I have a confession to make. Back in 2014 I posted that I was going to write something further on the subject of the McCanns. In the end I did not, because I was surprised by the strong emotional reaction I received, from a number of decent people, who were enraged that I might be prepared to write something not to the McCanns’ advantage. But I regret being so pusillanimous, particularly as so much discussion has been suppressed by the extremely aggressive stance taken on threats of libel action on this story.
So in the full knowledge that some decent people will be outraged, here it is.
This week there have been two more developments. The Home Office has announced that it will fund still further the police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, on which £10 million has already been spent. Plus the appeals court in Lisbon has overturned the libel verdict against the Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral, who led the case and formed his own firm convictions at to what happened. The 500,000 euro libel award to the McCanns is now cancelled.
None of these sums of money would matter in the least, and practically nobody would grudge any expense, to have Madeleine McCann alive, safe and happy. There can be nothing worse for a parent than the loss of a child, whatever the circumstances. If the McCanns genuinely do not know what happened, that must be agonising beyond belief. My grandparents had a nineteen year old son, an uncle I never knew, missing in action in World War 2 and the pain never left them, even when his fate was resolved.
And yet, and yet… It is because our children are so precious to us that we treat them as such. I recall an incident on Jamie’s first birthday, which we spent in a hotel in Italy. I was in the room with Jamie. My then wife had gone out to the car. The birthday cake was delivered to reception and had to be paid for. Jamie was fast asleep. I dashed out of the hotel room, down two flights of steps to reception, literally threw the money at them and ran back up the stairs. I was away under two minutes but have never experienced such adrenalin, nor would wish to again. An overwhelming instinct had kicked in telling me I had done wrong in leaving the baby unattended, even so briefly.
I find the McCanns’ behaviour indefensible. There appears to be a disconnect in the public mind in the UK which prevents people from realising just how far the McCanns were from their children. This is a useful graphic just to see the layout, (do not worry about the other info on it).
The McCanns could not actually see their apartment from the tapas bar due to the wall around the pool. To get back there, they had to use the gate and walk around that wall, which made it a 75 yard hike. And the apartment had double doors onto the street on the opposite side of the block from that facing the pool.
I do not see how anybody understanding this geography can consider that it was normal parenting for the McCanns to leave two one year olds and a three year old, alone in the apartment in these circumstances – for hours, and repeatedly several days running. It is something I would absolutely never dream of doing with my own children. If nothing else, had any of the children been crying and in distress – and the chances of that with three tiny children are pretty high – there was no way they could hear them.
The claimed abduction is not the only thing that could have happened. Cholic. Vomiting. Sore nappies. Coughing. Choking. Bad dreams. Overheating. All kinds of thing can distress children. So far as I can judge, it is not that I am weird in my own views, rather it is absolutely accepted in British society that you do not leave 1 year olds without care of an adult. Why are the McCanns an exception?
Which leads me on to the question of why they received such exceptional treatment from British authorities, directed straight from No. 10, to the extent that Blair and Brown eventually gave them a PR representative? I used at one stage to be Resident Clerk in the FCO, a now abolished post effectively of night duty officer. I can tell you from horrible personal experience that the FCO deals with gut-wrenching cases of lost or dead children abroad frequently. I spent one of the most terrible three hours of my life, through to a cold dawn, on the phone with a hysterical bereaved mother desperate to explore any avenue that might give a possibility that the boy who had just drowned in Brazil was misidentified as her son. On average, I am afraid such tragedies get substantially less than 1% of the public resources that were devoted to the McCanns.
I am going to come straight out with this. British diplomatic staff were under direct instruction to support the McCanns far beyond the usual and to put pressure on the Portuguese authorities over the case. I have direct information that more than one of those diplomatic staff found the McCanns less than convincing and their stories inconsistent. Embassy staff were perturbed to be ordered that British authorities were to be present at every contact between the McCanns and Portuguese police.
This again is absolutely not the norm. On a daily basis more British citizens have contact with foreign authorities than the total staff of the FCO. It would be simply impossible to give that level of support to everybody. Plus, against jingoistic presumption, a great many Brits who have contact with foreign police are actually criminals.
The British Ambassador in Portugal, John Buck, had been my direct boss in the FCO. he was Deputy Head of Southern European Department when I was Head of Cyprus Section. He and his staff were concerned by contradictions in the McCann’s story. The Embassy warned, in writing, that being perceived as too close to the McCanns might not prove wise. They demanded the instruction from London be reconfirmed. It was.
I know of people’s misgivings because I was told directly. But material was also leaked to a Belgian newspaper confirming what I have said. It was published by the Express, but like so much other material which is not supportive of the McCanns, it got taken down. Fortunately that last link preserved it. It also shows that the FCO continues to refuse Freedom of Information requests for the material on the interesting grounds that it might damage relations with Portugal.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do not believe there was a high level paedophile ring involved. I make no such argument. Nor do I claim to know what happened to Madeleine McCann. But I do believe that the McCanns were less than exemplary parents. I believe that New Labour’s No.10 saw, in typical Blair fashion, a highly photogenic tragedy which there might be popularity in appearing to work on.
And I believe there is a genuine danger that the high profile support from the top of the British government might have put some psychological pressure on the Portuguese investigators and prosecuting officers in their determinations.
dewi lennard (@kikoratton)
Could you provide more details please. I do not use twitter
Thank you for your interest. My exposé of Gerry McCann’s falsification of the attendance records at the Ocean Club’s creche requires the reproduction of images (of those attendance records) which cannot be achieved on Mr Murray’s blog. I warmly invite you to follow me (@kikoratton) on twitter. You need go back only as far as February, when I began a summary of my conclusions for the benefit of new followers. Suffice it to say, for the time being and in response to much of the discussion which Craig Murray has generated, that neglect of the children doesn’t come into it. Indeed, the McCanns’ admission of neglect (“we all do it…it was like dining in our back garden”) conceals something much more sinister.
Well done for speaking out Mr Craig. You may be interested to know that Martin Grime, the (then) South Yorkshire Police dog handler whose dogs alerted to cadaver scent and blood in the apartment, car and on McCann clothing also had pressure put on him to over emphasize the need for forensic corroboration in both his statements and rogatory. Never in his career, on any case, had he been asked to do so. He and other law enforcement agencies involved would have been totally aware that any cadaver alerts without a body were still of value to an investigation. Even non corroborated alerts are deemed circumstantial and assist towards evidence gathering as was demonstrated in both the Adrian Prout and Sam Parker cases for example.
“Whereas there may be no retrievable evidence for court purposes this may well assist intelligence gathering in Major Crime investigations.”
Martin Grime
This is a lengthy blog but it rebuts many of the myths surrounding both the police dog handler and the dogs Eddie and Keela in the McCann case and is well worth a read.
http://laidbareblog.blogspot.co.uk/
A modicum of research reveals that all experts emphasize that the findings of sniffer dogs are inadmissible evidence, that the dogs are a tool to establish leads, and unless forensic evidence is found as a result of those leads, the dogs’ “evidence” is worthless. Indeed, in some cases, the use of dogs is deemed to have hindered, rather than helped an investigation by establishing numerous leads which had to be investigated, but were found to be worthless. I quote a report on the Shannon Matthews case:
“Victim recovery dogs from four different police forces were used during searches for kidnapped schoolgirl Shannon Matthews in Dewsbury in West Yorkshire in 2008. The dogs found evidence of dead bodies, but officers later discovered the corpses were nothing to do with her disappearance. ‘The properties searched contained a high level of second-hand furniture bought from dwellings where someone had died,’ according to the NPIA report.
“‘This resulted in numerous indications that required further investigation to confirm whether they were connected to the investigation, or to previous owners of the furniture.'”
See also the Haut de la Garenne case, where the “cadavers” discovered by dogs turned out to be animal remains, except in two cases, where the bones may have belonged to humans who died hundreds of years ago.
Repeat, sniffer dogs are only a tool for establishing leads, they are not forensic evidence, and leads established by the dogs ALWAYS have to be corroborated by forensic evidence.
Yes I agree that what you refer to as “sniffer dogs” are indeed a tool to establish leads. What you fail to point out is that context is vital when using such tools. The cadaver dog used in the McCann case “has a reputable and distinguished CV within police forces for succcsfully finding the scent of fluids emitted or left behind by human corpses, ie “Cadaverine”.
In the McCann case the cadaver dog “Eddie” isolated distinct traces of cadaverine in the apartment occupied by the McCanns. Now the context – Investigation of the history of the apartment showed that no one died there – the furniture was not second hand and the apartment was cleaned on a regular basis. The dog was used to also check other apartments in that block and found nothing. In addition to the blood traces found by another dog and the situation of the missing child the presence of cadaverine provided a back ground for the Portuguese police to formally make the McCanns – Arguidos or people if interest and formally question them on that basis. This was the occasion that revealed an intersting side of Kate McCanns attitude when she subsequently refused to answer any of the 38 questions put to her during a formal interview by police. The McCanns fled Portugal shortly after these developments. Personally I’m on the side of the dog …
My apologies, I meant to say Mr Murray, not Mr Craig
Whilst I have always thought there was something not right about the whole scenario I have never figured out what it was. Had thought perhaps she would be rescued in some miraculous way, but not yet.
It’s v difficult to pass judgment on how others do their parenting. We have protective instincts, but we also tend to copy our peers.
I wonder what Craig’s Twitter pals Nick Cohen, Stephen Daisley, Hadley Freeman, Marina Hyde, Oliver Kamm, and Joan Smith will do with this when they notice it?
The Guardian is the adult version of the children’s comic The Mirror. Craig’s pals will say nothing – though they would have done when public support, and Emma Loach, were riding high.
From the start, I thought it was highly unusual that Kate McCann, on discovering Maddie’s absence, ran out of the villa shouting ‘They’ve taken her!’. The child was fully ambulatory, and the far more likely scenario would be that she went walkabout, as an unattended child may do.
But from the start it was put forward as an abduction, well before there was any evidence to indicate it.
‘They’ of course is key.. Madeleine was cherished and precious, the ‘foundation’ in the minds of those ‘angels of death’ that insanely envisage Huxley’s ‘brave new world’ and the utopian novels of HG Wells.
Craig presents an exceptional juxtaposition between natural and normal [If the McCanns genuinely do not know what happened, that must be agonising beyond belief] and irrational, odd and strange [I find the McCanns’ behaviour indefensible.] – a powerful contention don’t you think for any shepherd(s) to ensure her (Madeleine’s) safety?
From what I have seen reported, the McCanns themselves appear not to have taken part in the frantic search for Madeleine, but left this to others whilst they ‘phoned their relatives and the media. Why? Surely the most likely scenario would be that she had wandered off to try and find them, and the immediate reaction would be to search the vicinity – the shrubs, those swimming pools (shudder), the alley ways etc. The very last thing, surely, in anyone’s mind would be to ‘phone relatives in another country or the media, wasting precious searching time.
And not just any old media, SKY NEWS… Who might I add, have barely covered the recent news story regarding the overturned libel verdict against the Amaral…!!!
Many people now seem to think of the financial crisis but it was well underway over the summer of 2007 and by September 2007 liquidity, banks and hedgies were in serious trouble. Even before May 2007 the extent of the impending crisis was understood. I haven’t checked but it was circa Jan ir Feb 2007 that we had the astonishing Fed rate cut, whip lash stock moves and the Soc Gen. Scandal. So financial meltdown was on the cards and understood before May 2007.
Therefore it would not be so surprising if some other eye catching and emotionally powerful events were emphasised. Distraction to avoid panic.
Maybe it also created fear, but there was something to be really frightened about in 2007. National bankruptcy throughout the Western world. In the circumstances would it have been so wrong to encourage populations to look elsewhere?
Correction: rate cuts began in August 2007 0.5% followed by Sept another 0.5% and then 0.25% in both October and December 2007, and it was not until January 2008 that we had the Soc Gen scandal and the massive January 0.75% cut.
So the cuts were not going on until shortly after May 2007.
I will go back and have a think about what was known / feared about the breaking financial scandal in May 2007.
Judge not lest ye be judged is a powerful injunction from a prophet of Islam.
Who knows what childhood abuse adults are still trying to gain control over while they are themselves trying to protect young children.
I do believe that sometimes children get deliberately exposed to danger by the jealous child inside an abused parent.
When I was working from home and looking after young children a local GP and well known adult swinger diagnosed me as schizophrenic when I found out my wife was having an affair. The farming community were bed-hopping like fleas to avoid losing their land in divorce settlements.
It is disturbing that Blair related so strongly to the McCann predicament, like Mrs Thatcher hosting Savile at Chequers..
What about all those asylum seekers running towards a society which they will never be able to understand?
No matter what happened to Madeleine or how, the favourable treatment of the McCanns is highly suspect. If it had been Senga and Shug McNumpty fae Easterhoose who’d left their weans to go to the nearest nightclub, social services would have taken away their other two kids as soon as their plane touched down on British soil.
I agree 100%.
And let us not turn this sorry affair into an instrument in some sort of class war.
And I don’t know if I do.
There is perhaps a slight difference between going for a meal, a hundred metres or so away, within a holiday complex which is supposed to be safe and going off for (probably) a considerably longer distance and time to a nightclub, surely?
It turned out to be a very serious mistake with tragic consequences but let’s keep a sense of proportion, shall we?
Are you seriously telling me that, if I left my small kids alone while me & the misses went to the boozer 100 yards or so away, and upon our return one was dead or missing, then Inspector Knacker wouldn’t be giving me some serious grief?
The answer to that Glenn, is that I don’t know – unlike some others on here who are certain that they would. This sort of class war thinking is just silly but some malcontents never miss an opportunity to fight it, do they. Even iro an event as sad as this one.
Another answer to that, going by the famous diary (this bit written some time after the event) might be that the Portuguese police {Inspector Naquerho} did in fact give Mrs M a reasonably rough ride at the outset, and became extremely sceptical of her story. That seems to have been the focus of official interest, and looks like the reason Mitchell was sent out. The Port papers were getting very hostile and persistent.
Nonsense. Please God you don’t have kids.
You say ‘within a holiday complex’ as though it was some kind of gated community, and I think many UK readers share this illusion. For Madeleine to reach her parents, it would have involved her exiting the holiday apartment either by the front door or rear patio door and walking along a public road (with two-way traffic), past a public footpath and into the main entrance of the Ocean Club complex where the reception pool and tapas bar were. This particular public road and footpath are no more ‘supposed to be safe’ than any other public road in this country or Portugal. They are, simply, public thoroughfares used by anyone and everyone.
You say ‘within a holiday complex’ as though it was some kind of gated community, and I think many UK readers share this illusion. For Madeleine to reach her parents, it would have involved her exiting the holiday apartment either by the front door or rear patio door and walking along a public road (with two-way traffic), past a public footpath and into the main entrance of the Ocean Club complex where the reception pool and tapas bar were. This particular public road and footpath are no more ‘supposed to be safe’ than any other public road in this country or Portugal. They are, quite simply, public thoroughfares used by anyone and everyone.
Very good point. I’ll pass Craig’s article and your comment over to a group of people who are battling the SS (‘Social Services’, but in the UK all too similar to the Nazi brand) for wrongfully taking children, and for complicity in paedophilia.
So let’s hate the McCanns out of jealousy. Makes sense.
If the kid had been some snotty-nosed scruff from a council estate the parents would have been ripped to shreds and demonised forever by our ‘wonderful, independent and free’ media for leaving it to look after its younger siblings while they were out on the piss. The McCann’s have no one to blame but themselves, it was all their fault. They make my stomach churn almost as much as Blair does.
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I think one of the reasons for its prominence is that it struck a guilty chord in the hearts of many of the London-based media. The McCanns were professional parents who probably had not much contact with their kids and farmed them out from an early age to baby minders and play schools. Their parental instincts were probably not as well-honed as many more traditional parents, and they might have found holidays – with 24 hour contact with their children – quite a strain. So they needed time off.
I wonder how many metropolitan journalists (and politicians) – male and female – felt “there but for the grace of God…?”, and emotionally backed the McCann’s.
Amaral’s book The Truth of the Lie in English
http://truthofthelie.com/the-book/ then English Book button
Slow to load
WOW WOW WOW…… This is fantastic, thank you for speaking out!
I have very little doubt that the official story of a kidnap by a stranger is false, if only because it is hard to understand why an abductor would target a particular child and go to such lengths and risks to kidnap her, as well as the difficulty in actually doing so unobserved.
A more likely scenario is that Madeleine had a fatal accident while the parents were out, and they covered it up, fearing professional ruin.
It’s hard to know what to make of the protracted investigation, although it might simply be that the McCanns cleverly manipulated the authorities and media, and now pride prevents anyone admitting they were duped.
As a Mother of five now grown children, I could never wrap my head around the fact that they were out enjoying themselves. They could easily have taken turns as most parents do on holiday. I have also always been suspicious and as another comment stated I thought some unfortunate accident happened or the gave her medication to sleep with disastrous results. It’s just one of many theories. Whatever happened they are totally to blame and living with that must be horrendous, if she was taken they have to live with the fact that it’s their fault. No matter what’s said here or elsewhere the little angel is gone. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and I don’t think the full story will ever come out. Thank you for your bravery in saying what most people are thinking.
Mrs McCann refused to answer 50 police questions about the death of her daughter then scarpered before they were able to remand her in custody. They appear to believe she is guiltier than a prison full of OJ Simpsons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/754293
Sorry, this is the correct BBC link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7542939.stm
Being inhuman (see avatar) I find it easy to ignore the emotional aspects of this. But I’m as interested as Craig is in the ready access to the high heid yins enjoyed by the McCanns, and perhaps Mrs McCann in particular, In addition to what’s been detailed above, they had a personal call from Mr and Mrs Blair, another from Brown, and a specially arranged visit to the Pope – not something even very holy Catholics can count on.
The mediator appears to have been Clarence Mitchell, who was described as an FCO family liaison man, and was not-too-controversially sent to the McCanns, presumably following the McCanns’ own approach to the Embassy. While this wouldn’t happen if you’d lost your passport, losing a child and being vocal about it would presumably swing that much diplomatic intervention, especially if the chip wrappers at home have jumped on the story. But Mitchell’s role went rather beyond supplying tea and sympathy: he had a brief to manage the Press coverage too. Who the hell was Mitchell? Here he is last year:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/18/madeleine-mccann-family-spokesman-launches-pr-agency
In which:
Mitchell stepped down from his role as director of the media monitoring unit at the government’s Central Office of Information in September 2007 to handle the McCanns’ PR full time.
Before that, he had been acting as an adviser to the McCanns last summer* at the request of the Foreign Office, while retaining his government role.
Mitchell was previously head of media monitoring for the Cabinet Office.
He was also a journalist for 25 years, starting out in print and then as a broadcaster with the BBC, covering a variety of stories including the Fred and Rose West murders Gloucester and the Soham murders in Cambridgeshire. As a royal correspondent he covered the death of Princess Diana.
So, formerly the go-to hack for the biggest media feasts, and not a family liason functionary at all. And, working in the Cabinet Office would have given him the very best contacts.Even, perhaps, a few bargaining counters. I will not speculate on his reasons for embracing the case as he did: that may belong in the realm of emotion, while I was today described in the Guardian as the Katie Hopkins of the reptile world and am admittedly insensitive.
And the Pope? Cherie. Tony hadn’t quite switched sides by then. It’s a theory that seems to fit the available data, anyway.
* I take ‘last summer’ to be a careless cut and paste ffrom a contemporary article, as the rprevious sentence makes clear.
There are, as you say, many strange elements in this case. Most people focus on the reported time and date of the disappearance as 10pm 3/5/7, and talk about negligence, and bad parenting. Whilst that might be correct, there are more concrete possibilities, which involve consideration of the evidence – for example human cadaverine only developing after – say – 2 hours. And the impossibility of the iconic Last Photo’s having been taken at lunchtime on 3/5/7 because, amongst other reasons, the weather was simply WRONG. It can only have been taken at Solar zenith on Sunday 29/4/7. The strange issue of the parents telling close family and friends, who then dutifully reported what they had been told to the press – independently and almost identically – that the shutters had been forced/ Jemmied/ Smashed / broken . . when in fact they were untouched, and so much more, lead to a suspicion that the whole truth has never been told. I share go r belief that there is nothing “high level sinister’ here. Just a tragic accident, a series of bizarre and stupid decisions, and then a strange intervention by a strange government.
Please read the police questions on the BBC link I posted above.
The strange intervention by the government is likely to have been b/c Gerry McCann was a member of a prominent British government committee called ‘COMARE’. The McCann’s former friend and colleague Professor Alex Elliott (Glasgow) was the chairman.
I discovered that within minutes of reading Gerry McCann’s name. Never reported in the media.
Well done you. COMARE is, as you discover later, a Government advisory committee on radiation safety. Its members are scientists and medics with an interest, and excellent qualifications, in the field. It’s something of an honour to be invited to join committees like this, in fact, and it is invariably on the basis of scientific expertise. I would guarantee that the majority of members of any such committee have professional and even personal associations with at least one other member, developed through the common nature of their work. Elliot still works at Glasgow University, and has done since 1981. McCann did his first degree, postgraduate training and doctoral research there. Wooo.
I have no idea of the extent of Elliot’s connection with Blair and Brown, and neither have you.
Many people in Ireland felt the parents behaved appallingly. I always felt if they were working class the media would have treated them very differently and the fact that they were doctors ensured they got away with, at the very least, child neglect.
Well Said Craig –
” If nothing else, had any of the children been crying and in distress – and the chances of that with three tiny children are pretty high ”
This would alert Abductor(s) That the children were alone
Also, if the Younger two were in distress and crying, Madeleine might have went looking for her parents, But.I reckon this is one where we will never Know the truth
Shocking Parenting…. And Sad Too
Many thanks for publishing Craig. There is so much that is wrong with this abduction – not least that the abductor squeezed past two babies (boy and girl) to get to Madeleine! I have always felt much the same as yourself, that is New Labour latched onto the mood of the public and rushed to the parents’ aid. That the McCanns were articulate and photogenic was a huge bonus, and Madeleine’s toddler picture had the kind of angelic appeal that most missing posters lack. And note, the parents used a toddler picture rather than a current one – the manipulation began at the off.
Anyway, once again, thank you, you have, for me, answered a lot of questions. For my sins I have been caught up in niggling media war and I have written many blogs about the Madeleine case at Cristobell Unbound.
Self publicising again Cristobell!
so true never thought it was the truth when I heard it as I have been coming here for years before moving over and all people take there kids out with them if for meal or drinks so no excuses there . and if you would leave kids in a villa or an apartment you would have a nanny or care and they could afford it but did not do it so the butt stops with them full stop ?. no sympathy from me
I think The Crow Road was one of Iain Banks finest novels. I guess the title itself stemmed from the middle ages, or before, where crows would feast on the dead, and the sight of a crow was a bad augury. Reading this, it strikes me that Tony Bliar is our metaphorical crow: for whenever he appears, mischief and evil is surely afoot. He is quite uncanny in this regard, seemingly always choosing the wrong side, making the bad decision, befriending the most malicious individual, and it follows that whenever he gets involved, everyone should be concerned.
And so it is with the McCann’s. I rarely follow stories of this nature, they always end badly. So, Foxy Knoxy, The McCann’s, Ian Huntley, whatever, I am probably quite ignorant of the details. But when our malicious bellweather, Blair, is involved, I assume the worst. Tales of abuse rings may be fanciful in this case, but if nothing else, this sorry tale teaches us a lot about how our odious media operates, but also the cynicism of some political leaders.
And of course, there is Jimmy Saville. One wonders what Historians will uncover, long after we are all dead.
This is what I can’t get my head round aswel, how on this earth can u leave toddlers at home alone? If I left my 3 year old home alone she would tear the house down and I’d also be prepared for the fact that I may not have a child on my return! Like u said they didn’t need to be kidnapped, they could’ve started messing with stuff like kids do… Very bad parenting if me or you did that i guarantee our kids would be whipped away in a heartbeat! And all few a few glasses of wine and banter… Just saying!
True Shannel
In some parts of the u.s. They drag children away for much less …Like parents Curing children with cannabis oil
So do the UK ‘SS’; check: Thousands of Children’s Voices are Never Heard in Foster Care’:
http://www.s-c-o-t-uk.co.uk/ and http://www.childrenscreamingtobeheard.com/fostering-scandal/
The preliminary hearings for Diana’s inquest began on Wednesday, 13 June 2007.
On the subject of high profile paedophile rings I find it curious that what’s always studiously avoided in any discussion of the Madeleine McCann case (as it is here) is the fact that shortly before her abduction Portugal was embroiled in / paralysed by the Casa Pia paedophile scandal. Casa Pia refers to the government run orphanages that, it was revealed, effectively functioned as a paedophile playground.
When the whole affair was busted numerous arrests and convictions followed with ties leading to members of the police, the judiciary, the clergy, as well as the government.
In a discussion of certain forms of behaviour that one should expect to find but instead are bizarrely absent, in the relentless media brouhaha that followed Madeleine’s abduction, with the media desperate for any stories however remotely connected, it seems astounding to me (to the point of disbelief) that the media showed no interest at all in discussing the massive paedophile ring bust that had shortly preceded Madeleine’s abduction and had otherwise ground Portugal to a halt. Ought not the media to have leapt upon this story?
Not forgetting of course the other massive paedophile ring bust that ground another nation to a halt, that being the Dutroux scandal which likewise reached into the police, judiciary, and government. In that case, it was revealed that agents of the ring were driving about in vans photographing children so that seniors within the ring might pick and choose those whom they wished to have kidnapped. It was paedophilia to order. And this in a Europe without boundaries with Portugal a few hours drive away.
Anyone who dismisses outright organised paedophilia as a possibility in the McCann case is either naive or disingenuous, the McCann’s dubious behaviour notwithstanding.
Mayeaux
A Portuguese friend of mine was not impressed by the huge scale of U.K media out pourings on this story.. ( Nor was I ) Because he said Kids go missing all the time in Portugal.. this was his instant Knowledge at the time the story was breaking
“On the subject of high profile paedophile rings….”
______________________
But we’re not, are we.
And neither is Craig.
Hasbarakuk! You are entirely in the right of things. High profile paedophile rings! What was I thinking of? Any dimwit could see that Craig’s precise words were “high level paedophile ring”. Clearly this is an entirely different beast. How it differs I have absolutely no idea but it seems you do. How does it differ Hasb?
Or would I be right in thinking that what you really wanted to say was ‘nothing to see here folks, move along’? Best I can make out.
To be honest Hasb I think your best bet here would’ve been to shut the fuck up. As things stand you’ve not only made a complete arse out of yourself with such a moronic and pointless piece of pedanticism, but you’ve also told us that when it comes to the topic of organised paedophilia you’re… how shall we put this? ‘On the wrong side of things’? That’s me being diplomatic you understand.
Actually, now that I think about it, your comment is really quite interesting. In my time I’ve done battle with zionist disinfo scum and I’ve done battle with paedophile disinfo scum but I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve encountered someone with both hats on his head.
Honestly Hasb you should give this caper away. You’re really not very good at it. With your above comment here not only did you not achieve whatever it was you imagined was going to happen but you actually went and told us who you were. What a dunce.
Mayeaux –
“To be honest Hasb I think your best bet here would’ve been to shut the fuck up.”
And not just on this topic. I suspect you speak for many of us. Thank you.
It occurs to me that if the scenario “sleeping pills, accidental death, cover-up” is correct, then the case dragging on this long must be an excruciating punishment for the parents. Obviously, there is a motive to lie, because there was everything to lose (career, reputation and possibly the other children), but having to go on lying, day-in, day-out, for years on end would be pretty dire.
It seems to me vanishingly unlikely that any two parents, no matter how neglectful, returning to an apartment to find a child dead would attempt to cover the matter up. Unless they were utterly sociopathic, they would be seized with grief and remorse, and the first instinct would be to get help. One parent I could perhaps accept, but two? No.
With two more tiny children in the place, we are to believe that they coolly disposed of a body so well that nobody could ever find it, and thought up a cover story, successfully enough to fool the police into searching for a huge length of time? Experienced police would immediately take into account the possibility that the child, dead or alive, was still in the apartment, there is no question about that. Thoroughly searching the apartment would be routine.
I don’t pretend to know what happened, but I cannot believe that the child died in the apartment and the matter has remained secret ever since. Ordinary, untrained human beings just aren’t that clever or able to sustain concealment over such a huge length of time.
It seems to me vanishingly unlikely that any two parents, no matter how neglectful, returning to an apartment to find a child dead would attempt to cover the matter up. Unless they were utterly sociopathic
It’s said that something like one in twenty people are sociopaths, so perhaps one in a hundred are “utterly sociopathic.” Assuming random mating, then one in ten thousand couples is “utterly sociopathic.” But then assortative mating is common, so “utterly sociopathic couples may be much more common than would be expected as a result of random mating, so an attempted cover up of an accidental death by the parents is probably not as vanishingly small a possibility as you suppose.
JSD
IMO two acting as one under the circumstances could quite easily be explained by coercive control ..him over her. Interviews strongly suggest this.
Not “easily”, I do not think. They’re not Brady and Hindley. We’re talking about a child dead.
John,
They may not be Brady and Hindley, but to me their behaviour, both in their extraordinary neglect of their children while seeking personal gratification and in all of their subsequent public behaviour, has been quite extraordinarily narcissistic.
Let me add how I very first heard of the McCanns. It was the very first day it was headline news in the UK – which I imagine was either one or two days after the event. The couple made two live press appearances (press conference, interview, I cannot pretend to recall). I was not watching, it was Nadira who paid attention, and Nadira made to me this remarkable observation. She said that not only had Kate McCann changed her clothes between appearances, she had changed her earrings to match. Nadira considered that to be very extraordinary in a frantically searching parent. That was the first I ever knew of the McCanns.
I have not been following the matter that closely, I will have to examine it again, so I am not speaking from special knowledge of the case. But:
Control over another human being is all very well. We are not talking about a very young woman with a low IQ, but a matured, trained and professional person who would be capable of understanding consequences and fearing them. I don’t believe it. I will need a lot of convincing.
If the child died, and they returned to find that, where’s the body? How could they be so clever as to conceal the body where no-one could ever find it?
In my (inexpert) opinion, fear of having neglected the children and getting into trouble for that can explain suspicious behaviour on the day and a refusal to answer questions.
John,
That particular theory, which was favoured by the Portuguese police, is that they sedated the children mildly so they could go out in the evenings. Madeleine’s accidental death in those circumstances would have ended both their careers as senior doctors. (He a well-connected heart specialist, she an anaesthetist). Therefore they saw Madeleine’s death as a profound threat to themselves.
The Portuguese police brought in police cadaver dogs from the UK who gave a positive for a cadaver in the apartment, and also in the car which the McCanns hired in the same town two weeks later. There was a great deal of washing and scrubbing done – including strangely the washing of Madeleine’s favourite cuddly toy. In the absence of a corpse or good DNA evidence, the McCanns were not prosecuted.
The leading detective spelt all this and more out in a book, which the McCanns had banned, lifted yesterday. Interestingly the policeman’s appeal was funded in part privately by UK policemen who had been involved in the case.
The point of my post is not what may have happened, which remains not proven. But that it is amazing given that they were at the least appallingly negligent parents, that they have gained status, official position “Ambassador for missing children”, prestige and money.
I agree with your last comment. And I have not followed the case in the way you have, so I will bow out – you know the facts better than I. To my mind it is then astonishing that there are at least three entirely separate aspects of this case which have come to such an extraordinary result. I’m assuming that what you say about the matter is accurate. Then we have: two people who are remarkably callous in their treatment of their children. On discovering the death, they then can act like experienced sociopathic serial killers, coolly disposing of their own child’s body so cleverly that no-one can find it, while taking some kind of care of their remaining children and concerting a cover story together that the police are unable to shake out of either of them. Not only that, but they are then immediately offered every resource of the British state, including the overriding of the opinion of experienced diplomats on the ground, rather than being treated as suspects, as was presumably the opinion of the Portuguese police and also as I have said experienced members of the British establishment.
Have I summarised the matter accurately? It’s hardly less than credible that so much that is so astonishingly out of the common could come together in one case.
Exactly the point I made a while ago. How could the body have been so successfully hidden?
Hardly less than Incredible, I meant!
The puzzle of what happened to the physical body remains, whoever was responsible.
Telegraph.
“Madeleine McCann died from an overdose of sleeping tablets, reports in a French newspaper claimed yesterday.
Guilhem Battut, an investigative reporter for the French tabloid France Soir, said Portuguese police had given prosecutors a file detailing how they thought Madeleine had died.Battut – an experienced journalist who has worked on a number of major inquiries – claims police believe that evidence found in the McCanns’ hire car will “prove that the little girl had ingested medicines, without doubt sleeping pills, in large quantities”.
A source at the newspaper claimed: “We are not simply repeating rumours carried in other papers. This is not a theory, but a fact contained in hard evidence in the hands of the Portuguese authorities.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563090/Madeleine-McCann-died-from-overdose.html
That is indeed very peculiar. On the other hand, I wonder if Blair/Brown and their entourage of spin doctors and fashion consultants and PR gurus were involved in the case then.
That same observation was MY moment of revelation . ( Andy Redwood is not the only person to have one regarding this case ) I remember remarking that THOSE dangly sort of earrings are not the sort you retire for the night in so a special effort must have been made the following morning . Add to that the full make up with the carefully applied white inner eyeliner to accentuate the eyes …………………………..not normal!
It was the first thing I noticed too Craig, the earring change. Even on automatic pilot and in shock, you wouldn’t be able to actually put earrings in, you’d be trembling so badly. It was the same watching Ian Huntley speak to the press whilst the Soham girls were newly missing, in his capacity as former caretaker. He referred to them in the past tense and my heckles went up, I knew he was lying.
I’ve no idea whether there was a cover up by the parents or a genuine abduction but the high level government/police aid stinks, especially when Kerry Needham can barely generate a hundredth of the support and she didn’t neglect her child.
I too noticed the change of earrings. The day before, I had my suspicions, and so made a mental note of the earrings, so I could see if they had been changed the next time I saw her, as I had a feeling they might be – and they were different ones! Not conclusive of course, but an indication. I simply could not imagine myself fiddling about changing pierced earrings in such circumstances – am sure the same ones would have just stayed in indefinitely.
So all of you expect a mother who’s lost her child, and possibly affected by psych medication, to act normally and rationally predict the outrage at her changing earrings. Let me ask – what’s ‘normal’ behaviour for a parent who’s lost their child? Does one have to reference American TV to get an idea?
I am replying to your post April 21, 2016 at 08:32 Craig. Further information for anyone interested.
The film of the CSI and ‘Cadaver’ dog searches.. It is long. It begins in the villa they moved to afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4NMYPsFKb8
My initial reaction to the first press interviews was exactly the same as Nadira’s, and I became more incredulous with each interview. The mother of a missing child would look WRECKED, creased, totally ungroomed, unbrushed: ? make up? jewelry ? not a chance: cardigan inside-out, t-shirt back- to-front: image would be totally irrelevant , the very last thing one would be thinking about.
“Would look..”? Based on your how many observations of parents in distress?
Have you ever seen parents of missing children cry on tv and call for public help? I have. They are later arrested for murdering their kids. Not so hard to put on an act to fool the fools who think they know what is and isn’t ‘normal’ behaviour.
Speaking from experience of a death of a child within my own family i know this is not normal behaviour,when my nephew died my brother & sister in law could hardly put a comb through their hair,& neither could my husband & i when our son was diagnosed with a brain tumour,though thankfully our son survived.I would like to add that Kate McCann gave an interview to the Daily Star saying she forgave the abductor,really,right from the beginning they told all that Madeleine had been abducted by a paedophile,yet she forgives them even though the McCanns keep telling all who will listen that Madeleine is still alive,so therefore she would be still suffering.In my opinion no mother would/could forgive the paedophile abductor of her child unless she was deranged.This is only one of the reasons i don’t believe the McCanns.Can i add that we’ve holidayed at the OC PDL several times & will say it is a safe & lovely resort as attested by many families from across the world.
Did you ever consider that the McCanns were advised to make those statements to appeal to the unknown suspected abductor in the hope that he or she would realease the McCann child? Would you have advised the mother to make hostile statements? How could that help? The McCanns are damned whatever they do because you hysteria driven village churls need someone to hate.
My nephew died a few years ago so speaking from experience i know this behaviour isn’t normal,my brother & sister in law could hardly comb their hair & neither could my husband & i when our son was diagnosed with a brain tumour,the last thing on our minds was how groomed we looked.Thankfully our son survived.A huge red flag to me is that Kate said in an interview with the Daily Star that she forgave the abductor,really,from day one Gerry told his family she had been abducted by a paedophile,yet she forgives them,no mother could/would forgive a paedophile abductor of her precious child especially as they tell everyone that they believe Madeleine is still alive,so she would still be suffering.It doesn’t make sense & if it doesn’t make sense then it isn’t true.I’d like to add that we’ve holidayed at the Ocean Club PDL several times & have found it a safe lovely resort,attested by it being packed with families from all across the world.
Let le be the first on here to remind everyone that today is Queen Elizabeth the Second’s 90th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Your Majesty – and we wish you many more of them !
Seconded. And on behalf of the blog, I would like to thank Her Majesty for her tireless service on behalf of the country.
Were the United Kingdom a republic, I wonder what sort of Heads of State we would have had over the last 60-odd years.
To quote from Anthony Powell’s “Caledonia”, perhaps:
“Second-rate Engineers and obscure Surgeons,
Pedant-Philosophers and Fleet Street hacks,
With evr’y Quality that Genius lacks;
Or, more likely, some clapped-out politicians……
Those lines get better with age don’t they?
They most certainly do, Anon1!
Anthony Powell’s pastiche “Caledonia” is a tour de force.
To remain with the Celts for a moment, I wonder if you’ve come across another pastiche called “Hibernia” by Stuart Howard-Jones (not his real name)? It is about the Irish.
One can find both in “The New Oxford Book of Light Verse” edited by Kingsley Amis (OUP 1978, paperback version 1987).
Has your master put one of those Union Jack coats on you, together with the studded collar for the occasion?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HJ%2BRKGnBL._SY300_QL70_.jpg
let me be the first to announce 6 days of planned news distraction. Issues that matter will be canceled for pageants.
That means six days of garnering real news from somewhere else and not for the first time.
I hope the Queen goes on to 101 like her mum, or longer, if possible. Can you imagine what we are going to have to endure when she croaks?
I’d rather see her head on the coinage than Merkel’s.
I’d rather see it than Charles’s.
I somehow doubt that other stories are going to be absent from the MSM for several days – indeed, even for 1 day.
But don’t take my word for it, Nevermind – invest in this morning’s press and see for yourself.
Good idea, Habs. Where do you buy yours, https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/our-brands/dandy.html or
https://www.beano.com/ ?
Be silent, you poundshop version of Brian Haw.