JOANA CIPRIANO - Aged 8 years - Figueira (Portugal)

Smokie
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:03 pm

Originally posted by merlynsam

Can I once again suggest caution when reading the British press on this case. Whilst I have no absolute knowledge - I have probably done a lot more reading about this case than many others in this forum.

Because we want to find Madeleine - or know what happened to her - it is so tempting to follow any theory that is placed in front of us in the press. Our emotions are raw.

If I give you some links here, perhaps it would help you all to read and arrive at your own conclusions on this case.

Joana Cipriano

What we cannot dispute is that five police officers have been designated as arguidos in relation to Leonor Cipriano's case. However, we are not told which of the police officers is suspected of the alleged beating. It would be wrong to assume that Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional Judicial Police, was actually the officer who is alleged to have caused the facial injuries to Leonor Cipriano. (Note also that The Daily Mail uses the terms arguido and charged as if they mean the same thing.)

http://tinyurl.com/2484jd


This is our most recent news on this story. There is an error in the headline alone. The parents were not convicted - it was Leonora Capriano and her brother (who are alleged to have had an incestuous relationship) who were subsequently convicted of Joana's murder.

Atlanta, GA 9/17/2007 8:58 PM GMT (FINDITT)

Madeleine McCann detective investigated for torturing parents into confessing murder of child

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?storyid=23064&ret=Default.aspx


Gazeta Digital: 9.7.07

The truth about Leonor Cipriano (mother of "another missing girl"…) "beaten" and "tortured" by Chief-Inspector Gonçalo Amaral

http://tinyurl.com/3249zm


The Portugal Resident: Updated: 20 October 2005

Portugal’s silent child victims

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=10046



Note this statement from the following article by Phil McCann:

"Madeleine’s family reacted with disbelief to the claims against Mr Amaral. The missing girl’s aunt Philomena said: “Just about every country in the world is watching this. What do you think the [Portuguese] government would do? Would they have some kind of rogue policeman there? I doubt it. I find it highly unlikely. No way would they have him on such a high-profile case.”

From The Times: June 11, 2007

Madeleine officer charged over another missing girl

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1913175.ece

But everyone's belief and faith is being tested - the McCanns had "faith" in Chief-Inspector Gonçalo Amaral when the story first hit the British press. Now that Kate and Gerry are official suspects then the Joana Cipriano case is rearing its head again.

Do you see what I am saying about the press manipulate our thoughts, feelings and emotions?

I think the thing that surprised British forum members most was that the police officers concerned were not suspended pending further enquiries of a criminal investigation - which is what would have happened in Britain (and I am sure in other countries). Of course, these five officers should be considered innocent until proved guilty - as should the McCanns and Robert Murat.

(Where I have added additional explanation - these thoughts are my own opinion.)

pam supportfromireland
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:04 pm

In addition to caution for British Press in relation to this case, also any information in portuguese. I have found a blog in Portuguese where disturbing pictures are posted.

This is a link, so be warned these pictures may disturb some. Please do NOT click if you don't wish to see.

The blog is the opinion of the author only.

Portuguese version
http://tinyurl.com/326pb2

English translated version
http://tinyurl.com/2jhpa8

smokie
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:44 pm

Hippy posted this link into the news room today. Metodo 3 say there may be a link to the disappearance of joana and Madeleine

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=496551&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:42 pm

Book resume - by Summer

A Estrela de Joana

by Paulo Pereira Cristovao

The story is about a team of three investigators from the PJ in Lisbon, who are called in to the Joana case almost a month after the child went missing. Joana was last seen at a small cafe in the village where she lived, Figueira, on the early evening of September 12, 2004. She was sent by her mother to buy some cans of tuna and a package of milk. She was repoted missing by her mother and her partner the next day, at the GNR station in Portimao.

When the three PJ members from Lisbon are called in, Joana's mother Leonor Cipriano and her uncle Joao Cipriano (Leonor's brother) are in preventive custody, suspected of killing Joana and of concealing her body. The three inspectors from Lisbon - Cristovao, Marques Bom and Leonel - are brought in to help with their interrogations, as Joao Cipriano has confessed to killing his niece, and then has led the Faro inspectors on several wild goose chases, claiming to show them where the body is, but the PJ always return empty-handed.

The triad arrives in Faro and immediately meets Guilhermino da Encarnacao, the director of PJ in the Algarve, and Goncalo Amaral, who is leading the investigation into the Joana case. They are visibly exhausted, and they welcome the help from Lisbon, as their personnel has hit a dead end, and have exhausted all their resources.

The interrogations begin almost immediately, and Cristovao soon notices that Joao Cipriano, who seems to be a rather primitive character, is actually very smart in an uneducated way. He has developed defenses over the many hours of tentative interrogations that were performed by PJ investigators before. So Cristovao tries a different path, by apparently befriending Joao, and deliberately ignoring his attempts to lead him in yet another outing to supposedly show him where Joana's body has been hidden.

Leonor is also interrogated by Cristovao. The picture of the Cipriano family starts to draw itself. The siblings - Joao has a twin sister - admit to having sexual intercourse with each other as if this was absolutely normal, Leonor has an array of children from different partners which include a teenage daughter who cannot even bear to hear her mother's name, they have never experienced a stable family environment, being utterly incapable of thinking about anyone else except themselves. Leonor lives with a man, Leandro, in a house in Figueira. There is one bedroom that is used by Leonor, Leandro and their 2 small children. The other room was shared by Joana and a male adult friend of Leandro, Carlos. Joana adored her mother, in spite of all the abuse she suffers at her mother's hands. Leonor often sends Joana at 3 or 4 a.m. to walk to a nearby cake factory, because Leonor likes to eat warm cakes. Joana draws cardboard hearts where she writes that she loves her mother.

Gradually, an even more sinister picture starts to emerge. The detectives soon discover that Joao has several different sex partners apart from his sisters. A more or less regular partner confides that she has to have sex with him even when she is suffering menstrual cramps, because she is terrified of what he would do to her if she refused. Leonor is also visibly afraid of Joao's temper, and she obeys him blindly. Once left alone in an interrogation room with Joao, the detectives overhear a conversation where Joao tells Leonor that they must now tell everyone that a mysterious Spanish man took Joana away.

During one of the interrogations, Joao, who has mood shifts, ends up confessing voluntarily to having beaten Joana, who hit a wall with her head and collapsed dead on the floor. He says he was having sex with Leonor while the girl had been out on her errand, but Joana returned and saw them. She said she would tell Leandro about what she saw. The child tried to run out of the house, but was dragged back in by Joao and Leonor. Leonor slapped her, and then Joao also slapped the girl. The child flew against a wall, bumped her head and dropped dead on the floor. He then cut up her body and stored it in plastic bags in the family's freezer. Cristovao, the detective who is interrogating him, asks some specific questions about the process of cutting. Joao's answers chillingly detail the process, including correct information about the difficulty in separating certain joints. He also tells Cristovao that all 4 adults - Joao, Leonor, Leandro and Carlos - ended up knowing that Joana was dead, as he and Leonor showed the bags in the freezer to Leandro and Carlos when they arrived home, later that evening. Joao later repeats his confession in the presence of his lawyer, and duly signs it.

The detectives return to Figueira, now with a forensics team, to check whether the information that Joao has given them yields some traces of evidence. Their discoveries turn out to be much more than they bargained for. They discover the orange flip-flops that Joana was supposedly wearing the evening she vanished. Then they turn the uv light to the wall where Joao told them the child had hit her head before collapsing dead on the floor.

Her face is clearly 'drawn' on the wall, also two small hands that left a trace that goes down the wall, showing Joana's last movement. They also discover the prints of her hands on the frame of the house's outer door, that were left there at the moment when she tried to escape. Joao had told Cristovao how Joana had tried to cling to the door frame, and they had to pull her back in by her legs. Everything is photographed.

On the sofa where allegedly Joao was having sex with his sister, no traces of bodily fluids were found. But the forensics team detects blood residues on one of the sofa's feet. They also discover several traces of sperm on a bedcover that is on Joana's bed, as well as on the pillows and on the wall next to the bed. Everything is taken by the forensics team, to be tested in their lab.

Meanwhile, the investigators watch a video capture that was made by an amateur videographer who was filming a local festivity on the evening of September 12, the evening that Joana disappeared. Leandro, Leonor's partner, is coincidentally captured on tape. At that time, he is supposedly searching the area for Joana, as all four adults had stated earlier. But the camera films Leandro at the bar, having a beer. He is not seraching for anyone. He has hid head hanging, his eyes focused on the ground, with a deeply sad demeanour about him.

Back in Faro, at the PJ's offices, detective Cristovao confronts Leonor with what Joao has told them about the child's death. He omits the part of the body being dismembered. Leonor thinks her partner, Leandro, has denounced her to the police. She finally starts to cry and tells the detective that Joao cut the body up, and put the pieces inside bags, and into the freezer. Marques Bom takes Leonor away into another room, while Cristovao writes down what happened. Leonor will have to repeat everything later, in the presence of a lawyer, to validate her confession. As Cristovao is finishing his report, he hears a commotion outside. He finds Marques Bom and another detective, Antonio, on the floor of the staircase, with Leonor. Goncalo Amaral also arrives to see what the noise is about. Marques Bom says Leonor asked to go to the toilet, so they stood outside the toilet's door and waited for her to come out. But she opened the door, raced past the detectives towards the stairwell and tried to jump off the railing. They managed to prevent her from jumping, but she then threw herself off the stairs.

Leonor is brought back to the prison. During the night, Cristovao receives a phone call informing that Leonor has a bump on her head that is swelling up, so two other detectives take her to a local medical center. The doctor who examines her says the bump is not serious, but there is an internal blood spill and the woman should rest lying down, to prevent the blood from descending into the eye area. They take the woman back to prison. Later on, Leonor will be counseled by someone at the prison to press charges against the detectives, saying they beat her in order to extract a confession.

The picture that is later published in several newspapers shows blood around her eyes, but absolutely no trauma to the eye area. Leonor will also later fail to identify Marques Bom and Leonel at a line-up. She will identify Cristovao, who was the element that spent most time interrogating her, but she will state formally that Cristovao never hit her.

A few days later, Cristovao receives a phone call from Teresa, the forensics team leader that went with the detectives to the house in Figueira. She has results from the tests: the blood that was found on the foot of the sofa, is from one of Leonor's children. But it is not from Joana, nor from the 2 small children that live in the house, and not from her teenage daughter, either. The blood comes from a descendant of Leonor, but none of the known children matches the DNA profile. The residues that were collected from Joana's bed and from the wall next to her bed don't give conclusive results. The blood sample that was detected in the freezer is human, but it is impossible to extract DNA from the sample.

Meanwhile, the detectives talk to a convict in another prison, who shared a cell with Joao when he was imprisoned years earlier for aggression. The convict had spoken to Joao about the crime that he had comitted, the homicide of a man, and he had told him that his biggest mistake had been to tell the police where they could find the body of the man he had killed. This convict had taught Joao that nobody could be convicted without a corpse, and he had also taught Joao about the art of the Triangle. To kill in one location; to dump the body at another location; and finally to move into another location. On a map, these 3 locations form a triangle. The investigators remember that Joao had confessed to killing in Figueira. He had then gone to the junkyard that Leonor's partner Leonel operates. And finally, he had gone to his twin sister's house. This constituted a triangle.

The detectives bring Joao into the PJ's offices once again. Cristovao sits in front of him, and draws a triangle on a sheet of paper. Joao smiles and completes the drawing with three names, one at each vertex of the triangle: Figueira, Junkyard and Casa Alta, the location where his twin sister lives. The investigators know they must go to the junkyard. They drive there with Joao. He tells them he placed the bags inside a red car that was going to be pressed and destroyed, but the car is not there anymore.

Later, an informant that wanted to remain anonymous tells the investigators that he saw Leandro and Carlos, on the day after Joana disappeared, driving their truck with an old red car on top of it. They went into the direction of Spain, and the informant thought it was odd because a Spanish foundry came to the junkyard regularly every month to pick up the cars for disposal. They had no apparent need to drive an old car into the Spanish foundry, as they could wait for the regular pick-up. The detectives go into Spain and visit the foundry. The place is huge, and the detectives decide they need to go back to Faro and formally ask the Spanish authorities for help.

But when they arrive back in Faro, they are summoned to return to Lisbon immediately. They were taken off the case because Leonor has filed a complaint against them for assault.

On November 11, 2005, the Portimao court condemned Leonor Cipriano to a sentence of 20 years and 4 months in prison, and Joao Cipriano to 19 years and 2 months in prison, for qualified homicide and concealment of the body of Joana Cipriano. The Supreme Court later determined a sentence of 16 years each, for Leonor and her brother Joao.

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:23 pm

SKY NEWS STORY ABOUT JOANA IN PORTUGAL & INITIAL REACTION OF ANY PORTUGUESE PEOPLE TO MADELEINE CASE

Sky News, in Portugal

Updated: 09:01, Thursday September 13, 2007

By Alison Chung

Figuera - Tragic Tale Of Murdered Girl

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283878,00.html

smokie
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:44 pm

I have personally found this really hard to read and take in. It just goes to show you. At the beginning when I first heard about little Joana I thought it was a link to Madleine and I felt ill as I read this and all through what that child has gone through, she loved her mumy.

God bless you little one.

Thanks Merly for the update.

merlynsam
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:04 am

Smokie - it was a dreadful situation for Joana wasn't it?

PM me if you need to talk it through. I spent a couple of days not sleeping when I first read the story of Joana.

That applies to anyone else who reads this information. If you have questions - or just need to cyber chat (goodness I am filling up again as I type this...just the memory of reading Joana's story) send me a PM. I will respond.

Concerned about Madeleine
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:30 am

I'm a little confused here. This is now in the closed cases but I still haven't seen where they've found Joana or her body. What am I missing?

Regardless, it sounds as if the poor child didn't lead the best of lives around these shady characters. Poor mite.

merlynsam
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:00 am

CAM - Joana's body has never been found but substantial traces of her blood were found in the freezer.

The Uncle confessed to the murder. Such confessions are NOT admissable in a Portuguese court - only the testimony made to the court can be considered. Neither of the accused spoke throughout their trial so the judgement had to be based on the evidence presented by the PJ to the court. They had no conclusive evidence to show what happened to the body - they only knew this from the Uncle's confession. However, there was sufficient evidence to convict both the Uncle and the mother of the murder of Joana.

I don't want to write here what it is alleged happened to the body. Let me know if you want a PM.

merlynsam
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:44 pm

The Portugal Resident

Updated: 13 December 2007

Debate set for PJ

THE CASE of the four Polícia Judiciária inspectors accused of aggression against Leonor Cipriano will be heard by a judge on February 11.

Leonor Cipriano from Figueira, Portimão, has accused the four inspectors of torturing her when she was questioned in relation to the death of her daughter Joana.

This stage in the process, called debate instrutório, will take place at Faro Court where both sides, the defence and the prosecution, will explain the reasons for their case to the judge who must decide if it is to go to trial.

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=23318

Concerned about Madeleine
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:25 pm

merlynsam wrote:CAM - Joana's body has never been found but substantial traces of her blood were found in the freezer.

The Uncle confessed to the murder. Such confessions are NOT admissable in a Portuguese court - only the testimony made to the court can be considered. Neither of the accused spoke throughout their trial so the judgement had to be based on the evidence presented by the PJ to the court. They had no conclusive evidence to show what happened to the body - they only knew this from the Uncle's confession. However, there was sufficient evidence to convict both the Uncle and the mother of the murder of Joana.

I don't want to write here what it is alleged happened to the body. Let me know if you want a PM.

Thanks Merly. I think I read enough in the post above to draw a pretty good conclusion of what happened to her body. So sad! I had just thought that perhaps this was all speculation, considering the PJ supposedly made them confess? I appreciate your insight.

merlynsam
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:51 pm

As long as you are okay CAM.

It is the British press who put the "made her confess" / "beaten into a confession" spin on this story.

The Portuguese press were up-to-date because they had reported on the actual trial so there was greater knowledge and understanding over there.

Speak to you soon, Merly

tezza
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:20 pm

Diario de Noticias

Inspectors from the PJ in court accused of assault

(Translated by Google)

http://tinyurl.com/2fz2f7

merlynsam
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:21 am

Paulo Reis said...

beno,

Check more carefully the info you get. Leonor Ciprinao and her brother, who had a incestuous relationship, were both sentenced to 16 years in prison, for the killing of the child, Joana Cipriano. They killed her, after she came back home earlier and found sister and brother (her mother and her unncle) having sexual relations. They cut the body in pieces, kept a few in the refrigerator, than burned and gave the remainings to pigs, to eat (police thinks). Samples of blood of the child, Joana Cipriano, were found inside her mother's refrigerator.
Leonor Cipriano accused five VID ofciers of beating her. They were put on a police line-up abd she didn't recognize not even one of the aledged agressors (including Chief-Inspector Gonçalo Amaral). The magistrate of the Public Prosecitor's Offcie the investigated the complaint of Leonor Cipriano against CID Chief-Inspector Gonçalo Amaral and the other five CID officers and decided to prosecute them, didn't included in the accusation documents the results of the police line-uo (which took place with Leonor Cipriano behind a two-way mirror...)
That magestrate is being sued by the Portuguese CID Officers union, and has a complaint with the Cnselho Superior da Magistratura ("High Magistrates Counsil") the body in charge of nominating and disciplining judges and magistrates from the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Paulo Reis
pjcv.reis@gmail.com
July 5, 2007 9:03 PM

http://gazetadigitalarquivo.blogspot.com/2007/07/bernard-alapetite-on-may-3-i-was-in.html

merlynsam
Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:06 pm

EWE2 wrote:I kept some links about the people involved in the case.

Inspectors Leonel Marques, Pereira Cristóvão and Paulo Bom are accused of torture. The fourth, António Cardoso, is accused of falsifying documents for having allegedly lied in the report of what had happened to Joana’s mother.

http://duartelevyen.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/the-joana-case-returns-to-court/

Here's another one.

A SENIOR Portuguese detective who interviewed Kate McCann and accused her of being involved in the death of her daughter is facing trial for trying to torture a suspect into confessing.
Leaked court papers reveal that Tavares Almeida is one of three officers accused of beating Virgolino Borges, a railway worker, during nearly eight hours of interrogation.
According to witness testimony the officers bound him with handcuffs behind his back, beat his bare feet with a fence post until it splintered and punched him repeatedly in the stomach, kidneys and back.
Almeida is the second leading detective to be accused of torture. Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, the investigation’s former co-ordinator, stepped down earlier this month amidseparate allegations that he concealed evidence of the torture of a woman jailed for the murder of her daughter.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2652862.ece

and another

Guilhermino Encarnação
He is said to be working closely with Goncalo Amaral, the head of the regional Judicial Police in Portimão. Both officers were involved in a controversy over a previous inquiry into a missing child.
Joana Cipriano disappeared in the village of Figueira on September 12, 2004, only seven miles from Praia da Luz.
In echoes of the McCann case, the hunt for Joana got off to a false start when the Republican National Guard, another police body, failed to seal off the house where she was last seen. It was only five days later - after hundreds of police and friends of the family had trampled over the scene and after relatives had cleaned the house with bleach - that the Judicial Police took over.
Joana's body was never found, but the case was solved. Leonor and Joao Cipriano, her mother and uncle, were convicted of killing her and sentenced to 16 years in jail, but they never confessed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/26/wmaddy226.xm

I also found this but it may or may not be of interest.

This may or may/not be the same person. Not able to get any pictures.

Captain Carlos Pereira

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3820461.stm

He may have been promoted

Inspector Joao Carlos Pereira
Carlos Pereira
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/02/is-pj-going-to-shelve-madeleine-case.html

All this is what I have taken from the press and blogs, so I am therefore unsure of their factual content and I am not accusing anybody of anything.