LET US REMEMBER MADELEINE IS THE VICTIM

Hi All

One of my posters reminded me that we are currently all getting caught up in a vicious battle the McCanns are currently waging against the Portuguese Police. On Sunday, 20 April 2008, the Daily Mail published a thoroughly libellous article against them, but was then forced to withdraw it the same day. I hope the Portuguese Police take appropriate action against the Daily Mail. For too long they have allowed themselves to just be used by Kate and Gerry McCann to put out the most sickening propaganda. They have a moral duty to their readers to fairly and accurately report the news and a legal duty to ensure what they print is fair and accurate, it will be no good blaming Clarence Mitchell or Kate and Gerry McCann when the libel writ arrives.

Whilst all this is going on we lose sight of what this is all about and the real victim, MADELEINE BETH McCANN. A little girl who her mummy says at breakfast time on 3 May 2007 said, mummy me and Shaun were crying for you last night where were you?

On that same day, little Madeleine disappeared never to be seen again. As early as June, her father was acknowledging this with comments such as he wanted a major one year anniversary event. A spectacle I think most of us actually dread. We are entitled to believe in the police case that her parents were involved in her death. Her father even ranted "well find the body and prove we killed her".

I have seen emails written by both Goncalo Amaral and Leicestershire Police in which they write in the most heartfelt way, this case is about a little girl that went missing and we are trying to find out what happened to her. That is what they are doing, and I hope all decent people will recognise that and focus on the real issue in this case, a beautiful little girl lost her life and her parents admit they seriously neglected her and caused terrible distress to her and her even tinier little brother.

Let us not forget either little Sean and Amelie who lost their beloved big sister and will be deeply traumatised by that no matter how much her parents may try to deny it.

I have also posted an article about another forgotten victim in this case, Robert Murat, only made an arguido on the basis of false evidence provided to police by friends of Kate and Gerry McCann that he was hanging around, or that someone looking like him and heading in the direction of his villa was carrying little Madeleine off. No one can imagine the terrible trauma and fear this man has had to endure or that of his girlfriend Michaela, a mother herself.

Whilst thinking of some more victims that Kate and Gerry McCann have created let us also spare a thought for Fr Pachecho, formerly a happy man living with other Priests and known in the community for his sunny personality. He befriended Kate and Gerry McCann, he believed in them, he offered them the keys to the church. They used him and left without so much as saying goodbye. He was reprimanded for handing them the keys and becoming too involved. He feels shattered and betrayed. He now lives a reclusive life having moved back in with his parents and living with the terrible trauma of knowing how his trust was so badly misplaced.

Let us also think of Pamela Fenn an elderly lady who thought she had moved to a beautiful place for her retirement, but she has listened to the cries of Madeleine, the cries of Kate McCann and must now be a police witness to terrible events that happened. How can we imagine how she must feel?

Let us also think of all the relatives of Madeleine and their heartbreak and torn loyalties between a little girl who they loved, but who died, and her parents who stand accused of causing that death. Life must be horrible for them too.

Lastly, I used to be married to a policemen. Policemen, just like any normal person get very distressed when a child loses their life. I remember ny husband attending a road accident and cradling a little boy in his arms as he died, and trying to console my husband about this. We had little boys at the time and he was inconsolable. Let us try and imagine how the Portuguese Police officers must have been feeling as they frantically hunted trying to find little Madeleine and how they ultimately had to come to terms with the fact the only thing they may find is her corpse. This is devastating. They are parents and grandparents themselves and suffer, the anguish and sadness, just like we all do. Do they actually deserve what has been written about them? I really do not think so.

I hope we can all try and focus on the real issues in this case, the loss of little Madeleine McCann who we have all come to love because we have seen so many pictures of her and built up an image of what a lovely little girl she was with her whole life ahead of her. Let us not forget all the other victims as well.

Viv x



From The Times
August 25, 2007
The forgotten victim in the McCann case
Our columnist on the disgraceful hounding of Robert Murat
Matthew Parris
Do you have a mother? Have you ever shared a house with her? Might you have dealt with anyone a couple of years past his teens who (for all you know) could have boasted to someone else about seducing an underage girl? Might you be separated from a spouse and conduct another affair? Might you love your daughter? Might you have a cellar in your house? Might you assist local efforts to trace a missing child?
Well watch out, because if any toddler should go missing anywhere near you, and you were to be (not unreasonably) questioned by police, the British press could have had you hanged, drawn and quartered by Monday.
A life has been destroyed after the abduction of Madeleine McCann. Perhaps two, for we do not yet know Madeleine’s fate, and perhaps we never will. But for Robert Murat, the one-time suspect whom much of the British newspaper industry and parts of the Portuguese media casually decided to convict, a life lies in ruins. There is no redemption for Mr Murat now, not if the Angel Gabriel should appear on television to exonerate him. The name alone brings a shudder.
But nobody closely involved with this case believes any longer that Mr Murat is anything but an innocent man. For the rest of the world, however, glancing in passing at headlines and skimming news reports over its coffee, the name Murat is now synonymous with “creepy oddball and obvious suspect”.
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Related Internet Links
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Background
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· The forgotten victim in the McCann case
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His reputation will not now be rescued even by the arrest and conviction of anyone else. Imagine today giving your name at a hotel reception as Robert Murat — or Colin Stagg, or Sally Clark. Linkages between a crime and a name are set up in the public imagination and persist even after the story has changed direction. “Robert Murat — wasn’t he the one suspected of taking Maddie? Or cleared of it? Whatever. Mixed up in it anyway.”
For the record, Robert Murat is an Anglo-Portuguese man in his early thirties who has separated from his English wife, has a girlfriend estranged from her own husband, and is sharing a house with his mother, not far from where Madeleine McCann disappeared. After her disappearance he volunteered to help. He hired a car for a few days. His house has a cellar. He has a friendly business connection with a 22-year-old
Russian IT operative, Sergey Malinka, who was (it was reported) claimed by a workmate once to have boasted about underage sex. Mr Murat and Mr Malinka have spoken to each other on mobile phones. And Mr Murat has a four-year-old daughter who (somebody says) looks like Madeleine. Oh — and he’s blind in one eye.
Allegations have swirled around about computers on which pornographic websites have been accessed; but as a large proportion of computers worldwide would answer to that description and the claims have been neither confirmed nor elucidated, I shall not pursue these.
Now watch the British media at work. Exercising a courtesy not extended to Mr Murat, I shall name neither papers nor reporters. Let the headlines (in italics) and reports that follow provide a handy journalists’ guide to assassination-by-innuendo.
“ MADDIE SUSPECT BEHAVED JUST LIKE HUNTLEY: Kidnapping has weird echoes of Soham case. The prime suspect in the kidnap of Madeleine McCann interfered in the investigation as soon as the search for her began, it emerged yesterday. Briton Robert Murat, 33, even tried to comfort Madeleine’s distraught parents, Kate and Gerry, in the hours after she was snatched . . . One holidaymaker said: ‘There was a feeling that his behaviour was similar to that displayed by Huntley.’ Murat was said to have volunteered to act as a translator . . .”
“ Maddie: Russian ‘pervert’ quizzed by cops. A Russian computer ace linked to suspect Robert Murat was being quizzed last night . . . Sergey Malinka, 22 . . . who helped Murat, 33, set up a website – was picked up in a police swoop . . .
“ HUNT FOR MADDIE: POLICE IN NEW VILLA SWOOP COMPUTER RAID. . . Malinka, 22, said he . . . worked on a computer owned by the one-eyed Briton . . . Meanwhile it emerged there is an underfloor chamber at [Murat’s] home, 100 yards from where Maddie, four, was snatched as she slept in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz a fortnight ago . . .”
“ Revealed: The cellar in suspect’s villa. . .‘There is a hole in the floor that we used as access when we were putting all the pipes in, so it’s big enough for a man to get down inside.’” “ His girl is the spitting image of Madeleine. Robert Murat has been pining for his four-year-old daughter Sofia, a ‘spitting image’ of missing Madeleine, friends revealed yesterday . . .”
“ Sex secret of Madeleine suspect: Briton ‘shared’ the wife of pool cleaner at villa. While friends and relatives portrayed suspect Robert Murat as a devoted family man, a darker picture emerged of an irritating oddball who loves to be the centre of attention. A one-eyed estate agent, former car salesman and turkey farm worker . . . it also emerged that Murat was caught up in a bizarre love triangle . . .”
“ One minute the Murats were happy with their new life in Portugal, the next their marriage was in tatters . . . his wife never said why it ended FAMILY FRIEND: Friends of Robert Murat’s ex-wife told last night how she suddenly walked out on him — but she would not say why.”
“ A PHONEY ALIBI? 11.40pm call on the night she went missing. Murat told police he was at home in bed” . . . Detectives are said to be concerned that though Murat and Malinka claim to be only business acquaintances they were captured on CCTV speaking animatedly . . . Murat also rented a hire car for three days after the abduction, possibly after he realised he was under police surveillance.”
“ The police haven’t told the family what is on Murat’s computer. They want to shield them. . .” . . . And so it went on for about a week: a week in which Mr Murat saw his good name torn apart. The damage done, a cautionary note then crept in . . .
“Despite the discoveries, nothing was found to connect Briton Murat to Madeleine . . .”
And, months later, nothing has been. There is speculation that the Portuguese police will formally exonerate Mr Murat soon. I don’t even know he is innocent. But I do know that, though “innocent until proved guilty” is a counsel of perfection, and though it is sometimes impossible to write useful reports without fingering guilty and innocent alike, there are still limits — cloudy though they must necessarily be. Reporting in this case has smashed right through them.
The whole disgusting business, the whole media-driven infatuation with this little girl and her parents, the whole sick, morbid, sentimental campaign of news generation and news manipulation, has been a disgrace to the British media.