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.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2443057/Madeleine-McCann-Scotland-Yard-trawls-phone-records-ALL-tourists-staying-Maddie-resort.html
They're looking for "a needle in a haystack" apparently. Yet earlier in the year arrests were expected within weeks. All very strange - still it's a great gig for many of the Met's finest.
They're looking for "a needle in a haystack" apparently. Yet earlier in the year arrests were expected within weeks. All very strange - still it's a great gig for many of the Met's finest.
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Today in Lisbon, witnesses Paulo Sargento, Valentim de Carvalho, Luis Varela Marreiros, Mario Lopes, Tania Raposo, Antonio Paulo dos Santos.
Reflections on current affairs in Portugal by journalist and author Len Port.@copyright
Monday, November 4, 2013
McCann case: Anger over new suspect
When Scotland Yard launched its Madeleine McCann investigation, it called for ‘restraint’ from the British media. Meanwhile, a Portuguese law forbids police here from divulging inside information about on-going criminal investigations. So how come newspapers in both Britain and Portugal have identified and published sensational stories about another implausible ‘prime suspect’ in this case?
The stories are causing outrage, especially among relatives of the now deceased ‘suspect,’ but also in the much wider community in Portugal.
Hard on the heels of reports in the UK that police were looking variously for a paedophile gang, foreign perverts, gypsy robbers, English cleaners and some fair-haired individuals possibly from Germany or Holland, the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã last week began publishing a series of articles claiming police were investigating an African man.
The ‘new suspect’ was a former employee of the resort where the McCanns stayed in 2007. Phone records placed him near Praia da Luz at the time. As an immigrant from the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, he was living with his partner and their son in the nearest town, Lagos. He was arrested in 1996 for petty theft, but had no record of any serious offence.
The Correio da Manhã stories were copied and in some cases embellished in many British and other foreign newspapers. The Daily Express, for example, claimed the suspect was “a violent thug who was a threat to children.” It gave a Portuguese ‘police profile’ as the source of this information.
In many of the regurgitated reports, Portuguese detectives were said to be examining the possibility that the ‘suspect’ had kidnapped Madeleine in an act of revenge against his former employers for his dismissal a year earlier.
This idea made no sense at all, said the brother of the Cape Verdean's Portuguese partner. “It wasn’t as if what happened there with him losing his job destroyed his life. He got work elsewhere soon afterwards.”
A Portuguese TV reporter calmly and sensibly described the recently discovered information about the man’s cell phone use as “a loose end that needs to be tied up.”
But the British tabloids went overboard. More personal details about the man emerged, including his name. The Daily Mirror published a close-up photograph - but of course he looked nothing like either of the five-year-old e-fit images released by Scotland Yard three weeks ago.
The ‘new suspect’ died in a tractor accident in the north of Portugal in 2009, two years after Madeleine disappeared. There is that old saying, “you can’t defame the dead,” but what about the torment and humiliation these stories have inflicted upon those left behind?
This again raises serious questions about the workings and integrity of both the press and the police. How and why did details of this individual and the Polícia Judiciária’s interest in him become available? Has this man really become ‘key’ to the investigation, or is something else afoot here?
The ‘suspect’s’ widow told the Portuguese weekly newspaper, Sol: “It is disgusting that they are now trying to set up a dead man as a scapegoat.”
The Federation of the Organisations of Cape Verde based in Lisbon also believes the dead man is being used as a scapegoat. It described the allegations against him as “shocking” and “not credible.”
The truth about this matter needs to be told. Sadly, the truth about many aspects of this extraordinary six and a half year old mystery is as cloudy as ever.
Monday, November 4, 2013
McCann case: Anger over new suspect
When Scotland Yard launched its Madeleine McCann investigation, it called for ‘restraint’ from the British media. Meanwhile, a Portuguese law forbids police here from divulging inside information about on-going criminal investigations. So how come newspapers in both Britain and Portugal have identified and published sensational stories about another implausible ‘prime suspect’ in this case?
The stories are causing outrage, especially among relatives of the now deceased ‘suspect,’ but also in the much wider community in Portugal.
Hard on the heels of reports in the UK that police were looking variously for a paedophile gang, foreign perverts, gypsy robbers, English cleaners and some fair-haired individuals possibly from Germany or Holland, the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã last week began publishing a series of articles claiming police were investigating an African man.
The ‘new suspect’ was a former employee of the resort where the McCanns stayed in 2007. Phone records placed him near Praia da Luz at the time. As an immigrant from the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, he was living with his partner and their son in the nearest town, Lagos. He was arrested in 1996 for petty theft, but had no record of any serious offence.
The Correio da Manhã stories were copied and in some cases embellished in many British and other foreign newspapers. The Daily Express, for example, claimed the suspect was “a violent thug who was a threat to children.” It gave a Portuguese ‘police profile’ as the source of this information.
In many of the regurgitated reports, Portuguese detectives were said to be examining the possibility that the ‘suspect’ had kidnapped Madeleine in an act of revenge against his former employers for his dismissal a year earlier.
This idea made no sense at all, said the brother of the Cape Verdean's Portuguese partner. “It wasn’t as if what happened there with him losing his job destroyed his life. He got work elsewhere soon afterwards.”
A Portuguese TV reporter calmly and sensibly described the recently discovered information about the man’s cell phone use as “a loose end that needs to be tied up.”
But the British tabloids went overboard. More personal details about the man emerged, including his name. The Daily Mirror published a close-up photograph - but of course he looked nothing like either of the five-year-old e-fit images released by Scotland Yard three weeks ago.
The ‘new suspect’ died in a tractor accident in the north of Portugal in 2009, two years after Madeleine disappeared. There is that old saying, “you can’t defame the dead,” but what about the torment and humiliation these stories have inflicted upon those left behind?
This again raises serious questions about the workings and integrity of both the press and the police. How and why did details of this individual and the Polícia Judiciária’s interest in him become available? Has this man really become ‘key’ to the investigation, or is something else afoot here?
The ‘suspect’s’ widow told the Portuguese weekly newspaper, Sol: “It is disgusting that they are now trying to set up a dead man as a scapegoat.”
The Federation of the Organisations of Cape Verde based in Lisbon also believes the dead man is being used as a scapegoat. It described the allegations against him as “shocking” and “not credible.”
The truth about this matter needs to be told. Sadly, the truth about many aspects of this extraordinary six and a half year old mystery is as cloudy as ever.
Clarence releases to the media what his clients want released to the media. Everyone was told to expect 'young girls being found', 'new suspects coming to the fore' and 'previous unknown 'evidence' to be circulated during the libel trial and so it has........
I fail to see the point being made here about all this inaccurate reporting by the British press having any effect whatsoever on a libel case in Portugal. If anything, it is harmful, not helpful, to the McCanns' plight and has no relevance or bearing on the libel case.
Just how you think that THEY are responsible for the Daily Express, and others, inventing 'facts' in order to create a headline story from a (probably irrelevant) snippet of information is beyond me.
That Len Port assessment, as posted by Xmoneyx is a welcome, realistic look at affairs in a sea of second-guessed views and conspiracy assertions.
The McCanns aren't responsible for what stupid stories the media create and the hyenas feast upon.
Just how you think that THEY are responsible for the Daily Express, and others, inventing 'facts' in order to create a headline story from a (probably irrelevant) snippet of information is beyond me.
That Len Port assessment, as posted by Xmoneyx is a welcome, realistic look at affairs in a sea of second-guessed views and conspiracy assertions.
The McCanns aren't responsible for what stupid stories the media create and the hyenas feast upon.
It is a fact that Mitchell used his mates in the press to point the finger at Robert Murat, he has many friends in the press due to his previous positions.
Clarence Mitchell in his own words, on 29 September 2007 “I was the head of the government's Media Monitoring Unit. Forty people work there and their function is to control what comes out in the media."
These stories don't damage the McCanns in any way, there's no evidence of any abductor, it deflects any unwanted attention away from themselves and focuses peoples minds on an abduction............you are feeling sleepy............an abduction.......
Clarence Mitchell in his own words, on 29 September 2007 “I was the head of the government's Media Monitoring Unit. Forty people work there and their function is to control what comes out in the media."
These stories don't damage the McCanns in any way, there's no evidence of any abductor, it deflects any unwanted attention away from themselves and focuses peoples minds on an abduction............you are feeling sleepy............an abduction.......
David Elstein is Chairman of openDemocracy's Board. He is also Chairman of the Broadcasting Policy Group. He is a director of Kingsbridge Capital Advisors, and a supervisory board member of two German cable companies.
For nearly thirty years, Crimewatch has been a regular part of the schedule of the BBC’s main channel, BBC1. By using video reconstructions of unsolved crimes, and accepting help and advice from the UK’s police forces, it has contributed to the conviction of over one hundred major criminals, including murderers and rapists.
These days, Crimewatch no longer has a monthly slot, but it can still pull in a large audience. The October 14th edition, including a 25-minute report on the mysterious disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann during a family holiday in Portugal six years ago, attracted over 6.5 million viewers, along with a mass of publicity before and after transmission.
The occasion of the programme was the decision by Scotland Yard to present the main findings of its renewed efforts – involving a 37-strong investigative team – to find the child, prompted by an assurance given by Prime Minister David Cameron to Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate, that the closing of the Portuguese investigation into the case would not be allowed to be the final word.
The programme item was curiously inept. Real footage of the McCann family was constantly intercut with shots of (not very) lookalikes: confusing and distracting at the same time. Towards the end, there was reference to a search for a number of long-haired men who had been seen hanging around the apartment block in the holiday resort: yet the only video the “reconstruction” managed to offer was of several men with close-cropped heads.
Much of the publicity the programme attracted centred on new electronic photofits that featured prominently in the programme. They had been generated in the course of interviews with an Irish family, the Smiths, who had also been on holiday in the Praia da Luz resort where the McCanns and some friends of theirs had gathered in April 2007.
Attentive viewers might have been puzzled as to how the Irish witnesses were able to provide such detailed images, six years after the event. We were not told. The interview with the detective leading the Scotland Yard inquiry did not touch on the subject.
The next day, October 15th, the Daily Express – part of the newspaper group owned by Richard Desmond which has paid out over half a million pounds to the McCanns in compensation for libellous stories about Madeleine’s disappearance – noted that these photofits were actually five years old, but had never been released publicly.
On October 27th, we learned more. The Sunday Times claimed that the photofits had actually been compiled in 2008 by a team of private investigators hired by the Find Madeleine Fund, which had been set up by the McCanns. The investigation had cost £500,000, and had been led by Henri Exton, a former head of MI5 undercover operations. But the company Exton had worked for, Oakley International, had fallen out with the McCanns.
Ostensibly, the dispute was over money, but the McCanns also imposed a ban on any publicising of the contents of the Exton report. According to the Sunday Times, it had contained criticisms of the evidence provided by the friends of the McCanns, and by the McCanns themselves, even raising the possibility that Madeleine might have died after wandering out of the family’s rented apartment through unsecured doors.
Over the years, the McCanns have issued seven different photofits, including one provided by their friend Jane Tanner, who thought she saw a man carrying a child at about 9.15 on the evening Madeleine disappeared. Exton discounted this sighting, and thought the Smith sighting, at about 10 pm, was the most significant. Yet the McCanns, despite passionately pursuing the quest to find their lost child, chose never to issue the Smith photofit.
The Scotland Yard team has now satisfied itself that the Tanner sighting can be excluded, agrees that the 10 pm timeline is the correct one and regards the Smith photofit as the most promising lead: five years after the McCanns themselves suppressed all this information, according to the Sunday Times.
Whatever their reasons for doing so, the McCanns are not accountable to the public, despite Gerry’s regular lectures on how the press in general should behave, and why a Royal Charter version of the Leveson recommendations is needed to keep newspapers honest and straightforward in their reporting.
The story in the Sunday Times also indicated that the Exton report included a section in which the father of the Smith family, Martin Smith, noted that his observation of how Gerry McCann used to carry Madeleine on his shoulder reminded him of the man he saw carrying a child at 10 pm on the night Madeleine disappeared. He does not think the man actually was Gerry, but it is not hard to work out why the leader of the Portuguese inquiry concluded that the McCanns were implicated in the disappearance. The McCanns are suing him for libel, and both the Portuguese police and Scotland Yard are satisfied they had no part in the disappearance, but fear of inciting more press speculation in the UK may explain the decision to suppress the entire Oakley report.
It is hard to believe that the Crimewatch team was ignorant of this history. It would have been incredibly unprofessional of them not even to ask how and when Scotland Yard had obtained the “new” photofits. The programme referred to the Irish family, and a “fresh” investigation, but the absence of any reference to “new” photofits strongly suggests that Crimewatch knew the background perfectly well.
Does this matter? Crimewatch occupies an uneasy space between entertainment and information. Its brief is undoubtedly one of public service, but it is not in the business of journalism. No journalist would go out of his way to mislead the public in the way this edition of Crimewatch managed to do.
The essence of Crimewatch is complicity: close co-operation with the police and the purported victims of crime, to the point of eliminating anything awkward that might get in the way of that joint endeavour. The Sunday Times quoted a source close to the McCanns as saying that release of the original Oakley investigation might have distracted the public from their objective of finding their child. Yet the bottom line of this story is that the parents deliberately withheld, for five years, the photofits that Scotland Yard now says are the most important evidence in the search for the supposed culprits. For any journalist, that would have been at least as important a fact to reveal to the public as the photofits themselves.
Yet the most important area of journalism in the UK – the BBC, which accounts for over 60% of all news consumption – has remained silent on the revelations in the Sunday Times. Even the BBC website, with over 900 stories related to the disappearance over the years, has not found room for that startling information (though you can find links to the Daily Star’s website, which repeated much of the Sunday Times material on October 28th). It would be dismaying if some kind of misguided loyalty to the non-journalists at Crimewatch was inhibiting the 8,000 BBC staff who work in its news division.
It is, of course, just possible that Crimewatch was itself duped by the McCanns: but I doubt it. Instead, the editor chose to join the McCanns in trying to dupe the public. Neither option shows the BBC in a good light. Whatever the failings over the two Newsnight items – the untransmitted one on Jimmy Savile, the transmitted one that libelled Lord McAlpine – no-one can argue that there was any definite intention to mislead the public. Sadly, the same cannot be said of October’s Crimewatch.
For nearly thirty years, Crimewatch has been a regular part of the schedule of the BBC’s main channel, BBC1. By using video reconstructions of unsolved crimes, and accepting help and advice from the UK’s police forces, it has contributed to the conviction of over one hundred major criminals, including murderers and rapists.
These days, Crimewatch no longer has a monthly slot, but it can still pull in a large audience. The October 14th edition, including a 25-minute report on the mysterious disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann during a family holiday in Portugal six years ago, attracted over 6.5 million viewers, along with a mass of publicity before and after transmission.
The occasion of the programme was the decision by Scotland Yard to present the main findings of its renewed efforts – involving a 37-strong investigative team – to find the child, prompted by an assurance given by Prime Minister David Cameron to Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate, that the closing of the Portuguese investigation into the case would not be allowed to be the final word.
The programme item was curiously inept. Real footage of the McCann family was constantly intercut with shots of (not very) lookalikes: confusing and distracting at the same time. Towards the end, there was reference to a search for a number of long-haired men who had been seen hanging around the apartment block in the holiday resort: yet the only video the “reconstruction” managed to offer was of several men with close-cropped heads.
Much of the publicity the programme attracted centred on new electronic photofits that featured prominently in the programme. They had been generated in the course of interviews with an Irish family, the Smiths, who had also been on holiday in the Praia da Luz resort where the McCanns and some friends of theirs had gathered in April 2007.
Attentive viewers might have been puzzled as to how the Irish witnesses were able to provide such detailed images, six years after the event. We were not told. The interview with the detective leading the Scotland Yard inquiry did not touch on the subject.
The next day, October 15th, the Daily Express – part of the newspaper group owned by Richard Desmond which has paid out over half a million pounds to the McCanns in compensation for libellous stories about Madeleine’s disappearance – noted that these photofits were actually five years old, but had never been released publicly.
On October 27th, we learned more. The Sunday Times claimed that the photofits had actually been compiled in 2008 by a team of private investigators hired by the Find Madeleine Fund, which had been set up by the McCanns. The investigation had cost £500,000, and had been led by Henri Exton, a former head of MI5 undercover operations. But the company Exton had worked for, Oakley International, had fallen out with the McCanns.
Ostensibly, the dispute was over money, but the McCanns also imposed a ban on any publicising of the contents of the Exton report. According to the Sunday Times, it had contained criticisms of the evidence provided by the friends of the McCanns, and by the McCanns themselves, even raising the possibility that Madeleine might have died after wandering out of the family’s rented apartment through unsecured doors.
Over the years, the McCanns have issued seven different photofits, including one provided by their friend Jane Tanner, who thought she saw a man carrying a child at about 9.15 on the evening Madeleine disappeared. Exton discounted this sighting, and thought the Smith sighting, at about 10 pm, was the most significant. Yet the McCanns, despite passionately pursuing the quest to find their lost child, chose never to issue the Smith photofit.
The Scotland Yard team has now satisfied itself that the Tanner sighting can be excluded, agrees that the 10 pm timeline is the correct one and regards the Smith photofit as the most promising lead: five years after the McCanns themselves suppressed all this information, according to the Sunday Times.
Whatever their reasons for doing so, the McCanns are not accountable to the public, despite Gerry’s regular lectures on how the press in general should behave, and why a Royal Charter version of the Leveson recommendations is needed to keep newspapers honest and straightforward in their reporting.
The story in the Sunday Times also indicated that the Exton report included a section in which the father of the Smith family, Martin Smith, noted that his observation of how Gerry McCann used to carry Madeleine on his shoulder reminded him of the man he saw carrying a child at 10 pm on the night Madeleine disappeared. He does not think the man actually was Gerry, but it is not hard to work out why the leader of the Portuguese inquiry concluded that the McCanns were implicated in the disappearance. The McCanns are suing him for libel, and both the Portuguese police and Scotland Yard are satisfied they had no part in the disappearance, but fear of inciting more press speculation in the UK may explain the decision to suppress the entire Oakley report.
It is hard to believe that the Crimewatch team was ignorant of this history. It would have been incredibly unprofessional of them not even to ask how and when Scotland Yard had obtained the “new” photofits. The programme referred to the Irish family, and a “fresh” investigation, but the absence of any reference to “new” photofits strongly suggests that Crimewatch knew the background perfectly well.
Does this matter? Crimewatch occupies an uneasy space between entertainment and information. Its brief is undoubtedly one of public service, but it is not in the business of journalism. No journalist would go out of his way to mislead the public in the way this edition of Crimewatch managed to do.
The essence of Crimewatch is complicity: close co-operation with the police and the purported victims of crime, to the point of eliminating anything awkward that might get in the way of that joint endeavour. The Sunday Times quoted a source close to the McCanns as saying that release of the original Oakley investigation might have distracted the public from their objective of finding their child. Yet the bottom line of this story is that the parents deliberately withheld, for five years, the photofits that Scotland Yard now says are the most important evidence in the search for the supposed culprits. For any journalist, that would have been at least as important a fact to reveal to the public as the photofits themselves.
Yet the most important area of journalism in the UK – the BBC, which accounts for over 60% of all news consumption – has remained silent on the revelations in the Sunday Times. Even the BBC website, with over 900 stories related to the disappearance over the years, has not found room for that startling information (though you can find links to the Daily Star’s website, which repeated much of the Sunday Times material on October 28th). It would be dismaying if some kind of misguided loyalty to the non-journalists at Crimewatch was inhibiting the 8,000 BBC staff who work in its news division.
It is, of course, just possible that Crimewatch was itself duped by the McCanns: but I doubt it. Instead, the editor chose to join the McCanns in trying to dupe the public. Neither option shows the BBC in a good light. Whatever the failings over the two Newsnight items – the untransmitted one on Jimmy Savile, the transmitted one that libelled Lord McAlpine – no-one can argue that there was any definite intention to mislead the public. Sadly, the same cannot be said of October’s Crimewatch.
Clarence Mitchell’s strange association with controversial murder cases: “He was closely involved with the Fred and Rosemary West case, where a murderous couple had killed young girls and buried the bodies under their patio in Gloucester. He was the first reporters to arrive at Gowan Avenue, Fulham in south west London, when the immensely popular BBC TV presenter Jill Dando was shot dead in a murder many feel has never been satisfactorily explained”. Mitchell also covered in depth the arrest and conviction of mass-murderer Dennis Nilson. When Paula Yates’ partner Michael Hutchance died in mysterious circumstances in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, in 1999, Clarence Mitchell was despatched to cover the death; more recently, in a story he worked on right up to the day he left the BBC, Clarence led coverage of the murder of the Surrey schoolgirl Millie Dowler in 2002. The case has never been solved. Mitchell has also written books on the Fred & Rosemary West and Jill Dando cases. He also reported extensively on the murder by Ian Huntley of Soham girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. On 9 January this year, the Independent ran a brief article titled: ‘Remember Clarence Mitchell?’ It said: “Clarence Mitchell, formerly of the BBC and now spokesman for Madeleine McCann’s parents, has developed a nice little niche as a spin doctor of misery. First he took on Fiona MacKeown, mother of teenager Scarlet Kelling, who was murdered in Goa. Then he started representing the parents of murdered London teenager Jimmy Mizen. And today we’ve discovered that Mr Mitchell is also speaking for the wife of Jeremy Hoyland, the British jet skier who went missing off the coast of Bali last October. His presence can hardly be reassuring - the PR equivalent of an angel of death”.
How long before he writes his book on the McCann case I wonder?
How long before he writes his book on the McCann case I wonder?
Mr P @ElSpark
"Police are now looking for a black german catholic Saville lookalike who was possibly seen within 500 miles of Portugal".
"Police are now looking for a black german catholic Saville lookalike who was possibly seen within 500 miles of Portugal".
Clarence Mitchell has achieved much in the Madeleine McCann case. He played the key role in arranging for the McCanns to meet the Pope on 28 May 2007, just 25 days after Madeleine McCann was reported missing. A man with connections at the highest level, Clarence Mitchell openly boasted in a TV interview that it was he who arranged, via Roman Catholic Archbishop Cormac Murphy O’Connor, for the McCanns to visit the Pope - in what was a highly publicised visit. The Pope put pages of material about the McCanns and Madeleine on his website. But two days before the McCanns were made arguidos - ‘provisional suspects’ - in September 2007, the Pope wiped all references to Madeleine from his website. Margolis wrote in 2007: “I would imagine Clarence is content in his new role as the family's voice. He's centre stage on a huge story, intimately involved as ever, and on television and in the newspapers all the time. It was extraordinary how, last week, his intervention eliminated, within hours, any misgiving about the McCanns in the British media”.
I'm reliably informed that Barbara Feltus Becker was 520 miles from Portugal at the time of the incident..
The McCanns aren't responsible for what stupid stories the media create and the hyenas feast upon
..you have got to be kidding naydam....there are numerous examples of which this is only one.
Investigators yesterday issued an urgent appeal for information about the woman, described as a 'glamorous and well turned out' Victoria Beckham lookalike.
Dave Edgar, the retired detective hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to lead a private inquiry, said it was very possible the youngster was smuggled into Barcelona by yacht from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz where she disappeared in May 2007.
Yesterday he revealed an image of the woman, thought to be Australian, at a press conference in London, appealing for help in finding her.
Mr Edgar, 52, said the two Britons, who were part of a larger group on a trip to Spain, saw the woman acting suspiciously in the early hours of May 7, 2007 during a night out at the city's Port Olimpic Marina.
full article hear......http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204605/The-Victoria-Beckh...
..you have got to be kidding naydam....there are numerous examples of which this is only one.
Investigators yesterday issued an urgent appeal for information about the woman, described as a 'glamorous and well turned out' Victoria Beckham lookalike.
Dave Edgar, the retired detective hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to lead a private inquiry, said it was very possible the youngster was smuggled into Barcelona by yacht from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz where she disappeared in May 2007.
Yesterday he revealed an image of the woman, thought to be Australian, at a press conference in London, appealing for help in finding her.
Mr Edgar, 52, said the two Britons, who were part of a larger group on a trip to Spain, saw the woman acting suspiciously in the early hours of May 7, 2007 during a night out at the city's Port Olimpic Marina.
full article hear......http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204605/The-Victoria-Beckh...
Gerry & Kate #McCann will not be giving any comments regarding the progress of the investigation unless there is a significant breakthrough
focuses peoples minds on an abduction............you are feeling sleepy............an abduction.......
Look into my eyes, look into the eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes, don't look around the eyes, look into my eyes (clicks) you're under, if you see reports of abduction and kidnappers you will think that Maddie was abducted, not died from neglect, if you see photo of big scarey black man who papers say kidnapped Maddie you will immediately think he is prime suspect contary to all common sense and reason. You will not in any way question the truth of what the Tapas 9 say and should never ever question the McCann directly over their part in their daughters death 3, 2, 1, you're back in the room
Look into my eyes, look into the eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes, don't look around the eyes, look into my eyes (clicks) you're under, if you see reports of abduction and kidnappers you will think that Maddie was abducted, not died from neglect, if you see photo of big scarey black man who papers say kidnapped Maddie you will immediately think he is prime suspect contary to all common sense and reason. You will not in any way question the truth of what the Tapas 9 say and should never ever question the McCann directly over their part in their daughters death 3, 2, 1, you're back in the room
3, 2, 1, you're back in the room
If only Brendan, if only.......
If only Brendan, if only.......
..cant believe its true????...and certainly don't post it on here otherwise the thread might explode...
but google the alledged "jillhavern" Clarence Mitchell/Gerry McCann phone call
but google the alledged "jillhavern" Clarence Mitchell/Gerry McCann phone call
FFS stop slacking you lot and get this solved. The clues are all on this thread. 
interesting video on YouTube - the one with Paxman - McCanns..body talk
Gerry appears confident and carefully controlled while his body language falls apart. And at the end he is at his most uncomfortable when refusing to answer a simple question. He walks away from the interview and Kate says he is hot and tells him to go outside and get some air.
Gerry appears confident and carefully controlled while his body language falls apart. And at the end he is at his most uncomfortable when refusing to answer a simple question. He walks away from the interview and Kate says he is hot and tells him to go outside and get some air.
Anyone know what the outcome of the court case was? Or have they not had a verdict yet?
defence case being heard,end of nov should be verdict
Funny how it goes quiet , I guess we can expect more new suspects as the verdict comes closer .
Mccanns first interview with Sky.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshQL5BNp5M
from 6:05 re grieving.....?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
weird throughout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshQL5BNp5M
from 6:05 re grieving.....?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
weird throughout.
there's a good journalist in Portugal,Len port,he following it
I will post his article
I will post his article
what's happening with this?
Just doesn't seem to be getting reported in UK
Just doesn't seem to be getting reported in UK
I imagine that there is nothing to report. The libel case is still ongoing. (I assume that's what you mean).
met police getting closer
photo fit
blond Caucasian to black gypsy
20 year old to 45
photo fit
blond Caucasian to black gypsy
20 year old to 45
there is no evidence whatsoever, only circumstantial and second guessing, when everyone has finished playing detective you will all look like a bunch of spanners when she turns up years later after being holed up in some perverts dungeon a la ariel castro
that might have something to do with the Portuguese police trampling over the evidence and allowing all and sundry to waltz in and out
.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2945.0
latest libel case daily reports
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2945.0
latest libel case daily reports
that might have something to do with the Portuguese police trampling over the evidence and allowing all and sundry to waltz in and out
The police weren't called until the crime scene had been well and truly destroyed. It's a nice myth though for the McCann apologists to cling to.
The police weren't called until the crime scene had been well and truly destroyed. It's a nice myth though for the McCann apologists to cling to.
breadnbutter
16 Nov 13 12:41
reporters arrived before the police
16 Nov 13 12:41
reporters arrived before the police
£10 million reckoned to be spent by Met. so far on the enquiry.
Is this a normal amount each time for when a child goes missing?
Is this a normal amount each time for when a child goes missing?
Gypsies in the frame now
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550836/Maddie-McCann-detectives-pro...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550836/Maddie-McCann-detectives-pro...
You can't blame them for considering the possibility. This must be a terrible case to work on. A lot of time has passed since the evidence was fresh. THAT was the time to conduct a proper investigation. That was the time to solve the case. It can only become more and more difficult with the passage of time. 
Pity then that the McCanns and friends didn't cooperate properly from the start
I don't know if they cooperated properly or not. I was under the impression that the detective had decided that the parents did 'it' and set about trying to find evidence to support this. It must be quite a scary thought to think that whatever you say will twisted to indicate your guilt, rather than concentrating on finding the missing child. I can see how mistrust would easily develop, from both parties.
I have no doubt that the British police will have included the parents in their investigations. With what result, remains unknown.
I have no doubt that the British police will have included the parents in their investigations. With what result, remains unknown.
len port---journalist Portugal
The recent flurry of fictitious reports about the Madeleine McCann case is another example of how far quality journalism has been replaced by the latest form of ‘churnalism.’
A story is concocted by a reporter and published on the website of a major newspaper or TV network. Within hours, it has been copied, rewritten or translated without anyone bothering to check for accuracy. If it is sensational enough, the story is then regurgitated around the world.
The media have long been able to share important information from established news agencies and other reliable sources. The rot set in with the upsurge some years ago of propaganda and slanted press releases put out by PR people. The Internet has dramatically speeded and simplified shoddy, second-hand reporting.
Churnalism has now reached unprecedented levels with media organisations shamelessly copying one another online. As a result, a profusion of misinformation is spewed out daily.
Last week’s excitement over the Madeleine McCann case was based on the fact that four Scotland Yard detectives flew to the Algarve to meet with Polícia Judiciária counterparts. The visit followed a letter of request sent by the British Crown Prosecution Service to the Portuguese equivalent.
Officials in both countries refused to comment on the contents of the letter or the reason for the visit. This did not stop the British tabloids from improvising. They spoke of “a dramatic breakthrough” and claimed that the arrest of three burglars was “imminent.”
Kate and Gerry McCann were said to be “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" about the latest developments.
These “exclusive” assertions in the Daily Mirror were picked up and used not only by competing tabloids, but by ‘quality’ papers such as the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.
Portuguese papers did not jump on the bandwagon, but the revelation of a ‘breakthrough’ spun around the world and found its way into the Sydney Morning Herald, the Times of India, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast to name but a few online services.
The Epoch Times, which prides itself on being published in 21 languages in 35 countries across five continents, was running the same “imminent arrest” yarn on the same day ITV mercifully set the record straight with the headline: “No imminent plans to make any arrests in Madeleine McCann case.”
ITV described the meeting between British and Portuguese detectives as “a routine part of the investigation to establish what happened to Madeleine McCann.”
USA Today quoted the British investigative reporter and former detective Mark Williams-Thomas as saying, “this isn’t a major breakthrough” and “burglars don’t abduct children.”
By then the media damage had been done. As the Sunday Mirror columnist Carole Malone put it: “How devastating this must all be for Kate and Gerry McCann – another flurry of headlines, more promises of suspects and arrests... and then nothing. Again!”
The copy and paste style of churnalism practised nowadays is akin to plagiarism, but who cares? For example, a retired British police superintendent with a keen interest in the McCann case spotted that several paragraphs in a Daily Mirror story on 28 December had been copied almost word-for-word, without quoting or crediting the source, from a story that had appeared in the Daily Mail on 15 October. He brought this to the attention of both papers and the Press Complaints Commission. They expressed little interest.
Journalistic analysts put the growth in churnalism down to a combination of things, including increased competition, reduced revenues and inadequate staff with insufficient time to verify and properly develop stories.
It is likely to get ever more frantic. We have already moved on from last week’s “imminent arrests” to this week’s tabloid revelation that “detectives are probing a Portuguese gypsy site just 15 minutes away from where Madeleine was snatched.”
Well, maybe, but for starters the place the foreign media are talking about is not a gypsy site at all.
One thing is certain though: the media will continue to churn out this sort of rubbish as long as there are people who want to read it.
The recent flurry of fictitious reports about the Madeleine McCann case is another example of how far quality journalism has been replaced by the latest form of ‘churnalism.’
A story is concocted by a reporter and published on the website of a major newspaper or TV network. Within hours, it has been copied, rewritten or translated without anyone bothering to check for accuracy. If it is sensational enough, the story is then regurgitated around the world.
The media have long been able to share important information from established news agencies and other reliable sources. The rot set in with the upsurge some years ago of propaganda and slanted press releases put out by PR people. The Internet has dramatically speeded and simplified shoddy, second-hand reporting.
Churnalism has now reached unprecedented levels with media organisations shamelessly copying one another online. As a result, a profusion of misinformation is spewed out daily.
Last week’s excitement over the Madeleine McCann case was based on the fact that four Scotland Yard detectives flew to the Algarve to meet with Polícia Judiciária counterparts. The visit followed a letter of request sent by the British Crown Prosecution Service to the Portuguese equivalent.
Officials in both countries refused to comment on the contents of the letter or the reason for the visit. This did not stop the British tabloids from improvising. They spoke of “a dramatic breakthrough” and claimed that the arrest of three burglars was “imminent.”
Kate and Gerry McCann were said to be “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" about the latest developments.
These “exclusive” assertions in the Daily Mirror were picked up and used not only by competing tabloids, but by ‘quality’ papers such as the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.
Portuguese papers did not jump on the bandwagon, but the revelation of a ‘breakthrough’ spun around the world and found its way into the Sydney Morning Herald, the Times of India, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast to name but a few online services.
The Epoch Times, which prides itself on being published in 21 languages in 35 countries across five continents, was running the same “imminent arrest” yarn on the same day ITV mercifully set the record straight with the headline: “No imminent plans to make any arrests in Madeleine McCann case.”
ITV described the meeting between British and Portuguese detectives as “a routine part of the investigation to establish what happened to Madeleine McCann.”
USA Today quoted the British investigative reporter and former detective Mark Williams-Thomas as saying, “this isn’t a major breakthrough” and “burglars don’t abduct children.”
By then the media damage had been done. As the Sunday Mirror columnist Carole Malone put it: “How devastating this must all be for Kate and Gerry McCann – another flurry of headlines, more promises of suspects and arrests... and then nothing. Again!”
The copy and paste style of churnalism practised nowadays is akin to plagiarism, but who cares? For example, a retired British police superintendent with a keen interest in the McCann case spotted that several paragraphs in a Daily Mirror story on 28 December had been copied almost word-for-word, without quoting or crediting the source, from a story that had appeared in the Daily Mail on 15 October. He brought this to the attention of both papers and the Press Complaints Commission. They expressed little interest.
Journalistic analysts put the growth in churnalism down to a combination of things, including increased competition, reduced revenues and inadequate staff with insufficient time to verify and properly develop stories.
It is likely to get ever more frantic. We have already moved on from last week’s “imminent arrests” to this week’s tabloid revelation that “detectives are probing a Portuguese gypsy site just 15 minutes away from where Madeleine was snatched.”
Well, maybe, but for starters the place the foreign media are talking about is not a gypsy site at all.
One thing is certain though: the media will continue to churn out this sort of rubbish as long as there are people who want to read it.
There's not that much I'd disagree with there, but I wouldn't put anyone who says 'tenderhooks' on a pedal stool.
I don't know if they cooperated properly or not. I was under the impression that the detective had decided that the parents did 'it' and set about trying to find evidence to support this.
No, the Portuguese investigation didn't consider them suspects for months .
Also very likely the stuff about The McAnns being “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" , likely comes from their own PR people rather than the police.
No, the Portuguese investigation didn't consider them suspects for months .
Also very likely the stuff about The McAnns being “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" , likely comes from their own PR people rather than the police.
yes yes , i'm just pasting the dailymail text or whatever it was from
very likely the stuff about The McAnns being “on tenderhooks” and being "kept fully informed" , likely comes from their own PR people rather than the police.
1.01 Clarence Mitchell
1.01 Clarence Mitchell
Biggest mystery of the last few decades surely given the amount of attention, publicity, resources and search hours put in to it the last 7 years. Yet nobody has slipped up at all. No trace whatsoever.
Three months after she disappeared in August time, I was in the Algarve staying in a resort in between Alvor and Portimao, just a few miles along the coast from Luz. In Alvor in town, there were still pictures and posters of her plastered everywhere, almost every shop, sports bar and cafe you went into to in every side street but on a day trip to Portimao I didn't see one single picture which I thought was strange, almost like nobody there wanted to be associated with it even though there just a couple of miles apart, I vaguely remember them being jeered on TV there at the station, OR maybe the police there didn't want reminding that they had failed to find her and fcuked up the investigation form Day 1. I walked right past that station they were always in and out of "Policia Judiciaria" which was a bit strange, and a few doors down on the wall next to a phone shop on the wall someone had written mccanns gulity, not guilty, gulity, must have been a local trying to write English. About half hour later we went to this kind of Roma gypsy market on the outskirts, had to walk over a derelict railway line onto a disused platform and along a long muddy path, one thing always stuck on my mind, every single stall we stopped out to look at what they were selling, I always noticed the Roma's behind the stall not taking their eyes of any kids that happened to be there including my sister, even when they moved along there eyes followed them, could't help but think that being so close by to Luz one of these gypsy groups might have taken her. Gypsies are a complete law unto themselves.
Three months after she disappeared in August time, I was in the Algarve staying in a resort in between Alvor and Portimao, just a few miles along the coast from Luz. In Alvor in town, there were still pictures and posters of her plastered everywhere, almost every shop, sports bar and cafe you went into to in every side street but on a day trip to Portimao I didn't see one single picture which I thought was strange, almost like nobody there wanted to be associated with it even though there just a couple of miles apart, I vaguely remember them being jeered on TV there at the station, OR maybe the police there didn't want reminding that they had failed to find her and fcuked up the investigation form Day 1. I walked right past that station they were always in and out of "Policia Judiciaria" which was a bit strange, and a few doors down on the wall next to a phone shop on the wall someone had written mccanns gulity, not guilty, gulity, must have been a local trying to write English. About half hour later we went to this kind of Roma gypsy market on the outskirts, had to walk over a derelict railway line onto a disused platform and along a long muddy path, one thing always stuck on my mind, every single stall we stopped out to look at what they were selling, I always noticed the Roma's behind the stall not taking their eyes of any kids that happened to be there including my sister, even when they moved along there eyes followed them, could't help but think that being so close by to Luz one of these gypsy groups might have taken her. Gypsies are a complete law unto themselves.
But there is no evidence that says the McCanns apartment was broken into.
McCanns claim they left both doors unlocked - but bizarrely they also claim the window was broken into.
I always noticed the Roma's behind the stall not taking their eyes of any kids that happened to be there including my sister, even when they moved along there eyes followed them
they were probably worried about their goods getting nicked
they were probably worried about their goods getting nicked
A_T they were gipsies selling tat, cheap stuff unpacked from flimsy boxes like disney socks, primark like t-shirts etc, they could hardly give it away let alone have it nicked.
looks like you've solved it then based on your experience it was obviously gypsies
yes mesmerised solved it just by looking at a gypsies eye, nice work folks, case closed
This thread so it appears, is all about speculation and as far as I can see I made no accusations, just observations and insinuations, like the rest, nobody has a clue including you, so no need for sarcasm AT
Gypsies were near by, so they must have done it..
Well I can see the logic here, nobody likes Gypsies so lets just blame them
ffs
In the Sunday Express today there is a claim(I have no idea of truth of this)
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.
Well if the McCann's lost them then surely they should have told the Portuguese police..
I don't know..it may have been the hotel....but this is significant evidence, id true
It is all right blaming the Portuguese police, but then if the McCann's were not totally honest with them
it is hardly their fault is it???????????
Well I can see the logic here, nobody likes Gypsies so lets just blame them
ffs
In the Sunday Express today there is a claim(I have no idea of truth of this)
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.
Well if the McCann's lost them then surely they should have told the Portuguese police..
I don't know..it may have been the hotel....but this is significant evidence, id true
It is all right blaming the Portuguese police, but then if the McCann's were not totally honest with them
it is hardly their fault is it???????????
Personally I don't think our police have a clue
we have had known paedophiles did it
we have had burglars did it
now Gipsies
we have had known paedophiles did it
we have had burglars did it
now Gipsies
In the Sunday Express today there is a claim(I have no idea of truth of this)
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.
Irrelevant as the McCanns say they left both doors to the apartment unlocked.
the McCann's keys were lost shortly before she vanished.
Irrelevant as the McCanns say they left both doors to the apartment unlocked.
if the swinger storys have any truth in them their keys would have been passed amongst the group,
are you winding us up
professional couple leave 3 kids alone in an apartment the day after their keys go missing,
professional couple leave 3 kids alone in an apartment the day after their keys go missing,
3 kids alone and they snatch Madeleine, either she was targeted, or maybe they were just burglars and she disturbed them (?), and like everybody else I have absolutely no idea.....
my last post blocked
one can never get too near the truth in any criminal case on here
one can never get too near the truth in any criminal case on here
egner • October 29, 2013 1:02 PM GMT
...I think if I lost a beloved daughter...
and had to go through the six years of emotional strain and trauma of not knowing what had happened to her I think I would probably pursue any bit of info however unlikely.....
even if it gave me only 0.00001% chance of some closure or a resolution.
..like digging up a small patch of driveway for example
..Scotland Yard granted permission to excavate today.....bit late and no details given.
...I think if I lost a beloved daughter...
and had to go through the six years of emotional strain and trauma of not knowing what had happened to her I think I would probably pursue any bit of info however unlikely.....
even if it gave me only 0.00001% chance of some closure or a resolution.
..like digging up a small patch of driveway for example
..Scotland Yard granted permission to excavate today.....bit late and no details given.
...perhaps they are finally acting on Stephen Birch info
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGwvY6whtds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGwvY6whtds
Kay Burley says the church grounds are likely to be searched . What does that tell you .
It tells me that Kay Burley (whoever that may be) says that some church grounds are likely to be searched.
What did it 'tell' you?
What did it 'tell' you?
Frankie Boyle, the scottish 'comedian', says 'Maddie' is an anagram of 'I'm dead.'
Perhaps he should be on the case.
Perhaps he should be on the case.
I'm on hols there in a couple of weeks time,I'll pop round and have a nosey
'...........Activity would cease if police in Britain gave out information or news reporters caused any disruption to their work in Portugal, he added.........'
( report in the Daily Express online)
What does this mean ?
( report in the Daily Express online)
What does this mean ?
It is probably a statement issued by the PORTUGUESE police because all this inaccurate reporting by the British media is causing problems on-site.
The British police should withhold ALL information and just get on with their work quietly and professionally. This is what they would probably prefer themselves, as well.
The British police should withhold ALL information and just get on with their work quietly and professionally. This is what they would probably prefer themselves, as well.
Joined: 31 Jul 04 | Topic/replies: 6,837 | Blogger: naydam's blog
It tells me that Kay Burley (whoever that may be) says that some church grounds are likely to be searched.
What did it 'tell' you?
You don't know who Kay Burley is and you don't know the significance of the church grounds being searched then enough said.
It tells me that Kay Burley (whoever that may be) says that some church grounds are likely to be searched.
What did it 'tell' you?
You don't know who Kay Burley is and you don't know the significance of the church grounds being searched then enough said.
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