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| Is Madeleine holding her hand to her hair in such an unnatural way for a three year old because a professional photographer told her to? She does look three and a half to four in this picture. Who is the person in the background with the striped t shirt on, is it an adult or a child? It seems to be in the McCanns home because you can see the wooden flooring, yellow wall and skirting board very similar to a particularly seductive picture of Maddie lying on the floor looking back to the photographer who must have been leaning over to take a shot looking down her top. I do not want it on this blog I find it so horrible. |
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| This picture is acknowledged to be one taken of Madeleine in Praia da Luz, probably on Tuesday 1 May at Kids Mini Tennis. That night she was crying Daddy Daddy in the apartment for one hour and fifteen minutes according to the witness testimony of Pamela Fenn (deceased) who used to live in the apt above 5a. That it just two days before she disappeared but the McCanns have never used it in their campaigns to find her. I still cannot make up my mind what the nasty burn type mark on her wrist is, but do not believe it is sunburn because her hand is pure white and the weather had not been good. |
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| Gerry handed two copies of two pictures to the GNR guard on the night Maddie disappeared, this is one of them. I am not sure it was taken at the same time as the one above, she looks a little younger and her hair looks far more blonde than brown. but this could just be light effects. But even so, her hair has been carefully arranged to fall just behind the shoulder on the one side but not with the almost seductive and adult pose with the hand on the hair. If these are kitchen cupboards they are not the white ones that we have seen Kate has in her kitchen. So where was this taken? |
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| You often notice this with McCann pictures of Madeleine, there are different versions where bits are chopped off, what does PA stand for? Press Association perhaps. It appears she has eye liner around her eyes when looking at more of a close up of it as here. So a posed professional looking photograph of a child where it would appear she has been told to put her hand on her hair and in her child like way just does not quite get it so her fingers are not really connecting with her hair. She looks a similar age to when she disappeared so this shot must have been taken not too long before that holiday and has been used quite a lot by the McCanns. One might ask the question, did they have these pictures taken especially for that holiday and who are they trying to appeal to with the makeup and getting a three year to adopt an adult pose? |
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| David Payne says in his rogatory he took a video on his mobile of Madeleine boarding the steps of the plane and stumbling, presumably this is it? Why do they always tell us she has blond hair? |
On 21 May and immediately following a trip home by Gerry McCann (he returned with Clarence Mitchell) we were told this was the last picture of Madeleine taken at 1.29 on 3 May, the same day Maddie disappeared. According to PJ files Gerry and a relative handed CDs of pictures to the Portuguese Police. Question is why did it take so long to produce this apparent last picture and why does she look about a year younger than in the pictures above? There does not seem to be any official recognition of this particular picture in the Portuguese police files and bloggers including myself have suggested it was "photoshopped" by Gerry on his trip home. Perhaps Murdoch required a nice family shot and he simply did not have one to offer although there is another picture where he is playing with Madeleine.
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| The twins look about 9 - 12 months just getting up and walking, Maddie is 20 month older so that makes her around two and a half here. |
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| This is the picture the McCanns repeatedly use almost exclusively in their campaigns and of course on the cover of Kate's book. But I would say she looks no different to the picture above. In short she is about two and a half. So why would they keep on using a picture of Maddie aged two and a half, rather than four (tennis balls) if they actually wanted people to recognise her? I have the most awful feeling that was the last thing they wanted people to be able to do. You can see by comparing with the one above, Madeleine did not normally look quite as pretty as this, her hair certainly appears tinted with various pretty highlights and she is certainly wearing eye makeup. Nothing is ever quite what it seems with the McCanns, is it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica ChapmanOn --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Holly Wells (left) & Jessica Chapman The search, involving the police and hundreds of volunteers lasted well into the next day and the following weeks. Pictures of the girls were circulated throughout the community in the hopes that someone had seen them. Jessica and Holly’s parents held a news conference pleading for any information concerning the whereabouts of their children. Even the British Manchester United soccer star, David Beckham, whose name adorned the girls’ shirts, made a televised appeal for their safe return. As time passed, the hopes of finding the girls alive dwindled.  Ian Huntley Several witnesses who claimed to have seen the girls after they left their home came forth during the investigation. Ian Huntley, 29, a caretaker of Soham Village College, who had assisted in the search, told investigators that he had seen the girls walking by his house that he shared with his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, 29, the girls’ primary school teacher assistant at around the time they left the barbecue. He was believed to have been one of the last persons to see Jessica and Holly after they had left their home. After he admitted to seeing the girls, investigators searched Huntley’s home and the college where he worked, hoping to eliminate him as a suspect. During the searches they found no evidence linking him to the crime but some investigators were still suspicious of his behavior. Throughout the investigation, Huntley seemed too emotionally involved in the case. Moreover, he was asking too many questions and gave the impression that he knew more than what he was admitting ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AND HERE COMES THE WHACKY WEIRDO MR HUNTLEY TYPE....IN YOU GUESSED IT THE SUN! and footballer David Beckham did an appeal for Maddie too, imagine being such a weird father you get inspired by Huntley and his victims football shirts. It was a Sun reporter if I remember correctly who said that Murat was acting oddly, just like Huntley. I do have to wonder just how bad Rebekah knows the further revelations to be. Later that evening, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were reported missing and a police search began at around midnight. The girls’ parents were frantic, not knowing what could have become of them. Jessica had a mobile phone with her when the girls left, yet the family and investigators were unable to contact her. The silence of Mr Robert Murat is very strange, but he is now a very wealthy man because of Maddie going missing, so is Gerry, but for how much longer? If people are wondering why he is taking a back seat and letting Kate do all the talking, which is certainly not his style, I would suggest his reasons for that are very simple, he knows the cops are onto him, probably the same reason his boss and brother retired from being his Fund Directors. Tapas 7 face new Murat quizCOPS probing the Madeleine McCann mystery will quiz pals of her parents over alleged links to suspect Robert Murat.Portuguese detectives now point to coincidences connecting odd-ball expat Murat with Exeter, Devon - where two of the so-called Tapas Seven live. He stayed there shortly before Maddie vanished. A police source said: "There are many pieces to this jigsaw but they all seem to add up to Exeter - we want to know why. "It needs to be established if Murat knew families with children would be staying 100 metres from where he lived. We want to be certain if there was any previous contact between him and any unsuspecting friends of the McCanns." The Tapas Seven were dining with Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry when the four-year-old vanished in Praia da Luz on May 3. Murat, 34, spent ten days at his sister Samantha's home in Exeter, returning to Praia two days before Maddie disappeared from a holiday apartment. LurkingSamantha lives near Dr Russell O?Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, both holiday pals of the McCanns. They are neighbours of lawyer James Gorrod, 34, and wife Charlotte, 32, who were also in Praia da Luz when Maddie vanished. None of them are suspects. Dr O?Brien, 36, and two more of the Tapas Seven accused Murat of lurking near their holiday complex. Jane Tanner, 37, initially told cops she saw a man resembling Murat carrying a child she thinks was Maddie. Detectives were last night given the go-ahead to travel to Britain. It is not thought doctors Kate and Gerry, both 39, of Rothley, Leics, will be quizzed. Portuguese police would need the permission of the Home Secretary if they wanted to re-interview Kate and Gerry or their friends on British soil, a police source said today. The source said: "All I can tell you is the procedure by which Leicestershire Police and the McCanns would have to go through. "A request would have to be sent to the Home Office in writing and would have to be approved by the Home Secretary." A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "If the Portuguese police were to require to travel to the UK then they would need to apply for mutual legal assistance from the Home Office." And it also emerged yesterday that despite DNA tests on the McCanns? hire car proving inconclusive, police still suspect Maddie died and her body was in the car. That could dash hopes that Kate and Gerry will soon be cleared as suspects. Another Portuguese police source warned: ?The test results far from clear the McCanns.? Murat?s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, 34 – previously linked to two alleged sightings of Maddie – is in the clear after her diary and computers were checked. |
15 comments:
One of Gerry's first big funding raising events was having Madeleine's picture flashed up at Everton and players doing the silent one, I believe it produce a huge amount of money for his Fund.
Forgive me, but I think he got those professional looking pics done of Maddie for that very reason, I find it impossible to accept that what happened to her was any sort of accident. Even if she had died an accidental death due to neglect that would never explain the bizarre behaviour of these two or why Gerry was going around bragging about how he left his children alone. Would you do that? Yes, I accept, parents abroad do sometimes leave their kids to go and eat dinner, but not for hours and most certainly not with the door left open and telling everyone. That has always been far too obvious IMO. I think that is the trouble with Gerry and why people know he is involved, he is just too organised and says and does everything for very obvious reasons.
I would like to stress I am NOT under any circumstances alleging that David Beckham has done anything wrong at all in publically appealing for the return of Holly, Jessica and Madeleine.
In fact I would imagine the McCanns are not the least bit popular with the Beckhams, particularly since we had an apparent Poshalike wanted by the McCanns investigators for being involved in her, ahem, abduction.
I am sure the Beckhams are not always personally caring for their children, but I am also absolutely certain they are always properly taken care of and are very much loved and wanted children.
The McCanns are also fairly sure their phones are monitored not only by the British police, who are waiting to see if a kidnapper calls, but also by Portuguese authorities. “It’s quite possible,” acknowledges Gerry’s older brother, John McCann, a pharmaceutical salesman who lives in Glasgow. “Because there’s information that’s been appearing in the press that you’d have to think, How did that get into the public domain? Because it wasn’t us releasing it. Every now and again, amidst all the speculation and rumor and outright lies, there’s been a grain of truth.”
http://justiceformaddie.blogspot.com/2009/03/one-sided-press-campaign-gerry-mccann.html
So John McCann was clearly implying the McCanns phones were being hacked by journalists as long back as January 2008!
But I do not think the reason that British Police were bugging them was in case a kidnapper called, they already knew who the kidnapper was, Gerry McCann..they were trying to find what he did with her!
Another interesting extract, and I was wrong in my recollection, it was Daily Mirror reporter not Sun!
Besides, by May 15 the police (with the help of a suspicious British journalist from the Sunday Mirror) believed they had found their man: Robert Murat, a mild, slightly plump Englishman of 33 with a detached retina who lives with his mother in a large villa with a lush garden three minutes from the resort. He was declared an arguido—a status he holds to this day, along with the McCanns—and brought in to the police station for 19 hours of interrogation, say his relatives, with no food or sleep.
There, I learn on good authority, three of the Tapas Nine were put into a room with Murat, and each of them identified him as a man they’d seen hanging about the resort in the hours after Madeleine vanished. One of the witnesses, Fiona Payne, told police she’d actually seen him behind the McCanns’ villa that night, and recalled his “dodgy eye.” Another, Russell O’Brien, claimed Murat had said he spoke Portuguese as well as English, which is in fact the case. The McCann friends were not alone in their suspicions. By late December it emerged that three other witnesses claimed to have seen Murat near the McCanns’ villa apartment the night of the abduction.
It is part of the odd dynamic of this story that when I phone Sally Eveleigh, Murat’s cousin, who also lives in Praia da Luz, her first remark is that she cannot utter a syllable about Murat without the O.K. of her British press agent, the famously rambunctious Max Clifford. And when his blessing is secured, her second is: “Wonderful, darling, see you shortly. Robert can’t talk to you, because he’s an arguido. But we’ll have a bit of a party, won’t we?”
When I arrive at her massive house, lined with rosy tile and Moroccan rugs, Sally greets me in floor-length blue voile trimmed with pretty stones. And the party includes Murat: five feet 10 inches, dark-haired, wearing beige trousers, serving us tea, wine, and cigarettes.
“All I can say,” says Murat, “is that I am innocent. There is no way I was at the resort that night. Full stop. I was in my mother’s kitchen until one a.m. Yes, we are a kitchen kind of family. I spent the night at the house.” As an arguido he cannot reveal more. But he does drive me around and point out the major landmarks of the case. “That’s the apartment from which Madeleine vanished,” he says. “That’s my mother’s villa.” The police ransacked the place four months ago and came up with nothing.
‘I wish I hadn’t gone to the tapas bar. I wish I’d stayed in the apartment that night. I wish I’d stayed in the room when I checked on her five minutes longer,” Gerry recalls thinking in the days that followed his child’s disappearance. The world, he says, was “all black, with maybe tiny points of light.” The company that owns the resort sent Alan Pike, a trauma counselor, over from Britain, and he spoke to the couple every day for two weeks. Initially, the counselor tells me, he found the couple “catatonic.” They were certain Madeleine was dead.
But pessimism, the counselor knew, inhibits action. Moreover, he adds, “they still needed to be a mother and father to two other children.”
“Remind yourself of the evidence: there is nothing yet to demonstrate that Madeleine has died,” Pike told the McCanns. It’s time, he added, to take control of the things you can.
Gerry felt re-invigorated by such advice. “We can’t cry our eyes out every day, because that’s not helping,” he says. “So after three days I picked myself up—quicker than Kate could.”
Indeed, Woolfall recalls Gerry’s saying shortly after he arrived, “My biggest fear is that this could be a weekend story: british girl taken from portuguese resort—a terrible story! And then that’s it.” The fickleness of the media, Woolfall adds, had Gerry worried. They might so easily “move on to something else,” Gerry told him. Gradually a strategy was devised: stories, pictures, and exotic destinations were woven together, permanently enrapturing the press and luring it into a long, sleepless vigil.
By the end of May, an audience with the Pope had been arranged through the Westminster office of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. The couple and a pool of reporters flew direct from Praia da Luz to the Pontiff in a Learjet belonging to the British billionaire Sir Philip Green.
Other celebrities were just as carefully selected and eagerly appealed to: J. K. Rowling, in part, Gerry explains, because the Harry Potter author had lived in Portugal for a time. Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, because he is Portuguese, and Gerry used to play soccer himself. David Beckham—another Gerry idea—who was living in Spain at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. Experts in child abduction had informed the McCanns that Madeleine was very likely still somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula.
The media were constantly sought out. Reporters followed the McCanns on trips to Washington (where then U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales met with the couple); to Morocco—just in case Madeleine had been taken there—where they met with Charki Draiss, director-general of national security; and to Amsterdam, where the McCanns had once lived. If the networks needed fresh footage, they would be told the exact time the McCanns might be walking to church in Praia da Luz.
So, as it turned out, this was not a weekend story. As time went by, Gerry explains that although “grief washes over you—it’s like a big wave, mostly I was able to beat it back.” The industry he poured into the search jolted him out of depression.
But Kate wasn’t buoyed. From time to time, she would turn to friends and offer a wistful half-plea—“I hope whoever has Madeleine is giving her blankets … is feeding her properly … is keeping her warm.” Not really absorbing at first, her confidant explains, “what kind of person this was.”
Eventually, though, the probable nature of the abductor was brought home to her in the most explicit and horrifying way. Never talk about Madeleine’s preferences to the press, British police warned the McCanns, because whatever Madeleine most loves—a favorite cartoon, say—could be used as a tool for manipulation by her kidnapper.
Madeleine’s mother was also warned not to weep in public. “That was one of the things they were told right from the beginning,” McGuinness reveals. “Don’t show any emotion, because whoever took the child could get off on that, and take it out on the child. Or the abductor might find tears stimulating in some way. Appalling when you’re being told not to show any emotion in public and your daughter is abducted!”
Appalling and, as it turned out, dangerous for the couple. The P.R. campaign was actually backfiring, regarded by many as slick and, given the gravity of the McCanns’ loss, at times downright strange. “I always wanted to meet the pope,” a British reader e-mailed The Resident newspaper, “and now I know how.” Portuguese police made note of Kate’s seeming stoicism in front of the press—the tearless face. They also marveled at the powerful allies the McCanns had accumulated.
“Why are these people able to put together the biggest media campaign ever, from the Pope to the White House?” asks Paulo Reis, a Portuguese freelance journalist who writes a blog about Madeleine, and with considerable authority: he seems to have excellent contacts in law enforcement. “Why are they all coming out strongly defending the McCanns? Who are the McCanns?” he wonders.
According to this, the delightful Mr Yates, who met the McCanns prior to the tories getting into power also employed CARTER RUCK in relation to his failure to properly investigate the phone hacking allegations against the News of the World. London Met's answer to Freedom of Information act letter awaited but acknowledged 13 July 2011.
McCanns increasingly seem to hiss in the same pot as some rather unsavoury and decidedly overpaid characters.
Next thing you know Mr Yates will be employing Freud to spin his reputation as a proper decent copper up a bit for him.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/payments_to_carter_ruc_k
Morning Viv,
Just reading back and getting up to date - 'hiss in the same pot' lol one to remember.
Hi all
Viv the first picture, it definitely looks like the twins to Madeleine's right. The supposed last picture by the pool, certainly looks like a much younger Madeleine to me.
The picture that has been used throughout the campaign imo has been photoshopped. I think it is the lighting that has given Madeleine's hair different hues, I also think her lashes have been made more prominent which has created the darkness surrounding her eyes. I would imagine they wanted to make the eyes stand out more as they were being heavily used for their campaign. We also know the coloboma, which is so obvious on the pics, was hardly noticeable at all, or was it?
Personally I don't think any of the pictures can be trusted fully, a novice with simple editing software can change many things.
Hi Viv
Exnotw2 has been correct with all her posts on twitter so far and has now hinted hinted that Cameron is next.
Hiya both
Well Wiz you know the original is crude so I could not do that, but it just seems so apt.
Di, thanks for your thoughts on the photos which I remain convinced are key to this case.
I am utterly thrilled about the further developments of the resignation of Sir Paul and the arrest of Rebekah, I strongly believe all of these events bring us closer to justice for little Maddie McCann. A very serious and complex case that Cameron knows just has to be dealt with very robustly now in UK. It just was not an accident.
If Ex Now had predicted the bomshell next week of McCanns and Co getting arrested I would be the first to send her my love! But seriously, I think it is going to come, just not sure when.
No corrupt police officers at the London Met are involved in this investigation into the McCann case.
I do think it is high time John Yates handed in his resignation, if he has not already done so.
Hi Viv
An interesting week ahead!
I agree about John Yates.
Hello Di
Well not just a week I suspect but interesting, I call it fascinating. Serious, very serious corruption at the very top end of our society, getting routed. It is like the Profumo affair or MI5 plotting against Harold Wilson, but multiplied up IMO.
Yes Yates, part of the old corrupt and evil influence at London Met IMO. "sympathetic" to the McScams, lord help us!
Don't suppose Rebekah will be giving evidence to the Commons on Tuesday now, that is probably why they arrested her at the weekend to make sure she cannot cause prejudice.
I am going to watch the interviews we have had so far on BBC i player. In fact I started to earlier on, but Luke came in and said mom, come on, yawn, Apprentice please. Oh isn't the winner Tom lovely!
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