NOW SAY THE PJ ARE NOT INCOMPETENT FOOLS ESPECIALLY THE SENIOR OFFICER IN CHARGE

From:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-.... -1225942731759

Jacinta Rees murdered covered up by Portugal police

Laurie Nowell and Lucy Carne From: Sunday Herald Sun October 24, 2010 12:00AM

Melbourne woman Jacinta Rees died after she was hit four times in the head with an axe. Source: Supplied

A MELBOURNE woman was murdered in Portugal and her death covered up by police there, a Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found.

Former international model and fashion executive Jacinta Rees was hacked to death with an axe at her cottage in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, two years ago.

In a sequence of events chillingly similar to the death of Britt Lapthorne, local police claim the death was a suicide - despite a coronial examination in Australia finding she died of extensive injuries caused by repeated blows with an axe and evidence of defensive wounds on her arms and legs.

Family members have been investigating the mystery of her killing ever since. They say they have received little help from the Australian Government.

Portuguese authorities contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun would not provide any information.

The family claims consular officials botched its initial dealings with the Portuguese and have abandoned the family in its search for the truth.

"All we want is to know the truth about what happened to her. She was our sister and our parents' child - she deserves better than this," said Jacinta's brother, Cameron.

Jacinta died in April 2008, in the courtyard of her home at Sao Bras de Alportel, near the city of Faro.

Portuguese police told local reporters her death was an accident, then said it was suicide.

But a Victorian Coroners' report says she died from "blunt force injury to the left side of the head".

"This injury pattern with trauma to both head and the left arm raises serious concerns. Further investigations are being undertaken via the Victorian Police Department's homicide squad," it concludes.

An initial Portuguese autopsy report also suggests Jacinta's death was a murder.

"There are signs highly probable of defense being the elements of the autopsy suggestive of homicide with data that favour extreme violence highly difficult to attribute to the self ... ," a translation reads.

Despite those reports, the Portuguese police closed the investigation and passed the case on to the Interior Ministry as a diplomatic matter.

Police spokesman Comandante Guerriero, of the GNR - the Portuguese national police - told a local newspaper "There is no suspicion of murder" and that there was no suspicion of robbery or any other crime.

Mystery surrounds the case. Locals were reticent to speak about it.

Did she know too much?

One theory about Jacinta's death was that she found out something that cost her life.

The area where she lived is a trafficking route from North Africa and the Middle East for the illegal trade in drugs - mostly hashish - and also in stolen children.

The village of Sao Bras de Alportel is 30km from the resort of Praia de Luz where British child Maddy McCann disappeared.

Her family said child smuggling was an issue Jacinta was concerned about and might have spoken up about.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something," brother Cameron said.

"She left a note for someone saying she was leaving and she did not know how things would work out and asked that they forgive her, but the police construed it as a suicide note," he said.

"It wasn't a suicide note - she was scared of something.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something."

The Rees family said they felt let down by the Federal Government.

They said the Lapthorne family and the victims of the Kokoda air crash were given appropriate help and compassion while they had received little help.

The family had to pay for the repatriation of Jacinta's body and was eventually reimbursed by the Government.

"We were contacted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in April 2008 to say that Jacinta had passed away. We were told she had committed suicide," Cameron's wife, Louise, said.

"It took us a month to bring her home. It was a while before her body arrived home."

Two days before bringing Jacinta home, the Rees family asked the Victorian Coroner to do an autopsy.

"The Coroner agreed and there was a DNA test done first which identified the remains as Jacinta," Louise said.

"At the start of the autopsy, the Coroners' office called in the homicide squad.

"Her injuries were so apparent and appalling - it was obvious she had been brutally murdered.

"It clearly was not a suicide."

Government 'abandoned us'

The Portuguese police had said she died from a self-inflicted wound to the forehead and there were no signs of attack or defence.

"But Jacinta's skull had been caved in with an axe. She clearly had defensive wounds also.

"Her elbow had been shattered, her knee was damaged and there were four separate wounds to her head - each of which could have killed her.

"She suffered a horrendous death and she most certainly fought for her life.

"The GNR determined this was a suicide and our embassy concurred.

"To this day, no one has given us an answer as to what happened to Jacinta. We've sent off letters to heaps of people in positions of influence. No one's interested, absolutely no one," she said.

The family received the Portuguese Assistant Prosecutor's report into Jacinta's death in December 2009 - almost two years after her death.

They have been quoted up to $19,000 to get it translated into English. The Federal Government has refused to help.

The family said DFAT's mismanagement of the case had cost it financially and caused much heartache.

"Despite all the facts, DFAT has never acknowledged Jacinta's death as a murder," Louise said.

"It was going to cost $4000 each to send Cam and his brother Phil to Portugal and then another $15,000 to bring Jacinta home.

"We based our decision not to go to Portugal on the embassy's advice; we decided we couldn't afford for Cam to go and there was nothing we could do anyway.

"Had we known that Jacinta had been murdered, or at the very least that her death was suspicious, we would definitely have found the money for Cam to go.

"We based our decision not to go to Portugal on the embassy's advice. We trusted their information. But as the weeks went by and we received more unofficial information it was clear the embassy hadn't looked into this properly, they had just acquiesced to what the Portuguese police had told them.

"The AFP was not advised Jacinta had passed away and there's no AFP presence in Portugal."

Along the way the funeral director would not release the body because it had not been officially identified.

"We phoned DFAT and were told they would take care of it. But we found out later they didn't identify her, they just gave some sort of authority to release the body," Louise said.

"Apart from the trauma and heartache, the financial impact on the family has been gruelling. Sorting out Jacinta's affairs meant Cam wasn't working and we had to cash in his long service leave to be able to afford to bring her home.

"We didn't qualify for victims of crime compensation in Australia because the crime occurred in Portugal and we didn't qualify for a similar scheme in Portugal because we are Australians.

"We have been impacted by a murder in a foreign country we've never visited committed by a person we do not know.

"We watched as tragically, nine Australians were killed in the Kokoda plane crash. Our Government flew them home.

"When Britt Lapthorne disappeared Kevin Rudd said 'we will leave no stone unturned'.

"It took us 24 days to bring Jacinta home. We had no idea what we were doing, we did it on our own and we had to pay for it.

"When loved ones die, the pain and grief is difficult enough, but the murder of a loved one is almost too much to bear. Our trauma is as much about the fact the Government abandoned us and we've been left to pick up the emotional, psychological and financial pieces.

"We were visited by DFAT officials eight months after Jacinta died, but we felt we were just being 'handled'. We have never had a condolence message from either the Australian or the Portuguese government."

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Australian Family says she was killed because she knew more
by José MANUEL OLIVEIRAOntem

The case dates back to 2008. GNR asserts that was suicide, family speaks on serious injury

The family of Australian Jacinta Rees, found dead in March 2008, in the garden of their house located on the site Corgas Bravas, in an area isolated from barrocal, about ten kilometres of São Brás de Alportel, the Portuguese authorities should ask the reopening of the case. The GNR gave the case as closed, pointing the thesis of suicide but the family not comform and alleges that Jacinta left a strange letter and information about child trafficking.

A sister-in-law ensures that an autopsy performed in that country, where the body was translated one month after the death, points to "crime" and not for suicide as argued, at that time, the GNR and the judicial police. Forensic examinations in Australia indicate that the skull "had been opened by an axe and she had defensive wounds" in an elbow.

Jacinta Rees, former model and businesswoman in the area of fashion, lived in the Algarve. His brother, Cameron Rees, launched the idea, in Australian Press, there have been even a premeditated crime. "Jacinta might have information that were annoying may have discovered something and was silenced. She left a letter saying that if ia though and did not know how things were done. Is not a ticket of suicide. But perhaps a warning her to feel scared with something, "he admitted. The family gets to the point of pointing to the existence of drug trafficking in the area of Algarve and even Jacinta can be then in possession of information on trafficking in children.

A lawyer contacted yesterday by DN, stated that "since the relatives present new evidence with consistent data, the process will be sent to the Prosecutor that assess and take the decision to proceed or not, their reopening" for research. "A crime of manslaughter only prescribes after 15 or 20 years," added expressing, however, its strangeness because the family ofJacinta Rees come, now, after two years, to denounce the situation to the Australian Herald Sun newspaper. "there may be confusion in this process. At autopsy performed in Portugal, the skull must have been opened for investigations. Signals that the family says being an axe to crack it may be that work carried out by the authorities,"noted the same lawyer.

Different version, according to the Herald Sun, has the police forensic Australian, which confirmed the aggression committed by an axe. On the other hand, there are indications of Jacinta Rees has been reached with "a crude coup and deep on the left side of the head," getting even with right elbow "party", supposedly attempting to defend the aggressor. "The wounds were obvious. Was a murder ", claimed the relatives.

"We just want to know what actually happened. She was our sister and daughter of our parents. Deserves better than this. Didn't help to discover what happened. We were abandoned, "said Cameron Rees. It is reminded that, in response to surveys, in 2008, the GNR departed the suspected crime (or theft, or violence). Already an official source of GNR, Algarve, told the DN that the case was investigated by Judicial Police. Yesterday, was not confirm other reactions to this case.

VERY INTERESTING THIS BIT The area where she lived is a trafficking route from North Africa and the Middle East for the illegal trade in drugs - mostly hashish - and also in stolen children.

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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad-applica....w-1225943126776

There must be justice for Jacinta

Robyn Riley From: Herald Sun October 25, 2010 10:15AM

Jacinta Rees died after she was hit four times in the head with an axe at her home on the Algarve coast. Source: HWT Image Library


WHERE is the justice for Jacinta Rees? We read in yesterday’s Sunday Herald Sun that this young Australian was found hacked to death with an axe at her cottage in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, two years ago.

Incredibly, the Portuguese authorities claimed at first it was an accident and then ruled it a suicide.

Adding insult, the Australian Embassy accepted the verdict and passed it on as the cause of death to her shattered family.

That would have been case closed had her family not started its own investigation.

The family brought her body home and asked for a Victorian Coroner’s report into her death. It was then they made the chilling discovery: the former model and fashion executive had, in fact, been murdered and had fought for her life.

When the Coroners' report found Jacinta had died from "blunt force injury to the left side of the head" and that the injuries raised serious concerns you would have expected the Australian Government to step in and demand answers about how one of our own had died in a foreign country.



Instead, her family said they felt abandoned and they received little help.

They had to arrange to bring her body home, a difficult task that took 24 days at the cost of thousands of dollars , and they had to push for answers.

Obviously without the clout of its government to support them, the family has struggled to get answers from the Portuguese police.

We can only imagine their heartache to learn this daughter and sister had suffered a horrendous death and that she most certainly fought for her life.

But how our government could accept it was a suicide is beyond belief, given the evidence the family now presents.

And how it can continue to remain silent is shameful.

Fairly, the family points out, when Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne disappeared former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: “we will leave no stone unturned”. And the family said it watched when nine Australians were killed in a Kokoda plane crash and the Australian Government flew them home.

Yet, they say, for the death of their daughter and sister there was no helping hand, not even an offer of sympathy.

We must challenge the Federal Government about this case. Jacinta and her family deserve better. If the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade made a mistake, admit it and make amends.

“Our trauma is as much about the fact the Government abandoned us and we've been left to pick up the emotional, psychological and financial pieces,” Cameron Rees said.

Cameron added his sister deserved better, and many Australians would agree.

After all, this family is only asking for the truth. That is not too much to ask.

Read more:http://justathoughtyouknow.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=guests&action=display&thread=684&page=2#ixzz13VIyLmOl

SO COME ON YOU PJ SUPPORTERS NOW EXPLAIN WHY THE LAZY POLICE CANNOT BE ARSED TO INVESTIGATE THE CASES LIKE THERE...THE SENIOR OFFICER AT THE TIME OF THIS CASE AND MADELEINE McCANN GOING MISSING WAS

Gonçalo Amaral