Sexual Assaults on young girls 2004 to 2010

[Tim62]

If you aren't aware already please look at this link or watch last nights BBC Crimewatch on iplayer.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03yx04 ... ann-appeal
I have been visiting Carvoeiro for over 20 years, in the early days with my older daughters, now late 20's and in recent years with youngest daughter aged 9. The revelations about the attacks in Carvoeiro have come as some surprise and certainly never made the British press.
My reason for posting is this. Over the years on this site there have been various reminiscences about characters coming and going from the locality. Please look at the Crimewatch appeal and think carefully, you may hold the key to this inquiry. Oh, and please, please don't think the Police won't be interested in what you say.
Thank you.

[HampshireRich]

.......The revelations about the attacks in Carvoeiro have left us numb and wondering whether to cancel our Easter break.

Bit of an overreaction don't you think? We been going since the mid-90s and never heard, seen or felt any danger to our daughters.

[tricky]

Same here. We've been going to Carvoeiro several times a year for. 20 years with our young children and never heard a thing

[HampshireRich]

.... also where were the parents during these alleged assaults on young girls (one was 7 I believe)? Anyome who tried to touch my daughters when they were that young would have had to have got past me, and more dangerously, their mother to get to them - the kids aways came with us, or we stayed in the apartment with them. Danger over!

[EMM]

I agree , we have not seen anything to concern us in our time in CVO where we spend up to 20 weeks year.
I have a certain degree of concern about the circus that has built up around the abduction of the Mcanns daughter .
If any parent has any concerns then do NOT leave children unattended at night ,this is the one aspect of Brits on holiday that any Portuguese person we have discussed this subject with cannot understand.
Carvoeiro is without doubt one of the safest places in Portugal to come for a family holiday.

[DeLorean]

Tim62, honestly I think you are overreacting...

[Lamby]

Wow! You must feel very strongly about even considering cancelling your Easter break. Personally, I think that is a huge over reaction. Everyone must do what they feel necessary to protect their children, that goes without saying. But to cancel a holiday that the children will no doubt be looking forward to is a misinterpretation of the situation as it currently stands. Travel to CVO, have a great holiday while also keeping an eye on the children, as all decent parents do.

[sam]

We all know that holiday homes are seen as easy targets for burglars.
I have 2 concerns 1) we had a spate of burglaries in Carvoeiro and elsewhere but I don't remember any reports of sexual assaults on young girls. 2) these reports were known to the Portuguese police, but apparently they did not link this to the Maddy disappearance and the info not passed to British police.
We had a burglar alarm installed in the UK when our children were young as a friend living nearby woke one morning to find they had been burgled whilst asleep - they had been through the house taking small easy to carry items, even emptying her husband's trouser pockets, which were on a chair next to their bed! Luckily no-one was harmed - but they slept through the lot. Some burglars are more interested in the thrill of not getting caught and anything else is a bonus.
There was also the case of the young girl on a school trip to France who got raped and murdered in her bed whilst other girls slept in the same room.
So, much as we like to think we can protect our kids we cannot always do so.

[piggywidden93]

I saw this on TV last night, we have been coming to CV for nearly 18 years, my daughter was 9 months old when we first came, and I really feel that it reflected the village in a bad light.
The report didn't explain how the parents came to know how the man had got into the apartments/villas, it would be extremely sad if the children had been left with doors etc. open and I apologise as I know this may well not be the case.
We all feel that somehow bad things wont happen to us on holiday but we still have to take the same precautions that we do at home.
Carveiro is a lovely place, I hope very much that this man is caught, we all just need to remember the world sadly is what it is, no matter where we are . See you in August.
P.S. How is Barco doing?,

[EMM]

Carvoeiro is a very small place. why is it that regulars have not heard of these events.
I am not questioning that they happended but something just does not add up ????

[cereza]

If you aren't aware already please look at this link or watch last nights BBC Crimewatch on iplayer.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03yx04 ... ann-appeal
I have been visiting Carvoeiro for over 20 years, in the early days with my older daughters, now late 20's and in recent years with youngest daughter aged 9. The revelations about the attacks in Carvoeiro have left us numb and wondering whether to cancel our Easter break.
My point is this. Over the years on this site there have been various reminiscences about characters coming and going from the locality. Please look at the Crimewatch appeal and think carefully, you may hold the key to this inquiry. Oh, and please, please don't think the Police won't be interested in what you say.
Thank you.

A huge over reaction to the scaremongering so reminiscent of the weeks after Maddie went missing !

Nobody knows what happened to her yet the press see the case as a good way of selling papers and love any news at all which they can splatter on the front pages with no regard to the damage it may cause to others. This latest story is basically yet another re-hash of an old story which has no real legs because the suspect died several years ago in a tractor accident according to local gossip and as believed by the local police.
I understand the wish to keep the case in the headlines because there is always hope but after a while surely people will become fed up hearing the same old facts churned out again and again. This Met enquiry has been running quite a while now and basically it hasn't come up with anything new as far as I can see. They bring out new pleas every now and then and why not but the problem with the constant re-hashing is that people become totally indifferent and the pleas become non productive.

In all my years of visiting the Algarve I have never had to worry about my kids and this year we will be taking out our grand children for the first time so that they can enjoy this beautiful area. One thing though - you can be sure that I never have and never will leave kids unattended as in the case of poor Maddie !
I cannot recommend the Algarve highly enough to any parents - it's as safe as anywhere as long as they act responsibly !

[Tim62]

The point again as this seems to have descended into a rant about parenting, local gossip, scaremongering etc.
For those who didn't see BBC Crimewatch, please watch on iplayer regarding Carvoeiro or failing that have a look at the appeal on the Crimewatch website.
Thank You.

[EMM]

Do you honestly believe that these vents could have taken place as suggested on the programme without them becoming general knowledge and a subject of much and long discussion on the forum at the time ??
I am just not convinced, the Maddie investigation has been full of much smoke screen dead ends, rumours, mistaken identities around the world etc that disovering what actually happened is a very remote possibility indeed.

[HampshireRich]

4 cases in CVO between 2004 and 2010 amongst hundreds of thousand of tourists during that time hardly constitutes a crime wave. Nor, looking at the website is there any link to the McCann case or any hard evidence - the spurious link being its in Portugal. What we have here is a Portuguese-looking man in Portugal speaking with a foreign (Portuguese?) accent who had BO assaulting young girls in their beds. The description to me says he's a stereotyped Portuguese man so hardly likely to stand out in anyone's memory.

Maddie McCann has supposedly been kidnapped, and if so with a great deal of planning as there is very little forensic evidence. Not what this person seems to be, nor consistent with his behaviour.

[Wiltsie]

The fact that it's taken the British police to establish some kind of link to this person, years after the Madeline McCann disappearance, tells its own story in my view.
Some v naive comments on here; people trying to protect their rentals.
A large percentage of assaults and the like against children never get reported or recorded. Portugal is well known for harbouring paedos from all over Europe or more accurately turning a blind eye.