Original subtitles

Allegations are emerging through the...

When the case landed,

I was the coordinator of the investigations.

I was at the peak of my career

after 30 years in the Judicial Police.

The Judicial Police is the highest criminal investigative body

in Portugal,

like the FBI of Portugal.

We came as soon as it was communicated to us.

Well, not right away.

We arrived after the National Republican Guard, the GNR,

who also got there late.

The GNR were notified late.

This lateness triggered a delay to the sequence of events.

What we found was an empty place.

It was very messy, with clothes,

which is normal, as they were on holiday, but it was messy.

We inspected the place as if it had been a robbery.

It is what you might call

the most "minimal" inspection in terms of detail.

They crossed paths with a man who was carrying a child,

as if the child was sleeping,

blonde, around Madeleine's age,

and the man was walking briskly.

She described the way he was dressed.

There have been interesting episodes.

I remember many years ago

when the tourists discovered that region.

There was a British citizen

who hoisted a flag by the beach.

He had a house by the beach

and everyone was outraged.

All the fishermen said,

"That is Portuguese territory!"

The first time I went to the Algarve was on holiday.

The next time I went to the Algarve was to work.

They knew me from Lisbon, from prior investigations,

and needed a good man and a good team there to fight drug trafficking.

Goncalo Amaral, when he trained,

was the best student in his year.

In fact, he trained under the current national Chief of Police.

So he was an intelligent guy.

There are lots of murders in the Algarve and in our country

and bank robberies also occur and other violent crimes.

The Algarve is mainly a coastline of beaches

and it's not far from Morocco,

which is the centre of production

of cannabis or hashish resin for Europe.

In two and a half hours, they can get to the Algarve coast.

Between 70-80% of the hashish

that was trafficked to Portugal was apprehended in the Algarve.

The initial approach

I won't say it was done badly, but it was inadequate.

Why?

In Portugal, the disappearance of a human being,

the disappearance itself, is not a crime.

It can't be punished.

So the Judicial Police can't trigger any kind of investigation

or use certain techniques and procedures

like wiretapping, for instance, or surveillance, etc,

otherwise it would be treating it as a crime.

Disappearances continue to be considered, in Portugal,

as merely something to be investigated.

I witnessed the statements being given.

I didn't ask any questions, but I took part.

I did tell the mother of the child to take it easy,

that we would do everything in our power to find her daughter.

A statement from the Judicial Police and from the parents.

We know that in British and North American tradition,

parents who go through such things

often make direct appeals via television to...