Leonor Cipriano's husband: 'These cops framed my wife'

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"By OLIVER HARVEY
Chief Feature Writer
September 08, 2007

THE husband of a Portuguese woman jailed for the murder of her child spoke last night of his fears for Kate McCann.

Leandro Silva said his wife had been set up and he believed police would do the same thing to four-year-old Madeleine’s mother.

He said: “I am worried Kate will be framed for a crime she did not commit, the way it happened to my wife.”

Leandro also demanded that one of the detectives leading the Maddie investigation should be dropped from the case.

Detective Goncalo Amaral has been accused of being involved with beating Leandro’s wife, Leonor Cipriano, during her interrogation over the death of her daughter, Joana, nine.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Leandro said: “Goncalo Amaral shouldn’t still be investigating the McCann case.

“I believe he will be proved to be a bad policeman and a bad operator.

“I don’t believe Kate and Gerry have anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.

“I just don’t believe they would do such a thing. After losing Joana I know the pain they are going through. It’s terrible.”

In news that shocked the world Kate McCann was yesterday declared an “arguida” — Portuguese for suspect — in the hunt for Maddie.

And the story of little Joana Cipriano has some chilling echoes of the British child’s disappearance.

Joana vanished on September 12, 2004, just seven miles from the spot where Madeleine went missing on May 3.

The innocent, brown-eyed youngster, her chestnut hair cut into a boyish crop, set off from home in the village of Figueira to collect groceries.

But she never returned. Like Maddie, it was as if Joana had disappeared off the face of the Earth."