The search for Madeleine McCann, or any child, should be above politics
And it should be above lies and deceit. It should be about full co-operation being given to police by the parents of Madeleine – which did not happen.
Little Madeleine McCann is a constant reminder for me around this time every year of how devastation can be brought to a family in an instant.
It is a constant reminder to us all at this time of year, how could it not when each anniversary has brought more silly stories, and campaigns by the parents for cash, donations.
Her disappearance seven years ago remains a great mystery.
Not really if you look at the facts of the case and not believe in what is written in the UK press
Who took the three-year-old from her holiday apartment in Portugal while her parents dined nearby?
Who said her parents were dining when she was removed from the apartment? You know that how, because they said so! We don't know at what time she was taken!
Is she still alive and, if so, is she still under guard?
Pity she wasn’t UNDER GUARD on the FIVE nights her parents abandoned her and her baby siblings to fend for themselves, doing so, even after Madeleine told them on the very morning of the night she was reported as missing, that she and her baby brother had been upset and crying previous night when left alone in a dark and unfamiliar holiday apartment in a country foreign to them. Three little children alone afraid, terrified witless wondering where mummy and daddy had gone.
'Where were you last night mummy when me and Sean cried' the words Kate McCann said are the words her daughter spoke, and she and Gerry walked out on the kids again.
At a recent family gathering, one youngster hearing Madeleine being spoken of, asked if Madeleine's mummy and daddy were monsters! Out of the mouth of babes!
Does she remember who snatched her from her bed or has she now forgotten all that happened in the past to her?
How painful for her if alive and snatched from her BED as you suggest (without evidence to back such a statement) to remember how she was alone, afraid when the kiddie snatcher appeared in the dark apartment and terrified the life out of her and carried her off. Oh how she must have wanted her mummy and daddy then. Oh how she must have wondered why mummy and daddy didn’t stay home that night to care for and protect her and her siblings. She must have been so ‘let down’ as her mummy might say. How must any child, any frightened child that is, feel knowing that they told mummy and daddy of their upset, their distress at being alone, to then discover mummy and daddy were planning to deal out more of the same cruel treatment?
Does she even still speak English or has she adapted to the foreign language of her captor?
So her captor is foreign then is he? Think you had better have a word with Andy at the Met about that one. You wouldn’t know if he smells and drives bin truck, bit of a porker?
Or is Madeline dead, killed by a captor who has hidden her body so that not a single policeman in Portugal, her home country Britain or her other holiday rendezvous in Donegal has been able to find one trace of what happened?
Sadly and tragically, I would have to go with ‘dead’ because that is what the investigation points to.
Not a single policeman in Portugal, Britain ….or Donegal?
Have Donegal Police Officers been looking for the hiding place? That's a new one!
None of the questions I have raised has been answered.
Portuguese Police know that feeling, none of the questions they asked Kate McCann have been answered either. That was really helpful in bringing Madeleine home!
Appalling though they are we must remember they are probably contemplated every day by her family.
Appalling though the McCanns are their reluctance to co-operate with police, good decent people have contemplated since this child vanished they cannot begin to understand why they would do this to their own child.
I know they occur to me every year about this time. Why?
Could it be because the McCann begging bowl comes out around this same time every year and jogs your memory?
I hope their neglect of Madeleine, Sean and Amelie is etched on their mind every day, whether at this time of year or not.
Because when Madeline disappeared in May 2007 from Praia da Luz in the Algarve I was soon afterwards involved in reporting an aspect of her story.
She holidayed in Donegal just a few weeks before she disappeared and a few days after she vanished I spoke to Joe Peoples for the first time.
I have spoken to him a number of times since, usually around the anniversary of Maddie's disappearance.
Joe and his family run a pub in St Johnston in East Donegal which is leased from Maddie's grandmother Eileen McCann.
Eileen and her late husband were Donegal natives and they loved returning to the county with their family, including her son Gerry and his wife Kate who are Maddie's parents.
Ah now we’re getting down to it – all pals together!
They were on their way to Dungloe for Easter 2007 when they dropped into the pub in St Johnston.
I still remember the first words of Joe Peoples as he recalled after Maddie's disappearance what she was like.
He said: "She was the centre of attention when the family called in. She was a wee dote, running around everywhere and into everything."
Joe certainly seems to have noted quickly on this first visit, what everyone else has about Madeleine, that she was just a little girl doing what little kids that age do, run around, play, get into everything. Some parents don’t like their kids getting into everything though, they can’t cope with that.
I've just been speaking to Joe again. He still vividly remembers little Maddie in the bar on what was the family's last totally pleasurable visit to his pub.
He hasn't seen Maddie's granny for a few years now. But each year around this time he thinks of her, and Maddie, and Gerry and Kate.
I’m sure Joe is a nice man who genuinely feels for Madeleine what happened to her, being left as she was by her parents, and to know she vanished without trace also… And if he says at this time of year he thinks of them all, no reason to doubt the man at all.
Like everybody who knew them in Donegal, he probably wonders how the McCann family continues to cope with the hell visited upon them when Maddie was snatched. I know I do!
Oh, so Joe didn’t mention if he wonders or not about how the McCanns continue to cope with the hell visited upon them when Maddie was snatched? You’re hazarding a guess that he probably does? But you do know that EVERYBODY else in Donegal wonders... and Joe you think might think like them, and wonder too?
Maybe Joe wonders how Madeleine copes if she is alive, with the hell visited upon her, 7 years living with paedophilesas as her parents believe to be the case?
Maybe Joe wonders what in hell possessed two doctors parents of three under 4 year old children to abandon their kids night after night in an unlocked holiday apartment?
I know, also, that their suffering might have been eased at least marginally if the Portuguese police investigation had a proper cop in charge.
And they told you this did they?
I know Madeleine, Sean and Amelie’s suffering would have been greatly eased if they had parents who had put their safety and welfare before FIVE boozy nights in the pub. But then from what you say – the pub- even when in good old Donegal plays a big part when you are a member of Clan McCann. How could it not when Granny McCann owns one!
Instead, they put Goncalo Amaral in charge and he decided Maddie died accidentally and the McCanns invented the abduction scene.
Dr Goncalo Amaral is an educated man of the highest integrity, a police officer for almost 30 years greatly experienced. An articulate, well spoken man.
Madeleine was not fortunate in the parents she has/had, but in the officer in charge of discovering what became of her, there is none, not in the UK or in Portugal who could have done more than he to catch the perpetrators of the crimes committed against this child. The perpetrators of the neglect we all know who they are..
It was not Dr Goncalo Amaral who “decided” that Madeleine died accidentally – it was the evidence gathered during the Portuguese and the British, Leicestershire Police investigation which 'decided' –‘accidental’ death.
The alerts by the forensic dogs played a part in this. The dogs, which have never failed in over 200 criminal cases! The dogs which Gerry McCann said are unreliable. Excuse me while I have a laugh!
Gerry doesn’t like dogs. Did you know that too?
It is the evidence which points to a scene of abduction being staged. And just to refresh your memory, a staged scene the idea of it, is what British forensic expert, Professor Dave Barclay introduced after examining the scene.
“We must be very careful that we’re not saying this is actually staging but it’s difficult to see how anybody could have interfered with those shutters, from the outside, without leaving some trace. In fact, having looked at them, I think it’s almost impossible.”
And John Stalker highly respected, now retired British police detective stated that the McCanns and their holiday companions ‘are hiding something.’
I wonder what Dr Amaral thought of that?
He was later transferred and eventually resigned from the police. A book he wrote spurred a libel action which is still before the courts.
Indeed he was transferred because he was too close to the truth for the comfort of some. And indeed he did retire. Something very recently he said he regretted.
And he did too write a book filled with the Truth of the many lies told in this case.
Why else do you think Gerry and Kate McCann want to silence the man?
Did you know also that the witnesses the McCanns produced at the libel trial bungled big time and lied also? Caught out they were.
That is what happens when greedy people lie!
And did you know Kate McCann wrote a book and titled it Madeleine? Why, is a bit of a mystery as it's all about Kate McCann, her life. I’m not sure you would like to read it. I couldn’t stomach it, I can tell you that much. Lots of people felt the same. Only pages in, you hit the first lie, you feel sick to the stomach that this was written supposedly for three little kids, truth be told it was for Kate, her ego, and of course a bundle of cash. If one manages to get past the lies, next up is stuff that will make you cringe, and be warned what comes after is the inappropriate comments made about her missing child. I guess some will do anything to make a buck?
The Portuguese police shut down the case in 2008 but reopened it last year when they said a review had justified a new inquiry. That was after Scotland Yard got on the case.
The Portuguese Police did not shut down the case. The case was shelved in 2008, not closed, nor shut down, but shelved. Should any credible evidence have come to light then it would be re-opened.
The McCanns could have prevented the shelving of the case had Kate McCann co-operated with police and answered the questions she had previously refused to, and if the McCanns and their holiday companions had agreed to participate in a criminal style reconstruction of events of the night Madeleine was reported as missing this too was a way to have the case remain open.
They allowed the deadline date for this to pass without making formal application to have it remain open.
They all refused to help the child. They all refused to take part in a reconstruction, refused to help the police discover what became of the child.
The case in Portugal was re-opened when the Portuguese decided after a review of the case that this was warranted. The Portuguese Police and the British Police however are said not to be working along the same lines of inquiry!
Now, two police forces are investigating, and Scotland Yard are operating with one hand tied behind their back and not a leg permanently on the ground where the crime happened.
One hand tied behind their back? – A thirty + team of Metropolitan Police detectives, and £7.5m of UK Taxpayers money funding it – says differently!
And do you honestly think that British Police should be able to go tramp all over Portugal with their big bobby boots on laying down the law?
In the last few months British investigators have sent three international letters of request to the Portuguese authorities without, apparently, any word for a go-ahead on the ground.
And you know that the letters contained a request for boots on the ground? How come?
And let me just remind you. The Portuguese when initially investigating this case, sent to the British, the very same type of letters, letters requesting information which would help find Madeleine or discover what became of this poor child. The information the British took many months in sending.
In fact, one of the pieces of information which was suppressed by the British was the information regarding the Gaspars – two British doctors who knew , and had holidayed at one time with the McCanns and Dr David Payne, Gerry McCanns closest friend.
They had some very interesting things to say about Dr Gerry and Dr David. The Drs Gaspar felt that Dr Gerry and Dr David had made some pretty inappropriate comments about young Madeleine.
If I might suggest – google Gaspar!
The Portuguese requested also that they be allowed to interview the McCann holiday companions on British soil. They were not allowed to go charging across the UK doing as they please, and the questions when their request was finally met, they did not personally put to these people, it was British Police Officers who carried this out, with the Portuguese Officers observing.
So do please untwist your knickers on this one – you will feel a hell of a lot more comfortable if nothing else without your bits being crushed!
This week, the Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said he is frustrated at how slow the legal process has been.
I’ll wager not half as frustrated as the Portuguese Police were when the British authorities not only were on a go-slow but withheld information which was requested of them.
He added:
"We know what we want to do and we are ready to go with that. But the process is the process."
Glad the old boy is being so reasonable, the Portuguese knew too what they wanted to do, but hey the process is the process. Portugal is Portugal. Britain is Britain.
Does anybody at any senior level in the Portuguese police or the Portuguese government have a little girl that might remind them of Maddie McCann?
Dr Goncalo Amaral has two beautiful daughters whom he adores, loves and protects.
Dr Amaral fought so hard for Madeleine, he spoke so caringly, spoke with so much concern for this child, so different from her parents, who spoke coldly, as though they barely knew her at all. There was no feeling, no emotion, no smile when they spoke of the little girl. They did not light up. They seemed to struggle to come up with anything about her, her interests.
In Dr Amaral’s words, he conveyed so much feeling for a little girl he knew had been so appallingly treated by those who should have cared most, those who should have loved her most, those who could hardly string a half dozen words together to describe how wonderful she surely was.
The Portuguese people as we know cherish family, family life, highly. Children would never be left as the McCann children were.
That was always something I believe Dr Amaral could not understand – how they could even contemplate such a callous act.
Do they wonder that if anything happened their little girl would two police forces act separately with one only able to operate at a fraction of its potential?
The process is the process as you so kindly drew to our attention and as are the words of Brit cop Martin Hewitt.
And are you suggesting that if Andy Redwood was allowed to run amok in Portugal there is even greater potential for more ridiculous stories of burglars, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, tractormen, binmen, and, as a friend recently said to me – ‘when Redwood has Doctorman on his list, then I’ll sit up and take notice of anything the guy has to say.’
Do they ever think how much better it would be if red tape, both political and judicial, was sliced immediately without any frustrating delay?
Again the process is the process – there are processes in Britain which must be adhered to and processes in Portugal which must be adhered to. Live with it!
The Brits held information from the Portuguese for a very long time, months and months. As frustrating as that must have been, never did we hear any nasty comments made by them the type of which we are hearing from the Metropolitan Police regarding the Portuguese.
The police in Britain, despite obstacles put in their way, have revealed a number of people who at least should be questioned, including one man who broke into British villas in the Algarve and sexually assaulted young girls in the years immediately prior to Maddie's disappearance.
Yeah they’ve been revealing a lot lately! But do keep up my good man.
Seems the man in question is the very same man splashed across UK papers a few months back. A guy who was more than questioned, in fact there was no evidence, or perhaps not sufficient evidence to prove the man had done anything, and certainly he had never kidnapped or killed a child.
But even that story might not be true, that is, that this man, who has been nicknamed binman, is in fact the same man known as tractorman. If he is though, there lies a big problem for Andy Redwood and his Met officers. Because you see, they said they were trying to track him down, eliminate him. If tractorman and binman are one and the same then good old Andy already knew this man died in 2009, he already knew all there is or was to know about him – so why would he act all innocent pretend otherwise? And why would he not have immediately put the record straight in this regard?
If the British don’t want to play ball, only want to play dirty, and the press in the UK keep churning out the nasty stories which they do about the Portuguese Police, the Portuguese people and in particular Dr Goncalo Amaral – kind of like what you have just dished up – what chance does young Madeleine have if still alive?
This latest is a disgrace!
It's time for everybody to remember they are trying to find out seven years later what happened to a little child. It's no time for politics.
Keep up my good man – Time for those out there who are biased against the Portuguese, to remember that the Metropolitan Police investigation started almost 3 years ago. One hell of a long time later don’t you think to still have come up with zilch!
And do remember all of the leg work was already done, Andy bragged about how he was sifting through 30,000 files, some files having hundreds of pages. Files and pages compiled by a very efficient Portuguese Police Force!
Try reading them, they are online and you will soon discover how meticulous the Portuguese have been how thorough their investigation. 30,000 files, and compiled by a much smaller team of detectives in Portugal in only 6 months. Met have been working on this for almost three years and they had the files handed to them on a plate.
If forces are joined even at this late stage you never know what might happen.
Yeah you never know, And if even only one member of the McCann party starts singing, you never know what might happen!
Even if Maddie remains missing at least her family will be able to say at last that the best endeavours have been used to find her.
There is no body of officers who could have endeavoured more to find this child than the Portuguese Police, but sadly they were working at times with both hands tied behind their back, political interference, information withheld by the British, and parents and their companions who failed and refused to co-operate.
That's an awful lot more than they have been able to say so far!
Until the McCanns and their holiday companions answer the questions which they refused to, until they agree to take part in a reconstruction of the events of the night they reported their daughter as missing, as their versions at the moment do not stand up to scrutiny such are the lies and inconsistencies among the group, until such times as they stop hiding what happened on that night, as retired police detective John Stalker said he believes they are then, they will never be able to say that the best endeavours have been used to find her.
It is the truth that will find Madeleine
.
And just to keep you right – Madeleine was never called Maddie! How could you not know that?!
Keep your hair on – She was called Maddie, just one of Kate McCanns sick comments. Up to her tricks as usual. She knows Madeleine was called Maddie that the family referred to her as such but she needed to make a dig at Dr Amaral, her hateful side she could not control, so made some ridiculous comment about Dr Amaral referring to the child as Maddie.
You tread carefully now, they might sue you for calling Madeleine ‘Maddie’
And finally in a recent blog 'Six Months On' I said that it was all quiet on the McCann front, no news from the Met re their Crimewatch panto of October 2013, further I stated that such periods of quiet are generally followed by a flurry of silly stories.
Redwood did not disappoint, but two days later, another Crimewatch, another suspect, a batch of bunkum.
The icing on the 'silly story cake' though truly has to be your rather desperate sounding article - it's the sort of article we see in the press when the libel trial is being heard - Could it be a date for the libel trial has been set and is soon to be announced?
That would sure explain the flurry of press stories, perhaps too Andy's rush to introduce smelly man to the world. Yeah and can't Team McCann get their asses into gear pretty smartly when they smell money!
l-azzeri-lies-in-the-sun.com
21st March 2014