21 May 2010

Dead children's father held on sex charges

Kate and Gerry McCann on a recent visit to Portugal where they once again seek to suggest the key to this case lies in finding this mystery abductor of Madeleine. Comments posted in Portuguese newspaper Correia da Manha indicate that both the Portuguese and British expats, find their presence unwelcome. They are sick of the McCanns media circus and the farce they persist in and sick of the impact upon the area of the continuing stigma the McCanns and the disappearance of Madeleine have upon the area. These people are clearly in no doubt, it was the McCanns themselves who brought that stigma to such a lovely area and they just want to move on. The McCanns find themselves in the position where the money they can make out of a daughter they obviously caused to disappear has now ran out along with any sympathy they may have had in the early stages before people became completely clear this was no one in a million chance of some phantom boldly stepping in and stealing Madeleine without leaving a slightest sound for neighbours to hear or any forensic trace. It was, what it typically is when children just disappear and the parents get a detailed investigation of them, the parents themselves that made that child disappear.

Quite why Kate continues to grope the thigh of Gerry on the press pictures we see is beyond my comprehension. But there has always been something that is so highly inappropriate about this couple.

The reporting on the McCann case by papers such as The Daily Express etc was not a good day for Justice. It cannot be right that British newspapers feel they are not interfering in the course of justice because the case is being investigated in Portugal and therefore allow themselves carte blanche to just publish and be damned regardless of the impact upon a serious investigation into the degree of criminality involved by Madeleine's parents and more importantly still, whether she was/is still alive. We were told quite categorically there was Madeleine's blood and body fluids/hair in the apartment and hire car, that did not translate into fact, other than one miscroscopic speck of blood behind the sofa was thought to be a good match to Madeleine's. By no means can it be taken from that she died there. This could be accounted for by a scab knocked from her knee, a tiny cut, whatever. It shocks me that in spite of the clear forensic reports setting this out people still choose to refer to her apparent blood splattered up the walls. It could not even be identified as blood but the DNA extracted was found to be from a European male, clearly not Madeleine. It does not seem to occur to these people this human brown substance splattered up the wall could have been something far more unpleasant than blood like vomit or.. The facts in the McCann case are quite bad enough, it is a great pity people want to be salacious rather than look for the truth or be concerned about justice for Madeleine and other children. Quite why people cannot understand that courts will protect the rights of the McCanns to a peaceful life without harassment whilst they continue to be no more than police suspects, I do not know. I think it is more a case of they do not want to understand. Criminal law is a completely separate issue to libel law played out in the civil courts for cash. Criminal law is not used by individuals it is the State prosecuting you and unless you have acquired substantial assets as a result of criminality they are not after your cash, they are after your liberty! That is why there are so many safeguard in place to ensure people are treated fairly when suspected of crime and children who are still alive and have been sexually abused are not named or otherwise identified. I would just ask these people if it was your grandchild or your relative would you not expect the same for them?

In the latest Smith case the mother stands accused of killing both of the children after the father was extradited back to UK for child rape offences. So again we have this complex cross jurisdictional issue. What is libellous can simply mean what cannot be proven. I do not agree with the report below inasmuch as it appears to suggest an admission of libel against the McCanns by certain newspapers has anything at all to do with whether or not they are guilty in the disappearance of Madeleine. Libel law is for those who say their reputation has been damaged and so they are entitled to stop the publication of those damaging statements and to obtain monetary compensation for the damage caused. But this is clearly open to serious exploitation and there are so many cases in UK that illustrate how the devious, the dishonest and the downright greedy have sought to use this law which so often is for those who seem to be completely lacking in normal human morals.

Bloggers have a lot of freedom to say far more than the press are allowed to say, let us hope the actions of a minority who just go completely over the top in their conduct and claims do not spoil this right to freedom of speech for all of us. Some may wonder, just like me, why nonsensical letters based on what the News of the World say are written to senior members of the police and government, some may wonder why leaflets insisting Madeleine was not abducted she was killed by the McCanns got delivered to their neighbours. I wonder how these people can be so certain when they cannot even tell the difference between the blood of Madeleine and the DNA extracted from some bodily substance of a European male. If you are reading I would have a long hard look at your conscience and ask yourself why you are commenting on this case, that may take some soul searching.



Dead children's father held on sex charges

By Channel 4 News
Updated on 19 May 2010
Police name the two British children found dead in a Spanish hotel room as their father appears in court in the UK on child sex abuse charges after being extradicted from Spain.
Rebecca Smith, five, and her brother Daniel, 11 months, were found dead at the Hotel Miramar in the Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar yesterday.
Lianne Smith, 43, the children's mother is now being questioned by police over their deaths.
Her former partner, Martin Smith was brought back to the UK from Barcelona yesterday and appeared at Carlisle Magistrates' Court this morning.
Smith, 45, faced six counts of gross indecency with or towards a girl aged under 16 between April 30, 1995 and February 1, 2001; six counts of rape of a girl aged under 16 between February 1, 2001 and April 29, 2005, and one count of attempted rape of a girl aged under 16 between April 30, 1997 and February 1, 2001.
No pleas were taken and Smith was remanded in custody until 7 June when he is due to appear at Carlisle Crown Court.
Lianne Smith (left) and Rebecca Smith
In a statement, Cumbria Police said: "During the court hearing it was disclosed that Spanish police have informed Cumbria Constabulary that Martin Smith's wife, 43-year-old Lianne Smith, has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of his two children Rebecca, five, and Daniel, 11 months, in Spain.
Local press reports in Carlisle, where Smith was believed to be living, said that he called himself a professional medium, and had appeared on the television show Most Haunted as an expert on parapsychology.
Have lessons been learned from the Madeleine McCann case?
A tragedy has occurred but inevitably there is now going to be a focus on the quality of the Spanish criminal investigation, the human rights of those involved (the deceased as well as the defendant mother) and how the local media and British press behave, writes media lawyer Duncan Lamont.

Put bluntly, have any lessons been learned from the coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal three years ago?

The Spanish authorities investigate crimes in a different way to us with much earlier, and much, much more hands on, judicial involvement.

A judge from a court in the nearby town of Blanes (close to Lloret de Mar) will oversee the investigation and has already been to the Hotel Miramar and spoken to staff.

But the right to a fair trial is as important to Spaniards as here in Britain and article six of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, applies there too.
Lianne and Rebecca Smith had been reported as being missing from Staffordshire since December 2007.
Staffordshire Police said they had moved to Lichfield from Cumbria, before moving on again.
In a statement, Staffordshire Police said it was "very saddened" at the developments.
"It is believed that they were with Martin Smith, who was under investigation at that time by Cumbria Police for serious sexual offences," the force said.
"Our officers have worked closely with Staffordshire Social Services, Cumbria Police and, once it was established that the family were believed to be abroad, Interpol and other law enforcement agencies to trace the family.
"We are continuing to offer our full support to the investigation in Spain and Cumbria Police."
The bodies of Rebecca and Daniel were discovered yesterday.
Spanish television reported yesterday that Lianne Smith had called the hotel reception asking them to call an ambulance, but when the emergency services arrived there was nothing they could do for the children, who were thought to have died of asphyxiation.
The family of three had been staying in the beachfront hotel on holiday. El Mundo newspaper reported on its website that they arrived on Monday night.

Have media learned lessons from Madeleine's case?

By Channel 4 News
Updated on 19 May 2010
As media interest focuses on the deaths of two British children in a hotel room in Spain, media lawyer Duncan Lamont writes for Channel 4 News about how the legal systems differ in the way they investigate such crimes - and how the media reports them.
Police investigation at Hotel Miramar (Credit: Getty) A British mother is in the custody of the Spanish police on suspicion of murdering her two young children on Spain's Costa Brava.
The father is a suspected paedophile arrested recently in Barcelona who appeared before magistrates in Carlisle earlier today.
A tragedy has occurred but inevitably there is now going to be a focus on the quality of the Spanish criminal investigation, the human rights of those involved (the deceased as well as the defendant mother) and how the local media and British press behave.
Put bluntly, have any lessons been learned from the coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal three years ago?
The Spanish authorities investigate crimes in a different way to us with much earlier, and much, much more hands on, judicial involvement.
A judge from a court in the nearby town of Blanes (close to Lloret de Mar) will oversee the investigation and has already been to the Hotel Miramar and spoken to staff.
But the right to a fair trial is as important to Spaniards as here in Britain and article six of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, applies there too.
The reporting of alleged crimes committed abroad by the British media can give a misleading impression of both how local cases are reported "over there" and how our criminal investigations are reported.
This is because the law of contempt of court, to protect the rights of defendants but also the prosecution, works in the individual jurisdictions.
The English and Welsh Courts protect the administration of justice in their jurisdiction. The Scottish courts ensure fair trials in Scotland and there are laws in Spain to ensure defendants are not prejudiced there.
In fact Spanish laws are, by and large, tougher – the investigators give less information to the media, defendants can remain anonymous until after conviction and the media by and large let the local investigators get on with their jobs (even if the process can be relatively slow).
Conversely Spanish newspapers can report on cases here in more detail that our courts allow by our media. The British media is not usually interested in Spanish cases, but when it is it is aware that it can report more than the local media because it cannot (it would argue) prejudice the course of justice in Spain.
Reporting the courts and ongoing police investigations is usually covered by qualified privilege which means that as long as you are contemporaneous and accurate, you cannot face a libel claim from a defendant who is subsequently found innocent and therefore (they might argue) should never have been tainted with suspicion of murder or whatever.
Things can go catastrophically wrong when there is such public interest in an alleged crime that the media overstep the boundaries and conduct their own investigations (interviewing potential witnesses can be prejudicial, as can offering to pay them money!) and even speculating wildly about guilt and innocence.
The parents of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared, presumed abducted three years ago, were the subject of a torrent of media speculation and allegation and subsequently won substantial damages (as have others associated with the case) from the British media for the publication of defamatory untruths about them.
In Spain the process may be about to start again as there have already been reports of a confession, suffocation – all matters that turn out to be wrong or misleading.
We know there are two innocent victims. But whether it could be murder, manslaughter or madness, is not as simple as may first appear.
This case may (or may not) capture the world's attention in a way that Madeleine McCann's disappearance did but the media in Britain, and indeed in Spain where there has been more detailed and speculative reports than usual, need to remember the obligation of fairness and accuracy – all the local police have officially revealed is that that the mother of two deceased minors has been detained so they can find out what happened.
Something tragic has occurred but there is no reason to that the Girona police will not scrupulously comply with everyone's rights under the Europe wide human rights principles and in particular the right to a fair trial for all involved, victims included.
Hopefully their work will not be sidetracked into investigations into media reports of the case.
Duncan Lamont is a media solicitor with Charles Russell LLP.

15 May 2010

Yet another horrific murder of a defenceless toddler

This sweet little boy was murmuring mummy as she beat him to death.   It is just so heartbreaking that tiny children continue to suffer like this.  

 

Mother jailed for life for punching and kicking her 21-month-old baby to death

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:28 PM on 15th May 2010

collette Harris at the Old Bailey.
Jailed: Collette Harris was sentenced to 16 years at the Old Bailey today, pictured earlier in the trial
A mother who punched and kicked her 21-month-old son to death was jailed for life today.
Collette Harris, 30, must serve at least 16 years behind bars for the murder of Bobby Louch.
He had more than 80 bruises and injuries on his tiny body and head, as well as a burn to his right hand, when he died four days after Christmas in 2008.
He had fatal damage to his brain and abdomen and his injuries were so severe they would normally be seen in a car crash, the Old Bailey was told.
He had suffered 'extensive' bleeding within the skull, bleeding in the spine, as well as severe damage to internal organs as if he had been kicked or punched to the stomach and head.
Most of the injuries were from the 48 hours leading up to his death on December 29, 2008.
But Bobby had been treated for a broken leg three weeks earlier and was kept in for a scan when bruises were seen on his forehead.
The toddler's mother, Collette Harris, complained she was being 'victimised' and said the bruises were the result of Bobby banging his head on his cot.
And tests revealed the ankle fracture was caused accidentally and no other serious injuries were detected so he was discharged.
A consultant at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent, who had seen Bobby before, sent him home the next day after checks were made.

Harris, 30, of Dartford, Kent, had denied killing Bobby or causing his injuries.
Tragedy: Bobby Louch who died after suffering fatal damage to his 
brain and abdomen. His mother, Collette Harris, was found guilty of his 
murder at the Old Bailey
Tragedy: Bobby Louch who died after suffering fatal damage to his brain and abdomen. His mother, Collette Harris, was found guilty of his murder
She screamed 'Oh my God' and collapsed in tears as the jury found her guilty of murder.
Harris whispered 'I did not touch my son'.
She had tried to blame her new boyfriend, James Phillips, who denied killing Bobby or causing the injuries.

Drug taker Phillips, 25, of Erith, Kent, was found not guilty of murder and alternate charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing the death.
Sentencing Harris, The Recorder of London Peter Beaumont said: 'It was a terrible thing you did for reasons that are quite incomprehensible, the suffering that was inflicted upon him before death and the abuse of your position of trust.
'I take into account there was an intention not to kill but to cause really serious injuries.'
In a victim impact statement Bobby's natural dad Dan Louch said: 'Bobby's death has completely devastated my life.  
'Everyday I ask why and how. There is no explanation and I feel so useless and helpless for what happened. I feel personally to blame. I looked for signs but there were none.
'Collette explained away the bruises to Bobby's head saying he headbutted his cot and I remember how he cowered and covered his head when I reproached him when he was naughty.
'Bobby died having spent the period before Christmas with me and my family.
'Christmas was a wonderful time, it was Bobby's second Christmas and he was more aware and enjoyed opening his presents.'
In the hours before Bobby died, he had been left alone with each adult over the weekend at the family home in Bexleyheath, south-east London.
He was kicked in the stomach on Saturday with such force that it damaged vital organs.
He was sick on Sunday, vomiting and looking disorientated. He had a burn mark on his right hand which could have been made by it being placed on an oven door.
But Harris refused to take him to hospital. She told a friend she would be suspected of abusing him, the court heard.
In the early hours of Monday morning, a neighbour said he heard 'a baby whimpering' and murmuring 'mummy'.
Later, Harris rang for an ambulance, saying: "My baby won't wake up."
Richard Whittam, QC, prosecuting, told the court: 'At the time of his death, Bobby Louch was covered in bruises.
'There is compelling evidence that the multiple injuries were the result of deliberate and repeated violence.'
Bobby's face had been covered in bruises of differing colours and which were less than 48 hours old.
There were 39 mostly finger-tip sized marks on the face and body which could have been made by 'forceful prodding', the court heard.
A bruise to the right ear could have come from pinching or an attempt to pick him up by the ear, said Mr Whittam.
Bobby also had a contact burn to his right hand and his right leg was in plaster because of a fracture 20 days earlier.
The jury was told Harris ended her relationship with Dan Louch, Bobby's father, in October 2008 and took up with Phillips.
'It was clear to her friends that Collette Harris was 'besotted' by James Phillips,' said Mr Whittam.
Harris remained 'extremely enamoured with him' but friends noticed a change in her behaviour.
Bobby spent the period before and after Christmas with his father who did not notice any significant bruising.
But two days after returning home, a friend of Phillips noticed he seemed 'woozy' and that he was vomiting. Harris showed him a bruise on Bobby, said Mr Whittam.
Later, he asked why Harris did not take him to hospital and she allegedly replied:
'How can I take him to the hospital with bruises like that on his body. They will think I am beating him up or something.'
The toddler died the next day.
Harris, from Dartford in Kent, maintained her innocence as she was led to the cells.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278455/Mother-jailed-life-punching-kicking-21-month-old-baby-death.html?ITO=1708#ixzz0o2NcyuW8

1 May 2010

MCCANNS SERIOUSLY UP THE FAKING ANTI /PRODUCE THEIR SICKEST MADDIE VIDEO EVER


http://www.findmadeleine.com/still_missing.html


This video on the Find Madeleine site is so sick and disrespectful to Madeleine I do not want it on here.  The McCanns finally have scraped the bottom of the barrel in their sick exploitation of little Maddie. 

Kate and Gerry,  THIS IS YOUR LIFE.   Who are these men that surround them?  Special Branch?  The one with the beads also looks like a man? UK agency that deals with exploited children abroad arrived in PDL immediately,  did they already know something about this group of "doctors" 

Not only are we told today, Kate seriously thought of suicide due to her "pain",  (never mind Madeleine and the twins of course), we even have Gerry "breaking down" and losing faith in his non existent faith.  

A couple of years ago they wanted to make Maddie the Movie to tell us all about their "pain" and pocket about £10M in the process, money making ventures are scaled down just a little now, but their attacks on the police as they demand we feel their pain clearly did not diminish.  

 I wonder how their action for at least ONE MILLION QUID off Goncalo is going and just what British Police are currently doing, something that is not to their taste, I will warrant!  

 

Gerry McCann breaks down as he tells how hunt for Madeleine 'is shaking his Catholic faith'

By Vanessa Allen
Last updated at 12:42 AM on 1st May 2010
Kate McCann longed for death after her daughter Madeleine’s disappeared, she admitted yesterday.
Choking back tears, she told for the first time how she had wanted her life to end but insisted she had never contemplated suicide.
Mrs McCann, 42, faced criticism because she appeared cold and did not break down. But she revealed how in her bleakest hours, she wanted to die to stop the pain.
Suffering together: Kate and Gerry McCann during their interview 
yesterday
Suffering together: Kate and Gerry McCann during their interview yesterday
The former GP and her husband Gerry, 41, gave their most honest and moving
interview to the BBC World Service to mark the third anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance on Monday.
Madeleine was three when she vanished from her parents’ rented apartment in the
Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz as they ate at a nearby restaurant with friends.
There have been no confirmed sightings since. But the couple, who also have twins
Sean and Amelie, five, have not given up.
The McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have launched a ‘holiday pack’ of stickers
and posters showing Madeleine’s face. They hope holiday-makers will distribute them
around the world to try to find Madeleine.

Longing for death:

GERRY: Really early on, there was a time when I was worried because Kate said she
wanted to go into the ocean and keep swimming and swimming and swimming. That
obviously caused great distress. The emotions are so raw early on.
KATE: I used to have thoughts like maybe we’ll get wiped out in the car on the motorway. So it would just happen, we’d all be gone and the pain would be away. But there’s always somebody left behind with that pain. We have got family who have been fantastic, friends who have been fantastic.
It was just so painful and it’s just so hard to describe, that heavy, suffocating feeling day in day out, that pain of missing Madeleine and anxiety for her.
There were times when I did want it to end. I wouldn’t have done anything, I have never
thought of doing anything, but what I do know now for sure is that I don’t want that.
Things have changed. I am desperate to be here with Sean and Amelie and to help find Madeleine.

What they believe has happened to Madeleine:

KATE: You just hope that it’s somebody who is looking after Madeleine. Who knows why they’ve taken her but I hope they’re looking after her and that she’s comfortable in the situation she’s in, that she is not at harm and that she’s getting love and happiness. That’s all I can hope for.
GERRY: Early on we couldn’t think of anything else but the worst case, where everything was negative, that she’d been taken, abused and killed and dumped, or maybe left seriously injured and dumped out in the freezing cold.

There have been individuals who, for whatever reason, have seemingly not wanted to find Madeleine. That’s how it appears to us… There are many people who’ve tried to derail what we’re doing along the way.

I can promise you we could think of almost no other scenario. Of course, that scenario is still possible… but there is no evidence of physical harm to Madeleine. As parents, we can’t accept she’s dead without absolute evidence of that.
KATE: In my heart, I feel she’s out there. I really do. And that, together with the feeling that I have of this not being over, of her still being there. The hardest thing, obviously, is how do we find her?

Sean and Amelie:

GERRY: Sean, in particular, talks about having an aeroplane and flying all over the world looking for ‘that man who’s taken Madeleine’ and when he gets him he’s going to rescue her and take his sword out.
KATE: At the moment they don’t show any signs of anger. A month or so ago, I went for a run and I suddenly started thinking about Sean and Amelie getting much older, they will understand more.
They’re going to feel the same kind of pain and loss and anger that we’ve felt over the last couple of years. I suddenly thought, ‘I don’t want them to feel that’.
I know how hard it has been for us, I don’t want them to have to go through that in addition to not having their sister with them.

Kate’s dreams:

I HAVE only had three dreams, all the same, they’re when I find her. It’s actually when I see her. They are actually incredibly painful.
The first one I was in Portugal and it was very tangible… I think I got rung by the nursery where she went to and they said ‘Madeleine’s here’. I went but then I was holding her and it felt like I was holding her and then I woke up and I was hysterical, actually, it was horrible.

Why they left children:

Torture of not knowing: Mr McCann said he will not accept 
Madeleine is dead until he has proof
Torture of not knowing: Mr McCann said he will not accept Madeleine is dead until he has proof
KATE: It just felt so safe, subconsciously, that was the restaurant for the apartments where we were staying. I think it took me 37 seconds to go back to the apartment.
The fact that I didn’t have to consciously think, ‘Is this right or is this wrong, is this safe or is it not?’, implies that I thought it was totally safe. I had a flashback recently of
that, of me and Gerry just holding each other and saying ‘We’ve let her down, we’ve let her down’, just because we weren’t there. I would never in a million years have anticipated something like that.
GERRY: If anything, prior to this, I would have said Kate was overprotective. The fact that she was so comfortable, we were all comfortable… It wasn’t a debate, we just didn’t perceive risk at all.

Police investigation:

KATE: If this was a murder inquiry there’d be an active investigation because they’d want to find the perpetrator. But as it stands we have a perpetrator who’s still at
large and therefore puts – potentially puts – other children at risk, and we still have a missing child.
So why is there no active investigation? I’m angry and frustrated really, this is our daughter, she’s still missing and there’s no investigation to find her. It’s a farce.
GERRY: Officially for 18 months and longer, law enforcement are not proactively doing anything to find Madeleine, and who took her, and I just think that is fundamentally unacceptable… There have been individuals who, for whatever reason, have seemingly not wanted to find Madeleine. That’s how it appears to us… There are many people who’ve tried to derail what we’re doing along the way.
KATE: I also think there’ll be some people who would be greatly embarrassed if Madeleine was found and that scares me. That might affect their want, or not, for Madeleine to be found.

Belief in God:

GERRY: If anything, when this first happened it strengthened my faith. I felt that there was such support and I really felt that may have been God’s work, that something good was going to come out of this.
I’m struggling much more now, without a doubt. I think that for one child to have been the recipient of so many millions of prayers, you think, ‘Well I do have my doubt’. If those prayers were going to work, they should have worked a long time ago.
KATE: I don’t hate God… I just can’t understand why so much could be allowed to land on one family and go seemingly unchallenged. So I would be angry with God but then I would voice that, I would let it out.

Prayers for abductor:

KATE: I usually pray for them to see the error of their ways, to have compassion and courage to come forward… The pain and the fear that it’s caused Madeleine and the
pain it’s caused to our family makes it incredibly difficult to sit here and say ‘Yes, I forgive him’. It would be important to know who’s taken Madeleine and why.
GERRY: Until we find Madeleine and who took her we don’t know what we will be asked to forgive.