The images I had of our Madeleine no sane person
would want in their head
Hello petal ... 'Madeleine in a tulip field when we lived in Amsterdam. I said she was the prettiest flower'
© Kate and Gerry McCann. Exclusive licensee: The Sun
SURROUNDED by photos of Madeleine, brave Kate McCann spent months writing her heart-rending book based on diaries kept after her daughter disappeared.
Kate said: "My reason for writing is simple - to give an account of the truth. The book was written for Madeleine for when she comes back and also for her brother Sean and sister Amelie, so that as they grow up they can read it too.
"Along the way there were often tears and I would not be able to carry on. But I was determined to do it. Every penny we raise through its sales will be spent on our search for Madeleine. Nothing is more important than finding our little girl."
In this extract, edited and abridged by ANTONELLA LAZZERI and OLIVER HARVEY, Kate tells how in the early days she was tormented by thoughts of Madeleine's possible fate at the hands of a child sex offender:
THE truly awful manifestation of what I was feeling was a macabre slideshow of vivid pictures in my brain that taunted me relentlessly.
I was crying out that I could see Madeleine lying, cold and mottled, on a big grey stone slab.
Looking back, seeing me like this must have been terrible for my friends and relatives, and particularly my parents, but I couldn't help myself.
And all this needed to come out. I dread to think what it might have done to me if it hadn't.
Later on it was the nights that were the worst. Not only did lying awake in the dark take me straight back to the most awful night of all, but my brain, finally free of the preoccupations of the day, would wander unbidden down black and terrifying avenues.
Kate ... battled through tears
DAN CHARITYI struggled constantly to think nice thoughts and drift off to sleep, but the demons had me in their grip and would torture me mercilessly with images too frightening and painful to share.
Dungeons
Where is my Madeleine? Please, God, do something!
An entry in my diary from that time: "Crying in bed again - can't help it . The thought of Madeleine's fear and pain tears me apart. The thought of paedophiles makes me want to rip my skin off."
Shortly after Madeleine went missing I recall Bill Henderson, the British Consul for the Algarve at the time, telling me that there had been several recent cases of men getting into bed with children, but no known abductions.
I don't know why this didn't ring a million alarm bells. As it was, it remained locked away in the dungeons of my mind for many months.
At the time my brain simply couldn't connect such cases with Madeleine's. These were abuse victims, and as awful as such crimes were, Madeleine's was much worse. Our child had been stolen.
Saturday May 5 was the day we should have been going home. Gerry and I awoke at 4am, having slept for barely a couple of hours, still feeling wretched and utterly abandoned by the Portuguese Judiciary in Portimao.
Both verging on hysteria, we were incapable of comforting each other. It was clear we were struggling to keep our heads above water. We rang holiday company Mark Warner's overseas manager and asked if the trauma psychologist Alan Pike could come and see us.
Alan is a clinical partner at the Centre for Crisis Psychology, pioneers in psychological trauma aftercare following disasters at home and abroad. He got us talking, encouraging us to think rationally about what we were saying, and we talked a lot, for hours. We faced our biggest fear - that Madeleine had been taken by a paedophile and killed.
Alan pointed out that these thoughts could be no more than speculation. We didn't know what had happened.
"Madeleine might walk through that door at any minute," he said. "You need to be ready for that."
Having spent much of the previous few days cooped up, first with the police and then with the lawyers, by the Sunday afternoon Gerry and I felt the need to escape into the open air. We decided to go for a walk along the beach. I remember this walk well. It had been a chaotic and confusing ten days, shot through with unremitting cold dread and dark thoughts.
Suspects ... police sketches of men witnesses saw acting strangely before Madeleine vanished
© Kate and Gerry McCann. Exclusive licensee: The SunI asked Gerry apprehensively if he'd had any really horrible thoughts or visions of Madeleine. He nodded. Haltingly, I told him about the awful pictures that scrolled through my head of her body torn apart.
Although I knew I had to share this burden, just raising the subject out loud to someone else, even Gerry, was excruciating.
Admitting the existence of these images somehow confirmed them as a real possibility, and with that came renewed waves of fear.
Everybody has their own mechanisms for self-protection and surrounding yourself only with "nice thoughts" is one. I wished I could do that. The pictures I saw of our Madeleine no sane human being would want in her head, but they were in mine.
I simply couldn't rid myself of these evil scenes in the early days and weeks. That walk with Gerry was, however, a small watershed. The mutual acknowledgement of such delicate and deeply upsetting responses drew us even closer.
It would be some time before we could get far enough past the terrible scenes seared into our minds to think logically about that night.
Once we did begin to function within what felt like an endless bad dream, we started to comb through our memories, searching for something significant.
When she was first stolen, paedophiles were all we could think about, and it ate away at us. The idea of a monster like this touching my daughter, stroking her, defiling her perfect little body, just killed me, over and over again. It didn't make any difference that this might not be the explanation for Madeleine's abduction (and, please God, it isn't). The fact that it was a possibility was enough to prevent me from shutting it out.
I would lie in bed, hating the person who had done this to us - the person who had taken away our little girl and terrified her.
I hated him. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to inflict the maximum pain possible on him for heaping all this misery on my family.
I was angry and bitter and I wanted it all to go away. I wanted my old life back.
On Monday July 21 2008 the Portuguese attorney general's office announced that the investigation of Madeleine's disappearance was to be archived, pending further evidence.
The case files were to be released. One of the most concerning and upsetting pieces of information to emerge quite early was the record of sexual crimes against children in the Algarve.
Book ... out May 12
This discovery made me feel physically sick. I read of five cases of British children on holiday being sexually abused in their beds while their parents slept in another room.
Disturbed
In three further incidents, children encountered an intruder in their bedrooms, who was presumably disturbed before he had the chance to carry out an assault.
I guessed these were the reports that Bill Henderson had told me about. These incidents had occurred within an hour's drive of Praia da Luz over the three years prior to Madeleine's disappearance.
The PJ had never mentioned any of them to us. In fact, I gathered from the files, some hadn't even been recorded by the authorities.
So they might never have come to light if the parents of these children hadn't been brave enough to come forward to the British police after Madeleine was taken and relive their nightmares.
They did so in the belief there could be a link between what had happened to their children and what had happened to her.
It broke my heart to read the terrible accounts of these devastated parents and the experiences of their poor children.
Unbelievably (or maybe not, by this time), there was a familiar thread running through them all.
The parents had called the police. They hadn't felt that the crime was taken seriously, by the police or by their tour operators. Statements were often not taken. DNA and fingerprint evidence was frequently not sought. In most instances there was no sign of a break-in.
I cried for hours after reading a letter of complaint from one mother regarding the sexual abuse of her daughter and the lack of proper attention paid to it.
The final line in particular has haunted me ever since:
"It is difficult to see with this lack of investigation or interest how a profile of this man can be built up.
"It did not appear to us that there was any great incentive or determination to find the offender and bring him to justice.
"Furthermore, it could all have been so much worse... indeed this man could go on to do much worse to another child if he's not stopped now." Six months later, our beloved Madeleine was grabbed from her bed. Of course, none of these children was abducted and these crimes may be completely unrelated to what happened to Madeleine. We do not know who has taken our daughter and for what purpose.
What these cases do demonstrate, however, is that British tourists in holiday accommodation were being targeted.
At the very least, the possibility of a link between these incidents and Madeleine's disappearance should have been investigated.
It is so hard not to scream from the rooftops about how these crimes appear to have been brushed under the carpet.
The authorities have known of them for a long time and yet the perpetrators, as far as the families are aware, remain free. Children are involved and they need to be protected.
We are extremely grateful, however, to their parents for having the courage and compassion to share their experiences with us to try to help us find our daughter.
Night after night, I read of depraved individuals, British paedophiles, Portuguese paedophiles, Spanish, Dutch and German paedophiles, and of the horrific crimes they'd committed.
The police went to visit some of them, looked around their apartments and recorded merely, 'No sign of the minor'.
Was that enough to eliminate these vile characters from the inquiry? If more had been done, there was certainly nothing in the files about it.
No description, no photograph, no alibi, no DNA. Just 'No sign of the minor'.
Entry in my diary: "August 27. A late night. Depressing reading. So many child molesters! Dear God, please don't let this have been what's happened to Madeleine. Please, God."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3568236/SURROUNDED-by-photos-of-Madeleine-brave-Kate-McCann-spent-months-writing-her-heart-rending-book-based-on-diaries-kept-after-her-daughter-disappeared.html#ixzz1LoOYEYIJ
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
In an extract from the book, entitled Madeleine, the 43-year-old says she was
feeling a "macabre slideshow of vivid pictures in my brain that taunted me
relentlessly".
"I was crying out that I could see Madeleine lying cold and mottled, on a big
grey stone slab," she says.
"The pictures I saw of our Madeleine no sane human being would want in her
head, but they were in mine.
"I simply couldn't rid myself of these evil scenes in the early days and
weeks."
I wonder if that was what was running through Kate's head when she is pictured in Praia da luz on Maddie's 4th birthday, just 9 days after she disappeared. As can be seen on the right of this blog, Kate is sporting a big grin and holding a nice bunch of colour co-ordinated flowers.
Quite how Leicester Social Services consider it is appropriate for the twins to continue to stay with this ghastly couple is completely beyond me.
New pictures of Maddie and Kate are now being released, they were all being held back for the publication of this book, well I could think of better words for it...I hope Kate and Gerry just rot in hell where they belong.
MADDIE MUM:
MY TORTURE
Madeleine McCann's mother Kate reveals paedophile fears in new
book in The Sun
MADELEINE McCann's mother has told for the first time of terrible visions that her kidnapped daughter is being abused by a pervert.
In a heart-rending book serialised from today in The Sun, Kate, 43, writes how she is haunted by "flashes" of Madeleine "screaming" for her and husband Gerry.
The couple also tell The Sun exclusively about being at the centre of one of the most harrowing stories of modern times.
Kate says four years after her three-year-old was snatched on a family holiday in Portugal: "The idea that my Madeleine was taken by a paedophile is my worst fear.
"I became consumed with it. It was torture for me. It was horrible, so vivid.
"It's worse when I go to bed and think about that first awful night again, when Madeleine went missing.
"That sense of dark and fear, of being desperate to sleep but not being able to. I just end up plummeting down again."
The emotion-charged book by ex-GP Kate is titled simply Madeleine.
She and consultant cardiologist Gerry, 42, admit they are plagued by guilt over the night Madeleine vanished from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz while they enjoyed a meal with friends at a tapas bar.
Kate says: "If your child is killed in a traffic accident, or died of cancer, parents are at peace. But Madeleine is still missing and she needs us to do something."
The 384-page book, which features previously unseen pictures of Madeleine, is to be published on her daughter's eighth birthday on Thursday.
Brave ... Gerry and Kate McCann have told how they felt guilty after daughter Madeleine's disappearance
Dan Charity - The SunGerry put a comforting arm around Kate as he said of his brave wife: "There were times when I thought she would never get back to being the woman I love.
"I could understand why something like this destroys relationships. It's been so hard to keep your own head above water at times."
Fighting back tears he tells of the guilt that "consumed" the couple after their lives changed forever that fateful night. Their tiny twins were also asleep in the apartment.
Gerry says: "Who's thinking about child abductions in a little sleepy out-of-season tourist resort? It never entered our minds. We felt very safe - it was a family resort."
While making no excuses, he tells how their thoughts were: "What could happen? The kids are in bed asleep."
Torment ... Kate and Gerry McCann shortly after Madeleine was taken
Gerry says: "If we could turn back the clock we would. Of course we wouldn't do something like leave the twins alone like that now."
But he stresses: "Blaming us for not being there takes it away from the abductor. Someone went into an apartment and stole a child.
"Of course we feel guilt. But it doesn't bring the child back."
Kate tells of the first night she peeped into her daughter's pink bedroom after the family got home to Rothley, Leics - breaking down as she recalls imagining Madeleine saying: "Lie with me, Mummy. Lie with me."
She confesses it shocks her to think her daughter would now be almost eight. The mum says: "How has that time flown by?
"I see girls of eight and I try to imagine Madeleine like that. And I just can't."
Nightmare ... Kate McCann has given an account of her experience in her own words
Dan Charity - The SunTheir twins Amelie and Sean, now six, are a source of constant comfort. Sean has promised his mum: "When you're old, me and Amelie will look for Madeleine."
Kate says: "They know that Madeleine was stolen. They call the person who took her 'the naughty man'.
"They know it happened in Portugal. Amelie said, 'We went to Portugal and then we woke up and Madeleine was gone'."
Kate says of the abductor: "I think it was someone who knew our movements. I don't think someone was passing by chance and took a child."
Since Portuguese police called off their investigation in 2008, the search for Madeleine has been carried on by private investigators.
Disappeared ... Madeleine McCann
The bill for that is met out of a campaign fund set up by Kate and Gerry. Donations flooded in, building a total of nearly £2million.
Kate says her book is "to give an account of the truth" following vile slurs that the couple themselves were involved. She surrounded herself with photos of Madeleine as she wrote it - based on diaries she has kept.
YOU can read a fuller version of Kate's shattering story in the printed edition of The Sun today and all next week. In the following extract she describes every mother's worst nightmare. It is the night that is seared into her memory - when she left Gerry and their friends at the restaurant and returned to the apartment:
All was silent. Then I noticed that the door to the children's bedroom was open quite wide, not how we had left it.
I walked over and gently began to pull it to. Suddenly it slammed shut, as if caught by a draught.
A little surprised, I turned to see if I'd left the patio doors open and let in the breeze. Retracing my steps, I confirmed that I hadn't.
Returning to the children's room, I opened the door a little, and as I did so glanced at Madeleine's bed.
I couldn't quite make her out in the dark. I remember looking at it and looking at it for what was probably only a few seconds, though it felt like much longer.
Search ... the McCanns have continued to look for Madeleine since police called off the official investigation
Dan Charity - The SunIt seems so daft now, but I didn't switch on the light straight away. Force of habit, I suppose: taking care to avoid waking the children at all costs.
When I realised Madeleine wasn't actually there, I went through to our bedroom to see if she'd got into our bed. That would explain the open door.
On the discovery of another empty bed, the first wave of panic hit me. As I ran back into the children's room the closed curtains flew up in a gust of wind.
Book ... out May 12
My heart lurched as I saw now that, behind them, the window was wide open and the shutters on the outside raised all the way up. Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear. Icy fear. Dear God, no! Please, no!
On Madeleine's bed, the top right-hand corners of the covers were still turned over forming a neat triangle. Cuddle cat and her pink princess blanket were lying where they'd been when we kissed her goodnight
I dashed over to the second bed, on the other side of the travel cots, where the twins slept on, oblivious, and looked out through the window. I've no idea what I expected to see there. Refusing to acknowledge what I already knew, and perhaps automatically going into a well-practised medical emergency mode, I quickly scoured the apartment to exclude all other possibilities, mentally ticking boxes I knew, deep down, were already ticked.
I checked the wardrobe in the children's room. I ran into the kitchen, throwing open all the cupboard doors, into our bedroom, searching the wardrobes, in and out of the bathroom, all in about 15 seconds, before hurtling out through the patio doors and down towards Gerry and our friends.
As soon as our table was in sight I started screaming. "Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her!"
©Kate McCann 2011. Extracted from MADELEINE by Kate McCann, to be published by Bantam Press on May 12, priced £20.
Readers can buy the book for the special price of £18 including free UK and Ireland p&p. To order please call 01206 255 800 and quote the reference MMC.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3567599/MADDIE-MUM-MY-TORTURE-Madeleine-McCanns-mum-Kate-reveals-paedophile-fears-in-new-book-in-The-Sun.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News#ixzz1LdHjd1M4
---------------
Madeleine: By her mum
Loving mum ... Kate with Maddie
IT'S the most heartbreaking book you will ever read.
Four years ago Madeleine McCann was abducted from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Now for the first time ever her mum Kate tells in her own words the utter torment Madeleine's family have suffered since their little girl disappeared.
She tells of the moment she discovered Madeleine, who disappeared days away from her fourth birthday, was missing.
Disappeared ... Madeleine McCann
The book, simply called 'Madeleine', containing never before seen photos of the little girl, is being serialised in The Sun from this Saturday and all next week.
Torment ... Kate and Gerry McCann
Kate, 43, said: "Every penny we raise through its sales will be spent on our search for Madeleine. Nothing is more important to us than finding our little girl."
Book ... out May 12
The McCanns also hope the book may help provide the key piece of information that could lead to Madeleine being found.
Gerry said: "We are hopeful that this book may help the investigation to find Madeleine in other ways too.
"Our hope is that it may prompt those who have relevant information (knowingly or not) to come forward and share it with our team. Somebody holds that key piece of the jigsaw."
'Madeleine' is being published on May 12th by Transworld at a price of £20.
Readers can buy Madeleine (RRP £20) for the special price of £18.00 including free UK and Ireland p&p. To order please call 01206 255 800 and quote the reference 'MMC'.
© Kate McCann 2011. Extracted from MADELEINE by Kate McCann, to be published by Bantam Press on 12 May priced at £20.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3565282/We-serialise-Kate-and-Gerry-McCanns-book-Madeleine-in-The-Sun.html#ixzz1LdMKjoSN
38 comments:
I think only Kate and Gerry McCann could publicise a book where Kate describes "MY" torture and goes on to give such a hideously graphic image of Maddie screaming out for them.
Sometimes, when seeking to speak about the new depths this couple are prepared to sink to, it is really hard to find words how they make me feel, but sheer revulsion fits rather well.
"Force of habit, I suppose: taking care to avoid waking the children at all costs."
Kate actually sums things up rather well there I think...at all costs...
Personally, I can remember going and touching my young children, even kissing them, if they stirred a little and cuddled me back, that was not a problem for me.
Hi Viv
Gerry says "Blaming us for not being there takes it away from the abductor. Someone went into an apartment and stole a child."
They still do not accept responsibility, it is always someone elses fault.
I was also shocked with Kate's vivid descriptions, I think some would have been better left to the imagination. I fail to understand how a parent can have these horrific thoughts, yet at the same time think Madeleine has come to no harm.
Another typically selfish comment from Gerry, only thinking of himself again, "There were times when I thought she would never get back to being the woman I love.
Would any parent ever be the same again after losing a child, I don't think so.
Hi All,
The Mail tells us today: ‘Two convicted paedophiles have been questioned by British police over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.”
New news …well no
‘The Mail on Sunday has learned they were interviewed in prison after inquiries revealed they were touring Spain and possible Portugal in May 2007. It is the first time that it has become known publicly that British police have interviewed anyone in connection with the case.’
Cough…Mail on Sunday what about the chief suspects the T9!!!
‘A senior officer involved in the investigation said ‘Lauchlan and O’Neill have been interviewed in prison but the whole Madeleine McCann inquiry is being kept extremely tight at the highest level.’
Oh really, who told you that …..Oh not named I see, wouldn’t be MOS made it up?
What a load of rubbish this two-page article is. It is unadulterated support for the McCanns and promotion for their book. They should be ashamed! But then again the Mail only thinks it’s a newspaper.
Hi Viv & Wizard
The Express I think said it all today, another sighting although very dubious.
We are supposed to believe that this german paedophile, who abducts children wearing a balaclavar, resembles one of the photofits! I am at a loss as to know which one! I think we need another photofit pronto. He also apparently comes armed with a knife and uses threats to abduct the child.
Gerry maintains that he was in the apartment when the abductor was hiding behind a door, why did the abductor not threaten Gerry, but most importantly, why did the abductor supposedly take Madeleine when his preference is boys, and Sean was there for the taking, thankfully not of the age he prefered.
This whole situation is beyond control now as far as I am concerned, if only someone would step in and put a stop to this complete charade.
Hiya both
I think the major and perhaps inevitable problem for the McCanns is, they have already given so many varying explanations for why they behaved as they did, and now, there are yet more.
"In fact, she said they were so tired they nearly had dinner inside their own apartment on the night Madeleine vanished - but then decided that would be anti-social."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384828/Kate-McCann-reveals-falling-husband-meant-slept-night-Maddie-disappeared.html#ixzz1Lo8jPhwj
and yet on the video to the right of this blog, Kate can be heard very plainly saying they were going to go to Milleniums but they did not have a buggy and the children were tired. Gerry gives yet another version....
If you are telling the truth the story always gets told the same. It is simple stuff that judges use day in and day out to decide whose evidence to prefer in a contested case - the side that consistently tells it just the same or the the side that are always trying to improve upon and embellish the original.
In the Daily Mail it is reported Kate says that Kate thought it would "unwise" to have a babysitter and she repeats "we never even thought about it". Well that is very strange because they clearly thought a lot and paid out a lot to leave their children with babysitters all day every day.
I think the McCanns are very poor liars, that is demonstrably obvious.
I am just sick of hearing one version after another from them, if they had any sense at all, they would just shut up because it is very hard to appear consistent and honest when you are not.
Here is another glaring inconsistency, in order to state they checked the children every 30 minutes the McCanns claim Gerry checked them at 9.05 and yet here Kate McCann says:
She tells how she realised something was wrong when she noticed that the door to the children’s bedroom was wide open – not as she and her husband had left it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384705/Madeleine-McCann-Police-quiz-convicted-murderers-Kate-McCann-gives-chilling-account-moment-daughter-missing.html#ixzz1LoD3kcxs
So what Kate now seems to be claiming is that the door should have been in exactly the same position at 10 pm when she did her check as it was when "she and her husband" left it at about 8.30 regardless of the claims that apparently not only Gerry but also Mat had done two checks in between.
Of course it is possible that this is the reality, there were no checks in between - Maddie was left unattended all evening and really did get abducted by someone who had noted what was going on.
But does that make her lying, cashing in parents any better? No, it most certainly does not, if that is the reality they should have told the police the absolute truth. But saving themselves has always come a long way in front of saving little Maddie. Maybe they figured that if they had admitted that to the Portuguese Police they would have been slapped in jail straight away, where they belong!
Kate confirms in her book that Gerry is the uncouth yob we all think he is using that as the apparent reason why she slept alone that night.
Someone commented I think on Missing Madeleine, well then if Kate slept in the other bed and left it all messy, how come Madeleine's was still neat and tidy if Kate did not bother to make them?
But Kate also states in her book the uncouth yob apparently said to her THAT NIGHT, WE NEED TO GET SOME SLEEP.
So, just imagine, you are in a holiday apartment open to the street on two sides and with a secluded entrance that you actually leave ajar. You leave your tiny kids for an hour and a half and when you finally get around to doing a boozy check one of them has gone.
Would you be up all night frantically searching for that child, or would you say, ho hum best get on the phone and tell everyone what a disaster it is, she has been taken by a gang of Portuguese paedophiles and then insist to your partner WE need to get some sleep?
I think Gerry probably did say that and his reasoning would have been simple. In the morning we are going to have to face the police, they may be Portuguese plods but even so, we need to have our wits about us to get our stories straight. The thing is, even from their very first statement, they did not manage to get them straight. Kate says she checked via the ajar patio door, Gerry says they went around the front and used their keys. To me, whatever it is, this is the nub of this case.
I think the other thing about Kate's book is she is stinging from four years of non stop criticism and wants to try and answer back.
So, she tells us about the expensive clothing Madeleine apparently wore mentioning each shop i.e. Gap and Monsoon both of which I know are not cheap.
Is this in response to suggestions they just did this for the money because they were broke with her not working and a £323000 mortgage to pay? Possibly, of course it is also possible that Kate is the other type of narcissist to Gerry, she is needy whereas he is controlling and domineering. But both need to do the big and lack empathy, fundamental traits - materialism they can understand, loving and caring for their little girl, that they find real hard.
I have simplified the format of the blog because I was fed up trying to get text and pics to fit, when I am decidedly lacking in these particular skills xx
OK it looks a bit of a mess, must try harder, lol
Nite to anyone looking in x
I was in Morrisons this morning, there were three completely untouched piles of The Sun with a headline something like Kate kicked the bed furious at the cops.
I think if The Sun and The McCanns thought even the average Sun reader would want to continue to read this sickening and repulsive abuse of Madeleine by her own mother continuing to sell her, they got that wrong. Even Sun readers have more taste than that.
Think the blog looks better now!
Wonder when the van will come for Kate:-))))
So we have the Pro McCann Sun and it would seem the anti McCann Mirror. I reckon Gerry better just order some new beds pdq....
Home News Top Stories
Madeleine McCann: Ex-Met Police chief Peter Kirkham calls for cold-case review in hope of attracting new witnesses
by Peter Kirkham, Daily Mirror 9/05/2011
Decrease font size Increase font size
Reviews of unsolved cases are a key part of professional investigative practice.
They bring a fresh set of eyes to make sure nothing has been missed.
And they also allow the evidence to be viewed in the light of what we know now and they give new impetus to the investigation.
Advertisement >>
Forensic science has moved on and re-examination of the original exhibits may well lead to new clues.
Renewed publicity can locate new witnesses and this is the most important point.
Loyalties will have changed. People unwilling to talk to police about their friends four years ago may well now choose to do so.
The suspect is very likely to have said something to someone close or to have done something to raise suspicions in that person’s mind. This is why an unsolved case review is essential.
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/05/09/madeleine-mccann-ex-met-police-chief-peter-kirkham-calls-for-cold-case-review-in-hope-of-attracting-new-witnesses-115875-23118576/#ixzz1LsKAx7FP
Hi Viv
Well done to you with the new look site. I would not know where to begin.
I have read what the papers are reporting with regards to Kate's book, I am astounded at how many discrepencies there are, and how Kate slates the PJ and imo the Portuguese people as well. I think Kate has made a terrible mistake, i do not think the Portuguese people will forgive her for this.
Out of interest Viv, is a cold case review, as mentioned above, the same as the review the McCann's want, or something entirely different.
Hiya Di and thanks, I thought it was time for a new look and wanted to try and make the page wider, not easy (for me) but got there in the end.
I think Kate is coming across as quite unhinged and it does make you wonder how unscrupulous Gerry and Murdoch are, did they not warn her?
How can a female smash the end of a bed by kicking it and without doing her foot serious harm? What utter nonsense!
I was back in Morrisons about 8.30 tonight, those piles of Sun newspapers still had not sold. I think for the most part people are just bored rigid with Kate.
In relation to cold case review Di, if this man has been quoted correctly he would be referring to a review of all the evidence by English Police. As you probably know serious case files are periodically reviewed when they have been allowed to go cold, often if a fresh team are brought in it can re energise the whole process.
His remarks clearly imply the friends may now have changed their mind about supporting Kate and Gerry, something may have been done to annoy them yet further. I wonder if this is a hint at the book.
I think it was pretty pointed recently that Tanner did a charity run, she did not sponsor Kate and Gerry and likewise. But Rachel and Mat did not sponsor Kate and Gerry either.
I continue to believe that what Kate and Gerry want is a review of the evidence of an abduction. In short anything that does not implicate them. Maybe that would involve wanting the police to change their views about who is responsible and start looking at it from their point of view. If Madeleine was genuinely abducted from Portugal by a stranger unknown to the McCanns or their friends, the simple truth is UK Police would in those circumstances have no jurisdiction. Hence, the McCanns talk about getting the case re-opened over there, that is what they mean. Of course they are living in cloud cuckoo land, there never will be a review on their terms by either English or Pt Police and neither will the investigation ever be formally re-opened in Portugal, Pt will however continue to work quietly to assist UK in bringing them to justice which is very clearly the intention.
Mr Kirkham is a retired detective chief inspector in the Metropolitan police with more than 20 years' experience who now trains detectives. He said that there were three categories of evidence which would secure a conviction: information from witnesses, admissions from the suspect and physical evidence.
He has also commented on the murder cases of Rhys Jones and Jo Yeates. Seems to me he takes a different view of the evidence thus far to what the McCanns, erm, apparently do...there is absolutely no evidence she has come to any harm, we have no leads but we believe she is still alive, blah blah blah....
Di and Wiz
have you noticed the pic of Maddie right at the top in the tulips?
I think she looks a very forlorn little character, having never seen bags on a child quite that young and of quite such magnitude.
How people cannot see she is (or sadly should I say was) the image of Kate is quite beyond me
Thanks Viv for explaining that in words I understand. I truly hope you are right and have a feeling you are.
On another note, I was shocked today when a friend phoned and said, No wonder Madeleine was taken, the staff in reception had a note saying the McCann's left their children alone every night.
I did point out that all the tapas left their children alone at night, not just the McCanns, and all the other children are accounted for. Her reply "Well the paper did not say that"
Hence the reason I hardly discuss this case with anyone other than family.
Sorry duplicate post
Hiya Di
I hope it helped. It has always seemed very plain to me that this is a massive case being investigated in UK. If a child is abducted abroad there is nothing really for UK Police to investigate is there? I can recall reading that at one point every single force in the country was working on and it has been described as a massive international case. It remains very possible I fear that they actually did sell her. The words of the Portuguese Prosecutor were clear enough last February as to the charges the McCanns could have faced. He was also clear there is a 50 50 chance of her being alive. Take this coupled with Kate writing a book where she is pretty graphic about Maddie being with paedophiles and the true horror and why this is such a massive case is brought even more into view, I am afraid. Sending such a rush of very senior police /experts in quite unprecedented, I think they would have had a very good idea immediately what the situation actually was having listened to the PJ and quite possibly from what they already knew about members of this group.
Like you, I just want to be wrong, I would rather Maddie had met with an immediate accident and death or better still they just had her adopted into a nice home. But that is so incredibly unlikely. This couple have even held back some f the best pictures of Maddie to release with this sickening book. They are intensely cold and calculating.
I did read that and your friend is correct it stated the McCanns leave their children every night, not the McCanns and all their friends.
I just have this impression of the McCanns being abroad and being considered like some incredible outcasts among some very nice people. Their behaviour is just quite outrageous even to Brits, let alone Portuguese who are known to act in such a kind and inclusive way towards children.
Kate herself also refers to an argument the night before when Gerry snubbed her and on this occasions she tells it, he left her and went back to bed.
I think this does confirm the Express report from Mrs Fenn that the night before Kate could be heard, "loud and out of control". I mean let's face it, she is telling us she is that way inclined in her book.
In this extract, edited and abridged by ANTONELLA LAZZERI and OLIVER HARVEY, Kate tells how she and Gerry began the frantic search for Madeleine, and of her growing despair at the way Portuguese police were investigating her disappearance.
AS soon as it was light Gerry and I resumed our search. We went up and down roads we'd never seen before, having barely left the Ocean Club complex all week.
We jumped over walls and raked through undergrowth. We looked in ditches and holes.
I remember opening a big dumpster and saying to myself, 'Please God, don't let her be in here'.
The most striking and horrific thing was that we were completely alone. Nobody else, it seemed, was out looking for Madeleine.
That morning I learned of the man our friend Jane had seen in the street. Although Gerry and our friends had been trying to protect me from further distress by not telling me about this sooner, when they did I was strangely relieved.
Madeleine hadn't just disappeared off the face of the earth. There was something to work on.
This man was around 35-40, dark-haired and of southern European or Mediterranean appearance.
He was carrying a sleeping child horizontally across his arms, the child's legs dangling.
Too little ... police search the beach at Praia da Luz. But Kate felt 'frustration and anger'
Although Jane had never seen or known about Madeleine's Eeyore pyjamas, her description of this child's night clothes matched Madeleine's almost exactly.
There was little doubt in my mind then, nor is there now, that what Jane saw was Madeleine's abductor taking her away.
There have been many occasions when I have visualised myself walking up that road instead of Jane. Would I even have noticed the man and child?
I've even pictured myself catching up with him and grabbing him by the shoulder. Saving Madeleine.
Kate McCann: Did they expect me to confess to a crime they had made up?
At about 9am we all went out on to Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva to find out what was going on and to look out for the Polícia Judiciária.
The GNR national guard patrol was still in evidence although again there didn't seem to be much sense of urgency.
According to the PJ files, two patrol dogs were brought to Praia da Luz at 2am on May 4 (Madeleine disappeared on May 3) and four search-and-rescue dogs at 8am.The only searches I was aware of were those carried out by ourselves, fellow guests and the Mark Warner resort staff.
cont d below
Too late ... police check vehicles outside the town of Praia da Luz.
According to the police files, released later, the tracker dogs did not go out until 11pm on May 4.
There had been no house-to-house inquiries at all and there wouldn't be for some hours to come. To this day, I don't know that this task has been completed.
It was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up to take us and our friends to the police station in Portimão.
Basic and shabby, it didn't seem conducive to efficiency and order.
I was appalled by the treatment we received. Officers walked past us as if we weren't there. In the control room, officers in jeans and T-shirts smoked and engaged in what sounded more like light-hearted banter than serious discussion. I know one shouldn't judge people (or perhaps places, either) on appearances, but it all made me immensely nervous. Nobody asked how we were doing, whether we were OK. Our child had been stolen and I felt as if I didn't exist.
Kate reveals moment cops told her and husband Gerry they were suspects...arguidos
We were grateful for the support of the British consul, Bill Henderson.I recall Bill telling me there had been several recent cases of men getting into bed with children, but no known abductions.
I'm not sure why this didn't ring a million alarm bells. At the time my brain simply couldn't connect such cases with Madeleine's disappearance.I remember constantly looking at the clock, counting the hours since we'd last seen Madeleine, my terror mounting with every five minutes that passed. Gerry said afterwards that when he asked about deploying helicopters and heat-detecting equipment in the search, the police officer replied, 'This is not the UK'.
Holidaymaker Bridget O'Donnell and her partner Jes Wilkins were visited by a police officer and a translator that morning.
The officer wrote their answers to his questions on a loose piece of paper rather than in a notebook. Of greater concern was his reaction to a photocopied picture of a little girl lying on their table.
Memories ... Madeleine eating a biscuit at home
He asked them if she was their daughter. Bridget explained that this was Madeleine, the little girl they were supposed to be looking for. "My heart sank for the McCanns," she remembered.
It was gone 2pm at the police station in Portimão before I was interviewed.
As João Carlos, a Portuguese detective, led me up the stairs, I inquired whether he had any children. He told me he hadn't. "But don't worry. We will find your daughter." It was exactly what I was yearning to hear.
It was 7.30 by the time one of the PJ officers drove us away from the police station. Ten or 15 minutes into our journey, the police officer had a call from his station. He suddenly swung the car into a U-turn and drove us at 120mph back to Portimão.
I cannot overstate how terrifying this was. Had Madeleine been found? Was she alive? Was she dead? I was crying hysterically and praying for all I was worth.
She didn't have her Cuddle Cat with her
Back at the police station somebody showed us a photograph, taken from CCTV, of a blonde child with a woman in a petrol station shop. We were asked whether the little girl was Madeleine. She wasn't. We were sent on our way, devastated.
I was very troubled Madeleine didn't have her Cuddle Cat toy with her. Just being able to hold something familiar might have given her a crumb of comfort.
Comfort ... Madeleine with Kate and Cuddle Cat
By midnight we'd had no more word from the police. More than 24 hours had elapsed. The pain, dread and sense of powerlessness were tearing me apart.
I rang the number given to me by Guilhermino Encarnação, director of the Algarve Polícia Judiciária, and got through to the PJ at Portimão.I was told "everything that can be done is being done". It was a line we were to hear many more times in the next 24 hours. How hollow it seems now.
The frustration and anger were reaching boiling point. I felt like a caged, demented animal. This was torture of the cruellest kind. Finally, I erupted. I began to scream, swear and lash out.
I kicked an extra bed that had been brought into the apartment and smashed the end right off it.
Then came the inevitable tears. Prostrate on the floor, sobbing like a baby, I felt utterly defeated and broken. I had not slept in over 42 hours. I was exhausted and my whole body was racked with pain.
At the police station that first afternoon, Dr Encarnação had briefly mentioned three potential explanations for Madeleine's disappearance: a burglary that had "changed direction", abduction and the possibility that she had wandered off by herself.
I have always found the third suggestion insulting to our intelligence.
There was no way a three-year-old could have raised the shutters and opened the window.It was not only insulting, it was frighteningly damaging to the chances of finding Madeleine quickly.
I do agree with you Di, the personality disordered McCanns continue to do themselves a grave disservice by being so offensive to the Portuguese and their police officers.
I can remember seeing helicopters flying above joining in the search, but the McCanns translate this to, "this is not UK".
Jane Hill pointed out to them that absolutely everyone was searching for their daughter, except them!
Since when did parents who are actually responsible for the disappearance get around to searching, they never do, and the McCanns are no exception. Jane Hill is an intelligent lady, that was the point she was extracting and amplifying in that first interview and Kate's response or avoidance of one said it all for me.
Oh I am gutted. The Amazon thread with thousands of posts on "Kate's forum" has been whoosh clunked.
Sir Gerry must have tired of it, felt it became expendable, served its useful purpose, much like his former daughter Madeleine. Now it is just cash in or her name (only) all the way.
I am going to miss all those kind comments about me and the camels etc :-))) Again, it is all in the best possible taste.
This is interesting from Goncalo, particularly given he no longer seems to be so convinced his thesis is actually correct (an accidental death due to neglect and disposal of the body that same night/later transportation of the body in their hire car which seems quite impossible in so many respects)
He still seems to ignore the clear jurisdiction of English police to deal with English criminals even if they did offend abroad when that offending is as serious as what may have taken place here (murder or kidnap/trafficking or both)
EXCLUSIVE: Gonçalo Amaral issues plea for Kate McCann to "tell the truth", 10 May 2011
EXCLUSIVE: Gonçalo Amaral issues plea for Kate McCann to "tell the truth" mccannfiles.com
By Nigel Moore
10 May 2011
FORMER Portuguese police co-ordinator Goncalo Amaral has issued a plea for Kate McCann to "tell the truth" and spoken of his delight at having his freedom of speech returned.
Speaking exclusively to mccannfiles.com on the eve of the publication of Mrs McCanns' book about missing daughter Madeleine, Mr Amaral said he was surprised at Kate's claim that she was writing her book "to give an account of the truth."
"It is strange to hear the word 'truth' from the mouth of someone who didn't cooperate with the police when the investigation was open," he said.
"And it was not any investigation; it was about finding what caused the mysterious disappearance of her daughter, and the enormous effort to recover her."
Mr Amaral believes the McCanns have "the right to be able to write what they like about the case" and supports the fact that Kate "is using her freedom of speech". Something recently denied him.
"A book that is written by someone who was a suspect may become of use as a document, maybe even a piece of documental evidence. Let us wait," he added.
Mr Amaral, whose bestselling book The Truth of the Lie was the subject of costly legal action by the McCanns, said he "felt like a free man" when the injunction on his book was overturned by the Appeals Court in October last year. "The McCanns also felt free because they decided to write a book," he observed.
The McCanns, who failed in their recent appeal to Portugal's Supreme Court to reimpose the ban, must now return all seized copies of the book, currently placed with their lawyer, Isabel Duarte, or risk incurring a criminal charge of disobedience.
"Legality has been re-established," said Goncalo Amaral. "The McCanns have just lost one more judicial action that was paid for with money from a fund that they say is for recovering their daughter.
"Both her and her husband were, and still are, more concerned with defending their image than in finding out what caused the child's mysterious disappearance."
An English language version of Goncalo Amaral's book is yet to be released but he said: "After the McCanns' book is published, there is no reason whatsoever for The Truth of the Lie not to be published in the UK. The British people are entitled to know all of the facts."
Mr Amaral believes that the process will be reopened and "the material truth will be known" and is dismissive of the McCanns' petition for a review of the case.
"That is one of the misunderstandings that are created by the McCanns," he said, "they do not want the case to be reviewed, they merely want a review of the information that has been added after the shelving (sightings of the child).
"If they wanted the case to be reviewed, they would ask for the crime process and the investigation to be reopened, and they would supply all of the reports from the various private detectives that they have hired.
"To ask for the process to be reopened, all it would take is a letter to the Prosecutor, as it has already happened in so many other cases. It costs them nothing, just the stamp on the letter."
If the process were reopened, Mr Amaral believes there are "several" diligences which could be carried out to help discover the truth.
"There will always be diligences that will result from reviewing the investigation and the reports from the McCanns' private detectives. Those diligences will have to take the conclusions that the Police had reached in September of 2007 into account.
"That is the starting point, but in the end it could happen that those conclusions are not confirmed. What is necessary is to complete an investigation that was suddenly interrupted due to the will of the parents of a child that has disappeared mysteriously."
Mr Amaral has no doubts about which action would have to be undertaken immediately to help unearth the truth of what happened to Madeleine.
"The first diligence, after the review, will have to be the reconstruction of that night of the 3rd of May, 2007."
If we needed any more confirmation that I have always been quite correct to state that UK Police both have jurisdiction and are dealing with "the McCann case", this post from Margaret on MM provides the answer.
It has always been quite obvious to me that was the solution Portugal were referring to when shelving the case in their country. It is a proper legal solution because it leaves the way open for the McCanns to get the case re-opened there, if they can do the impossible and actually provide evidence it was nothing to do with them. Failing that they are stuck with UK Police.
I wonder if part of their defence now hinges on pointing out how mad Kate is, hence her book which any mental health professional would tell you just isnot right?
Police tell Martin Grimes NOT to comment about McCann Case....
margaret Today at 12:44 pm
This is an interesting snippet from the bottom of the Mails story today (which btw l skimmed through so not to read the sex stuff - someone with an ounce of class does not discuss their sex lives in public).
Right near the bottom:
Mr Grime is now a director of a forensic science company, GSS International, and is employed as a sniffer dog expert. He owns both his former police dogs and they continue to work with him.
Yesterday he was in the U.S. on business and a spokesman for the Hampshire-based company said he had been asked by police in the UK not to comment on the McCann case.
Now why would the police tell him not to comment? Because IMO there's either an investigation ongoing or they're waiting to pounce......
And note the wording 'McCann CASE'
In today's instalment of the Sun, Kate even discusses her sex life or lack of it etc. I just do not even want to go there and wonder how on earth she could even sell this for money, are they do desperate to pay their lawyers she cannot even look the neighbours in the face. Did the neighbours ever move back in after they all left that formerly pleasant very middle class road?
Hi Viv
I am not surprised the Amazon discussion was pulled, there was no way they could have left the comments there for the launch of the book. I would imagine the publishers intervened. It certainly showed the pros up for what they truly are though.
Reading the papers on the internet today, I am shocked that Kate again has to go into so much unecessary detail about herself and Gerry, I for one do not want to know what does or does not go on in their bedroom.
Posted by weary on MM.
link
Summed up nicely imo.
Madeleine McCann’s Parents: The Real Royal Couple?
But oh dear Di, this number one most read article has been whoosh clunked £error not found£
Di, I think Kate has managed to achieve something with her book and revelations about private thoughts and private family matters that no normal person would record with a view to making a million. She has even convinced me she is more likely to be Madeleine's killer than Gerry. As she says herself, she was in a bad mood the night before.
When you watch her in interviews they have given you can sometimes see her larynx bouncing around in her throat as she sits steely eyed trying to do something "normal" with her eyes and facial expression. Eventually she interjects, "as Gerry just said (a frequent one that!) the PJ always assured us they were looking for a live Madeleine. That is all she wanted to say, that was her point. Somehow, I think that is the point.
Fortunately Jo Morais captured this article before the McCann's lawyers (presumably) got on the case.
So starting a new thread with it, just to be obliging.
Please try and be fair Kate, we have to read all the sh!t you churn out, you really must learn to allow people the right to reply.
Sir Gerry must have tired of it, felt it became expendable, served its useful purpose, much like his former daughter Madeleine. Now it is just cash in or her name (only) all the way.
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