31 Aug 2009

NEWSPAPERS ATTACK MCCANN'S HAPLESS DETECTIVES

Kate manages a tear on the more recent Oprah Winfrey Show, who for I wonder?

What a great scoop from the McCann Files, who write the content has already been removed online by the Evening Standard citing legal reasons.

Of course the Evening Standard is yet another paper that has been forced to swell the McCann coffers (with yet another libel payout) for these hapless people supposedly investigating the disappearance of but, in reality are quite happy to ruin their own"reputations" by seeking to come up with bizarre stories such as it was a Victoria Beckham lookalike who stole Maddie to try and exculpate their increasingly desperate clients.


We have recently seen a similar attack on the hapless investigators employed by the McCanns in the Daily Mail. If this is not an example of the British Press fighting back, against "Team McCann" I do not know what is!

The public are entitled to know exactly what is being done with the money they gave to this despicable couple to "defend" themselves, so read on! And a big thank you to Nige at the McCann files for an incredible SCOOP! He has captured the online edition before it went WHOOSH or should I say got Carter Rucked! Fortunately, when Kate and Gerry McCann get charged with criminal offences, Carter Ruck will be no use to them at all!



http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

By Mark Hollingsworth
Issue: Friday 28 August 2009

Disillusioned with the Portuguese police, Gerry and Kate McCann turned to private detectives to find their missing daughter. Instead the efforts of the private eyes served only to scare off witnesses, waste funds and raise false hopes. Mark Hollingsworth investigates the investigators.



It was billed as a 'significant development' in the exhaustive search for Madeleine McCann. At a recent dramatic press conference in London, the lead private investigator David Edgar, a retired Cheshire detective inspector, brandished an E-FIT image of an Australian woman, described her as 'a bit of a Victoria Beckham lookalike', and appealed for help in tracing her. The woman was seen 'looking agitated' outside a restaurant in Barcelona three days after Madeleine's disappearance. 'It is a strong lead', said Edgar, wearing a pin-stripe suit in front of a bank of cameras and microphones. 'Madeleine could have been in Barcelona by that point. The fact the conversation took place near the marina could be significant.'

But within days reporters discovered that the private detectives had failed to make the most basic enquiries before announcing their potential breakthrough. Members of Edgar’s team who visited Barcelona had failed to speak to anyone working at the restaurant near where the agitated woman was seen that night, neglected to ask if the mystery woman had been filmed on CCTV cameras and knew nothing about the arrival of an Australian luxury yacht just after Madeleine vanished.

The apparent flaws in this latest development were another salutary lesson for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have relied on private investigators after the Portuguese police spent more time falsely suspecting the parents than searching for their daughter. For their relations with private detectives have been frustrating, unhappy and controversial ever since their daughter's disappearance in May 2007.

The search has been overseen by the millionaire business Brian Kennedy, 49, who set up Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, which aimed 'to procure that Madeleine's abduction is thoroughly investigated'. A straight-talking, tough, burly self-made entrepreneur and rugby fanatic, he grew up in a council flat near Tynecastle in Scotland and was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness. He started his working life as a window cleaner and by 2007 had acquired a £350 million fortune from double-glazing and home-improvement ventures. Kennedy was outraged by the police insinuations against the McCanns and, though a stranger, worked tirelessly on their behalf. 'His motivation was sincere,' said someone who worked closely with him. 'He was appalled by the Portuguese police, but he also had visions of flying in by helicopter to rescue Madeleine.'

Kennedy commissioned private detectives to conduct an investigation parallel to the one run by the Portuguese police. But his choice showed how dangerous it is when powerful and wealthy businessmen try to play detective. In September 2007, he hired Metodo 3, an agency based in Barcelona, on a six-month contract and paid it an estimated £50,000 a month. Metodo 3 was hired because of Spain's 'language and cultural connection' with Portugal. 'If we'd had big-booted Brits or, heaven forbid, Americans, we would have had doors slammed in our faces' said Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for the McCann's at the time. 'And it's quite likely that we could have been charged with hindering the investigation as technically it's illegal in Portugal to undertake a secondary investigation.'

The agency had 35 investigators working on the case in Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. A hotline was set up for the public to report sightings and suspicions, and the search focussed on Morocco. But the investigation was dogged by over-confidence and braggadocio. 'We know who took Madeleine and hope she will be home by Christmas,' boasted Metodo 3's flamboyant boss Francisco Marco. But no Madeleine materialised and their contract was not renewed.

Until now, few details have emerged about the private investigation during those crucial early months, but an investigation by ES shows that key mistakes were made, which in turn made later enquiries far more challenging.

ES has spoken to several sources close to the private investigations that took place in the first year and discovered that:

* The involvement of Brian Kennedy and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour 'stake out'.

* The relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had completely broken down.

* Key witnesses were questioned far too aggressively, so much so that some of them later refused to talk to the police

* Many of the investigators had little experience of the required painstaking forensic detective work.
By April 2008, nearing the first anniversary of the disappearance, Kennedy and the McCanns were desperate. And so when Henri Exton, a former undercover police officer who worked on M15 operations, and Kevin Halligen, a smooth-talking Irishman who claimed to have worked for covert British government intelligence agency GCHQ, walked through the door, their timing was perfect. Their sales pitch was classic James Bond spook-talk: everything had to be 'top secret' and 'on a need to know basis'. The operation would involve 24-hour alert systems, undercover units, satellite imagery and round-the-clock surveillance teams that would fly in at short notice. This sounded very exiting but, as one source close to the investigation told ES, it was also very expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. 'The real job at hand was old-fashioned, tedious, forensic police work rather than these boy's own, glory boy antics,' he said.

But Kennedy was impressed by the license-to-spy presentation and Exton and Halligen were hire for a fee of £100,000 per month plus expenses. Ostensibly, the contract was with Halligen's UK security company, Red Defence International Ltd, and an office was set up in Jermyn Street, in St James's. Only a tiny group of employees did the painstaking investigative work of dealing with thousands of emails and phone calls. Instead, resources were channelled into undercover operations in paedophile rings and among gypsies throughout Europe, encouraged by Kennedy. A five-man surveillance team was dispatched in Portugal, overseen by the experienced Exton, for six weeks.

Born in Belgium in 1951, Exton had been a highly effective undercover officer for the Manchester police. A maverick and dynamic figure, he successfully infiltrated gangs of football hooligans in the 1980's. While not popular among his colleagues, in 1991 he was seconded to work on MI5 undercover operations against drug dealers, gangsters and terrorists, and was later awarded the Queen's Police Medal for 'outstanding bravery'. By all accounts, the charismatic Exton was a dedicated officer. But in November 2002, the stress appeared to have overcome his judgement when he was arrested for shoplifting.

While working on an MI5 surveillance, Exton was caught leaving a tax-free shopping area at Manchester airport with a bottle of perfume he had not paid for. The police were called and he was given the option of the offence being dealt with under caution or to face prosecution. He chose a police caution and so in effect admitted his guilt. Exton was sacked, but was furious about the way he had been treated and threatened to sue MI5. He later set up his own consulting company and moved to Bury in Lancashire.

While Exton, however flawed, was the genuine article as an investigator, Halligen was a very different character. Born in Dublin in 1961, he has been described as a 'Walter Mitty figure'. He used false names to collect prospective clients at airports in order to preserve secrecy, and he called himself 'Kevin' or 'Richard' or 'Patrick' at different times to describe himself to business contacts. There appears to be no reason for all this subterfuge except that he thought this was what agents did. A conspiracy theorist and lover of the secret world, he is obsessed by surveillance gadgets and even installed a covert camera to spy on his own employees. He claimed to have worked for GCHQ, but in fact he was employed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) as head of defence systems in the rather less glamorous field of new information technology, researching the use of 'special batteries'. He told former colleagues and potential girlfriends that he used to work for MI5, MI6 and the CIA. He also claimed that he was nearly kidnapped by the IRA, was involved in the first Gulf War and had been a freefall parachutist.

Very little of this is true. What is true is that Halligen has a degree in electronics, worked on the fringes of the intelligence community while at AEA and does understand government communications. He could also be an astonishingly persuasive, engaging and charming individual. Strikingly self-confident and articulate, he could be generous and clubbable. 'He was very good company but only when it suited him,' says one friend. 'He kept people in compartments.'

After leaving the AEA, Halligen set up Red Defence International Ltd as an international security and political risk company, advising clients on the risks involved in investing and doing business in unstable, war-torn and corrupt countries. He worked closely with political risk companies and was a persuasive advocate of IT security. In 2006, he struck gold when hired by Trafigura, the Dutch commodities trading company. Executives were imprisoned in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped in landfills near its biggest city Abidjan. Trafigura was blamed and hired Red Defence International at vast expense to help with the negotiations to release its executives. A Falcon business jet was rented for several months during the operation and it was Halligen's first taste of the good life. The case only ended when Trafigura paid $197 million to the government of the Ivory Coast to secure the release of the prisoners.

Halligen made a fortune from Trafigura and was suddenly flying everywhere first-class, staying at the Lansborough and Stafford hotels in London and The Willard hotel in Washington DC for months at a time. In 2007 he set up Oakley International Group and registered at the offices of the prestigious law firm Patton Boggs, in Washington DC, as an international security company. He was now strutting the stage as a self-proclaimed international spy expert and joined the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge, where he met Exton.

During the Madeleine investigation, Halligen spent vast amounts of time in the HeyJo bar in the basement of the Abracadabra Club near his Jermyn Street office. Armed with a clutch of unregistered mobile phones and a Blackberry, the bar was in effect his office. 'He was there virtually the whole day,' a former colleague told ES. 'He had an amazing tolerance for alcohol and a prodigious memory and so occasionally he would have amazing bursts of intelligence, lucidity and insights. They were very rare but they did happen.'

When not imbibing in St James's, Halligen was in the United States, trying to drum up investors for Oakley International. On 15 August 2008, at the height of the McCann investigation crisis, he persuaded Andre Hollis, a former US Drug enforcement agency official, to write out an $80,000 cheque to Oakley in return for a ten per cent share-holding. The money was then transferred into the private accounts of Halligen and his girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis to finance a holiday in Italy, according to Hollis. In a $6 million lawsuit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, Hollis alleges that Halligen 'received monies for Oakley's services rendered and deposited the same into his personal accounts' and 'repeatedly and systematically depleted funds from Oakley's bank accounts for inappropriate personal expenses'.

Hollis was not the only victim. Mark Aspinall, a respected lawyer who worked closely with Halligen, invested £500,000 in Oakley and lost the lot. Earlier this year he filed a lawsuit in Washington DC against Halligen claiming $1.4 million in damages. The finances of Oakley International are in chaos and numerous employees, specialist consultants and contractors have not been paid. Some of them now face financial ruin.

Meanwhile, Exton was running the surveillance teams in Portugal and often paying his operatives upfront, so would occasionally be out-of-pocket because Halligen had not transferred funds. Exton genuinely believed that progress was being made and substantial and credible reports on child trafficking were submitted. But by mid-August 2008, Kennedy and Gerry McCann were increasingly concerned by an absence of details of how the money was being spent. At one meeting, Halligen was asked how many men constituted a surveillance team and he produced a piece of paper on which he wrote 'between one and ten'. But he then refused to say how many were working and how much they were being paid.

While Kennedy and Gerry McCann accepted that the mission was extremely difficult and some secrecy was necessary, Halligen was charging very high rates and expenses. And eyebrows were raised when all the money was paid to Oakley International, solely owned and managed by Halligen. One invoice, seen by ES, shows that for 'accrued expenses to May 5, 2008' (just one month into the contract), Oakley charged $74,155. The 'point of contact' was Halligen who provided a UK mobile telephone number.

While Kennedy was ready to accept Halligen at face value, Gerry McCann – sharp, focused and intelligent – was more sceptical. The contract with Oakley International and Halligen was terminated by the end of September 2008, after £500,000-plus expenses had been spent.

For the McCanns it was a bitter experience, Exton has returned to Cheshire and, like so many people, is owed money by Halligen. As for Halligen, he has gone into hiding, leaving a trail of debt and numerous former business associates and creditors looking for him. He was last seen in January of this year in Rome, drinking and spending prodigiously at the Hilton Cavalieri and Excelsior hotels. He is now believed by private investigators, who have been searching for him to serve papers on behalf of creditors, to be in the UK and watching his back. Meanwhile, in the eye of the storm, the McCanns continue the search for their lost daughter.



Disillusioned with the Portuguese police, Gerry and Kate McCann turned to private detectives to find their missing daughter. Instead the efforts of the private eyes served only to scare off witnesses, waste funds and raise false hopes. Mark Hollingsworth investigates the investigators.


by Mark Hollingsworth*

It was billed as a ‘significant development’ in the exhaustive search for Madeleine McCann. At a recent dramatic press conference in London, the lead private investigator David Edgar, a retired Cheshire detective inspector, brandished an E-FIT image of an Australian woman, described her as ‘a bit of a Victoria Beckham lookalike’, and appealed for help in tracing her. The woman was seen ‘looking agitated’ outside a restaurant in Barcelona three days after Madeleine’s disappearance. ‘It is a strong lead’, said Edgar, wearing a pin-stripe suit in front of a bank of cameras and microphones. ‘Madeleine could have been in Barcelona by that point. The fact the conversation took place near the marina could be significant.’

But within days reporters discovered that the private detectives had failed to make the most basic enquiries before announcing their potential breakthrough. Members of Edgar’s team who visited Barcelona had failed to speak to anyone working at the restaurant near where the agitated woman was seen that night, neglected to ask if the mystery woman had been filmed on CCTV cameras and knew nothing about the arrival of an Australian luxury yacht just after Madeleine vanished.

The apparent flaws in this latest development were another salutary lesson for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have relied on private investigators after the Portuguese police spent more time falsely suspecting the parents than searching for their daughter. For their relations with private detectives have been frustrating, unhappy and controversial ever since their daughter’s disappearance in May 2007.

The search has been overseen by the millionaire business Brian Kennedy, 49, who set up Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, which aimed ‘to procure that Madeleine’s abduction is thoroughly investigated’. A straight-talking, tough, burly self-made entrepreneur and rugby fanatic, he grew up in a council flat near Tynecastle in Scotland and was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. He started his working life as a window cleaner and by 2007 had acquired a £350 million fortune from double-glazing and home-improvement ventures. Kennedy was outraged by the police insinuations against the McCanns and, though a stranger, worked tirelessly on their behalf. ‘His motivation was sincere,’ said someone who worked closely with him. ‘He was appalled by the Portuguese police, but he also had visions of flying in by helicopter to rescue Madeleine.’

Kennedy commissioned private detectives to conduct an investigation parallel to the one run by the Portuguese police. But his choice showed how dangerous it is when powerful and wealthy businessmen try to play detective. In September 2007, he hired Metodo 3, an agency based in Barcelona, on a six-month contract and paid it an estimated £50,000 a month. Metodo 3 was hired because of Spain’s ‘language and cultural connection’ with Portugal. ‘If we’d had big-booted Brits or, heaven forbid, Americans, we would have had doors slammed in our faces’ said Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for the McCann’s at the time. ‘And it’s quite likely that we could have been charged with hindering the investigation as technically it’s illegal in Portugal to undertake a secondary investigation.

The agency had 35 investigators working on the case in Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. A hotline was set up for the public to report sightings and suspicions, and the search focussed on Morocco. But the investigation was dogged by over-confidence and braggadocio. ‘We know who took Madeleine and hope she will be home by Christmas,’ boasted Metodo 3’s flamboyant boss Francisco Marco. But no Madeleine materialised and their contract was not renewed.

Until now, few details have emerged about the private investigation during those crucial early months, but an investigation by ES shows that key mistakes were made, which in turn made later enquiries far more challenging.

ES has spoken to several sources close to the private investigations that took place in the first year and discovered that:
  • The involvement of Brian Kennedy and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour ‘stake out’.
  • The relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had completely broken down.
  • Key witnesses were questioned far too aggressively, so much so that some of them later refused to talk to the police.
  • Many of the investigators had little experience of the required painstaking forensic detective work.
By April 2008, nearing the first anniversary of the disappearance, Kennedy and the McCanns were desperate. And so when Henri Exton, a former undercover police officer who worked on M15 operations, and Kevin Halligen, a smooth-talking Irishman who claimed to have worked for covert British government intelligence agency GCHQ, walked through the door, their timing was perfect. Their sales pitch was classic James Bond spook-talk: everything had to be ‘top secret’ and ‘on a need to know basis’. The operation would involve 24-hour alert systems, undercover units, satellite imagery and round-the-clock surveillance teams that would fly in at short notice. This sounded very exiting but, as one source close to the investigation told ES, it was also very expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. ‘The real job at hand was old-fashioned, tedious, forensic police work rather than these boy’s own, glory boy antic,’ he said.

But Kennedy was impressed by the license-to-spy presentation and Exton and Halligen were hire for a fee of £100,000 per month plus expenses. Ostensibly, the contract was with Halligen’s UK security company, Red Defence International Ltd, and an office was set up in Jermyn Street, in St James’s. Only a tiny group of employees did the painstaking investigative work of dealing with thousands of emails and phone calls. Instead, resources were channelled into undercover operations in paedophile rings and among gypsies throughout Europe, encouraged by Kennedy. A five-man surveillance team was dispatched in Portugal, overseen by the experienced Exton, for six weeks.

Born in Belgium in 1951, Exton had been a highly effective undercover officer for the Manchester police. A maverick and dynamic figure, he successfully infiltrated gangs of football hooligans in the 1980’s. While not popular among his colleagues, in 1991 he was seconded to work on MI5 undercover operations against drug dealers, gangsters and terrorists, and was later awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for ‘outstanding bravery’. By all accounts, the charismatic Exton was a dedicated officer. But in November 2002, the stress appeared to have overcome his judgement when he was arrested for shoplifting.

While working on an MI5 surveillance, Exton was caught leaving a tax-free shopping area at Manchester airport with a bottle of perfume he had not paid for. The police were called and he was given the option of the offence being dealt with under caution or to face prosecution. He chose a police caution and so in effect admitted his guilt. Exton was sacked, but was furious about the way he had been treated and threatened to sue MI5. He later set up his own consulting company and moved to Bury in Lancashire.

While Exton, however flawed, was the genuine article as an investigator, Halligen was a very different character. Born in Dublin in 1961, he has been described as a ‘Walter Mitty figure’. He used false names to collect prospective clients at airports in order to preserve secrecy, and he called himself ‘Kevin’ or ‘Richard’ or ‘Patrick’ at different times to describe himself to business contacts. There appears to be no reason for all this subterfuge except that he thought this was what agents did. A conspiracy theorist and lover of the secret world, he is obsessed by surveillance gadgets and even installed a covert camera to spy on his own employees. He claimed to have worked for GCHQ, but in fact he was employed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) as head of defence systems in the rather less glamorous field of new information technology, researching the use of ‘special batteries’. He told former colleagues and potential girlfriends that he used to work for MI5, MI6 and the CIA. He also claimed that he was nearly kidnapped by the IRA, was involved in the first Gulf War and had been a freefall parachutist.

Very little of this is true. What is true is that Halligen has a degree in electronics, worked on the fringes of the intelligence community while at AEA and does understand government communications. He could also be an astonishingly persuasive, engaging and charming individual. Strikingly self-confident and articulate, he could be generous and clubbable. ‘He was very good company but only when it suited him’ says one friend. He kept people in compartments.’

After leaving the AEA, Halligen set up Red Defence International Ltd as an international security and political risk company, advising clients on the risks involved in investing and doing business in unstable, war-torn and corrupt countries. He worked closely with political risk companies and was a persuasive advocate of IT security. In 2006, he struck gold when hired by Trafigura, the Dutch commodities trading company. Executives were imprisoned in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped in landfills near its biggest city Abidjan. Trafigura was blamed and hired Red Defence International at vast expense to help with the negotiations to release its executives. A Falcon business jet was rented for several months during the operation and it was Halligen’s first taste of the good life. The case only ended when Trafigura paid $197 million to the government of the Ivory Coast to secure the release of the prisoners.

Halligen made a fortune from Trafigura and was suddenly flying everywhere first-class, staying at the Lansborough and Stafford hotels in London and The Willard hotel in Washington DC for months at a time. In 2007 he set up Oakley International Group and registered at the offices of the prestigious law firm Patton Boggs, in Washington DC, as an international security company. He was now strutting the stage as a self-proclaimed international spy expert and joined the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge, where he met Exton.

During the Madeleine investigation, Halligen spent vast amounts of time in the HeyJo bar in the basement of the Abracadabra Club near his Jermyn Street office. Armed with a clutch of unregistered mobile phones and a Blackberry, the bar was in effect his office. ‘He was there virtually the whole day,’ a former colleague told ES. ‘He had an amazing tolerance for alcohol and a prodigious memory and so occasionally he would have amazing bursts of intelligence, lucidity and insights. They were very rare but they did happen.’

When not imbibing in St James’s, Halligen was in the United States, trying to drum up investors for Oakley International. On 15 August 2008, at the height of the McCann investigation crisis, he persuaded Andre Hollis, a former US Drug enforcement agency official, to write out an $80.000 cheque to Oakley in return for a ten per cent share-holding. The money was then transferred into the private accounts of Halligen and his girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis to finance a holiday in Italy, according to Hollis. In a $6 million lawsuit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, Hollis alleges that Halligen ‘received monies for Oakley’s services rendered and deposited the same into his personal accounts’ and ‘repeatedly and systematically depleted funds from Oakley’s bank accounts for inappropriate personal expenses’.

Hollis was not the only victim. Mark Aspinall, a respected lawyer who worked closely with Halligen, invested £500,000 in Oakley and lost the lot. Earlier this year he filed a lawsuit in Washington DC against Halligen claiming $1.4 million in damages. The finances of Oakley International are in chaos and numerous employees, specialist consultants and contractors have not been paid. Some of them now face financial ruin.

Meanwhile, Exton was running the surveillance teams in Portugal and often paying his operatives upfront, so would occasionally be out-of-pocket because Halligen had not transferred funds. Exton genuinely believed that progress was being made and substantial and credible reports on child trafficking were submitted. But by mid-August 2008, Kennedy and Gerry McCann were increasingly concerned by an absence of details of how the money was being spent. At one meeting, Halligen was asked how many men constituted a surveillance team and he produced a piece of paper on which he wrote ‘between one and ten’. But he then refused to say how many were working and how much they were being paid.

While Kennedy and Gerry McCann accepted that the mission was extremely difficult and some secrecy was necessary, Halligen was charging very high rates and expenses. And eyebrows were raised when all the money was paid to Oakley International, solely owned and managed by Halligen. One invoice, seen by ES, shows that for ‘accrued expenses to May 5, 2008’ (just one month into the contract), Oakley charged $74,155. The ‘point of contact’ was Halligen who provided a UK mobile telephone number.

While Kennedy was ready to accept Halligen at face value, Gerry McCann – sharp, focused and intelligent – was more sceptical. The contract with Oakley International and Halligen was terminated by the end of September 2008, after £500,000-plus expenses had been spent.

For the McCanns it was a bitter experience, Exton has returned to Cheshire and, like so many people, is owed money by Halligen. As for Halligen, he has gone into hiding, leaving a trail of debt and numerous former business associates and creditors looking for him. He was last seen in January of this year in Rome, drinking and spending prodigiously at the Hilton Cavalieri and Excelsior hotels. He is now believed by private investigators, who have been searching for him to serve papers on behalf of creditors, to be in the UK and watching his back. Meanwhile, in the eye of the storm, the McCanns continue the search for their lost daughter.


in ES Magazine (London Evening Standard)– Paper edition only, 28 August 2009

*Mark Hollingsworth is best known for his investigations into Mark Thatcher and also MI5. He worked for Granada TV’s ‘World In Action’ programme for five years. He is the author of nine books, notably ‘Thatcher’s Fortunes: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher’, ‘Defending the Realm: MI5 and International Terrorism’ and ‘Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud’. His new book, ‘Londongrad: From Russia with Cash, The Inside Story of the Oligarchs’, will be published in July 2009. He also contributes regularly to the London Evening Standard and most national newspapers.


Many thanks to the one who send us this article.



Disillusioned with the Portuguese police, Gerry and Kate McCann turned to private detectives to find their missing daughter. Instead the efforts of the private eyes served only to scare off witnesses, waste funds and raise false hopes. Mark Hollingsworth investigates the investigators.


by Mark Hollingsworth*

It was billed as a ‘significant development’ in the exhaustive search for Madeleine McCann. At a recent dramatic press conference in London, the lead private investigator David Edgar, a retired Cheshire detective inspector, brandished an E-FIT image of an Australian woman, described her as ‘a bit of a Victoria Beckham lookalike’, and appealed for help in tracing her. The woman was seen ‘looking agitated’ outside a restaurant in Barcelona three days after Madeleine’s disappearance. ‘It is a strong lead’, said Edgar, wearing a pin-stripe suit in front of a bank of cameras and microphones. ‘Madeleine could have been in Barcelona by that point. The fact the conversation took place near the marina could be significant.’

But within days reporters discovered that the private detectives had failed to make the most basic enquiries before announcing their potential breakthrough. Members of Edgar’s team who visited Barcelona had failed to speak to anyone working at the restaurant near where the agitated woman was seen that night, neglected to ask if the mystery woman had been filmed on CCTV cameras and knew nothing about the arrival of an Australian luxury yacht just after Madeleine vanished.

The apparent flaws in this latest development were another salutary lesson for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have relied on private investigators after the Portuguese police spent more time falsely suspecting the parents than searching for their daughter. For their relations with private detectives have been frustrating, unhappy and controversial ever since their daughter’s disappearance in May 2007.

The search has been overseen by the millionaire business Brian Kennedy, 49, who set up Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, which aimed ‘to procure that Madeleine’s abduction is thoroughly investigated’. A straight-talking, tough, burly self-made entrepreneur and rugby fanatic, he grew up in a council flat near Tynecastle in Scotland and was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. He started his working life as a window cleaner and by 2007 had acquired a £350 million fortune from double-glazing and home-improvement ventures. Kennedy was outraged by the police insinuations against the McCanns and, though a stranger, worked tirelessly on their behalf. ‘His motivation was sincere,’ said someone who worked closely with him. ‘He was appalled by the Portuguese police, but he also had visions of flying in by helicopter to rescue Madeleine.’

Kennedy commissioned private detectives to conduct an investigation parallel to the one run by the Portuguese police. But his choice showed how dangerous it is when powerful and wealthy businessmen try to play detective. In September 2007, he hired Metodo 3, an agency based in Barcelona, on a six-month contract and paid it an estimated £50,000 a month. Metodo 3 was hired because of Spain’s ‘language and cultural connection’ with Portugal. ‘If we’d had big-booted Brits or, heaven forbid, Americans, we would have had doors slammed in our faces’ said Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for the McCann’s at the time. ‘And it’s quite likely that we could have been charged with hindering the investigation as technically it’s illegal in Portugal to undertake a secondary investigation.

The agency had 35 investigators working on the case in Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. A hotline was set up for the public to report sightings and suspicions, and the search focussed on Morocco. But the investigation was dogged by over-confidence and braggadocio. ‘We know who took Madeleine and hope she will be home by Christmas,’ boasted Metodo 3’s flamboyant boss Francisco Marco. But no Madeleine materialised and their contract was not renewed.

Until now, few details have emerged about the private investigation during those crucial early months, but an investigation by ES shows that key mistakes were made, which in turn made later enquiries far more challenging.

ES has spoken to several sources close to the private investigations that took place in the first year and discovered that:
  • The involvement of Brian Kennedy and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour ‘stake out’.
  • The relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had completely broken down.
  • Key witnesses were questioned far too aggressively, so much so that some of them later refused to talk to the police.
  • Many of the investigators had little experience of the required painstaking forensic detective work.
By April 2008, nearing the first anniversary of the disappearance, Kennedy and the McCanns were desperate. And so when Henri Exton, a former undercover police officer who worked on M15 operations, and Kevin Halligen, a smooth-talking Irishman who claimed to have worked for covert British government intelligence agency GCHQ, walked through the door, their timing was perfect. Their sales pitch was classic James Bond spook-talk: everything had to be ‘top secret’ and ‘on a need to know basis’. The operation would involve 24-hour alert systems, undercover units, satellite imagery and round-the-clock surveillance teams that would fly in at short notice. This sounded very exiting but, as one source close to the investigation told ES, it was also very expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. ‘The real job at hand was old-fashioned, tedious, forensic police work rather than these boy’s own, glory boy antic,’ he said.

But Kennedy was impressed by the license-to-spy presentation and Exton and Halligen were hire for a fee of £100,000 per month plus expenses. Ostensibly, the contract was with Halligen’s UK security company, Red Defence International Ltd, and an office was set up in Jermyn Street, in St James’s. Only a tiny group of employees did the painstaking investigative work of dealing with thousands of emails and phone calls. Instead, resources were channelled into undercover operations in paedophile rings and among gypsies throughout Europe, encouraged by Kennedy. A five-man surveillance team was dispatched in Portugal, overseen by the experienced Exton, for six weeks.

Born in Belgium in 1951, Exton had been a highly effective undercover officer for the Manchester police. A maverick and dynamic figure, he successfully infiltrated gangs of football hooligans in the 1980’s. While not popular among his colleagues, in 1991 he was seconded to work on MI5 undercover operations against drug dealers, gangsters and terrorists, and was later awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for ‘outstanding bravery’. By all accounts, the charismatic Exton was a dedicated officer. But in November 2002, the stress appeared to have overcome his judgement when he was arrested for shoplifting.

While working on an MI5 surveillance, Exton was caught leaving a tax-free shopping area at Manchester airport with a bottle of perfume he had not paid for. The police were called and he was given the option of the offence being dealt with under caution or to face prosecution. He chose a police caution and so in effect admitted his guilt. Exton was sacked, but was furious about the way he had been treated and threatened to sue MI5. He later set up his own consulting company and moved to Bury in Lancashire.

While Exton, however flawed, was the genuine article as an investigator, Halligen was a very different character. Born in Dublin in 1961, he has been described as a ‘Walter Mitty figure’. He used false names to collect prospective clients at airports in order to preserve secrecy, and he called himself ‘Kevin’ or ‘Richard’ or ‘Patrick’ at different times to describe himself to business contacts. There appears to be no reason for all this subterfuge except that he thought this was what agents did. A conspiracy theorist and lover of the secret world, he is obsessed by surveillance gadgets and even installed a covert camera to spy on his own employees. He claimed to have worked for GCHQ, but in fact he was employed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) as head of defence systems in the rather less glamorous field of new information technology, researching the use of ‘special batteries’. He told former colleagues and potential girlfriends that he used to work for MI5, MI6 and the CIA. He also claimed that he was nearly kidnapped by the IRA, was involved in the first Gulf War and had been a freefall parachutist.

Very little of this is true. What is true is that Halligen has a degree in electronics, worked on the fringes of the intelligence community while at AEA and does understand government communications. He could also be an astonishingly persuasive, engaging and charming individual. Strikingly self-confident and articulate, he could be generous and clubbable. ‘He was very good company but only when it suited him’ says one friend. He kept people in compartments.’

After leaving the AEA, Halligen set up Red Defence International Ltd as an international security and political risk company, advising clients on the risks involved in investing and doing business in unstable, war-torn and corrupt countries. He worked closely with political risk companies and was a persuasive advocate of IT security. In 2006, he struck gold when hired by Trafigura, the Dutch commodities trading company. Executives were imprisoned in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped in landfills near its biggest city Abidjan. Trafigura was blamed and hired Red Defence International at vast expense to help with the negotiations to release its executives. A Falcon business jet was rented for several months during the operation and it was Halligen’s first taste of the good life. The case only ended when Trafigura paid $197 million to the government of the Ivory Coast to secure the release of the prisoners.

Halligen made a fortune from Trafigura and was suddenly flying everywhere first-class, staying at the Lansborough and Stafford hotels in London and The Willard hotel in Washington DC for months at a time. In 2007 he set up Oakley International Group and registered at the offices of the prestigious law firm Patton Boggs, in Washington DC, as an international security company. He was now strutting the stage as a self-proclaimed international spy expert and joined the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge, where he met Exton.

During the Madeleine investigation, Halligen spent vast amounts of time in the HeyJo bar in the basement of the Abracadabra Club near his Jermyn Street office. Armed with a clutch of unregistered mobile phones and a Blackberry, the bar was in effect his office. ‘He was there virtually the whole day,’ a former colleague told ES. ‘He had an amazing tolerance for alcohol and a prodigious memory and so occasionally he would have amazing bursts of intelligence, lucidity and insights. They were very rare but they did happen.’

When not imbibing in St James’s, Halligen was in the United States, trying to drum up investors for Oakley International. On 15 August 2008, at the height of the McCann investigation crisis, he persuaded Andre Hollis, a former US Drug enforcement agency official, to write out an $80.000 cheque to Oakley in return for a ten per cent share-holding. The money was then transferred into the private accounts of Halligen and his girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis to finance a holiday in Italy, according to Hollis. In a $6 million lawsuit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, Hollis alleges that Halligen ‘received monies for Oakley’s services rendered and deposited the same into his personal accounts’ and ‘repeatedly and systematically depleted funds from Oakley’s bank accounts for inappropriate personal expenses’.

Hollis was not the only victim. Mark Aspinall, a respected lawyer who worked closely with Halligen, invested £500,000 in Oakley and lost the lot. Earlier this year he filed a lawsuit in Washington DC against Halligen claiming $1.4 million in damages. The finances of Oakley International are in chaos and numerous employees, specialist consultants and contractors have not been paid. Some of them now face financial ruin.

Meanwhile, Exton was running the surveillance teams in Portugal and often paying his operatives upfront, so would occasionally be out-of-pocket because Halligen had not transferred funds. Exton genuinely believed that progress was being made and substantial and credible reports on child trafficking were submitted. But by mid-August 2008, Kennedy and Gerry McCann were increasingly concerned by an absence of details of how the money was being spent. At one meeting, Halligen was asked how many men constituted a surveillance team and he produced a piece of paper on which he wrote ‘between one and ten’. But he then refused to say how many were working and how much they were being paid.

While Kennedy and Gerry McCann accepted that the mission was extremely difficult and some secrecy was necessary, Halligen was charging very high rates and expenses. And eyebrows were raised when all the money was paid to Oakley International, solely owned and managed by Halligen. One invoice, seen by ES, shows that for ‘accrued expenses to May 5, 2008’ (just one month into the contract), Oakley charged $74,155. The ‘point of contact’ was Halligen who provided a UK mobile telephone number.

While Kennedy was ready to accept Halligen at face value, Gerry McCann – sharp, focused and intelligent – was more sceptical. The contract with Oakley International and Halligen was terminated by the end of September 2008, after £500,000-plus expenses had been spent.

For the McCanns it was a bitter experience, Exton has returned to Cheshire and, like so many people, is owed money by Halligen. As for Halligen, he has gone into hiding, leaving a trail of debt and numerous former business associates and creditors looking for him. He was last seen in January of this year in Rome, drinking and spending prodigiously at the Hilton Cavalieri and Excelsior hotels. He is now believed by private investigators, who have been searching for him to serve papers on behalf of creditors, to be in the UK and watching his back. Meanwhile, in the eye of the storm, the McCanns continue the search for their lost daughter.


in ES Magazine (London Evening Standard)– Paper edition only, 28 August 2009

*Mark Hollingsworth is best known for his investigations into Mark Thatcher and also MI5. He worked for Granada TV’s ‘World In Action’ programme for five years. He is the author of nine books, notably ‘Thatcher’s Fortunes: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher’, ‘Defending the Realm: MI5 and International Terrorism’ and ‘Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud’. His new book, ‘Londongrad: From Russia with Cash, The Inside Story of the Oligarchs’, will be published in July 2009. He also contributes regularly to the London Evening Standard and most national newspapers.


Many thanks to the one who send us this article.

161 comments:

Unknown said...

Keesha said...

have read the above comments with interest, especially about Justice Hogg and the open British investigation.

The case of Jaycee continues to unravel, I think the neighbour's property is also being searched.

In the absence of Gerry's pale, pugnacious mug in the news, there is an article from Mark Hollingsworth, Evening Standard (paper only) Fri 28 Aug 09

see: Mccannfiles and Joana's blog / comments

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/08/mark-hollingsworth-investigatesthe.html
Sunday, 30 August 2009 15:29:00 o'clock BST

Unknown said...

Wizard said...

Hi All,

I’ve just been reading the Evening Standard's article by Mark Hollingsworth on JM’s blog.

A précis of the article is that Hollingsworth’s investigation into all the detectives employed by the McCanns clearly indicates they were not up to scratch for such a difficult investigation. They all appeared very good at raking in high fees and expenses though!

Never having employed a private detective myself I just wonder how difficult it is to find one that will do a reasonable job at a reasonable price.

How unusual is it to employ not one outfit but 3 or 4 all of who failed to do the job properly. By that I do not necessarily mean find Madeleine but at least do a systematic investigation and not just pretendy one.

This poses the question was their selection intentional or is this just quadruple bad luck?

Of course some of these private investigators may not be as hapless as they seemed.

For example - were they being continually steered in the wrong direction?

Could they have had a strong feeling during their investigations on what really happened but could not pursue this line of enquiry because it fell outside their remit?

Did they not bother to investigate properly because they knew it was unlikely to lead anywhere and fail to get to the truth?

I find it extraordinary that none of the McCann investigators got anywhere and all, with the exception of the last hapless lot, had to have their contracts terminated.

Unknown said...

Sunday, 30 August 2009 16:27:00 o'clock BST
viv said...

This has all proved to be the absolute truth! It must be very worrying for Team McCann that the Pt people in the area were so well informed, no wonder they asked them to "phone Isabel", but I suspect Isabel was lonely waiting for the phone to ring, just how stupid do these McCanns think people are!

Unknown said...

Di said...

Hi Wizard

I read the article earlier and did not quite know what to make of it.

Other than the blame, on the one hand, seems to be put at Brian Kennedy's door, but as Joana points out, it also could be a way of showing where the fund money has supposedly been spent.

I think WHERE the money has gone is what most people would really like to know, it certainly has not been spent on searching.
Sunday, 30 August 2009 17:06:00 o'clock BST
Di said...

I have just remembered that TM said the fund would be empty by the end of the year.

Hmmmm maybe this is there way of justifying that statement, this is where all the money has gone!

The problem is TM, the public are not stupid, you will have to do better than that.

Unknown said...

Sunday, 30 August 2009 17:14:00 o'clock BST


When it is your own Nice that is missing money should not come into it maybe somewhere down the line expenses should be disccused if you dont have much money of your own but Uncle Jon had a high paying job which he did not need to give up I would imagine he got sick pay and holiday pay and as Team McCann controlled the press his firm would have looked heartless not to give him time off.

Throw in the Lawyers (as Madeleine did not need a single lawyer) the expensive website detectives who were rubbish and now having the heartbroken parents on the board any other fund would have been shut down and investigated...

It makes me sick a few million pounds (if Madeleine was missing) could have been spent to actually find her and if as I suspect she is not missing could have helped 100s of children who really needed help and parents who's children that are not as Important as Madeleine but are still none the less missing would have cut off their right arm for some publicity via the fund to see if their precious child was "Findable"....

This pair and thier 7 friends must be the most heartless people in the country not calling the police for 40 minutes I guess would makes sense if they thought she had wandered off and any second she would be found.

But as they knew she had been abducted (how I dont know) it was more important to call SKY and not actually bother to look for her...

It is about time the facts of those first few hours were printed for the world to see after all if Madeleine was killed in an accident or a more evil way there are some very dangerous people out there or are their children not important either?
Sunday, 30 August 2009 17:41:00 o'clock BST
Wizard said...

It has always appeared to me the private investigators were just window dressing.

If the McCanns are culpable for their daughter’s disappearance the fund money has to be spent otherwise it would look suspicious.

What better way to spend large chunks of money than by misdirecting those they pay to search for their daughter.
Hmmm...
Sunday, 30 August 2009 17:42:00 o'clock BST
Di said...

Hi Hope & Wizard

I do hope there are people investigating where the fund money is REALLY going.

I am sure if it was you or I opening a fund like this, we would be watched to the hilt.

Hope, I agree, when Uncle J gave up a well paid job I knew something was not right. He had absolutely no idea,when or if Madeleine would be found,or did he!!

Wizard

It would be interesting to know if the McCann's mortgage has been paid off for a start.
Sunday, 30 August 2009 18:51:00 o'clock BST
hope4truth said...

Hi Di and Wiz

I agree the Detectives had to be hired on high retainers to make the fund look like it was doing something...

As for Uncle John the very next week Madeleine could have been found alive and well quiting his job was just strange...

Gerry saying they were planning a year anniversary was another ??? Moment then there have been so many...

xxx
Sunday, 30 August 2009 22:12:00 o'clock BST
viv said...

Fantastic scoop from the McCann files and Joanna Morais and thanks guys for bringing it here.

Copying your comments to new thread, this is exactly what Team McCann deserve, now hang your head in shame Eddie and oh, where is Mr Halligen:-)))

Gerry says I want my flipping money back you scoundrel:-)))

Now come on Stuart, you could finish up in an even topper job!!
Monday, 31 August 2009 06:25:00 o'clock BST

Unknown said...

hope4truth said...

Hello All

Di You are right the Public are not stupid and the fund is a huge joke with money wasted from the second they appointed Uncle Jon as a Director.

Can you imagine a fund being set up for anything and running to help as a Director but first negoitaing a large fee to do so?

Unknown said...

A recipe kit for perverting the course of justice:

* The involvement of Brian Kennedy and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour 'stake out'.

* The relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had completely broken down.

* Key witnesses were questioned far too aggressively, so much so that some of them later refused to talk to the police


Why would anyone looking for their daughter be aggressive with witnesses to the point of them refusing to talk to the police?

It sounds like a campaign of terror against any witnesses that may have harmed the interest of Team McCann.

Talk to Isabel being the innocuous side of this, but having done do, what is anyone unfortunate enough to actually be a witness going to be subjected to.

We have seen a key witness Jeremy Wilkins state to the police he did not like the harassing tactics employed by Team McCann upon him as they sought to put together their "portfolio of evidence". Was this the one Clarence talked about wanting to set before the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to, ahem, demonstrate the innocence of the McCanns?

One could forgive Gordon Brown turning down the offer from what begins to sound increasingly like the British Mafia!

Wizard said...

Morning viv,

The Evening Standard article is a follow on from the Standards sister paper the Mail's recent piece.

The critical article in the Mail and now the Standard seems to be a way around direct criticism of the McCanns. As we know the Mcs will sue anyone who hints at them being in any way culpable for their daughter’s disappearance.

Could this be a way forward for the media to approach the story without the risk of legal action? I think it is and we are likely to see more along the same lines.

There is as sure as hell a lot of criticism to be level at Team McCann and using the backdoor, so to speak, to chip at the evidence surrounding those linked to them is a good start.

Wizard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wizard said...

A more predictable response to the Mccann story is an adage to the Jaycee Dugard 4 page spread in yesterday’s Mail. Dorothy Rowe, author and clinical psychologist analyses the situation.

At the end of her article she talks about the reappearance of Jaycee and links it to the Mccann story. She says:

“Her reappearance (Jaycee) will offer hope for Kate and Gerry Mccann. If she can return after so many years then, they must pray, there is every reason to hope that Madeleine is still alive.

But Jaycee’s return will also be a perhaps difficult reminder that, should Madeleine come back, she won’t be the little girl who disappeared, any more than they are the same couple who went on holiday with her.”

Although there is nothing wrong with Ms Rowe’s psychological analysis of the situation I just wonder whether she is aware of her own condition.

It appears that Ms Rowe is perpetuating the “Emperor’s New Clothes Effect”.

Madeleine was abducted, therefore, there is always a chance she could be still alive.

Although the British press have told us often enough about an abduction for fear of being sued if they flip the coin and look at other possibilities. Does Ms Rowe also believe this and perpetuates a possible lie. By definition Ms Rowe, a trained clinical psychologist, has taken on the Emperor’s New Clothes Effect, without apparently realising it.

Strange for someone purporting to be a clinical psychologist to fall pray to ENC’s and be blissfully unaware of it. Perhaps another case of not seeing the wood for the trees.

Wizard said...

Hi Viv,

I originally place the two above post on your previous link. I've copied them above as they fit nicely in with the current theme.

Best regards as always - Wiz

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz

Thanks for making the connection for me between the Daily Mail and The Standard which I confess had not occurred.

Did you see on the other thread I posted a really damning article by Jan Moir from March in the Daily Mail about how Gerry "walks the red carpet of his grief" before the Select Committee, the ineptitude of its members not being spared by her!

By attacking this massive money wasting and incredibly corrupt spending of public money, they are very clearly attacking Team McCann.

Whenever Gerry is seriously worried about something, he posts on the Find Maddie Site. Do you recall he wrote how pleased they were with Oakley International in spite of the bad press, which, if memory serves was also coming from The Daily Mail.

People who are Pro Madeleine have written many adverse comments about the Mail, but I would say that was misguided. They are mounting a very clever attack that seeks to avoid any libel payout!

It cannot be denied that every anti McCann article the Daily Express wrote at the height of all of this in 2007 was a direct rip off, of what the Daily Mail had written the day before.

The really dreadful thing for Team McCann is, that as the Daily Mail were just a little more circumspect, all of those articles are still there.

That must be an open sore for Gerry McCann.

Unknown said...

Thanks for copying your comments across, Wiz, I think this is a really serious one for Team McCann!

Let us be focussed:-))

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz

In order to be a Clinical Psychologist you have to be educated to doctorate level.

That would clearly enable her to keep any open mind and look at things in a holistic way. As you say it would also mean she simply cannot start libelling people.

Jaycee does seem to have developed a bond with her captor, "Stockholm Syndrome". I think from a psychological point of view, she would find that fascinating! How humans develop some sort of survival instint, even in the most inhospitable circumstances

Reposted just to tidy up how I spelt psychologist:-))

Wizard said...

Today’s Mirror healine “Maddie twins off to school”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/31/maddy-twins-off-to-school-115875-21636951/

Not to be out done the Sun covers the same story the difference is their last paragraph which reads:

“Kate's uncle Brian Kennedy is a school governor and his wife Janet was a teacher there.“
Er… are there two Brian Kennedy’s?

Unknown said...

Wiz, I saw that but could not bear to post it.

There is something about The Sun and The Daily Mirror that incites in me the most serious and unnatural rage.

I think it is the cynical way they write such utter carp for the uneducated masses to soak up like an old sponge!

I would think Kate will more likely be thinking, great, more free time to spend defending me and the Gezzy one (not that I am the least bit struck on him, but if he goes down I go with him). It will be lovely just like in PDL when I could keep dumping them in the creche and dumping them at night, which I am no longer able to do so. By dictate of Leicestershire Police and Social Services, how very dare they dictate to me? It is almost as bad as those loathesome Portuguese Policemen, just who did they think they were talking to eh?

Wizard said...

Hi Viv,

Psychiatrists and I believe clinical psychologist have to be analysed every so often to ensure they are aware of their own hang ups etc.

The thinking behind this is to ensure they are aware of their own problems and do not project any of their own quirky thoughts into or onto an analysis of their patient’s behaviour.

I’m not sure currently that the emperor’s new clothes effect is listed on DSM but I think it should be and Ms Roe should look into this aspect with regard to her own views.

However, in hindsight, libel etc has to comes into it, as you suggest, and an eagle eyed Mail sub would have changed the wording of Ms Roe’s text if she suggested other than the safe formula.

Perhap she shouldn't have mentioned the McCann case at all, but they all like to jump on the band wagon.

Wizard said...

Viv,

Brian Kennedy the multi millionaire isn’t Kate’s uncle – have they just quoted the wrong name or is there another Brian Kennedy?

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz,

She is clearly bound by pretty strict rules of professional conduct that would not allow her to publicly state what she believes the McCanns may be guilty of, ahead of any finding by a court of their guilt.

As you say all people working in similar professions have to be supervised to ensure they are not adopting a partisan approach etc, including myself when I used to work as a probation officer.

It does happen, I had to be pulled up once about being a bit over the top in a pre sentence report concerning a nasty assault rather near to where I live!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness Wiz, the Daily Mail strike again, they are bringing the dogs out, now. Going to post it in full over several posts because it is such a good one in terms of both the McCanns and poor Jaycee.

I had been half expecting this, the Beeb gave us a big hint posting the article on him and the murder of prostitutes/finding of bodies etc right next to each other, subtle eh!

Unknown said...

Police fear Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapper is linked to murders of prostitutes and a girl of 15
By David Gardner and Julie Moult
Last updated at 9:34 AM on 31st August 2009
Comments (12) Add to My Stories

This is the first picture of Jaycee Lee Dugard's two daughters, fathered by her captor Phillip Garrido.
The girls, Starlet and Angel, were pictured at a neighbour's 16th birthday party a fortnight ago - just days before their father was arrested for the kidnapping of Jaycee.

Their home is now swarming with detectives, who are digging up Garrido's garden - and that of a neighbour - amid fears that they are dealing with a serial killer.
Days before their mother was discovered, the first picture released of Jaycee's girls Starlet and Angel show them attending a birthday party

Possible links are being examined between up to ten murdered prostitutes and the monster who kept Jaycee Lee Dugard in a back-garden prison for 18 years.
Police believe Garrido might also have killed 15-year-old schoolgirl Lisa Norrell, whose body was discovered in 1998 dumped in a remote industrial area close to where he used to work.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210113/Jaycee-Lee-Dugard-kidnapper-linked-murders-prostitutes-girl-15.html#ixzz0PkQwn0M3

Unknown said...

And there could be more victims they do not even know about, which is why a dog trained to sniff out corpses was working in Garrido's garden last night.
Suspicions: Cadaver sniffer dogs arrive to search the Garrido garden in Antioch yesterday to see if there are any links to open cases
Police also fear three more schoolgirls who lived just a few miles from his home may have been his victims.
Michaela Garecht, nine, Ilene Misheloff, 13, and four-year-old Amanda Campbell were all snatched from the street in daylight and their bodies have never been found.
A senior officer in the El Dorado Sheriff 's Department confirmed the girls' abductions in the San Francisco Bay area were identical to Jaycee's kidnap.

But a spokesman would say only: 'Unfortunately, there is a larger story to it that we can't go into right now.'

Garrido is being investigated into the disappearance of Ilene Misheloff (left) and Michaela Garecht

Amanda Campbell, four, also went missing
Michaela went missing three months after paedophile Garrido, 58, was freed from jail after serving ten years of a rape sentence in August 1988.
The blonde nine-year-old was forced into a man's car as she went to the shops near her home in Hayward, 30 miles from Antioch.
Her mother Sharon Murch said the discovery of Jaycee gave her fresh hope.

Unknown said...

Two months later, Ilene was abducted while walking home from school in the Dublin area, 25 miles from Garrido's home.
Six months after Jaycee's kidnap, Amanda was snatched in Fairfield, 40 miles away, while cycling to a friend's house and her bike was found dumped in a field.
The police officer said: 'Within months of Garrido's release on parole, a girl is abducted and then two more follow in quick succession.
'These cases have never been solved.The question we have to ask is, "Was Garrido the beast responsible for taking these three girls?"

Police used a 'cadaver' dog to check if there were any human remains on Garrido's property or in the grounds of the house next door.
Antioch police officers cover up the outbuildings of the property next door to Phillip Garrido's home

Police continue to search the Garrido home and the grounds of their neighbour's house seeking connections to other open cases
Police spokesman Jimmy Lee said it was still too early to say whether any of the evidence collected in the search linked Garrido to a series of murders in the area dating back to the early 1990s.
He said Garrido had access to the next-door house, which was vacant in 2006.
'He lived in the property in a shed. That is why we are taking a closer look,' he added. 'We are going thoroughly through both back gardens.

'There are still a lot of unanswered questions here. This is a process that may take weeks or even months. It is an exploratory investigation to see if there are any links between Phillip Garrido and these open cases,' added Lee.

Unknown said...

More...Is this the new Rose West? It's beyond belief Nancy Garrido didn't know what was going on
'Creepy Phil's' drug-fuelled orgies with the hillbillies
Pervert Garrido may have snatched THREE more victims

With Garrido and his wife Nancy in custody, Jaycee and the daughters she had with her captor - now aged 11 and 15 - spent time getting to know her family at a secret location.
Custody: Phillip Garrido has been questioned over the killings

Her stepfather Carl Probyn, 60, said Jaycee, who was 11 when she was snatched from the street, was 'fragile' but was 'a great mother'.
Her daughters, named Starlet and Angel, were photographed at a birthday party only days before their shocking story was discovered.
The picture was taken on August 15 by Cheyvonne Molino, a client of Garrido's printing business, at a party she threw for her daughter's 16th birthday.
Mrs Molino said Garrido asked if the girls could go to the party and left them unattended there.

The girls did not appear anxious or desperate to get away from Garrido. Mrs Molino described the younger girl as very talkative and always asking questions, with her older sister more reserved.
'He left the girls with us at the party. It wasn't like he was standing guard over them.
'The 11-year-old was everywhere, asking lots of questions. The 15-year-old was a little more passive.
'At the party, a girlfriend of mine pointed out to me how clingy the older girl was to Phillip. It was almost like she was sending out a message, "That's my man". At least that's how it looked to us.
'The young girl did say a couple of things that seemed a little strange at the time. She told me her daddy had a church in the basement of their house.'
At Garrido's home in Antioch, northern California, police with shovels, rakes, hoes and even chainsaws were searching for clues.
Squalid: The garden quarters Jaycee and her daughters were forced to live in

A headless doll is pictured among the clutter and rubbish
Until three years ago, Garrido, 58, acted as caretaker of the house next door to his property, which also has a number of sheds and outbuildings which have now been cordoned off by police.
Damon Robinson, who now lives in the house, said all the locks were turned around so people could be locked in, rather than locked out.
'It took me a while to realise, but Garrido had access to all of these buildings. At first I didn't even realise they were part of my land because there are wire fences splitting up the yard.
'When I moved over in one of the sheds there was a music player, a couch, a mattress and a VCR. He really wanted the VCR back when I found it.
'There had been times when I could hear music coming from there at night. Maybe he was taking the girl over there for a change of scenery or something a little nicer than he had in his yard, I don't know.'
Lisa Norrell's mother, Minnie, said she was visited by a murder squad officer on Saturday and he told her police were looking at the possibility that Garrido was involved in her daughter's death in November, 1998.
An officer photographs a well on the property next door to Phillip Garrido's house
Piles of rubbish were left to rot around the garden

'I'm really excited about that. It's the first glimmer of hope we have had since my daughter passed away. I'm hopeful that's who it is, just so there is an end. There will never be closure, but there will be an end.'
The schoolgirl's body was found in an industrial park in Pittsburg, California, close to where Garrido used to work and close to where the bodies of several prostitutes were also found more than a decade ago.
Ordeal: Jaycee Lee Dugard as a child

Valerie Schultz, 27, Rachael Cruise, 32, and Jessica Frederick, 24 - were found beaten, strangled or stabbed to death in the same area in 1998 and 1999 and thrown into a ditch. Seven other known prostitutes were also killed in the area in the early 1990s.

Unknown said...

Contra Costa County police spokesman Jimmy Lee last night confirmed the expanded search is tied to investigations of unsolved cases in the area. He refused to give any further details, saying the investigations are 'preliminary'.
Garrido has been quizzed over the killings, but said nothing to indicate he was responsible.
One theory is that Garrido abducted the women, took them back to his compound and raped and killed them before dumping their bodies.
Photographs of his sinister lair emerged yesterday, showing the appalling conditions Jaycee was forced to live in for 18 years.
Incongruously, a hand-painted Welcome sign was nailed to a tree, leading to a filthy compound of ragged tents and ramshackle sheds.
A former neighbour, Patrick McQuaid, said he spoke to Jaycee through the fence soon after she was abducted in 1991, but did not realise she was a missing girl.
Mr McQuaid, 27, was a child when he saw the pretty blonde girl through the chicken wire that then separated their homes.
She told her she was living at the house and that her name was Jaycee, but before she could say any more she was ushered back into the house by Garrido.
'I didn't think anything of it - I was young,' he said, adding that a tall fence was put up days later.


WERE TWO MORE GIRLS HELD CAPTIVE?Two girls aged about four were spotted at the house where Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two daughters were held captive, it was revealed yesterday.
Police were warned two years ago that the children were living with convicted rapist Phillip Garrido.
But according to a neighbour, officers failed to follow up the call because they said they did not have a search warrant.

Spotted: One of the Garridos' neighbours claim they saw two other children in the garden of the couple's unassuming house

Now detectives in Antioch, northern California, are desperately trying to discover if any more children were living with the Garridos apart from Jaycee, now 29, and her two daughters, aged 15 and 11.
Erika Pratt, who was living next door to the Garridos two years ago, claimed: 'He had little girls and women living in that backyard and they all looked kind of the same. They never talked and they kept themselves to themselves.'
Miss Pratt, 25, said the core group consisted of two girls aged about four, one about 11, another about 15 and a young woman aged about 25. 'They were all blonde.'
She said she called the Contra Costa County sheriff's department to investigate but officers said they were unable to help.
'They told me they couldn't go inside because they didn't have a warrant. So they just told him they'd keep an eye on him.'
Miss Pratt said she was 'freaked out' by Garrido's behaviour and said she saw his secret compound. As well as the sheds and tents in the garden, she said there were pit bull dogs.
Police said they were investigating 'all possible leads' concerning the case. A spokesman said the only people living in the garden when the Garridos were arrested were Jaycee and her children.
Sheriff Warren Rupf admitted on Friday that police bungled by failing to find Jaycee on two visits to the Garrido house in 2006 and 2008.


Death-scenting dogs search for cluesCadaver dogs are brought in by the police to detect the odour of dead bodies rather than living victims.
Used at crime scenes and the wreckage of disasters, they are rigorously trained to follow the scent of decomposing flesh whether buried in soil encased in concrete or even underwater.
The dog's skill is their ability to sniff out the chemicals emitted by the human body during decomposition to find the location of a corpse, body part or even blood drops.
Smelling death, they should also be able to smell where a corpse has been even for a short period.
Officers are combing the scene for connections to other crimes, also using cadaver dogs to check for human remains
Trained for up to a year, their accuracy rate is very high and police prize them alongside new techniques such as ground-penetrating radar.

Unknown said...

German Shepherds, Labradors and Golden Retrievers are favoured for their obedience, and a dog will be trained in various other search techniques - for living remains or narcotics for example - before training for cadaver searching.

Cadaver dogs are distinct from Canine Search and Rescue Dogs who are used to locate survivors of natural and man-made disasters, but the two can work in conjunction.

Death-scenting dogs are trained using a chemicals which gives off the scent of decomposition, although he smell is very difficult is recreate or used decomposed animals.

Britain's top cadaver dogs Eddie and Keela were used to sniff out a fragment of bone found at the horror Jersey care home Haut de la Garenne, and taken to Praia da Luz to help police with the inquiry into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

It has been known for centuries that a dog's sense of smell is infinitely more acute than a humans. A German shepherd's nose contains about 200 million olfactory cells, while a human has just 20 million.
A study at Bern University in Switzerland in which cadaver dogs were directed to pick out one of six squares of carpet which had been exposed to a corpse for 10 minutes found a 98 per cent accuracy rate in hundreds of trials.

Unknown said...

HE'S A MONSTER, SAYS FIRST RAPE

VICTIM Monster: Garrido's first victim broke her silence to condemn him

Phillip Garrido's first known victim broke her public silence yesterday to say: 'He's a monster.'
Kathleen Callaway was a 25-year-old casino worker in 1976 when she agreed to give a lift to Garrido as she travelled home to Reno, Nevada.
High on LSD, he overpowered and handcuffed her before driving to an isolated warehouse which had been kitted out with sex aids, pornographic material and stage lights.
The terrified young woman was stripped naked and raped. Miss Callaway, now 58 and living in Las Vegas, said she was 'shocked' when she learned that the suspect in the Jaycee Lee Dugard case was the same man who attacked her.
Her ordeal came to an end when a policeman on a routine patrol noticed a light on in the storage facility in the early hours of the morning and went inside to investigate. Clifford Conrad found Garrido shirtless and wearing jeans. 'I asked him what he was doing in there', said officer Conrad, who is now retired.
Before Garrido could answer, a female voice cried out from inside the warehouse, and a woman emerged from behind a curtain naked. She told the officer she had been kidnapped and raped. 'Garrido didn't seem nervous or anything,' said the officer. 'He just said they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and they were just having consensual sex.'
Garrido was taken to the police station where he was questioned by Detective Dan De Maranville. The detective recalled: 'I said, "What the hell are you resorting to this for?"
'He said that's the only way he gets sexual gratification. The guy should have been castrated while he was in prison.'
Garrido, who was 25 at the time of the attack, was given a 50-year sentence for kidnap and rape but served only 11 years. Three years after his release he snatched Jaycee, then aged 11, from a bus stop.
Mr Conrad, now 66, said he was outraged that Garrido was free to kidnap Jaycee Dugard. 'Someone dropped the ball,' he said. 'How he got out I'll never know. I guess a lot of people dropped the ball his whole life.'


MORE HORROR STORIESGarrido's bookshelf, pictured above, features a bizarre collection of tatty novels ranging from horror and fantasy to Danielle Steel romances.
However, one author dominates the hundred or so paperbacks - American horror writer Dean Koontz.

Bizarre: Garrido's book collection ranged from horror to fantasy to romance

His book Intensity, seen in the centre of the middle shelf, features a delusional character who turns into a serial killer and rapist, at one stage keeping a young girl in the cellar.
Garrido is also a fan of the Psychosphere trilogy by British writer Brian Lumley. The books revolve around a world in which people use their mental powers to control others. Garrido calls himself 'the man who spoke with his mind' and believes he has telepathic abilities.
Also in the collection are a handful of children's favourites including The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.
Four Danielle Steel romances, more likely to have been

Unknown said...

This is really horrific, I hope the dogs are successful in finding the bodies for the distraught families xx


And there could be more victims they do not even know about, which is why a dog trained to sniff out corpses was working in Garrido's garden last night.
Suspicions: Cadaver sniffer dogs arrive to search the Garrido garden in Antioch yesterday to see if there are any links to open cases
Police also fear three more schoolgirls who lived just a few miles from his home may have been his victims.
Michaela Garecht, nine, Ilene Misheloff, 13, and four-year-old Amanda Campbell were all snatched from the street in daylight and their bodies have never been found.
A senior officer in the El Dorado Sheriff 's Department confirmed the girls' abductions in the San Francisco Bay area were identical to Jaycee's kidnap.

Unknown said...

and so in 1976 authorities knew how incredibly dangerous this man was, but he only served 11 years of a fifty year sentence.

For all the US has the reputation as being so hard on criminals, this seems to belie the myth.

Risk assessment of prisoners needs to be taken much more seriously and if they are assessed as posing a risk of serious harm they should never, ever be released. Just look what this man has gone on to do..

hope4truth said...

Oh you have a new thread I thought the below comment had vanished but it is better placed here x

Wiz

What really disturbs me with the press and the Jaycee story is there is absoloutly no reason to mention the McCann's when reporting about it.

There are many parents in The United Kingdom who have a missing child and each of them must have read the story and thought Is there still a chance for my child? And I would imagine their normal reaction will be very mixed the Joy of finding thier child and the terror that their Son or Daughter could be being abused on a daily basis living in squalar and frightend for their lives.

I guess one of the most horifying thoughts is you child is growing up in the pits of hell being abused tortured and god knows what else and they may never be rescued and will die alone one day still deep down inside waiting for their parents to come and rescue them.

If there is hope there is also terror and 18 years later having your daughter come back to you is a big reason to celebrate but the pain and heartache for all of them will continue for many years to come.

Maybe what the papers should be reporting is how the Mother and Stepfather of Jaycee reacted to her abduction 18 years ago. The Stepfather was a suspect in his words until the day she was found and he and Jaycee's Mother divorced over the presure. I would like to know how unhelpful they were when she was taken how many questions were refused and how happy her Mother was on each painful anniversary she went through each of the 18 years Jaycee was missing.

Then lets take a look at the McCann's and how devestated they were on Madelines 4th Birthday because it is very easy to look sad put your hand in front of your face and shake as if you are crying. To produce tears is harder and keeping it up is very difficult indeed. Which is why on Madelines 4th Birthday I firmly belive they thought they had pulled it off good hearted people were there to cheer them on and they got caught up in it all they were the new celebs in town and their masks slipped and they showed the pure joy of it all working out for them.

I firmley believe the tide is turning the press are going about it by discrediting the detectives and soon I belive they will start to take the accounts apart (no doubt saying it the fault of everyone bar Kate and Gerry) and then there is Clarance he will come in for a huge battering after all he has told them what to say and was earning a lot of money out of a missing child...

xxx

hope4truth said...

Hi Viv

The American justice system is seriously flawed in many ways.

I write to a woman who is serving a life sentance for Murder in America and the reason I started writing to her was she was only 14 when the Murder took place.

Before I wrote to her I looked up her case and she was with 3 older guys for a few days getting drunk and getting into trouble and one day the three guys went off without her and came back with a new car.

It turns out they had killed a man and hijacked the car and all 4 of them were sentenced to life.

She was 15 when she went to jail and is now 31 she has a parole hearing in 2014 but she is not sure she will be set free she says there are many people with her who have done less serious things and are still locked up 25 years later.

The thing that struck me with her case was everyone said she was not with the Men when they killed the man she was placed elsewhere when it happend but because she was in the car when they were arrested and had been with them in the days before that was it they tried her as an adult and threw away the key.

She would be the first to say she was stupid and that the man killed did not get a second chance and it is humbeling to see how she just get's on with it and does not feel sorry for herself.

But looking at the monster who took Jaycee how the hell did he ever get a second chance???

xxx

Wizard said...

Creepy Phil became creepy, according to his brother interviewed last night on tv, due to a bump on the head.

Hmm….

Wizard said...

The dogs are brought in.

I was just wondering is it likely, if the assumptions are correct, that he would bury his victims in his own back yard?

On the other hand is it likely he would abduct a young girl and keep her camped out in his own back yard for years and years. The answer to that is no but of course he did.

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz

I think there is a clear parallel to be drawn between this couple and Fred and Rose West. The bizarre set up in the back garden clearly suggests he had a lot to hide, some of which we know is more than obvious.

The Wests never had a problem about burything their human waste in their own backyard, in fact, with serial killers it is like they wish to keep their victims nearby. The ultimate in controlling behaviour!

Going to eat, laters, but I know issues that fascinate us both!

xx

Wizard said...

Viv you say:

“What really disturbs me with the press and the Jaycee story is there is absolutely no reason to mention the McCann's when reporting about it.”

This is the angle they are using to draw their British readers into the American case - abduction.

I was reading an American blogger on the Daily Mail site this morning who was congratulating the Mail on their coverage of this story. They said the American press was not giving the same amount of coverage and details as the Mail articles.

Well I’m sure the American media is not as bad as the British current coverage of the McCanns story.

To copy the British media’s recent examples the American story on creepy Phil would be:

He was running an outward bounds camp site for girls in the rear of his property and there was nothing wrong or abnormal in that. Anyone who thought differently was hateful, malicious and jealous.

Well a bit over the top but I’m sure you know what I mean.

Di said...

Hi all

Viv

Thanks for the articles. This is a truly tragic case. Maybe Jaycee and her daughters are the tip of the iceberg, we will have to wait and see. However if Garrido is responsible for the other disappearances then I hope their families do get closure.

I am glad to see the cadavar dogs got good press and their good record was mentioned.

Hope/Wizard

I agree, why are the McCann's connected with this story at all. I wonder if they now regret jumping in so soon, perhaps they should have waited to see how it panned out.

Those dogs, those pesky dogs.

Unknown said...

hiya all

Hope that is a very interesting story about the American girl and certainly sounds like a terrible miscarriage of justice. It is really kind of you to befriend her in that way and I sure she benefits from your support.

The way the Americans handled Garrido sounds every bit as the failings with Huntley here, and many other similar cases, all the warning signs were there, no one put two and two together and did the simple things to just protect the public. This always ends in the most terrible tragedy.

Garrido comes to the cops attention, the neighbours try to say what is going on, but they are told we do not have a search warrant. It is really shameful.

Huntley has a past record of preying on young girls but he gets a job as a school caretaker and a compliant mistress who he manages to terrorise.

There can be no similar excuses for Garrido's wife. I wonder if, as in Fred and Rose West's case, she will turn out to be just as bad, if not worse.

Unknown said...

Di, that is such a good point, there is a form of justice for Kate and Gerry McCann in that everything they seise upon to try and gain some sympathetic press just turns out so badly for them.

Now they are bringing in the dogs.

I think the Mail/Standard are seriously out to redress the balance with Kate and Gerry McCann. They may not be able to outright accuse them, but the press they are giving the McCanns is devastating, nevertheless.

It always has been really, but I wonder, of late there seems to be a renewed vigour against them, starting with that Jan Muir article in March. Clarence seems to have really fallen out with The Daily Mail and only has the Sun and The Mirror left. Even they just take the mick with their stories although some clearly soak them up. More fool them. The Editors only care about battling it out between the two of them, they owe no allegiance to Kate and Gerry McCann. When the chips are down for them, they will be the first to get the knives out with a far better story, something nearer the truth!

Unknown said...

Maybe the Editors of the Daily Mail/Standard know something we do not. That is often the case with newspapers, they know far more than they are allowed to tell but perhaps the editorial decisions start to paint a picture?

Let us hope so!

Di said...

Hi Viv

If I was a betting person, I would put my money on the fund about to outed as fraudulent!

Di said...

Wishfull thinking|I know, but perhaps not!

Unknown said...

Well Di, I really respect your opinion and you often turn out to be incredibly insightful as to what is going on, correct!

I think your assessment seems entirely credible and I have never thought it was wishful thinking that the British Police just do not like this bunch. All of those serious agencies investigating and opposing McCanns at the High Court, even the Attorney General.

They are, and always have been, in grave trouble.

In the meantime, we love The Daily Mail and The Evening Standard xx

Unknown said...

Oh Di, your avatar is just fabulous.

Is that your baby?

PS, Nanday had another shower with his mom on my shoulder today, but don't tell Rosie, she already says I am mad!

Even madder, he then has a blow dry so that he does not get cold xx

Unknown said...

The other thought I have Di, this Select Committee seem to be going on for an awful long time with no sign of a report in sight.

Maybe the police would not want them to do that?

xx

Di said...

Hi Viv

My avatar has not changed for months lol. No baby yet!

However, with the weather this summer I think I should change pussy from the sunbathing mode!

Leave it with me ;o)

Unknown said...

hiya Di

My comp or something I am now doing without even realising it:-)) suddenly is bringing up the page again showing the avatars. It is a very cute little pussy!

Sunbathing, just so intensely cute, it kind of put me in mind of Nanday chirping with delight in the nice warm Amazon rain forest type shower he has

Unknown said...

I FOUND MORE
dinah on Sun 23 Aug 2009, 9:06 pm

.Part 1 the rest follows in a moment


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Author Message
Estelle Post subject: SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT MADELEINEPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:55 am

Mafia Boss

Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:25 am
Posts: 2342
Location: Sydney, Australia This is news that seems to have been missed by many posters on this forum:

10 sept 07.

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia...dCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com... 86581&page=25 post #366

Madeleine McCann case

PJ believes Kate killed her daughter

Madeleine may have been assaulted.

But she could also have died because of an accident, after having been sedated to sleep.
This is the Policia Judiciaria’s conviction, as they believe that Kate killed Maddie, either accidentally or in a conscious form.

There are no certainties, just clues that point to the child’s mother. For her behaviour, for the way she acted about her daughter’s disappearance, for the cadaver smells and forensic evidence that were collected by scientific police.

Kate presented herself at Policia Judiciaria on Thursday, visibly out of control. Police forces that were contacted by CM say she had several hysterical reactions during the more than 13 hours of interrogation. And she refused to answer many questions. She did not explain the blood that was found in the car, she did not answer whether she slapped her daughter in the face. And she didn’t even clearly confirm if she sedated the children.

Only the facts are certainties for the PJ. And those facts revealed it was Kate who usually took care of the children, putting them to bed regularly, while Gerry played tennis or rested by the pool. The deposition of the senior British citizen (Pamela Fenn), who occupied an apartment on the floor above the one that was used by the McCanns, also indicates that Kate sometimes became violent. She lost control, and it was easy to hear the girl’s screams, calling out for her father. Another witness, also a British citizen, refers the same scenario. Kate seemed to have moments of aggression towards her children, while the father, although more absent, revealed more emotional control.

Kate refuted all these suspicions at the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, where she was interrogated, and it was then that the penal circumstances of negligent murder were explained to her. CM knows that the investigators, while not confronting her directly with a possible aggression, explained her that by not confessing to the accident, she could be opening the doors into a more serious penal setting.

Which means it would stop being treated as negligent homicide, and would pass into a qualified crime or with eventual harm.

Father asks PJ for evidence

Gerry also had an unusual behaviour during the judicial interrogation. When he was confronted with the PJ’s suspicions, Maddie’s father repeatedly asked for evidence to be presented to him. He did not promptly deny the facts, but was trying to assess whether the authorities had enough clues to support the homicide theory.

For PJ, there is another strange situation. If it was an accident, why did the McCanns get rid of the body and simulated an abduction? The possibility that they could be trying to hide something more than a thoughtless action is on the table, and investigators are just waiting to exhaust all the chances that they may explain the death themselves. After that, they will advance the formal murder charge, with hiding of the corpse.

Unknown said...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gal ... 11,00.html

January 09, 2008

Blood found 'was definitely Madeleine's'

THE international hunt for missing British girl Madeleine McCann took several new twists yesterday as the investigation appeared to focus more tightly on her parents.

Portuguese police moved closer to charging the parents Kate and Gerry McCann after demanding the mother's diary be seized as trial evidence.

Madeleine, 3, disappeared from a room in a Portuguese holiday resort in May while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.

'Blood was definitely Maddie's'

Blood found in a car hired by her parents weeks after she disappeared definitely came from the British girl, it was reported yesterday.

The Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha cited police sources as saying new tests on blood found in the hire car conclusively showed it was Madeleine's.

"The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria. The blood found in the McCanns' car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat," the paper said.

Portuguese police have also reportedly cast doubt on evidence an expat Briton was spotted near the resort the night of the disappearance. They say Robert Murat, who has been questioned several times, maintains he was home on the night and that the man seen may have been a friend of the McCanns.

The McCanns - officially suspects in Portugal - reacted in fury to the claims.

Kate's diary 'points to her involvement'

Portuguese newspapers have already published what they claim are extracts from Kate's journal and say the diary is fundamental to the belief that the 39-year-old GP and mother-of-three was involved in the death of her daughter.

Passages are said to reveal a mother at her wits' end coping with three hysterical kids. Her twins, Sean and Amelie, were aged 2 when their sister vanished. Cardiologist Gerry, 39, is said to be portrayed as an absent dad happy to leave his wife to shoulder the burden while he relaxed on holiday.

Unsourced claims in the Portuguese media said police believed the child was killed in the apartment and her body moved in a car hired 25 days after she vanished.

Parents 'depressed'

In England, The Sun newspaper has reported the parents are depressed that again wild rumour and speculation is being presented as fact.

The British paper claims it is ridiculous to suggest Madeleine's blood was in the car because she was never in it.

According to Correio Da Manha, the police case against the McCanns consisted of sniffer dogs and that traces of blood indicate the presence of the little girl's body behind a sofa and in the trunk of the car.

Kate and Gerry have always maintained there are innocent explanations for DNA found.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23 ... 33,00.html

Unknown said...

Interesting old stuff, I knew I had read somewhere about Kate being aggressive with the children. That was back in the days when I was reading Portuguese quite fluently:-)))

Unknown said...

Unfortunately for Kate that would tie in with Maddie repeatedly crying Daddy, Daddy, on the Tuesday night.

Oh dear!

I still think it is a great pity they did not just put Kate in the cells for a bit.

The above does explain where the deal bit came from. But actually they were merely warning her, if you do not admit it was an accident you could be looking at a much more in depth and serious investigation/charge. That is not offering a deal at all, just a warning!

Unknown said...

and Gerry was not denying anything just kept on demanding well what evidence have you got.

I have to admit this increasingly does look like it was Kate! It would certainly explain why she appears so much more desperate than Gerry of late, with far more over the top comments and why she just would not go back to Portugal.

Maybe he thinks he would get probation and he allowed to look after the twins? That would be unlikely I think, but he is ever the optimist. Certainly we have always thought he was setting her up to take the fall, maybe that is understandable?

But, this is just a newspaper report, albeit one I have consistently found to be a very accurate newspaper!

Unknown said...

Wiz, maybe it could also explain him putting that obvious distance between them on Oprah and her keep grabbing out for him, rather than the other way around?

Him standing there reading that first press release, her head bowed?

Him grabbing her and putting some bruises on her? Entirely forgivable if this is true..

But why was he really laughing on Madeleine's birthday?

Unknown said...

and then we have Rosie's incredibly abusive reaction to Tony Bennett?

Ignoring all others, the hatred is now focussed upon him..

Not that I am excusing what he is doing, but it does provide some explanations.

We have always thought Rosie says far too much and lets far too much slip. He/she is a disaster!

Unknown said...

I better shut up and go to bed, otherwise I will be telling myself Rosie is Kate next:-))

Unknown said...

..or Susan Healy lol!

Unknown said...

Ah, the incredibly Pro McCann Daily Mail, strikes again:-))

Portuguese police 'came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann'

By REBECCA CAMBER 14th December 2007 Daily Mail

Suspect: Portuguese police reportedly came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann
Police came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann over her daughter's disappearance, a new book has sensationally claimed.

Detectives questioning the mother allegedly wanted to charge her with "homicide with eventual intent" - a crime that allows a suspect to be remanded in custody until their trial.

But the night before she was interrogated for the second day, the public prosecutor in the case advised the detective then in charge - Goncalo Amaral - that they did not have enough evidence, it was claimed.

The revelation comes as one of Portugal's top crime reporters states that if the McCanns were Portuguese they would be in jail by now.

Hernani Carvalho suggested that the couple, who are suspects in their daughter's disappearance, only escaped custody as they were given privileged treatment because they are British.

He said: "Many people are up in arms with the privileged treatment that was given to the McCann couple. If they were Portuguese they would have been in jail by now."

His comments follow the publication of a new book called A Culpa dos McCann - the guilt of the McCanns.

It claims that police were torn over whether to accuse her of "negligent homicide" - the equivalent of involuntary manslaughter - which does not allow police to remand a suspect in custody, or the more serious "homicide with eventual intent" - manslaughter.

Portuguese mayor condemns McCanns: 'They are guilty of abandoning Madeleine AT LEAST'
The author, Manuel Catarino, editorial chief of Portuguese daily newspaper, Correio da Manha said Kate was "one step away from prison" on the eve of her interrogation on September 7 when she was officially named as an arguido.

He wrote: "The coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, and the prosecutor Magalhães e Meneses, discussed the possibility of serving Kate up to the criminal instruction judge for him to apply for her to be remanded in custody.

"But both men were consumed by doubts on the telephone: they did not know whether it was a case of 'negligent homicide' which did not allow remanding in custody, or whether to accuse her of 'homicide with eventual intent', a more serious crime, enough to remand the suspect in custody while they await trial. "The prosecutor, with little trust in the solidity of the arguments they had to convince the instruction judge, preferred to wait for better evidence."

Goncalo Amaral, who was later sacked as head of the inquiry, brought Kate McCann in for questioning after sniffer dogs detected specs of blood in their apartment and the scent of a corpse on Kate McCann and in the hire car they rented after Madeleine vanished.

Kate McCann denied any involvement in her daughter's disappearance, claiming that the stains were caused by a nose bleed and she said that any scent of death may have come from her work as a family doctor in Rothley, Leicestershire.

No charges were ever brought against the couple who were allowed to leave Portugal days later. Mr Catarino also claims that police and the McCanns had a heated row about whether to release photographs of Madeleine after she disappeared.

Police were said to fear that distributing the images may put her life in danger as any abductor would panic and kill her, but the McCanns insisted a publicity campaign was their best hope of finding their daughter. "

Unknown said...

Ah, the incredibly Pro McCann Daily Mail, strikes again:-))

Portuguese police 'came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann'

By REBECCA CAMBER 14th December 2007 Daily Mail

Suspect: Portuguese police reportedly came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann
Police came within an inch of jailing Kate McCann over her daughter's disappearance, a new book has sensationally claimed.

Detectives questioning the mother allegedly wanted to charge her with "homicide with eventual intent" - a crime that allows a suspect to be remanded in custody until their trial.

But the night before she was interrogated for the second day, the public prosecutor in the case advised the detective then in charge - Goncalo Amaral - that they did not have enough evidence, it was claimed.

The revelation comes as one of Portugal's top crime reporters states that if the McCanns were Portuguese they would be in jail by now.

Hernani Carvalho suggested that the couple, who are suspects in their daughter's disappearance, only escaped custody as they were given privileged treatment because they are British.

He said: "Many people are up in arms with the privileged treatment that was given to the McCann couple. If they were Portuguese they would have been in jail by now."

His comments follow the publication of a new book called A Culpa dos McCann - the guilt of the McCanns.

It claims that police were torn over whether to accuse her of "negligent homicide" - the equivalent of involuntary manslaughter - which does not allow police to remand a suspect in custody, or the more serious "homicide with eventual intent" - manslaughter.

Portuguese mayor condemns McCanns: 'They are guilty of abandoning Madeleine AT LEAST'
The author, Manuel Catarino, editorial chief of Portuguese daily newspaper, Correio da Manha said Kate was "one step away from prison" on the eve of her interrogation on September 7 when she was officially named as an arguido.

He wrote: "The coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, and the prosecutor Magalhães e Meneses, discussed the possibility of serving Kate up to the criminal instruction judge for him to apply for her to be remanded in custody.

"But both men were consumed by doubts on the telephone: they did not know whether it was a case of 'negligent homicide' which did not allow remanding in custody, or whether to accuse her of 'homicide with eventual intent', a more serious crime, enough to remand the suspect in custody while they await trial. "The prosecutor, with little trust in the solidity of the arguments they had to convince the instruction judge, preferred to wait for better evidence."

Goncalo Amaral, who was later sacked as head of the inquiry, brought Kate McCann in for questioning after sniffer dogs detected specs of blood in their apartment and the scent of a corpse on Kate McCann and in the hire car they rented after Madeleine vanished.

Kate McCann denied any involvement in her daughter's disappearance, claiming that the stains were caused by a nose bleed and she said that any scent of death may have come from her work as a family doctor in Rothley, Leicestershire.

No charges were ever brought against the couple who were allowed to leave Portugal days later. Mr Catarino also claims that police and the McCanns had a heated row about whether to release photographs of Madeleine after she disappeared.

Police were said to fear that distributing the images may put her life in danger as any abductor would panic and kill her, but the McCanns insisted a publicity campaign was their best hope of finding their daughter. "

Unknown said...

****claiming that the stains were caused by a nose bleed*****

No wonder they thought she slapped Madeleine!

Wizard said...

Kate's involvement – following earlier posts I can’t help but recall a witness statement which came out a few days after Madeleine went missing.

A witness saw her slapping Madeleine in an attempt to control unruly behaviour. This statement has been whoosh clunk clicked now of course and is not in the published pj report - but it was said and reported in the press.

What inference can be drawn from this and the legitimacy of the statement is speculative. I do think, if true, it is indicator KM was having difficulty dealing with 3 small children though.

Nothing unusual in this - unless of course one child goes missing under mysterious circumstances. This places the statement in different light.

Di said...

Hi all

I have just been on McCannfiles trying to look up a statement and cannot access anything.

Has something happened to the site or is it just me. I would be grateful if someone would have a look for me.

Di said...

Hi Viv

Some interesting posts.

I had not known there was another British witness who witnessed Kate being agressive towards Madeleine.

I was trying to look up Mrs Fenn's statement where she mentioned phoning her friend to tell her about the crying incident. Did her friend say she was not surprised or words to that effect? If so why would she not be surprised, unless she knew Madeleine or the twins had been crying before. However, I could be mistaken about the statement.

Di said...

Hi Wizard

I suppose in a way I feel sorry for Kate, if as stated she was left to cope with the children every evening, whilst Gerry played tennis or relaxed by the pool. He certainly comes across as extremely selfish.

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz and Di

Di: Brilliant observation again, I think!

If Mrs Fenn's friend was not surprised at the crying going on for a lengthy period "Daddy, Daddy", that would seem to place it in context of what else Mrs Fenn may have told her about the conduct of Kate McCann.

Wiz: There most certainly were reports in the Daily Express about Kate being aggressive with her children from "other holidaymakers" if I remember correctly. Is this the vital issue that caused the McCanns to pick on the Daily Express, but not The Daily Mail? I suppose from a strategic point of view, if you are seen to be attacking all of the press, it does not look so good. Their argument is they just picked out the worst offender. But from Gerry's point of view, why did he wait so long to sue the Daily Express? Could it be he was waiting until there was sufficient to actually found a libel case? Some of the reports being true and capable of being verified as such, i.e. a British holidaymaker seeing Kate being abusive with her children?

The other crucial thing that was in the Express that also went WHOOSH was the issue of Madeleine running away at bedtime along the little pathways and hiding for 30 minutes.

If, as would seem to be the case, Gerry was always lazing by the pool or playing tennis at child bedtime, then by obvious deduction, Maddie was running away from Kate.

On the night before, the Wednesday, I have read either from a statement by Russell O'Brien or Gerry that those two were already in the TAPAS restaurant at 8.15. This does seem to set the context as to what was going on.

Was it Gerry's guilty conscience that also let out, in the early stages, that he sent David Payne, to see if Kate was OK and needed help bringing the children out to play. This was apparently the routine after they had been bathed. They would go and play near the tennis courts for about another hour prior to bed. There is one picture of Gerry playing with Madeleine near some play equipment and she does look very happy and excited by him. Sean is sitting on the floor next to another tot with reddish brown hair, clearly not Amelie. Perhaps the youngest child of Jane Tanner looking at the hair colour.

So the crucial break from routine this night was the children being bathed and read for bed around 6 ish and according to Kate, then being too tired to go out and play any more. It is quite impossible to imagine that a child aged almost four would have been so tired at such an early point on holiday. The twins I can believe because apparently they were prevented from taking an afternoon nap like the other tots which in itself seems quite abusive. Perhaps to ensure they were tired to go to bed very early on the night.

So, for whose convenience? A worn out Kate, under pressure to get them off to bed early, so that she could go and join her selfish and lazy husband?

I am beginning to think this is the most likely scenario of all.

But, I do have sympathy for Kate. We can see on many photos Madeleine literally bouncing around and it seems she was forced to try and get this little girl off to bed at night very early. That must have been very difficult for her. I can certainly see why the police feel sedatives may have been used also. Not just because of the twins failing to wake up but because of the whole situation of Kate having to get these kids off to bed very early in the evening why he is swanning off being selfish and lazy.

In those circumstances I can understand him feeling an incredible guilt trip and mounting a massive coverup to protect Kate.

I think Kate is under extreme pressure and something like those leaflets in Rothley could push her over the edge. I do think she needs to be carefully watched now the twins are at school. But I am sure the relevant authorities have exactly the same concerns as we do.

Unknown said...

But the really terrible thing is, if Kate did assault Maddie, perhaps knocking her up the wall which is a very common way in which parents cause the child to die, did the twins witness this? Is this why they got sedated?

I suppose I go back to thinking about that comment "they have taken her" and her hysterical reaction. She did not mean to kill Maddie, she was forced to sit in that restaurant, she comes back and her dead child has gone, no more even a last cuddle.

It is enough to cause any woman to go completely hysterical.

I really do not feel Gerry McCann did her any favours, she would have been treated sympathetically and I do not think she would have got a very lengthy sentence.

Unknown said...

Di, I am not having any trouble getting on McCann files:

There is no disclosure in relation to Kate's first day of grilling as a witness, but there is this, from the following day, when they made her an official suspect:

Kate is asked:

1. On May 3 2007, around 10.00pm, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch? - She did not respond.

2. Did you search inside the bedroom wardrobe? (she replied that she wouldn’t answer) - She did not respond.

3. (shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents? - She did not respond.

4. Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (whose photo was shown to her) been tampered with? Did somebody go behind that sofa? - She did not respond.

5. How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected your daughter Madeleine's disappearance? - She did not respond.

6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted? - She did not respond.

7. Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the 'Tapas' and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment. - She did not respond.

8. Why didn't you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn't you ask them later on? - She did not respond.

9. When you raised the alarm at the 'Tapas' what exactly did you say and what were your exact words? - She did not respond.

10. What happened after you raised the alarm in the 'Tapas'? - She did not respond.

Unknown said...

11. Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the veranda? - She did not respond.

12. Who contacted the authorities? - She did not respond.

13. Who took part in the searches? - She did not respond.

14. Did anyone outside of the group learn of Madeleine's disappearance in those following minutes? - She did not respond.

15. Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance? - She did not respond.

16. What does 'we let her down' mean? - She did not respond.

17. Did Jane tell you that night that she'd seen a man with a child? - She did not respond.

18. How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted? - She did not respond.

19. During the searches, with the police already there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way? - She did not respond.

20. Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs? - She did not respond.

21. Who did you phone after the occurrence? - She did not respond.

22. Did you call Sky News? - She did not respond.

23. Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor? - She did not respond.

24. Did you ask for a priest? - She did not respond.

25. By what means did you divulge Madeleine's features, by photographs or by any other means? - She did not respond.

26. Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie's bed without moving? - She did not respond.

27. What was your behaviour that night? - She did not respond.

28. Did you manage to sleep? - She did not respond.

29. Before travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling? - She did not respond.

30. What was Madeleine's behaviour like? - She did not respond.

31. Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication? - She did not respond.

32. What was Madeleine's relationship like with her brother and sister? - She did not respond.

33. What was Madeleine's relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates? - She did not respond.

34. As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked? - She did not respond.

Unknown said...

35. What is your medical speciality? - She did not respond.

36. Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services? - She did not respond.

37. Did you work every day? - She did not respond.

38. At a certain point you stopped working, why? - She did not respond.

39. Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness? - She did not respond.

40. Is it true that sometimes you despaired with your children's behaviour and that left you feeling very uneasy? - She did not respond.

41. Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine's custody to a relative? - She did not respond.

42. In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication? - She did not respond.

43. In the case files you were shown canine forensic testing films, where you can see them marking due to detection of the scent of human corpse and blood traces, also human, and only human, as well as all the comments of the technician in charge of them. After watching and after the marking of the scent of corpse in your bedroom beside the wardrobe and behind the sofa, pushed up against the sofa wall, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? - She did not respond.

44. When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? - She did not respond.

45. When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? - She did not respond.

46. When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? - She did not respond.

47. When confronted with the results of Maddie's DNA, whose analysis was carried out in a British laboratory, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had? - She did not respond.

48. Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter's disappearance? - She did not respond.

49. Are you aware that in not answering the questions you are jeopardising the investigation, which seeks to discover what happened to your daughter? - Kate replied: "Yes, if that's what the investigation thinks."

50. Do you have anything to add? - Kate replied negatively.

Given the opportunity to comment, Carlos Pinto de Abreu said nothing.

At 2.30pm the interview was ended

Kate read through the transcript and agreed to sign, along with the defence lawyer and the interpreter.

Wizard said...

Hi,

In the Jaycee case the Mail reports today:

“A fragment of bone has been uncovered by cadaver-sniffing dogs on property next door to the house in Antioch, California, where Jaycee Lee Dugard was held captive for 18 years.

Investigators say it is too early to tell if the bone is human.”

The bones will have to be analyzed in the lab of course but as these dogs are human cadaver dogs it would be unlikely the bone fragments are anything else but human.

Di McCann files seems to be OK may be its was just a glitch.

Di said...

Hi Viv

Quote: Did the twins witness this? Is this why they got sedated?

Not forgetting the PJ wanted the twins checked out at the hospital to see if they were ok, but no the parents refused.

They also refused to let anyone ask the twins if they saw anything, I can't remember their exact words something to do with the twins lack of communication skills. Children of the twins age are very observant, perhaps that was the problem for Kate & Gerry.

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz and thanks for that.

If there are graves at that site, there would surely be more than a fragment of bone? Unless something particularly gruesome was done with the bodies.

Whist this man was on his home made crystal meth I suppose the mind boggles as to what he may have been capable of.

I suppose we know with this case there are going to be continuing particularly gruesome revelations. I hope she was not in that tent that men are reported to have visited at night, one after the other.

Unknown said...

Hiya Di, I do get the impression if this crime had happened in UK, it would have been solved pretty quickly.

I am sure with the language difficulties and Gerry getting the Consular Service involved at a very early stage, the PJ had their hands tied in terms of investigations and were handling them with kid gloves because they were a fairly well to do British couple, who they knew would shout abuse and cause the police a great deal of trouble.

I think UK Police would have just thoroughly debriefed the twins and immediately had medical tests done and brought in the child psychologists etc. That is clearly part of the problem and it is most definitely not a criticism of Portuguese Police.

Unknown said...

In fact I think it was at a fairly early stage that Kate and Gerry said they were working with child psychologists. Presumably that was a British intervention and one they had to co-operate with, but did they allow the twins to be alone with them or was it more a case of Kate and Gerry taking advice?

I suppose it is the old jurisdictional problem, at that stage the British Police were not running the show and could not subject the McCanns to British laws and procedures. Very complex and very difficult, I think.

Unknown said...

I suppose it brings us back to the issue that this was, maybe a relatively straightforward crime, but Gerry changed that.

He has defrauded the public and very seriously perverted the course of justice. If I were the judge I know which one I would be gunning for!

Di said...

Hi Viv

Yes I agree, if this case had been tried in the UK it would now be resolved. Maybe there is still hope for that to happen.

Thanks Wizard, Viv for checking McCannfiles for me, I can now get on.

Off to watch tv.

Unknown said...

Hiya Di

I am sure the British are now running the show, the investigation got off to a shaky start and that is an additional difficulty now to resolution.

But the continuing conduct, yes, I think a resolution by the British is what they will be planning to happen.

Telly sounds like a good idea!

xx

Unknown said...

Interesting actually, it has been a considerable time since the McCanns publically asked for money, but still there is the paypal button.

Most unwise I think.

Unknown said...

Maybe we are in for some dramatic announcement, they are closing the Find Maddie Fund.

Unknown said...

Dr Christian Ludke - Criminal Psychologist



Interviewer: You have since early on warned that behavior of Gerry and Kate McCann is pointing towards them being involved, what had made you feel that way?

Ludke: In the latest years I have often been in contact with parents who had lost their child due to a crime. They are under massive shock, were helpless, were insecure, withdrawing themselves. They have an inner struggle, blaming themselves for possibly not have looked enough after their child.

Interviewer: Was it different with the McCanns?

Ludke: They live completely different, often harmonic. Already after a few days they went jogging, as if that was a normal thing to do, they always came together. These parents took matters into their own hands instead of leaving matters in the hands of the police. They distanced themselves from their two other children by going on a European tour, that to me is very strange.

Interviewer: Maybe it was an accident?

Ludke: No. In such a case, after the first shock they would have trusted the police. Both parents are doctors, in case of an accident they would have tried to get help. It is even more unrealistic that of all people two doctors would leave 3 children alone in a strange environment, even more at night. I have many doctors as patients. As professionals they know all that can happen to children, and as parents they are overly protective.

Interviewer: What could have been the motive, to disappear their own daughter?

Ludke: There are parents who have little to no emotional binding with a child. Often such a child is considered a burden, that is treated in a brutal or perverse way. The most known is the Munchhausen-by proxy-Syndrome: The mother hurts the child until it is almost not alive anymore and then calls for the police because she herself has a huge wish for attention.

Interviewer: Do you think it is possible that Madeleine’s parents have killed Madeleine together and hidden her?

Ludke: I believe both have perpetrator knowledge.

Interviewer: You mean, the McCanns have planned the death of their daughter?

Ludke: Yes, it is possible that they have planned the act for a long time, at least in must have been in their minds often and they must have spoken about it together. Otherwise they would now be contradicting each others.

Unknown said...

Interviewer: When parents are guilty of killing their child, do they block that out of their minds?

Ludke: not likely. Both are very much conscious, give interviews, travel. It is for them easier to lie than to tell the truth.

One can rule out a psychoses. Many things are pointing towards mentally disturbed. The children of the McCanns were conceived artificially, that can lead to problems in parenthood. Maybe a lack of self esteem that is not often talked about. Maybe the child had to die for a problem that had been going on for many years.

Interviewer: But the McCanns seem perfect and loving parents.

Ludke: That image to the outside world can be due to a guilt mechanism when on a media campaign, and to distract from the real problem.

Interviewer: Why do they not go back to Great Britain?

Ludke: That also speaks against them, when someone looses a child they want to be with loved ones in a trusted surrounding. When they continue to stay on that resort, there were something terrible happened the worse that can happen to a parent, being loosing a child, that points towards a permanent survival instinct, images of what happened must pop up when being there. That the McCanns do not return home, where they also can have memories of happy times with their children can be a way out, to not be de-connected with what they have done.

Interviewer: The world thinks it is impossible that these parents can be guilty.

Ludke: the media are probably been taken on by the McCanns. Very soon they have been thinking of themselves instead of of the child. De parents were treated like the Beckhams. In his Internet diary the father writes almost daily about that and irrelevant/banal things, which shirt he was wearing, what the weather is like. That isn’t a father that is worried. Statistically 70 percent of all the violence against children is caused by the parents, family members or friends. That has unfortunately not been looked into. The Portuguese police was treated very unfairly when pointing towards that.

Unknown said...

All of the deleted Daily Express articles on the Joana Morais/Kazlux forum, a pretty fascinating read.

The Daily Express said in one early report a witness description of the kidnapper had been circulated to local pubs, hotels etc, it was from an early witness account. The Daily Express said they knew full details of this person but had agreed with the police to keep it confidential for fear of hurting Madeleine. Of course we now know, there was an early e-fit matching Gerry McCann, that was never released at the time.

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic247.html

Di said...

Hi all

I just wondered if you have read the supposed Michael Shrimpton thread on MM.

Tony Bennett says it is really him, so does Ambersuz.

Why would anyone in his position, post the things he has said?

Some say he is a wum, I am going to keep an open mind simply because I am not sure. I honestly don't know anything about him.

Viv, can you help here.

If he is telling the truth, why spill the beans on an internet forum. If Michael Shrimpton has been cloned, which I am sure is illegal, why would TB come out and say he is for real? Although I have to say Tony is not going along with Mr Shrimpton's own thoughts as to how Madeleine died.

This is all beyond me, any thoughts?

Unknown said...

Hiya Di

I did sort of skim read the thread, but found it boring and completely lacking in credibility.

I have seen a legal opinion to "Bennetts Solicitors" acting on behalf of UKIP about the validity of European law in relation to weights and measures, clearly something that troubled Mr Bennett greatly. Perhaps another hobby horse to climb on? As you may know this again led him to become so obsessed he again acted unlawfully and in a quite bizarre fashion hid some road signs behind bushes and damaged others with black paint etc. For this he finished up in the Crown Court where it was held he did not have the legal intention to commit theft, as he did not intend to permanently deprive the owners of the road signs, but was guilty of causing criminal damage to them.

But at least when looking at that legal opinion that has been put on the web, it does look as though it may have been written by a barrister (or at least a solicitor who can research the law and pontificate about it).

But turning to the email Tony was not sure about disclosing but he did, I think it looks like fabricated rubbish.

I hate to say this Di, but I think it is a mental health issue in desperately needing attention, adulation etc. And no, I am not referring to Mr Shrimpton who I suspect, as he is a bit of a maverick with a good sense of fun, would probably laugh his socks off if he read it!

Unknown said...

Oh Di I forgot to say this legal opinion Mr Bennett commissioned was by Mr Shrimpton. He has said that his fund would pay to get a barrister's opinion the Madeleine case. Presumably he may have thought he would make one up instead! But of course it does not read anything like a legal opinion, more the ramblings of someone who needs help. I do wonder at the time that is obviously put into this stuff...obsessive.

Di said...

Hi Viv

Thanks for your thoughts, I think I need a break Lol.

Unknown said...

Hiya darling

I think maybe we both do, there is a lot of barmy stuff doing the rounds!

Let us sit back and wait for some serious action from the police who are obviously still causing Team McCann a great deal of consternation.

xx

Unknown said...

This probably puts it more eloquently Di, there seem to be a few of them in and around this case!
by Thomas J. Schumacher, Psy.D., R-CSW
More About Thomas...

According to the American Psychological Association, people with narcissistic personality disorder display a chronic and pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. The Greek myth has it that Narcissus died enraptured by the beauty of his own reflection in a pool and feel forever in love with his own reflection. The Narcissist displays an operating style that involves extreme self-involvement, and a grandiose sense of self- importance. They exaggerate their achievements and talents, expecting others to recognize them as superior and often appearing arrogant and extremely self absorbed.

Preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, or beauty, they require the constant attention and admiration of those around them, although they are very choosy about the people and institutions they will associate closely with. They often admit to being snobs and are actually proud of it. They also believe that their problems are unique and can be appreciated only by other “special” high - status people. Despite their charm, the favorable first impression they make, and their wide circle of notable acquaintances, people with this disorder are rarely able to maintain a stable, long-term relationship. With their boastful and pretentious manner, narcissistic persons are seldom receptive to the feelings of others. They show a general lack of empathy, an inability or unwillingness to recognize and identify with your thoughts and needs. Many are often successful, impressively knowledgeable, and articulate, yet bored and doubt ridden as well.

Conversely, healthy narcissism is essential for emotional well-being. We need narcissism to feel confident in ourselves, and to give adequate consideration to others. NOTE: The healthy narcissist does not focus exclusively on themselves, demanding that the world reflect back their false manufactured sense of self and an image of idealized perfection.

If you encounter this personality type, a grasp of the underlying psychology can help you cope more effectively. Lets explore the genesis of the narcissistic personality. As stated above, people with this personality disorder must constantly seek outside support and approval. If they get that support and approval, they feel complete and powerful. Without that support and approval, they feel deprived, exposed, vulnerable, angry, and lonely.

Unknown said...

Well I am not doing any of the pats on the back, not signing up and not going to any flipping meetings either! Neither am I going to produce any extraordinary material that I got because I am special:-)))
--

Most people with this disorder advertise themselves… They seek to be the center of attention. In search of constant approval and praise to reinforce their false grandiose sense of self, they’re “on- stage,” dominating the conversation, often exaggerating their importance.

They lack empathy for others and have an inflated sense of entitlement, requiring others to respond to their demands and grant favors. They need everything for themselves and are envious of others’ accomplishments and possessions.

Criticism or disapproval takes them back to their difficult childhoods, sending them into a defensive fury, since any flaw or mistake means they’re not perfect. Also, when things go wrong, they cannot acknowledge the imperfections implicit in accepting responsibility.

Appearance matters more than substance. Power, wealth and beauty bolster their fragmented self-image.

They may be extremely driven because the “narcissistic fuel” of outside approval is so essential. Many are workaholics. Warning: this personality disorder may not be immediately obvious. The subtle ones won’t show their true colors until “deprived.” Caution: Others may actually pursue and cater to you, if you have something they want, such as looks, money, or status.

Can you change them? Reality check: No. Even constructive criticism is experienced by them as an affront and is met with anger and a sense of betrayal. Placating only results in more demands, not a return of thoughtfulness and consideration. In fact, if you always excuse or rationalize self-absorption and give in to constant demands, you are actually supporting and reinforcing their narcissistic needs and wants.

Unknown said...

This site is especially for conspiracy theorists, apparently I am on the same side as the wicked Rosiepops:-))

Oh, and strange to relate Di, Mr Bennett and his apparent barrister friend features rather a lot on here, it is true there are a lot of cranks blogging on this case!

http://rosaleen-thewhistler.blogspot.com/2009/01/revealed-disinformation-forums.html#comments

Unknown said...

and according to "Rosaleen", "Beowulf" of the former 3As and Joanna Morais actually abducted Maddie, she has their pictures and their e-fits to prove it.

Simply extraordinary!

Di said...

Hi Viv

Thanks for the info and a laugh.

Away with the fairies comes to mind.

Wizard said...

Hi Viv,

I was just reading your comments on Narcisstic Personality Disorder.

Recently I had to look into this disorder over a different matter.

I found the link below the best I’ve seen as it encapsulates the essence of the condition. All played to a Phantom of the Opera backdrop – Phantom himself is of course the archetypal narcissist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frCIcYJuWwg&feature=related

Although a lot of NPD traits can be seen in both the McCanns I think it unlikely they would have the condition as they could not maintain a relationship because of it.

People with NPD drive others away from them - it is very difficult if not impossible to be around someone with this condition for any length of time. Two narcissists together would be a living nightmare.

hope4truth said...

Not sure about you being on the same side as RP Viv but Bennett may very well be. What better way of turning themselves back into the victims of their own Neglecting Crime than to have nasty odd balls like Bennett launching a hate campaign against them...

I followed a link to a site (not sure what the hell it was) but Tony (if it was him and not some prat) was telling a fellow poster off for poor grammer and spelling and actually said when the poster complained he was not at school that "you should be thanking me for putting you right" or words very close to that...

If he is so damn clever how come his 60 reasons are not as watertight as they should be if you are launching an attack on grieving parents...

I dont belive for a second Madeleine was abducted but the likes of a pompus prat like Bennett would convince me that people just want to make trouble for poor Gerry and Kate and so far all his leaflet drop has done is give them sympathy from the press!!!

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz, Di and Hope

Whilst I think Gerry may display some traits of NPD , I do not think Kate does because she is not grandiose and needing, fame, fortune and attention. I think she is actually fairly shy.

I think TB fits the bill perfectly though, note how he repeatedly flies into a rage with anyone who disagrees with him, writes them an arsy letter, threatens to sue them etc. There does not seem to be a day go by without him writing one! He is currently particularly at loggerheads with Nigel Nessling, another real odd ball and they were made for each other, they can feel all their aggression and grandiose fantasies of what they are going to inflict on each other, whilst at the same time, both maintaining they represent justice for Maddie (words simply fail me):

Most people with this disorder advertise themselves… They seek to be the center of attention. In search of constant approval and praise to reinforce their false grandiose sense of self, they’re “on- stage,” dominating the conversation, often exaggerating their importance.

They lack empathy for others and have an inflated sense of entitlement, requiring others to respond to their demands and grant favors. They need everything for themselves and are envious of others’ accomplishments and possessions.

Criticism or disapproval takes them back to their difficult childhoods, sending them into a defensive fury

Unknown said...

Hope, I first queried whether Mr Bennett bats for the McCanns in January 2008 when he was seeking to prosecute them for simple child neglect (knowing surely there was no jurisdiction) at the same time as they were under investigation for far more serious offending.

Full post on those issues here:
http://justiceformaddie.blogspot.com/2008/01/does.html

I think you are right Hope, in saying that Bennett and Rosie are on the same side. He led a vindictive vendetta against the McCanns just purely attacking them in any spiteful way he could devise and getting many others to jump on the bandwagon, e.g. trying to get Gerry and Kate struck off from practising medicine. Those posters who support him do not appear to have a mind of their own and it is difficult to believe they could actually believe they are doing anything to achieve Justice for Maddie.

I think they are seeking to rubbish the opposition to Kate and Gerry McCann and gain them public sympathy.

It is even suggested now the government may consider legislating to stop discussion of such cases on the internet. That is very clearly what Gerry and Mitchell wanted to achieve, knowing that they cannot sue individual bloggers. Bennett has done a great deal to assist them with that.

And people ask me why I dislike him so much!

Unknown said...

Whoops Just posted this on the Jan 2008 thread, although it fitted in well there, in answer to our old friend 2345:-))

I would add I think all this talk of a government conspiracy to protect them is also just part of some cynical scheme by Team McCann.

If the word can get out that the government are on their side, ordinary people would surely take the view they must be innocent and send them some more money!

It is the same with repeatedly insisting British Press are on their side. A good read through of all the articles in the Daily Mail for example would demonstrate the reality. Currently the press are on the side of justice and therefore know they cannot keep on slating Kate and Gerry in the press. They have to let the police get on with their work, by law!

Unknown said...

Bennett has clearly harassed the McCanns and there is overwhelming evidence of that. There is no need for Kate and Gerry to sue him, they can just make a criminal complaint of harassment to the police and I feel they would have an excellent case against him.

So, it begs the question, why are they not doing that?

Maybe they are, if so, that will resolve the issue, but if they do not, then I feel pretty certain Bennett is indeed batting for the McCanns.

Unknown said...

Very well expressed here:

Re: Debbie Butler and the BBC
SelectedSeconds Yesterday at 21:02

.The Famous Grouse wrote:
You wish.

Wishing doesn't come into it, Famous Grouse. The reaction of the media and the public around Rothley was wholly negative. You don't have to be any kind of brain surgeon to work this out.

The Foundation itself claims its website had over a million hits as a result of the fracas - and gained about ten new members. I hardly call that a resounding success. It isn't going to build any kind of mass movement.
And for every person who picked up a leaflet and thought 'Oooh - something fishy about this', there were another two who saw the Express and thought 'good grief - despicable'.

Rothley was a leaflet drop too far. Even many ardent 'antis' think so.
And it may have had a direct impact on the closure of the 3As, as Bren herself has acknowledged. If that's success, let's hope we don't get to see what failure looks like.

Di said...

Hi all

Hope

Tony's comments on grammar were on the MM forum.

I actually cringed when I read what he said to the poster. It was totally uncalled for and downright rude. I could not understand why the Mods did not step in, as it seemed to appear they were taking Tony's side.

I know myself as I have got older, spelling mistakes slip in plus grammar errors. Look also at the many newspaper articles that have grammar and spelling mistakes, is Tony going to take them to task as well.

IMO Tony was totally out of order. It would appear though Tony can do no wrong in some peoples eyes.

Di said...

Hi Viv

As much as I do not agree with some of SelectedSeconds posts, I believe with this one he was spot on.

Although I do hope some people in Rothley are now doing some digging and then making up their own minds.

Unknown said...

Hiya Di

Well you have probably seen that I thought Tony's post to Stampitout was actually discriminatory and made a complaint about that. Only to be told I should not have complained!

I have always had excellent spelling and grammar skills but these days do make mistakes in posts. I most certainly do not expect anyone to use that as a vehicle to be rude and abusive. I do not think it appropriate to expect anyone to have to worry about this when posting on the net anyway! I did cite the case of my own son who has learning disabilities and the fact he had sometimes suffered due to that, it is a further example of a man who holds many prejudices feeling he can just look down on people, no empathy, no respect for humans in every creed and intellectual level. Humans are wonderful and diverse, all have their special qualities, he just does not see it that way, which is very sad.

Unknown said...

Hiya agai Di, I am not sure I can really say I have noticed Selectedsecond's views but this post just stood out for me as being really spot on!

It really succinctly sums up the issues and maybe Tony could learn to do the same:-)))

xx

Unknown said...

I know I should not try and psychoanalyse him, I am not qualified to do that, but, as referred above, what causes such a personality disorder is often being an abused child. This post is just truly shocking where he even tries to suggest we should not believe the little girl's mother. It is like he has a pathological need to attack parents.

And, I am sure there have been other cases of children being removed from the home! Rare but surely not unheard of (friends of the family or the family particularly, not rare at all from an estranged parent):

Re: What GOOD reasons are there for believing that Madeleine McCann was abducted?

Post Tony Bennett Today at 16:42

honestbroker wrote:Peter Voisey's strike was the stuff even a fiction writer would never have dared to contemplate. He entered a ground floor flat while the mother was in the house, snuck into the bathroom, coaxed a little girl about 4 years older than Madeleine in 2007 out of the bath and naked into the freezing cold night air, into his car and away. The mother never heard a thing until she heard a screech of tires. There were no witnesses. Who would have believed that?

TB:
That of course was a complete one-off; there has been NOT ONE other stranger abduction from inside a family home anywhere in the U.K. that I am aware of during the past 50 years or more.

And whilst what happened in the Voisey case to that child was truly appalling, what you have quoted above is the mother's story of what happened. I think you'll find there are reasons to question portions of her story

Di said...

Another post by SelectedSeconds.

I did not know re: The Smith sighting. They thought it was Gerry but one of the witnesses could not be sure, as he did not get a look at his face and he wasn't wearing his specs!

Re: What GOOD reasons are there for believing that Madeleine McCann was abducted?
SelectedSeconds Today at 5:35 pm

.The best reason for thinking the child was abducted is that two independent witnesses - Tanner and the Smith family (consisting of nine people) saw and separately reported a man, carrying a child fitting her description, within 40 minutes of each other in the resort.
The description of the man was in all important respects the same, and that person has never come forward. One of the witnesses later decided the man they had seen was Gerry, but unfortunately had already said that he couldn't positively identify the man because he didnt get a good look at his face and wasn't wearing his specs. Seven members of the group did not think it was Gerry.

My other principal reason for thinking that it was an abduction and that the parents are not guilty of doing away with her is because for the last two years they have consistently, wilfully and at some cost to their own sanity, put themselves and their supposed victim into the eye of the public and into the face of the authorities.

Those are not the actions of guilty people. Guilty people would have laid low after arguido status was lifted and asked to be 'alone with their grief'.

There are other reasons, but they are the two most salient ones (imo) and the ones which I find those who think the parents guilty are least able or willing to engage with.

Unknown said...

Hiya Di

It does highlight the witness evidence that Tony just conveniently chooses to ignore. True, we can say we do not find Jane Tanner a very reliable witness because her evidence changed over time, but from the very outset she was clear in telling the police she saw a man walking off with a child, that was very clearly evidence of an abduction.

Then we have the Smith family, Mr Smith feeling pretty confident the man he also saw was Gerry McCann. The original descriptions given by both Tanner and the Smith family tallied in being descriptions that quite obviously fit Gerry McCann. And again, they are quite clearly giving evidence of a child being abducted.

Of course those who insist that Maddie died in the apartment say that was Gerry carrying her dead body off. I find that very hard to believe that he would do such a thing. I also find it impossible to understand how he could have been approaching the beach and have successfully hidden there, to be missed by so many members of the public and even more notably, police with sniffer dogs.

I am beginning to wonder if that is the agenda of Tony Bennett, because his leaflet is just nonsense. It has never made sense to write one insisting she was not abducted. As an anti McCann had I chosen to write one I would have simply listed all the reasons that suggest so clearly the parents were involved in her disappearance.

What Tony seems to be doing is trying to make the parents look innocent in that he is wanting to insist on something that there is no evidence to support at all.

I am afraid this just leads me to conclude that if anything, them being involved in her abduction is the most likely scenario of all, and I have always thought this does tie in with what the police and the High Court seemed to feel, that she may still be alive.

I could understand the McCanns wanting to go on a campaign to lead people away from any assumption they were involved in her abduction because that is so utterly dreadful. It is a far worse scenario than either Kate or Gerry accidentally killing her.

I still feel it is very likely Gerry deliberately pushed the killing scenario in the media because he knew damn fine there was no evidence of that!

I cannot get away from the fact that he took those old 6 x 4 pictures with him, ready for when Maddie got abducted. He KNEW she was going to be abducted. To me this is one of the most crucial and damning pieces of evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann and one that Russell O'Brien worked very hard to lie about and try and dispel. It always brings me back to why would he do that?

Unknown said...

Oh and Di, do you recall, the PJ stated the abductor was 5' 10"? But then shortly after that this was dismissed stating the actual height of the abductor "got lost in the translation" and actually he was only 5' 7".

You know, those hopeless PJs.. I do not believe for one moment they got the height wrong, particularly given they had senior Brit cops there helping them. I believe that in much the same way Tanner was prepared to change her evidence to state she saw the abductor earlier and when Gerry was there, she also wanted to change her evidence about his height. Because I would say Gerry is just about 5'10".

I think Jane knows what happened and is tortured hoping that Maddie will re-appear, perhaps Kate too.

Of course Tanner really showed her true colours when she agreed with the description of Cooper man, several months later, all credibility shot to pieces at that point!

Unknown said...

Jane Tanner's original statement to the Portuguese Police here (Joanna's very helpful forum with all the PJ files on)

Tanner did mention that she supposedly walked past Gerry..suggesting she was got at that same night as we believe to give false evidence.

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/post412.html#p412

Wizard said...

With the Jane Tanner bundleman alleged sighting you have to wonder why she suggests GM was standing talking to Jez when she walked by.

This was something she did not think through or discuss with GM prior to making the statement. As clearly he would have admitted seeing her, even if only out of the corner of his eye.

The timing of when she saw bundleman is therefore very important to her and she feel the need to tie her timing into a validated event. To do this she says she sees Gerry and Jez which places the sighting at 9.15pm approximately.

Why is this timing so important to her; the timing at least was clearly a lie because either Jez or Gerry would have seen her walk by on an otherwise deserted street?

Imo she is covering from someone and I don’t think it is Gerry. The 9:15pm sighting would indicate an abduction could have occurred at this time and not after.
Hmmm…

I suppose the simplest explanation is she is attempting to cover for O’Brien as he was away from the table from about 9.30pm onwards - but is it that simple?

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz

My reaction when reading the rogatory interviews of Russell O'Brien was a pretty simple one.

As a former probation officer I have read many police interviews with offenders to prepare pre-sentence reports. He demonstrates, IMO, the typical anger and anxiety of one who knows he is in very serious trouble and trying to protect himself. But he is very clearly also trying to protect Gerry McCann.

I am afraid I do not think this case is simple, I do think there is a reason also that Russell did not feel able to stand on the steps of the High Court.

I think Tony Bennett is way off beam and if he does not wish to make an even bigger fool of himself he had better stop with his productions to the general public.

Unknown said...

Selectedseconds raising an interesting point again and my response on Missing Madeleine:

SelectedSeconds wrote:

poppy wrote:

He was included in Ragotory (sp) Interview wasn't he? Dont suppose investigators did that for fun eh? The investigators have sniffed out his role right from the word GO. Even he couldnt spin himself out of that interview - only goes to show he is not above suspicions.



Mitchell was interviewed to get information on the McCanns, as far as I can see. There were a lot of people interviewed under the Rogatories, and none of them were suspected of anything. They were asked questions about Madeleine and about what sort of people the Mccanns are and how they had conducted themsleves after she went missing.
Mitchell is about as likely to go to jail over the Maddy affair as the sun is to fall from the sky.




Hi again, I am afraid I agree, the police will interview any witness that has relevant information about the case/the main suspects etc. His role in all of this would be very interesting to the police. But I think the fundamental point is that any criminal suspect can employ lawyers, spokesmen, press spinners, private detectives, experts on forensics etc, just as they see fit. I do think that is perhaps what people miss about the role of Clarence, the actions of Team McCann have never been about finding Madeleine, it has been about their defence and creating a good public image to amass yet more funds to continue that defence.

I do find it very suspicious the way Clarence was the one who managed to get his name put forward by the government as a spokesman for the McCanns. I do not find it suspicious in itself that the government acceded to this request from the McCanns, there were others who I do not think were the least bit sympathetic, e.g. Sheree Dodd. By the end of May when the McCanns fund amounted to about one million the goverment then indicated they could pay for their own media person to deal with the press and they appointed Justine McGuinness but she did not last very long.

cont'd below

Unknown said...

So what I find odd about Mitchell is that he was there as a bone fide member of the British government, sent to help the McCanns deal with the huge media interest in the case. That is fine so far as it went, but it is not fine that he subsequently gave up his government post to go again and work for the McCanns once they were official suspects in September 2007. There was a fundamental conflict of interests in him, in the first place, acting as a lawful member of the government and then in the second place, acting for the McCanns in their very much changed status as official suspects. It has to raise the suspicion of him always being collusive with Team McCann and seriously abusing his access to highly confidential information the government were obviously receiving about the developing criminal intelligence against the McCanns. It most certainly makes him appear to be a highly corrupt and dishonest person. He had access to all of that and then he goes and works for the prime suspects. It is not difficult to imagine they therefore got access to information about the ongoing investigation against them they were plainly not entitled to.

So, it is not a clear cut option to say that Clarence would be prosecuted, or what it is precisely he is guilty of, but I do think perhaps the Official Secrets Act. Proving that would be another matter. Lawyers for defendants make statements on their behalf giving the suspect's version of the evidence. There is nothing unlawful about that, if the lawyer maintains the belief that his clients are innocent, there is an analogy to be made with that and what Mitchell does. It may well be the case that no lawyer is actually prepared to make such public statements on behalf of the McCanns because so far as they are concerned, the evidence clearly indicates their guilt, although of what precisely, it is not clear, other than they were clearly complicit in the disappearance of their daughter. Those expensive London lawyers could refuse to act for the McCanns, given they have their own professional reputations to think of. IN steps Clarence Mitchell.

Wizard said...

Hi viv,

Something that strikes me as strange in this case is the ease of which people give up secure jobs and start to work for the McCanns.

John McCann and Clarence Mitchell both gave up reasonable jobs not knowing if the mystery of Madeleine would be solved before they got their first wage slip.

I wonder what crystal ball they gazed into that told them they would still be in a job 2 ½ years down the line.

Those two have more foresight than Mystic Meg.

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz, I continue to think that conduct looks like the conduct of paedophiles, who, as we know, come from all walks of life and work very hard to protect their position in society.

Keesh said...

thanks to the helpful public, the Madeleine Mccann story is not going to fade into obscurity, aided by willing and photogenic participants: (does this sound cynical ?!)

Maddie lookalike: 4 sep 09
The Sun
The Telegraph

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/maddie/2622526/Maddie-lookalike-quizzed-by-cops.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/6137830/Man-questioned-over-Madeleine-McCann-lookalike-step-daughter.html

hope4truth said...

I hope the Madeleine story is never forgotten by the public...

As for the sighting of her I think that is brilliant.

Our Police force are not stupid yet they get the supposed kidnappers mobile number after visiting his house and call him and say "Hello we believe you have kidnapped Madeleine McCann can you bring her to the police station ASAP please?"

Our police know there is no point in searching for her because if the thought for one second there was a chance she was still alive they would have followed this Man and swooped on him when it was safe to seperate him from the child with no harm comming to her.

Not called him and given him a chance to dispose of her.

Unlike the McCann's defective detectives they dont warn people they are on to them...

If the McCann's had been interviewed in England and Kate had refused to answer a single question for her child alarm bells would have been going off and if allowed to get on with their job the CPS would have had her in court 2 years ago followed by the other 8 for perverting the course of justice.

After all if Madeleine was really missing the 9 adults on that holiday helped by CM have condemed her to death with their lies spin and publicity...

Keesh said...

After Gerry's appearance at the PCC, he gave the impression he wanted the media to back off..?

As for sightings, I hope these innocent people haven't been traumatised by accusations of possible kidnapping

Hope4Truth " they dont warn people they are on to them..."

I feel Inspector Chivers and Police Sgt Paul O'Neill of Kingsbridge Police should explain their actions here..

The Star, Mirror and Plymouth Herald have used the photo of 3 year old Madeleine as comparison for 8 year old Lauren. Have they forgotten the well publicised age progression pic?

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Family-s-shock-Maddie-claim/article-1312840-detail/article.html#StartComments

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/latestnews/view/97219/-Innocent-man-quizzed-on-Madeleine/

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/04/cops-asked-if-my-girl-was-madeleine-mccann-115875-21648757/

hope4truth said...

Keesha

They wont explain their actions they had to follow it up and that is what they did they knew it could not be Madeleine.

As for the aged progresion photo the McCanns are not insisting it is used as they want the world to rememeber a child no one will ever be able to find...

The important video that was released at Christmas showed an even younger Madeleine and did nothing more than show the world Daddy saying nice things to his daughter on tape.

I have never belived Madeleine was abducted and now firmly belive if she was the T9 are the most evil bunch of adults living today as not a single one of them told the truth and Kate let her daughter down by leaving her and then put the boot in by refusing to answer any questions for her.

Whatever happend to Madeline and there are many evil things that could have happend to her and also many tragic accidental things that could have happend to her. But I now firmly belive nothing could be more evil than knowing there is a chance to find her and lie spin and spend her fund on lawyers when a real detective agency could have found her.

The reward was hardly advertised when they never searched for her as it was too dark the age progresion picture is not out there and from day one they lied no one could hate their child or any child so much if there was a chance they could be found they would not walk over broken glass if they thought it could find her.

Unknown said...

Hiya Keesha and Hope

I am pretty amazed at the over the top reaction by local police to this and it is pretty clear from this comment the man was shocked and upset by is treatment:

"But I was just really surprised throughout the whole thing - I felt a bit uncomfortable because I hadn't done anything wrong."

But if there is one thing it perhaps does clearly demonstrate, the police are still looking for Madeleine and do not categorically accept that she is dead as some seek to insist.

Unknown said...

I think you are on the right track there Hope, Maddie may still be alive, but the McCanns released pictures of her aged two and did not publicise the reward. They all failed to tell the truth and co-operate with the police. In short they did not want her to be found.

I believe she was abducted and they know that, the very last thing they have ever wanted is for that poor little girl to be found.

It is just pure evil.

I continue to hope the Police will find little Maddie, dead or alive, and bring her abusers to justice.

And no, we are not going to stop trying to get to the truth of just what the McCanns really did with their lovely little girl.

hope4truth said...

Well if the police thought I had Madeleine I think I would be insisting that Kate answered her 48 questions before I answered 1...

My friends little girl looks a lot like Madeleine but then so do half her year at school...

At the end of the day every photo of Madeleine looks diffrent cant think why they never just released the tennis ball picture it has to be the last one taken of her the one by the pool she looks a year younger....

Unknown said...

Hiya Hope

Again I think you are getting down to the fundamental issues.

The McCanns did not take any pictures of Madeleine on holiday.

There are two, one where she is playing with Gerry, Sean sat on the floor and another little one with hair the same colour as Jane Tanner, likely her little one. I would say she took this photo and she is of course also accredited with taking the tennis balls pic.

So we have a couple where it is alleged they killed her and dumped her body, but from the very outset they are releasing old images of Madeleine and concentrating on one in particular that really does not look much like all of the other images of her and where she looks about late two/three, that red dress and matching tinted red hair.

They do not immediately release the tennis balls pic, it is some days later and I would say was the initiative of Tanner. We also have a video of Madeleine on the bus and at the airport that mysteriously just gets released. But Kate and Gerry have never commented on or really used these images. Are we being rotten to David Payne and did he deliberately release these up to date pictures of Madeleine? Is there some other reason he decided to move away from working with Gerry McCann?

So, Gerry produces a faked picture of Madeleine almost 3 weeks later at the poolside and claims that is the last image of her and completely ignores the tennis balls pic which is clearly an image I would say he just did not want to be captured of her.

I continue to believe Gerry McCann planned the abduction of little Madeleine and has deliberately flooded the media with old pictures of Madeleine because his genuinely fearful that someone might recognise her and claim that reward that he just does not want to mention. I think it just has to be said from all of this he knows she is (or was) still alive and is extremely fearful of her being found.

Unknown said...

Jeremy Wilkins will prove to be a very menacing witness against Gerry McCann IMO, with his tales of how Gerry was bragging about leaving the children alone, of course before Madeleine went missing. Now if that is not an instance of someone setting the scene in witnesses minds I do not know what it!

Kate was also telling people at the dinner table she was worried about leaving the apt door open, apparently, as suggested by Gerry.

Keesha, good to see you on here again, we are a small bunch these days, who really seem to want to look at the issues!

Di said...

Hi all

1. Kate did not want to go on the holiday, she had a bad feeling.

2. Gerry's comments on the bus about it not being a holiday for him.

3. Kate argued with Gerry and slept in the childrens room.

4. Madeleine said, where were you etc., but it went in one ear and out the other.

5. Kate says on the evening of the 3rd, she is worried about leaving the patio door open but Gerry is not, never mind the fact they supposedly left it open every other night.

6. Gerry's comments to JW as you have pointed out Viv.

Oh, and not forgetting the conversation with a stranger about feeling uncomfortable photographing your own children.

This sounds like one very depressing holiday, even before Madeleine went missing.

Unknown said...

Hiya Di

I think we have been through every scenario pretty carefully, but it always keeps coming back to this.

You sum up the points very well and I do place a lot of credence on Fiona seemingly wanting to emphasise that Kate had a bad feeling about that holiday before they even went.

I think that is another vital clue as to what was really going on, Kate admitting she slept in the bed underneath that window the night before. Maybe we should also think again about the obvious bruising she had and Fiona seeking to explain this with how angry Kate was bouncing herself off the walls.

Maybe she had no choice to admit she slept in that bed, because when you look at the PJ pictures, it is untidy and unmade, the pillow even at a sloping angle. Contrast with Madeleine's bed that does not look as though it had been slept in, but there is a definite bum print where someone sat on it, reputedly Kate, unable to move.

I have always had this feeling that Kate does deserve our sympathy. I do think she found Madeleine difficult, she did not bond well with her, she did not feel able to stop her crying. And then at an advanced age for childbirth she has a difficulty pregnancy and two more little ones to cope with.

I think someone played on all of those feelings and difficulties and we know who that someone was. Someone who is simply not fit to be anywhere near little children.

Unknown said...

So we have Tony Bennett seeking to put on a massive media show that Madeleine is dead and we have Tony Bennett referring us to these Shrimpton chapters where he revitalises this so called abduction to order for Belgian paedophiles.

Just what is going on and how big is the manipulation of peoples' thoughts and feelings on this case to mask the real truth about what happened to little Maddie?

Wizard said...

Morning All,

Today’s Sunday Express reports on further hapless hurdles being hightailed over by the Mcs ‘alleged’ detectives. Hmmm… back to Portugal I see.

MADELIENE: NEW LEADS IN SEARCH

“MISSING: Madeleine has not been seen since May 2007
Sunday September 6,2009
By James Murray
PRIVATE detectives looking for Madeleine McCann have returned to Portugal to pursue new leads which could provide a breakthrough in the case.
Ex-policemen Arthur Cowley and Dave Edgar spent several days speaking to “persons of interest” to the inquiry.
“The investigation has real momentum with definite goals. A vast amount of work has already been done and every new lead is being checked,” a source said.
Meanwhile Kate and Gerry McCann’s twins, Sean and Amelie, have started school near their home in Thurmaston, Leics.
The four-year-olds have been sent to Bishop Ellis RC School – where Madeleine was enrolled before she went missing while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
A message on the school’s website says: “We are sorry we are not yet able to welcome Madeleine to our school as we had hoped to.”

hope4truth said...

Morning Wiz

What a pile of rubbish every person in the world is of intrest to the McCann's.

Why dont the detectives ask Kate the 48 questions she refused to answer? Or do a real reconstruction and if their findings are the McCann's heaven forbid are lying pass their information on to the police?

I just do not understand what a 3 year old child can do to deserve being neglected vanish into thin air and have her life put in danger by a good marketing ploy and then be left to rot while her parents and their scuzzy friends all lie about what checks were done and who was where and when.

As for the school I hope they make sure the twins are happy there those poor children are in for a devestating shock one day when they realise just how their parents played a evil game with their sisters life.

Unknown said...

Hiya Both

How utterly ridiculous to state, two and a half years later the McCann detectives are interviewing people of interest in Portugal. What kept them! Apart from this, by implication, it again seems to be pointing the finger at the Portuguese and I find it just disgusting.

Are they seriously trying to suggest that both the British and Pt officers who were there did not interview anyone at all that was of relevance to the investigation?

I have a feeling the aim is to try and get the investigation re-opened in Portugal by coming us with some so called lead that it was strangers who took Madeleine, rather than Kate and Gerry McCann. But it is very plain that is not going to work. I am quite certain the Portuguese would indeed make it a pre-requisite that the TAPAS 9 give them the co-operation that they refused to give by, as Hope says, answering the questions put and attending a proper reconstruction.

So far as naming where the twins are attending school, to me this is just child abuse. Drawing attention to where these little tots are going to be, in whose best interests was that, I wonder?

Are we going to be hearing stories of how wicked people taunted them or the press harangued them? Not that I believe for one moment any member of the British Press would dream of behaving in such a dreadful way, but the invitation is clearly there!

And then they have the loose cannon whose role seems to be to gain them sympathy by harassing them, will he be turning up there asking people to sign some blasted petition, or giving them some of his leaflets?

Unknown said...

Gerry's amazing encounters with said abductor, according to Gerry, and, as not depicted on Cutting Edge:

Well maybe we should get on to "Cutting Edge" and ask them why they did not do a proper reconstruction along the lines of what Gerry told us.

Then we would have to be shown, abductor not jemmying the window and shutter open and climbing in over Kate's unmade bed without leaving any forensic trace.

Abductor hearing Gerry, firstly coming in through the front door via his key (4 May) and secondly Gerry coming in through rear patio door (10 May). We would have to see the abductor in a flurry around this apt as he attempted to hide whilst Gerry was entering both the doors, as depicted. Eventually in an utter panic, said abductor would be depicted hiding behind the bedroom door as Gerry entered and waving to him when Gerry turned around to depart and saw him there. Perhaps abductor could say to Gerry it is OK I only want Maddie, you can keep the other two. I am not sure at what stage Gerry went and had a strain on the toilet but am sure this could be fitted in.

From there, Gerry could be depicted exiting the apartment having exchanged pleasantries with the abductor and standing on guard at the rear exit (just to make sure he did not get too greedy).

Gerry could then be depicted whizzing backwards and forwards across the road as he chatted to Wilkins.

Gerry could then be depicted standing facing up the road looking at the abductor at the same time as Jane Tanner squeezed past him also looking at said abductor.

Said abductor would have to be depicted either clambering through the bedroom window with Maddie, fast asleep and avoiding at all costs and scrapes in lichen or leaving any forensic trace.

Or said abductor could be depicted opening the front door with Maddie cradled across his arms and without needing to worry about it being deadlocked because of course Gerry wanted to be helpful and not put the deadlock.

Then said abductor could be depicted whizzing across with short dark hair and being 5'10 and then again with masses of thick dago hair and a moustache but also looking a lot like a woman and being 5'7".

Now did I miss anything ou?.
viv
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Wizard said...

Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction – is the story line below so far from the truth to be fiction?

GM rests his daughter’s body in the bushes outside the apartment whilst he goes to the gate see if the coast is clear. He does not want to bump into any of his friends who might query his actions. As he opens the gate he sees Jez Wilkins he then has to have a conversation for a few minutes to ensure all appears normal.

As the pair’s conversation ends Jez walks off up the road whilst Gerry walks in the opposite direction. GM turns to see Wilkins disappear around the corner before he retraces his steps. He retrieves M for the bushes and continues towards the beach.

He passes a family group (Smith’s) who make a comment to him but he hurries on, head down, to complete his grim task before returning to the tapis bar.

At the restaurant he tells those that who will listen he bumped into Wilkins that’s why he was so long.

Tanner leaves the table later to return to her apartment and sick daughter - O’Brian is already there.

As the alarm is raised about M’s disappearance, Tanner concocts a story about seeing a man carrying a child, she says she sees Gerry talking to Wilkins to set the time.

The purpose of this deception is to attempt to place O’Brien in the clear of any involvement in an abduction. Her statement attempts to suggest the abduction took place when O’Brien was still seated in the restaurant.

Hmm…

Wizard said...

Good Morning All,

I was just reading an article in The Daily Mirror by Tony Parsons 5th September 09.

Extract below in quotes, makes a lot of sense for a change. Although he doesn’t refer directly to the McCanns the inference is clear.

As we know G&K on hearing about Jaycee said it ‘gave them hope’.

Parsons…….“I feel like I’m from another planet when I hear people saying that the discovery of kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard is good news for the parents of Madeleine McCann.

Really? Because as the parent of a daughter exactly the same age as Madeleine, to me the discovery of Jaycee (below) feels like the blackest news imaginable.

To me, the thought of a snatched child being turned into a sex slave is the stuff of nightmares. The idea of your child growing up as the sexual toy of the cruel bastard who stole her is a life transformed into a living hell.“

hope4truth said...

Hi Wizard

Never really thought about JT providing an alibi for OB before?

It is the stuff of fiction but is a very plausable way for it all to have happend.

As for Tony Parsons for once I have to agree thiking my child could be suffering the same way as Jaycee would tip me over the age.

Then Gerry seems to belive there is nothing wrong with Peadophiles and what they do as he insists Madeleine is with a Peadophile ring but keeps banging on there is no reason to belive she has been harmed?

Hard to think of any child who ends up with sick twisted bastards like that being unharmed!

Has everyone read the report on the McCann files (it is exclusive to there so I will just copy the link) it took me ages to read it all yesterday but Dr Martin Robers takes a closer look at the Mccann's media interviews and well let's put it this way the man makes a lot of sense and I dont think he will be on the McCann's Christmas Card list...

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id260.html

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz and Hope

It does sound like a plausible scenario Wiz until he gets to the beach with Maddie, dead. What on earth did he do with her, that would prevent her being discovered by tracker dogs?

I don't quite understand why Tanner would need to clear OB of being involved in any abduction if Maddie is dead?

Is it me or are we starting to get quite a McCann backlash in the press ? Although I know we do not like Parsons, on this occasion he is completely spot on. Is he trying to redeem himself?

It is absolutely unbelievable really that Gerry could make such comments. To me it just shows how completely obsessed they are to suggest Maddie is still alive and could be recovered. That we know is just so incredibly unlikely!

No thought of what an utter pervert it makes him sound!

Wizard said...

Hope - I’ve just read the whole of Dr Martin Robert’s articles on the McCann files.

I’m not quite sure what I make of it all. I agree with a lot of what he says but I’ve always thought most of what the McCann said was scripted or at least agreed between themselves before an interview was given.

Nothing they said was spontaneous therefore it all looks odd. If it was rehearsed - as they were asked questions they had to adjust their script accordingly to fit the questions. This is why there is so many ums ers..etc and unfinished sentences and blinking - or perhaps they rehearsed the wrong answers which caused confusion.

The rest of the T9 are as bad but why they should be scripted or cover up who knows. I’ve come to the conclusion they are all covering up – but I’m not sure it’s just the event around M’s disappearance it’s something else that affects them individually not just the McCanns – a further event that ties them to a pact of silence.

Viv in my fictitious scenario – what did Gerry do with Madeleine when reaching the beach and why wasn’t she found that night or the next day.

Well …it either means an accomplice was waiting to aid the cover up or simply despite the search dogs et al they missed her – unlikely as it seems these things do happen.

I’ve always considered it possible that all the jogging the McCanns were doing wasn’t to just take their mind of things it was to check the site they left Madeleine in was still as they left it.

hope4truth said...

Hello Both

Wiz I think the bit about Karen Mathews talking about Shannon and Gerry and Kate talking about Madeleine and the conclusion that Karen knew Shannon was still alive where as the McCann's were talking about a dead child was revealing. I had to keep going back and re reading everything it was very confusing!!!

I wonder what the probability of putting Madeleine in the sea would have been??? It sounds sick but to put her in a net and attatch her to a bouy or a boat would have prevented her from drifting away or leaving any scent behind.

They could have put a bag there earlier in the day as I have said before being seen with a large bulky bag at night would have stood out like a sore thumb but a parent carrying their child to bed is a normal sight...

Then again there must be many empty buildings with good hiding places in them they could not have all been searched that night???

What do I know it is so warped and sick but not as sick as playing games with a real findable child!

Wizard said...

Obituary

Despite the cryptic message left on the 3A’s site I see the site has now been removed completely.

The operating structure of 3A’s was, as we know, manned by volunteers and a very good job they did reaching quite professional standards.

However, volunteer’s motivation is different to that of paid employees and these motivational needs were undoubtedly compromised causing fractures within their ranks.

In a way I hope this is the case and not the sensitivity of the topic they dealt with. 3A’s would have been under incredible pressure from those who oppose the views they published on their blog.

I can’t help wonder if perhaps it was these pressures, similar to those applied to the British press, that saw their demise.

I hope I’m wrong but “where the news flows freely” has ceased to flow.

Wizard said...

Whilst talking about motivation today’s article in the Mail gives an insight into why some people kill.

“A mother killed her two teenage daughters in frenzied knife attacks to 'wreak havoc' on her ex-husband's happy life, a court heard yesterday.”

link

Unknown said...

Hiya Both

I do not know what to make of Dr Martin Roberts. It does not sound like the logical analysis of, for example a qualified psychologist, given some of the language used and the definitive conclusion reached which I would most definitely not expect from a psychologist. It would be far more likely to see guarded theories of what they are capable of based upon what has been observed. It kind of spills over into being some kind of quasi legal analysis. Just does not smell right to me, if you will forgive the pun!

Unknown said...

Wiz, your scenario would maybe hang together better, if Geraghty or Brian Kennedy provided a small craft and then perhaps a yacht or something to remove her body, but that would be an extraordinary thing for them to agree to do.

The search by Portuguese Police was absolutely phenomenal no matter what other people say, the biggest hunt they ever did. If Maddie had been hidden in the area of the beach they would have found her, likewise local properties.

The other thing I am certain about Gerry McCann he is a very smug, smart man who likes to play games with the police. He has committed what he perceives to be the perfect crime where there is virtually no evidence of what he did. I just cannot accept a man like that would have take any grave risks in leaving her body in the vicinity. It is just not him!

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz

Well that is no real shock about three As, although it is definitely a shame. There were two people on that site whipping up a frenzy to get it closed IMO and they succeeded.

Those sheeple who blindly followed them, only have themselves to blame. They should have displayed a bit of common decency and stopped bashing Kate and Gerry McCann just for the sake of it!

Wizard said...

Hi Viv,

I’m not sure if you are still around – if so – have you seen the article on Joana Morais’ blog by A Miller. Its only recently been posted

I have to say it is one of the best I have read and sums up the situation concisely and correctly imo. Well worth a read.

Unknown said...

hiya Wiz, just popped back in to post this from The Daily Express at their gut wrenching worst! What a pity they cannot get around to mentioning the PJ produced two expert computer generated e-fits, almost exactly matching Gerry McCann and Russell O'Brien but did not release them for blatantly obvious reasons. The only reason they did not produce an e-fit for Tanner's so called sighting is because she stated she only saw him from the rear or the side, she could not describe his face. In fact why do they not mention that when we got the ridiculous Gran Cooper image several months later, November, if I recall, she suddenly announced well yes that was him - absurd rubbish, thank goodness The Daily Mail are producing some far better stuff, but there again they were not daft enough to get themselves sued!

Unknown said...

SHE BELIEVES SNATCHED GIRL



Kate McCann took her friend's vision seriously after Madeleine vanished
Saturday August 8,2009
By James Murray KATE McCANN went to see a boat she believes was used in the abduction of their ­daughter, the Sunday Express can reveal today. Just a few days after Madeleine was snatched from the family’s holiday apartment, a family friend had a “strong vision” that the child was on a boat moored in a nearby marina.


Kate went to Lagos marina, a few miles along the coast from Praia da Luz where her daughter vanished on May 3, 2007, and photographed the boat and the man on board, a hand-written note in police files reveals.

The note, headed “information from the family” and apparently from an officer with the Leicestershire Police as it was written on the force’s notepaper, reads: “I spoke to Kate McCann on Tuesday 8th May 2007.

“She told me that a friend of her aunt and uncle had a friend that had a strong vision that Madeleine was on a boat with a man in the marina in Lagos.”

It reveals that the “person” arrived in Portugal and spoke to Kate, adding: “They have visited the marina and identified the boat.”

The officer spoke to a colleague who made some enquiries about the cruiser, which was registered to a Canadian national. Enquiries were also made on the police national computer.

The note goes on: “I spoke with Kate today and she has given me ­photographs of the boat.

“She has also given me photograph of a man who had been on the boat.

“This is not the man that the woman saw in her vision. This matter is very important to her and she is very pleased that we are making enqs (enquiries) into the matter.”

In the Portugese police file there are pictures of the marina and the cruiser along with a letter from the marina to the registered owner saying that the six months’ mooring contract would run out on April 8 of that year.

Whether the astonishing enquiries made by Kate herself led anywhere is not clear but the episode shows how seriously she took the suggestion that her daughter was abducted by sea.




In the early days of Madeleine’s ­disappearance Portugese detectives investigated the ownership and ­movements of many boats on the local coast, but don’t appear to have come up with strong suspect.

Unknown said...

other half, the thing is it is very likely Madeleine was taken away by sea, dead or alive!

However, with the feverish speculation that a woman with an Australian accent was apparently waiting for the delivery of a child in Barcelona 72 hours after Madeleine vanished has turned the spotlight back on the movement of boats in May 2007.

Private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann are working on the theory that Madeleine was smuggled on to a boat, then spirited 800 miles along the coast to Barcelona for collection by the woman, who is said to bear a resemblance to Victoria Beckham.

A British man had a conversation with the woman outside a restaurant 72 hours after ­Maddie, then three, was taken. Tragically for Madeleine, these ­sporadic bouts of excitement have in the past failed to produce a direct lead to who actually took her and where she is now, dead or alive.

Unfortunately, the whole investigation was also compromised in the early days by the sheer incompetence of the Portugese police investigation.

From the outset officers allowed people to trample over the crime scene at the McCann’s apartment.

And though Jane Tanner, one of the McCann’s holiday companions, dubbed the Tapas Seven, said she saw a man carrying a child in his arms around the time Madeleine disappeared, it was left to the McCanns to get an artist to do a drawing months later instead of a professional, Scotland Yard e-fit.

Another key area woefully handled by the Portugese was the vital accounting for all the known paedophiles in the area at the crucial time.

Retired ­detectives David Edgar and Arthur Cowley are doing the extremely ­difficult job of trying to track the alibis of these people more than two years after the kidnap.

The last time there was such ­concentrated interest was when a newspaper discovered that British paedophile Raymond Hewlett had been in Portugal at the relevant time. Now dying from cancer, he has consistently denied any involvement.

Now the Madeleine hare is up and running in Australia.

Television programmes have been urging ­millions of residents to track down the woman who allegedly had a snatched conversation with a British man who waited more than two years to contact the Madeleine investigators, apparently unaware that he may ­possess vital information.

Right from the beginning allegations have been bandied about to the ­detriment of the inquiry.

The innocent and well meaning ­Robert Murat suffered months of ­suspicion when fingers were wrongly pointed at him and both Kate and Gerry McCann suffered when Portugese police wrongly made them arguidos for a time.

As the searchlight turns on boat-owners, those conducting the inquiry should be aware of the damage they could cause to people they regard as “persons of interest” to the inquiry.

In all likelihood the Australian woman seen at the bar in Barcelona will be tracked down, named, spoken to and then eliminated from the inquiry.

Everyone can understand the despair felt by the McCanns, but their honourable and understandable quest for answers must be expertly focused to avoid another media frenzy which fails to provide what we all want: the discovery of Madeleine alive so she can return to her tormented family.

Unknown said...

Cheers Wiz, will go and check Jo's article out and come back x

Unknown said...

I like this on Joana Morais from a long article about Metodo 3, the first set of McCann detectives (debatable I know, but Control Risk are not detectives):

The Judge José Sierra, head of the Court of Investigation No. 47, who is instructing the process to the espionage and disclosure of the dossiers and surveillance videos in the media, will in the following days summon to Court Francisco Marco and his mother, Marita Lago.

Read more: http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/#ixzz0QYP4JvOI
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives


So hang on just let me get this straight, the McCanns give the Retardos hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Find Maddie Fiddle and the Police are investigating them and then they give Mr Halligen half a million and he does a runner with it, due to the secrecy of our Brit cops we do not know if they are investigating that but I have this little hunch they just might be:-))

Pack of cards? All falling down around the heads of Team McCann, I reckon so!

Unknown said...

I don't think Di will mind me mentioning that she is a proud nanny to a bouncing 9lb 8oz baby boy, but her daughter had a difficult birth.

I am sure we all want to congratulate her and wish them all the best!

Viv xx

Wizard said...

A crying shame – article on Joana’s blog has thrown up some interesting points about the differences on the evening of May 3to the rest of the holiday.

On previous evening the T9 only checked their children - never other T9 children. On the 3rd May Matt Oldfield volunteered/asked to check on the McCann children whilst doing his own checks - not once but twice.

At 9.00pm he listened outside the front window of apartment 5A heard nothing and therefore concluded all was well. (Shuttered windows were not reported open)

Oldfield later reports during a pj interview he was a bit annoyed that on his return from the first check Gerry immediately got up and checked again – as if he did not trust him.

Despite being ‘annoyed’ with Gerry’s reaction during his last check, he again goes to the apartment 5A at 9.30pm to check the McCann children (asked or volunteered?) this time he enters the apartment through the patio doors.

He stands outside the children’s bedroom and looking through the door, which is ajar, and sees the twins but does not see Madeleine’s bed but all is quite so again he believes all is well.

Two visits by Oldfield, something he has never done before during the whole holiday, and on both occasions he cannot say whether MM was there or not.

Hmm….. I can’t help but think he did not make these checks and is covering for himself and the McCanns’ poor child care.

Of course he might have been manipulated into making these checks so that he would be the one to raise the alarm about Madeleine’s disappearance.

If this was the plan it failed miserably because, as we know, it was left to Kate to raise the alarm. No wonder she got her lines wrong - this part of the plan was unrehearsed and unexpected.

Wizard said...

A further thought just occurred to me about the Oldfield checks.

At approximately 9.30pm a woman walking with her husband believed she heard someone calling Madeleine’s name. Could this have been Oldfield – if this was the case it opens a whole new can of worms.

Wizard said...

Good Morning all,

Just looking through the today’s press and there is no new news.

What I did notice is the Daily Mirror has completely removed their archive of articles on the McCann case.

Hmm… have they commented on something recently they shouldn’t have?

Wizard said...

This morning I commented there was no new news.

Just heard on the car radio as I was driving home Amaral's book has been banned in Portugal and all books removed from the shelves.

The McCanns said they were delighted as the book had hampered the search for their daughter.
(BBC radio news)

Wizard said...

Full Amaral book story from Sky.

4.39pm UK, Wednesday September 09, 2009
A judge has banned the sale of a book by a former investigating police officer in the Madeleine McCann case, a spokesman for the missing girl's parents said.
The banned book claims that there is evidence Madeleine is dead
Clarence Mitchell said Kate and Gerry McCann were "absolutely delighted".
A judge at Lisbon's main civil court banned any further publication and sale of The Truth Of The Lie by Goncalo Amaral.
He claimed the girl was dead and said he did not believe the her parents' account that Madeleine was taken while they were eating with friends nearby.
In a statement, the McCanns said: "Mr Amaral's central thesis has no evidence whatsoever to support it.
"To claim, as he did, that Madeleine is dead, and that we, as her parents, were in some way involved with her disappearance has caused our family incredible distress and it continues to do so.
"Without doubt, Madeleine will have suffered as a result of the negative effect this book and DVD will have had on the search for her."
The couple added that their two other children, twins Sean and Amelie, needed protection from "such awful claims".
Mr Amaral worked on the investigation into the three-year-old's disappearance from an apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 during a family holiday.
He was removed from the investigation after criticising British police.
The injunction, granted following a hearing last week, means he has to ensure all unsold copies of the book are removed from shops and warehouses across Europe.
If he fails to do so he faces a fine of £877 a day.

Unknown said...

Hiya Wiz and thanks for the interesting news. I suppose writing books about an ongoing investigation can never be considered a legal or reasonable thing to do.

This is why I have repeatedly questioned whether Tony Bennett bats for the McCanns, because of this has plainly allowed them to score another victory.

Unknown said...

I really hope that Goncalo is not also forced to make what in UK law we call an account of profits. In short hand over his cash to the McCanns!

But, at the end of the day, he did not act as a reasonable ex police officer would do in keeping details of an ongoing investigation and his thesis to himself.

Wizard said...

Hi Viv,

According to Sky:

“The injunction, granted following a hearing last week, means he has to ensure all unsold copies of the book are removed from shops and warehouses across Europe.”

I have no legal training but I fail to see how a Portuguese court can pass an injunction on other countries right to stock or sell Amaral’s book. Surely this has been misquoted. Any ideas on this?

Off to watch the England game now.

Bye for now - Wiz

Di said...

Hi all

Oh no, just when I thought we were going to get some positive news this happens. How do the McCanns always seem to be one step ahead. I will answer that myself, using the fund for the best possible lawyers. Just what are they afraid of, and why should we be told we cannot read this book.

They really are worried. I wonder how much the fund has had to pay for this injunction?

Di said...

From Joana Morais posted by Asto

Goncalo Amaral's lawer "deplores" that someone wants to prohibit the book sale

The lawyer for former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral said today that he “deplores” as a citizen that the selling of the book about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was prohibited, which will limit the “freedom of expression” in Portugal.

In statements to Lusa agency, António Cabrita said that he has not been notified about the decision concerning the injunction that forbids the sale of the book “The Truth about the Lie” yet, and he doesn’t wish to take a juridical position about the matter without previously speaking with his client, Gonçalo Amaral.

Nevertheless, he observed that, if the decision’s tenor, as divulged by the media, is confirmed, then it is the “freedom of expression” that may be being limited, because the book about the disappearance of the English child in the Algarve emits an opinion about “certain facts” that took place.

Gonçalo Amaral’s lawyer said it was “strange” that, with the book having been published over a year ago, an injunction has been served only now in order to forbid the book, when the book’s sales have “already attained their peak”.

“As a citizen, this worries me”, António Cabrita commented, further noting that this measure appears at a time when the possibility of translating the book and an eventual interest in selling it in the United Kingdom were being mentioned. “If this is true, then it’s possible that this reaction is related to that”, the lawyer admitted, adding, nevertheless, that he “deplores” what is happening.

Among other statements that are related to the prohibition of the book about the investigation into the English girl’s disappearance, António Cabrita stressed that “it was not Gonçalo Amaral’s pituitary that was sniffing the cadaver odour”.

Contacted by Lusa, Gonçalo Amaral declined any comment, referring all questions to his lawyer.

The Civil Court of Lisbon has forbidden the sale of the book “The Truth about the Lie”, about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, by former Polícia Judiciária inspector Gonçalo Amaral, and has ordered the removal of any copies that are available on the market.

The court’s decision, which was accessed by Lusa today, is the result of an injunction that was filed against the former inspector and the editors, in order to impede the continuation of the divulgation of the book and the video that is based on it, as well as the theories that are presented within them, which point towards an involvement of the parents in the child’s disappearance. The action has been served by Kate and Gerry McCann together with their three children, Madeleine, Sean and Amelie, who are represented by lawyer Isabel Duarte.

The English girl Madeleine McCann disappeared on the 3rd of May 2007, when she was aged three, from the bedroom in an apartment at a resort in Praia da Luz, near Lagos, in the Algarve, where she was on vacation with her parents and her two siblings. The parents were made arguidos in September 2007 but cleared in July 2008 over a lack of evidence.

Since the beginning, the family has maintained the position that Madeleine was abducted, but until this day the authorities have not been able to find out what really happened, and the Public Ministry archived the case, which may be reopened if new data about the disappearance of Madeleine emerges.


source: Público, 09.09.2009



Read more: http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/#ixzz0QdclrHls
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

Di said...
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Di said...
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Di said...

This is rather worrying if true!


PETER MEDDLESOME GETTING IN ON THE ACT
woodward Today at 7:40 pm

.peter MANDELSON has apparantly proposed that all those who infringe anothers copywrite online should be banned from access to the internet-in practice this would meanthat the mccanns have the power to silence everyone on the internet who even mentions any of the contents ofAmarals book-if I mention eddie or keelas alerts-then I will be banned from using the internet to order my shopping online-if Mandelson gets his way .Anything to do with the oily Peter and his yacht going friends gives me the shivers -time to emigrate to the land of the free

Di said...

Hi Viv

I don't mind you mentioning I am a very proud first time grandmother, if that is what I am going to be called. My daughter says it is so old sounding, which she says I am not, bless her, the cheque is in the post :o)

Mum & little boy doing really well under the circumstances.

Any ideas on alternative Grandmother names?

Di said...

My Daughter thinks we should be called Nan & Grumpy Gramps, believe me, he is sooo like Victor Meldrew.