The PJ, and during the utter confusion and chaos, a large number of The Old Regime snuck back into positions of Power. Nothing unusual about this as History has told us. But why did The Fascists manage to get away with this for so long in Portugal? That is what I don't understand. In 2004 The PJ were still getting away with Torture, aided and abetted by The Entire Judiciary. It is mind boggling.

Maybe that's the difference between the two countries? Spain's long and bloody struggle for REAL democracy is well-documented.

Portugal, on the other hand, spent most of the 20th century slumbering its way through Fascism, and didn't even have a proper revolution; there is more to democracy than handing out carnations and announcing that you're a democracy.

I was rather angry when Morais took it upon herself to inform the world that WW2 was a war against Fascism; yes, dear, we knew that. Our parents and grandparents fought and often died in WW2 while Portugal slumbered its way through the war without hearing a shot fired in anger.

It's a great shame that the millions of decent Portuguese citizens are tarred with the same brush as the crypto-fascists who are still in positions of authority in the country.

However, it is troubling that so many commentators in the Portuguese media hanker after the good old days pre-April 25th. IMO, democracy doesn't have very deep roots there.

I suspect that is one of the reasons why sections of Portuguese society hate and fear people like Marinho Pinto, who has no truck with this 'good old days' nonsense.

Don't forget that Portugal did harbour The Nazis during The War, and gave them a Base. Not that I care all that much about what Portugal did at the time. It is what some of them are still trying to do that interests me. Fascism is always about Money and Power, of which Amaral wanted a slice. Shame about him, he isn't the only one. But he will be their downfall.

That discussion between Gonc and Mason Moita Flores makes my blood run cold every time I read it, Sabot. I have seen few things that better show the fascist thinking they try to hide:


MF – Things were different in my time. She would have been under such an attack that before she realised anything, she'd be in jail.

The approved Fascist way of dealing with child abductions.

Don't bother trying to find the child, just write him or her off as dead. Then smear the parents - remember, they did it to Rui Pedro's family, too.

Get your filthy paws on the child's mother if possible, attack her and throw her in jail.

Don't bother with evidence, truth, finding the child, any of that democratic nonsense.

You are Big Hero Policeman, you've 'solved' the crime. Who cares about finding the child or apprehending the abductor, it's your Honour that counts.

And then you whine because genuine democracies and democrats call you an oaf and a dirty cop.

Even more worrying is the obvious hatred of Women. It's always the Mother's fault. The Fathers only get dragged into these things because it is almost impossible for the Mother to have done it alone.
What was it with their own Mothers? Probably down trodden and beaten by their own Fathers, and unable to defend anyone.
We all know that Amaral despises Women, as evidenced by his behaviour towards his Wife and Girlfriend. But then beating up women is normal to Fascist Pigs.
I can only imagine that Amaral's Mother let him down in some way. But it is all rather sick.

The Nasties? Probably the same thing. Violent and abusive Fathers. Got to be Mummy's fault. Hang Kate McCann. THey give themselves away by always blaming the Mothers.

IMO, it is very telling that the McCann-haters refer to Madeleine's mother as the abusive 'K8'. Taking someone's name away from them, and turning them into a number, is a classic Fascist dehumanising technique.

Every time one of them does it, they are echoing the Nazis.

Interesting video on this case. English sub titles!

Video: Police describe the couple who abandoned their toddler
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199146/British-toddler-taken-care-abandoned-drunken-teacher-parents-Portugal.html

I think that cop had lessons from Gonc

Hold it a minute - so it was some 'helpful' onlooker who moved the child away from her parents?

The whole thing is a crock, IMO.

Maggs wrote:Interesting video on this case. English sub titles!

Video: Police describe the couple who abandoned their toddler
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199146/British-toddler-taken-care-abandoned-drunken-teacher-parents-Portugal.html

I think that cop had lessons from Gonc

He looked like all the other Thugs, to me.

Oh my my.





Sounds to me like the dad had been trying to entertain the child away from the cafe (despite all that crap about children being welcome everywhere), went back to speak to his wife, possibly about going home, and then the 'wellwisher' helped themselves to the child.

And the rest is a load of ass-covering.

I am not surprised the parents were angry at people, and the police, just walking off with their child - and the posed pic for propaganda purposes doesn't help the police one bit.

If they had time to take pictures for facebook, they had time to breathalyse the parents.

And who rushed off to tell CdM all about it, before anything even resembling a 'fact' had been established?

I agree with this:

"‘They would refer to us again as a Third World country — and how the Portuguese authorities, through laziness or incompetence, were incapable of resolving the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance.",

"Police playing with peoples lives again - disgusted.",

"The Portuguese police were 'denigrated' due to their own incompetence, especially of one officer. They should smarten up their procedures and not attack this couple.",

"As one relative put it: ‘The Portuguese police do not like British families with young children.’

It is a point echoed by a Portuguese waiter who witnessed the events.".

take a look at The Portugal News newspaper comments about this issue:

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/british-parents-lose-toddler-to-lisbon-child-care-services/26786

Who took it upon themselves to take the child away from her parents because they were talking? This is ridiculous.

I don't believe the official version. They're butt-covering, IMO.